PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Merrill Kelly SHOVED In Pitching Duel At Coors Field, But Diamondbacks Lose In Walk-Off To Rockies

Episode Date: September 17, 2024

Merrill Kelly gave the Diamondbacks six strong innings, but the Snakes somehow got tangled up in a pitching duel with the Rockies bullpen. The D-backs couldn’t get anything going offensively against Colorado’s relievers and eventually get walked off in the 9th by a score of 3-2. We have more on the inexplicable lack of offense after Corbin Carroll and Ketel Marte kicked the game off with a bang and the heightened sense of urgency to win every single game to keep up in the NL Wild Card Race. Jesse Friedman joins the show from Coors Field with more from the D-backs clubhouse.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsMERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-lockerALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/bet365: https://www.bet365.com/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and choose your offer!Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/Sanderson Ford: The Sanderson Ford Summer Sales Event is here and they are teaming up with the boys of summer for a final Playoff Payoff Sale. You get the payoffs like deals on 24 Ford Bronco Sport Big Bend. Lease one today for as low as $299 a month for 36 Months with only 10 percent cash down.Zbiotics: Go to https://zbiotics.com/phnxdbacks to get 15% off your first order when you use PHNXDBACKS at checkout. Pre-Alcohol is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked. Empire Today: Schedule a free in-home estimate today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details.Branded Bills: Use code PHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order!Mint Mobile: To get your new 3-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to https://mintmobile.com/diamondbacks.  $45 upfront payment required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speeds slower above 40GB on Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, & restrictions apply. See MINT MOBILE for details.Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Check out FOCO merch and collectibles and use promo code “PHNX10” for 10% off your order on all non Pre Order items.Rugged Road: Gear up for your next adventure with Rugged Road Coolers - Your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to http://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/ALLCITY and use code PHNX for 10% off!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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What the hell was that that we just watched? Welcome it to another edition of the PHNXDVax podcast, brought to you by our friends at Bet365. Go download the Bet365 app right now. Sign up using our code at PHNX365. And of course, choose your offer and find out why it is never ordinary at Bet365. And of course, no baseball game featuring the Arizona Diamondbacks can be ordinary. Just as you would write it up, the Diamondbacks losing a pitcher's duel at a baseball. at Coorsfield because of the Colorado Rockies' excellent bullpen.

What? Welcome it. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. This man next to me is the one and only people's producer himself, Damon Farrell. And of course, yes,

the Diamondbacks lose a very important baseball game here to the Colorado Rockies by a score of three to two. The D-BACs offense was inexplicably dominated by the Rockies bullpen, which I was actually warned. by several of our friends. Christian from over at DNVR, our guy Patrick, both talked about how good this young Rockies bullpen has been. It's a bunch of guys that have been called up recently,

a bunch of guys making their major league debuts, and they did their thing tonight against the Arizona Diamondbacks. This is just the third time this season, the debacks have allowed four hits or less and lost the baseball game. that really doesn't feel good Derek especially not when you get eight hits against the Colorado Rockies and you can't manage a way to put more than two runs on the board just overall like I think I speak for a lot of people in this fan base when I say this was maybe the most disheartening game of the year you're in a spot where every win matters every win every game

feels kind of like a playoff game and then you know you you your situational hitting is is just awful you lose the game on an air it felt like like a little league team tonight and can't have that in September when you're fighting for a wild card spot well the debacks first two batters of the game scored and then they didn't score again for the rest of the entire night corbin carroll triple to lead off the game so from from the positive side of things. Carol's, that was Carol's 14th

triple of the year, which leads major league baseball and ties Tony Womack for the most in franchise history. So Corbyn continues to do his thing. That's crazy.

Considering most in franchise history in two seasons? No, most in franchise history in a single season. Oh, in this season. So yeah, Tony Womack had 14. So one more, and he could set the franchise

record for his season. Cotel Marti, then brings him home with a two-run home run, his 32nd of the year. And all is right, all is great. This feels like everything is going in the Diamondbacks direction and goes, and it is going like so many games have gone for this team, scoring early, scoring in the first inning, giving someone like Merrill Kelly, you know, that run support early on.

This was the D-BAC's 35th occurrence of scoring two runs or more in the first inning, which sets a franchise record for that, right? So they're scoring, you know, all over the place. They seem to have the Rockies starting pitcher Antonio sent it, sends a telea figured out. And then just kind of like some other instances where they knocked the starting pitcher out of the game early. The minute the opposition goes to the bullpen, the Diamondbacks just can't figure out the Rocky's bullpen. One for four with runners in scoring position today. They hit into four just devastating double play.

And they got some terrible luck, too. Their expected batting average was outrageous compared to what the actual results were in this game. The Diamondbacks were hitting absolute rockets just right at defenders, you know? So this one was one of those games where, obviously, they didn't have a lot of offense. Things didn't go their way offensively with even some of the well-struck balls. And, you know, they definitely shot themselves in the foot by hitting into so many double plays. in this game. Two batters up, Corbyn, Carol, Cotel Marte, two runs scored.

I mean, I think most Ironbacks fans are sitting there thinking, like, it's going to be pretty, this can be a put your feet up on the table, you know, put your hands in your hair, relax a little bit. This can be like a easy game to watch. And I mean, they just have such a tendency to come out of the gates and then just peel over the rest of the game. it's it's it's certainly an issue and you just again like you just can't lose games like this to teams like this when you're in the circumstance that the diamondbacks are in right now you're absolutely

unacceptable stuff especially after the emotional win of yesterday like you you come out after yesterday and you're you know you're pumped up you feel like this team has got some new juice you know kick starter into the final stretch of this season and then they just lay an egg for eight innings tonight. It's pretty unbelievable. And you also spoiled a great outing from Merrill Kelly, right? Merrill Kelly was the mainstay for this team when the snakes absolutely needed him. He threw the entire arsenal tonight.

