PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Marte Mashes TWO JACKS As Diamondbacks Offense Wakes Up & Splits Series With Mets

Episode Date: June 3, 2024

After a week-long offensive drought, the Diamondbacks’ bats woke up in New York and salvaged a split with the Mets in their four-game series. We have more on Mighty Marte leading the way with two home runs in the finale, starting pitching falling apart, and a look ahead at some winnable series on the D-backs schedule. We also have answers to your Mailbag Monday questions!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.

Guee to you all and welcome in to another edition of the PHNX D-BACs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as the mayor of former mustaches, I guess I could say. This man next to me, definitely the vice mayor of chin hair and your thunder stick, the one and only, Jesse Friedman. Jesse, the bats woke up this weekend.

We got a chance to see it a little bit on Friday. However, it was just too little, too late, losing that game 10 to 9. But boy, did they wake up in the last two? games of this series and Catele Marte had himself a monster game there on Sunday which is something that was very relieving to see after the stretch of the ad post hitting streak. Yeah, I'm not sure if it was if Cattell's two run Homer in the ninth inning yesterday saved the Diamondback season or if it was the fact that you shaved your mustache on this show on Friday. But clearly

one of those two things. Something had to have helped here. The Diamondbacks turning this what looked like a series loss into a series split. That means they're destined for greatness, Eric. It means they're headed back to the World Series. Undefeated, undefeated since I shaved off my mustache on the show. That's fair. Yeah, I mean, maybe this one series doesn't necessarily mean all that much.

But yeah, it was really big for the debacks. I mean, to be able to bounce back the way that they did. And as you said, they're starting to score some runs on a consistent basis, 24 runs over the last three games after scoring nine runs in their previous six games before that. The bats seem to have woken up. You still would probably like to see production from more of a variety of players, maybe.

Like I think Jock Peterson and Christian Walker and Cotel Marte, they all played pretty big roles in the offense over the weekend. Those are the three guys who have kind of been hitting for most of the season up to this point. But yeah, absolutely still good signs for them. And they've played so terribly at City Fields over the last few years that even a series split actually feels like kind of a kind of a win for them you said a series split would be a win in this series when we talked about it on thursday prior to the beginning of the series against the

met's we know that they were struggling but we also know that the met's kind of were they had their own rally call right they had their own moment of things have kind of hit rock bottom for their season and they needed to hopefully turn things around especially after some of their personnel issues and and things kind of being a little embarrassing for that franchise and they answered back but as much as you know, it felt like this team, this Diamondbacks team really wasn't performing. They did only lose the first two games by one run each. And I think that they were in every game of this series. They did manage to salvage the series split.

And that does feel like a big difference. I think leaving New York, losing the series or getting swept, could have lasting ramifications on this team. As sad as that is to say, they have a, you know, easier stretch of their schedule coming up. and the last thing they needed was to doubt if they could even beat teams that were struggling like they are right now. But the way that they put it to them in the last two games, it was very nice to see. Let's take a look at the count presented by Desert Financial Credit Union. We'll take a look at the numbers for the whole series.

Diamondbacks outscored the Mets 26 to 22. They got out hit by the Mets, 40 hits to 33. And then runners in scoring position, both teams miraculously had 38 runners in scoring position. this series. I don't even understand how this stuff works. 38 opportunities. Excuse me, 38 opportunities with runners and scoring position doesn't mean that was men on base necessarily, but

Mets went 11 for 38, Diamondbacks 9 for 38. Starting pitching ERA, atrocious for both teams, 6.30 for the Mets, 6.75 for the Diamondbacks, and that includes literally one starter going out there and having a zero earn runs on a zero innings pitch

night. Then the relief pitching of course also not great. 5.6 for the Mets 4.19 for the Diamondbacks. But very much makes sense looking at these numbers, how these two teams split a four-game series. Very similar numbers on both sides. And the pitching was not good for really either team in the series. Slate Sikoni came out and gave the D-backs,

put them, I think, in a pretty good position in the Saturday game. It was only four and two-thirds innings, but he only gave up one run, which we've seen a good amount of that from him over the course of his short, his short major league career, where it's maybe not going super deep into games or maybe you don't want him going super deep into games, but he can be effective for a few innings at a time.

He certainly was able to do that on Saturday. And then Brandon Fott just continues to kind of allow all of us hits at the same time. In one inning? Which is not, yeah, not exactly a recipe for success. Once again, it feels like he pitched a lot better than his six innings and four-run line would lead you to believe. I believe on Statcast, his expected ERA this season is at 2.3. 7-5 or somewhere around there, which is far, far lower than his actual ERA at this point.

But he continues to, at least the eye test continues to look pretty good. And at least I think over the course of time, this is probably going to balance out. At some point, he's going to strand a few base runners, a few more than he has to this point in the season. And if he continues to rack up strikeouts at the rate that he is right now and, you know, keep guys off the base paths via walks and via hits. you're probably going to see that ERA come down at some point. I mean, that is the tale of Brandon fought season so far.

Not only has he absolutely given them quality starts, but even when he does falter, it's for one inning. And then what we've also seen is an ability to bounce back. And we've talked about that being a quality trait. I guess you could say that, you know, Merrill Kelly and Zach Galen tend to have quite a bit. That ability to go out there, have things not go your way in the third inning and the fourth inning,

and then still give two more strong innings after that, right? Which just can save the bullpen. Brandon fought when six innings. He gave up five hits, four and walked two, struck out eight. He just continues to be better, I think, then his numbers indicate. And honestly, there was a period of time where, you know, we would wonder, what would the Diamondbacks do during this kind of stretch, losing Gallen, losing Merrill Kelly.

We thought with the acquisition of Jordan Montgomery, he would be the one to step up. and fill in that role. And he really isn't, but Brandon Fott luckily is. I mean, at least he's, yeah, he's, there's a sense of stability in the starting rotation right now just due to Brandon Fought. Everything else kind of volatile with the injuries and everything.

But Brandon Fought's still going out there and doing the thing. And I mean, again, like you said, if he can figure out a way to possibly, you know, once those things start going wrong, figure out how to get things on back track, back on track. because he threw a couple of balls right down the middle in that beginning. And that seemed to be really...

