PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Ketel Marte Extends Hitting Streak To 20 & Brandon Pfaadt DOMINATES In Win Over Dodgers

Episode Date: May 22, 2024

After playing well in game 1 of the series against the Dodgers outside of one inning, the Diamondbacks got a much needed win over their NL West rival in game 2. Brandon Pfaadt shoved, tossing his fifth consecutive quality start, and Ketel Marte extended his hitting streak to 20 games. We have more on the win from Jesse Friedman at Dodger Stadium along with updates from the D-backs farm system.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/Factor Mealkits: Use code PHNXDBACKS50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box and free wellness shots for life with any active subscription at https://factormeals.com/phnxdbacks50Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Another winning edition of the PHNX Debacks podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. You are a fan of the Arizona Diamondbacks and they won big tonight against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Diamondbacks win by a score of seven to three and everything went to Diamondbacks way tonight. Cotell Marte extends his hitting streak to 20 games. Jock Peterson, the Jock Peterson agenda continues. he gets a big digger. He gets RBI's number 499, 500, and 501 with that three-run home run.

Corbyn. He hit a double. Everything was rolling the Diamondbacks way, of course. Welcome in to another edition of this show. Like I said, my name is Derek Monti, occasionally known as your mayor, P.HNX. Of course, we have the one and only Damon on the ones and twos. And of course, Jesse Friedman will be joining us from Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles here shortly. Enemy territory.

He is in enemy territory. Of course, I'm going to be worried about him all night long. I don't know the quality of the hotel he's staying at. Usually he stays with friends. He's not staying with friends this time. So I didn't get a chance to vet the people he was staying with like I normally do. I didn't get to check with the general manager of the hotel because Saul would not disclose to me because it was none of my business where he was staying once again.

And I don't like any of that. But what I do like is the direction of this game. Because the Diamondbacks, of course, like I talked about last night, they did a good job, even in a game that went the way that last night's game went. They did a good job of playing against Los Angeles Dodgers. That carried over to today where we saw this team do everything kind of well. I mean, there were a couple of mistakes, nothing perfect, but man, Brandon fought, absolutely shoved in this game.

Big win for him. He kept the Dodgers hit list through three innings. Shohay Otani, of course, continues to be a problem because he is and he will never not be, but Brandon fought again, excellent for this team. He went out there and tossed his fifth consecutive quality start and sixth of the season after allowing two earn runs or six innings, over six innings with seven strikeouts and one walk again, six innings pitched, four hits allowed, three runs, two of them earned. He walked one and struck out seven. Fought was incredible. And he continues to develop into the Diamondbacks, I guess secret.

weapon when it comes to the starting rotation. We know Brandon fought was kind of seen at one point as maybe he could be a quality starting pitcher for this team, but he is that now. And he really rapidly is kind of becoming the ace of the staff as far as what he's able to give this team consistently every five days. What do you think, Damon, of what we saw out of Brandon tonight? I mean, I just think he's been our best pitcher this season. And he continues to get better and better.

and it's exciting to see that we have a guy like this that we can build around for a long time. Imagine if we resign Zach Allen and then this is just our one-two for the foreseeable future. I mean, that feels pretty good, doesn't it? I mean, what feels pretty good is that when the Diamondbacks essentially do have a healthy starting rotation,

you expect me to believe that Brandon Fought is the fifth man in the starting rotation? He's number five. I'm sorry, E-Rod is the five. In what universe? Yeah, Erod might be the fought. I mean, I don't think it's going to matter because we're way past opening day. So it's really going to be where they get slotted in at, where they're, when they're ready to come back.

Hopefully we'll see E.rod here returns soon and bolster this starting rotation. But when you, you know, when you discuss what the Arizona Diamondbacks needed out of Brandon fought tonight, they got it. They absolutely got it. And I mean, he wasn't the only pitcher that shoved for this team because let's talk about my dog. and I know Damon gets a little bit mad every time I say that, so I won't bring up that we are dogs again. But my dog, Brian Thompson, this man, can we talk about Ryan Thompson? Can we talk about him allowing a leadoff triple in this game

and then stranding that man on third base? He went one and a third innings pitched, gave up one hit, no runs allowed, no walks, two strikeouts. The man has been filthy. The man has been filthy. He knows pro wrestling and he knows ball. He currently has a zero. 0.84 ERA this season.

And, I mean, he has been the man for this team out of the bullpen. So, yeah, it's kind of crazy to think about, you know, what Ryan Thompson is. A piece of Yoshi in the chat says, imagine if we traded him last season, like some of y'all wanted, meaning Brandon fought. No, I can't imagine that at this point. Because, again, this would be another case where the Diamondbacks, if that was the way things went, would be sitting here. watching Brandon fought, absolutely shove for another franchise.

That would be the most classic Diamondbacks move of all time. It feels like how many times have we given up on a young pitcher when he had, when he struggled through like 10, 15 starts and we were like, no way this guy could get better at baseball. And think about the fact of what we were potentially trading him for and what you saw those guys go and do after the trade deadline in 2023. Those would have been the starting pitchers. most of them did not pitch well.

Maybe, maybe history changes and the Diamondbacks trade him for Jordan Montgomery and maybe we end up in, you know, whatever, but he can't even say that because of the way that Brandon fought shoved for this team in the postseason. But I think that was the big question and I feel like that question has been answered. What is Brandon fought going to become? Was that just like an adrenaline rush version of Brandon fought that went out there during the postseason and performed the way he did? or was that the next evolution of Brandon Fott?

Five consecutive quality starts for me, including this big win over the Dodgers, says to me that Brandon Fought is for real. And what we saw out of him in the postseason last year is what we're seeing now. And it's been consistent, right? Like Damon says, who is not at all reactionary, who does not at all just say crazy things just in the moment,

said the Brandon Fought was, in fact, our best pitcher. and he might not be wrong about that. I know the numbers don't indicate it, but I feel like the one thing out of Brandon fought that you really can't get out of Jordan Montgomery or Zach Gallen is consistency, right? You know what you're getting out of Brandon fought every three days, and that's a chance to win,

whereas Zach Gallin has been erratic, especially on the road and in early games, that carries over to this year as well as last year. And we know Jordan Montgomery, you know, he has been fairly good for this team and he's been able to go deep for this team, but we still don't know, you know, you know, what the diamondbacks are going to get, you know, regularly out of him.

Right now, I feel like we know what we get out of Brandon Fought. And he's for real. He is, like Gabriel says, for real. That's how you have to spell it. That with a P at the beginning, he's for real. But who else is for real? Christian Walker. Sorry, Los Angeles Dodgers fans.

The nightmare does not stop. He does not end. He does not go away. He owns them. He absolutely owns him. In fact, since 2019, Christian Walker's 19 total home runs are tied with Manny Machado. For most homers against the Dodgers, ski to you on that.

