PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Merrill Kelly exits due to injury and Diamondbacks drop their 8th in a row in loss to Dodgers

Episode Date: August 10, 2023

If it weren’t for bad luck, the Arizona Diamondbacks would have no luck at all. The D-backs lose their 8th game in a row as they get swept in a two-game series at home by the Los Angeles Dodgers. We discuss if the D-backs will ever win a baseball game again, the numbers from this series, Merrill Kelly’s early exit due to injury, and more. SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 Head to https://factormeals.com/phnxdbacks50 and use code phnxdbacks50 to get 50% off.Go to https://saturdayneon.com and use code PHNX for 10% off your order today. Free shipping for orders over $200!Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Pins & Aces: Check out https://pinsandaces.com and use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping.Circle K: Text PHNX to 31310 to join the Circle K SMS subscriber club and get BOGO 32 oz Polar Pops! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. 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.

to another edition of the PHNXDbacks podcast, I guess. That's what you want to call it. I don't know. We've tried to navigate to Sons and Cardinals and other sports because the Diamondbacks don't seem like they're ever going to win another baseball game again. I was told by our GM Saul that I can't do that. So here we are covering the Diamondbacks eighth loss in a row. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of the city of Phoenix.

This man next to me is in charge of all power and utilities in the city. Mr. Electric himself, Sean DePaz. Damon is here, too, but he doesn't care to talk about baseball at all anymore. His feelings are forever hurt. This game... Dude, this guy, Moe. This game sucks. Oh, yeah, but can we ban Mo?

Let's ban... I don't even want to look at his face. Get him out of here. Just ban him from the chat. No, I'm joking. Don't really ban him. But anyway, Diamondbacks lose their eighth game in a row. Let's be honest.

This one sucked. Merrill Kelly was on the mound for the D-backs. until he wasn't. And Merrill Kelly was excellent until he wasn't. And let's just, let's just, let's just ask the question. Will the, will the, will the diamondbacks ever win a baseball game ever again?

Probably not. Will they ever win a baseball game? I don't really have much reason. Will they ever score another run? Like, uh, I don't know. Will they ever will,

will, will, uh, will they ever find success? Will they ever have good things happen? Will they ever do anything to suggest that they actually like their pitchers? Nothing good happened to them in this game. I think the only thing good that did happen was Merrill Kelly and his outing.

Scott McGuff's fucking... Scott McGuff? Just athletic play in baseball history. A better field than Cattel. Probably. Cattle couldn't make that play. Probably. I don't know a lot of the infielders right now that could make that play.

Maybe Pardomo, I don't know. But man, this sucks. And when I say this sucks, it's where I'm total loss. tonight's game seemed like it was very winnable. That's the one thing that sucks about this series because the Dodgers are supposed to be this team right now that is head, head and shoulders above the Arizona Diamondbacks. And they're not. Yeah. They're not.

The Diamondbacks are just unable to do anything when these games, both of them, have been so winnable. We talk about yesterday's five to four loss and how the Diamondbacks, you know, waited obviously late. They made it exciting. the most Diamondbacks way to lose a baseball game that you could imagine. And tonight, they lose two to nothing. And again, we can't help but wonder, is, is nothing good ever going to happen to this baseball team again? I mean, it has now been, I believe, 13 games since they hit a home run with at least one runner on base. All their home runners, all the home runs they've hit have been solo shots.

Obviously, this game, no home runs were hit. We know that. But Merrill Kelly was very good for this team, but he did leave the game in the seventh inning due to injury. And we do have an update for you guys per the Arizona Diamondbacks. Kelly left due to right leg cramping. So it sounds like the debacks really dodged a major bullet there. It's definitely when you see the whole brigade come out, the trainer and Tori and all the infielders meeting at the center, definitely get concerned. And it was definitely worrisome.

But, yeah, like you said, definitely seems like a dodger bullet with it being something in his legs. Like, you don't obviously much rather always have that and something in his throwing on. Oh, absolutely. But he just had the blood clot in his legs. So that's not a great sign. And I'm sure they're going to be cautious with him. So we still don't know if this is going to cause Kelly to miss any more time. But of course, this happens because he was absolutely shoving in this game.

Merrill Kelly went out there. He went six innings, gave him six hits, no runs. walk to struck out too. Didn't have his best stuff but was effective. And even when he was getting himself into jams, he was able to get out of it. I just, I don't really, it's so amazing how bad they are on offense right now. Yeah, it just is like really hard to explain because like, I mean, I know there's a lot of people who are just out on the scene with this point. And I cannot say I blame them.

Not at all. but like there's no you can't sit here and seriously think they're like the worst team in baseball. I don't think that is the truth either. Like I this roster is way better than what they have done recently. And so that prove it that they're not the best team or worst team in baseball because they are absolutely the worst team in baseball. They do not have the worst roster in baseball. I don't think that's, I mean, I don't think that's true at all. Like I don't think you can argue that.

I will argue not that it's the worst roster in baseball, but I will argue that. that all of these guys at this point are still very young, so we have no clue what they really are going to be. Like, you know, obviously, nothing's working right, right? Like the Diamondbacks have, you know, these pieces that they acquired at the trade deadline. Tommy Fam has been atrocious since coming over. Chase Peterson has not been very good. At least Tommy Fam has gotten some hits, right?

At least Tommy Fam might not. I think he's, I mean, seven, uh, Oh, Mo says seven for 24 in the last 31 game. I forgot. I have a rule. I don't talk to Mo on days that the Diamondbacks played the Dodgers. That's been a standing rule for at least 15 years. And I'm not fucking breaking that just because he's here in the chat on a show that I do.

So you, Mr. Troublemaker, can scram because I don't feel like talking to you about the Dodgers. I don't feel like talking about the Dodgers at all. I feel like talking about the Diamondbacks beating themselves. I mean, they went out there and they made Julio Urius look like an absolute fucking stud last night. And then tonight, Bo Miller goes out there and gives up six, uh, four hits and six hittings, right? They always have somebody, dude. They always have a guy that they just always show up from somewhere.

Well, like, it was a first round pick, but like still. Last night, at least a very, the, the idea here was last night the Diamondbacks got to their bullpen and they were able to actually generate some offense. So we were hoping that same thing would happen here tonight. But no, that's not what happened. The Diamondbacks got. absolutely dominated by the Dodgers bullpen. And they got dominated by this man.

Joe Kelly, a man who when pitching in his own backyard, this man, this man dominated the Arizona Diamondbacks tonight. When pitching in his own backyard during the pandemic, he's out breaking windows because he literally can't hit the broad side of a barn, but he could strike out two in an inning of work against the Arizona Diamondbacks. My God. Yeah, I mean, he was learning how to throw in a lot of him going. He was learning how to throw a new pitch.

He was throwing a change-up. Yeah, sure. But he's still smashing windows in his own home. Yeah, that's tough look. I mean, I'm not going to sit here and talk about Joe Kelly the way I talk about him private, because I really like Joe Kelly. He does. He thinks he's awesome. May's Devil says Tori should have never called butt.

That is something we were talking about here in the office. Rondo Perdomo does not seem to effectively. Yeah. And why Perdomo, by the way? Yeah. What is it? Because is Perdomo not our risk king of all the people with runners in scoring position, we're going to have Perdomo bunt?

Yeah, I mean, I get that. On its face in the situation, I don't have a problem with them bunting. But yeah, I mean, like everyone's saying, having him specifically be the guy that bunt who, A, is good at hitting with runners in scoring position, and B is bad at bunting. And then C, you put them in the context just as Damon brought up before the shell, like, how often they appear to be trying to bunt and not doing it. with much success. Yeah.

Like, I don't know what we're doing there, but at the same time, like I don't think, I think you have to be, like, Tori can't get caught up in how bad, like,

I don't know. You can't get caught up in, like, what's happened previously and start not trying to manage the game the way that he thinks is best. Like, he can't ignore his gut.

That's not, I don't think, a good situation either. So, uh, it's obviously not great. Um, But it's, I don't think it's like the worst thing that he's done as a manager.