It wasn't like all a fluke. It wasn't like, oh, the Mets just happened to strain together. They figured him out or he's tipping his pitches or something. No, he started throwing meatballs. And you can't do that to guys like J.D. Martinez and not have them make you pay for it. But another guy that you can't throw much to in yesterday's game was Catele Marte without having him turn it, just absolutely mash it. Ketel Marte is our king snake for this game. The man was incredible.

Two home runs. And I think Gabriel Ferreira brought up a great point here. Three for three in yesterday's games, two home runs. He bookcase the game. He leads things off in the beginning of the game with a home run. And then he hits the game winning home run in the ninth inning. It was just a super heroic effort from Catell, three RBI, one walk. And Gabriel says it.

He says right here, can we talk about Marte almost murdering the same woman twice? Like what did she say to him? That's a fact. For those of you that might have not noticed on the broadcast, Cattel's first home run. Yeah, hit her in the face. Actually struck a woman in the face. And then his inning, his home run in the ninth inning,

went after the same woman, Jesse. He was like that. That is the person I'm taking out today. It was amazing. I just, I wouldn't even be there after the first home run, let alone stay there for the second run. but I don't like there's obviously beef between Catelle and her what I need though is that woman to come to every game and stand in the outfield so that Catell has that you know has that desire you want to fire out to Arizona I will personally pay for her airfare should pay for that if they care about winning if you care about winning how serious are you as a franchise that's what it comes down to yeah yeah honestly I didn't know that it hit that same woman twice but I did like when he the second he hit that ball I was like oh my god that's the exact same spot he's that he's the exact same spot he's that he's It was very simple.

But it didn't actually hit her the second time. No, no, not the second time. Yeah, it was like right by her. Yeah, he was going for it though. But like Elise said, she tried to catch it and miss so bad. And yeah, that's definitely a good way to explain it. Didn't Kattel almost hit the couple getting married in Chicago last year? Yes.

Remember that? They were out there in the stands having like a, we talked about like if you were there at a game, watching a game, and all of a sudden someone starts getting married in front of you. Could you imagine that? But anyway. All right. Well, the Diamondbacks do have a series coming up here with the San Francisco Giants. Hopefully, Kutelmarte can find somebody in the outfield over there that he will note here.

Here, and Chase Field that he wants to murder potentially. But let's take a look at the Giants and the year they've had up to this point because the Giants, they've met a little bit of a problem. They're struggling to, though. They're going through their own injuries. Blake Snell left the start against the Yankees with an apparent injury. They are right now 29 and 31 with a minus 29 run differential. They are 5 and 5 in their last 10. Starting pitching ERA, relief pitching ERA, neither one of those very good.

4.47 for starting pitching 4.42 for relief pitching. Oddly enough, they are ranked 23rd in both of those categories in MLB. They have a team OPS of 693, which is good for 15th, and they are tied for 6th with 9 outs above average. So they have been a very good team defensively outside of that, though. not a lot. Not a lot to get too excited about. This is a team once again right now.

They have played some good baseball this year, but haven't been playing good baseball lately. And this might be another one of those opportunities for the Diamondbacks to catch a team at the right time. Yeah, this is, I mean, this is a big week for the Diamondbacks. Huge. You've got three here against the Giants. There's a team.

It appears they're going to be in direct competition with for possibly the rest of the season. you've got the Padres this weekend for four games, a team that doesn't have U. Darvish or Joe Musgrove at this point. So, you know, a good opportunity there. And then you've got the Angels and the White Sox coming to Chase Field next week. So this next couple of weeks is a good opportunity for the debacks to kind of make a move. Granted, we've said that a number of times on this show at this point. And it hasn't necessarily gone the way that you might have hoped it would.

But, yeah, the Giants are not, they're not playing great baseball right now. They just got swept by the New York Yankees. Granted, the Yankees have shown themselves to be a very, very good baseball team. They were number one in our power rankings a few days ago for a reason. But the Giants did. They took two out of three from the Phillies before that. Another team that has obviously been playing really well. So, yeah, this is a big opportunity for them to kind of come in and beat a team that is right there with them in the standings and probably will be for most of the season.

Well, it's a big week because of the National League West opponent. But then after that, things get substantially easier for this team. Now, we've already, I've been very careful about the language that I've used in regards to these series against teams that aren't playing good baseball, right? I've just said that they've been winnable and they definitely have some winnable series here coming up in the month of June, including the White Sox, the Angels and. The Nationals. Yeah. Then it's the Phillies. Then it gets a little.

Right. But, I mean, they definitely have an opportunity to at least take care of business against teams that they very much. can take care of business against. They have a little bit of relief coming in the form of Geraldo Perdomo should be returning by this series coming up with the Padres. Hopefully we'll see Perdomo back by then.

Alec Thomas shouldn't be too far behind him and then hopefully we start talking about some starting pitchers returning. But right now we still don't know. We still don't have an update on Alec Thomas and when he's actually going to be returning. We were just told he was 10 to 12 days behind Perdomo,

but we don't know if. that's still necessarily the case. But like again, this is an opportunity for this team to take our business on when, you know, when this part of the schedule comes up. It hopefully, you know, doing what they did in New York, even in the loss, even in the game where they scored nine runs, allows them to kind of open things up here a little bit and understand what they're capable of. We really haven't seen that translate over when they have those big scoring outputs to them being able to do that for a consistent period of time. Yeah, yeah.

The consistency is something that the diamond backs have lacked pretty much from the get-go, right? They had a pretty good series against the Rockies, and then they took two out of three from the Yankees, and then since then they just have not really strung any kind of consistent run together. Looking at the Giants a little bit closer, I know we were talking before the show about how the Giants roster is just not especially, interesting, which I don't I don't mean that.

They're swagless, Jesse. That's what we were talking about. Yeah, I guess I guess that's the right way to put it. They are swagless. Look at their team. Has more swag in his little pinky than the entire organization. And so does J. Mark. Yeah.