Walker, Walker, Walker, single double, triple Walker. He hits Dingerers, Christian Walker. He ranks first in RBI against the Dodgers with 47, ahead of Machado's 45. So he is, in fact, not just Clayton Kershaw's daddy, but he might in fact be the Los Angeles Dodgers as a franchise. Might be their daddy overall.

Of course, Kattel did extend his hitting streak to 20 games, and that's the big news here. is that Catelle has continued to do it. And we don't really know when he's going to stop at this point. But of course, because he hits 20 games, we're going to go ahead and make Cotel Marte our Kingsnake for this game because 20 games might not be historic, but he's starting to venture into the neighborhood of history,

especially for the Arizona Diamondbacks franchise. I believe five players in franchise history. have had hitting streaks of 20 games or longer. So we already knew Cotel Marte was one of the best players in franchise history, but he does become the fifth Diamondback to ever record a 20 plus game hitting streak, joining Luis Gonzalez, who had 30, a 30 game hitting streak, Paul Goldschmidt's 26 game hitting streak, Tony Wilmack's 24 game hitting streak, and Danny Batista's 21 game hitting streak in 2004.

So he's right there. He has a chance to pass a couple of, fairly big names in Diamondbacks history as far as hitters go. And I mean, again, we talked about Brandon Fott, carrying over what his performance, his high level of performance from the postseason into this season. Could tell Marte has just been ridiculous. The man made history last MLB postseason.

And now here he is on the verge of just absolutely continuing to, you know, just dominate and not, I mean, I guess not dominate, because a lot of these games are just one-hit games. But man, the ability to be this good and this consistent at hitting a baseball is not easy. It's the reason why you don't see hitting streaks like this often. He currently does have the longest hitting streak in Major League Baseball and could wind up with the longest of the season. Yeah, there's a lot of games left, but I could tell is incredible. But the Diamondbacks were incredible.

Chalk Peterson, of course, like I said, he broke this one open with a three-run, home run in the seventh that gave the snobber. makes a four run lead. And he did, in fact, record career RBI's number 499, 500, and 501 with that three-run, home run. Let's take a look at the count here presented by Desert Financial Credit Union. I just bring up Jock because honestly, when it came to Kingsnake tonight, there were a lot of good options for this team. The Diamondbacks got contributions from their offense all over the place.

And it was just a good night overall for this team playing, you know, they're, essentially their big brother in the division. And Jock goes two for five with three RBI. Why are you doing that? What's that? Why are you doing that? I didn't. I shouldn't have.

I shouldn't have done that. What was the point? I don't know. I'm a little, I'm a little disgruntled lately. And you know how it is. It's hot in this room. Well, here, I'm going to put this off for a second, Derek. We need, let's talk about it.

I was talking about it right at the end of the game. I'm going to need tomorrow's win, right? We really do. I'm buying back in if we win tomorrow. Be the Dodgers and all of a sudden, we're back. games below 500. I'm feeling pretty good about ourselves. Let's, let's beat the damn Dodgers tomorrow. This is, why not us? Well, honestly, the way that they've played so far in these two games, the Diamondbacks have not, they didn't look like they scraped by. No. And in fact, in yesterday's

game, like I said, I want a series win. I know. Damon knows that Damon back me up. He tried to tell me afterwards. It wasn't loser talk, but I get it. It's still loser talk when you say like, oh, if you take that one inning out, that game's different. But the Diamondbacks did a great. job at holding the Dodgers scoreless outside of what happened there in the third inning. And who knows whether Slade was actually tipping his pitches or not. It really doesn't matter at the end of the day. What matters is he gave up six-ard run in an inning. And it put the game out of reach for the Diamondbacks.

Honestly, even when they were down six to one, it felt like it was over. And they did a good job of coming back and at least making competitive in that game. But this game, this was a thorough victory. I just, I'm not going to. The diving backs did a great job. That's exactly what I was going to say. We're not anyone's little brother. We beat them in the playoffs last season, Derek, and they have one guy who's hitting the baseball against us right now.

Betz is 0 for three tonight, Freeman, O for four. Those guys, who are that? I've never heard of them. Yeah. Tell them. Tell them. Anyway, are you done scolding me now? Yeah, let's go back to the numbers.

Okay, let's look at the numbers again. All right. Diamondbacks win this one by a score of seven to three. they out hit the Dodgers 12 to 6. Runners in scoring position, Diamondbacks are three for 10, Dodgers 2 for 10. Diamondbacks had those big two home runs,

one by Jock Peterson, of course, and the other one by Christian Dixon Walker. Hard hit percentage there, about a push, 36.4% for the Dodgers, 34.8% for the Diamondbacks. So it was what it was. But I mean, the Diamondbacks, again, even the runs scored by the Dodgers,

it felt like they kind of had to do everything they could to manufacture those runs. So again, Brandon fought just absolutely deserves tip of the cap for what he did against this Dodger team tonight. And yeah, you're right. I mean, come on, the Donvacks like right now, they're the big brother, right? Yeah, who won on the biggest stage last time? Yeah, it's fair. We did. It's fair.

You're right. All right. Well, of course, thank you, again, the Desert Financial for supporting those numbers. And thank you to you all, especially those of you that now want to credit Damon for being like some sort of hero. Don't pump him up any more than he needs to get. He's got a big head as it is. But of course, we thank you guys for being here in the PHNXports YouTube channel. Of course, if you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, do so now.

Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss whenever our wonderful shows go live. us a review drop us a like uh who's gonna who's gonna who's gonna stop by tonight to drop us a like is there anybody available to drop us a like i know gabby usually saw well what you got i think he had a pretty decent game tonight so why doesn't corbin carroll tell us there he had a double tonight corbin carroll had some pretty great defensive plays and again he's not lighting up the the scorebox right like we're not getting corbin carroll going out there uh and going three for five like we'd like to see him.

And I think even seeing him do that once in a while would be encouraging, would be absolutely encouraging for this team. But, you know, at least tonight, Corbyn was able to contribute in a number of ways and love it. Love it. Leave us a like. Of course, if you haven't subscribed yet on the audio podcasting side, do that as well. Of course, leave us a review. We always appreciate those five-star reviews.

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Imagine not betting on the Diamondbacks money line on the Bet MGM sportsbook app. Couldn't be us. Couldn't be us. But of course, I am celebrating the win with a hot knot IPA from our friends at Four Peaks. Of course, there is a wide variety of delicious beers from Four Peaks for you to celebrate wins like that. Whether it's a Diamondbacks win or a life win for yourself, make sure celebrate with our friends from Four Peaks. Of course, right now you can get that bad, birdie, juicy golden ale. You can get those variety 15 packs that I've been talking about.