He threw all six of his pitches. He primarily went with the cutter. He had some some success with the slider. He got four whiffs on 11 sliders thrown, but he wasn't getting a lot of swing and miss in this one. And yet he was still very effective. He wasn't getting a lot of strikeouts, but he kept the Rockies off the board. He gave up the one solo home run.

That was pretty much the one mistake he made to Ezekiel Tovar. But he was efficient with his pitch count. He gave the Diamondbacks an opportunity to win. He absolutely gave them an opportunity to win. Should he have been removed after six innings? Probably not. I don't know. I feel like maybe he should have stayed in the game a little.

little bit longer. I think he was in the mid-80s as far as his pitch count was concerned. He kind of flew through some of those innings, but he did start to lose his command in the fifth inning. He seemed to kind of not be able to find the strike zone. He walked two batters in the inning. So I think maybe things were obviously trending in that direction, but Merrill was shoving. And then you bring in Kevin Ginkle, who obviously was not very good in his last outing giving up four earned runs last time he pitched. And tonight, after getting two outs, he gave up the game tying home run in this one. Yeah, Kevin Ginkle hasn't been great recently, which is certainly this is not the time for that.

But on top of what you've already mentioned, did you think AJ Puck should have stayed in there for a little bit longer? I do. I do. But, I mean, I also don't think that Ryan Thompson should have come out for the ninth. I mean, I know it was a matchup, and that's why they went to Thompson and it worked. Thompson threw one pitch and got one out. But I don't know if the ups and downs for Thompson are necessarily the best thing, like having him go in the dugout and come back out.

Yeah. I also just feel like this game was very, very close. So I would have liked to see Tori pull out all the stops and go to someone else there in the ninth inning. It felt like they were confident they were going to get. through the ninth and go on to extra inning so tory needed to save arms for that situation and that's kind of a damned if you do damned if you don't situation for a manager especially considering the limited options that they have they did call up some guys though and they have some guys out there in the bullpen they haven't used yet so i don't i i i disagree with the decision to go back to thompson

in the ninth inning i think that's the biggest biggest miss in this one and i mean i know it wasn't thompson's fault that it became what it became but did give up a lead off single you give up a stolen base, it turns into, you know, runner in scoring position and an errant throw from Geraldo Perdomo allows the Rockies to walk off this one. Yeah, I think what the biggest issue here for me, at least, is that we shouldn't have been in a position where Tori was needing to pull out all the stops to get this W.

That's a great point. Offensively, they drop. Yeah. It should have been, it shouldn't have been, hey, we have to use all of. of our best arms here in the bullpen because, you know, we really got to squeeze out this win. It should have been an easy victory. So that's, that's really where the, you know, I think that the mistakes were made tonight. And it just comes down to the offense, not getting the job done. And obviously, you can't expect them. They're the number one offense in baseball. They can't do it

every single night. I get that. But two runs in the first inning and zero the whole rest of the game when we're going to get into it later. But like the runners in. scoring position numbers, just not good enough from this team tonight. Right. And I think that there's something to be said about how they do score in bunches, right? So they have them leading Major League Baseball and offense is just a bit misleading because it's not like they're, you know, you see some other teams. You see the Dodgers, right?

The Dodgers kind of put it out there consistently, night in, night out. They might have their rare off night. But for the most part, you're getting six, seven runs per night from the Dodgers, it feels like. And the Diamondbacks just kind of have those games where they blow up. And then they have knights like this. They have nights like game one against the Brewers, right? Yeah.

This one's just so confusing, right? Because it's the, it's, you know, course field. You had, you know, some young rookies out there. You have a Colorado Rockies team that has little to play for other than, you know, the individuals themselves are trying to prove themselves. They're trying to get when playing time. And a lot of those guys in their bullpen obviously impressed with the way they handled the Diamondbacks tonight.

but, you know, the Diamondbacks didn't seem very patient. You know, there was a lot of rushing at the plate. There was a lot of just, I don't know. I mean, it felt like they got very desperate. The less, you know, the more they struggled offensively as the game went on, the more it felt like they were, they tensing up and not going out there and putting together good at bat. So I don't, this one was bad.

This was a bad game. It was mismanaged. It was poorly played. And it comes right after a night, where the Diamondbacks did so much, right, to come back and to fight hard in a game that they should have lost. This is a game that they should have won that they absolutely lost. So this one, this is, this one you got to move on from because the Diamondbacks have to win games and they have to win this series. They just have to. They don't have a lot of opportunities

left. And the other teams that are in this race with them are winning. They're not all losing. I mean, the Braves got rocked tonight by the Dodgers, and that helps the Diamondbacks out a little bit. Oh, gross. It is, right? It's gross to say. And I know there's going to be people that are just going to eat up the fact. They're like, there goes Derek again on his pro Dodgers stance. But hey, at this point, we just got to figure out a way to keep in the race.

And I mean, the one thing that you can look ahead is that no matter, like, things could get bad for this team. But the Braves and the Mets have a very tough schedule going forward. forward. And at one point, those two teams play each other, which one team could easily sweep that series and knock their opponent completely out of the playoffs. And then the Diamondbacks once again are going to find their way in there in some spot. Right. Now, at this point, that's all that's all that matters. It's just they just got to get in every win though. Every game is crucial at this point. They cannot let these games against Colorado Rockies slip past them. And this one absolutely did that. Yeah, it's just such a, it's, it's, you can't, you can't have losses like this in, in a, in a wildcard race that is the way that this one is going.

I mean, it, it, it is kind of unfortunate, because it feels like in a lot of years, we talked about it from last season, like we, we would be easily into the wild card. Like, it wouldn't even really be that, that much of a discussion. But granted, the Cubs were kind of in a similar spot last year during their collapse that they had down the stretch. And now the Diamondback. find themselves just only a game up. I mean, it's a, it's going to be, it's going to be shaky down the stretch here, Derek. I think, you know, we, I think we were hoping, I guess, as a collective, that this would be a little bit easier than last season in terms of making our way into the playoffs.

