PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Merrill Kelly on the mound for Diamondbacks as they face elimination against Phillies in NLCS

Episode Date: October 23, 2023

The Arizona Diamondbacks need to win two game against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park in the NLCS in order to advance to the World Series. While it may seem like daunting task, they will have the man they call Merrill the Mainstay starting for the Snakes in Game 6 against Aaron Nola for the Phils. We take a look at the pitching matchup, make out predictions for who will step up in Game 6, and discuss if the Diamondbacks actually have a chance to steal this series. An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE 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 Get 10% off your first order of Hero Bread at https://www.hero.co/ by using code PHNXSign up for Gila River Resorts & Casinos $1,000,000 Big Red’s Showdown! Stay in the game and get rewards; it’s that easy! https://www.gilamilliondollarshowdown.com/WIN MONEY THROUGH SPLASH SPORTS: https://www.splashsports.com/phnx Go to https://saturdayneon.com and use code PHNX for 10% off your order today. Free shipping for orders over $200!Download the DROPS by SoleSavy app by visiting https://links.solesavy.com/phnxGametime: 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!: Score 25% off a bag of your favorite OGeez! Fruits of Creams. Go to https://theflowershopusa.com, add a bag of OGeez! to your cart, enter promo code “PHNX” and pickup at a local The Flower Shop dispensary.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.

It's the Yoss. Welcome in to Game 6 pregame of the PHMX DBAX podcast right here on PHMX. Sorry, I got to do the drum solo. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am your mayor of the PHX office. I'm also mayor of the postseason. This man over here, he's my temporary vice mayor. He's the hot tag.

And he's the one and only. Patrick Lyons from DNVR. A ski to you, Patrick, and a ski to you all. Ski to you, Damon behind the Mac. And I ski to the Arizona Diamondbacks because today is a big, big game for them historically. One of the biggest games in franchise history. If this is it, please let me know, is what I have to say. But I mean, the Arizona Diamondbacks face elimination for the first time in the postseason this season, this year.

And here we are. The Arizona Diamondbacks have a chance to pull off the improbable task of winning two games at Citizens Bank Park, which is not very easy and advancing to the World Series. But it's one game at a time. One game at a time. Nine innings. Anything can happen. Absolutely. At a time.

Yeah, we need to just take this thing a little bit slower, right? Slow things down. We do have Merrill Kelly on the mound. That's a good thing. Patrick is wearing a shirt underneath his. This goes along with what we were talking about right before we went live. It's true. It's true.

There's been a whole lot of chess talk going on on this set. Yeah, I mean, you saw the other. I was unhinged. I had a shirt that had pop off buttons. I showed Damon my chest several times because this team has made me do maniacal things. This is an unlikely playoff run. And I just want to say this. I know that before we play this game, a lot of people are, you know, a lot is riding on this.

of timebacks of advance. It's definitely going to make a lot of people sad, but I just want to, I want everybody to hold their heads high, regardless of the outcome today, because this is still an incredible thing this team has done, and we are here now. You know, again, facing elimination,

but if you asked me who I wanted on the mound, Merrill Kelly would be the guy. You know, I think that you could say a lot about Zach Gallen. We know Zach Gallen has had his ups and downs this year, but Merrill has been the guy for this team. It's just the offense. The offense is what I'm worried about tonight and what the offense can do against Aaron Nola

who was really, really good against this team and in the playoffs so far. Yeah, the mainstays got to show up. I mean, we said at the beginning of this series, the recipe is you have to win at least three of the four games, started by Zach Allen and Merrill Kelly. And they are 0 for three right now.

They obviously have to win this one to keep going. But they could potentially win one of four and win this series. teams trailing 3-2, like the Diamondbacks are going into today's game. We'll win game six in a seven-game series 55.9% of the time. And in the league championship series, 12 of 19 times. So historically speaking, I mean, we're going to be back here tomorrow. Do the same thing again, brother.

Which is interesting because I feel like that goes more with the course of the home teams winning and then the away team or you get those first two games under your belt. And then you're down three, two, but then you have two more games at home. It would have been critical for the Diamondbacks to win game five. And I don't know how they're going to come back from that kind of loss. I did feel like it was a bit demoralizing. And then also you have traveling to Philadelphia, playing in a hostile environment and playing, once again, a very, very good pitcher and a team that's very hot.

