PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Pavin Smith, Diamondbacks ANNIHILATE another opponent as injury situation worsens

Episode Date: April 24, 2024

Behind six RBI from the recently recalled Pavin Smith and a stellar outing from Tommy Henry, the Diamondbacks took it to the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday in yet another blowout win. Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks injury report is growing longer, and the news on starting pitcher Merrill Kelly is not great. We discuss who is hurt, what the timelines are and what it means for the D-backs moving forward.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to Suns Takeovers, Coyotes & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://gophnx.com/events/Factor Mealkits: Use code PHNXDBACKS50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box and free wellness shots for life with any active subscription at https://factormeals.com/phnxdbacks50Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

to you all. Things don't look good over there in Sunsland. In fact, I'm not doing this. Taking that off, not doing this. Welcome in. You have a you have a sunshirt beneath your sunscreen. God, I love this team. They make me so sad, but I also love this team. The Arizona Diamondbacks

and welcome in to another winning post game edition of the PHNXDbacks podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of this joint, but I take no responsibility for the son's podcast at all or their chat. This man next to me, of course, is your vice mayor, my thunderstick, the one and only

Jesse Friedman. And boy, Jesse, when the Arizona Diamondbacks win, they win big this season, don't they? Yeah, the Diamondbacks have two modes, Derek. It's either a close game where they're going to score a few runs early. They're probably not going to score many runs late. And their bullpen may or may not sort of implode at the end of the game. Or it looks something like today where they're going to. The diamond backs get a big lead.

And then they just inexplicably keep scoring runs and keep scoring runs and keeps scoring runs. And the result today was a 14 to one win over the St. Louis Cardinals. And it never goes in a predictable fashion, does it? Today the Cardinals actually went up first this time. Yeah. With a Wilson-Cone Treris solo shot that put the Cardinals up one to nothing. I know Jesse loves that call. But then after that, the Diamondbacks definitely came back and they came back big.

they were able to put up a lot of runs, a lot of hits. And that was the thing was, man, they just, they just hit the Cardinals all over the place. But with runners at first and second with two outs, Lordus hit an RBI single to tie the game at one. And then Walker, Walker, Walker, Walker, single double, triple Walker. He hits Dinger's Christian Walker with his fourth home run of the season. Chris Walker, not doing so good so far this year.

So it's kind of good to see him break out and have that dinger today. Yeah, that was a big hit. I mean, that three run homer, I know we're going to talk a lot about Peyton Smith on this show because he did have six RBI. But the reality is Christian Walker's RBI, him coming through with that big three run homer. I mean, that really was,

that really was what kind of put the diamond backs over the top in this game. Yeah, that was really big for him. I mean, Christian Walker, there hasn't been much slug in his game here for the last couple of weeks. He came in today with a bizarrely low 375, slugging percentage, which is kind of falling under the radar.

He was still getting on base. So his OPS was never alarmingly low, but his slugging percentage is pretty low. He also had a 333 slugging percentage against lefties coming into this game, which is extraordinarily low for a right-handed hitting, you know, a right-handed power hitter like Christian Walker is. So, yeah, that was a big moment for him. It was a center cut. I think it was a change up from Stephen Matt's. And Walker just waited on it and put a very, it didn't even seem like, you're, really swung that hard he just sort of tapped the baseball and it went over the fence in in left

field and you know that's the kind of power that christian walker has diamond backs were able to put up runs in bunches here in this game uh four runs in the third five more or six more in the fifth four more in the sixth uh and that was a grand total of 14 runs today of course a big part of that like you said was christian walker but that fifth inning man kattel martay with a two uh double Moreno hits a RBI single. Gurriel was a single. Walker gets on, I mean, or pops up. Walker and Suarez got out,

but then Ranald Grishick hit an RBI single. His 1,000th career hit. Yes, yes, yeah, 1,000th career hit. And then, yeah, Pavin Smith hit a two run double, put the Diamondbacks up eight to one. That one almost went through a dinger. That one was, that was almost a dinger. It was almost Stinger.

And then Kevin Newman, the very next hitter, upper deck to left field, which... To Big MacLand. It was far. It wasn't even turned on an inside breaking ball. Zach Thompson was in the game at that point. Lee says you didn't have a Kevin Newman bomb on your bingo card today. No, you did not.

You probably did not select him in your bet MGM bet today. But yes, he has that big home run. And again, it's just, it's kind of fascinating. Just all of these good things, again, just like the Diamondbacks and some of these other big wins they've had this season, having all of these career days for guys, the 1,000th hit for Randall Gritchick. Lordus Guriel has now hit safely in all 10 road games this season, all 10 road games. He is hitting 391 in those road games with two double six RBI and two walks.

So Lordus has continued to be on fire, but obviously the man of the hour offensively today was Pavin Smith, who we all believed in. And we never doubted. We never doubted him for a second. Not on this show, not in this discord, not at all. Our sweet, Bavin? Our sweet Bavin? Oh my God.

What a night for Bavin Smith, right? And I mean, what a big, honestly, what a big night for him to kind of break out considering that the Dionbacks really have, with all of these injuries, which we are going to discuss here shortly, the Dionbacks really have been searching for guys to step up and really help them, especially offensively, find their groove and stay a bit more consistent than having these big games and then also having, you know, nights where their bats completely disappear and they're only able to muster up three hits, right? So yeah, this is just a great opportunity for him.

And I mean, so far, we tweeted it out. But, you know, six RBI and two at bats versus Jase Peterson's 10 RBI in his entire Diamondbacks career. Just saying. Just saying. Pavin might be a bit more of the answer here for the Diamondbacks. also had Colton Wong tonight had a big hit for the Reno Aces. I think a game winning hit for them as well. So Diamondbacks have some options and they're going to need all of those options. But tonight didn't need a lot.