Like the Giants don't have any swag. No one's cool. Like they're so mid. Look at their position players. Ridiculous. Does that move you? No. I think Patrick Bailey is probably one of the more exciting young position

players. He's obviously a really good defender. and has an 819 OPS. Patrick Bailey's come out and had a pretty good season for himself. But yeah, outside of that, I mean, you know, it's Wilmer Flores. It's Tyro Estrada. It's, you know, Mike Yostremski. They're also pretty banged up right now.

They don't have Lamont Way Jr. right now. He's got a really good. No more late night Lamont. No more late night Lamont, at least not for right now. Michael Conforto, I believe, is going to return from the injured list today. So this would be his first series back. I do think we'll see him. They do have Horace Solis.

as well. Of course, they acquired him over the off season, someone we talked about as a potential target for the debacks, but Horace Salaire has just not really hit up to this point in the season. His OPS is under 700. So, yeah, it hasn't really worked the way the Giants hoped it would to say the least. Blake Snell is, at least appears to be headed back to the injured list with another growing issue. He also, when he has been on the mound, has just not been the same game. guy. He has an ERA over nine and he has yet to complete five innings in a start this season. So in some ways it's kind of impressive that the Giants are still kind of right in the thick of the playoff picture, you know, in the same way that the Diamondbacks are.

That's the reason why is because I think they are a team like the Diamondbacks where they don't, you look at the roster and it's not going to move you. You look at their stats. Their stats aren't blowing you away. But they're a team that finds a way to win and they have different people that contribute. And the Diamondbacks right now are getting that. That's kind of what that's what's been so odd about this season is, is that the Diamondbacks have had had guys contribute, but it just wasn't together collectively like we saw the contributions this weekend during this series with the Mets.

We really did see them finally, you know, getting those big hits at times with guys on base where and having more than one guy have a good day versus, you know, what we've seen out of this stretch where this team has been struggling. Damon brought up Justin Martinez and I just want to go back and talk about what an incredible weekend he had in New York in front of his parents going out there giving this team multiple innings of relief

the way he did, not allowing any runs to be scored and lowering his ERA to 0.44 on the season. The one thing that they were talking about on the broadcast was how much lately, you know, managers and people from opposing teams have come up to members of the Diamondbacks organization and asked, who the hell is this guy? Where did this guy come from all of a sudden?

Your bullpen isn't normally like this, right? Like he was still throwing 99 miles an hour in his last pitch and it was a sinker? Yeah, that's right, right? Oh, man, that's wild stuff. So Justin Martinez continues to be the savior right now of this bullpen. And speaking of saviors, God bless Paul Sebald coming back because the man. He's been good. The man has been good.

And I swear to God, I don't know how. Like, I don't know how. I don't know how he just does it. two pitches. I don't know how he just brings a sense of stability, but the dad of the bullpen is back and things are hopefully going the Diamondbacks way here. Big series though with the Giants. It's all about vertical approach angle with Paul Seawald there. We've discussed this before. Oh my God. I'll tell you right now, Steve Gilbert rolling around in his grave right now, listening to you talking about vertical approach angle. Going back to Jmart real quick, we do have a numbers

don't lie. Factoid, am I allowed to do numbers don't lie? Of course you are. Who am I? I mean, I would be a liar if I would say that you couldn't do that because you really can't do anything you want on this show and I really can't do much to stop you. But even though I might lie, of course, numbers don't lie. So, Jesse, what do you got for the numbers don't lie?

Yeah, the number is simply the number one. Okay. And the number one represents the number of extra base hits that Justin Martinez has allowed this season in 20 and two thirds. Finnings fit. Yeah. What extra base hit? It's absolutely.

Oh my God. Absurd. And that's the thing that I think people can miss with Justin Martinez. It's not just, you know, the nasty swing and miss stuff. It's the fact that guys aren't really squaring up the ball when they are putting it in play. And that is a lot of that has to do with the sinker that he added this season that he apparently worked with Fernando Rodney, Diamondbacks legend. Fernando Rodney apparently had a how to roll in teaching him out of.

to throw that sinker. And it's remarkable. Like J-Mart, last season, we talked about one of his weaknesses being that his fastball while it was 100 and whatever miles an hour was very straight. And that hitters at this level were going to be good enough to still hit it, you know, if they were able to time it up well. The sinker is very different. It's still about 101, 102 miles an hour, but it's not straight at all.

In fact, it has a pretty wild movement profile with not only a lot of downward bite, but a crazy amount of horizontal movement as well. And it's just, I mean, it's made Justin Martinez, like, at this point, he has, he has four pitches technically between the slider, the splitter, the four seamer and the sinker. The sinker has to be at least a plus pitch, if not much more than that. I mean, the splitter is probably a plus plus pitch at this point. The slider is probably a plus, like the stuff at this point is just off the charts. And we're seeing that, we're seeing that in games. Well, I'll tell you this much.

Fernando Rodney is still inexplicably finding ways to help this bullpen be better. There you go. There you go. I don't know how he does it, but the man just does it. We do appreciate you guys being here. We appreciate Groundhog Mama. She said finally a number that makes us happy. She also completely abandoned her son's show to watch our show, so we appreciate that as well.

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Well, things are turning around for the Arizona Diamondbacks. And of course, you know what that means. It means that every year is still our year, right? And every month on this show is still Black History Month. Every month on this show is still Women's History Month. And of course, every month on this show is Black Women's History Month. Every week is Shark Week. Every single day is Earth Day because we recycle.

And of course, on Mondays, you know what we do. We go to the mailbag. Damon, let's hit it. in my mailbox. I'm trying to get to everything in my miss. Did Espo really say that I should be the Megaran of this show or something like that in our team meeting earlier? I do think I made me sick.

That part made me. I get enough of that guy. Are you kidding me? You're going to have to tell Megarin that. He's going to throw that in your face. I am. I am definitely going to tell him that. But of course, we got our mailbag Monday questions.

Damon, what do we got in the mailbag today? First question, not from Travis Moore. Do you feel bad about that? Well, no, because Travis Moore, unfortunately, he asked a question. He asked a question that we already answered, but I think he might have missed it because it was a diehard only episode. So I'm not sure if Travis is in fact a diehard or not. I think I did just give him a good reason, though, to sign up for a diehard membership so that he can go back and watch that episode and see his question get answered. The Cal Ripkin streak is over.