But let's take a look at the updated playoff bracket because it just, I don't want to get, I don't want to start being negative here, but this might be the last time we see the Diamondbacks still actively on the playoff bracket. So at least playing games. So I think that this is doable. I don't think it's, I don't think the Diamondbacks have no chance. And I think that's the thing that a lot of people who aren't Diamondbacks fans

might think that they don't have a chance here in this series, that playing two games at Citizens Bank Park is too difficult. But, I mean, they're alive and they have a chance. And I will say that Brandon Fought, obviously, is very encouraging the way he pitched in his last performance to be the guy that starts in game seven. I would not have been, I would not have said that. I would not have said anything close to that when we started this postseason run.

So Brandon Fott has done an excellent job. Merrill Kelly is a guy that I absolutely would have wanted in that game seven scenario. So considering the Diamondbacks are facing elimination tonight, he's again, the one that I feel like I am most thankful is in the spot. But the offense, they just need to figure out a way to get it done. And I know that Tori talked about being aggressive. He talked about their base running, that they're going to be aggressive. But he also talked about not flying across the country to get their butts kicked.

Do we have that clip? Oh, we do not have that clip. Okay. Well, I'll say this about being a lot more aggressive. It's going to be easier for them to do it against Aranola than Zach Wheeler. Wheeler just does not allow stolen bases. Obviously, you know, he does change up his release time, like going to the plate with the slide step, which is something that's incredibly hard to do.

It sounds like such a simple thing. But if you're not a really good pitcher like a Zach Wheeler or Aaronola, it can be really hard to do that because you have a rhythm that you are trying to get in. You're still trying to throw a strike. So imagine trying to throw a strike, but you're doing something differently than you would typically when there's a guy on base. So I think they'll have that opportunity to do that a little bit more today, and they're going to have to do that. And they're going to have to continue to do it.

That's the thing. Is it first guy out to shoot if it's Corby and Carroll gets maybe a bad jump on the righty Nola and he gets thrown out, you still have to stick with that game plan. Next time he's on base or the next time someone else is on base that has a little bit of speed, you still have to go and take advantage of those opportunities because this could be another one of those low-scoring games where Nola doesn't give up much, hopefully Meryl Kelly doesn't give up much, and then it's just a matter of getting yourself in scoring position.

And a walk, reach on an error, steal second base, and all of a sudden that's basically a double. All you need is a single or two sacrifices. And that's what they've done earlier. They've also had, at times, have struggled when they do get that guy on in a runner's in scoring position and no outs and can't bring him home. Like that's been actually a frustrating scenario that we've seen from the Diamondbacks quite a bit. Solario says Wheeler was in my nightmare, dudes a beast.

Same. I absolutely have a nightmare about Zach Wheeler striking me out 27 times. Clint Baker said, if we can start fast and quiet the crowd, we have a chance. That's it. I mean, I will say that about, like one thing about Phillies fans that I really respect is that they, they understand the situation, right? So they're not like, they go hard. They go hard. But like, you know, when their team is down or like, you know, in certain scenarios, you see them reacting as, you know, as they should.

And so we've seen times in the series where the Diamondbacks were able to quiet that crowd a bit. But those home runs that they, you know, gave up. It's like every time they just got them pumped right back up to where they were at. They have no problem getting back to that level. But we do also have a super chat, I believe, that I ignored. I did want to say thank you to Brandon Buckingham. He said, Philly's fans are so damn cocky today. It's going to be awesome when we win the next two.

Love the attitude. Love the confidence. Diamondbacks could get a little bit of that confidence. Chris is trying to submit Mailbag Monday questions in the chat. And as if we don't have a short enough time frame, Chris. Chris wants to know, we're not doing that yet. We'll come back to that. Mailbag Monday is, it's always mailbag.

back Monday on Monday but we'll get to that shortly but before we do of course we did want to talk about maryl Kelly and aaronola and take a look at the pitching comparison before between these two pitchers because again uh this is these this is the guy these this is who you want on the mound for the arizona diamondbacks and erin nola was very good in game two facing off against merrill kelly uh but of course i feel like he is a better option like you said than zach wheeler who was a siang candidate for most of the year nola nolla had a 4.46 er a 1.15 whip and 202 strikeouts. Merrill Kelly at a 3.29 ERA this season with a 1.19 whip and 187 strikeouts himself.

