PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Merrill Kelly Tosses Gem But Diamondbacks Can’t Solve Giants Bullpen After Blake Snell’s Early Exit

Starting point is 00:00:03 We have a clock. I think it works. Yeah, welcome in to Studio K. That's not the lost music, but we don't care because the Diamondback still won this series. And you know what? We're going to keep the vibes high. I've been doing pretty good for a minute there, Derek. You know what?

Starting point is 00:00:21 I don't care. I like this song. I'd rather hear this one than that other one. And the way this game went, still feels kind of like a weird win because Merrill Kelly is back. And we're going to talk about that. Of course, Diamondbacks did lose this game, though, three to two. My name is Derek Monti, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX now, then, and forever. This man next to me may not be my vice mayor for much longer, but he still has a term to finish up.

Starting point is 00:00:45 It's your thunderstake, Jesse Friedman. And of course, we are brought to you by Bet365. Download the Bet365 app and use code PHNX 365. When you sign up, choose your offer, and find out why it is never ordinary at Bet365. And of course, it's just the easiest transition in the world because it is never ordinary. when you're watching a baseball game in general, but especially Diamondbacks brand baseball this season. This was a game where we thought we were going to see the D-backs absolutely held in check by Blake Snell, who has been very, very good for the Giants over the last stretch.

Starting point is 00:01:20 But the Diamondbacks had a good game plan today against Snell, and it worked, but they may have shot themselves in the foot. It might have worked too well because they didn't seem to have a game plan for the Giants bullpen. Of course, Jesse, what do you think about this game? Yeah, I told you, what was it, about 12, 41 p.m. A few minutes before this game started. I wasn't totally sure how many runs the Diamondbacks were going to score against Blake's now. But I felt somewhat confident that the Diamondbacks would make him work and find a way to get

Starting point is 00:01:50 him out of the game fairly early. And granted, I don't think that was any kind of crazy me seeing the future. The Diamondbacks are just a really good team when it comes to seeing a lot of pitches and making the opposing starter work. and they did that exceptionally well in the first inning of this game against Blake Snell. They made him throw 42 pitches in that first inning. And I was a little surprised by it. I still figured that Blake Snell would at least come out for the second.

Starting point is 00:02:16 You know, maybe you're still able to get three, four innings out of him, something like that. But Bob Melvin decided to immediately go to his bullpen, which of course wound up working out extremely well. But yeah, this game in some ways couldn't have started any better for the Diamondbacks going against one of the best starters in baseball here over the last couple of months. Baseball's a weird game, though, sometimes. You know, some days you can hit Blake Snell and you have no answers whatsoever for Landon Rup out of the Giants bullpen as well as everyone else out of that group. It was a really good day for the Giants Relief Corps.

Starting point is 00:02:51 So, yeah, just a brutal loss for the Diamondbacks. They had some opportunities. Merrill Kelly was sensational in this game. We'll get into that more later. But obviously a bit of a stinger with the Giants walking it off there in the 9th. I realized very quickly after the second inning that the Diamondbacks struggle actually in bullpen games. They struggle when you're throwing a lot of pitchers at them. And this was not the best case scenario for them.

Starting point is 00:03:15 But they had a lead early on. And the Diamondbacks, you know, they did the thing that they do. They generated some runs in the first inning. They had a great first inning against Blake Snell. And then that's probably the end of anything that you would call great about their offense today. unfortunately Corbyn Carroll did extend his on base streak to 44 games which continues to be a franchise best in the first inning but his hitting streak did end in this one at 14 games. The Diamondback six game streak of scoring six runs or more is also over and they are now currently 79 and 62 still knocking on the door of 80 wins. But like I said, like I said, they still won the series and I mean Elise I disagree with and I hardly ever disagree with a known baseball GM like Ali.

Starting point is 00:04:00 She said winning series doesn't matter. We got to win games. I get that, but the Diamondbacks still aren't going to win every game down this stretch. So, you know, you got to. But they might need to, Derek. They might need to with the way the other teams are playing. The Baudres and the Brays and all these other teams are playing. Yeah, those teams have just continued to be outrageous, obviously, as we touched on yesterday.

Starting point is 00:04:20 Overall, this was just a terrible day for the Diamondbacks offense. And as much as that first inning was great and they saw a lot of pitches, the Diamondbacks also got some assists from what has continued to be a terrible, terrible Giants defense. Josh Bell with runners at first and second and nobody out in that inning hit what looked like a potential double play ball. Tyler Fitzgerald makes a nice play going to his right to field the ball and then throws wide to second base and suddenly, you know, a potential double play ball turns into Josh Bell being at second.

Starting point is 00:04:52 I believe Corbyn Carroll advanced a third, a run scored on that play. And then there was another play later in the inning where Matt Chapman threw a little bit high to first base. That was originally called. Christian Walker was originally ruled safe at first. That was overturned upon review. The Diamondbacks scored their second run in that inning on a past ball dropped third strike from Patrick Bailey that allowed Jake McCarthy to reach. So even that first inning, like they did see a lot of pitches and the Diamondbacks deserve a lot of credit for that. But it's not like they were knocking the cover off the ball against Blake Snell and then against the Giants relievers. They, you know, just weren't hitting the ball hard at all. Really.

Starting point is 00:05:29 even from the first inning, the debacks weren't making a ton of hard contact. They just sort of took advantage of Snell's command being a little bit off, as well as the Giants defense having a really rough first inning. But they got things locked down after that because the Diamondbacks completely were baffled at the plate by this bullpen. And of course, I do agree that this was a very winnable game. This was with the mistakes the Giants were making with the way the Diamondbacks came out, this appeared to be a very winnable game. You know, I had said Blake Snell was going to give up.