They didn't need a lot. But Pave and Smith definitely our King Snake tonight, Pave and Smith goes two for five with a home run, six RBI, one double. Yeah, just incredible. And you had words about him being DH tonight, didn't you? Well, I mean. You had thought. I mean, just any time you see Pavin Smith in the D.H slot against a left-handed pitcher,

I mean, the numbers just tell a certain story about that, where Pavan Smith came into today with a 587 career OPS against lefties, including a 475 OPS against lefties last year. Pavan is generally not hit left-handed pitching all that well in his career. But yeah, he came through with a couple of big hits in this game, like you said earlier, that that double was very nearly a home run. So yeah, just seeing, you know, seeing Pave and Smith in the game, I mean, given how much Jason struggled during his Diamondbacks tenure, frankly, the bar is, is pretty low, right? I mean, the bar is, I'm just speaking, speaking numbers wise, the bar is pretty low for a

for a player to come in and be more productive than Jace Peterson was in his Diamondback's career. and, you know, Paveen's only been up for a couple of days. But, but yeah, I mean, hard to ask for more than what he did today. You're not wrong. You are not wrong. This is his second career grand slam, his last one, also in St. Louis, last year on April 17th. So almost exactly a year to the day. That's wild.

He was ready to hit another one. But of course, I saw someone in this. This is a strange direction. I don't want to judge you guys. But Chris, go back up there. a little bit to Chris H. Not that one. Chris H said another wasted great pitching start.

It's a weird way to take it, Chris. I'm just going to say that. Jesse, of course, Jesse had the same thought. You're right. I mean, it's,

it is. I mean, we made that point the other day with Jordan Montgomery, right? It's like, yeah, Jordan Montgomery was great,

but the DVAC scored 17 runs so he could have gotten absolutely destroyed out there. But no, I mean, things don't necessarily work that way, right? Like, when you're starting pitcher is out there and,

control of a game. It does have an impact on the offense and it lets the offense settle in and take the pressure off themselves a little bit. You were saying that to me during the late innings, right? Tommy Henry was really dealing there and he was really throwing some good stuff and he was he was dotting the corners and Jesse was like, yeah, of course, he's up 14 to one. Like, you have all the confidence in the world to throw everything. I think it does work both ways in a in a sense. It does, it does. But that's so interesting because of course that's the definition of like those elite pitchers. They're just confident in their stuff, whether they're down by three tie game or up by 14 right and that's the difference there is is that when you're confident in

your stuff you're confident that you don't have to worry about if you throw this and mess this up that's going to cost you the game you're able to do your thing out there a bit more and i think that's what we saw of tommy henry he didn't need to be very good tonight considering the run support he received but he did exactly what the snakes needed out of him this outing is very encouraging for tommy for the future and for lovel to believe him in him considering how much the team is going to need tommy Henry in the starting rotation for not only like a short term but the foreseeable future like they we're talking about possibly late June until we're going to possibly see Tommy Henry not needed any longer in the starting rotation.

So it depends on on a on a few factors. I mean, if Ryan Nelson is back sooner than you know, maybe they would maybe they would remove Tommy Henry and keep slate so coney. But I don't know. I mean, that could kind of go either way. Right. Mark Slayer with the super chat. Thank you, Mark.

We love you. you are still the heel of survivor. And I'm sorry, you didn't make it farther in your own Hunger Games game, which we played on Discord last night. But Mark says, Jesse, we're beefing now, Pavin for Kingsnake. We all agreed here. It was a universal achievement here for Pave. It was in regards to Jesse having words for Paveen.

Correct. Being in the lineup against a lefty. It was. That's why I didn't. I didn't really have like, I was just like looking at numbers and being like, well, Paveen Smith doesn't generally hit. lefties all that well. Actually, it was more of an indictment of what Tori Lavello was left with, right? Like, it's like, by the numbers, Tori probably wouldn't have gone with Pave and Smith.

And it just goes to show how much the numbers can be wrong sometimes because Pave and Smith was huge for this team tonight, despite the fact that the numbers say you probably shouldn't have played them. And maybe the numbers, the numbers don't lie. The numbers do not lie. But sometimes, we say that on all these post-eatheets. You still have gotten it. Sometimes they're confused, but of course. I mean, it was, it was the trickle-down effect of Corby and not starting in this game, right? Corbyn Carroll had the day off, never even was used off the bench

because the Diamondbacks, of course, did not need him. And yeah, I mean, you have Jake McCarthy playing centerfield. You have Randall Grishick playing right field. And then against the lefty, I mean, I guess you're choosing from Jock Peterson or Pavin Smith, theoretically, to D.H. And neither of those are great matchups on paper, right? Jock hasn't hit lefties all that well in his career either,

although he has hit lefties pretty well so far this season. But yeah, the debavers. Fox opted to go with Pavin and give him a shot and boy did he deliver today. I think the chat might have answered it. Carlos had a question there. If you scroll back up, he was asking about, I was very confused by that. First Logan Allen saved comment by Burt, did the definition of a save change.

No, this is one of those weird saves. We have that in our notes. Logan Allen did get his first career save. His first career save. And it's a three inning or three inning plus save essentially is what it is. Yeah, yeah. The rules on what on what makes. a save. There's a few different ways that you can do it. The most common saves are certainly like

where you're in the ninth inning and, you know, three runs or less, that whole thing. That's usually what we see. But if you look up the definition of a save, if you finish a game that your team wins and you hold the lead, so you come in with a lead, you hold the lead, you finish the game so you get the last out and you also pitch at least three innings. If you check all those boxes, you get a save regardless of whether your team is up by one run or in this case, 13 runs. So, congrats to Logan Allen for notching his first creation. Little is so weird. Logan, Logan Allen.