But it looks like it could come down to that final stretch again. And I'll tell you what, I don't want to be playing the Padres needing to win baseball games to make the playoffs at the end of the year. No. and somebody in the chat was absolutely right when they said it. But yeah, they're saying the same thing about the Diamondbacks playing the Padres in that last series, right? It's not something you're confident about. But again, the Diamondbacks do have the ability to still win their way in,

no matter how bad things get there late. There's a lot of games left, but not a lot for them to be completely knocked out of it. You know what I mean? there's there's always hope and i know it feels depressing after a game like this but the i'mbacks could come back still win this series against the rockies and still be in a great spot depending on how those other games work out but we do have to give our king snake to somebody most don't deserve it in this one few do but of course the one that does deserve it is merrill kelly uh because he was great for this team tonight went six innings pitch two hits gave up one

run struck out five and again probably could have gone seven you know But that's, that's, that's, that's just me saying that based on how the results went and looking through those 2020 hindsight glasses. Yeah. I mean, no one else deserved this tonight. Like there, there's not at one point, Derek, you texted me, well, inside baseball here. And you said, what do we even do for King Snake? And I think we just came to the conclusion that there's literally one person that possibly could have won it. And the rest of the team just, I mean, not even.

even close. So, yeah, it sucks when you give out Kingsnakes and performance games like this. Like, it kind of feels, you know, like we're just like handing out a token participation trophy. But truly, Merrill Kelly is like, he looks pretty good recently. Last few outings has been solid. And, you know, it's, we're going to need more outings like that because I think he's, he's got what, two more starts left or is it only one now down the stretch?

It should be two. They have 12 more games to play. Let's hope you. Yeah, let's hope. But we appreciate all of you guys for all of your crazy negative statements in the group chat. Go off. That's what you're here for. Vents, I don't care.

Thunderbolt, welcome. Say all, fire everybody, Thunderbolt. We appreciate you guys all. We often talk about our chat being very. as far as compared to the other chats around here at this company, we talk about this chat being very kumbaya. You know, there's a lot of, I try to cultivate the vibes.

I try my best, right? At the very least, with 162 game season, I try to remind everybody to chill as much as possible, right? And of course, that gets me thrown into loving Tori, which I do. I'm not even,

I don't even try to hide that. And capping for this team, which I don't do. I never do that. I just have to be nice and watch what I say because I got in trouble one time. But I will say that, you know, hey, every single one of these games are matter, right? And I take back what I said to Elise because apparently with the way these other teams won't stop from winning, they are all must wins. And at this point, it very, very much feels like it's a must win for this team.

But we do thank you guys all for being here in the PHN Sports YouTube channel. If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, do so now. Sign up for notifications. If you haven't done so already, that way you know whenever our wonderful shows go live. We did an emergency podcast yesterday based on that fun win. And again, with playoffs right around the corner and all of these very, very crucial games happening, you never know when we're going to go live.

So make sure to join us for that. Of course, if you are listening on the audio podcasting side, we appreciate you over there as well. Make sure you subscribe on your favorite audio podcasting app. us a review. We appreciate it. Those five-star reviews mean the world to us. We will talk a little bit more about this game, even though I don't want to. We'll also have Jesse Friedman joining us here from Coorsfield shortly. But first, we have to talk about Empire Today because Empire Today has some amazing options for you as a customer. And when I say options, I mean ability to check out

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And of course, again, you do you at Heela Resorts and Casinos. Visit play atheila.com for more details. All right. Well, Damon, let's take a look at the count presented by Desert Financial Credit Union, because this one, is a bit ugly. Diamondbacks lose to the Rockies three to two. They actually out hit the Rockies eight to four. Runners in scoring position, Rockies were 0 for four.

Diamondbacks were one for four. Extra base hits, both teams had two. And of course, that XBA that I talked about earlier, the Diamondbacks expected batting average in this one was 312. Sean's not wrong. Look away, chat. Avert your eyes, children. This is not a good post game.

count it's just not 205 expected batting average for the rockies and i do not know how the diamondbacks lost this game but that that's what i'm saying when you see an xb ab a of that you see the diamondbacks got eight hits they hit into four double plays you know that there were a couple of things that went wrong for them luck and some great defense by the rockies and like there's a few of you including my man thunderbolt who i love you thunderbolt uh who are saying like how do you lose to the rockies uh who are saying like how do you lose to the Rockies, it's the Rockies. This is a team that has been out of the anything since April, right? And this is a team that really has a bunch of no-name guys. And maybe that's it. Maybe it's a lack of information that the Diamondbacks had on the Rockies due to the fact that they have so many young players that they've called up recently. Maybe it's the fact that this team is a different team and that they are playing for a bit more than wins. They're kind of all playing for playing time and to kind of be thought of to be included. you know, in this Rockies team moving forward. But you got to tip your cap because they played a great game tonight.

And a big reason why the Diamondbacks were held, the way that they were held was some great pitching and some great defense from the Rockies. It's not an excuse sometimes when you just get beat by the opposition. But the Diamondbacks also had a few things not go their way tonight as well when you could look at that expecting batting average and see the way things went. But this one, not great. Not great, Damon. No. You have anything else on this one? Because I want to,

I want to like flush this one as fast as possible. It's what you talked about earlier, like, or you mentioned it with the double plays. That's how you lose the game. You double their hit total. The reason you lose the game is because your situational hitting was not only like invisible,

but it was detrimental to what you were trying to do. You're getting runners on and immediately there's a cleared basis. So, yeah. I mean, I think that's the, that's, it's simple. That's where the loss lies. And I do have to say, though, that this, this Seth Halverson guy, yeah, he was pretty nasty. He was nasty.