Starting point is 00:05:59 up six earned runs today and he might have had he stayed in the game. Unfortunately, he didn't and they didn't really have an answer. Again, the Diamondbacks just struggle with this kind of pitching sometimes, especially when things pivoted the way they did. I'm sure they weren't expecting to have the success they had against Blake's now, not at least that, that much success, that early that would require him to leave the game. But the Diamondbacks do win their 12th series of their last 15 and they have now won or split 16 of their last 19 series. So hopefully they can keep the winning ways going here in Houston, which we will preview that series a bit later. But first we got to talk about Merrill Kelly because the mainstay is back.

Starting point is 00:06:40 And it was a really good day. Now, again, this isn't the strongest lineup that, you know, San Francisco Giants isn't the best team. You know, and when you look at what Zach Gallen and Merrill did, it's encouraging. But again, you really want to see them, you know, maybe do this against the Padres or another team with a more formidable lineup. But it's just a step in the right direction. We had a lot of concerns about Merrill coming back from this injury with that time off. And it would appear in today's game that he was very, very much Merrill that we know. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:07:11 And yeah, you're absolutely right. I mean, doing this against the Giants versus doing it against the Dodgers are obviously two very different things. But I do think that Merrill, the quality of his pitches today was way better than what we saw the other day against the L.A. Dodgers. We have a couple of graphics here that will. sort of help us illustrate that. We'll start with Merrill's pitch chart against the Dodgers. This is from his last outing. You know, there are some pitches in good spots, but there's a whole lot of pitches here that are right in the middle of the zone as well. We talked about it after that game. Merrill's not merely what we're used to seeing. And that's what he said after the game. He said that,

Starting point is 00:07:48 you know, if I had to sum up, like what's been going wrong for me up to this point since I came back from the injury, it's that my location is just not what it's normally been. And then if we flip this over to what happened today, it looks so much better. There's a lot, way fewer pitches in the middle of the zone. You see the change up there in the green. That's a really important pitch for Merrill. A whole bunch of those pitches right on the black. His command was very, very good today.

Starting point is 00:08:15 It was, it was vintage Merrill Kelly. I guess we'll use that phrase again for the second straight day. And yeah, it was, that's the silver lining from this game. and the series as a whole, even though maybe you feel like the diamond back should have come away with a sweep. The fact that Zach Gallen went six no-hit innings yesterday and Merrill Kelly bounced back today and went seven innings of two run ball with eight strikeouts, didn't walk a single guy. That's really important for the debacks. Getting those two guys back to the level that they were at last year is one of the most important things for this team right now. And we saw that the last couple of days.

Starting point is 00:08:52 How encouraged are you guys by the outing today? I mean, I know he didn't get the win. I know the Diamondbacks don't get the win, but it still has to be a good feeling to see Zach and Merrill have the two outings that they had in this series as we head into the home stretch. So it's very much, at least like I said earlier, a step in the right direction. You feel confident about Merrill Kelly looking more like himself. And then meanwhile, the bullpen wasn't great. And we knew that there was going to be probably some issues with the bullpen today, depending on availability. Joe Mantiply gives up a one-out double there in the bottom of the eighth to Helio Ramos and misplayed a grounder by Michael Conforto.

Starting point is 00:09:33 But Kevin Ginkle gets him out of it. And then Kevin Ginkle comes back in to take the ninth inning. Things don't go his way. He allows a single. It gives up a stolen base, which Adrian Del Castillo, like the throw was, it just, it was like it's like it was in slow motion. It wasn't like his reaction time and the moment was bad. It felt like he actually threw the ball with enough time to get the runner, but he didn't throw the ball hard enough for it to get there in time.

Starting point is 00:10:01 And I mean, ADC, as much as I love him, he has been a liability for this team behind the plate at times. Yeah, there was also a ball that allowed a couple of runners to advance in a key moment, which was also sort of important. I guess it didn't wind up being a difference maker in this game, but Kevin Ginkle bounced a slider. I believe that was in the eighth inning. And, you know, it was a pitch in the dirt, but it was a pitch that Del Castillo probably should have blocked.

Starting point is 00:10:28 And that's another thing that can sort of be concerning late in games. You want Kevin Ginkle, you want Justin Martinez, you want these guys with wipe out secondary stuff to feel comfortable bouncing it in the dirt with a guy on third base. And Adrian Del Castillo has been a little bit shaky as far as blocking goes as well. So, yeah, the Diamondbacks could very much use to have Gabriel Moreno back behind the plate. Certainly, certainly no surprises there. Elise says that down there in the bottom of the chat.

Starting point is 00:10:58 She says the pitchers have been bad at holding runners on since Gabby left. Yeah. Maybe they were always bad and Gabby made up for it. That's, yeah, the latter there is what Tori's explanation kind of was when we asked about difficulties controlling the run game in that Dodger series. He said that DeBack's pitchers need to be better. They need to vary their times to the plate more. They need to be better at just paying attention to guys on first base.

Starting point is 00:11:20 And yeah, I don't want to absolve the pitchers from any blame here. I think that's absolutely valid. But there is also something to be said for the fact that Adrian Del Cascio's pop time, I believe, is in the fifth percentile. And his arm is not terrible, but it's not, you know, I'm pretty sure it's below average from just an arm's strength standpoint as well. So you put those two things together and pitchers are really going to have to do a nice job holding runners to keep guys from going on Del Castillo. and we've just seen teams really kind of go crazy here with the base running in the last couple of weeks. There was a super chat there in regards to this, Damon.

Starting point is 00:12:01 It says from Clayton Ginkle. I don't believe that for a minute. But that's just because this chat has fooled me before. But Clayton Ginkle says, I think the mistake of bringing Kevin back in the ninth was a mistake on Tori's end. He got his revenge from last night, and that should have been hit.