Saves are really bizarre. I think saves are like kind of dumb, honestly. They're important because closers are important. And I think we all understand the importance of a good closer. You want a diamond back certainly do. But saves as itself as a stat is not something I've ever really loved. It's pretty bizarre. Jesse throws it right in the same category as errors.

And that's a whole other story. But anyway, we have, we do have the fact. but Logan Allen has been very good for this team so far since being called up. And like I said, we have some roster moves we're going to discuss here later in the show. But, you know, the Diamondbacks are kind of looking to some new arms. And they have a lot of injuries to deal with. But it does allow them the opportunity to give some of these young guys that have been pitching in Reno and some of them pitching pretty well. An opportunity, Logan Allen so far has been pretty damn good for this team considering the inconsistency that the rest of the bullpen has been kind of suffering.

Yeah, I mean, what's really great about this. game and we talked about Tommy Henry's outing being wasted. I mean, the fact is he went six innings. And because the debacks were up so much, Logan Allen was able to finish out this game. And your bullpen is going to be fully stocked going into the finale of the series tomorrow. Which they needed. Which does have a lot of value. Yeah, Debacks have used, you know, Ryan Thompson to pitch them back-to-back games.

He didn't have to pitch today. So there's a lot of value in Logan Allen being able to finish out this game. And yeah, as we're going to talk about later, the Diamondback's depth in the bullpen and the rotation, all of it feels a little bit thin right now, Derek, given what's what's happening? We're not talking? No, we're not doing that. We're fucking doing this.

We won, all right. Tommy Henry, six innings pitched, five hits, one earn run, one walk, six case, 93 pitches. Just in very, very encouraging. Sean has wandered into the wrong chat. Sean says, I understand the playoffs, more physical. I think wolves are just overdoing it. We're not getting any, oh, he's putting it up so I can't read it. Now I can't read his, I'm reading the comment that's not about the sport that we cover

because why not? I mean, I'm still sad about the suns. I don't get to go over there and be on their show. I want to talk about the suns too. I'm upset. But of course, we do have poor Zach Thompson on the other side of the ball there for the Cardinals. He really had to eat it, didn't he?

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it was tough. Like, they brought in Zach Thompson. For a reliever? Yeah, I mean, in the fifth inning. And I believe the first batter he faced was, I want to say, Eugenio Suarez. He was brought in to face back-to-back, right-handed hitters, which is kind of a bizarre decision for a leftie.

He did get Suarez, but then Randall Grishick came through with that RBI single. And that brought up Haven Smith, of course, who hit that big two-run double and really, really blew the game open. And yeah, they just kind of stuck with Zach Thompson, you know, for two and two-thirds innings, even though he was sort of a disaster in this baseball game. But, you know, sometimes that's what it takes. From the Cardinal side, they want to make sure that their bullpen is also gassed up and ready to go. Because despite how lopsided this game was, we still have a rubber match in this series coming tomorrow morning. Can you do me a favor and scroll up there, Damon? I think it was Elise's comment.

She says, Logan Allen came in and did what you're supposed to do in Mob of Duty. And he absolutely did. But I want to address something when it comes to certain gifts that I send out from our account on Twitter. I have a lot of people argue with me at times about whose fault baseball games are when the bullpen did, in fact, allow runs. Right? Like, we've gotten so accustomed to the fact that the Diamondbacks bullpen gives. gives up runs that when they do, people start arguing with me and say, well, the offense didn't do anything either.

Yes, that's very fucking true. But the bullpen should be able to hold games every now and again. You shouldn't just be like, well, of course our bullpen was going to give up two runs. You had to know you had to score more than that. That's not how bullpens are supposed to work. It's not supposed to work. It doesn't work out every time. But the bullpen is supposed to come in and hold games.

They're supposed to keep games scoreless. And at the minimum, they're only supposed to give up a run. maybe two runs. Like the Diamondbacks bullpen has just straight up been disastrous at times this season. And yes, you can blame the offense for not continuing to go on a roll like what we saw tonight, right? They're not going to do this every single night. But the offense should also be able to expect to go up like in this game when they were just up after Christian Walker's home run up four to one and be able to win baseball games like that. So far, they haven't really been able to win those type of baseball games where their offense may not show up big, but still doesn't matter

because their pitching is able to hold, you know, the opposing team to a minimal number of runs, right? So this team, it's so weird, Derek. I mean, we touched on it at the top of the show, like, like looking through how many runs the debacks have scored in the last week. Today was 14. Yesterday was three. Sunday was five.

Saturday was three. Friday was 17. Thursday was zero. Wednesday was three. And Tuesday was 12. So that is the last week of run score. for the diamond backs. I mean,

it's the most like Feaster Famine thing I've seen. I mean, it's not like they're scoring zero runs in all and all the other games. But, I mean, the moment that this game, the debacks went up four to one or I guess maybe five to one was really the tipping point for me. It was like,

all right, the debacks, once this game was five to one, they were not going to win this game seven to seven to three. They were going to win this game 14 to one as they did because that's what they do. Like there's no in between there. The debacks either they score early and then they, know, they can't score the rest of the way.

And if it's not one of those days, then it's one of these days where they just go off and inexplicably put up, you know, an absurd number of runs on the opponent when they don't really need to. But that, yeah, I mean, that's just how the last few weeks have gone. It's pretty bizarre. The journey has a great question. He says, explain this to me, how have the D-back scored the most runs in the league, but are still one game under 500.

