PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Pavin Smith silences doubters with go-ahead home run as Diamondbacks take Game 1 from Rockies

Episode Date: May 30, 2023

Widely doubted outfielder Pavin Smith helped the Diamondbacks overcome an early deficit with a three-run homer in the second inning against the Colorado Rockies, and the D-backs led the rest of the way. Drey Jameson was outstanding out of the bullpen in his first appearance since being called up. Plus, we have the latest injury updates on Kyle Lewis, Carson Kelly and Joe Mantiply.An ALLCITY Network ProductionWATCH YOUR FAVORITE TEAMS HERE: https://www.fubotv.com/phnx SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to the Keepin’ it 100 Golf Scramble, D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 Go to omahasteaks.com and enter PHNXDbacks for $30 off! Minimum order may be required. See site for details.Go to https://saturdayneon.com and use code PHNX for 10% off your order today. Free shipping for orders over $200!Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Manscaped: Save 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code “PHNX” at Manscaped.com. BetMGM: Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code PHNX (betmgm.com/phnx). Place a pre-game, moneyline wager in the amount of at least $10 on any market at standard odds price. You will receive $200 in Bonus Bets instantly regardless of the outcome of your wager! Just make sure you use bonus code PHNX when you sign up!Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (CO, DC, IL, IN, LA, MD, MS, NJ, OH, PA, TN, VA, WV, WY). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-327-5050 (MA)21+ to wager. Please Gamble Responsibly. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (KS, NV), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-270-7117 for confidential help (MI). Visit BetMGM.com for Terms & Conditions. US promotional offers not available in DC, Nevada, New York or Ontario.Pins & Aces: Check out pinsandaces.com and use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping.Circle K: Text PHNX to 31310 to join the Circle K SMS subscriber club and get BOGO 32 oz Polar Pops! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to another edition of the PHNX Debaks podcast right here on PHNX. And I do in fact have fire in my blood. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as the mayor of Las Vegas. This guy next to me, it's the one and only thunderstick, Jesse Friedman. And we're here to talk Diamondbacks baseball. Jesse, fill me in on everything I missed while I was destroying my own health in the Sin City. Yeah, it sounds like Vegas might have stole your voice a little bit, Derek. Things are great.

I think Derek's operating at about 60% and is literally fresh out of the car driving back from Vegas. That is more than fair. 60% is more than fair, Jesse. Prop props to you, my friend, for being able to hop on and do this so quickly after getting back in town. But the Diamondbacks, just a big win today, you know, three-game losing streak,

losing the first two games of that Red Sox series coming back on Sunday finding a way to salvage the series finale. Merrill Kelly was outstanding in that game yesterday. We'll talk more about that later in the show. But today, Derek, things were not pretty early. Ryan Nelson gave up four runs on six hits in the first two innings. And it just felt like the kind of game where a debacks offense that has been sort of MIA over the last 10 games or so overall, the debacks were going to need something

from that offense. And boy, did they get it. In the bottom of the second inning, the D-BACs score five runs. Of course, the highlight was Pavin Smith hitting a three-run home run. Just as every Diamondbacks fan in the universe is clamoring for Paveen-Smith to be sent down. Paven Smith heard everybody's complaints and delivered the biggest in this game. The D-Backs were able to tack on a couple more runs later on, but they held the lead dressed to the way the D-Backs come away with a big seven-to-five win here against the Rockies.

there's suggestions for me to drink more beer no i need to go in whatever the opposite direction of that is at this point but uh paven smith heard what you said about him jesse he heard every word that you said it was i didn't say anything about paving people keep saying that i was the one who who made all these claims about but but yes uh pavin smith has absolutely been a a hot topic among diamondbacks fans over the last couple of weeks and understandably so heck even after reading this home run, Pavin Smith's numbers on the season are still not good. And there are maybe still questions that should be asked about his future in the organization. But today in this game, that was an enormous hit.