Starting point is 00:12:17 And you're absolutely right. I think that that that was a mistake, right? But on the flip side, our guy, Sean, also has something there in the chat. He said that he said, eh, if you bring in, basically if you, if Tori brings it anyone else, we'd be asking why Gingold didn't get the night, especially if it goes wrong. So, yeah. I mean, I think if AJ Puck could come in, people were probably okay with that. He has pitched on back-to-back days, so I don't know what Tori's comfort level would have been with doing that.

Starting point is 00:12:46 He only faced one batter in the Tuesday game, which was another point of controversy. But maybe given that it was just one batter on Tuesday and I think 12 pitches yesterday, you probably could have brought Puck into this game. I imagine maybe Puck would have pitched the 10th if the Diamondbacks had gotten this game there. But yeah, it was a lot to ask for Ginkle for sure. He didn't pitch in the first game of the series, but he obviously did yesterday and had a bit of a rough go of things. The D-backs are just sort of running out of back end.

Starting point is 00:13:16 bullpen weapons that are that are pitching well right now it's it's just been a rough stretch for a lot of those guys and ginkl came up huge in the eighth inning i mean i don't want to take anything away from that right coming with two on one out uh i think you got four whiffs on his slider to to get out of that tough spot but obviously in in the nine things didn't go as way pitching wasn't the problem in this one jesse it really wasn't i mean the diamondbacks pitching staff gave them a chance to win by only allowing three runs, really the offense today, despite looking like it was going to be a big day early on, despite it looking like a day where they were going to be very patient. They were not very good once they knocked Blake Snell out of this game.

Starting point is 00:13:58 And I mean, again, they did make him to throw 42 pitches in the inning, which is the reason why he was shut down. But, you know, the Giants defensive mistakes absolutely helped the offense today, and that's the reason why the Diamondbacks got one of their runs. So maybe both of their runs. I mean, if Tyler Fitzgerald turns that double play, I don't know if the Diamondbacks wind up scoring anything in the first inning. Although maybe that would have been better because that means that Blake Snell pitches deeper instead of Landon Roof. Who knows what would have happened in that alternate universe. I mean, Jesse might have called the whole thing with Blake Snell, but I did call in that moment that despite the fact Josh Bell was going to hit into a double play, the terrible midfield defense was going to blow it and they did that.

Starting point is 00:14:40 But again, I mean, the Diamondbacks offense just couldn't do much today. And like it feels like maybe it would have been the same case of Blake Snell had a good day. But obviously, like I said earlier, they don't tend to do well in these bullpen type starts. And that was definitely the case today. It was. Yeah. After Snow was removed from the game, the Diamondbacks went two for 25 with 12 strikeouts. It's not great.

Starting point is 00:15:03 They did have three walks. They did have a hit by pitch. There were a few more base runners floating around. But yeah, it was brutal. day for the offense. They did still have some opportunities. I think back to the eighth inning is probably being the biggest missed opportunity for the debacks with Camila Duval on the mound. Christian Walker doubles. Horace Barrosa lays down a sack bunt, which I don't know if I really agreed with that decision. It seems like Tori has, you know, he has not been afraid to lay down a

Starting point is 00:15:32 sack bunt or two in recent days and it doesn't feel like it's worked out too well for him generally. but Barrosa lays down a sackbun. It was a successful button, not the worst outcome. You've got a runner at third with one out. And then Gino Suarez comes to the play. All you got to do is get the ball in the air to drive in that run and take the lead. And boy, he got a hang-in slider with two strikes from Camilo Duvall. And he just let it go by and it was a called third strike.

Starting point is 00:15:57 And I'm not saying it wasn't, you know, the pitches and a pitch that could fool you. But I don't understand not swinging in that scenario. If he strikes out swinging on finally. with it. It is what it is. He missed his pitch. Yeah. But to sit there with your bat on your shoulder in such a big scenario where all you really need is a fly ball is kind of crazy.

Starting point is 00:16:18 Yeah, my ring is blinging. I also have my 2023 championship mug here. Did Derek mention that he won our fantasy football? I don't really talk about it. I don't talk about it on this show. Derek doesn't like to talk about it. He doesn't

Starting point is 00:16:33 want to be an outward thing. I am humble when it comes to winning this championship. But I will say that I sleep with this ring on. So yeah, anyway. No, I mean, it was one of those days, obviously, that their offense struggled in more ways than one. I think the one thing that was frustrating was they showed so much patience in the first inning. And then it's not to say they didn't,

Starting point is 00:16:58 maybe at times they showed too much patience the rest of the game. But, like, there were a lot of times where, you know, there was just some weird calls having Adrian Delcast. Castillo Bunt seemed like a really bad call. Yeah, that's the other thing. Top of the ninth, Luis Giorme, works a walk against Ryan Walker, who's a very, very good pitcher. And it would be one thing if you had someone at the plate who buntz a lot.

Starting point is 00:17:20 But I haven't looked at the numbers, but I'd be very surprised if Adrian Del Castillo was down in Reno, hitting in the middle of a lineup and laying down a lot of sack buntz. I just don't think that's something he's been asked to do much lately. Yeah. He's asked to hit doubles, and that's what he does. Yeah. And Tori decided to have him lay one.