We'll circle back to that. Yes, yeah. In a little bit. But we're going to bookmark that question. I do want to get to the super chats, by the way, because of course, thank you guys for your wonderful super chats. Mark Salera, once again,

another super chat. Thank you, Mark. He says, everyone say, sorry to my best friend. We're sorry, David.

He's not going to do it, but we will do it. We'll do it on his bat. Yeah, there you go. Tomenican, thank you for your super chat. So much,

we appreciate it. Thank you for being here. And no, Jesse's not drinking vodka. I don't know if Jesse's ever drank vodka, but that's not a question. You're just sitting there

polishing it off. Like, just railing off stats like this. Like, without a miss, I'd be kind of, I can't believe it took them this long to get to see through Jesse's like whole plot. Yeah, the whole water thing that he's been trying to pull off this whole time.

We do have another thing that we need to address. And of course, that is me possibly matching the color of this hat with my hair. The hair tracker. Let's pop. Where's he got? Let's get him in here. Down to four. Four and three, Derek.

Four and three. Four and three. Four and three in these next. Is it four and two? No, can I not count? They have to win at least one. They have to win four more games. Yeah, and they only have six left.

It would be hard. Yeah, four and three. The math doesn't quite work out there. So four and two. Diamondbacks have to go four and two in their last. They have two against Dodgers. They have one more against the Cardinals. Then the three game series against the Mariners and then the first two against the Dodgers are in the month of April.

So four and two. I canceled my appointment to dye my hair. That's how confident I have to call them back. No, I'm not going to do that. You know why that's not going to do that. You know why that means something is because I'm going to have to pay more now to rebook that appointment. So I've kind of, it's like I've doubled down on my bet now that they need to go forward to in two of those games against the Dodgers. However, three against the Mariners who are fairly hot right now, but are also just kind of all over the place when it comes to them being a team.

Of course, I know what you guys are rooting for in the chat. And I thank you guys for being here in the chat. Of course, you chose us over sons. And that's the right call. That's the right call, honestly. Like, do you want to go be angry at a toxic chat? Or do you want to be here celebrating a 14 to 1 victory? I think you chose wisely.

So, of course, we thank you for being here. If you haven't subscribed to the PHNX Sports YouTube channel yet, do so now. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss one. And ever, our shows go live, even when we go live at the same time. Leave us, drop us a like. We always appreciate that. Gabby appreciates that.

And Gabby, by the way, is back. Gabby is back. We haven't talked about Gabby being back, but he was 2 for 5 tonight with an RBI, hitting 262 with a 237 OPS. Things are rolling in his direction. We're getting back. We're back. So, of course, we thank you guys for being back.

We thank you guys for being snake fans. And we thank you if you're listening on the audio podcasting side as well. If you haven't subscribed over there, do so on your favorite audio podcasting app. Leave us a review. We always appreciate those five-star reviews. They help us out a ton. Earlier, like I said, if you had picked Kevin Newman or Pave and Smith for some inexplicable reason, to hit a home run over on the bet MGM Sportsbook out,

you might have won some money. You might have won some money. Correct me if I'm wrong, Derek. Isn't that only a Friday and Saturday? No, I mean, you won money if you picked them for the bet, but you're right. The Grand Slam jackpot promotion only runs on the weekend. It's every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

But of course, if this was the weekend and Paven Smith did that thing, you would win your share of a $50,000 daily prize. And you're probably the only person that put money on Paven Smith. to hit home run in that scenario. So you might have won all every dime of that if this happened on a Saturday, Sunday or Friday. Those days don't come in that order. Man,

that would feel nice. It would be great. Even Smith carrying you on his, big burly shoulders. Yeah, that's pretty, that's pretty slick. But of course,

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Gila River Resorts and Casinos is a place to be this week, especially for our big P.HNX Cardinals' draft party. Of course, if you have a ticket to that, make sure, join us. Good to see all you guys out there. And, of course, it's always a good time to go out to Heela River Resorts and Casinos because no one is better. We're going to hold the line so hard. We're holding the line. We're holding the line harder than the Suns ever wish they could hold the line, right?

Right? They can dream of holding the line. They can dream of having a generational talent, but maybe they have three of them that's not really working. But the Cardinals, they might get themselves a generational talent. So make sure to be there to see that and celebrate with your fellow Cardinals fans. Of course, Heila River Resorts and Casinos. You can stick around afterwards and enjoy the night.

They have a state-of-the-art gaming floor with over 800 slot machines, 15 blackjack tables, live table games, and of course, Arizona's largest casino sportsbook. Head to Heila River Resorts and Casinos and let them show you what next level is all about. You do you at Heela Rivers, resorts and casinos. Visit play at Heela.com for more details. Damon, I really want to work the count for this game because there's some fun numbers in here.

So let's take a look at the count presented by our friends at Desert Financial Credit Union. 14 runs to 1, 15 hits to 6. Diamondbacks went 7 for 12 with runners in scoring position while the Redbirds went 0 for 6. 3 D-backs home runs to Cardinals 1. And then there's this very interesting stat down here, Jesse, of their hard hit rate looks fairly equal. It does, yeah, 34.4% for the debacks, which really isn't all that high compared to 32% for the Cardinals.

We talked to the other day when the debacks scored 17 runs about how they had 25 hard hit balls in that game setting the Diamondbacks franchise record in the stat cast era, the second highest number ever recorded in the stat cast era, which goes back to 2015. But that was not the case today, Derek. The debacks had only 11 hard hit balls in this game compared to the 25 the other day. But, you know, 14 runs is 14 runs.