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Of course, if you're not a diehard member, you should become one. Because when you become a diehard member, you get exclusive pictures of Jesse SickRab 4, which he did, in fact, take with him on his road trip to Los Angeles. He also had a delightful conversation with Tori Lovelo about best places to stop for gas in between here and Los Angeles on a road trip. So, of course, don't miss that. Also, we're bringing you a diehard only mailbag tomorrow. Jesse and I will be finishing up our diehard questions for Monday, as well as getting some new questions from you diehards in our Discord chat. So again, if you haven't signed up for the diehard membership yet, do so now.

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and discounts with our partners so make sure to sign up right now for a die hard membership have you seen that those Marvin harrison junior shirts Derek the Marvin harrison junior shirts are fire i mean we have a whole collection if you sign up for a diehard membership you're basically half of that is going towards your free shirt that you're getting so it basically almost pays for itself right there then you get at the rest of the year and you get to pick one of those MHJ membership Meanwhile, am I wrong? But meanwhile, while we're producing Marvin Harrison Jr. Clothing, that's not actually Marvin Harrison Jr. clothing.

Fanatics is suing him. Is that right? This is true. Is that what's going on over a breach of contract for him not allowing them to sell in Jersey? We would absolutely fucking never. Our sweet baby Marvin? Our sweet baby who we held the line for? We're going to turn around and sue him.

after holding the line? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Not our sweet baby, Marvin. So, of course, make sure to go over and check out all of the wonderful shirts we have at p.hnx locker.com. This defend the pool shirt, pretty sick. We got some baseball shirts, not sure if you were aware. We also have our pool, upcoming pool party on July 31st at Chase Field. So that's another one. Ever heard of it? Have you heard of it? Have you, are you familiar with it? You know what's wild about that? Speaking of which, we're going to be taking a little road trip to the All-Star our game. And then we might just be heading out on the road to follow the Arizona Diamondbacks to Chicago for a little three games set at beautiful and historic Wrigley Field. And then we just

pop back here in time for a pool party. Right? I don't know. I don't know. What is life? I don't know what life is sometimes. But of course, I also feel that way after watching the Arizona Diamondbacks win over the Dodgers in Los Angeles. Of course, things are going well for this team right now. things are definitely bright for the future of this organization as well. If we head down to the farm, we do have some updates from the minor league system that hopefully some of you guys will enjoy very much. Davison de los Santos has been promoted to triple A Reno, which of course, we all knew that he deserved that.

We all knew that it was coming because he hit 372-426-696 with a 1.1.22 Ops for the Amarillo Osad Poodles, he had 14 home runs and 37 RBI. The man has been incredible since returning to this team after being picked up by the Cleveland Guardians in the Rule 5 draft. So it's very cool to see him coming back here and performing the way he has been, hitting the way he has been, and now it's going to get a chance to go up to AAA Reno. There's a very real possibility that within the next 12 months,

we're going to see Davidson de Los Santos, potentially on the Arizona Diamondbacks Major League squad. And what a story that is in regards to him going from nearly being gone from the organization to now. Again, not the top prospect, not a top prospect, but a very, very good prospect in the Diamondbacks organization who has really turned things around. Of course, speaking of turning things around, it would be crazy for us to not talk about what Drew Jones has been doing or did. on May 17th. He got his first four-hit game of his career. And man,

the kid has really turned it down, turned it around. I think we have video of his home run from that game. Let's take a look at Drew Jones. Going yard here. To 21 straight games. And now Jones lifts this one into left field, going back towards a warning track,

and that ball is gone. See you later. A two-run home run from Drew Jones. his second of the year and they're all high cut the lead in half it's now four to two a no doubter for Drew Jones man I mean again

we we need we need something to look forward to I was just saying this me as an adult man I need a vacation to look forward to and especially when things aren't going great with the major league club we want to hear some good things

you know from down on the farm just to feel like we have something to look forward to. And right now, Drew Jones went from possibly looking like a bust to, you know, here he is currently hitting 270 with a 781 OPS. I mean, it's not lighting the world on fire yet, but he's definitely been moving in the right direction over the last month. Daman, what do you think? Yeah, it's certainly nice to see. I mean, he started off the season so bad. It was almost like eye opening like did we lose drew jones here is he just no longer really a valuable piece going forward does he have any trade value anything like that but uh hopefully you know that was just

a slum seems to be playing a little bit better and uh and and you know i think that they they factor them into the future you'd have to think because right and as of right now his value is probably at at its lowest point in terms of trade value like you're probably not getting oh yeah you're not even considering that at this point so so so I'd say that, you know, you're planning on having him with the organization for a while, and this is the kind of stuff that you need to see out of him, no doubt. Yeah, I agree. Zach Zent in the comment says, talk about Chaparro, 23 walks and 45 games and batting 326.

I was going to say, 236? No, my man, you are absolutely right. Absolutely. Right now he's actually batting what we got. I have 333, 420, 571 with a 991 OPS for the Reno Aces. I, you know, I think what you zoned in on there is, is, you know, right. He had definitely, uh, the 23 walks, uh, to 36 strikeouts. Um, it's not, it's, it's, it's, it's been good.

He's been good for Reno Aases. You don't really know. Does he strike you as kind of a four A player? He could be. I think, I think the problem once again, you know, and again, he's somebody that just came into the organization. So we're not really familiar with him in the same way that we're familiar with other guys, but the problem with Reno is, once again, the offense from any player

can look very, very good in Reno, even for a sustained period of time. It's not just a fluke. It's not just, you know, it's not just a good month. You can, you can definitely tell that Reno is a place to get right. That's the one benefit to maybe sending someone like Corby and Carol down despite how much the organization is opposed to that. Sometimes it's nice just to get right. and when you get right in Reno, sometimes it carries over at a major league level. But Chaparro's been very good for this team. And of course, Diamondbacks need it.

They need some guys in the organization because we had a lot to look forward to it felt like. And now a lot of those pieces have come up. They've made their major league debuts. Some of them have stuck around. Some of them have not. Gabriel Ferrer in the chat says, Drew is only 20 years old.

I was working at Jimmy Johns at that age. He's fine. I don't even want to discuss what I was doing at 20 years old. Actually, you know what? I think this is where I say that I took an interview at an animal hospital. And upon my interview, which I had gone in to be a kennel person, I was interviewing to be a kennel person, Damon, which was a person that, like, cleans the kennels and walks the dogs.

It's a very glamorous job. It seemed like I like dogs. It seemed like a good gig, you know? Like, it wasn't bad. And the guy took one look at me who was hiring me, he was the office manager, and he said, would you like to clean shit out of cages? Or would you rather help the doctors in surgery? And I said, yeah, Choice B kind of does sound better right about now. And he said, I knew you were smart.

And that's how I started my medical career, I guess you could say, in the veterinary field. But it's also what led me to meet my wife. So it wasn't a bad decision. I will say, though, that, of course, you're right. At 20 years old, a lot of us weren't doing the things that Drew Jones is doing. It wasn't on the career trajectory that he is for his career, right? So mustache, Mike says Derek, what happened to the beard from a guy named mustache Oh, Mike?