He could have all that needs to complain about with Tori. What I get the feeling about is that they do not believe in themselves. Yeah. At times at the plate. And I'm not saying this is all the time, but I'm starting to feel like Tori doesn't believe in that or at the plane. I mean, he definitely, it definitely has this kind of manages the way I play the show when I can't score runs when I'm pitching really well. I'm like if I can just get one like I think we could probably hold on but like yeah it doesn't it doesn't really give off a sense of a lot of confidence that the offense could you know put up runs

plural uh az sports girl 224 with the absolutely adorable profile picture so Tori is so desperate to win and that's part of the feeling here I don't feel like Tori's the only one though I feel like the desperation is running throughout this team and what's odd is like you know you Yeah, you know, the pitching hasn't been perfect. Brandon Fott was not very good yesterday. Miguel Castro comes in and gives up that one run that ended up being very crucial in yesterday's game. In this game, we had Kyle Nelson not be effective at all giving up two runs in his inning, not even an inning of work. I mean, he didn't get a single out.

He gave up two hits, two runs, two earn, and walked two. So not a great outing by Kyle Nelson. Nelson. Kyle Nelson, it takes the loss on this one and rightfully so. Everybody else was essentially able to come in and do their job, including Kevin Ginkle, which we can't say enough about because Kevin Ginkle is absolutely, when you talk about that guy that Tori needs to rely on right now, Kevin Ginkle needs to continue to get the ball. Yeah, I mean, and that was another thing that a lot of people in the chat were criticizing Tory for was taking Ginkle out for Nelson and just based on the matchup.

Again, I don't have a huge problem with it because it is the matchup. I don't know how managers manage. But again, it's not different than any other MLB manager, but at the same time, you went from a guy like, yeah, no, yeah. You know, you went from a guy that was dealing to, like that's like some of the only times that Tori does that. But if Kevin Ginkle was out there letting the bases get loaded,

I don't know if Tori goes out there and takes him out of the game. game, Tori. Yeah. I mean, yeah, to kind of work it out or whatever. Like,

it's just, there's a lot of decisions that I think, like, you know, in a vacuum or not that bad, but you put them all together and it's just a lot of things

that are a little questionable. Yeah. Again, I am not not inclined to come at Tori as hard as a lot of people want to, but at the same time, I'm like, getting real.

He's not free of blood. No. And also, like, this is professional sports. This is how this shit works. You're the head coach. You're the manager, or whatever, like, you're going to be responsible.

And if something needs to change, like, it's going to be you. It has to be you. So, like, this can't happen much longer because if this, if they do this for the rest of the season, he should lose his job. Like, I don't care about an extension or fucking anything. If they play like this and they win fucking three more games over the second half of the year. Yeah.

Enjoy your severance. Like, you enjoy your time off. You shouldn't be managing this team. There's something interesting. that Brent Strom said a while back as far as, like, analytics go. And Brent Strom is a big fan of analytics, but he's also a big fan of incorporating analytics into your kind of, you know, managing scheme, but not letting every decision be dictated by analytics, right?

And I think Benjamin Hunley in the chat said, Dave Roberts left Peralta in when it was lefty on lefty. In a big situation you came through, I specifically remember Lavello pinching for Peralta. in those same situations, you're absolutely right. And that's those cases where, you know, the analytics overpower things like momentum and who's hot right now and things like that. And I don't know what to tell you, but at this point, you can't disregard that kind of stuff. And that is probably one of the biggest criticisms that Tori deserves at times, which is sticking with his game plan that he set up a month ago instead of changing things at times. Today, he talked about pregame that the reason why his lineup was different, the reason why Corbyn was hitting lead off and everything else was because he feels like he has been stuck too much in his ways in the past.

And he feels like he should, if the team is struggling the way they are, that he should try something new. What are your thoughts on that? I mean, baseball, we talked already about Tori, not really being a guy that puts out the same lineup out there day in and day out. So for him to say, like, well, I'm trying something crazy because obviously what I've been doing isn't working seems on brand. Like, it doesn't really seem too different from what we've already seen from me. Yeah, I mean, it's concerning because it's like do something, do what you've always done and it's not working. You try every other thing and it's also not working. Like at this point, I think it's bigger than any of these individual decisions that Tory or anybody is making, which is part of why I'm not inclined not to, I mean, not.

necessarily not to not blame him, but like as far as these individual things that are happening in games, like that that does not have anything to do with the fact that Christian Walker doesn't know how to hit a ball anymore. That Corby and Carol has forgotten how to hit a ball. Like those things have nothing to do with Tori's individual decisions. So like it does feel like the fact that everything is going wrong feels like it is something bigger like there is a plague of some sort in the clubhouse, which again, ultimately that does come down to the manager. But the individual small things like fucking who care like not who cares but everything sucks everything is going wrong so if they sit here and like nitpick over individual things that like tory pulling this

pitcher here like it's fucking like okay they didn't score any runs though so like who cares what pitchers they he puts in there they're didn't they're scoring be says someone say something encouraging the season's day by day it's closer being over that's there any optimism to be had I'm sorry, bees. We're all out of off the business right now. So that's good. I know. Like they're still there.

They're still in it. They're still in it. Which isn't, they don't deserve it. They don't. If they make the ball off, this team does not fucking deserve to be in this race, let alone make the playoffs.

And that shit's going to be, like if they backed their way in, just to get their ass embarrassed, that's going to suck too. We had a couple of super chats. Damon, would you mind pulling those up for me, please.

Peace of Yoshi. Thank you so much. Says Perdomo has defiled my sacred bunt and I'm angry. I understand. That was pretty embarrassing bun. That was an embarrassing bun. Chris C says at this point, Derek, you will have about 15 more Roosevelt shirts in your closet.

Then the Diamondbacks will have wins by the end of the season. I do own 83 of these shirts. So the Diamondbacks would, in fact, need to have a winning record in order to match my shirt total. We're not getting 80. I mean, I might get another shipment before the end of the year. I'm just saying. So good luck with that. I'm taking the over on Derek's shirts when it comes to that.

And thank you guys very much for the super chat. Oh, and a Dodgers fan comes in here to tell us Dodgers own you. Dodgers don't own ourselves. We're terrible without your help. Also, Loss Dodgers World Series champs is if you haven't won only won one World Series. And like the entire time, many of us have been alive. Don't make, I mean, making any old brand is kind of weird. Don't make us bring up the asterig.

It makes it kind of weird. Aside from that, they spend more money. Anybody in baseball, they have one fucking ring to show for it. Go fuck yourselves. Respectfully. Respectfully. Respectfully. We're emotional.

With the utmost respect. Go fuck yourself. Yeah, that's right. Honestly, I don't really know at this point. We'll do a king snake, I guess, because Merrill Kelly absolutely deserves to be the king's stage. Scott McGuff. He did, Scott McGuff also deserved it.

Scott McGuff dessert. I mean, we could have given it to anybody because nobody on offense really earned it. so it had to be a pitcher. But Merrill Kelly went out there, shoves six innings pitch, six hits, no runs. And of course, we hope that whatever happened there with his, with the cramping in the game just has to do with obviously his, the heat and other things going on. I mean, he was incredible in this game. So, but yeah, Cog says I think the chat needs a beer.

I don't know. I don't know what to tell you. I mean, I open. Cox, you're not old enough to drink a beer. Yeah, no shit, Cog. Thank you. See, this is, these, I love, I love fans from other teams that are just good. Like they're, like he came and he talked to shit. I talked my shit back and he said GGs.

And I appreciate that, man. Like, that's how we should be. That's what we do. Let's talk our shit and then shake hands up yet. Is this where I'm supposed to tell Mo to go fuck himself? Yeah, go fuck yourself, Mo. Yeah, respectfully. We're swinging wild because we're just upset.

So now it's a bad time to like be here in our wheelhouse right now. Like, yeah, I mean, whatever, but I will say that, of course, we thank you guys, whether you're a Dodgers fan, whether you're a Giants fan, whether you're a Debex fan, no matter who you are, we love you, and we thank you for being here in the chat right now. Of course, if you haven't subscribed to the PHNX Sports YouTube channel, do it just for trolling purposes, maybe, or whatever, I don't care. But subscribe, hang out with us, sign up for notifications.

That way you don't miss one of the other shows that you can control live. And also, listen to us on the audio podcasting side. Most importantly, even if you're here to try to talk. us. You have to leave us a thumbs up. Them's the rules. But again, on the audio podcasting side, subscribe over there, leave us a review. We always appreciate the feedback. If you haven't joined the PHNX family yet, join us over here, become a diehard. Get all sorts of wonderful stuff. But let's be honest, the membership pays for itself right out of the gate. Then you get all sorts of wonderful benefits. And when I say that, I mean, you go to go phnx.com. You sign them to

become a die hard. You get yourself a free piece of merchandise from the PHNX locker. You get yourself a gift certificate for Mount Mike's Pizza for $50. You get yourself a Dobson Ranch, Ranch card, and so much more. Pays for itself right away. And then you also have all the wonderful content around here. We're giving you exclusive on-field interviews with Tori Lavello and players. We're going to actually have a thing in our Discord, which, again, is the best place to be an Arizona sports fan, where we let you guys ask the questions to the players.