And again, like, I don't know, I don't know how Brandon fought became the guy in a lot of our minds that we wanted to see in big game situations. But Merrill Kelly is the guy that most of us would have wanted to be in this exact spot with the Diamondbacks facing elimination in the postseason at any point, I think, during the season. Yeah, the numbers again, for some of the Phillies against Merrill Kelly are favorable. It's Ria Muto, and then, you know, you hate to hear that it's Schwarber and Turner with some pretty good success. Harper, not as much. He won for five with a walk.

Hasn't struck out against Merrill Kelly during the regular season at least. So minimizing that kind of damage, I think, is just going to be critical and keeping his team in the game. Because it's about winning. That's the thing that pitchers at course, field have to deal with. It's being better than the other pitcher, not giving up runs. Not posting, you know, a bunch of goose eggs. that's virtually impossible, of course, field. But Kelly here is going to get boosted a little bit by the Diamondbacks offense.

They get to get to go to the plate first. And that's a critical piece that was obviously in their advantage in L.A. during the division series, it was critical in Milwaukee as well. So getting out there, scoring an early run is going to be big. And then Kelly really minimizing any damage if it does come with Real Muto, Turner, or Schwerber at the plate. We've been blaming the offense quite a bit for their lack of production in this series. But again, you just got to have to tip your cap to what Zach Wheeler and Aaron Nola have done so far in the playoffs and in the series. And I think that's the bigger concern is, you know, getting your offense that kind of was stifled in the last game back on track against another very, very good pitcher that the Phillies have to put out there.

Things, yeah, I mean, I won't lie. Things aren't super positive for me personally. They've been better. They've been better, but I'm going to make a bet that hopefully puts all the bad juju on the Phillies later tonight and wins me zero money. But before we get there, I do want to thank you guys all for being here. Of course, in the P&Xports YouTube channel, if you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, make sure to do so now. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss one, any of these wonderful shows that we have been putting on for you.

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on Jesse's version of his mailbag, which he stole from us on this show when he used to be a part of it. But speaking of that, speaking of that, it's Monday. And no matter what happens in this series, every year is still our year. That's the way it works on this show. Every goddamn year is our year, Patrick. Right. Every month is Hispanic Heritage Month. Every month is also Black Women's History Month. Pride Month.

Pride Month. Every month is Pride Month on this show. Every month is Pride Month. We don't have a night. We have Pride Month all the time. We also celebrate Shark Week every single week because every week on this show is Shark Week. Every day is Earth Day. And every Monday, no matter if it's the playoffs or not, we go to the mailbag.

Damon, let's go. We definitely don't have enough time for all this dancing and stuff, but let's go, Damon, let's go. We got, we got games to watch. Brian Abdallah asked, what will it take for the debacks to play aggressive on the bases today? I think knowing that their back is against the wall. I think knowing that their identity was based in being aggressive on the base path. And I mean, I've even seen it in times where we wanted them to run and get those extra runs in. And they kind of hesitated at third base and stuff like, you know, I will give the Phillies their credit.

were playing some amazing defense so far in this game, which has really prevented the diamond backs from being aggressive on the base path. But I feel like you got to pull out all the stops. You got it. I mean, Rob Thompson said, talking about the game five double steel with Stott going a second, Harper stealing home, they were being aggressive because they were just trying to force the defense into something. Just try to make something happen. And if it doesn't, live with the results. Live with the results. And I think for a Phillies team, that is notably not good defensively. You know, maybe average,

below average in some areas. Maybe they're taking it too easy. Yeah, they're taking it too easy on them, right? Make them make those big mistakes and that can lead to more runs scoring or their confidence. Their confidence has to be really high because they haven't. I don't even know that there's been an error by the Phillies during the series.

I don't believe so. Maybe one, inconsequential, if any, but their defense has been strong. They haven't gotten a ton of opportunities. Debex have been putting the ball in play. It's not like they're striking out every single at bat.

But even still, you know, a couple more, you know, balls to the opposite way to advance a runner, those kind of little things will go a long way in game six. They had eight hits in game five and it really didn't feel like they had eight hits. No, it did. It did not. They need to figure out a way to connect that, connect those.

The base running, connect some more hits, some key hits and bring those runs in because the Phillies, you know they're going to score runs. Like we said, you're not going to get away with too many victories scoring two runs against the Philadelphia Phillies. So got to get that back up. What else we got, Damon? Our guy Kevin Simeon, K. Simeon, seven on Twitter asks, what are the chances Walker is pushed back in the lineup and bat's sixth or seventh?