That's exactly what I was about to say. That's wild, Damon. Seems like he should be supporting and propping up the mustache more than almost anyone. I would think that the mustache agenda would be strong with mustacheo Mike. This might secretly be my friend Jared, who also asked me the same. question tonight. Jared looked at me right in the face and just said, how long are you doing the mustache thing for? Like, when is this going away? And I don't know what to tell you guys. It might, it might be permanent. Look at that. Look at that handsome devil

back there. Are you kidding me? Oh, man. Of course, a lot of fun youngsters to talk about when it comes to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Of course, I'm losing where I'm at, but the Diamondbacks actually had one of their pitchers named as the PCL pitcher of the week. Chris Ellis for the Reno Aces was announced by minor league baseball as the PCL pitcher of the week. So he had himself a great outing. He went out there and limited his, his opponents to one run run on three hits, one walk, while striking out a season high, seven in seven innings pitch. So again, we have a lot of good things happening in the organization down the farm. And right now, Diamondbacks just need it. They absolutely need need, need, need,

something here. Then they might call upon some of these guys. I know that was one of our mailbag Monday questions. And of course, when you look at what Blake Walston and Christiana is doing, which those guys were specifically the subject of the discussion, you can't help but wonder if the Diamondbacks

might be willing to possibly take a look at those guys after Slade's last start and after, you know, whatever happens with Ryan Nelson tomorrow in the series finale against the, Dodgers. I'm not, I don't know what to expect out of that. And I don't want to, I don't, I don't want to be all gloom and doom just yet. But Ryan Nelson really doesn't have many opportunities left. So hopefully he steps up big for this team because they absolutely need them. They right now are getting closer and

closer to having Eduardo Rodriguez returned to the lineup and really give them at least that one, hopefully that one solid additional starter and allow them to possibly bounce back and forth between Ryan and slay depending on the direction that the front office and Tori decide to go, you know, there in regards to the starting rotation. It's just, uh, dimebacks need it. Tomorrow is the finale against these Dodgers and they could really use, uh, they could really use a big outing here from Ryan Nelson. Of course, uh, right now we can, uh, we want to thank you guys, of course, for being here.

I want to also thank Circle K, of course, for sponsoring this wonderful, uh, studio that I'm in. These snacks, by the way, behind me, I'll go this way. Those are those aren't those aren't fake snacks. That's not stage snacks. These are these are real actual delicious circle case snacks that I get access to all the time. And depleting this little thing behind me is kind of a problem around here because we are down with the surplus snacks. And you should not sleep on them either. Forget the national brands.

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And he says, Jesse tweeted Ryan won't start tomorrow. that is absolutely what is happening right now. Jesse said that Tori Lavallo was delayed in the clubhouse and in the postgame due to the fact that there's some sort of move. It sounds like it's a roster move. So what we were just talking about might indicate that we are. Let me see what we got from Jesse Friedman. I wouldn't be surprised. Would you be surprised to see Ryan Nelson not get the start tomorrow?

So Jesse, you want me to read his tweet? Yeah, that would be great. it sounds like Ryan Nelson will not start on Wednesday for the Diamondbacks. Manager Tori Lavolo said that roster movement is coming and suggested the possibility of an opener, although nothing is official yet. Two openers in this series, essentially. Wild. Wild, right?

Do they have the bullpen for that? And do they have the bullpen to rebound? Can Tommy not come up and start? I thought that they were kind of aligned Tommy and Ryan on their schedules so that it worked out well. for one of them to be called up. That's, that is true. That is true.

Jesse brought that up because Tommy Henry is, is on the same schedule right now as Ryan Nelson. It's just interesting, right? Like Ryan Nelson, obviously, you know, that last start was enough. I just,

I wonder if this was more to take the Dodgers, like to catch them off guard, making this last minute change, or if something actually happened, that would cause them to change their decision, right? Does feel like a bit of game, gamesmanship there. Well, and especially when it comes to potentially going with a bullpen game, right?

That's that that it could very much be a weakness for the Dodgers if the Diamondbacks can somehow pull it off. I just don't really know how that's going to impact the team going forward should that be the case. I mean, their bullpen right now has already been fairly used through this series. I mean, so far they did get some, you know, pretty pretty good length that gives them some time. but, you know, they have a series here. So they have a travel day on Thursday coming back here to Arizona.

And then they start their series with the Marlins. So it is the Marlins. And then they have another off day on Monday before they start a series with the Rangers, which is just a two game series next week, Tuesday and Wednesday. So I don't know. There could be maybe some maneuvers made based on the fact that they do have two off days coming up over the next seven days. I don't know. No, no.

Yeah, I mean, I guess that does make a little bit of sense. The bullpen's going to get a rest tomorrow. Gingle didn't go tonight, right? Gingle did not go tonight. We have him available. A lot of our more back-end arms haven't pitched really in this series because, like you said, Slade gave them some good length in game one. I mean, we still have, I guess, Justin Martinez could still go.

But I don't know. Ginkle. Yeah. I feel, I just, it'd be kind of weird if they could pull up Tommy Henry and they didn't,

wouldn't it? Like if they, if they actively chose not to, and that would be kind of telling, I feel like in a sense as well, like, well, they have the opportunity to pull up Tommy.

His schedule fits out. And they're like, yeah, we'd prefer to run with the bullpen for a game. Yeah. Yeah, no, you're not wrong.

Mantiply probably wouldn't be available based on his usage. I don't know if Ryan Thompson. would be available based on his usage. But Paul Seawald most likely would be available. Logan Allen, Matt Bowman, Ginkle. I don't, Jarvis possibly for an inning, maybe not for the link that Jarvis typically gives them.

But, I mean, between Logan Allen and Bryce Jarvis, I think you could eat up six innings right there. I mean, those guys, that's what they do, right? But let's see. P.C.P.O. She says Jarvis and someone else succeeded Slate. Um, yes, I can't think of who he said everyone other than man to fly should be available. I don't think so. I don't think that's the case.

I don't think that Brian, I don't think that, um, Ryan Thompson would be available based on, like I said, on this usage. But it's going to be interesting to see the moves that they make and how they can adapt to the situation. Uh, it, it does make sense to try to, you know, try to outmanage the Dodgers here. I mean, the one thing that the Dodgers probably can't. really game plan for is the inconsistency of a bullpen game. And this is an important win for them. I mean, they do have some winnable games up ahead. You know, the Rangers aren't playing great baseball right now. So the Diamondbacks could jump all over them. They have the Mets after that.