Oh, I mean, it was already over. I ruined that earlier. You know, I'm a bad manager. Sometimes I sit guys, even when they're hot, just like Tori does. What do you got from Solario? Our guy, Solario said to Derek, did you always know your mustache had mythical powers. Well, I've learned very quickly over the last two years that my hair does have some sort of witchcraft-like powers over baseball. I can't explain it. Most people can't explain it.

Jesse definitely couldn't explain it. If I could really express to you how frustrated he was with how good Lordus was doing last year when I dyed my hair purple, you would think that this man sincerely just hates me for my ability to make this team catch fire. But no, I didn't know that my mustache being on or off would create any kind of magic for this team. I did, I should have known though, because it was a playoff stash and we know what they did in the playoffs last year. So it's gone now though.

Hopefully, hopefully things have been corrected. And hopefully I'll get to grow it back again this postseason. So that's what I'm looking forward to. But yeah, Solario, now we all know about the magical healing powers of my mustache. How healing. Now it can heal. I mean, it healed the offense, Jesse. Can you not? Is it not? I'm not saying I'm going to

sprinkle it on a wound and you're going to magically seal back up but I'm saying like yes there are some healing properties to my mustache is all I'm saying what else we got damon next question comes from michael rocicki he asks should we be talking about a gold glove for kattel i test wise it seems like this is his best year defensively i do feel like katell is putting everything together this year and not only that he is also absolutely hilarious to watch while he's playing that gold glove defense but no he truly has been an entertaining player but more than that he has been an incredibly well-rounded player for this team this year. Defensively, he's been solid.

Offensibly, we know what he has done. But, yeah, I think that this has been one of his better years defensively. Yeah, I think this is a pretty good point. Ketel Marte, as of right now, is second in the National League among second baseman in outs above average, trailing only Tyro Estrada, who will see play in this series against the Giants. However, Estrada has a minus six defensive run saved. That metric does not like him nearly as much to. Catelle Marte's nine defensive run saved.

So Catelle is leading the National League, all nationally second baseman in DRS, and he is second in the National League among second basement in OAA. Based on those numbers, I think he is probably the rightful front runner for the gold glove right now. This could be a pretty big year for Catell in terms of those awards. I mean, I believe I checked yesterday.

He has the highest OPS of any second basement in the game right now. A couple of other guys have started a little. bit slower. So even though Kutel, I think it's like an 832 or something, his OPS was much higher a couple weeks ago. But yeah, I mean, this could be a silver slugger. There's some silver slugger potential there. There's some gold glove potential. And as far as the Allstar game is concerned, his case there looks pretty strong at this point, too. If he doesn't win the Silver Slugger, we get our pitchforks and our torches and we take down Major League Baseball. You and Elise, at the same exact moment, Elisa of Catella is on an All-Star this year we ride.

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, that's a given. But like, there's no way a better. There's going to be someone playing second base hitting better than him in the national. Ozzy Albies last year was pretty comparable, but he hasn't, he has not hit to that, to that level this season so far. Must be nice to be in that lineup, too. In the Braves lineup? Yeah, you don't feel out a little bit without Ronald Ocunee.

Yeah, but last year, last year Ozzy Albies was hitting like six, hitting like, wasn't he like kind of hit not really? hitting that well for average but his power numbers were fantastic uh he hit uh he hit 270 last year his average was solid yeah yeah yeah kattel martay do you think he will uh drive his car to texas just so that he has the flashiest most awesome car at the at the all-star game no no no i think he's gonna fly his car out maybe he'll fly his car out yeah that actually is the most likely i'm glad you pointed that out what else we got there damon our next question comes from jacob shult and he asks is it time to start blaze at third over gino also don't you guys feel every time gino comes up to the plate he is going to find a new way to strike out 18 k's in his last 15 games i will say in regards to that second part yes i do feel like gino you know i mean i i don't know i would love to see gno strike out looking maybe a little bit more i would see gino like at least i mean just being more impatient up there for sure but did you really just say you'd like to see him strike out like in a different

manner moving forward basically is what i was saying strikeouts are okay you just want to change the format a little bit overall he's actually i mean he's he's not good but he doesn't he's not as bad as you would think um as far as ranking goes of of most strikeouts in major league baseball he has 65 right now he is tied for 17th uh as far as most strikeouts but there are a lot of big names on that list above him that have more strikeouts than him. Randy Rose Arena right now. Gene Carlos Stanton, Teosker Hernandez, Paul Goldschmidt. Right now, Ellie De La Cruz leads all baseball in strikeouts with 83.

So, I mean, as frustrating as it's been, because I do think Gino was the solution to a problem the Diamondback sincerely had at third base. And now he's proving not to be nearly as solid of a solution as we thought he was going to be. I feel like everything kind of gets, I guess, highlighted or enhanced a little bit more. He is just a frustrating player to watch this year because even you can tell even he's frustrated and he's definitely not having the season anyone expected him to have, including himself. Yeah, it has been interesting.

I mean, you mentioned he's not actually that high up in terms of strikeouts around the league after leading the league the past couple of years. His strikeout rate this year is 28.3%, which is actually the lowest. marks since 2018. So it's not, it hasn't really been a strikeout issue as much as it is just, he's just not really hitting the ball. A lack of production. When he, when he puts the ball in play.

Yeah, I look at his, am I allowed to, am I allowed to quote ex-wo bacon? Normally I'd call it ex-Wobicon, but in order to make it easier for you to deal with it. Ex-Wil bacon. It does have the work. I do like what you say. Ex-Wol bacon. I do like that, actually. That's basically, so people might be familiar with Wobah,

which is just like a hitting stat that reads like an on base percentage. It's a good stat. Then there's ex-WO-WB. Waded on base average, yeah. Then there's X Woba, which is just the exact same thing, but based on your batted ball metric. So it's sort of what was expected, where your expected Wobah is. And then there's X-WO-Bacon, which is the exact same concept. But it's your ex-Waba on contact only when you put the ball in play.