Starting point is 00:17:37 down and obviously it didn't work. He pops it up. And at that point, you're just handing free outs to one of the best back-end relievers in baseball and Ryan Walker, who's been unbelievably good lately for the San Francisco Giants. And then at that point, you just had Giorme at first with one out and both Geraldo Pardomo and Corbyn Carroll struck out. And that end of the game. Sean says exactly what you said to me while we were watching the game. If you're going to bunt there, put Herrera in. And then leave Herrera in there. Yeah, Herrera is a pretty, he's a pretty decent bunter, and you probably feel a little bit better about him defensively anyway. So, yeah. Well, anyway, the offense deserves us not even to talk about it with the way they perform today, quite frankly. So, of course, we have a king snake to give out, and we are going to give that king snake to the mainstay, the man himself, Merrill Kelly, seven innings pitch today, six hits allowed, two earned runs and eight strikeouts. This place, this will give you a chance to win ball games. your offense can do something on their end. Yeah, and Merrill was very close to throwing seven scoreless

Starting point is 00:18:41 innings too. I think back to that bottom of the fourth inning. Michael Conforto single, Matt Chapman double. You've got runners at second and third, nobody out. DeVox had a two nothing lead at that standpoint in the game. Lamont Wade Jr. comes up. He strikes out Lamont Way Jr. I think it was a filthy change up, if I'm remembering correctly. And then Tyler Fitzgerald, he gets him to strike out as well. So you've still got those runners at second and third with two outs. Any, Any out would get you out of the inning unscathed. And Patrick Bailey just bloops a single to left field. I think it was 66 miles an hour off the bat or something like that.

Starting point is 00:19:15 Those things are going to happen. But that was a brutal moment. I mean, if Merrill is able to get Patrick Bailey to, you know, make any sort of out in that situation, then, you know, maybe this game stays two nothing late and the debacks are able to come away with a win. Well, we thank you guys so much for your chats, for being here in the chat,

Starting point is 00:19:35 your comments, everything. Of course, just for being you. We thank you for being you. Make sure if you haven't subscribed to the PHNX Sports YouTube channel, you do so right now. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss whenever we go live. And of course, hit that like button. We love when you hit that like button, especially when you show that love on days where the Diamondbacks lost, because we didn't lose. We're just here to hang out with you after the loss. Don't blame us for the loss, all right? Quit DMing me and telling me to fire Tori. I have no control over the front office. But anyway, if you guys are listening on the audio podcasting side, there is no like to hit, but you can't leave us a review. We appreciate that. And of course, make sure you subscribe on your

Starting point is 00:20:12 favorite audio podcasting app. And we do have some bills to pay, but when we come back, we'll talk about the numbers from this series and, of course, that upcoming series with the Houston Astros. But first, got to check out our friends from Mesa, Arizona, from branded bills. I saw someone was like, ew, there's a scum devil hat on the set. So I evened it out with this this other hat from this other school. But yes, there's Sun Devils, there's Wildcats, there's all sorts of wonderful designs for our local schools, not to mention

Starting point is 00:20:40 some incredible designs just in honor of this wonderful state that we live in. So check out branded bills. Whatever you're looking for. They are the perfect headwear and apparel company. And of course, these hats amazingly comfortable, super lightweight. Despite being the snapback, they are very

Starting point is 00:20:56 stretchy. You're just going to go put that one on, aren't you? I am. I'm a big U of A guy now here. Yes, he loves his cats. Yeah, me and Damon were discussing before the show. And since I didn't actually go to either of these universities, I'm sort of the objective third party. And if I have to make a choice between these two universities,

Starting point is 00:21:13 I think the choice is pretty obvious. Damn right, Jesse. So I'm just going to do this. We'll have proper representation on this show. But hats, wonderful. Great for golfing. Great for just wearing at all times. And, of course, they have partnerships with ASU, U of A

Starting point is 00:21:28 as part of their campus collection. again, local company from Mesa, Arizona. So support them and head to brandedbills.com. Use code PHNX and you will get 20% off your first order. Also check out our friends at Bet365 because they make watching sports more fun, especially live in-game betting. They helped pioneer live-in-game betting, and they have the widest range of games and markets available

Starting point is 00:21:50 for live-in-game betting across 78 sports. Of course, you can always make sure to check out little tidbits from Damon, Shane and everybody here for the PHNX bet stuff before heading over to bet 365. But when you do, if you're a new customer, you can sign up and use our code of PHNX365. When you do sign up, deposit $10 and choose between two offers, either a bet and get offer where you can place a $5 bet and receive $150 in bonus bets or a first bet safety net offer where you can place a bet up to $1,000. And if you're qualifying bet loses, loses you receive a matched refund in bonus bets. Download the Bet365 app and use code PHNX365 when you sign up, choose your offer, and find out why it is never ordinary. At Bet365 must be 21 or over and physically located in Arizona.

Starting point is 00:22:34 If you're someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 100 next step. Text next step to 533442 or visit problemgambling.az.com. You're just going to keep wearing that, huh? Yeah. How does it feel to have attended the inferior major university in Arizona? I'm glad you are not. How does that feel? I would never say that about either of these schools because I love everybody and don't forget to vote for me.

Starting point is 00:23:00 I don't think we're running any attack ads today, but we're just going to move on and head to the count presented by Desert Finance. No attack ads today. Derek, I heard that your campaign was maybe going to try to turn a new page into being a little bit more positive. Okay, here's the funny thing. Here's the funny thing. You know those attack ads by the ethical standards of P.HNX officials? I have nothing to do with those folks. Like, I don't even know who those people are, but I can assure you that I'm.

Starting point is 00:23:24 I did not have any part and any making of any of those videos. So it's... I don't know if I believe that. It's a watchdog group that's out there and they're just trying to keep things even. But luckily, they can't seem to find anything on me. So it is what it is. But moving on, the count here presented by Desert Financial Credit Union for the series. That's not walks down there, but we'll get to that.