And then a series with Giants, series with the Padres. Then they have the Angels and the White Sox and the Nationals. So there's a lot of, there's some good teams, then there's some bad teams. And there's a couple of decent teams, especially division rivals, and an important series there against the Giants and the Padres. And then, you know, some more bad teams and then the Phillies. So again, I don't know. I don't know what the Dunnbacks are going to do. We own the Phillies.

I'm not worried about the Phillies. Yeah, well, that's another team. They've been playing good baseball, but it's been against bad teams. So the Diamondbacks definitely have some bad teams here coming out. Haven't the Phillies played like three winning teams all season or something like that? That's, yeah, that was the stat that Jesse gave us. when I can't imagine that's still the case when it comes to the Phillies. That was as of like five days ago.

I mean, here, let's, I'll take a look at the standings really fast. It'll tell me right now when it comes to the Phillies. Yeah, the Phillies, your Philadelphia Phillies are one and two against teams with a 500 or above 500 record. How is that possible this far into the season? I don't know. It's May 21st. It doesn't make any sense. It's May 21st.

They play in a division with the Braves. The reason why, if I'm being honest, is because every team in the division outside of the Braves is below 500. Nationals are 21, 26, Mets, 21, 27. Marlins, 16, and 34. Right now in the NL West, I mean, every team is below 500 except the Dodgers. Padre is 25 and 26. Your Diamondbacks 23 and 26. Giants 23 and 26.

And then the Rockies, 15 and 32. So I don't know. I guess maybe we shouldn't be throwing stones. Diamondbacks, let's see, what Diamondbacks record is six and 14 against teams with an above 500. They played 20 games against teams with a record of 500 or better, above 500. Actually, that's above 500. It's about 500 or better. It's above 500.

Meanwhile, the Phillies, three, three games, three games. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it here. How many did we have? 20. We've played 20 games against teams with a record over 500. Sick.

It is. It's really sick. You know what it was sick, though? I want to circle back to this. Brandon Fott was sick tonight. And Brandon Fott continues to be sick for this team. And again, things, when you want to talk about how I as an Arizona Diamond Factor fan can be encouraged, what drives me here? It's the fact that a win like tonight can completely change the way that you look at, you know, the season, if you will. They're able to hang with a team like the Dodgers.

they're able to beat the Dodgers. If they can somehow come out and manufacture a win with the bullpen game tomorrow and win the series, things look much different. Things look much different. Hopefully, you know, the outlook is much better, especially considering that four of their starters are returning before, hopefully before the All-Star break. And when the Diamondbacks get each one of those guys back, you know,

we get a little bit of a spark. Prudomo should be soon. Erod should be soon. Still waiting on an update on Alec Thomas. and of course we know that Merrill Kelly I don't think he's even begun a throwing program but hopefully Merrill Kelly is going to be back with this team before the

before the All-Star break. A complete Arizona Diamondbacks team and a connected Arizona Diamondbacks team is a very, very dangerous Arizona Diamondbacks team and really that's the one thing we haven't seen this year so the fact that the Diamondbacks are 23 and 26 and they're at least hovering around 500 and floating and and and you know trying their best to stay afloat with all of these injuries that

they've had it's it's encouraging now you know you get a night like tonight you got lordis guerriel who honestly we have picked on during his slump but katel mart or lorice curiel has really been good as of lately himself so i mean once the diamondbacks have a couple of these guys that have been struggling get back right and they have to get back right. Like they're professional baseball players who are good at the sport. I cannot believe, I refuse to believe that Corby and Corby and Gavie are going to continue to be as bad at the plate as they've been all season. I think we've already seen them taking some pretty encouraging steps in the right direction. It's just slow, especially with Corbyn. It feels like every time

we start to feel like things are moving in the right direction, he goes 0 for four over the course of four days. So, uh, don't really know what, uh, at times, you know, how to, how to be encouraged by Corbyn, but tonight was good. He had a double again, some great defensive plays. I liked what I saw from Corbyn tonight. And I've been very critical of Corbyn this season. You have been possibly the most critical. Uh, I mean, yeah, because he's our best player in my opinion. And I don't think he's been good enough. Well, last, certainly, your text messages that you send me do not agree with your thought. Certainly last season, he was our, our best player, wouldn't you say? Yes. I mean, I mean, I can tell is obviously.

been the best player this season, not taking that away from him. But I think that we expect Corby and Carroll to be at a level playing where he is our best player. Maybe we've lost that a little bit, but we went into the season expecting that from him. Yeah, you're right. He hit the ball hard tonight. Rojas made a good catch in left field on another hard hit ball that he had. He had that double.

He made two nice defensive plays. Like, I thought he had a good game tonight. And hopefully he builds off that. Peace of Yoshi makes a great point. He says, especially when Kevin Newman has his piping, ever since I screamed at Fanatics, about forgetting Kevin Newman's piping, the man's been on fire. I'm just saying, I think that me stepping up and defending him showed him, encouraged him, made him feel loved, made him feel respected, the respect that he should have felt

from his uniform designer for putting the piping on there. You can't leave the piping off. The piping's important. We do have some video now from the clubhouse. We got Christian Walker. I imagine talking a little bit about his dinger and the success that he's had. I'm taking a swing in the dark with this because I don't know. But do you know what we got to do?

Yeah, we do have sound from Christian Walker, but it's actually all about Jock Peterson. Oh, even better. Let's hear it. What do we got? I think he's fit in great. You know, his kind of low maintenance, you know, fun, anything, anything can have some kind of mentality,

I think is good for this clubhouse. We got a lot of guys in here who take it, you know, very seriously, me included. You know, I've, him and Gino have been great for me to kind of loosen things up and just remember that it's a game and it's fun and, you know, not to take it too seriously. But, you know, one, having his veteran presence, but then two, his professional approach to the game. And, you know, knowing when to take things seriously and knowing when to laugh things off, it's been, it's been important. Jack Peterson strikes me as the kind of guy that doesn't take a lot of things too seriously in life. and I can relate to that.

I think I was having a conversation with Damon before this show started about how I don't really know how to adult. You know, like I don't want to be the guy that's a full grown adult that other younger people are laughing at for the fact that they can see me literally trying to clinch on to my youth of some guy, like grab onto it with my hat backwards and my, you know, e-scooter. Your skateboard over your- My skateboard. Hello, fellow kids.

How are you doing fellow students? you know that that bit right but uh sometimes guys like me and jock we just walk to the beat of our own drum what can we say and jock of course we we've seen that all year long but what we've also seen from jock has him uh continued to be an excellent hitter for this team and i say hitter because he's not just a slugger he's not just a dh we've seen him take some incredible at bats we've seen him you know in some dog fights out there uh work in the count we've seen him take a lot of walks and we've seen him be very patient at the plate. The man has a 321 average right now with a 989 OPS and is honestly the best

hitter on this team. No disrespect to Cotell Marte, who has his 20-game hit streak. But Jock has been able to really be the designated hitter that the Diamondbacks were looking for. And according to Christian Walker, it goes beyond that, extends beyond that to, you know, again, this is why Jesse and I argue about statcast data. That guy might open up statcast and think like, oh, it's Christmas morning.