So you guys, we will be merely your vessel for you to answer, ask your questions through. and we will get Jake McCarthy and Corbyn Carroll and all of your favorite players to answer your questions for us. So make sure to sign up to become a diehard so you get down on that. Also, you get members-only discounts with our partners, members-only merchandise, members-only invites to events. It's so much more. You also get Jesse's newsletter full count, which this week, of course, riled some feathers because Jesse's writing about Paul Seawald being the answer for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Can't answer if we can't fucking play. Yeah, he's ever, he's going to get, he's going to play six times for the rest of the season. It's really tragic. Yeah, it really is. But we thank you guys, again, for already signing up for those of you that have become part of the family. And whether you're diehard or not a diehard, we look forward to seeing you guys out at the takeover event on Saturday. Thank you again. Throwback jerselling it out.

The throwback jerseys go crazy. We saw the throwback purple and teal helmets, batting helmets in the clubhouse. I didn't see those. Oh, my God. Dude. All of I'm saying is if there are. and one thing powerful enough. They're beautiful.

To bust this team out of the streak, it's the fucking purple and teal. You know that for damn sure. And if they don't do it, that, like, I know I've kind of kicking the can of calling them like officially pronouncing time of death for this team. If they lose, I already did it. If they lose in the fucking red and,

the purple and teals, it's, that's, yeah. It is O-V-E-R-over. It's like putting on Spider-Man's costume and then not fighting crime. Yeah. Like, what are you doing?

You can't put that on and not win. I think the throwback colors are like literally the only thing that could save this. No, at this point. No, no, no, 100%. Like, do you just go? Like, do you just say fuck it and then just go throwbacks the rest of the year at that point? Oh, I, if you have any fucking soft respect, you do. I also say-

You call someone at the league office and you make that change immediately, right? You pay, you do what you got. You just wear them. Until Rob Manfred comes down and physically prevents you from taking the field and then, you wear that. You have to stop. us from wearing these jerseys. Well, you also have to stop us from betting on the bet MGM. Oh, because I did that.

I bet on the Arizona down back today. He did like a fool. Not only that, but when he pulled up his app to show me, he had 12 active bets that were going on right now. Is that right? What the fuck are we doing here? Am I just? What are we doing?

Yeah, I mean, I did it. It's a lot of futures. I get it. It's a lot of future. I don't believe you, but I get it. But there's a lot of. fun to be had on the bet MGM sportsbook app, which is why he's doing that. So make sure to get down.

I'll be back on Friday, getting on them. Get down the Nerfie Friday. Saturday I'm a bet on them too. I'm going to keep doing it. They're going to win another game eventually. Nerfis, no run, first inning bet. You get down on the bet MGM sports book. MGM sports users can get this promotion by opting in and then placing a no run first

inning bet on any major league baseball game. Bet no on will there be a run in the first inning. Like tonight, was there a run in the first inning? No, there wasn't. So you would have won money. And if you don't win money, you'll get your money back. And that's up to $25. If your bet loses but only one run and scored during the inning,

you will receive a bonus bet equaling your stake up to $25. This is available only on Fridays. But keep it locked to the app because like we told you last Friday, they bumped that insurance up to $50. So we got down on the Nerfie bets for $50 and made ourselves a little bit of cash. So make sure you do the same. If you haven't signed up for Bet MGM yet, use bonus code PHNX. There's a few different offers depending on where you live before our Arizona

audience place your first bet offer and you will receive up to $1,000 back in bonus bets if it loses with bet MGM. Again, make sure you use bonus code PHNX. Check out the show notes for full details and now listen to Shane. Talk about the disclaimer. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler. Colorado, D.C., Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana,

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for terms and conditions U.S. promotional offers not available in D.C., Nevada, New York, or Ontario. 93 of you in the chat. Smash that freaking like button. Smash that like button. Thank you guys so much for being here. I should start saying freaking more because I swear probably too much. Yeah.

I mean, if you think it's too much, go fuck yourself. But, like, I probably swear too much. I just freaking is more fun. Mildred from Twitter blocked me on Twitter because of how much I curse on this program. Oh, man. So I would like to sincerely fucking apologize to Mildred right now. I feel really fucking bad about that. But let's take a look at the numbers for this two-game series that the Diamondbacks get swept in because why not?

Let's take a look. why not? 0.0. We didn't need to look at these. Oh, why do we do? Why did we do this? The team sucks. Why?

The doctors don't. That's all we even know. They ain't get a single runoff a starting pitcher. I mean, again, it's a two game series, but still. Yeah. 3.38 starting pitching ERA is not terrible by the Diamondbacks. No. But when there's a zero to a 0.00 ERA, the bullpen.

They won that one, at least. they win that category, right? A little bit of a better bullpen than the Dodgers, but not really. This was just because all the Diamondbacks damage in game one was against the bullpen. Runners in scoring position, once again, atrocious for the Diamondbacks. It's this last one that really bothers me. Yeah. Losing the stolen bases race in a two-game series, two to one.

And having Tommy Fam get caught. So the Dodgers even went two for two in the Dodgers. Diamondbacks went one for two. Well, we caught somebody stealing today. Oh, yeah, that's right. And one of the worst miscalls I've seen in mind. Oh, yeah. The worst miss call I've seen in my entire life of watching baseball happened today on that.

Miss. It was egregious. It was an egregiously miss call. And I mean, again, at least the home plate umpire was much better tonight than what the Diamondbacks have experienced lately. But it like, but I mean, that was just like, yeah, it was unexcusable miss call, which I mean, we got a report. place of it ultimately didn't matter, but like, that was just, that was crazy to me. No, yeah, it really was.

Like, it was such a bad call. And then they showed it on the replay and he was out by a mile. And I mean, if, if I'm, if I'm being honest, like the umpire is one of the, Chris Taylor. Yeah, Chris Taylor. Thank you, Mo. Fuck yourself.

It was one of the one of the things that feels like it's gone so wrong. Hey, he has to get that out of here. This is talking about how this is the Dodgers retooling year. Go away. Go away. You're right. And it's disgusting. It doesn't matter if I, if I got picked up by the Dodgers right now, I'd have a 750 OPS.

That's the way it works. And I can't explain it. Lance Lynn, Lance Lynn. Are we going to talk about Lance Lynn? No. This man has a reminder in his goddamn cell phone to go back at the end of the season and review Lance Lynn's stats with the Dodgers. Why?

Because we know it's. going to be fucking hilarious. The man's given up two earned runs and 12 innings, 12 in the third innings pitch, I don't even know, but atrocious with the White Sox, which as we know, is a terrible organization. By the way, in one of the most petty moves we've ever seen tonight, the White Sox were playing the Yankees. Oh, my God. Kenan Middleton plays for the Yankees now. And as we discussed the other day, he was the person that had those comments about the White Sox organization being ran so poorly. And the White Sox were so petty that they decided not to put his name up on the scoreboard

when it was his, when he was in as a relief pitcher. It's the fucking smoking gun in my eyes. Grow up. Like you're that fucking petty, but you were supposed to sit here and believe that. Oh, he's wrong. Like, come on now.

Come on. Get over. Dude, let's start cheating. Let's start doing steroids. I'm going to get a T-shirt that says legalized steroids. Like as a podcast, I don't know how it's going to help the team. I mean, if we start walking in the club,

if we walk in the clubhouse and we're fucking juice, just joked out. We are professional baseball players and we're shrimps compared to these guys. We need to start hitting the fucking gym. Yeah, why are the journalists? All the Ferdomas, pop flies won't land five feet shy of the warning track. You're on to something. I like it.

See, these are the kind of ideas that we get, like, free flowing when Jesse's not here because he's here to bring us back down to reality. He's here to always give us stats. to make us more reasonable. And who wants to be reasonable right now? I don't. God damn it. I'm furious.

You hit the table all the time. That was just once for me, but I think that I feel better. You deserve it. Yeah, I do. I do feel better. Speaking of Jesse Friedman, he is here joining us now from Chase Field. And we have so many questions for Jesse. Jesse, welcome in.