And yeah, I mean, apparently he was listening to everybody who was talking trash about him because that was the biggest hit in this game. Would you call him streaky at this point? Because it feels like he just, he'll have like a week that makes us feel this way about him. right but then when you look at his numbers for the season obviously there there's quite the gap in between some of those performances yeah i think he has been a little bit streaky although of late honestly he's just been bad a while uh i think it was a six for 51 stretch or something like that uh entering this game over his last 15 games or so so yeah he hasn't been good in a while he got off to a really good start uh a lot of that was driven by walks he was just walking a ton at the beginning

of the season that is sort of faded in the last couple weeks. But you do have to hand it to Pavin that he, he's had a little bit of a clutch factor this season, right? He had he had the walk off walk at one point earlier in the year. He had a big go ahead to run home run against the pirates, if I'm remembering correctly, D-Backs won that game by a run. And then, you know, his homer in this game, although it was early in the game and there were still a lot of baseball to be played, it was a three-run bomb. and the debacks won this game by two runs. So another really pivotal hit for Pavin Smith,

even if his season-long performance has not been particularly good. Michael McDermott in the chat says limited upside player, ride him while cheap, but easily replaceable that I like. I think Paveen has been crucial for this team at times. But today was one of their better games as far as being able to hit with runners in scoring position and being able to do the small things that they haven't been able to do, right? Jesse, we've talked about moving runners over, just taking advantage of having men on the base path. And, you know, it wasn't just Pavin Smith's three run homer that did it. We also

add my hair twin, Lorda Scurio, he homered again because of course he does. Of course he did. And Emmanuel Rivera just continues to to hit. Just big hits that he gets, maybe, you know, He's not, he's not busting out the boomstick, but Rivera is quietly one of the most consistent hitters on this team right now. He's hitting 3.43 and it's felt like he was hitting about 340 the entire time since the diamondbacks came up. The reality is the debacks have three third basemen on the roster right now in Josh Rojas, Evan Longoria, and Emmanuel Rivera. Emmanuel Rivera is clearly outperforming Evan Longoria right now, which I don't know if that, necessarily means anything for Evan Longoria's future at this point because, you know, I know the debacks value his, his veteran presence. And he's been good enough, especially against

lefties, that I don't think his job is in jeopardy at this point. But Emmanuel Rivera came up when the debacks had a need and has been so good that they've had no choice, but to not only keep him in the majors, but give him more and more playing time. We're starting to see Rivera find his way into the lineup, more even against right-handed pitchers. And he just continues to be outstanding. Corbyn Carroll had two hits in this game as well. Just a really nice balanced attack from the offense today. You would like to see the debacks score after the fourth inning at some point.

I only looked at the last four. Sure. This is basically since you left. The debacks have scored one run after the fourth inning. It's pretty much everything happens innings one through four. If they don't get it there, that they're not scoring runs. But fortunately, they got seven in innings one through four in this game,

and that was enough to seal the deal. The answer back's answered back, but they need to answer back later too, right? And we've talked about how big that is for them to continue to just keep their foot on the gas and to continue to pile on runs. That's the one thing that would have been nice to see in this game, even if it would have just been one late additional run. I felt like they were close there, I believe, in the eighth inning

when they had a runner on third base. but yeah, they still can't get those runs in late. However, we have something very important to talk about. Our guys are back, Jesse. Drey Jamison's back. Jake McCarthy's back. And I love that. I don't even know.

If you tell me how Jake McCarthy is back, I'll tell you the story of Frank's cell phone in Las Vegas and the ensuing ridiculousness that happened. But what is Jake doing back? When did Jake come back? Yeah, the Diamondbacks brought Jake back a few days ago and it didn't necessarily look great in his first couple games, but this was really the first day that Jake has had a productive day at the plate. I think he was one for eight

entering today in his first two games and today two for three. He had a big two run knock. We've talked a lot about these situations where the debacks have had opportunities to score and haven't been able to come through before Pavin Smith hit that three run homer. Jake McCarthy hit a big two run single with the basis loaded in order to get the debacks from 4 to nothing up to 4-2. So yeah, I think, you know, Jake has a lot to prove. It's he dug a pretty significant hole for himself from a numbers standpoint over those first 60 or 70 plate appearances before he was demoted. So it's going to take a while for the numbers to look good.