Some people take this shit way too seriously. And sometimes you need to be reminded that you're just playing a game where you're hitting a ball with a stick. And it should be fun. You should be having a good time. I think that that is entirely the problem with this team at times. I think the fact that they get too wound up, that they get too tight overplaying this fun sport.

Well, clearly that's what's happening with Corbyn, I think. You're absolutely right. Yeah, like I don't- It's miserable out there. Does he not? Yeah. At least there were times early on this season, even when he was struggling where he was still smiling and having a good time. I don't see that out of him, right?

Yeah. I think most of the guys actually, I think have a pretty good level-headed look on it. But Corbyn seems like, yeah, like when he's letting the team down, he really feels it every single time. Yeah. Well, you know who else feels it is apparently Christian Walker because he still has more to say on his teammate, Jock Peterson. in. Doesn't need a lot. Doesn't need a lot to get ready to play.

You know, it's like a few swings in the cage, not a lot of BP, not a lot of grindy sessions. You know, I've heard him say things like, you know, the more you hit, you know, the harder it seems. Like, so little things like that, I think there's value in those things. And, you know, you don't accidentally get the service time and the success in this league that he has. So I think it's on purpose for sure. Do some of you guys get jealous that you can go up there with maybe a little bit, a little bit less than what some of you guys have to do? No, no, no.

It's honestly, I think we could learn from it a little bit. I know I know I get lost in the rep sometime. And I think he's right. It's a good perspective to understand what we're up against every day. I think Jock Peterson, you know, when we talk about the loss of the veteran leadership, Jock Peterson can be that for this team. But I also think that Jock just might be the kind of person. who's reluctant to be a leader.

It's not to say he doesn't want to share his wisdom with his teammates and help them out with his experience because his experience and the amount of playoff games he's been through and seasons he's been through and injuries and everything that he's been through is great information to share. It's great data to share with his teammates. But he also just strikes me as the kind of guy that doesn't necessarily want that leadership role in the same way that someone like Evan Langeoria picked it up last year, right? I'm not sure if Tommy Pham was ever the leader necessarily,

but I felt like Tommy Pham brought not only a certain chip on his shoulder and pass that off to his teammates and taught them how to kind of embrace that in a way that made them better baseball players. But I felt like his experience and his wisdom helped his team out tremendously. Jock is that guy. He is that guru, but he's just like a guru can be sometimes. He's a little bit quirky.

And sometimes he might not be that same conventional type of leader in your clubhouse that a veteran typically is, but I will also say jock has, the amount of information jock has is invaluable. And that's why you have a guy in your clubhouse like that. However, that's usually the talk

for like an older guy that's not contributing, right? That's what you say about in Evan Longoria when he's hitting like 230, but still bringing a lot defensively to the team and maybe to the clubhouse. Right now, Jock is not only bringing that wisdom and sharing it with his teammates, but he's doing it while fucking hitting 321 with a 989 OPS.

So the man is doing it. And honestly, all he does is walk and crush the baseball. We're not going to fucking talk about it nearly enough. And I'm sure Major League Baseball, I'm sure the other pundits out there are scared to say it, terrified to say it. But Jack Peterson,

at the end of the day, might end up being the best free agent acquisition of this past offseason. Might be. Might be. I don't know. For a really cheap, contract for a very for for a contract that we thought like wow based on that amount of money we could have gotten guy X Y or Z right look at what J.D.

Yeah. Look at what look at what you know look at what these other players that we wanted more as a D.H got. But Jack Peterson right now outperforming I think all of those guys. I'm not sure. I'm not good at verifying information. That's why I have Jesse here. Jesse usually verifies my facts and backs me up or this is when he would say well actually no so and so is hitting better.

He's not here for that now. We don't even know where Jesse is. Jesse might be dead for all I know. I don't know, David. I'm terrified. Jesse said he's on his way. Oh, there he. As soon as I suggest he might be dead.

Jesse's popping up in the show. Speak of the devil, man. Speak of the devil. And he appears. Well, of course, joining us now from Dodger Stadium, almost an hour after I've been sitting here talking, is the one and only Jesse Friedman. Uh, Jesse, we're, this is not on the record.

Let's bring in Jesse. Let's get Jesse in here. Can we get him in here? All right. Jesse, big win for the Arizona Diamondbacks tonight. Where is he? There he is. There is the Thunder state.

You can't, we're not ready for Jesse. The second he calls in there. I don't care. I don't care. No, that's bullshit. Get him in here. You don't seem too happy with me, Derek. I feel like you're, I feel like you're blaming this situation on me.

What is happening? What? I'm just supposed to sit here and talk for 56 minutes. Do you think anybody wants that? Nobody wants that, Jesse. But no, a big win for the Diamondbacks, obviously. And we know that there is some moves happening in regards to tomorrow's game. So I guess let's start with that.

What is happening in regards to Ryan Nelson starting for the Diamondbacks tomorrow against the Dodgers? Yeah, well, first of all, I have to speak in my own defense that my tardiness today, blame Tori Lavella. Don't blame yours truly. Get them on the phone. Get him on here. Troy Lavello did not, did not address the media until 45 minutes or so after this game ended, which was which was really something.

But yes, of course we all suspected like, okay, if it's taking this long, clearly there's some sort of roster moves happening behind the scenes. And Tori gave a bit of a bit of an odd answer after this. when asked about that, he did confirm that roster movement is coming. I don't know if that's multiple players coming in or just one player. He was asked if the starter for tomorrow is going to change, and he said possibly, and that if it did, it would be an opener, which sounds to me like Tori Lavello's way of saying that tomorrow is going to be an opener instead of Ryan Nelson making the start.

I guess that still leaves open the possibility that Ryan Nelson could pick. in the game, just not, just sort of Slade Sikoni style where he comes in out of the bullpen, maybe Logan Allen starts. You'd think they'd want a lefty to start against the Dodgers as the opener, given the lefties that they have at the top of the lineup. So we didn't get a ton of answers there, but it's clear that something is happening, and it seems pretty unlikely that Ryan Nelson actually makes that start. Do you suspect that this is something that changed suddenly, or do you think that this is perhaps maybe a little bit of gamesmanship as we were discussing earlier to try to catch the Dodgers off guard?

Yeah, I might. I mean, if you were going to not have Ryan Nelson make his next start, normally you would do it by just sending him out immediately after the last one, right? Which is, of course, not what's happened here. Ryan Nelson has been with the major league team this entire time. And when Tori was asked on Friday after Ryan Nelson really struggled in that game, against the Tigers, you know, are you guys committed to having Nelson make his next start? Tori didn't bat an eye and said, yeah, we haven't even had a discussion about that.