Also is an opener, a legitimate option to start this game for our debacks. I'll say that it doesn't matter who it is out there. Merrill Kelly's that gallon at this point. The bullpen is ready to roll. And I think that if Merrill has struggles, if he has issues, he's not going to last very long in this game. I think even if he gives up too many hard hit balls, even if they're caught or whatever.

If Tori starts seeing it go in that direction, I think he's going to pivot and go to the bullpen. I just, I don't know how early that's going to be. And I don't know, you know, again, how fast he's going to do that with Merrill out there. And the bullpen's well rested. A lot of those guys that went on back-to-back days in games three and four, we didn't see in game five. So they had off on Saturday and they had off on Sunday. So you're right, they have to actually, you know, they have to go hard on that,

going to the bullpen if they need it. Walker's still betting fifth tonight. Yeah, we still bet. We've seen. Yeah, same line that we've seen the entire postseason. And fam is back in there, batting fifth at DH. But that still does mean that Thomas is playing center field. He's betting seventh now instead of eighth.

So Longoria drops. But yeah, with Christian Walker struggling, they're not relenting on him being in that spot. And I think the idea here is that they know what Christian Walker is capable of. And they need him to wake up, to be honest, because he's such a huge part of driving those runs. And especially with Carol and Marte's ability in the postseason so far to get on base, Carol hasn't been as good in this NLCS. but he's another guy that needs to figure out a way to put it together and help contribute to this team. Who else bats cleanup?

Not Walker. Gabby Moreno. Gabby Marino. Then who bats third? Who's getting on base ahead of Moreno? Like, ultimately the best hitter on teams. We're starting to see this. I mean, I actually would be kind of okay with that.

Figure something out, but this has been the recipe. And it's like, yeah, what's more likely tinkering a little bit to try to make something happen or sticking with the guys that get? I think it is a fair discussion. Which is wild because Tori has been kind of, he's never really stuck to a lineup. That's been kind of part of his managerial style is to kind of switch things up and move things around. And, you know, so far we're seeing him stick with a fairly consistent lineup. Yeah, Jansen asking if it's Longoria or Rivera, it's going to be Longoria. It's the same guys that you've been seeing pretty much the entire postseason.

Yeah. All right. Well, else we got, Damon. Next question comes from Jacob Schultz. Jacob asks, is Zach an ace or is he a number two starter? Oh, wow, this is a very existential question. Can you wait to get back to this question that came in the mail during the off season to try to figure that out? Because here's the thing, Clayton Kershaw, you would say, is an ace.

But if you look at his postseason performances here in a few other years, you're going, well, this guy can't possibly. It's a different season. It's altogether like Nathan Yovaldi, I don't know that I'd necessarily call an ace. But when it comes to the postseason, he is an ace. That's a hard question to define. I think he's pretty much viewed around the league. as the Diamondbacks ace and he is really one of those elite, you know, pictures.

If you go back and look the last four seasons, there haven't been too many guys that have been that much better than him. I think he's, Michael literally just like stole the words out of my mouth. I think he's gas. I think he's gas. I think it's been a long season. I think they relied on him and Merrill Kelly a bunch down the stretch.

I think Merrill Kelly at least got at least some time off due to the blood clot issue yet. I mean, it's not the best reason to have time off, but at least he got some time off that was unexpected and at least gives him a little bit more. Zach Allen's been pitching consistently. He's been healthy and he's been putting in the work to get the Diamondbacks to this point in the playoffs. But I don't know. I mean, he's still a young guy. This is his first playoff experience.

So I say lay off him. Lay off him. That's what I say. I also think it's hilarious that in one of the postseason interviews he gave prior to this series with the Phillies, he discussed picking Clayton Kershaw's brain during the series versus the Dodgers. and now this is happening. And those two things can't be coincidental. There's no way.

There's no way. There's no way. What did he say to him? What did you do? You broke him, Clayton Curion. If you're not sure he's an ace, we'll wait to see what happens in two years from now when he goes into free agency

and see how much money he makes. And then we'll go ahead and address this again. That's for sure. Yeah, that's definitely a big off-season question, but hope we kept that enough for you in this short period of time. What else we got, Damon? We're rapid firing going.