First of all, this is another. another loss that you could describe as hilarious, but other people wouldn't find to be so funny. Am I right? Yeah, I mean, there is a certain level of comedy involved. I guess at some point, I think maybe some fans have gotten to that point where you laugh instead of cry, right? That's a way of making yourself feel better about what the Arizona Diamondbacks are

what is happening to this baseball team right now. but yeah I mean this is just a tough one all the way around right the diamondbacks had multiple opportunities in this game with with you know two on nobody out they had second and third nobody out I believe that was in the fifth inning strikeout line out right out yeah that was with you know the top of the lineup that was corbin carroll and kettel martay and lordis garriel they're not able to come through a couple innings later they have first and second nobody out heraldo prodomo tries to lay down a bunt and he pops it up back to the pitcher it turns into a double play.

It was obviously a poor decision on his part. Caleb Ferguson threw him a fastball that was well above the strike zone, not the kind of pitch you want to be bunting on. But, you know, he couldn't take it back or chose not to take it back and tried to get the bunt down and pops it back up to the pitcher. And at the same time, both Diamondbacks base runners on that play were overly aggressive. That's something that Toro Lavello just talked about after this game ended. It wasn't all on Perdome, although I think he probably takes the lion's share of the blame there.

But those base runners, you know, shouldn't be so incredibly far off. Alec Thomas was the complete dead duck trying to get his way back into second. So, yeah, all the way around, just another game where the Diamondbacks had some opportunities right in front of them. And they couldn't capitalize. And then, you know, the Dodgers, they scored both of their runs in the eighth inning. When, you know, Kyle Nelson comes in with the base is empty in two outs. and the Dodgers make something out of nothing when the Diamondbacks made nothing out of something. And that's just kind of how things are going for this baseball team right now.

When David Peralta was the one to strike, it just, I mean, I think somebody in our chat said, like, the script, it's scripted. Like, it just, it felt absurd. Just like it felt absurd that David Peralta was the one to make that, that play yesterday to rob Carson Kelly of a home run. Yeah. when we have rarely seen David Prawl to make a catch that athletic in the outfield. It's not to say, I said yesterday that was the best play we've ever seen to make it Chase Field. You want a gold glove, right?

I'm being facetious about that, but it definitely would probably be in his highlight reel of his top 10 plays that he's ever made here at Chase Field. And that was fairly important, all things considered, just like Miguel Castro giving up the run late was fairly important. Tonight, though, it just seemed like nothing they could do would go their way. You know, like you said, you brought up the Haldor-Predomo situation. Like, that bunt for a, for a double play was one of the worst outcomes that you could have drawn up. And honestly, honestly, though, like, he might, like, if the Dodgers had really went

for it, which I think they took a more conservative route, they might have been able to turn a triple play on that. Yeah, right? It was first and second. Nobody out. Alex Thomas wasn't even close at second base. I would not have been able to take that. But yeah, like that, like that actually could have happened.

That's how egregious that, you know, a mistake that was on the Diamondbacks part, not only with Perdomo's bunt, but with both of those base runners being as far off the bases as they were. Um, Yam's G in the chat says, are we going to have a discussion on what the hell happened to Corbin's bat? and yeah, it does feel like ever since Corbyn kind of converted over to the two-handed swing after that injury scare, that we really have seen him struggling. And when I say struggling, I just mean his hits just keep coming up just short.

We saw a couple of really well-hit balls today that were just driven right at a defender or, again, just kind of fell short of being able to do some damage. and it really does feel like Corbin has kind of been struggling at the plate since that, like I said, that injury scare. Yeah, I'm not sure if Corbin is really, you know, before the whole shoulder thing happened, I think he did have a two-handed follow through sometimes. And from what I can tell now, he still is kind of splitting it where he does have a two-handed follow-ins. Yeah, we've seen that a couple of times. Sometimes it's just the one hand.

So I'm not really sure to what degree he's actually made changes. Tori did confirm that he was having that they were trying to keep, you know, him with the two-ended follow-through in one of his media sessions. But again, that might kind of be a bit like Alec Thomas's mechanics where we kind of see him going back to it. And honestly, especially when it comes to results, you can only wonder how long until Corby and Carol wants to swing the way that he does swing instead of trying to do anything that they might be trying to do to, you know, to keep him from getting injured. Yeah, I think it's maybe possible that they were like heavily emphasizing that initially and since then have kind of backed off and allowed him to sort of do what he wanted to do. But regardless, yeah, it's true.

Corp and Carroll has not really been as much of a factor in this offense in recent days. And, you know, he hit a couple of hard liners early in this game that very easily could have gone for hits that didn't. but at the same time, you know, in those big spots in the games, that's really when the Diamondbacks need Corbyn's bat to come awake. And that hasn't really happened. You know, he strikes out on a pitch that bounced, you know, well in front of the plate today, I believe, late in that game, he was the first guy to hit with second and third,

and nobody out and wasn't able to come through in that spot. So obviously he's not the only one, though. I mean, the Diamondbacks didn't have a hit with runners in scoring position, which just kind of seems to be par for the course. Like this is just sort of the deal. Like the Diamondbacks go for seven with runners in scoring position every day. And you know, you feel like if you get a couple hits for runners in scoring position, that's more the exception than the rule right now.

Hey, Damon, this question is for you and not Jesse. If we ban Moe in the chat, is he banned forever? Or is it just like a temporary ban for this episode? I think it's just for one episode. Okay. I just needed to make sure I. It might be forever. I don't know.

Jesse Moset here. you're causing trouble. That means ban him, right? Yeah, right. It was just one episode. I feel like we should ban him. I can put him in time out. You can put him in time out?

You can put him in time out. Just go, ma'all. Yeah, we're just, we're not wrong again. I'm going to put you in time out. We're not actually going to do it because we don't do it to anybody, but we're considering. We can and just remember that. Speaking of can, I know Jesse's going to hate this because he's here and I usually let him go before I do my ad read.

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for the throwback jersey giveaway, and you're going to have to wait a very long time, most likely, in the very hot sun. So make sure to stop by Circle K on your way out there. They have the best coffee, beer, and snack selection, premium gas. And of course, they have the polar pops that stay cold longer. So make sure to fuel up and grab yourself a cold drink before coming out here to Chase Field.

Also, they have power aids, four for five dollars. And that also gets you entered into an opportunity to be one of ten finalists to win a 2003 Ford Big Ben Bronco SUV. But we have some clarification on this. Now apparently you have to fight Damon first before you fight Shepard. Sean. And then the winner of the Damon versus you battle then takes on Sean in the final. Yeah, it's been, Damon's dream car this whole time. And he just said, I think about it. But I never heard him talk about it one time. Oh, I've never heard you talk about it one time. But now he's on your corner talking about your dream car is his dream car. He's a shot.

All I know is Sean's been talking about that car for a very long time. That's all I know. But you have to fight our show. basically to win the car. And if you fight these guys and win it, then you have to drive me around. So I don't know how good of a win this might be. But you do get a 2023 Ford Big Ben Bronco SUV. So that's pretty good. Prison rules, Pedro. Prison rule.

Buy two get one free monster energy drinks at Circle K, by the way. And buy two get one free beatbox RT. So don't miss out. Make sure you text right now to PHNX 310 to join their SMS subscriber club and get a buy one, get one free offer on 32. on Polar Pops. Again, that's text PHNX to 310 and you will get down on the CircleK SMS subscriber club. Head to CircleK.com slash store dash locator to find CircleKs near you. And of course, while you're there, pick up the official craft beer of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

That is the Rattle on Red Ale from our friends at Four Peaks. And I am getting over this loss with a lot of Four Peaks, Jesse. As you can see, we... None of these are for Sean. These are all Dare, Dairs beers beers. And I really enjoy this Holmberg mount. This is a collaboration with 98 KUPD, our friends over there at Arizona's Rock Station. And of course, they have all sorts of specialty beers at the A Street Pups.

So make sure to check out what they got down there. Of course, at Chase Field, we will be meeting at the Four Peaks draft room this Saturday for our takeover event. It's located on the sweet level. And of course, this is wonderful food to be had, wonderful view, wonderful friends, all sorts of great stuff going on. So make sure to check us, join us for that takeover event. Tickets are sold out. So if you haven't had a ticket, if you don't have a ticket, sorry about that.