Starting point is 00:23:51 Druns for the series, the Diamondbacks outscore the Giants. 16 to 14 and they win the series two games to one they get actually out hit by the giants 22 to 24 to 22 runners in scoring position both teams weren't very good the giants didn't have very many opportunities they were six for 27 the diamondbacks were nine for 35 uh that's a 222 batting average to a 257 for the debacks starting pitching era for the diamond backs very very good in this series you had six and two-thirds in the game one and two earned runs. You had six runs or six innings, no runs allowed in game two, and then seven innings two earned by Merrill today.

Starting point is 00:24:31 That's good for a 1.83 starting pitching ERA. And of course, the Giants starting pitching ERA awful. And they had six and two-thirds innings total in this series by their three starting pitchers. That's six and two-thirds innings pitched, 10 earned runs. but then it flip-flops there and somehow it's the exact same ERA for the relief pitching for the Diamondbacks. 13.49 for the Diamondbacks bullpen. They allowed a lot of runs and not a lot of work, honestly.

Starting point is 00:25:04 I mean, they pitched six and two-thirds innings in the series and gave up 10 runs just like the Giants starters. Meanwhile, San Francisco Giants bullpen was very good, especially today. Eight innings pitched today. Zero runs allowed at 2.66 ERA in the series. That's wild that the Diamondbacks bullpenny r a was exactly the same. Exactly the same. Six and two thirds innings, ten rounds is exactly the same for both of those groups. To the Diamondbacks credit, like we were saying earlier with Blake Snell, they did a great

Starting point is 00:25:36 job against all three giant starters in the series. Giant starters combined four, as we just said, six and two thirds innings in the series. So Merrill Kelly got more outs today than giant starters got in all three games combined, which is pretty wild. But yeah, this was a bad series for every back end reliever for the Diamondbacks. Pretty much. Except for AJ Puck, obviously. This was a rough series for Ginkl. It was a rough series for Justin Martinez. It was a rough series for Ryan Thompson as well. So, yeah, I just, you know, the first couple of games of this series, both of those had a chance to be big time wins for

Starting point is 00:26:14 the debacks. And obviously the Giants were able to mount a comeback in both of them and and make those games a lot closer. So there's a lot more margin of air with the Giants than team like the Houston Astros that the Diamondbacks are about to get this weekend. You aren't wrong. It might be, it might be bad. And of course,

Starting point is 00:26:33 we're going to talk about that here in a little bit. But of course, we do know that the numbers, they never lie. I don't have a funny setup today for it because I'm just kind of sick of what I saw. I mean, the offense definitely lied to us about being a good offense based on the base results. But if you're in a first,

Starting point is 00:26:49 fantasy football draft, make sure you don't ask Derek his opinion on it because he's a liar. I mean, you can say that all you want. But I mean, I honestly gave my, I gave a real and truthful opinion to Jesse Friedman like I always do. I never lie to this man and never lead him astray. I would never, ever, ever, ever want to do anything that would make me secretly win over him in any way in any capacity. So if you feel that way and you're an idiot.

Starting point is 00:27:19 But anyway, let's move on to the numbers that don't lie. Jesse, what do you have for us today? Yeah, today's number that doesn't lie is this one, this is rough. It is 4.5% and this is the combined caught stealing percentage by Adrian Delccio and Jose Herrera this season. Those two guys combined have allowed 42, if I'm remembering correctly, I believe it is 42 stolen bases this year combined between those two guys and they have each caught. won by themselves. I think for Adrian Del Castillo, I think they are one for 25

Starting point is 00:27:57 against him. He is one for 25 catching opposing base dealers, is what I'm trying to say. So not great, Derek. Not great. There was a piece of fantasy advice asked of me in the chat, and I feel like that's more relevant than talking about anything to this game. They were asking me about, I believe,

Starting point is 00:28:17 Michael Pittman Jr., done. up. I like it. I think Anthony Richardson is going to be a beast at a quarterback this year. And people slept on him and the Colts. So wait until when I was in Indianapolis for joint practices, Michael Pimmon Jr. was cooking the Cardinals alive. He looked good. I drafted him a couple weeks. Yeah, I definitely would have liked to draft him myself for sure. And I think like Anthony Richardson's going to be that. He looked like that guy. But you know what? Jesse's like a sleep. It's fine. We'll move up. Who is that? What were you talking about?

Starting point is 00:28:50 See, and I, oh, it's my fault. He didn't prepare. He does all of his research for baseball, but he didn't look up a single fantasy guide. That's not helpful. I only have enough mental capacity to know what I'm talking about, about one sport at a time. He's right. I used to know so much about all the sports when I was just a fan. And now that I do this show, I'm like, who did the Sun sign?

Starting point is 00:29:09 I don't even know. The character I play in the mayor videos, that's just real life, including me not being able to pronounce the name of their hood. coach. But the Giants, they did extend Matt Chapman. That was news that broke yesterday, right, while we were finishing up the show. It's an interesting time to announce an extension like this. So he was extended six years or five years. Yeah, yeah, I believe it is a six-year, $151 million extension that goes from 2025 to 2030. Chapman would have had an opt-out at the end of the season, which I imagine would have been fairly attractive to him, given that he's had a pretty

Starting point is 00:29:47 darn good season for the Giants. Sure. So this takes away his ability to opt out. He's going to be with the Giants through 2030, and I believe this includes a no trade clause. So I think he is going to be there for a good while. And I guess, Derek, the Giants like sort of won the Boris sweepstakes a little bit, right? We look back at all the big Boris clients over the offseason.

Starting point is 00:30:10 We definitely did not. They wound up getting Cody Bellin, or not Cody Bellinger. I don't know why I said that. They wound up getting Matt Chapman. and Blake Snell, and those are the two best out of all, out of the Boris clients that signed over the off season. So, yeah, we'll see what happens with Blake Snell. That'll be interesting to see as well. I imagine he might just want to hit the open market like most Boris clients do.