I don't even think that that's a scouting report thing. I was, that guy was disgusting. Like he just a hundred plus and then dropping an 87 mile per hour splitter in the zone. Like it was wild. Yeah, he was really, really good. I don't think that that's like a scouting report thing. That looks like the Rockies might have a guy there. Yeah, well, of course, the Diamondbacks still have two more against them,

four more against that nasty Brewer squad that we saw. And then I don't know, like this was supposed to be the easy one, right? Well, not so easy. But of course, the Diamondbacks did win that game yesterday against the Brewers. And I think we have video from Jesse in regards to Tori talking about tracking that game. I don't know if you remember, but Tori was not actually managing the Diamondbacks win against the Brewers. He was attending Billy Bean's funeral. This is what Tori had to say on tracking the game himself over the course of the day. Yeah, I was watching on my phone and probably

a place that I shouldn't have been watching on my phone. And I was just keeping track of the score. We were up five to nothing and the first time I looked at it and I felt good about that and went back to some conversations. And then next, you know, we were down seven to five. So I don't know how it happened, but I got filled in pretty quickly postgame with the front office conversations and different things that happened. But I think I was, I was tuned in very, very well once we got back in or got back into the game in the 10th inning. So, especially the guys how proud I wasn't. They fought. There's a strong desire to link up, stay together, fight together, and go out and make good things happen. And Monty back says it best. He says,

Billy wouldn't mind if you took a look. Yeah, that's probably not, you're not wrong there. But Tori, much like all of us at events that he shouldn't be watching sports is watching sports. But yeah, this one not so great. Tori got to be present for this one. He did also say pregame talked about Adrian Del Castillo being sent down. Here's what Tori had to say about sending ADC down. Yeah, it's a secondhand conversation.

it was continue working defensively. You know, there are hard conversations because he's been so impactful for us. Came in here and he helped us from baseball game. So not to try and do too much offensively. Continue learning and growing about pitch sequencing and what the stuff looks like. But mostly from a defensive standpoint, we challenge them to continue growing and getting better. That's kind of the short version of the way of career. I think so.

I think that was told him, right? Where they're at right now defensively, we have hair. Herrera head, correct. Makes sense. And it's something we've talked about a bit. Adrian Del Castillo was wonderful for this team while he was here. He made a lot of mistakes. There were a lot of shortcomings that got exposed at a major league level.

But I think he's still developing and hopefully he can still provide something wonderful for this team coming up here at some point. You know, I still think he could be a future catcher for this team. He proved that he could play at a major level. Yeah, no, I mean, I think. A lot of teams in baseball, I think, will value hitting significantly higher than defense. I mean, catcher is a little different because it's such an impactful defensive position. But I just think the Diamondbacks are just not that team. And if they think that you're not up to snuff from a defensive standpoint,

they'll send you down and tell you, you got to get better at it. It's similar to Blaze. And I know he had a really hot start and cooled off significantly. But I remember we were having those conversations at that point, too, of like, even though Blaze is hitting 300, he's probably going to get sent down when people start getting back healthy because he can't defend.

And I think Del Castillo, it was like Jesse was, was tooting that horn the entire time of like, that he's just not the caliber of defender that they need on that position and he's going to have to go work on things. So I think we all really like what we saw from ADC and think that he has a bright future here.

And I love the idea of a platoon with Gabby and ADC if that can be something that we have in the future. But yeah, he needs to improve that defensive aspect, especially those throwing runners out part of things. Yeah, his arm and getting runners was definitely a weakness of his for sure. But of course,

we are ready to hear some more from the man, the myth, the legend coming to us from Coors Field. It's the one and only thunderstick Jesse Friedman. Jesse, welcome in. we've already talked about this one. And of course, I know we're contractually obligated to talk about it some more

since you are there in Colorado at Coorsfield. But I would much rather hear about your airplane ride or anything else at this point than this game because it made me very, very sad. And I want to scream so much after seeing the Diamondbacks lose this one. Well, the weather's great, Derek. We could just talk about the lovely Denver weather. I know that, no, that makes me sad too. Yeah, I think no matter what I say.

It's pretty lovely here today. I can't lie. I think it was in the low 90s today. So I don't hate that. But I'm sure it's much cooler and much nicer where you're at. Just wasn't, I guess was cold enough to cool off the Diamondbacks bats in this one. It was. Yeah.

I mean, just a, just a bizarre day for the Diamondbacks offensively. It wasn't like they didn't have base runners. I mean, they did. I think they had the first man. on in the inning five out of six times, you know, during one pretty elongated stretch of this game. So they had their, their opportunities for sure. I guess you could maybe criticize the fact there wasn't a ton of slug from the diamondbacks in this game. Obviously, you had the Corbyn triple and then they could tell home run off the top. But then after that, I believe there was

literally nothing outside of singles for the debacks thrust of the way. So yeah, it's, as we've said in the past. If everything's a single, it's tough to score that way. And it's especially tough when basically all of the base runners you get are immediately erased because of a double play or because of a caught stealing, which also happened in this game, Corby and Carroll caught stealing second by Hunter Goodman, who had never caught a base stealer in his major league career coming into today. So just, yeah, I mean, one of the most brutal losses of the year for the Diamondbacks is a game that you figured, all right, you're up to nothing, two batters into the game. you're probably going to coast to a victory here.

Merrill Kelly on the mound who did pitch really well. And obviously it did not end that way. Yeah. And, you know, I think the most frustrating part about it is its course field. With the way that this Diamondbacks offense has been producing, you just figured at any point, you know, that big, that big inning was right around the corner, that big output. And the more you saw them struggle as a group,

the more you got that sinking feeling that it wasn't going to happen. Four double plays. Four double plays just absolutely killed any momentum that they had going at times. And I mean, the body language and everything was very telling of this team. Like I don't understand why they look so defeated, but it really did after, you know, after about inning five or six, you really did start to see these guys not look like they were,

you know, at the top of their game. Yeah, you're right. There is a lot of frustrated body language throughout this one. Catele-Marty, when he struck out in what I believe was his final at bat of the game, he looked just totally disgusted. And I mean, understandably so, right? Like, you don't necessarily want players to withhold all emotion in those kind of moments. It can be okay to let out some, you know, express your feelings in a moment like that,

which Cotel certainly did. But there was a lot of that throughout the game. It just felt like the Diamondbacks couldn't get out of their own way in this one, frankly. they had plenty of opportunities, as we said. They had plenty of base runners. I mean, the Rockies only had four hits in this game, but two of them went over the fence. And the other one of the others was a single by Brent and Doyle that came on a,

on an 02 pitch from Ryan Thompson. Ryan Thompson threw about a center cut of a four-seem fastball as you'll ever see. And Doyle just knocks it out to right fields for a single. He instantly steals second base, which I thought was interesting. you kind of figured that once Gabriel Moreno returned for the Diamondbacks hit the whole base stealing thing would at least become less of an issue. Yeah.