But text us, DM us through PHNX underscore Dbacks on Twitter. And we will make sure to still meet up with everybody because we are very excited about the takeover event this weekend. Of course, you can follow FourPeaks at FourPeaks.com slash events to stay up to date on everything Four Peaks related. Of course, follow them on social media. Four Peaks Brewer, Four Peaks Pub to keep up with the latest Arizona's hometown brewery, must be 21 or older to drink four beaks and please drink responsibly.

We get past, Jesse, this series with the Dodgers, which definitely didn't go our way, but it felt at times like it could have. And we turn to this series coming up with the San Diego Padres coming to town. What are your thoughts? And have there been any updates on the probabilities for this series? We don't have starters for the weekend. yet, I guess we'll sort of find out here in the next 24 hours or so the Diamondbacks make those decisions.

But I do want to, yeah, sorry. I was going to say, Tori did say that Slade Sacconi was available for the series against the Dodgers out of the bullpen, but they never utilized him. And then he did say that that could determine how he gets used in the series against the Dodgers. So I guess just speculating, do you think we'll see Slade start or do you think they'll just kind of pass his role in the starting rotation or his turn in the rotation? Yeah, I think it's I think it's totally possible. I don't know for sure.

Sean is just absolutely dying. Yeah. No idea why. Do you want? What? Enlightenus, Sean. No, I wear my Apple Watch and fucking Shane starts walkie talking me out of nowhere. And so I hear this like, and I hear this voice coming from somewhere.

I'm like, what the hell? Shane, we're doing a goddamn show. Leave Sean alone. I texted him and I was like, did you just walking me? And then he did it again. And he's just like, help me. And so I threw my watch and then my watch is on the other side of the room. And so he starts doing it again so I can hear.

So Damon walked my watch out of the studio. Jesse just hit you with his best teacher version of. Oh, what's so funny? Yeah. He's in a class. He really did. He was so good at it, too. It was incredible.

Oh, my God. Anyway, we're... Sorry. We were talking about Slade starting. Do you think Slade's going to start for the Diamondbacks at all, or do you think they're going to pass up his turn in the rotation, essentially, and how that's going to go? I mean, this man has been on the active roster for a while at this point,

and he hasn't actually pitched in quite a while, right? Yeah. I believe Slade started the... Wednesday game of last week, if I'm not mistaken. And that would, yeah, because it was a night game. So it wouldn't have been the Thursday afternoon finale if my brain is functioning properly right now. So, yeah, I mean, he hasn't pitched in a week already. So I would think the Diamondbacks would want to get slayed some work in here pretty soon. He's definitely a candidate to start the Friday game. It is interesting that the Diamondbacks have kind of avoided starting him up until this point.

and, you know, we're clearly willing to use him out of the bullpen in this series if they needed to. I think he's sort of, you know, a depth option, an option that maybe they would like to not have to use if they don't have to. But, yeah, we'll see. He's definitely available and would be an option for this weekend. I do want to give a quick update on Merrill Kelly as well. Oh, yeah. Who left this game in the seventh inning. It was a hamstring cramp is what we were told after the game. I think during the game, the official announcement was just his leg in general, but he clarified

it was a hamstring. He did say that his calf hurt on some warm-up tosses starting that seventh inning, and he was trying to pitch through it, and eventually it was his hamstring that ultimately, you know, got him out of the game. But no real level of concern here, Tori said that there's no imaging that's been done. He says he does expect Merrill to make his next start. So I don't think there's much to this. it sounds like just cramping,

unrelated to Merrill's issue with his calf, right? The whole blood clot situation. That's what I was worried about because obviously it was the same leg. Yeah. So, yeah, doctors said that they don't think it's related at all. Merrill talks about how it felt warm at Chase Field, which I think I might have seen some people talking about in the comments as well. I mean like seen people on TV fanning themselves or whatever.

Yeah, I thought it was maybe a little warmer than normal. They announced 78 degrees inside at first pitch, which is it was a humidity. The little amount of rain mixed with how hot it is right now is just causing it to be miserable. And but Merrill, what rain? What rain are you speaking of? Oh, it's spit on my house, Jesse. So I know it rained a little bit in this town, but I just don't know where. Merrill also complained about the heat the last time he pitched at Chase Field as well.

Yeah, yeah, it was interesting. He talked about it a little bit after the game. He was talking about how if it's 115 outside, maybe it's hard to cool off the metal box entirely. But he's definitely aware of it. He thinks it's been a little warmer in Chase Field than he's used to it being. He's not fucking wrong. It's not a mystery. It's the hottest summer fucking known to.

mankind on the earth on the planet earth that's fair he's not coming up with any new information yeah he did he did talk about how he he just sweats uh profusely apparently uh just sweats far more than than the average human being can relate i also sweat a lot yeah so he's just sort of one of those people and i i think the heat might have you know played a role in in the cramping that ultimately led to him being removed from the game but as of right now it sounds like he's fine and should make his next start. His stubbness said in the chat, the Dodgers sweep and they aren't head and shoulders above.

How far do you need to be impressed enough to get the job done? Games won. I'm not saying the Dodgers didn't take care of business. I'm saying the Diamondbacks, with the way they're playing right now, I had no business being as close in these games as they were. The Dodgers should have actually blown the Diamondbacks out, and that would have felt a little differently. I think the frustrating thing from a Diamondbacks perspective,

is that this Dodgers team is supposed to be so much better. And the Diamondbacks really did hang with them, yet they couldn't generate even enough offense to give them any kind of lead in a zero-zero-zero game. They couldn't generate enough offense in last night's game to come back. And even when they did, the bullpen still blew the game just enough for them to still lose it, right? So like this two-game series was very frustrating based on how close it was. and I didn't feel the same way about the twin series

where the Diamondbacks just lost in all sorts of spectacular fashions, heartbreaking fashions, close fashions, blowout fashion, like that three-game series, it's like you got the full show of the disappointment that we're going through and watching this team right now. But this might even be more disappointing because of how close it was and how winnable at times these two games both felt, right?

So for a team that's lost eight in a row, it's pretty fucking miserable. And honestly, I think I would have rather have just been completely blown out by then having both of these games be as close so much. You know, like that's the part. That's frustrating. When they're this close, you really do start to question the few, the little things that went wrong,

some of those managerial decisions, bringing Kyle Nelson in the game, bunting with that contel, or with Geraldo Pardomo and two on, like those are questionable only because this game was as close as it was. if it was a blowout, then it's ridiculous for you to sit there and nitpick at some of the smaller runs when the Diamondbacks, you know, if they lose 10 to nothing, they're, you know, they weren't even close, right? A two to nothing ball game that really came down to one relief pitcher not being able to be effective at all. And the Diamondbacks really not being able to generate anything offensively throughout this game really felt like the epitome of how frustrating this is right now.

everything that the Diamondbacks do. I mean, you had shots to the wall, to the warning track that just got... Yeah, they did have some hard hit balls earlier. They just had a lot of things that just went in a really bad direction for them. And I don't really know. I don't know what the answer is. I'm starting to feel a bit myself like Tori, right?

Where you're just like, I don't know. When are they going to win a game again, Jesse? I don't know. I don't know, but I will say we do have Dick Mountain against the Diamondbacks on Saturday. And not only will the puns be rich, but maybe the Diamondbacks can get things going against him. I don't know. The reason we're feeling excited is because of the throwback jerseys. And apparently the Diamondbacks are going to wear the throwback jerseys themselves for all three games in that series against the Padres.

Yeah, we just saw them in the clubhouse. They're sick. They were lovely. They're sick. You and I saw the batting helmets get brought in earlier, and yeah, they were a sight to behold. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's exciting this weekend, right?

That should get some people out to the ballpark. I guess, I mean, fans are showing up. They had about 30,000 here yesterday. I think today it was around 28. Granted, there's a heck of a lot of Dodger Blue in this building. So do you with those numbers, which you will. But, yeah, I mean, unfortunately for the Diamondbacks, you're not getting much relief this week. and with the San Diego Padres coming into town.

I know they're in the midst of a little losing streak right now, but they've been playing better baseball at large, and some of those hitters are starting to get hot. You're starting to see Mani Machado look a little more like himself. Juan Soto is having a very typical Juan Soto season at this point. It's crazy that not that long ago people were talking about Juan Soto having, you know, this big down year and just not at all looking like himself, and the Padres overpaid and all these things,

Juan Soto has just absolutely been himself. So the Diamondbacks really could use a series against, you know, the Rockies or the Royals or some team like that. I guess they're getting the Rockies next week, but they've got another tough one this weekend before we get there. In the chat, Pedro said, got to climb that mountain boys. Damon, I think you know what that means.