So it separates out, you know, your strikeouts and your walks. And it's just like how much damage. you expected to do when you're putting the ball in play. And for Gino, that number is 333 this year, which is very, very low. Last year it was 418. The year before that, it was 446. It has never been lower than 3.43 in his career. This is the lowest mark of his career.

So all that to say, when Gino puts the ball in play, he is doing considerably less damage this season than needed a year ago. That's really been the difference for him more so than the strikeouts. So the other part of Jacob Schultz's question is, should we, maybe turn to Blaze Alexander to potentially play some third base over there. Maybe, you know, the Diamondbacks think about once Jordan Lawler's ready, perhaps turning to him. Are these options do you think the team's going to explore? Yeah, that's a good question.

I mean, we did see Blaze play third base yesterday. They had Geno in at DH. That was, that's insane, by the way. Like, it's not his defense. That's the problem. And I know Tori just wanted to get him a day off his feet. Yeah, it was a day off. That's fine though, but Gino right now is not contributed enough offensively for him to be in there at DH in my opinion.

That's what was crazy. Like if you were going to give him a day off, just give the man a full day off. Maybe that's what he needs at this point. He doesn't get many. He doesn't like him, right? He doesn't like taking days off. He played all 162 last year. Yeah, he might not have been willing to take a full day off.

I don't know. But, yeah, Blaze is cooled off offensively recently. I know he had a couple hits in the Saturday game. He had another another hit a dollar. in the Sunday game. So he's continued to be like somewhat steady, but you're looking at a 744 OPS at this point. It's not, you know, he finished April with a 941 OPS. So it has come down quite a bit since then. You know, his expected numbers are not are not very good. Still suggests that he's been actually pretty fortunate to have to have the numbers that he does. So I don't think

it's an obvious decision, but I don't think it's an unreasonable proposal. Devak should maybe look at giving him some reps at third base. But I'm guessing they're not at that point yet. I think the leash with Gino is still probably a little bit longer than where we are so far. All right. What else we got there, Damon? Next question comes from AISY Sports Girl 224, and she asks, when Perdomo and Alec return, who do you guys think will get sent down? Great question.

This is getting harder and harder to answer. Yeah, these are tough. I mean, I don't know. I mean, that's the, that's my simple answer. Like, I really don't know. As far as they reduce the number of bullpen arms or is that going to stay exactly where it's at? That's, yeah, that's got to stay where it's at, I think. You need your, you need your five starters.

You need your eight guys in the bullpen. Especially with how many, how few guys or how few experienced guys the D-Backs have in their rotation at this point. I don't think you want to shrink down your bullpen at this stage in the season in particular. So, yeah, you're probably going to be sending out position. players and those decisions aren't obvious. I mean, with Perdomo, it's probably either Kevin Newman or Blaze Alexander. And with Alec Thomas, it's probably either Pavin Smith or, I don't know if I can even say Jake McCarthy at this point. No. I mean, he's been one of the, one of the better hitters on this team. So I guess Paveen is probably the easier, you know, just logically kind of

working it out. Pavin would sort of make sense with, with Alec. But Pernomo is hard to to say, did the debacks want Kevin Newman to stick around and kind of move, move positions and be the sort of backup depth guy? Do they value getting Blaze everyday reps, as they said, back in spring training and they want to send him down for that reason? That would make a lot of sense, especially defensively, not to mention the fact that they know what they have out of him. They can start coaching him now in a different way to potentially fill needs that the major league roster had, whereas that probably wasn't the approach to his development when he was down before, right? So there are things that now he can

truly like hone in on and focus on improving so that if that opportunity presents itself or, you know, hey, if Kevin Newman doesn't play good baseball, they could easily turn to Blaze and switch. Yeah, Newman's offense has slowed down a little bit, right? Over the last

couple of weeks. I mean, he still has a 94 OPS plus which is pretty decent for you know, an infielder given kind of his role coming into the year. So, yeah, I I could see them going either route as far as Perdomo is concerned. We'll have to see what Tori has to say about that over the next few days.

All right. Now, what else we got there, Damon? Next question comes from Skeletor, the Great, and he says, given the multitude of pitching injuries, do you expect a call-up for Christian Mena soon? That's a good question. Christian Mena is a very interesting case because he has been extremely good for the Reno Aces. and we have set it on probably, I feel like half of the episodes we've done,

we've talked about how difficult it is to hit in Reno or to pitch in Reno and how easy it is to hit, right? So when you see the numbers that Mena is putting up in that league, it's very tempting to think of him as an option. I think he's close, but I think he might have gone in from an interesting prospect that Diamondbacks traded for to now being a big part of this organization's future. I mean, I would start labeling him as that at this point, considering what he's been able to do consistently this year.

So I don't know. I mean, I do think that the Diamondbacks are willing to give a lot of guys opportunities. And I think that he is moving closer and closer to potentially being one of those choices. If the Diamondbacks get themselves into a predicament where one of the guys that is here now filling a starting rotation spot gets injured or goes down or really struggles, no, it would not be a surprise. to me at all to see Mena get called upon because the diamond backs are quickly running out of options. Yeah, I mean, at this point, you feel like several starters in this rotation don't necessarily have like a tight hold on that spot. Right. Like Blake Walson is going to be making his second start in this series.

We'll see how that goes. Slate Cicone obviously just came back up was good, but debaks are certainly going to want to see him continue to make progress. Ryan Nelson has obviously had his share of struggles. this year as well. So because of that, I have to believe that Christian, Mena, like,

yeah, he could be not that far away from getting up into the majors, you know, depending on how those other guys perform. I feel pretty confident saying he will pitch for the team at some point this year. Between now and the end of the season, you figure that opportunity will rise for him eventually.

But he has, you know, he gave up seven runs in his start yesterday. He started out strong and had a couple of rough days. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, he had never given up seven runs in a start this season. He did give up six back on April 11th over four innings. So yeah, he hasn't been quite as sharp the last couple times out.

But certainly a part of this team's future, you know, he's still only 21 years old. And in AAA is really impressive to be at the level he's at. So it's probably only a matter of time. But I wouldn't say it's like, oh, he's certainly going to be up in the next week or two or whatever. at some point this season but not necessarily right away. All right. Well, of course, a great time to pause is to enjoy a Four Peaks beer.