Aaron Hughes, who has had the best postseason? Alec, Gabby, Marte fought hard to argue against any of them absolutely hard to argue against any of them I mean Brandon fought did something historic could tell Marte did something historic Gabby Moreno has been an absolute beast and Alec Thomas is a legend based on what these guys have done so far I think Gabby for me it's not surprising because Gabby Moreno has been doing it consistently for this team and has been a huge part of why they're here and while they're why they're having success in the playoffs could tell martay again super

consistent Mr. consistency at times for this team doing something a bit historic. I think for me it would probably be Brandon fought because it's the biggest surprise of that group, right? Alec Thomas has had some key moments and those have been special for this team and it's hard not to acknowledge that, but you kind of expect that at times of postseason. We've talked about that a ton about the unlikely hero that steps up in the postseason and has those big hits.

Brandon fought doing what he has done so far in this postseason has been fairly impressive and I know he kind of didn't have the greatest start in in Milwaukee but outside of that he has just been literally one of the best pitchers in in the postseason it's crazy to think that if they can win these two games and go to the world series we might see a different four names on that hey who's been the key to the postseason because that's at least six more games going forward but for me I think it's between more Moreneux and marty a little more consistent more than offering a little bit more pop in big spots. But Marte does leave the team this postseason in OPS.

So for me, it just has to be his consistency in doing it at the top of the lineup too. And what he does behind the dish for this team has been incredible as well. What else we got? A piece of Yoshi who added hashtag fired Damon to his Twitter handle here. You know what Yoshi's last name is? His full name, Yoshi Stubbs, because clearly he's got to be really good at the Gart Stubbs if you're taking shots. Yeah, that's for sure. That is for sure.

Let's see here. If we win, was it because I listen to him or I'm listening to Merrill Kelly's walk-up song all day? Yes, no, nothing you do is impacting this team. And then he says, if we lose, who's more to blame? The aces, the offense. Derek for saying debacks in five on the PHLY show, or Damon and Sean for calling Schwerber fat. Is he skinny? That's my question.

Okay. It could be in the middle. Also, incidentally, so maybe this is two off base. Derek, do pitchers have walk-up music? Or do they have walk-out music? Got them.

I think you got them. I mean, I'm not trying to get anybody, but you don't, I mean, you do walk up a mound. You want to add hashtag fire Patrick to your funny little Twitter time. You do climb. You do ascend the bump.

So I guess maybe you are walking up the mound, but I think of more is walking out, no? Yeah, no, you might be right there. You might be right. All right. All right. Let's see. honestly though if we're if we're discussing who is to blame i i would have to i would have to say

the offense right i mean the offense has completely disappeared in several games and and you know you just can't expect the debaq starting pitching to hold this off this philly's offense scoreless you just can't expect that in fact it was impressive the one game they were able to do it that the only run they were able to score was on a wild pitch so i i think you're asking for too much there when it comes to blaming this on the pitching staff. But don't get me wrong. I blame Gallin. Gallin definitely has been a disappointment in this series. I'm sure he would be the first one to say that for sure.

Yeah, he's probably towards the top of the list. You can't blame the bullpen in any capacity. The offense as a whole sure has been a little disappointing. I mean, I don't. There's some guys on the offense that have disappeared, including Corbyn Carroll and Christian Walker. I don't think there's a ton of blame on Tori necessarily. Because again, you just look at the results and you go, I mean, this might be what

you would have expected. You know, you're still able to get two wins out of it. But when you kind of play as expected as a whole, it is hard to blame people. But you do look and go, if you could have gotten one win out of Zach Allen's two starts, it's now three, two in favor the Diamondbacks. And we're talking about them possibly going to the World Series in the next, oh, I don't know, five hours. Yeah. And you got to tip your cap to that Phillies team because, again, the Diamondbacks have at least put up a better fight than like the Braves did. So, I mean, so far the diamondbacks are you know trying their best but this philly's team is a very very good team and they uh again it's it's we're gonna you know if it doesn't go the diamond backs

way we're going to you know find things that they did wrong but just like with the pitching there comes a point where you have to acknowledge how good zek wheeler has been there's got to be a point where you acknowledge that aaronola uh is the one that's causing this offense to not be good not the fact that this offense is just in a slump uh because i do remember a time not too long ago in this very postseason run that they hit four home runs in an inning. So it didn't seem like there was anything wrong with the offense. And you acknowledge Schwerber and you acknowledge Turner and Rial Muto and Harper. Like they've just got a lot of big time dudes.