He has a long way to go. But this is the first game where I think Jake has looked comfortable. He's still chasing a few pitches that he really shouldn't be. chasing maybe a little bit antsy at the plate still. But that was a hard, hard line drive for that two-run single and a really key spot that other D-back sitters have not been able to come through in. One thing I noticed when I saw is at bats today was he was aggressive. And they were talking about one of the problems when he got sent down

was the fact that he was swinging very defensively. He was pretty much a B swing. And, you know, that's something that at least is encouraging to see him, attacking the ball, him trying to get, you know, trying to go after it. And he honestly was on base today and was a big part of the Diamondbacks offense. So he looks back, as Connor said. But what doesn't look back is the Arizona Diamondbacks starting rotation. There's still a lot of question marks there outside of Zach Brown and Merrill Kelly. Merrill Kelly was great yesterday, though. Yeah, Merrill Kelly just continues to be. I'm still trying to figure out what happened to this guy. I mean, right, two years

ago, Merrill Kelly was like a mid-4 ERA pitcher and was pretty well established at being that. He was a productive starter. He was a major league caliber player, but he was not a top of the rotation guy. And now we're talking about Merrill Kelly having a better ERA than Zach

Allen at this point in the season. His start yesterday lowered it to 2.83. He had 10 strikeouts, which matched a career. I'm not sure if it matched a career high. I want to say it did. But, I mean, 10Ks for Merrill Kelly is really impressive. His strikeouts rate on the season is up over 27%.

It's far in a way the highest it's ever been in his career, which makes me think that what Merrill has done this season really might have some staying power. I don't really view this as a fluke. I view this as Merrill Kelly, you know, potentially taking the next step. As far as Ryan Nelson goes and the rest of this starting rotation, yes, the questions are, the questions still remain. Nelson was just not, not good today, as the box score will clearly show five innings, eight hits, five runs, three walks, only one strikeout, just wasn't really getting

any swing and miss, was missing over the heart of the plate far too often. And, you know, this Rockies team has actually played really well in the month of May. I believe they were 14 and 10 in the month of May coming into this game. This offense has really been productive recently. And Ryan Nelson saw that, you know, right from the outset of this game. He was able to settle down a little bit and give the deback some length at least he was able to finish five innings. But yeah, I don't, I don't know, Derek. I mean, after seeing what you saw today from Dre Jameson, are we at the point where it's like, all right, now Ryan Nelson goes to the bullpen and Drey Jameson is back as a starter.

Let's talk about it because Jayne was awesome today. Drey Jameson was just incredible. And like, again, I don't know if it's the role in particular, but it just seems to suit him. and I know that that's instantly the temptation is to move him back into the starting rotation and drop one of the other guys off the minute that they don't perform themselves. I just don't know if that's the case because then if he has a bad start, you're going to mess with his development. You're going to mess with his role again.

And who knows what you end up doing to this guy? Maybe he ends up not being, you know, a value to you in any way. And you kind of chalk it up to him when it, was really what you guys did to, you know, to him switching his role back and forth, calling him up, you're recalling him, sending him down, doing all of this stuff. I just really wish that they just let him stay in this role because the Diamondbacks need it. How would have today's game gone otherwise and how would have the rest of the series gone had they needed to use their bullpen as much as they would have been in a game where

your starting pitcher only goes five, five innings? Yeah, it's so true. And I'm with you. I'm with you. It's weird that, you know, a few months ago, we were talking about whether Dre Jameson should be in the rotation or Ryan Nelson should be in the rotation. And then you have days like this where Jameson is just completely unhittable and is pitching relatively deep in the game.

And Ryan Nelson just really, really struggles. But I think we know, we still don't fully understand what Dre Jameson's value is as a starter in the majors. But we do have a pretty decent picture right now on what Drey Jameson's. Jameson's value is to the debacks out of the bullpen. And as you just said, that value is tremendous. And it seems like the debacks, even though it might be tempting to insert it back into the rotation of Ryan Nelson or even Tommy Henry's struggle, this role just suits him well.

It's a role that he has clearly embraced. And the man got 15 whiffs today, Derek. There were literally only four starters in baseball who had more than 15 whiffs today. Dre Jameson pitched out of the bullpen and threw three and two-thirds innings, right? His slider continues to be one of the best pitches in all of baseball, potentially. When he's able to command that pitch, I don't think the Diamondbacks have a better out pitch in their entire organization right now for as good as Zach Gallant's knuckle curve can be and as good as Andrew Chafin's slider can be. The debacks have some pretty darn good out pitches on this pitching staff. but when they're going right, I don't think any of those pitches are,

or when Dre's slider is going right, I don't think any of those other pitches can really compete with that. 11 whiffs on 18 swings today. Just absolutely ridiculous stuff from Jay Jameson. And that is absolutely the reason why he is our Kingsnake today. Fire in my blood, Jesse. Fire in my blood for Dre Jameson. Three and two thirds, five hits, zero runs allowed, six strikeouts.