So they still came by it honestly, I would say. Elise is trying to divide us with her comments. She says, I'm glad Derek is finally included in the Heela trip. She just wants to open. I inadvertently let that slide. Yeah, no, I wasn't going to because I know what she's trying to do and I don't like it. I don't like it one bit. of course the interesting thing it's like there's always something about the diamondbacks that's

kind of fascinating right we had that one game where you know they put up all these runs and they went what two for 13 with runners in scoring position tonight they did that thing you know the night they did the thing of 583 batting average seven for 12 with runners in scoring position but then there's that hard hit rate that really doesn't seem to make sense in such a lopsided game where the diamond backs hit two more home runs than you know then then the cardinals and it didn't really feel like the Cardinals were even generating much offense at all throughout this game. Like six six hits is all they had. But that's why they only had six hits.

So it's the percentage of the of the balls that they hit that were that were hard hit. Right. So the Diamondbacks just out hit them 15 to six. Yeah, kind of the numbers tend to even out sometimes. But the result is what it is. And the Diamondbacks did tonight all of the things that they've struggled with so far this season, all of their weaknesses, hitting with runners and scoring position, having the bullpen come in late and really just being able to tack on after they had an early lead.

This really could have been one of those games where they did only let, only score those runs after, you know, Christian Walker hits that dinger and then, you know, they give the Cardinals an opportunity to catch back up. They give them life, you know, they just keep the game close enough that the Cardinals late could have turned this around much like they did in game one of the series. I mean, you were just talking about how the Diamondbacks has struggled with with runners in scoring position, you know, who leads baseball. in OPS with runners in scoring position right now.

The Diamondbacks? The Arizona Diamondbacks. Get out of here. They came in today, I believe, with an 865 OPS with runners and scoring position, I want to say, which is already like fifth best in the league. And after today, that number jumped to 926. So, yeah, but again, we all know that the Diamondbacks, when they've really needed hits, latent games, you know, in tight games, they oftentimes have not been able to come through

with those hits and that is still true. The reality is that hitting with runners in scoring position, it's kind of a flawed stat in a way because not every time that you're hitting with runners and scoring position is it actually like a tight game where you need to score runs, right? Like D-backs did all this damage with runners in scoring position today. But I mean, the game was over in, you know, the fifth inning, right, with how things turned out. They didn't really need to come through in all those situations. And there's been a lot of that this year where they've just utterly obliterated teams, you know, just kind of all at once with runners in scoring position, but they haven't been able to do that regularly.

They haven't been able to spread that around from game to game. And you certainly like to see them do that a little more consistently rather than just these outbursts every now and then. And that takes us back to the journey's question from earlier as to how can this team be one game under 500, but still have scored the most runs in baseball. Yeah. Well, that's because 60 of those runs have come in like four of the games, right? So it's like that run differential is going to look crazy,

but it's only because they haven't blown out teams in all of their wins. They've just blown them out in a few wins. And then everything else has been close. Yeah, it's it is, it's 59 runs. They've scored 59 runs in four, four of their games, right? Yeah. They had 17. They had 16.

They had 12. And then today they had 14. So yeah, I mean, they're 148 runs scored on the season, which I don't have in front of me. I assume that leads baseball. Yes, actually, now I do. It does still lead baseball. But yeah, 59 of those were scored in just four games. So again, you'd like to spread the love around a little bit here, Derek.

But that's not always how it works in baseball. Well, and like you said earlier, the numbers don't lie. And some of these numbers, as fascinating as they are, refused to lie. But Jesse's numbers, they never lie. So hit us with your number for today's game, Jesse. Yeah, today we're stealing from the broadcast. Some of you might have already heard this. the number is 13.

And if I'm remembering this correctly, Derek, the Diamondbacks, of course, the margin of victory today, 13 runs. This is the third time this season that the Diamondbacks have won a game by 13 runs or more. Correct. And no other team in baseball has done that once this season.

The Diamondbacks have done it three times. No other team has done it once, which is baffling to me. We were talking about this off the air. Like, you'd think the White Sox would have lost a game to someone by 13 or more runs at this point. But not even the White Sox. Derek.

No, barely no one has lost the game by, by 13 runs other than these few teams that have, that have done so against the diamond back. Well, and I think the idea there is that typically we see like weird things happen when teams are up by a lot. Like they don't really care that they give up runs to the other team. So it's not like they get back in it, but they're able to score a few runs here, few runs there, make a game like this more 14 to 5, 14 to 6, something like that, right? So, you know, there is something to be said about the fact that sometimes in baseball,

when you have such a substantial lead. You're not out there throwing gas and trying to make sure that you put up zeros on the scoreboard every single inning. However, the Diamondbacks just, you know, I've seen someone referencing it a couple of times these Jekyll and Hyde Diamondbacks, right? The fact that you just don't know one time

what you're going to get out of them. You know, there was a game this week. We had four base runners and then we also put up over 50 runs in a week, right? And again, he's stealing from the broadcast. I'm stealing from known baseball. and police. But these are all facts, right? This team has just been all over the place. And I think, again, there's a lot to be concerned with with this growing injury list. There's a lot of, the time frame until this team is whole again is getting, it's getting bigger and bigger, right?

Yeah, we're going to get into some of the injury news in a second. It's not great. I do think that it's giving an opportunity to some guys who might end up being able to step up and give the Diamondback some good performances. And, you know, again, when we saw Tommy Henry tonight, not a wasted performance because we need Tommy Henry to get back on track. So we want Tommy Henry to be good and we want him to be locked in even in a blowout like this. And we want them to hopefully have that carry over to the next game. We haven't really seen that out of Henry.