Fred Doyle is obviously very fast, but he wasted no time. He ran instantly on the very first pitch there. So just in all facets, just a brutal day for the debacks. I guess silver lining again being the fact that Merrill Kelly did look pretty good in this game. Yeah. And I mean, you get to that point where that's, you know, the one thing that you take away. and that's positive Merrill Kelly gave them an opportunity to win. But still, at Coors Field, with the, with the number one offense in baseball,

it just didn't feel like the Diamondbacks did a good enough job of playing situational baseball, right? Like, obviously, the Diamondbacks were being dominated a bit by the Rocky's bullpen. And at one point, it felt like there needed to be something, you know, some more work being put in. There were a lot of, you know, first pitch out. and, you know, especially hitting into those double play, swinging at the first pitch. It was just an impatient night.

And I guess maybe that's it. Maybe the fact that it's course field. These guys were just chomping at the bit to go out there and smash the ball over the wall. And that wasn't happening for really either team much tonight. Like neither team had much going on offensively. Yeah. And I think it's also important to note that the Rockies have, like I'm not going to say the Rockies has been playing great lately, but the Rockies have been playing better.

I mean, they just took two out of three against the Chicago Cubs, who are a team that whatever was left of their playoff hope. So they basically ended over the weekend when they lost two out of three here at Cores. And we've seen the, we've seen the Rockies do this to other teams. They took a series from the Padres here, I believe it was last month. And I think the Braves as well, they took two out of three games here. So they have the ability to play spoiler. And especially in this ballpark, this is not a prototypical course field game.

obviously just being a final score of three to two. But Corsefield still came into play, Derek. There were still five balls that were 89 miles an hour off the bat that pushed Pavin Smith to the warning track. And most notably, I think both of the home runs that the Rockies hit tonight, I'm not totally sure that those are not homers in other ballparks. It's a hard thing to prove. It's hard to tell exactly how far those would have gone in another ballpark.

but they went pretty far. Ezekiel Tovar's home run, it just sort of kept going. Like as someone who was sitting sort of behind home plate, it was kind of stunning. I mean, he did hit it hard. It was 102 miles an hour off the bat, but generally speaking,

to go to right center field, 102 miles an hour at I think it was a 34 degree launch angle. That's not usually going to do it to that part of the ballpark. And it just kept flying and flying and flying. And it wasn't even really close. Like it cleared the, it cleared the fence out there pretty comfortably. So,

course definitely, uh, you definitely saw, uh, the impact of that in this one. Zach's not wrong. I'm still blaming the lack of offense on Garrett Stubbs myself. Yeah,

he's right. Um, I don't know, Jesse. This one's depressing. And now we have, uh, from the Rockies insider,

Patrick Lyons in our chat. Uh, and he is saying, Derek do the deal? back slack, a killer instinct. See, this is why Patrick's not invited back on this show. It's things like this. It's this pun.

It's the, now's not the time for your jokes, Patrick. Okay? I get it. Yeah, there's a video game behind me, killer instinct with winky face. Oh, I'm thankful to listeners don't have to see that. Anyway, we'll have more from Jesse, from the clubhouse, of course, here shortly. We do. excuse me once again thank you guys for being diehards if you guys are not a diehard

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guesswork out of buying tickets with GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account and use code pH and X for $20 off your first purchase. Terms do apply. Again, create an account and redeem code pHNX for $20 off. Download game time today. What time is it? It's game time. All right, Jesse. Well, what do you have for us? Because I know this was a frustrating night for the offense. What did you have for us in regards to the offense tonight? Yeah, we'll start with Tori, just talking about the Diamondbacks approach at the play. We talked earlier about some of the aggressive approaches that they had, the three pitch inning and all that. Here's what Tori had to say. I don't know. I think we beat a couple

balls into the ground. We hit a couple balls hard that didn't go our way. I just want, I want patient approaches. I think that's what we're so good at. And just driving up pitch counts and really forcing the pitcher into the trap game. And we had some early goes, and it didn't give us great results. So that, to me, is the most important thing. Course field, you don't expect a three to two game. You're more or less expecting a nine to eight game. But their pitchers did a good job.

Did that feel like that? I think there was a three pitch inning in there. Is that the blood first? Yeah, those are things we got to be better with. It was the leadoff batter on. I think Jerry swung at a high breaking ball. and then Corbett's won the third pitch of the inning. So we just, we use it as a learning and teaching moment.

We're not going to miss that opportunity to talk to those guys. Well, I mean, the plate approaches weren't great tonight, but I do, I do agree with Tori in regards to tipping your cap to the, you know, Rocky's bullpen. Their pitchers did a great job. And they came out and, I mean, they've been pretty good since being called up. It's a lot of young guys that have been, that made their debut for the Rockies this season. But they've come together.

be very solid. And Patrick and others tried to warn me about their bullpen. And we got to see it firsthand tonight. Yeah, yeah. I mean, Seth Halverson coming out and throwing 101 miles an hour. There's some new characters

in this Rocky's bullpen for sure. And yeah, to some extent, those guys should get credit. Right. I think especially Halverson, who really looked very good going up against the middle of the Diamondbacks lineup. I know he did give up a couple hits in a second inning. But again, a double play ball, uh, sort of helped out in that situation.