Starting point is 00:30:33 He's going to get paid. But yeah, he's going to get paid. Although after what the debacks did to him today, you know, maybe they just took a few million dollars off that paycheck. But Matt Chapman did get paid, six years, $151 million. That's more than I think. He was ever realistically going to get over the off season. So obviously the Giants have really liked what they've seen from him here in these few months. And they made a long-term commitment to keep him around for a while.

Starting point is 00:30:59 Gross. There's some more support for your hat. And it's the most disgusting thing ever. Mays Devil. I'm not going to say your question, but I'm going to say, I'm not sure about that. Someone else did ask about ADC, though, and asking ADC is a bust. I believe it was Fluffy. The Ventures of Fluffy right there is ADC a bust.

Starting point is 00:31:17 First of all, I hope your dog is a very good boy or girl because they look like it. And when it comes to ADC, no, he's not a bust. It's just kind of the Diamondbacks called him up due to need, not due to him necessarily being ready. He came up. It was super hot out the gate. He definitely had some of those skill set at the plate transition over to the major leagues right away. But he came back down to earth like a lot of baseball players do, especially a lot of rookies that make that leap to the majors, right? Like some, some don't even, you know, can't even hit the ball at a major league level.

Starting point is 00:31:52 Luckily, like a lot of Diamondbacks youngsters, he came up and was good. He actually did a lot of good things for this team. But it's this is why it's hard to be a major league baseball player. The more information that is out there about you, the more that player teams start learning what your weaknesses are. They can really start, you know, playing towards that. I mean, Duval in this series at one point through the same pitch, like eight times in a row to Diamondbacks hitters and they couldn't do anything about it. Like literally eight times in a row.

Starting point is 00:32:24 It was like a slider in. Yeah, and like there was nothing that they could do about it at all. Right. Like so like sometimes it comes to the fact that you're just facing, you know, some good pitching and like pitchers have something that they can get on you like that. It's not easy. But ADC, I think you can't call him a bust.

Starting point is 00:32:42 It's just a matter of still developing. And he's still in the process of developing. I think he's shown that he can play at a major league level, but he's also shown he has a lot of things to work on. Inevitably, he will get sent down. Like Jesse said, we're most likely going to see the Diamondbacks. If they get Gabby back and are set for the playoffs,

Starting point is 00:33:00 we'll most likely see Jose Herrera backing up Gabby Moreno, and ADC will be sent down, and he'll continue his development and work on that stuff. Like, no player is necessarily a bust just because they can't do something right now. It's just something that needs to be more of a focus as far as, you know, where he's at. Like, he just adjusted his stance or not stance, but his, the way he kneels behind the plate based on how Gabby does it.

Starting point is 00:33:25 So he is still making adjustments even at a major league level right now. He just has to get comfortable and he has to start, you know, being able to do those things that right now is, is definitely hurting the Diamondbacks that he can't do. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we'll see what happens over the next couple weeks, right? I mean, I don't think Gabby Moreno is coming back this weekend or probably still have another couple weeks or so. I don't really have a ton of specifics on him at this point. But this was Adrian Del Cascio's 20th Major League game.

Starting point is 00:33:56 I mean, I think by definition, you cannot call someone a bust after 20 Major League games. Correct. And on top of that, like he has a 793 OPS. He's obviously cooled down offensively, but that's still really good. I mean, if you had told me that Adrian Del Castillo was going to have an OPS, just under 800 in his first 20 games. I'd be like, wow, his offense really translated. That's a really good outcome.

Starting point is 00:34:19 But we've had concerns about what Del Castillo's defense would look like at the big league level for a while. This has been a question with his profile for really ever since he was drafted. So it was never a sure thing that Del Castillo was going to be great behind the plate. And I still think that he could make significant strides back there. But there's, as you said, there's some things to improve on both. in blocking and obviously in trying to catch base steelers. Framing has been good at times, but overall not maybe what you would hope for.

Starting point is 00:34:52 So he's a really young player. Still has a lot of opportunity to prove himself. Do you want Adrian Del Castillo, though, on your roster as your backup catcher in October right now? Maybe not. And we'll see kind of how that conversation progresses here between now and when Gabby comes back. Well, and we are going to talk about this series against the Houston, Astros where they will need Adrian Del Castillo at his best in order to beat that very, very good

Starting point is 00:35:19 team from Houston. But, of course, before we get to that, we do have some more commercials here to air for you. And of course, when I say that, I'm really just talking about my chance to tell you to go to Circle K. Go to Circle K right now. There's one near you. I don't even know where you're at, but I can guarantee there's one near you. And I can guarantee you that their snacks are incredible.

Starting point is 00:35:38 It takes all the willpower in the world for me to not sneak back here and grab some stuff because It's just right here. No one's keeping track of it. When we're in this studio, I just have a hard time getting my mind off of all these. It's yeah, it's we every day in this office there's at least one open package of sour gummy worms that I need to finish. But that's because the circle case snacks are amazing. So don't sleep on those. Don't sleep on joining the inner circle either. You'll save yourself some money. You'll save 25 cents off per gallon on your first five Phillips. You'll save three cents per gallon every day after that and also save on these snacks. So make sure to sign up for the inner circle for free right now. by downloading the CircleK app. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. But also get yourself something to drink. I know you're thirsty. That's why I have my fantasy football championship mug.