Just like we haven't seen that out of this team, be able to carry over a big offensive output like they did tonight and have that, you know, roll into the next game. Hopefully we can see both of those things happen. What a weird week this was for Tommy Henry, right? I mean, getting sent down and having to deal with the letdown of that. And then he finds himself, he didn't even make a start in Reno, right? He was scheduled.

I think he was scheduled to start on Sunday after the debacks, had moved Slate Cicconi to the majors. But then they decided to hold off on Tommy Henry and Connor Pilkington pitch that day because I think they knew that they might need him to start on Tuesday, which they ultimately did. So, yeah, I mean, this is a really bizarre situation. for Tommy going down and then and then coming right back up before even made a start there but as you said I mean this is a big opportunity for him he didn't you know he didn't want to go down to Reno right I'm sure

like he wants to pitch up here in the majors and he proved today that he you know he certainly delivered in this opportunity he was given Tommy Henry is by far one of the nicest people in the entire clubhouse one of the nice is a really great guy yeah he really great guy and I feel like he's very, very smart. He's very thoughtful in the things he says, right? So the thing about being sent down and even not having to start in Reno is that you at least had that time to think about it. And you had the time to hope you would get another opportunity. And you kind of tell yourself, like, man, if they call me back up, I'm not going to let that opportunity go to waste. And then lo and behold, your prayers are answered and you don't even start in Reno. And they're like, kid, we need you back

help here, right? So it's like you kind of feel like you have to come back, not to say that this is his last opportunity, because it's not going to be the diamondbacks are so decimated by injury right now that they're going to need more of Tommy Henry. But you really feel like you want to, you know, make sure that given this opportunity that this could be your last opportunity, especially in a starting role, and you want to make sure you give it your best effort. So I mean, I think he's motivated right now to be, you know, to have that, that those good outings. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, how big of Tommy Henry to come through and deliver in this kind of all of a sudden he's starting situation?

It reminds me of Slate Sacconi on Sunday doing the same thing. Like the debacks really, they're going to be relying on these guys. And they, yeah, both Slate and Tommy really delivered this week. Ryan asks, how is he with the vibe? You always need the vibes guy. Like, he's not as much of a vibes guy as Ryan Nelson is. Ryan Nelson's vibes are kind of off the chart, especially his fashion vibes.

In fact, he makes other players angry with how well he dresses, according to Alec Thomas. But I will say that Tommy Henry is just, I think these are all guys that are all part of this unit and they're all part of this connected team. And I think that the other players love to see these guys get called back up

and being given another opportunity for sure, right? But there's enough vibes coming out of the shortstop position alone for the rest of the team. Yeah, it's like. Blaise and Kevin Newman? Well, I was at Perdomo and Blaze. That's a crazy thing to say. He said, Blaze and Kevin Newman.

I mean, he's not in St. Louis, right? Perdom is not around the team right now. I know Damon is still in denial about that. I don't like it. I don't like what he said either. I'm with David on this one. But of course, that's because me and Damon, we're going to go to Circle K after this and

and get our little drink action going on. Definitely need to hydrate because it is entirely too hot in Phoenix, Arizona. And gas prices are entirely too high right now. So if you want to save some money on gas prices, sign up for the inner circle from Circle K for free by downloading the Circle K app today. Terms and conditions apply and participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. You'll save 25 cents off per gallon on your first five Phillips. You'll save $0.3 per gallon every day after that.

If you sign up to be a premier member, you'll save $5.5. $0.5 cents every gallon every day after that. You also get a bunch of coupons in the app. A bunch of wonderful options does stack with the easy pay option. So you get an additional 10 cents off if you have that. So of course, make sure to stop by Circle K America's Thirst Stop today. Also, save yourself some money. And a great place to do that is at Desert Financial Credit Union. Of course, Desert Financial. They always back us up when it comes to our numbers here on this show. And for more than 84 years, they've had your back here in the Valley. Desert Financial has been Arizona's largest, most trusted local credit union. Look to Desert Financial for checking and savings accounts, mortgages like I did for my first mortgage,

loans, credit cards, investment options, and so much more. Join a credit union that is committed to giving back to the community and sharing success with its members. When you open a free checking account online, you can get $200 in bonuses, which is a nice bonus. Get started by visiting Desertfinancial.com slash 200 today. Well, the debacks made some roster moves today. of course we knew based on some information we received yesterday that they were losing one of their relievers. It turns out they weren't just losing one reliever. They lost two relievers.

This is crazy, but let's hold on. Let me get out my cheaters. I need my little reading glasses so I can see this now. Damon, maybe we just need two pages. I don't know. This is not the injury report. You just put up the 40-man roster, is. what you did here, right?

I'm afraid that's the injury report, Derek. It is the same one that we showed. That was yesterday, right? But with two additions, Miguel Castro and Kyle Nelson are on here. Both of those guys placed on the 15-day IL with shoulder inflammation. Kyle Nelson, that one happened, like, right before this game started. That was kind of bizarre. And then, yeah, we do saw Blaze Alexander on here.

It sounds like he's going to be fine. just a day-to-day situation. I think he could return here in the next, in the next few days, Tori just sort of playing it, being careful with, with Blaz, as you can understand.

But all these other guys, Derek, yeah, I mean, they're officially on the injured list. I think Alec Thomas, we heard today. I believe Mike Fitzgerald was on Wolf and Luke

and said that Alex Thomas could return by next home stand, which would be promising. That's next week when the Diamondbacks play the Dodgers. But the list is starting to look like the opening crawl for Star Wars, Jesse. It's like we're going to have to like start scrolling it down in order to see all of it. My God. But yeah.