The Diamondbacks are now one game below 500, so they're not climbing up the mountain. They're going the other way. Like we made that and it upsets me so much and yet I still call for it so often. I don't know what's wrong with me. We were talking about being masochists. We were talking about how you guys are masochists for being here right now in this show after watching this team lose yet again.

And we love you for it because this is what we do. We're here to let you know that your feelings at times of being completely lost with this team. You're not alone. We all have no idea what to do about this team right now. Mike Hazen was on an elevator today. And when I was almost going to get on it, the look of sadness and regret at seeing me said it all. You know what he didn't want to do? We've all been there, right?

I know. Everybody has that same look when they see me, Jesse. But let me tell you, it was like times 10 with Mike today. He was like, oh shit, here we go. And I was like, look, I'll just catch another elevator. Like, that's how we're going to do this. But it's because nobody has answers right now. And I mean, Mike Hazen himself was on Arizona Sports 98.7.

He talked about, like, feeling responsible. He talked about a lot of things. But one of the things that he said was, like, he feels like he didn't make the right moves. And he didn't really do enough to make this team better. And, like, we talk about Tori Lavalo, assuming the blitz. blame. We talk about the front office, assuming the blame. But there just has to be a point where we have to wonder why the guys on the field aren't able to do it and not necessarily just blame the people that put them on the field. Yeah, I think that's, I think that's very true. I mean,

at the end of the day, like, Tori Lavello can't, you know, he can't make her all the Perdomo lay down, you know, an actual bunt. It was the second time that's happened. That happened I believe in the last like five days where Perdomo came up with runners in scoring position and he tried to lay down a bun and he popped it up back to the mound. Those kinds of things just can't happen. And Tori has been a little bit more animated of late, I think, and pointing out things that guys are doing that are, you know, a little bit half-hearted.

There was another play in yesterday's game that we didn't really talk about where Lordus Gurio kind of cut in front of, Corbyn Carroll on a fly ball and he delivered a throw to home plate that was very wild. But beyond that, a lot of the a lot of the Diamondbacks infielders on that play were just kind of all over the place. They were, yeah, very much. Brandon Fott wasn't backing things up at home plate. I think Tori said that that pissed him off.

And he did not, he did not mince words about that. He said that that pissed him off. And even when asked if there was something more that, they could have done to keep that from going that way. He didn't really think the end results could have been different, right? Like, he basically made it sound like the run would have still scored, but why weren't we in position, right? And he was saying how when a pop fly like that goes out to the outfield that his eyes don't follow the ball, his eyes go directly down to his infielders to make sure that they're all positioning themselves correctly. And like, again,

it's that kind of thing right now that makes it feel like not only are you sloppy with basically the plays that they ran over time and time again in practice but it feels like a certain level of laziness too like this malaise from this losing streak is carrying over to affect their play and they're getting to a point where they're just they're feeling like we are as fans where they're like fuck it nothing ever is ever going to go right for us again like as overreactionary as

that is we know that's not the truth. We know this team is going to win more baseball games. We say that kind of as a joke because of how we feel, but we don't want the team feeling that way, and we don't want the players to start, like, just half-assing it because they feel like everything is gone fucking in a downward spiral, and there's no point to even trying anymore, because that's when those little mistakes pile up

and end up with, like, this series where they just come up short, in both games. Yeah, it's not the same, like, hyper-competent Diamondbacks team that we've grown accustomed to watching. And we've talked about that, you know, a little bit already over the last couple weeks. Like, this isn't the Diamondbacks team. It's doing everything right and, you know, kind of forcing opposing teams to make mistakes. This is a Diamondbacks team that's kind of, you know,

in a bizarre fashion, like finding every way they can seemingly, right, in order to, you know, in order to kind of get in their own way in winning some of these games. You just see time and time again every single day. Isn't the Diamondbacks doing everything right, not just getting the results? Although there is a lot of that. They're not doing everything right. Like this isn't the brand of baseball that we're used to watching. And it's gone on for so long at this point that you have to wonder, was that really ever like the Diamondbacks' true identity?

Or were they, you know, maybe doing that a little bit more? than they were really capable of doing it early in the season. And ultimately, you know, you're kind of seeing that balance out. Or maybe the Diamondbacks are just sort of like all other teams where they have their days when, you know, they're flawless and they're making all the right reads and they're solid on the base paths. They're not making any defensive mistakes. You know, and they're also having days like this where, you know, things just don't really

look all that great. So, yeah, there's a lot of things to figure out here. for the Diamondbacks. One thing I do want to point out, Merrill Kelly said after the game, I asked a question, you know, is it kind of a silver lining for you guys that somehow you're still only two and a half games out of a wild card spot? And Merrill gave a pretty resounding yes to that question. He basically said that he doesn't think that guys in the clubhouse are, you know, disengaging or hanging their heads too much at this point because they know that they're still right there. And there's a lot of baseball left to be played in this season. And they're still

really close because a lot of the other teams that they're competing with in this race have also really struggled recently. So I think that's a really big factor in all this. The Diamondbacks don't, they don't really feel like their back is totally up against the wall yet, but they probably should start playing like it because time is, time is running out for this baseball team all the other, you know, even so. Almost even part of the problem. Like at this point, they it's like if you keep doing if you get if you don't have to try and you're not really being punished for it and the standings like the sense of urgency might not creep it in the way it needs to I don't know about that the way that they've dropped so so so much I mean it should I'm not saying

it shouldn't but I'm just saying like you like you said they look at the standings they're still very much in it like it might not that urgency might not be there to I don't know if they were seven and a half games back from wild card spot if that would cause them to try any harder than they are now. Like I said, it feels like they're already kind of giving up at times on the field. So like that part kind of creeps in and makes you think that, you know, they, the, like, I don't know. It's frustrating to watch this team, man. I literally don't know because in watching this team at times, Jesse and I went through it in the press box today. Sean and I discussed it a couple of times here watching the game. It's just incredible right now with this stretch of bad luck that

they're going through how so much is not going their way. And I mean, you know, we we talked in the past about when they, when they were better, when they were winning games. And, you know, a lot of things, it's not like they were perfect. It's just, it's just things were kind of bouncing their way at times. Like, they were getting a couple of lucky breaks here and there. Maybe they were getting a ball to go over the fence. But like lately, you know, any, any hard hit ball that they get kind it falls dead at the warning track. Like, it's just, I mean, the only thing right now that you can really count on is pitching. And even like I said, with Miguel Castro giving up that one run yesterday, yes, the bullpen

only gave up one run, but that bullpen run ended up being really critical. So even though the pen has been okay at times, we saw in this series them falter and basically caused the team to lose the game in both games. Like you could argue that the offense didn't muster up enough, but there's just a lot of things going wrong for this team right now. And I don't know what the answer is. Jesse, the San Diego Padres, though, they're not playing very good baseball right now. And hopefully, I mean, it's definitely a race. I mean, it's, it feels like the Diamondbacks are kind of the carcass at this point that the vultures are circling, right?

but they need to figure out a way to turn this thing around so that they can go back to being the hunter and not the hunted, it feels like. I don't even know if they're the hunted. They're just the delicacy on the side of the road that the scavengers are picking off on. They're the carcass that the predators are avoiding because they know it's diseased. No one wants anything to fucking do with it. This series is really important against the Padres and the Diamondbacks get the Padres again, you know, for a four game series next weekend. This is a team that's actually right behind you, right? It's a little different than facing the Giants or the Dodgers

where obviously these games are important and you want to win these games. But at this point, unfortunately, for the Diamondbacks, the Dodgers and Giants have pulled away so much that it's not really even very consequential in the standings at this point, you know, whether you win or lose these games from a head-to-head perspective. Obviously, the debacks are, you know, still losing some ground in the wild card race as a result. But yeah, the Padres are a team where, you know, you've got seven games against the San Diego Padres happening, you know, in the next week and a half. Yeah, very.