15 whiffs? 15 whiffs It's ridiculous It's ridiculous He owns that number 99 That is our wild thing Rick Vaughn right there That man is a maniac

Look at that Scooby-Doo shoe In the picture by the way Just take a little peek Over our logo Let's go It's wonderful work by Damon there by the way For reference Ryan Nelson had three whiffs in this game

And Carl Kaufman had four So the two starting pitchers in this game Had seven combined whiffs and Drey Jameson had 15 out of the bullpen. It's just absolutely crazy what that man is able to do with the slider. The sinker and four seamer continue to get hit around a little bit more than maybe you'd like them to. But he did use a changeup today.

We saw him feature the change up a little bit more than we've seen in the past. He got a big strikeout of Harold Castro with the bases loaded at one point in this game using three consecutive changeups. So that would be a big development for Dre if he's able to. able to get that pitch going. But yeah, I'm with you. I think the debaq should probably just keep Drey Jamison in the bullpen. And it sounds like that's most likely what they're going to do. When the debacks made the roster move a couple days ago, Tori Lavello basically said he was a little bit cagey at the time. But he basically said if you see the diamondbacks use Dre Jameson in the

bullpen, you know, a few times, then it's pretty safe to say he's going to stay there the rest of the year. And unless the debacks, you know, switch gears really quickly and decide they want Jameson in the rotation really quickly, I think you got to just have him embrace that role. And I think it's something that I think he could really provide a lot of value there. On a completely unprofessional note, I would just like to say how much I love Dre Jameson as a person. And I think that there's something, there's something about having a guy like that, a real actual maniac in your clubhouse that is competitive in every way, so much so that I feel like he trained to beat Corbyn Carroll in a foot race.

Like, you don't just go out and flat out win it. You have to practice and work your way to that level of excellence. And like, is that not a competitor you want in your clubhouse? If you guys get into a fight this season, are you going to regret not having Dre Jameson on the bench or the bullpen to run out there and pummel some guys? I'm just saying there's a lot of other things you need to be thinking about here. But we do know, we do know or know, or at least feel like we know that Drey Jamison's going to stick around. However, going back to Paven and being the hero of the day, essentially, we still don't know about Pavin Smith and what his role will be,

especially considering that Kyle Lewis is due back soon. And we know that the Diamondbacks have some very talented position players that they want to get, you know, back up here. You know, we talked about Jake McCarthy being back and such. but as it stands right now, it seems like Tori likes what he's seen, or at least that's what he told you before. Was that before yesterday? Today's game? Yeah, that was before today's game.

These days all run together for me, Jesse. We'll play that in a second. I do want to say real quick, just to what you were talking about, D-BACs having so much depth and Kyle Lewis being on his way back. The D-back starting outfield in Reno the other day was Kyle Lewis, Alec Thomas, and Dominic Fletcher, right? And it's like those guys have all already played in majors this year. They all very well could be back soon.

There's just like this revolving door of outfielders right now where Reno and the big leagues are kind of interchange. I don't think Lordis is going down anytime soon. I don't think Corby's Carroll is going anywhere. But the rest of the guys, the debacks continue to just shuffle in and out. Going back to that, that Pavan Smith quote from Tori Lavello, I asked Terry before the game just about what he's seen from Pavin Smith lately. And as you'll see here, Tori was actually pretty complimentary of Paveen Smith going into this game. He's had some big hits.

He can barrel of baseballs. I see a good finish to the swing, maybe inconsistent results. But I still believe in his ability to impact the game and impact the baseball from an offensive standpoint. Defensively, it's been hit or miss for him because I haven't given. giving him a lot of opportunities in the field. But he's been fine. He's been fine in first base. He's been on a day where Christian needs a little bit of a blow

or half a day off. And he also has been playing a good right field. So it's just a solid, consistent baseball player. And when you insert him, you know what you're going to get. I'm asking a lot of them. You know, he's leading off against right-handed pitching. And that's more a product of him just being able to see balls and strikes, get good pitches to hit,

and find himself getting on base. It hasn't happened the way we know it can, but he's in a good spot. I think the process is right, and it's going to probably start to translate. A bit prophetic from our skipper there, right? It looks pretty good when the results are what they were with Payman. So Tori's like, yeah, make sure you play this video today, especially today.