How Schwerber might be the tribal chief? Those have been the only guys really that have done it too. Like you look, Castianos has been really quiet. Stott, you know, a lot more quieter than the previous rounds. Chris brings up a good point. Marte's defense and a few noodle arms Saturday. Yeah, that definitely didn't help. and Marte's defense definitely came into play a couple of times,

including aiding and laying Gabby out for sure. But we got one more question in the mailbag, and that comes from bold as bronze. And he asks a question, I'm sure that's too complex for us to even address right now. But he says, well, ownership and the front office actually address our glaring holes at third base, DH,

and starting pitching next season. They have to. Yeah. They have to. They can't not believe in this team. It's okay for the guy that's been asking us to fire Tori all season long. They're not believe in this team. It's okay for some of the sad sacks that have constantly been trying to protect their own feelings and not really believe in a team that they didn't want to break their heart.

But the front office and Mike Hayeson and everybody involved with this organization needs to see the potential in this team. They need to understand the key pieces that they have that are under team control that it's very cheap for a very long time for this team. That's not going to cost them a lot of money to have a lot of these guys on this roster for years to come. So they need to bring them help. They need to add to them. And they don't need to go out and spend the most money on the most high-priced free agents, but they need to bring in guys that are capable of fixing these issues that they have. You know, third base is a big problem.

The carousel that they've had to try to, you know, fill that role has been noticeable. Starting pitching, they are lucky that they got into the playoffs with the way that they had to patch together a starting rotation for the last two months of this season. and that is something that they can't allow to happen again, considering how close this team right now is to a world series. They have to continue to build on this. And if they don't, then I can completely understand the fans ire. I know you go through that with this Colorado Rockies team

where it seems like no matter how full that stadium is, the ownership in the front office just don't want to go out there and spend the big money on team or a players. And when they do, it's something like Chris Bryant, where it seems like it's spending a lot of money on a guy that isn't fixing the main issue that the team has currently had. You have to spend the money wisely. And, you know, the Rockies definitely have had troubles with that.

They've only signed two players over $70 million in their franchise history. And the other one besides Chris Bryant was Mike Campton, which people would be surprised to hear about. And so they like giving their, they like spending some money, but they just resign and extend their own guys. So it's not necessarily getting free agents. It's interesting that looking at it on fan graphs, there's already. $132 million looking like it's being projected for next year's payroll which I think is an increase over this year by a decent amount. Like $22 million?

Yeah. Because you know, Christian Walker is going to make a hefty increase in his final year of arbitration. Paul Sewell just a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. So like there's not a lot of guys making a ton of money. It's, you know, I probably have the highest deal. So they might have to get a little bit creative, but this influx from all these home games.

I mean, four games, you know, in October is brought in a lot. lot of money to this team. So hopefully, even if they do have to do it on the cheap, they're able to make some kind of improvements this offseason. All right. Well, we got about five minutes, close to five minutes to first pitch. So let's take a look at my betting odds for, or my bet for tonight. This is my same game parlay.

And I am bringing it to the Phillies tonight. Talk about Sonic the hedgehog. I am hedging all of my emotions on this one. I am picking Phillies to win money line. I'm taking Aaron Nola to strike out for Diamondback. batters. I am taking Kyle Schwaber to hit a home run through Catea in there just because I'm no fool and I think he's going to still extend that hitting streak. And then of course, Merrill Kelly, he has a one walk because I think Merrill's at least going to walk one guy with the way that this

this formidable lineup is currently hitting. If he's a smart man, he will at least walk one. So there it goes. Putting some of my bad betting juju on the Phillies and hopefully it works to extend this series to a game seven. But here we go. Let's go watch the Arizona Diamondbacks face elimination against Philadelphia Phillies and pull off a big win. I'm excited for it. I hope you guys are too. To follow us on Twitter, I'm at Kapp underscore Kman with a K.

This maniac next to me is at Patrick D. Lyons. Damon is our dog. We are Damon's dogs. Wolf, you can get him at Damon dog. That's DAWG. Of course, our shows at PHNX underscore Dbacks, but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter,

Instagram, and Facebook. We appreciate you guys for stopping by. We will be back 10 minutes after the final out for our post game show. So join us for that. And remember kids, baseball is fun, but it is so much more fun when you force a game seven.