Miguel Castro, shoulder inflammation. Kyle Nelson also shoulder inflammation. The Diamondbacks recall Tommy Henry, Andrew Saul Frank and Justin Martinez. J. Marte definitely pitch very well for this team. I'm not going to call him J. Mark. I don't like that at all. Just saying it out loud sounded wrong.

Better call Saul Frank. That's a solid nickname. we know what he did last year for this team so of course i think at this point fans uh and maybe even tory might just be a little uh excited to see some fresh faces in the bullpen right we've uh we have moved a lot of pieces around and some pieces haven't worked uh kyle nelson has definitely been a disappointment lately and i think miguel castro has been as inconsistent as they come yeah so of course it's it i feel like it's a good opportunity to give another guy a chance considering the position of the Diamondbacks are in right now.

I mean, it is getting ridiculous, Derek. Like, at this point, I mean, when you keep putting guys on your 26-man roster on the 15-day-I-L, those guys still count to your 40-man roster. Right. So the debacks are at the point now where they don't have very many guys on their 40-man roster who are actually healthy. That's why tonight's game is so important, especially, you know, Logan Allen and him being able to do it. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, at this point, you're down to, on the 40-man roster, like, guys. guys who are already there that don't require you to make some kind of a roster move. You have Christian Mena. You have Blake Walston. You have Joe Jockes, which I might be butchering that name potentially. Diamondbacks got him today from the Boston Red Sox organization. And Jose Herrera. Those are the only players on the Diamondbacks 40-man roster that you have that you can just call up at any point

without having to do some serious roster gymnastics in order to make it happen. And I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before where almost everyone on the 40-man roster is either on the active roster or hurt at this point. And it puts the diamond backs in obviously a precarious position moving forward. Percareous is absolutely right, which is why, you know, relying on some of these young arms that you can still send down when the time comes. Definitely is advantageous for the time being. But it just is going to add to the inconsistency that we've already seen out of this team. not to mention that we got some bad news. Like we got some bad news.

And it was bad news we knew was coming. This shouldn't be a surprise. We knew he was lying to us. Maybe not lying, but of course, you know, always kind of trying to downplay the severity of an injury. But according to our pal Steve Zinsmeister from according to Tori on Merrill Kelly, he said, we're hoping it might be weeks, but it doesn't look like that. It might be longer. When is his return?

We're not sure. And I think we have another update from Teo Mackey after the game as well. This was Tori just talking a few minutes ago about Merrill Kelly. He said, we're not looking in terms of weeks as we had hoped for. So I think the next step is a month more than that. And then Teo says he asks if he thinks Kelly will be back by the All-Star break. And Tori said, I don't know hard to say. That sucks.

Yeah. That last part, that sucks. The All-Star break is July. Three months away. Yeah. It's not great, Derek. Tori did say before the game as well that Merrill will not need surgery, which seemed like a positive thing. But it still sounds like they're still evaluating.

They're still trying to figure out what approach they want to take. But I said it from the jump, man, like shoulder injuries or shoulder injuries are scary, especially when you have like a muscle strain like this. And we see like shoulder inflammation, like what Kyle Nelson-Migal Castro have. I mean, those aren't great injuries either. I mean, no injury to the shoulder area is great. But when you have a strain of a terrorist major like what Merrill Kelly has, that's tough. I mean, talked about Max Scherzer, him having a low grade and being able to return after about a month to pitch in the playoffs last year.

Tristan McKenzie had a terrorist major strain toward the beginning of, I think, right as the season was starting last year for the Cleveland Guardians. He wound up returning in early June and pitched for like two weeks and then didn't pitch. pitch again the rest of the year because of an elbow problem that developed at that point, which I assume those would be disconnected. But yeah, it might be a while. It might be a while. And, you know, you get excited, I imagine about Jordan Montgomery joining the rotation and what it could be like with Gowan, Merrill Kelly and Jordan Montgomery. And at the same time, we didn't even get one turn of the rotation with all three of those guys in it at once.

I guess, well, I guess technically we did, although Jordan Montgomery was really like the sixth man in that turned through the rotation. But yeah, I mean, on the bright side, Jordan Montgomery is on the Diamondbacks. And that feels extremely important. God. Extremely important. Yeah. And I'll give you one other thing to be a little happy about the Arizona Diamondbacks are two games behind the Dodgers for first place in the National League West. Yeah.

Now that's still right there. Probably not sustainable. It's probably not something that's going to hold up for too long. But the Diamondbacks, if they can continue to stay afloat during this time, again, like I said, yesterday and like I've said a couple of times, that long list of guys right there, those are, those are little sparks to this team throughout 162 games season. Every time they get one of those guys back, there's going to be some joy, some excitement in the clubhouse.

There's going to be some excitement from that player returning. And I think that that's going to be, you know, very helpful throughout this marathon. You know what I mean? It's going to be one of those things that's going to potentially keep this team powered, considering how much Tori is going to have to lean on the guys. who are healthy in the meantime until those arms and those those position players come back. Yeah. It's just not, it's not great.

And I mean, the big thing, again, with this team has been inconsistency. We know how inconsistent they've been. I think we have a tweet from Jesse Friedman, the one and only Jesse Friedman, in regards to. Let's see what Jesse has to say. This is just, this does nothing, no impact on tonight because there was no high leverage situations really tonight. But D-backs have been pretty terrible in high-leverage situations. And we know that, but we didn't know it was this bad.

Yeah, this goes back to the question earlier about how do the diamond backs have a plus 35 run differential or whatever it is and there's still a game under 500. It's because of this. For those of you joining us on the audio side, D-backs hitters in high-leverage situations this year are slashing 108. Yes, a 108 batting average. a 248 on base, a 169 slugging percentage. So basically no slug whatsoever.