So, yeah, I'm inclined to think that the Diamondbacks, at least for a time, planned on having Ryan Nelson make this start. And I wonder if the fact that certain relievers, maybe Logan Allen in particular, have not been used much recently if that opened the door for them to go a different route. So maybe it was kind of a wait-and-see thing where they were going to keep Ryan Nelson. and up here in case the bullpen was gasped maybe and and they really did need him to make an usual start But given that they've gotten some length from their starters recently they still got five innings from Slade Yesterday even though things didn't go too well they got six innings from fought of course today

Maybe that opened the door for them to go a different direction Well one guy who has been helping them out when it comes to saving their bullpen and giving them some longevity Has been Brandon fought he makes his fifth consecutive quality start from the diamondbacks tonight and he looked good jesse uh the swings and misses were there uh the everything was rolling for brandon including holding the dodgers hit list through the first three innings brandon fought appears to be pretty good at baseball derrick uh that i don't i don't know if this is just a nice run that brandon thought has gone on this field this feels like he's really starting to kind of figure out how to how to turn over a lineup not just a couple of times but to to

to get through a lineup like three times, which is something that we didn't see a ton from him last season. He, of course, is being given a bit of a longer leash this year. And rightfully so, Brandon Fott came into this start averaging six innings per start. He still averaging six innings per start because that's what he gave the debacks today. And yeah, this just feels like kind of the next phase in his development. You look at his last seven starts. I think he's at a three one two ERA, a zero nine seven whip in that span. It's been. a lot of strikeouts, very few walks. We saw that again today with seven Ks compared to just one walk.

Not one walk, of course, was the very first batter of the game, oddly enough. But yeah, he was really, really good today. And obviously, this is different than doing it against the Reds. Like, this is one of the best offensive teams in the league. Brandon Fott had more to say after the game in regards to his start and what he was able to do against the Dodgers. What did we have from Brandon here? Yeah, this is Brandon. in just sort of his initial comments about the game as a whole and kind of how he contributed.

I think everybody's at the tone of offense certainly did. Coming out hot in a much needed game, especially after last night and getting the win today, it would be huge to get the serious win tomorrow. 25 pitch first, I think, within that second, with eight pitches. What goals of difference do you think? Yeah, I think I had some adrenaline going on in the first inning, kind of throwing pitches all over the place, but we were able to settle in nicely in the second. can from there,

make some good pitches and work through the lineup pretty well. Groundhog Mama with an understatement when she says Brandon Fott is good at baseball. Thib Knob says, man's cheeks are bright, just like he came

in from playing a hockey game in Minnesota's snow. It's what he always looks like. I love it. But, yeah, we talk a little bit, Jesse, about Brandon Fott and the fact that I guess the the weight and see here with him was, you know, was that postseason a fluke? Was, you know, he just running on an incredible stretch there, kind of high on adrenaline and, you know,

kind of, I guess, you know, using it to his advantage. But, you know, what we've seen out of him this year has been consistency. We've seen whiffs. We've seen swing and miss stuff. He had nine whiffs tonight. And I mean, just doing it regularly. Like he doesn't really go out there and, you know, throw almost, you know, no hitters, even though he had that through three innings tonight, right? But like he really, he goes out there,

he gets the job done. He puts up a couple of runs. A lot of times you might be impressed a little bit by the stuff, but he just kind of works and has been effective this season. He really has. I mean, it just feels like the arsenal has really come together for him. The sweeper was pretty much there from day one. Like we saw that pretty early on last year, how effective that pitch could be.

But the sinker has been just enormous for him, the way that he's able to drop the sinker, really backdoor or front door. It has a lot of horizontal movement. I think today it average 17 inches, 16, 17 inches, which is a lot of horizontal movement. And this is a pitch that he just picked up like the middle of last year when he was first called up. the Diamondbacks last season. Brandon Fott did not throw a sinker. He threw a four-seem fastball. He didn't have any other fastballs in his arsenal.

But I think it was like his second stint back down in AAA. He added a sinker. And it has become such an enormous weapon for him. The curve ball, I think he threw one today. That's still not a huge pitch, but he can use it to still strike one every now and then. And the change-up has evolved just enough to be a really useful weapon against lefties as well. So yeah, I mean, maybe it's not quite ace level stuff, but it's a mix that really seems to work well.

And he just doesn't really walk guys, right? Like outside of that lead off walk to Mookie Betts, which he actually started O2, wound up, wound up walking him after that couldn't get Mookie to chase. But he pounds the zone and his arsenal works really well. That walk was the only walk allowed tonight by any Diamondbacks pitcher, by the way, which again, that's huge. that's huge to keep those Dodgers off the base path. I think that that's a team that people are typically careful with and that they can be patient and they can get their fair share of walks. But Diamondbacks did a great job tonight of keeping those free runners off the base path.

Of course, Brandon Fott, we know what we've talked about. We know the Strom call and the mad scientist stuff and all of that. But what we've really seen has been Brandon Fott take that. coaching take that advice and like you say like put everything together really just figure it out with the arsenal the side of the rubber he's pitching from uh especially uh what seems to be a very deceptive arm slot where you do you don't have that arsenal but you really don't know what he's throwing at times because it's very hard to pick it up his pitch tunneling is great uh everything's been good and i feel like a lot of that has just been the fact that he is such a coachable player and also a very very

calm guy. He is not rattled easily, especially in big moments like a game like this against the Dodgers. That might be what stands out the most about Brandon fought. I mean, like the number of hurdles that the guy has has overcome in kind of a macro sense. Like he was not a particularly high draft pick. He was one of the one of the last picks in the short in 2020 draft. Not exactly a, you know, from a big time school at Bellarmint. It was D2 at the time when he was there. Came over to the Deepak's organization and just, you know, pretty much shoved at every level and go nights. There you go. And then he gets to the, he gets to the majors and like, oh God, it was not good. Like, it was really bad for a while. But he again, he just does not really seem

phased by any of that. He knows how to overcome adversity. He's done it time and time again. And you put him in a big spot. Like, you put him in the playoffs. You put him in NLCs game three down 2-0 to a really good Phillies lineup. You put him out there here at Dodger Stadium, a really tough place to pitch against a really good team. He's still able to come through. Even after, you know, the first batter of the game walks or, you know, the inning where Otani led off with a double,

he did wind up scoring because of a sort of bizarre, bizarre throw, bizarre play from Gabby Moreno. But he retired the next three hitters. Like, that was it. That was all that the Dodgers could get there. He just continues time and time again to, to overcome adversity and come up big in some of these big moments. Well, we have more from Brandon here after the game about the changes he made from last

year to this year and the success he's had due to them. Just sticking to the process, as cliche as it sounds, but yeah, we had some ups and downs, but taking those downs and learning from them and getting better and trying to just keep building that ladder and trying to get better and better. And yeah, you might fail at times, but you can take those. Sometimes those are the blessing in the skies games that help you later on. Damon had a question for you. Damon, what do you got for Jesse?