Starting point is 00:36:26 I don't really talk about it often because I'm going to a while. Of course not. But I did win our fantasy football league, of course. Also, speaking of my future being bright and my fantasy football team's future being bright, Shady Ray sunglasses, it's a requirement when your team has a future as bright. as mine does. And of course, you can get ready for football season right now with a fresh pair of Shadyrays. They have this amazing new lens, by the way, over at Shady Rates called Color Rush. And if you check out their website at ShaddyRase.com, you'll get a chance to see what makes it so

Starting point is 00:36:59 amazing. It's polarized lenses that actually enhance the colors of the things you're looking at. And let me tell you, they're amazing. And a premium lens, again, you can get all of this premium quality for not nearly the premium price that other sunglasses companies charge. You also get the fact that it is backed by the craziest lost and broken replacement plan. And all of eyewear, they tell us that if you break your color rush shady rays on day one, they will send you out a brand new pair, no questions asked. And of course, they got that guarantee. If you don't love them or if you think that they look weird on your face, they have hundreds

Starting point is 00:37:36 of styles to choose from, they'll allow you to exchange them for free, or get your money back within 30 days, their team has your back long after you shop. So make sure to check out Shadyrays.com exclusively for our listeners. Shadyraise is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to ShadyRase.com and use code PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the Shades rated five stars by over 300,000 people. All right. Well, Diamondbacks take on a tough Astros team.

Starting point is 00:38:02 That's always tough. No matter how bad their season starts, they get things back on track. And this team continues to be very good. Let's take a look at the Astros this season at a glance. They have a record of 75 and 65. Their run differential is plus 79. They are 5 and 5 in their last 10, so they are mortal. And of course...

Starting point is 00:38:22 They just got swept by the Reds. We can help out Shane's team here, right? Shane's team might be a little too far gone. Okay, yeah, that's what I told them to his face. But anyway, these Astros, man, they're so good. They're starting pitching ERA 3.92 tied for ninth best. in Major League Baseball. But that bullpen, that bullpen's even better.

Starting point is 00:38:42 And after what we saw today, that's a scary proposition. Their relief pitching ERA is 3.49, which is fourth best in Major League Baseball. Their OPS is 736, which is 11th, and their outs above average is 1, which is 15. So this is just a good Astros team that's always good and always a danger. We've said this a lot, though. The Diamondbacks have faced a lot of good teams. And, I mean, this feels a little bit more like that. It's weird to be so down after a loss today, considering the Diamondbacks did take two out of three against the Giants.

Starting point is 00:39:13 Like that's essentially getting the job done. But, you know, like you alluded to, like Elise alluded to, it almost feels like you do have to win every single game. So the Diamondbacks can't, you know, go out there and drop this series against the Astros. They really got to take, they got to do it again on the road. Yeah, the Astros are just a good, well-rounded team at this point. They really did have their issues early in the season, but they're also the Astros. And like, they're probably going to be in the ALCS again because they are every year. And it doesn't really matter how their season starts.

Starting point is 00:39:45 They just reserve. They put in that reservation early. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe they're like, we'll be there. Just count on it. Let's get those hotels booked. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:39:53 I think they do book their ALCS travel. Yeah. At some point in February or March every year. But, yeah, they're just, I mean, offensively, they're always a well-rounded team. Kyle Tucker. hurt so the debaubs will not see him he was having an outstanding season a 979 ops i believe he's out for the year for them so he won't see any kyle tucker this weekend but you still have alex bregman at third base who did not start off well he was a big reason that the astros

Starting point is 00:40:19 were struggling early in the season and is also a big reason why they've been very very good overall lately uh looking at bregman's numbers he has a what is this about a just a just under a 900 ops over his last 30 games so don't be fooled by his 764 OPS for this season. It's like Corbyn. We were talking about his batting average during the game. Right. It's almost impossible for Corbyn to get his batting average above 250 for the year because of how bad his first two months were.

Starting point is 00:40:47 But that's not really an indication of really where he's at and the same thing with Brighman. Yeah. Just a well-rounded lineup overall, right? All 2-Bes still there doing his thing as a 784 OPS. Jeremy Pena, of course, is a strong defender who hits about a league average hitter. Yiner Diaz behind the plate, one of the better offensive catchers in baseball, Victor Keratini. Their backup has also been pretty good this season.

Starting point is 00:41:11 So it's a well-rounded lineup. Yordaun Alvarez is, of course, the biggest name of there. He has a 172 OPS plus this season and continues to be one of the best hitters in all in baseball, even though we don't really talk much about Yordaun Alvarez, I feel like. We're always talking about Judge and Otani and Bobby Witt that Yordaun Alvarez just somehow doesn't get as much love it feels like in the public eye. But yeah, this is a this is a good, a very good Astros team. And a good pitching staff.

Starting point is 00:41:40 We get Frambervaldez. We get you say Kukuchi. Is that you say his name? And then we got Justin Verlander in the finale. Of course, we got our ace matching up against Justin Verlander. It will be Ryan Nelson taking on Justin Verlander and the finale. So you got to feel good about that one with the way Verlander's been pitching. But I'm not so sure about these other games, especially with the way that the offense was

Starting point is 00:42:01 held in check today. I think it's going to be different, though. The Diamondbacks do come into these games with a game plan, and I think that they will come in with a good game plan against these starting pitchers. But, again, very, very good starting pitching for the Astros. Everything about this team is good. I think Bourbon and baseball had asked us a little while ago back there, Damon, about what scares us the most about this series.

Starting point is 00:42:24 I think it's a little bit further back. There it is. What's y'all biggest worry about facing the Astros this series? Do you have a biggest worry about this series? I mean, after what we saw today, I think that, like, mostly it's the offense, right? Like, I feel fairly good about Brandon Fott and Ryan Nelson being two out of the three pitchers in this series. And I'm not like, Eduardo Rodriguez doesn't give me necessarily reasons to panic, but two out of the three pitchers for the Astros are left-handed. And that seems to maybe give me a little bit of a concern for the offense.