But yeah, good stuff. And again, not a bad problem to have. Right now, the Diamondbacks have options, and that's the biggest thing. They have options. They have guys that are playing well, young guys. We know the guys that are, emerging as the core of this team. And that's the really fun part to continue to watch. You know that Pardomo is winning that battle there at shortstop. Nick Ahmed is still going to get

starts. They're still going to use them. And I know people are still going to scream about it every single time they do. But it really is getting to the point that, you know, we're going to see the guys that deserve to get the playing time are the ones that get the majority of the playing time. And, you know, then if they don't, they kind of know that there is somebody there waiting to take that playing time. Right. So it's a good position for the front office and for Tori Lavolo to be in, to have this much talent kind of jockeying for position as far as playing time goes. But one thing you don't have to do is jockey for position on the BetMGM app. You can download it right now and you can actually bet on horse racing and baseball, maybe at the same time.

All sorts of things you can bet on. We've teamed up with the MGM this season and we'll be using their lines to make all of our picks. and of course we'll have special offers for our listeners each week. Betts, by the way, you get some free bets. Free bets are being given away every Saturday and every Wednesday. Fans will automatically receive a bonus bet upon logging into your account on the BetMGM Sportsbook app, and those bets will expire after 72 hours, so make sure you don't wait. Bonus bets can only be used on a particular type of betting bets.

So make sure that you're using it. I'm sorry, I lost my, I lost my read in the middle. They can use on any sport. It broke you, Derek. I don't want to talk about you. I love betting and I don't want to talk about it anymore. I don't want to talk about what happened there. But bonus bets can be used on any sport wages, of course.

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I was fairly drunk for most of it. And there was times where we were going on a scound. Avenger Hunt to give a guy's cell phone back that we found on the cell on the floor, which I'm still going to tell that story before this episode is over. But please, what happened with the Red Sox? Because I was worried that we were going to see the Diamondbacks get swept there for a second. Yeah, it did, it did sort of feel like things were maybe headed in that direction. Of course, the Debex had a gut punching loss on Wednesday to the Phillies.

They came back home. And on Friday, things were bad. The Bucs lost that game 7 to 2. They were down from the beginning of the game and just never were able to really claw their way back or build any kind of momentum whatsoever. In a sense, for some people, maybe that 7-2 loss on Friday was kind of refreshing

because it wasn't like a bullpen meltdown sort of a game. It was just kind of a game. The Vax just sort of lost from the beginning. But yeah, yeah, nonetheless. Those are better. Yeah, sometimes in some way, it does feel like that. But that, of course, was the Brandon Fott game. Brandon Fought really, really struggled on Friday,

three and two-thirds innings, eight hits, five runs. And as we suspected, the Diamondbacks did proceed to send Brandon Fought down the next day when they brought back Zach Davies. Davies on Saturday was just okay. Three and a third innings, two runs, five hits. Not really all that great. His pitch count really escalated quickly. He was into the 70s.

The D-Backs decided to take. him out before the end of that fourth inning. The bullpen was outstanding in that game for the D-backs. But as has been the case on occasion recently, the D-BACs offense just was not really able to get anything going. It wasn't so much an issue with hitting with runners in scoring position as it was just not really getting guys in scoring position to begin with. D-Backs literally had one opportunity that entire game with runners in scoring position,

and they went O for one. So a tough 2-1 loss for the D-backs on Saturday. And then as we discussed earlier, Sunday's game with Merrill Kelly on the bump. Another one where the D-backs opened up an early lead. They were at 4 to nothing as of the second inning, as of the end of the second inning. They did not score the rest of the way. And blood pressures were raised. I'm sure at the end of that game as the D-Bex pull-pin was a little shaky.