No, let's get to it after it. Let's talk about Brandon Fought for a second. Oh, okay, yeah, absolutely. Well, I mean, you know, again, FOTS, you know, the stuff does sound cliche, right? It does, we've talked about it a lot on this show to the point, like, It's, you know, it's almost an inside joke. But, I mean, the key there has been the fact that Brent Strom continues to see, you know, things about Brandon's game that he can expand on. Brandon's been able to take that coaching and actually, you know, put it into the work and, and figure out a way to make it all, you know, make him more successful.

And, I mean, he's much better now, I think, than a lot of us anticipated he was going to be. Yeah, you never, you never. really know how like even if you were a big believer in brandon fought when he came up last year and apologies to some of the uh the war the war scene behind me is is developing yet again the work at donner stadium is never done jesse there are trays to smash together apparently and parts of the field to fix pans and pots and pots and it's like are they walking around with pants and then spoons hitting them what's going on behind you i can't even i don't know if it's behind me or in front of me. I just know that it's really loud. It just feels like there's noise like everywhere.

Yeah, I don't really remember what the question was. I know we're talking about Brandon thought. Yeah. He, oh yeah, now I remember what I was saying. You never really know with young pitchers, even if you really believe in them that it's going to work out eventually, how quickly are they going to make that change? The difference between AAA and the majors has never been as big as it is right now. And so it sometimes it can it can take a while for guys to kind of make those adjustments and find success at this level. Brandon Fott has made adjustment after adjustment and just continues to get better.

And boy, is he big. I mean, let's face it, like Brandon Fott is the Diamondbacks, the Diamondbacks second best starter right now, right? Like Jordan Montgomery, you still feel probably optimistic he can turn things around. But he has an ERA of just around five. And of course, Slade and Ryan and Ryan, right? Nelson have had their struggles as well. It really is Zach Gallen and Brandon

fought kind of anchoring this rotation right now in terms of keeping runs off the board. And that's huge for Fott to be doing that at this stage in his career. Just eating a ton of innings too, Brandon Faw. Yeah, he has been. Even when he gives up early runs, he still manages to get five,

six in every single time that he goes out there. That's that five consecutive quality starts, right? Allowing three runs or less and six or six or a mark two runs. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, And the fact that today you threw 25 pitches in the first inning, it was like, all right, maybe Brandon Fott won't give us six innings today. And then he goes out and gives you six innings. Anyway, a lot of it is that he throws a lot of strikes.

And so opposing hitters, once they see a few, like, hitable first pitch strikes, they're going to change their approach. They're not going to change. They're not going to take those pitches anymore. They're going to try to do something with them. And they did have some success on first pitch swings tonight. Shohei Otani's double is an example of that. But if you get guys swinging early in the count, as often as they do against fought, you're setting yourself up to, you know, be able to rattle off a lot of innings in a short period of time.

So, yeah, just really, really impressive stuff from him once again. The other thing about Brandon is that he's like a, he's such a big game pitcher. Like, it feels like every time the stakes are highest, that's when he goes out there and shoves them most. That's what we were talking about earlier. I mean, it's how cool, it's how cool he can stay, right? Yeah. It's something that when you look around the Diamondbacks team, you don't really feel a lot of guys have like that clutch factor,

that ability to like, in those bigger moments, in those higher situations, to really step up. The way that Jesse's stepping up right now in this high leverage situation. In the midst of a war zone. With a fucking war going on behind him. And he's just sitting here doing the show, not worried about being murdered.

and just, you know, plugging along. And Jesse might lie, obviously, about how concerned he is for his own safety. I never lie how concerned I am about Jesse's safety. But the numbers, they also don't lie. So, Jesse, what do you have before you get literally drowned out by the clanking around you as your number for this game? Oh, goodness. I apologize once again. This is unfortunate.

But yes, the number for today is 261, 262. I wasn't sure if I was right. I chose this number so long ago at this point. I couldn't remember. Yeah, 262. You guys might have talked about this. This is Ketel Marte's batting average during his 20-game hit streak, which is actually a totally like normal batting average.

Like there's not really anything very interesting about 262. I think 18 out of the 20 games, I want to say. he's had exactly one hit. Yeah. So yeah, it's a reminder that like you could have 162 game hit streak. And if you just, you know, if you just get one hit in each game, like you might, yeah, you might be hitting like 237 at the end of the year, but you also like made insane history at the same time.

So yeah, it's been a, it's been a quiet, a bit of a quiet 20 game hit streak, relatively speaking for Cote. But he's still been, I mean, it just goes to show that he's been. Put some respect on my king's name, Jesse. How dare you? he's been really the model of consistency in the middle of the lineup. So, yeah, I mean, that's the biggest takeaway there. Like, whatever the batting average is, he continues to be a big time contributor.

And I better get going because, yeah, I don't know. It's a wrap for you. We're fucking done. We're not doing this anymore. My days are clearly numbered at this point. Or maybe my minutes. I don't know. Oh, man.

Well, of course, we thank you guys for stopping by. We thank Jesse for surviving. show we don't know how much longer he has left i do need i need to ask jesse a question oh please do you had a question for me so this is maybe skewed by the loud noises that are happening currently in the background but i was going to ask jesse have you ever heard anything louder than the pop dodger stadium got when show hey otani almost hit it to the warning track i mean they were losing their minds i thought they shot confetti out uh all over the field and everybody was going to like toss on memorabilia t-shirts it was wild damon's bitter yeah i will say the dodgers fans like the stereotype

there does seem to be does seem to be true the dodgers fans get pretty dang excited over like routine fly balls uh even even i find myself a little bit fooled by it at times like i'm looking down at my scorecard or whatever i miss uh someone putting the ball in play and based on the roar of the crowd i'm like oh like something big must have just happened and then you look up and And it's like, like, under a ball. Yeah, you see Jake McCarthy just like waiting and waiting for the ball to come down. So, yeah, that does seem to be, does seem to be kind of a real thing. I mean, and let's face it, like every fan base, I think does that to a certain extent.

But yeah, maybe Dodgers fans are a little more. They're talking and doing other stuff. And then the crack of the bat happens and they get excited. They just don't know ball like that. They don't know like exit velocity and, you know, launch angle. Yeah, hard hit percentages and blast rate, squared up rate, barrel rate. They don't know any of those. Blast rate, blast rate, square up, sweet spot, barrel rate, yeah, all of that stuff.

So of course, we do though. And that's why you watch us. Of course, we thank you guys for being here. We hope you guys come back tomorrow for our final post game show of this series, our post series show where we will be breaking down the numbers from a series, hopefully talking about an Arizona Diamondback series, win. Of course, Jesse will still be in Los Angeles.