So at the end of the day, like, I mean, Anthony Molina came in as, as frankly one of the worst pitchers in all of baseball. And you already seven and he threw three scoreless innings today. That's something that just can't happen. If you're the diamondbacks, if you're the best offense in baseball, you've scored the most runs in the league by a wide margin in this ballpark against that pitcher. You just, you just can't let that happen. Uh, or if, or if that does happen against him, you know, you got to, you got to find a way against some of these other guys. So definitely the Rockies pitching staff deserves some credit. There are some guys here. It'd be interesting to see Halverson, how his career, the evolution of his career over time,

he was a, I think it was a seventh round pick just last year. So it's pretty remarkable that he's already pitching in the majors. But yeah, the debacks needed to be better. And you heard Tori talk there about the approach and how, you know, sometimes if the first two guys, if you've got two outs in an inning on two pitches, it's generally in your best interest to try to make the pitcher work a little bit. And in that spot, Corbyn Carroll, you know, was still swinging at the first pitch, grounds out. And there were a lot of other similar situations in this game as well. A lot of, a lack of patience tonight at the plate. And it ruined a wonderful outing tonight from Merrill Kelly. This is what Merrill Kelly had to say in regards to his outing tonight.

Yeah, I mean, we had a conversation I told him I was good with either. I could give him another one. But honestly, today I was pretty tired. I don't know if it was just one of those games that people talked about in Colorado that kind of the body just has a tough time getting going. And from the first inning, that's really kind of how I felt today. It was just kind of a grinding day as far as how my body was moving and how it was firing. But yeah, Like I said, I told Tori after the seventh that I was, or after the six, I was good with the other way. And, you know, I think with what happened last game and where we were at, obviously having the lead helps. But I think at that time, that was just the decision that was made.

Given that you felt that way, a little bit like it was a grind, but the results were really good. You have to be pleased with that. Yeah, yeah, well, definitely how I felt. I'm, you know, I'm okay with how it went today. Well, that one, that hurts a little bit because you, you know, it was definitely. know Merrill really gave them everything that they were looking for. And maybe Merrill needed to give them one extra inning. Like he had,

he looked like he had it left in him, even though he kind of struggled there in the fifth inning. And then, of course, that hindsight helps my opinion on that when Kevin Ginkle comes in and gives up that Homer. Yeah, it was interesting to hear Merrill there talk about how he felt tired. It does not sound like this was totally a,

you know, Tori Lavello decided to take him out of this game unequivocally. You know, you've got no chance to go back out there. Although, who's to say, you know, maybe if Merrill feels totally fine and normal, maybe Tori still makes the decision that he did. And I think that, I think that is a fair, reasonable decision for Tori to make, right? This is a guy who's really, really important to the debacks the rest of the way,

and he's had this cramping issue that continues to pop up that, you know, obviously resulted in him leaving his most recent start early. So I don't really have an issue with Tori being conservative. especially in this ballpark and given the way that Merrill felt the fact that he was willing to go on the record and say I felt pretty tired. It's hard for me to really criticize that decision. Yeah, for sure. He doesn't normally do that. Normally Merrill fights him, right?

But of course, Kevin Ginkle, who has been so solid for this team, did give up that home run. Here's what Gink had to say about that homer. It's frustrating, extremely frustrating, especially just coming off the game yesterday, where, you know, we had a lead and I gave up some costly runs. And so, yeah, I think with the Goodman at bat, you know, it was a 1-0 slider. Obviously, I think he was anticipating it. It wasn't my best slider I've thrown, but it wasn't horrible. And for anything, I was not expecting that to be a home run.

Like, I was maybe expecting maybe a double, if anything. So, yeah, that part of it's extremely frustrating. and, you know, allow them to tie the game there. Do you feel like, you know, again, like I mentioned the two outs, I know the results are what matters, but do you feel like you're close to getting back on track? Yeah. You know, I think there are some pitches yesterday

where they were kind of fluky. You know, I think that's just baseball sometimes. It just stinks that it's at this point in the season now. And, you know, I just kind of have to keep going. I feel like I'm doing a decent job. It's just the results just haven't been there. And so it's just frustrating. I know, you know, this was a game that we wanted to win.

We needed to win. And then we go our way. So we'll be ready tomorrow. How is he so calm? How is that man that is so fired up after he gets out of an inning? So genteel, so eloquent there after the loss. Like, it's, you got to be frustrated, but that's what baseball is, right?

In order for you to have success in this game, you got to be able to, you know, make a mistake like that and still come out. I mean, he has not been good in his last two outings, but Kevin Ginkle, he's very important to this team, and they need them, they need them to get back on track.

Yeah, and I think you can hear some frustration there, right? He's talking about how, you know, I thought maybe it'd be a double. I did not expect you to be Homer. and later he did he did you know yeah he did say later in the interview we don't have this part on video but yeah he said with a little help from course field something along those lines talking about hunter goodman's homer which i don't think is a totally crazy thing to say obviously took responsibility as well um and yeah it's a tough couple of days for him right i mean kevin ginkle

thinking back to where he was last year at this time going into the playoffs he was was on a really, really nice run. And I mean, not that long ago, Kevin Ginkle was on a really nice run this year, too. I think he went about a month without giving up an earned run from the beginning of August, the beginning of September, just had a couple of rough outings here recently. So, yeah, it's been a frustrating couple days for him,

especially given that, you know, maybe Goodman's Homer is a double in a different ballpark. He talked also about his outing yesterday against the Brewers and how, you know, Willie Adomas's double down the line that gave the Brewers a two-run lead. That was like 83 miles an hour off the bat. He didn't think that was a terrible pitch. He also referenced Jackson Cheerios hit in that inning as well as something that,

you know, maybe it wasn't as much hard contact as the numbers would lead you to believe. So a tough couple of days for him, but look, he's really important to what the debacks do. He obviously was their best reliever in the postseason last year. And he's a guy that you have to stick by even when things aren't going so well right now. Well, this last one's going to break Damon's heart and maybe mine just a little bit. But we have Jerry P. Geraldo Perdomo on that error that ended up costing the Diamondbacks to game in this one. Here's what Domo had to say. If you're after the bat throw, I realize I have more time to make, you know, being like nice and easy.