We saw so many of you guys went out to help break this curse, to help break the slump. That's fair. Yeah, I don't think. Maybe it wasn't my mustache. Maybe it was the darn thing to do with this. Yeah, it was the group outing to Four Peaks for Chicken Tendies that really did it. So we thank you are diehards for doing that.

And of course, make sure check out all of the wonderful beers Four Peaks has to offer. When you go to the Four Peaks location, it is like a heavenly display of all of the wonderful beers they have on tap. You can try them all out, including their brand new bad birdie, juicy golden ale, which you can now also get in stores as well. So make sure to check out that super drinkable beer out. It's the perfect companion at the tea box or in your fridge. Of course, visit FourPeaks.com slash locator to find all your favorite beers and events. Check out at Four Peaks Brewer or at Four Peaks Pub on social to keep up with the latest Arizona's hometown brewery must be 21 or older to drink four peaks and please drink responsibly.

Of course, another great way to help break that, you know, break this whole slump that the diamondbacks are in. It's going out and seeing some baseball games unless you're Elizabeth in New York, which that's debatable whether we should be allowing you to go watch this team on the road. However, isn't that over now? I feel like it's over, but she was there for a lot of the games, so I don't know how to feel about that. I felt like there were a lot of magical powers fighting each other. It wasn't the two teams on the field at City Field in New York. This was, this was, this was, this was like curses and anti-curses and reverse jinxes all fighting each other out. And somehow the

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Again, create an account and redeem code PHNX for $20 off. Download GameTime today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Bees is in the chat asking if we are back. We're back because bees is here. And we mean that both because of bees and the actual bees in the air that might be around. But of course, I know we have some more mailbag money. day questions damon what do we got yeah next question comes from braynon buckingham and he asks how

many games in a row do we need to see the offense show up to feel comfortable trust in the fellas damon what do you think about this one it feels like a damon question this does feel like a damon question wow that's a lot of pressure i just needed to turn it reverse it reverse jinx it if you will back on you but no no seriously like how many like when do when can i know we declare that we're back pretty fast right corbin goes two for five obviously he's back obviously uh the team wins two and a row, we're back, right? All of this makes sense. But like, when do you truly feel like you could see the Diamondbacks, you know, you can regain your trust in them and feel confident that this team might be on a role? It's a tricky question, I think, right? Because baseball is a sport where, like,

one-off games happen all the time. You know, you could be playing the worst team. You could be playing the White Sox and get no hit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, and I don't think if you were scoring eight runs on average and all the rest of your games over a 10 game stretch, I wouldn't say your offense has been bad because that one game. Sure. I think it's more just about consistency than anything, right? Like you want to see them putting up at least like in like the fives, like in that range. Yeah, five plus runs.

Yeah, good out, good run outings where your pitchers, if they hypothetically pitch an average game, you're giving yourself a chance to win. Yeah. So if I see them start scoring over five consistently for like a good two week stretch, pretty good. Yeah. It would or lose basically is what you're saying there. But then granted the pitching could go on the opposite. Yeah. Yeah. And engineal in there and then we would be like yeah they stay. And that's what it felt like especially in game two, right? We finally have a game where the offense after struggling for a week wakes up and the

pitching gives up 10 runs, right? So like it's frustrating. And yeah, there are some things if you want to look at the even the wins that you could take away, right? The Diamondbacks were down. They needed Catelle's heroic ninth inning home run in order to win the finale and split the series. So it's not like they were dominant wins. Maybe Saturdays was a little dominant, you could say. Slate was very good. The bullpen came in and took care of business. But, I mean, they still allowed a lot of runs over the series to the Mets.

And again, I do feel like in regards to the question, it's about their ability to consistently produce. And like Damon said, you're not going to do it every single game you're going to have, you know, you're one or two games. What I like to see them not do is score six runs over five games again like they did or whatever. It was like nine runs and seven games. That's happened far too often. They've had just such a terrible stretch here where the offense doesn't produce at all. And they lose some games that they were still in. Like even with the lack of production, they've still lost some one run games, some two run games.

We've talked about them being down by two runs or more just essentially being their Achilles heel this season. But they're going to need it. They're really going to need this lineup to start pulling their weight coming up here because of Galen and because of Merrill and E. Rod. Like this, look at the rotation right now. It doesn't look very good on paper. I think the best we can hope for essentially is average pitching. So we're going to need our lineup to be above average if we want to win these baseball games. So I'm thinking that they're going to have to step up here.

I give them a lot of credit for the fact that a lot of this has happened since the Gallen injury. it did feel like the offense kind of I didn't hear about any team meetings or anything like that where they particularly addressed it but it did feel like the offense finally realized the gravity of the situation and that they need to get their shit together in order to get through this because they are going to be missing some really good arms

for a while I mean even if even if the gallon's just gone for the two weeks that's still two weeks without Zet Gallen that's two starts missed it's still more pressure that's put on the pitching staff as a whole, the bullpen, the younger guys that are expected to go out there and now maybe give a little bit longer outing than they are normally expected to or whatever the case may be, just to hopefully balance out the current loss of personnel with Gallin, Merrill Kelly, and everybody.

Not to mention the fact that Jordan Montgomery was not very good at all in his last outing. And they really need him to step up and kind of be the guy that they were expecting to bring into the starting rotation. and kind of replicate what he did in the second half last year with the Rangers. Yeah, I don't have a ton to add. Yeah, I mean, I don't know, average. They've averaged eight runs for the last three days. So do that, you know, average eight runs for two weeks.

And then there you go. Now we're talking back. Now we're talking. I love it, Jesse. All right. At least we have Brandon Fopp, boys. Yeah, we do have Brandon Foss. We'll always have Brandon Fopp.