Starting point is 00:42:54 Yeah, that's a fair point, especially without Gurriel in the lineup. I think the debacks are about as vulnerable to lefties as they've been. all season granted christian walker's back which which does help a lot um but yeah i mean framervaldez is is great uh you say kukuchi the debaqs saw him earlier this season when he was with the blue jays and i believe he was pitching quite well early on and then the diamond back scored like seven runs against him in the fifth inning that was a wild game where they was where they came back from down seven and and still wound up losing by a run late uh but kukuchi has really turned things around since being acquired by the Astros.

Starting point is 00:43:30 If you look at his numbers since that trade was made, he is 3 and 0 with a 257 ERA and 6 starts, a 0-9-4 whip, 47 strikeouts to just 10 walks. So Yusay Kukuchi's been pitching like an ace ever since the Astros acquired him. So that'll be interesting to see what that looks like. And then I'm just excited to see Justin Verlander pitch. Verlander at this stage in his career is certainly not what he once was.

Starting point is 00:43:55 He is now 41 years old and has an ERA of 4.52. So he, you know, he's still decent, but there are questions right now in Houston circles about whether Verlander will be a postseason pitcher for them, which is sort of a bizarre thing to imagine leaving Justin Verlander out of your postseason rotation. But that's how much depth the Astros have in their rotation right now. 41 years young. Thank you. Correct.

Starting point is 00:44:25 Thank you. Yeah, I misspoke. I was hoping somebody was going to catch that. How many wins do you have in your career, Derek? Are you also chasing 300? I'm not on trial here. This isn't about me, and I don't know why you're making it about me. Did you just work with him right now?

Starting point is 00:44:37 Yeah, he did. He's an agist, right? This is ageism? Anyway, there was a question from our guy, Ryan, Cattel coming back in Houston. Catell is already in Houston, friends. I don't know if you saw his Instagram post, but he is already in Houston, and it very much looks like Catell will be back for this series against the Astros, which, again, another site for sore eyes.

Starting point is 00:45:00 More importantly, it's just I want these injured players back as soon as possible, not because I feel like they're going to make a huge impact upon their return, although Cattel absolutely could. It's just more about them getting back to playing baseball, getting back into a groove before the end of the season, because there isn't much time left, and we need these guys to not only contribute, but we need them to kind of be the heroes that they were.

Starting point is 00:45:22 These are Christian Walker, Catelle Martay, and Gabby Moreno are three of the biggest heroes on offense for this team. Not to mention they all play incredible defense. So they're missed and Cattel, you know, is a leader. Cotel is a leader for this team. He's just a guy that, you know, this team kind of goes at times in the direction that Catell goes. And I think, you know, he is definitely missed maybe more more than the other two. I mean, Catell was about the hottest hitter on the planet when he went down with that injury, which obviously made the timing.

Starting point is 00:45:52 that much more unfortunate for him. But yeah, I mean, this is the best version of Catel Marte that we have seen throughout his entire Diamondback's career. And it'll be interesting to see what it looks like. Is Catelle able to just jump right back in and continue the crazy run that he was on before? Or as we've seen with some of these other guys, does it take him a little while to find his timing back and to get in a rhythm at the plate? So, yeah, either way, it'll be fun to watch Cotel Marte play baseball again.

Starting point is 00:46:21 BC in the chat asked, how old is Derek 52? Damon, ban his ass, ban him right now. Is this finally how we're getting D.C. gone? Yeah, I let him come in here with all of his Dodger rhetoric. I let some guy ask me if I was zooted, which I didn't even understand what that meant, like 70 times without banning him. But that, that's egregious. You're out of here. You're out of here, pal.

Starting point is 00:46:44 But yeah, Ketel, of course. Hopefully, Kattel is Ketel and can come back and really. help this team win this is a difficult series and they're going to need. They're going to need every bit of offense just like in these games against the Giants. They can't let this go the way that these Giants games went because they let these the Giants get back into both of the wins. They were entirely too close based on the way that these games actually went and these, you know, this probably should have been a suite by the Arizona Diamondbacks. It felt very much at the beginning of all three of these games like they should have won them all and swept them. And it's definitely an opportunity

Starting point is 00:47:20 miss. But again, they're not going to win all these baseball games. That's the reason why, you know, it's such a difficult game. And, you know, hopefully that's also the case for these other teams in the wild card race. Can they stop winning games too? Please, anybody, can anybody go through a cold streak? I mean, it's just ridiculous. But anyway, we'll be back, of course, with another postgame show tomorrow night. Of course, we'll recap whatever happens in that first game of the Astro series. So make sure to come back here for that in the meantime you can follow us on twitter i am at cap underscore caveman the k jesse is at jesse n friedman the people's producer damon dog is at damon dog on twitter that's d a wg we are damon's dogs

Starting point is 00:48:03 bark bark and the dog in him is off the charts that's the reason why he's he's why we're his dogs but of course i don't know damon should i still be barking now that i'm joining the wild cats family am i supposed to meow is that what i'm supposed to do come get your man dame come get your man dame We cheer for the cats. We're all about the cats on Saturdays. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:48:24 And no, you don't meow. You bear down. That's God, like, why I can teach you everything? That's disgusting. Anyway. There's like a good wild cat like roar they do over the intercom like the speaker system. It's really cool. It's a terrible speaker system.

Starting point is 00:48:40 Anyway, uh, well, our show is at pH and X underscore debacks, but of course all roads lead to at pH and X underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. And we appreciate you guys so much for stopping by. We hope you join us again tomorrow night. In the meantime, we love you, we thank you, behave yourselves, have a good evening, and remember kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you do more against the bullpen after knocking Blake Snell out in the first inning.

PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Merrill Kelly Tosses Gem But Diamondbacks Can’t Solve Giants Bullpen After Blake Snell’s Early Exit

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.