And then you juxtapose that against this other slash line. These are opposing hitters against Diamondbacks pitchers in high leverage situations. This comes from fan graphs. 337 407-495. So coming into today, D-Bax hitters had a 416 OPS in high-leverage situations, opposing teams hitters a 902 OPS against the Diamondbacks in high-leverage situations. Derek, that's how this team has one of the best run differentials in baseball and is still 12 and 13 after 25 days.

It's gross. It's gross. But you know what they're doing? They're chugging up Mount 500. Damon. Oh, we bringing that back? His little could tell us available right now? I don't know.

You had. Yeah. Let's go. We're getting back up about 500. That was so 2022, Derek. I don't care. We were beyond that now. We were not beyond that.

Impromptu calls for the Ketel climbing up the mountain is like so last year. Yeah, I don't care. I think it was so two years ago. Like, the devax were comfortably above 500 for the vast majority of last season. I'm allowed to call for it. Can I call for the number? Can we get the numbers? Don't lie.

Number up there on the screen again, the 13. Just one more time because today's, today's episode. is brought to you by the number 13. And that is because not only did the Diamondbacks do the thing Jesse talked about there earlier, but the Diamondbacks also have 13 blown leads this season, which is the most in Major League Baseball. So again, adding more facts to the reason why the Diamondbacks have so many runs scored, yet can't seem to have, you know, an above 500 record.

A big part of that is the number of blown leads they had now. That number of 13, that accounts for times where they've blown a lead more. That's not 13 games blown. That is 13 leads blown. They have blown multiple leads in multiple games before. And I know you guys are all aware of that. I mean, they blew like six leads in that in that Cubs game last week. That's right.

They wound up winning 12 to 11. That thing was a roller coaster ride. Yeah, for those curious, the number of the number of comeback losses for the Diamondbacks this season. So games where they had a lead but wound up losing the game is nine. Of course, that was they had one of those yesterday. The first game of this series, up 3-0 early, wind up losing that one, 5 to 3. We haven't talked about that game at all, and I don't know if people really want to. But, yeah, the debacks have, I mean, they've only lost 13 games this season,

and in nine of those 13 games, they had a lead, which also means, given that they have 12 wins, that in 21 of the 25 games they have played this season, they have led. only in four of the 25 games that the debacks have played have they not led the entire way that's that's pretty wild to me too that is pretty wild um cogs with an impromptu mailbag tuesday question and cogs asks uh what sesame sesame street character you guys because of the way i did that voice didn't we do that at one point i'm pretty sure we've talked sesame street i don't know if we categorized ourselves though maybe not ourselves i mean it's fairly obvious what jesse is right jesse is kermit the frog when he shows up on Sesame Street as the reporter, right?

Hi-ho, can we defragg here when he has a little microphone and the trench coat and the hat? That's Jesse. I was going to say he's Oscar the Grouch when after we win and he says our pitchers performance doesn't matter every single time. It's offensive, David. Yeah, I mean. You got to rain on my parade and tell me Jordan Montgomery's performance didn't matter or Tommy Henry's. Those guys shoved, man. Yeah.

Elizabeth is right. It didn't completely not matter just to be just to be clear. No, Elizabeth is right. We are absolutely Burt and Ernie. We are Bert and Ernie. That's, I'm, I'm Ernie, you're Bert. You're the angry one that always has to ruin the good time. Yeah, I want to be Grover.

Well, I was going to say Grover. See, the Grover's underappreciated and he's just an OG, but he's really been running things. And, you know, I mean, Grover's like the mayor of Sesame Street, right? That's why I was going to lead to it to Grover. But there's also, again, you, the underappreciated Damon Dogg, himself. the people's producer. Elmo? Elmo?

No, Elmo's like... Jacob Franklin is Big Bird. Absolutely. That's without question. Absolutely. Absolutely. And then the Mike Luke would be his snuffaloopagus, right? The imaginary friend that we don't all believe exists, but somehow he talks to every single day.

It's got to be Mike Luke. Oh, man, we could do this. Save it for a mailbag Monday. This is not what we do here. We're celebrating wins. Diamondbacks win 14 to 1. Big win. Of course,

hopefully they can get the series win still in St. Louis tomorrow. Tomorrow morning. Who do they got on the mountain tomorrow? Tomorrow is Jordan Montgomery against Kyle Gibson, I believe. Let's go. Set up pretty well. Gumby is on the bump. So hopefully.

Facing is his former team. Yeah. And I'm sure he's going to continue to be on his revenge tour, is what I'm calling what Jordan Montgomery is doing this season. All the teams that just, weren't willing to fork over the money. The revenge is mostly against Scott Boris. Yeah, the revenge is against Scott Boris.

But of course, we do appreciate all of you for being here tonight. And those of you that chose us over the suns, again, you chose wisely. And we thank you a lot. You can follow us on Twitter. I am at cap underscore caveman with a K. This absolute maniac next to me is at Jesse N. Friedman. Of course, the People's Producer that I referenced earlier, he is Damon. And you can find him at Damon Dog.

That's D-A-W-G. We are Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. Our show is at PHNX underscore DBEX, but of course all roads lead to at PH&X underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Again, we thank you guys for stopping by. We appreciate you guys. And thank you again for choosing us over the suns. We'll see you guys tomorrow for a very early post game. I have to be back here in what feels like, like, might sleep on the couch.

There's some rumors about Derek bringing coffee, breakfast burritos. I don't know if you heard anything. I did catch wind of that. Yeah. I hate the streets sometimes so much. But of course, until then, you guys have a wonderful night. And remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you can win by so many runs that you could have given some of them to the suns and they still would have lost. But it was a good win.