If you really, you know, blow it in those seven games and continue to play like this, the Padres are going to jump the Diamondbacks in the standings real quick. And then you're going to have yet another team that you're looking up at in the wild card as well as, you know, some of these other teams, if the Diamondbacks continue to struggle, probably gaining a little bit of ground on them as well. So, you know, they've, they've, it is sort of miraculous that they're only two and a half out at this point. But you're kind of at the point where like, okay, like you really got to start winning games now or else this race is going to start to get away from the diamond backs a lot more quickly than it has up to this point. It's that idea of getting up tomorrow means that you can look at this of one of two ways, just like you could look at any day. Do I view this positively or do I view this negatively? We were in the driver's seat at one point. Do I dwell on where we were at, especially considering how long the baseball season is,

or do I focus, like you said, on the fact we're only two and a half games back and that we are still in the hunt? And, you know, again, I can't stop thinking of Paul Seawald's comments yesterday when he said, the reason why you win the games you do in April and May and June is so that you can play meaningful games in August and September. and whether you want to believe it or not, as a Diamondbacks fan, the D-backs are playing meaningful games right now. It sucks that they're not winning. It sucks that they've lost eight in a row. And I think as a fan, you can be mad, you can be frustrated, you can be all of that.

But come tomorrow, they're still only two and a half games back in a wild card race, where they actually have a lot of games still left against the teams that are near them in front of them. It goes right. They can be a wild card team by the end. of the weekend. Obviously, I'm not, by no means expecting that. They've done nothing to suggest that I should expect that right from the pure math family. You've made that point before in the past. Like, if they come in and they win this series, all of a sudden everything changes, right? And that could have been said about this series with the Dodgers. I'm not going to try to

fucking sugarcoat it and be like, oh, they were so close to winning. But they hung with the Dodgers and they really did have an opportunity to win both of these baseball games. And they blew it. And if they did win both, this would be such a different situation than what we're staring at right now. But now it truly does feel like when the fuck are they going to ever win a baseball game again? Yeah. I mean, it's annoying because we keep saying it, but it also keeps being true. Like, they do, this is like the third straight series where like they kind of need to win this series. But like, they're already declared them dead. They're still here.

Like, they're still here. And so we have, you can't ignore like getting to your point about like, they are playing important baseball games. Like you have to acknowledge the fact that they are still very much in it. Like these games matter because they're still, they're still fucking right there. If you are eight games, nine games back at this point of the season, I understand you starting to be like,

that's fucking over, right? But even the Mets with how poor they've played, with how bad their team has been, with the fucking concessions they made at the trade deadline, even the Mets are still kind of in it. So it's like, you know, you just play baseball and you never, know what's going to happen. And you really can't be worried about the pieces you do have and don't have

because honestly, I see a lot of people throwing a lot of, a lot of shade at Jace Peterson and Tommy fam, including my co-hosts and co-hosts and not Jesse, but producers and other people that I might know in this room. Me? No, you're a saint, Damon. But I mean, arguably so. They have not been very good since they came over here, but part of the problem is, in my opinion, at least, my humble opinion, is that they are so bad that these new guys feel the need to come over and just do too much. Tori talked about that today. And I really do think that's a problem, not just for them, but for the whole team.

I really do think, though, that they try to come over and be like the guy that's going to be the spark plug for this team. And then they're not. And things aren't going their way. And then you just try even harder to be that guy that gets things going for this team. and baseball is just one of those games where it doesn't feel like you can ever try harder and get better results. You can be, you know, you can try to get more fundamentals. You can try to make sure you're doing everything, you know, your job and everything.

But at the end of the day, when you're trying harder at the plate, usually you're not going to find positive results. Jesse, I did want to ask you about some injury updates because I do know that Zach, Davies is relatively close to returning to the starting rotation, as well as potentially Save the days, Zach. Gabby Moreno in the near future, maybe here in the next couple of weeks. Yeah, I think Gabby Moreno is playing in an Arizona Complex League game tomorrow. I'm supposed to catch five innings in that game. Then he would be removed.

Deabacks will probably do something along the lines of letting him catch five innings, give him a day off, catch seven innings, give him a day off, have him catch a full game, him and day off, that kind of a thing. It'll probably be a gradual ramp up. Toria hasn't really given any specifics on where exactly the diamondbacks will go from there. But yeah, I mean, he's starting to get back into games slowly. And I do think it's possible you'll see him, you know, within the next couple of

weeks. Zach Davies is pitching for Reno tomorrow. He came out of his bullpen session yesterday well. And I think he's expected to maybe get up to 70, 75 pitches, something like that in that start for Reno. theoretically the diamond backs could just go from that rehab start tomorrow talking about Thursday and then just bring them back into their rotation in the big leagues next week we don't know yet if if they're planning to do that though they might opt to give him one more rehab

outing i know everyone is is dying to see zach davies and the diamond back's determination so clearly he's the you know he's the solution to all of these problems i know that's that's exactly what everyone's thinking right now everybody just wants them to be dfayed by text message jesse that's really what everybody wants. Listen, at this point, I'll take Zach Davies. I'll take, I'll take MadBum, like anything, anything different. Anybody that can help us to do anything. MadBum can come in and get beef with an umpire, get ejected,

and that's maybe the spark we need. I have nothing. I have nothing to say. I have nothing either. You can't leave it to Jesse to be the one to build off of my nonsense. You're right. That's my fault. Jesse, we will see you back here in studio tomorrow.

one question, I don't know if people were mocking me in the chat because I know I ask you this often, but it really did feel like a lot of people in the chat tonight wanted to know what the mood was like in the clubhouse, what the vibe was like in the clubhouse. I mean, does it, does it, I know Tori doesn't want them to get super down on themselves. I know Tori likes that they keep it light and that they're whatever, but did you pick up on a sense of kind of, of dread in the locker room? I don't know if I would say dread. We only talked to Meryl after the game.

We didn't talk to anyone else. So there were only a few guys in there, didn't get to see a whole lot. But I would say pretty typical after a loss. I think at a certain point, like when you're on a crazy long losing streak, like the Diamondbacks are right now at eight games, I don't know if it really serves your team

to like gradually get more and more negative after losses, like every single day to the point where like you're like you're literally like at a funeral or something after the game like I don't know if teams really want to devolve into that and I don't think the diamondbacks have it's kind of been it's definitely not the same feel earlier in this season when the debacks were 10 to 15 games over 500 and they would lose a game then it was it was very clearly still pretty light um you could tell the guys were still you know we didn't get this one but we're still in a good spot overall that is worn off but you don't don't I don't really feel that anymore in there. Granted, we're only in there for a few minutes after every game. So it's hard to read. But yeah, I would say somewhat similar to what we've seen in the last week. I will say this.

This is one thing I've said during this losing streak. And then we'll let you get out of here. But I feel like, you know, people want to see you as a player when your team is going through this or as a manager or anybody involved with the team. they want to see emotion out of you they want to see you angry that the team is going through this but one thing i realized is that like when i kind of did this for for a team that for you know covering a diving back's team that was way worse and i had to do it multiple seasons writing team recaps right covering this team it was easier for me to not care about this team it was easier for me to not

think that this team was a contender or a playoff team in any way because the losses didn't really seem to affect me as much. And I'm just coming at this from a personal standpoint. But I'm talking about like the 2020 season, the 2021 season, you know, things like that, right? Now that we do what we do here, now that we kind of, now that my role is a little different and I get to kind of cheer for the team a bit more. But more importantly, the way that they started out this season, the losses now hurt emotionally so much. And the fact that they're going through what they're going through hurts so much that, like, at times I almost feel like it's easier to just lose a bunch of games and not even, not even be in the hunt, not even be two and a half games back in the wild card. Because it's just kind of like business, right?

Like, oh, we either won, we lost. But whatever. I mean, there's not like this feeling of heartbreak in it. Right now, there is such a dramatic, like, not only do we want to see them snap the losing streak that they're currently on, but like these two games to the Dodgers, they were heartbreaking. I felt like they were heartbreaking. And it was just such a miserable way to lose against not only your biggest rival, but also lose during a time where you need to win. so badly just to kind of restore order. Yeah, I mean, the Diamondbacks had second and third, nobody out in this game.

And their top three hitters all got out in a row, right? Two of them via strikeout. The Diamondbacks had first and second, nobody out in this game. They popped up into a double play. Like, you know, the Dodgers, they were held completely scoreless in this game outside of the eighth inning when with two outs, you know, Freddie Freeman comes up in doubles. and before you know what, the Dodgers have the bases loaded,

and then David Peralta is, you know, doing the, doing the training. I'm angry all over again. Like, you're going to describe it. I don't know why you're, why is he describing it? I hate it. I'm simply validating what you're talking about right now, which is that the Diamondbacks are not losing games in, like, I don't know, like easy ways for fans to accept.