But I'm just rushing, you know. Sorry for the guy. the fighting today in Amaro, 16th inning, Pug, uh, don't zone is, it was all on me right there.

Oh, that's heart wrenching. That's heart wrenching. Um, and yeah, to at least admit that you rushed it, you, you realize later that you had enough time.

I'm sure that's what a lot of us saw on the broadcast, like it didn't appear like it needed to be, uh, thrown like that. But that's almost, that's almost the reason, the diamondbacks lost this game in more than one ways, right? They were just very impatient tonight on defense and on offense and it ended up costing them

the game. It seemed like, yeah, maybe they kind of started pressing there in the middle ittings. Like once you hit into the third double play, you're like, all right, we're just we just got you know, I guess be more aggressive. Yeah, we got to make something happen. Yeah, yeah, exactly. You got to make something happen. And especially in this ballpark, you feel like, you know, being aggressive,

aggressive swinger, especially when a Rocky's pitcher is throwing a lot of strikes. You feel pretty good about what could happen there. But yeah, that play in the ninth was just so uncharacteristic from Geraldo Podomo. And he very rarely makes throwing airs. And yeah, his clock was just totally messed up there. You look back at the replay and he had plenty of time. I know it was a bit of a slow roller off the bat. So maybe he just felt that Brendan Rogers was a little faster than he actually is.

But that was obviously a brutal. but also kind of fitting end to this game. I mean, that's just kind of encapsulates how the Diamondbacks played, right? It was really about as poor as we've seen. Again, Merrill was good, but in a lot of those other facets of this game. I wish you were with me, Jesse, because I was doing that thing I do where I watch Game Day and the game on TV. And on Game Day, they have that little feature where you can see like a live-like GPS

of where all the runners and all the defenders are located. And I was watching it on that play. And I saw the ball sail past the first baseman. And in game day, it looked like it went out into the crowd. And I was like, what happened there? What glitched on this little thing? There was no glitch. It's exactly what happened.

But Diamondbacks lose a very important game tonight, three to two. And of course, Pardomo, he never lies. He takes full responsibility for this. Of course, we also know another thing that does not lie. And that's the numbers, Jesse. What do you have for tonight's number that does not lie? I kind of referenced this briefly earlier. The number is 20.

And that is the number of pitches that Anthony Molina through to get nine outs in this game. He entered in a bit of a precarious situation, right? This was Antonio Sensatella gave up a single and a walk to start the fourth inning. and Anthony Molina again, who came in with about as bad of a stat line as you'll find in this game, frankly. And he instantly gets a line out double play from Jake McCarthy, which was really caused by a base running mistake by Christian Walker over at second. And then Ehuhenio Suarez very nearly hit a home run. But that one, he hit it to the wrong part of the park. He hit it much farther than Hunter Goodman hit his home run or I think even Ezekiel Tovar hit his home run.

maybe similar to that one. But yeah, he hit it like to straightaway center field, which is obviously a little bit difficult. Brent and Doyle made a nice play there. And then, yeah, he just kept on cruising. It was a three-pitch fifth inning. That's the thing we referenced earlier. And then he came back and threw a 12-pitched sixth inning.

So to allow Molina to come in and not only pitch out of a tough spot like that, but get nine outs on 20 pitches. For me, that's really where this game started to shift. And honestly, watching this game here in person, it felt like the game was sort of lost at that point. It just felt like this wasn't going to be the Diamondbacks kind of night. And sure enough, that's what happened.

Well, I know this is a rare post game on a Monday, Jesse, but it's still a Monday. And you know, of course, that every year is our year. Every month on this show, Jesse, is Hispanic Heritage Month. Every week is Shark Week. Every day is Earth Day. And we are still very quickly and very briefly.

going to the mailbag Damon, do you have to be my mailbox always something interesting in my mailbox I'm trying to get to everything

in my mailbox and then once it makes me go out Jesse might have to leave before we wrap this up because they're going to literally close the press box down on him but I can't let you get out of here

without answering a few questions Damon, you got the first one for us all right we got Ryan Nelson excuse me our leadoff hitter Travis Moore at Moore for me asks is Ryan Nelson

still live to possible to possibly still be in the starting rotation for the playoffs. If not, who has the nod behind Gallin and Kelly, since I assume they're still one and two as long as they stay healthy. Jesse, what are your thoughts on Ryan Nelson? Of course, it sounds

like he will be back before the playoffs, right? It sounds like he should be back hypothetically for that last series with the Padres. Yeah, I mean, I think there's a chance that he will be. That's what the Diamondbacks are hoping for.

Tori said that he was very optimistic that Ryan Nelson would be able to come back around that 15th, 16th day, which would have him pitching in that Padre series at the end of the year. And if he does pitch in the Padre series at the end of the year, then, you know, I don't see a reason why he couldn't start a playoff game for you. But I think it's important to be realistic here and just recognize this is a shoulder injury. I don't, you know, I don't know exactly the level of severity. here, but shoulder inflammation is not always just like a 15-day thing, even though it sounds kind of minor.

So best case scenario, yes, I think it's very possible that Ryan Nelson is able to check all these boxes and pitch in a potential playoff series, but I don't think it's a given. It's not something I would assume at this point. Yeah. And then in that case, it would be Merrill Kelly. It would be Zach Galland, Zach Gallon Merrill Kelly, one, two. And then probably Brandon fought going after them or maybe Eduardo Rodriguez. guess because of the matchup.

I don't know. I mean, Tori might go to his left-hander. Yeah, I don't. I don't know. I don't know what a game three would be like. But that's a long ways from now, Derek. Debacks have a lot to accomplish. We'll get to you ahead of ourselves here.

We can't put the cart before the horse. Damon, what else we got? This one comes from at D-Backs, basically, at D-backs, with a four there for the A. And DeBacks asked, is Jarvis shut down for the year? Because his time on the 60 day, IL is up on September 29th, would be amazing if he could be an option for the pen in October. I do not believe so.