Big game, Brandon. Well, you have them for five more seasons. Why are you like this? Why are you like this? It felt so on brand for me to say something like that I decided. I had to stick a little bit, you know. Next question comes from Karen McCarthy and he says, or she, when specifically which two series do you think will finally see a turn through the rotation

with Gallin, Kelly, Montgomery, Rodriguez, and fought. Derek laughs. That's hilarious. Never? Is the answer never applicable? I'm starting to feel like never. is the right answer. Yeah, I mean, I don't, I don't think, I mean, I don't think never is an unreasonable answer

if I'm being totally honest, just given like, you know, you get, you get one guy back, but then the way that things have gone this season, it feels like it's, it's sort of two steps forward, one step back, maybe like one step forward, two steps back. Yeah, that's actually, that's the way to put. If you play it out on paper, though, like Tori said yesterday, I believe that Eduardo Rodriguez is expected to return roughly around the All-Star break. Merrill Kelly is is behind Eduardo Rodriguez, as far as we know, you know, maybe by a couple weeks or so. That's sort of a rough estimate. So, yeah, you could have, you know, Gowan, you're not expecting to miss a whole lot of time.

That could be just the minimum 15 days or in relatively short order after that. But then you've got E-Rodd All-Star break. You've got Merrill maybe a couple weeks behind that. So I guess, yeah, sometime in August, like, I don't know, the Pirates. in the Guardian series at the beginning of August, but the reality is we really, we really don't know. I am going to say, I'm going to give you a specific series. Okay. What are you got?

July 26th against Pittsburgh Pirates after the All-Star break. Put your flag in it, Derek. I'm putting my flag down the Pirates and then the Nationals after that. Okay. That is one we will see the return of the full starting rotation. And then something terrible is going to happen. And we won't see it again for the. rest of the year.

Yeah, you'll see it once. You'll see it one time through. Just one time through the rotation. And then that's, yeah, they're all going to lie. That got me off guard. That was good, Derek. It's what it feels like with this team this season.

I'm not going to lie. We are Arizona Sports. We are Arizona Sports. Of course, we have no, nothing left inside to feel, right? All right. What else we got, David? Next question comes from Ryan. And he asks, do you think a contract to Matt Hilton would benefit this?

team in some way at least that man can be dependable in clutch situations you didn't the hand you did not you read that terribly yeah that was at least that man could be dependable in clutch situations that's the right way to say it you're right um i failed matt i'm gonna tell you this matt hilton should be the teams like like like exterminator right like he should handle all bug related He's already the team's exterminated, right? Is he, though? I guess, like, the day-to-day maintenance. That's what I'm talking about, yeah.

But you need to make a special deal out of it, right? You need to have, like, meet and greets with him while he's spraying Chase Field down. The bigger problem I have is that the National Bobblehead Museum is putting out a Matt Hilton Bobblehead. Right, right. But the D-Backs are not. But the D-Bats are not. And that bothers me. That bothers me, because that's our thing.

And to be fair, the Diamondbacks don't have a lot. lot of things that are our thing, right? We're a young franchise. We don't have a lot of history. A lot of it's connected, obviously, to the 2001 season and a couple of random events. You know, Randy Johnson making a bird literally disintegrate. You know, things like that. The Haboob, love the Haboob. That was great. But we don't have a lot. And Matt is our guy. The B thing, that's our thing. So I really am disappointed that Matt Hilton doesn't have a bobblehead with the diamond bags. I will say Cotel Martell. is getting a bat flip bobblehead and a bat actually flips and i just saw that for the first time

fucking incredible but i would love you know i mean how do we not have uh matt hilton with little bees around him or something like what a failed what a failed he says matt hilton is the ops well yeah because he's beast he hates matt hilton of course i get that i understand that he's still a little bitter and um respect i can get that bees all i needed to see was matt hilton and in the word contract and you know in the first few words of this question. The answer is yes. Yeah, throw them all the money in the world. The man's, I mean, have you ever seen

a more handsome bug exterminator in your life? Because I have it. Not to mention the fact that the man understood the assignment, right? He did. The only thing I wish you would have been brought out like a chariot drawn by horses to get rid of the bees.

The pageantry of it was really unbelievable. Yeah, it was like the Hunger Games, right? I was expecting him to have an outfit that lit on fire. something he's like ending it like a gymnast ends their routine like with their hands in the air it was amazing they should have a beekeeper half homerun celebration yeah i'm still mad they never incorporated that into it i think the moment passed but yeah the beekeeper helmet is in the broadcast for for my understanding you want the vibes up though yeah that's how you get the vibes yeah that's how you get the vibes

up yeah they brought back the vest they brought back the vest yeah so did they yeah they brought back the guys are wearing it yeah not in the post game interview i think they're using it potentially as like their home run celebration, but the vest is back. So the vibes are back. That's why the offense really got going. Forget Elizabeth, my mustache, anybody being there. It's all because of the vest. I remember after the Matt Hilton incident happened, like, yeah, he came out and was applauded

by all like 30,000 people in the stands. And it was just like the greatest, the greatest moment. Like one of my favorite moments in the ballpark. It really felt to me like the Diamondbacks were going to win that game, right? And I know that it didn't look that way. They were down in the, I believe it was the 10th inning, and Christian Walker hit that two-run homer to win the game. It was like, yeah, well, of course he did. Like, you didn't have that Matt Hilton moment happened and then not win the baseball game.

It would have been insane. It would have been unbelievable. All right, let's move. All right, what I got, David? That's enough. I got him. What we got? Our guy, Tim, with the next question, says, in a three-way tag team match, who would win?

the D-Backs radio broadcast, the D-BACs TV broadcast, or the D-BHNX-D-BACs crew. Who are the surprise guests? Does Greg Schulte pin Jesse for the win? Jesse had the audacity to ask me before the show what a tag team match was. I need to pull back the curtain. That was pretty unreal. It really was kind of sickening. Am I the only one here who doesn't know what a tag team matches?

Yes. Absolutely. Yes, you are. Absolutely, Jesse. All right. Well, that answers that question. I don't even like, I don't even need to get into like the differences between that and a six man tag. Even though there are six men in this tag.

This one's different. This is a three-way tag team match. There could also, six man could mean three men on both sides. It's all mean each team has six. It's very confusing. All right. Enough, Eric. But really, when it comes down to the tag team, I will dumb it down.