You know, like you have a young starting pitcher go out. You get, you know, he gets, you know, he gets shelled. You know, the offense is kind of an off night. They're able to score a couple runs when they have opportunities, but, you know, maybe they fall a little bit short. I think there are ways of losing that are easier to, much easier for fans to accept in the ways the Diamondbacks are losing right now.

It feels like this team is getting in its own way. It feels like they're trying to lose, even though I know that's not the case, right? I understand fans who are feeling that right now. it really has been just an absolutely brutal stretch for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Not only are they losing every single day, but they're losing in these kinds of ways that are just really hard for people to swallow. The piece of Yoshi says, Jesse simply exists to rile everyone up. And I think that's the perfect way to end this.

But Jesse, I thought I was like the calming voice. No, you're the idea, you know, you pissed us all off is what you did. But we'll see you in studio tomorrow, buddy. thanks and get home safe and drink plenty of water. All right, guys. See ya. I don't even want to talk about this game anymore. It had nothing to do with Jesse.

I just didn't want to talk to Jesse anymore about baseball because I'm so disgusted. Did you tag in non-D-Bas baseball? Do you see the excuse that the white socks gave out for the Keenan thing? No. So apparently that stuff comes from like a feed from Major League Baseball, that information. Yeah. And the Yankees, this is the explanation. Yankees have two number 93s on their 40-man roster.

Get the fuck out of here, you dumb fucking liar. Is it caused a shortage? You're a liar? That's that. I mean, you're a liar! Some of our CSGO White Sox guys are saying they don't deserve the benefit of the debt, which I don't believe them either.

Interesting. Well, you know, it is what it is. Cog says he'd want to go to bed. So we're going to let Cogg go to bed. But before we go, we want to make sure Coggs takes care of himself. Cogs get yourself. some great gear from pins and aces because pins and aces makes great gear that's what they do you guys are complimenting my roosevelt shirts i would replace all of this with all of the wonderful gear that pins and

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You need yourself a fine pair of premium polarized shades, just like you need yourself a good pair of shorts. I was talking about how in the press box at Diamondbacks games, shorts are somehow frowned upon. Yeah. There's no dress code. There's no dress code, but they're frowned upon, right? And look, it's 115 degrees. Yes. I am not wearing jeans.

if there's no dress code. I'm going to look better than everyone else there anyways. That's right. We have really nice legs over here. We don't show them off because of this table. And that has nothing to do with sunglasses, but my point stands. That's part of I. I'm the best looking in the press box. That's very true.

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And that's something that we can all relate to because we break or lose our sunglasses all the time. what's happening? I was going to wait for it, but before we get out of here, we got to, there's been too much Pokemon talking to chat. There's a lot of Pokemon Chau. I was going to ask you who your favorite Pokemon was, but finish it. We'll get there. We'll get there.

That's a podcast in itself. Also, if you don't love your shady race, you can return them or exchange them for a free pair or your money back within 30 days. They, again, always have your back, no matter what. You can shop their entire collection here in Arizona at Kierland Commons. They have a full stop shop for all

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So it was like 4.30. Yeah. Right. Same thing. Right. This guy pointed out to me, there's no better feeling than when you have factor meals in your refrigerator waiting for you to go home. Like I didn't realize how big of a source of stress it was, not having food at my, like,

fully stocked fridge because I would be like, I'd go home and it'd be like, I'm not going to spend a bunch of money to get food delivered or I'm tired and I want to go home. I'm going to have to go out of my way to stop something. Or just stop. Just stop it. Like, okay, first of all, I don't even know. I don't even know what fast food restaurants are even open after 11 o'clock in

night when we leave the studio. I don't drive past a good selection and I'm not going on in my damn way. Yeah. I want to go home. Yeah. And I want to eat good food. And Factor is America's number one ready to eat meal kit. It's never frozen.

It's always fresh. One of the baller parts about Factor meals is it always comes with like a garlic butter part of it or a sauce or something, right? Like, a pork chop can just be a pork chop, no matter how good it's cooked. But if you put a fucking bomb-ass, like, sauce on it, yeah, no. Dog, I mean, you know what I mean? Like, like, hey, check the smoothies.

The smoothies are great, too. Yeah, the smoothies are. That's my favorite thing from factor. I mean, and of course, uh, if you're too busy to cook yourself a meal, all it takes is two minutes for you to heat up a factor meal. You can round out your meal and replenish your snack supply with assortment of 45, plus add-ons that they have including breakfast items.

They have snacks. They have easy wellness boost. And like he said, they have shakes. They have smoothies. They have also cold-pressed juices. So whatever you need to stay healthy. And that's the biggest thing, right? Yeah. I mean... Yeah. Like at 11 o'clock at night, you really think I'm getting a healthy meal when I leave here and drive home.

You are now. And get Sactor. No, I'm not. I'm not if I get fast food. But if I get factor, for sure, I am getting a meal approved and prepared by chef. and dietitians, and each male has all the ingredients you need to feel satisfied all while meeting your goals, right? So again, this is all about trying to live your best life, and part of living your best

life is eating as healthy as you can and enjoying what you eat. And Factor does both of those things for you. So head to FactorMeals.com slash PHNXDBX-DBax-50 and use code PHNXDBX-VX-50 to get 50 off on your order. That's code PHNXDBX-Fety at FactorMeals.com slash PHNXDBX-DBX-Vety to get 50% off. My buddy Jared, he just had surgery recently, and I picked him up today.

He asked me about factory. He was like, what's the deal with the factor? Those really is good. I mean, yeah, if you're like at home, that's probably, it's wild when your commercial ad reads just bleed in your real life. And you're just like, no, factor is legit. It's legitimately one of my favorite things. So make sure to check them out. But we thank you guys for being here. We thank you for being Arizona Diamondbacks fans, whether you are one of those or not.

we're just classifying you at mo he's a diamondbacks fan now uh the guy from san francisco giant's fan he's a diamond bag spats you're all diamond back what's your favorite Pokemon is it a who who i said what's your favorite Pokemon what's my paek of martin for yeah i don't know i mean i'm going i'm going what why does it feel does it feel generic to go um uh like a starter Pokemon or like what like a yeah like a started Pokemon i don't think so My favorite growing up was Onyx just because Brock always rocked with Onyx in the old Pokemon cartoons and Brock was my favorite. So, yeah.

I'm not a huge Pokemon guy, though. I can't lie. I'm not either. Like, I feel like Pokemon were kind of past my time. Oh, okay. Right? I just say Pikachu. I don't want to say Pikachu because that feels a little lame.

What is yours? Can I start with yours? I said onyx. Oh, Onx is just right? I'll go with Squirtle for a starter and non-starter. I'll go with Torkel. Oh, I mean, if we're going starters, then it's, it's, uh, Charmander. Charmander's dope.

Easy. Easy. I don't, I don't know. We've been here for an hour and a half. We could, we could, Pikachu and I don't want to say Pikachu. Well, let's go Pikachu. I'm going, I'm going to Charzard. I know it's not Starzard one, but charzard.

That's an expensive card. So, uh, we thank you guys, of course, for being here on our Pokemon podcast. That's what we're pivoting to. from this point. We're not coming near Arizona Diamondbacks anymore. U-Gi-O-Dar. That shit with my cam. What?

Blue-Eyes-white dragon bag? Yeah. It's time to doodle. Yeah. I got a lot of... Bayblade, too. Damn. Get us out of here before someone brings up another toy.

I mean, this is... This is exact... No, no. We're doing an hour and a half on the loss. That's what we're doing, Dave. On Wednesday, it's not even Thursday. I'm at Twitter. David's going to get up out of here.

sooner or later, and the show I'm not going to end. Damon's just going to end it without us actually doing an outro. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at K-Ur-K-man with a K. This man is at Sean underscore to pause. Damon is at Damon-impatient dog.com. No, it's a Damon dog with a DAWG. Of course, we are Damon's dogs, but all roads lead to at PH&X underscore feedbacks.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I was trying to get out of your fat. The barking is a delay. Now look at how much. Okay, we're all off. We get it, Derek. We're all off task again.

Yeah, follow us. PHNX underscore DVX, PH underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Do all of that. We thank you guys for showing up. We thank you guys for liking the D-backs. I don't know why you do. I don't know if they're ever,

they'll ever win a game again, but maybe they will. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's really not that fun. It's not as fun as Pokemon. When you watch this team.