I remember from one press conference with Tori that he said that Bryce Jarvis wouldn't be back this season. Jesse, anything that you would know that could contradict that? Yeah, I'd have to double check on this. I wouldn't totally rule out that possibility. It feels doubtful to me, but I don't think it is completely impossible that Bryce Jarvis could pitch again this season.

I heard something about him doing some sort of activities and maybe trying to work his way back for something like that. So maybe I'll double check on that with Tori tomorrow and get a more confident answer. But I wouldn't rule that out completely at this point. All right, Damon, we got one more. Let's get one more before we go. All right.

Our guy Jacob Schultz says, okay, Derek, with football season and full swing, I need to know, can the Cardinals borrow Corbyn Carol as a slot wide receiver? Corbyn, Jake McCarthy as a running back and Christian Walker as a linebacker after the season is over. Please add any other players that you would want to pick. And I think this is a very good question. Jesse, I know you're not a big football guy. typically, but I know you're really into it now with fantasy football. You had a huge win tonight over Shane, a dramatic win that rocked the PHNX fantasy football league, one for the ages for sure.

But anybody else you're you're throwing out there? So can we pull up the list one more time? So we got we got we got Corby and carol in there. It's a slot wide receiver. Jake McCarthy has a running back and then Christian Walker at linebacker. Justin Martinez at free safety. I don't hate that. I don't hate that.

That seems like an intimidating presence over there in the middle for sure. I mean, I think like Alec Thomas, maybe like his athleticism in the middle of the field. Yeah. Against the deep ball. I'm sure that Gallon looks like a quarterback. There somehow. Yeah.

You know, is that gallon quarterback? Yeah, Perdomo's wide receiver material. He has wide receiver all over him. They were actually throwing a football around. today on the field as well as in the clubhouse something we see every every once in a while um that's not what the nine acts uh no not really it was a pretty leisurely pretty leisurely game of football um but uh yeah i think that's that's about all i all i got for you here Derek they're about to close these windows so i should probably leave all right i'm gonna i'm gonna

go ahead and i'm gonna let jessie get out of here you make sure to follow jessie and freedman on Twitter. And thank you again. We'll see you tomorrow night with another postgame show. And I'm going to bring, I'm going to bring in Damon. I'm going to bring in the reliever

because I'm going to need Damon to help me close this thing out. Damon, who do you got from the Diamondbacks going to help the Arizona Cardinals? They didn't look like they needed much help with the way they handled the Rams. The first time beating the Los Angeles Rams at home ever in the existence

of Los Angeles being the Los Angeles Rams. But who you send it over there? Well, first off, I know Jesse mentioned him real quick, but I think Alec Thomas has to be playing free safety. I want, I want, they, they oftentimes call free safeties playing center field. Center field. That's right. Yeah. So we're dropping our, we're dropping Buda Baker into the box and we're keeping Alec Thomas up top.

Just roaming center field. Yeah. Anything it gets thrown in the air. He's just tracking it down. I like Gabby. You have Buda Baker. You have Buda Baker still spying the running back and keeping Will. Williams in check the way that he did in this entire game and ruined my fantasy football team.

Who else you putting out there? Perdomo at wide receiver. Do you see Jerry P out there? Yeah, he just doesn't strike me as much of a football player, to be honest with you. But I love Gabby at fullback. Just short, center to the ground, pulling, you know, hitting the whole hard. I think I think that's a great. I mean, how do you tackle Gabby?

The guy is stocky and not tall. I mean, that's low man wins. So I love, I love Gabby at fullback. I think Christian Walker's got to do something to hurt somebody. Yeah, middle linebacker. I still like him at linebacker. I said Zach Gallen at quarterback earlier, but to be honest, based on his mannerisms, I feel like Merrill Kelly would be more of the quarterback.

You know, Merrill Kelly? Like when you see Merrill Kelly's face when he's frustrated, Marrell Kelly, when he gives up a home run, his expression, it's very quarterback-like when wide receiver drops a pass, right? You know, that's that same type of like just level of frustration. He also looks like the scrappy Gardner Minshue type, right? Like the guy that's like going to have the great underdog story and he doesn't belong here, but somehow he's a starting quarterback for an NFL team.

I mean, we don't need one. We don't need one on the Cardinals. We don't need any of these positions because the Cardinals did a fine job. once they threw to Marvin Harrison Jr. all of the problems were solved. And of course, that's what the Diamondbacks need to figure out. What is our throw to Marvin Harrison Jr.?

I don't know right now, but this team needs to figure it out offensively. I'll tell you, you know what? Derek, this actually. They stalls suck. This is a perfect time to talk about this.

I mean, you brought up Marvin Harrison Jr. The Diamondbacks are currently, they have that one game leading the wild card. You know what we need to do? Hold the line. Hold, Derek. Hold.

The, this is, this is word. The diamond backs are John Snow. This is the battle of the bastards. The whole, all of the horses are running at us. Hold your position, gentlemen. This is a, we need to. We need to. We need to get you in the clubhouse.

We need you to get to go. Forget Jesse being there. We need you to be there. And we need you to fire up the boys because they need to. did that after listless performance tonight. But of course, they have a chance to still win the series. They have a chance to make up for it tomorrow with Jordan Montgomery on the mound for the Erd Zone of Diamondback.

So who knows what's going to happen. But we will be here to cover it. Make sure to join us 20 minutes after the final out. And we'll bring you more, including Jesse still being in Colorado. So until then, hold the line, H-TL. Hit that like button before you get out of here. Make sure you follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K.

This man next to me is at Damon Dog. That's D-A-W-G. I am Damon's dogs. Bark, bark, of course. It's a little different when Jesse isn't here. Our show is at P-H-N-X underscore D-Backs, but all roads do lead to at P-H-N-X underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

We thank you guys so much for stopping by. We appreciate your time. We will see you tomorrow night. And until then, have a wonderful evening. And remember, kids, baseball is fun. But it's so much more fun when you score. runs at Coorsfield, my God.