Really, what he's talking about here is you and me in a wrestling match against essentially Chris Gersiola and Tom Candiotti on one side. Yeah. And then Bert. And I'm assuming are we going Gonzo or do I get to fight Bob Brenley? Which one are we going with here? I think God Brenley is. Bob Brenley? I mean, in pro wrestling, older guys usually are more powerful than younger guys.

That's kind of the way it works anyway. So I'm sure he would come in with a big elbow or something like that. Now, Greg Schulte, that's a surprise guess because Greg Schulte right now wouldn't technically be part of the team. But he could be a manager for the radio broadcast team, which then you would have to watch out for Greg Schulte quite a bit because he's outside of the. ring. He's he's cheating to win. He's grabbing your ankle when you bounce against the ropes and stuff. There's a lot there. If I'm really getting down to it, I think that it would come down to

Jesse getting beat up a lot in this match and then me making the hot tag and winning the match because that's just the way that tag team matches are typically structured. I felt so disrespect. I know, like there would, but you would be the baby face. You would be the supreme baby face. Like the crowd would be cheering for you to make the tag to me, but then they wouldn't allow Like right we'd be like this like we'd be about to tag each other and then they'd pull you by your legs back Into there and they'd beat you up some more and then eventually you would land a big move tag me in and I clean house and then Okay then Bob Bradley beats me there's got to be a portion here where like I come out of the crowd and like with a chair Yeah, and Jesse's getting beat up

But I get in the ring. I get in the ring Yeah, that's what you do I get in the ring and I save Jesse yeah, yeah by just smacking somebody over the right and then that's when it can get down now all of the now everybody the referee throws everybody out And then I go and he goes, you, you, you're gone and everybody leaves. And then we have a fair fight in the ring, right? But Bob Brennelly has the brass knucks. I was thinking more I grab Jesse, Jesse's limp body and I carry him over to you so that you guys can tag each other. That's a good spot. That's a good spot.

You tell me that's not a good storyline. That's incredible. Talk about the teamwork and family that we would like basically be showing the storyline. We'd be telling about how close we were as a team. Oh, I love it. I love it. I don't know. I still think Brennley wins this one.

That's really what instinctually it feels like it comes down to. But yeah, Jesse, just smiling and nodding. Yeah, you know, it sounds great. Let's do it. Bees wants a hell on the cell. All right, let's do it. All right. What else we got, Dan?

We got one more. We got one more question. And it is from our friend Karen. And she says, if you could redo slash update the Legends race, which four players would you choose? Ooh, that's a great question. Yeah, that is a good one. I'm kind of amazed that we haven't. We haven't had this as a question.

It is pretty, yeah. That's a good one. I feel like we've exhausted almost all of the questions in this general mold. We've answered everything twice at least. But I feel speaking of, does Greg Schulte make it in as a legend? I know you said players, but would you add Schulte as one of the guys out there racing? Yeah. Yeah, I like that.

Yeah. And we got to keep Randy, right? Randy has to stay. I feel like the, but I feel like the question is that we're not allowed to have anyone stay. Oh, so these would be new legends. I mean, at least that's the more interesting way to answer this, right? You can't just keep any of the same old people. Okay, that's fair.

That's fair. Then, all right, Greg Schulte is my first edition. What do you got? I mean, I guess Paul Goldschmidt. No, I knew you were going to do that. Too soon. I knew you were going to do that, yeah. What about?

Derek's going to fight you. This wrestling match is going to become reality on the middle of our set because of that. This is real. I'm just trying to think through Diamondbacks players that I know were beloved. O-Dog. O-Dog is a good option. Chris Young. Yeah.

Justin Upton. Justin Upton, I don't know if he's quite as loved as the others. Come on, dude, Chris Young. Justin Upton was an MVP candidate. Well, I'm not saying Justin Upton wasn't a better player. I just think Diamondbacks fans. They had like a connection. People soured on Justin Upton at the end a little bit,

but when he was like really hitting, people loved him, man. And I bet you those wounds they heal over time. No one's that pressed about it anymore. We've moved on a long time ago. At least that's my perspective. I mean, I guess would that be it? We've got O'Dog, we've got Chris Young, we've got

Greg Schulte. Brandon Webb? Oh, yeah. Brandon Webb? Yeah, that's a good one. Rat Leon? Yeah, yeah. A giant ratly on, just out there.

A giant rat head. I'm just saying, I don't, I don't know. Yeah, Granky, Granky would be great. But if it, like Zach says, only if it's the real person. Yeah, it's really granky out there.

Every race, them taking it way too seriously. Granky has 170 wins compared to everybody else's. Like, that would be incredible. I think Ryan gives the answer that we probably should have given from the top. And it's Matt Hilton. Matt Hilton. Matt Hilton.

Yeah. How many legends are we allowed to have? I don't know. Archie's a good run. Archie. Archie with the beard would be really good. Like a big old cartoon version of Archie. You asked, you said that.

Who's more beloved than anybody when it comes to an Mbex players? You missed out on that one. Archie is the good answer. Good job, Elise. Of course, we know Elise would give that answer because she's a baseball GM and she knows this team better than anybody else. That's all we got. We appreciate you guys, of course, so much for your questions. We appreciate you so much for stopping by. Of course, if you're not a diehard yet, make sure to check out our diehard membership. It's a great time to join the family. Of course, you get all sorts of wonderful benefits, including access to our Discord lounge where we do exclusive diehard content, as well as Jesse's

written piece. You also get access to a free t-shirt from P.HNXX. Locker.com get that membership card and so much more including discounts to our events and discounts with our partners. So sign up today over at go phnx.com. You can also follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K. This maniac next to me is at Jesse N. Friedman. Of course, the people's producer, Damon is at Damon Dog. That's D-A-W-G. We are Damon's dogs. Park, bark. Our shows at pH and X underscore D-Backs. But of course, all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much again for stopping by. going to go watch a little baseball

Chase Field across the street. Hope you guys enjoy and have a good night. We will see you tomorrow. We're doing a postgame show for tomorrow's show. So we will be back here after tomorrow's game. Until then, have a great evening. We thank you guys again for watching. Remember kids, baseball is fun,

but it's so much more fun when you're Matt Hilton.