But ultimately, the D-backs were able to come away with a 4-2 win. And as we talked about earlier, Merrill Kelly was outstanding. Alex Cora, the manager of the Red Sox, made Greg Maddox comparisons after the game. So Merrill tells you a little bit about how good Merrill Kelly was in that game on Sunday. That's pretty impressive. Yeah, I watched that on the biggest screen I've ever seen in my entire life at the Circa Hotel. And it was hard to pay attention because there was a lot of stuff going on.

Merrill Kelly, though, incredible. Let's take a look at the numbers from this series because, yeah, they tell the tale of why the Diamondbacks lost two out of three. However, Diamondbacks still have not been swept, and they also still have not swept the team. So no sweeping still going on. But yeah, the starting pitching, not great outside of Merrill Kelly, like you said, relief pitching pretty awesome for both teams here.

Yeah, and that was kind of the biggest disappointment, I think, for a lot of people for that Saturday game, is the D-BAC's offense just couldn't get anything going, only three hits in the entire game. But their bullpen was outstanding. That might have been the best game I've ever seen from the DeBax bullpen this season. Five and two-thirds scoreless innings in that game.

But unfortunately, it was all for not when things were said and done. Yeah, hitting with runners in scoring position continued to be an issue. The debacks were two for 17 in the series. Two walks, two walks and three games, Jesse. Come on. Yeah, they also, yeah, the D-backs in two out of those three games.

the debacks did not draw walk. So that was an issue for the offense as well. This offense just frankly hasn't been good for the last week or two. But with what we saw today against the Rockies, maybe this is a start of a new hot streak for the debacks offensively. So let's talk about what the series of events were that were put into place here with Trey Jamison getting called up and Louise Friess being sent down. And then they used Tommy Henry out of the bullpen on.

on Saturday? Yeah. Yeah. So let me fill you in on what happened on Saturday, Derek. A lot of entire D-BACs universe was, in utter chaos for a while there. Yeah, the D-Backs against the Red Sox on Saturday. Zach Davies was the starter.

And we looked down in the D-Backs bullpen at the beginning of the game. I want to shout out our friend Jack Summers on this, who was looking for this because he had a suspicion it might happen. You look down at the D-Bex bullpen early. early in that game on Saturday, you saw not only Dre Jameson, who we sort of expected to be pitching out of the bullpen. We also saw Tommy Henry down there in a game that, of course, he was not scheduled to start. You wouldn't expect him to appear, but Tommy Henry was down in the bullpen. And we found out after the game, although Tori was a little bit hard to understand

before the game, and understandably so with how things worked out. But after the game, Corey basically explained that if if Zach Davies had had a really short outing, something just went really wrong in his first start back. The debacks didn't have a lot of length available in the bullpen because of Luis Freas needing to be used the day prior when Brandon Fought wasn't able to go all that deep. So basically Tommy Henry was the debacks long man on on Saturday. If they needed some length after Zach Davies, they were going to go to Tommy Henry because the Red Sox lineup has a ton of lefties.

and the way that Tori explained it after the game, Tommy Henry was going to throw 100 pitches if necessary in that game. And presumably, if that had happened, if Tommy Henry had needed to be used for an extended period of time in that game, Tori didn't say this explicitly, but it sort of implies it because they don't have another option. Dre Jameson would have had to slot into the starting rotation because Tommy Henry, of course, would not have been able to make his next start.

But as things worked out, Tommy Henry did pitch in the game. he was going to pitch in the game no matter what, but he only needed to throw 10 pitches. So Tommy Henry is now scheduled to start on Wednesday. So they did reshuffle things a little bit there. But yeah, everyone was very confused in the moment, of course, because you see, you see Dre Jameson called up early in the day, and then you see Tommy Henry coming out of the bullpen.

And suddenly it really looked like Dre Jameson was actually going to enter the rotation. And as we found out afterwards, there was a scenario, it sounds like, where Dre Jameson would have entered the rotation, but that's not how things worked out. Which still isn't great because it still sounds like that might be a backup plan at some point or something that they have in their pocket. And I mean,

I'm sure Dray Jameson wants to be in the starting rotation, so I'm sure he'd love that opportunity again. But I just feel like for the team, it really makes sense for him right now to stay in the bullpen. And yeah, I don't like all that. But glad it is tricky though. It is tricky though, right? Like if Tommy Henry and Ryan Nelson or Ryan Nelson struggle, right?

I mean, we saw Ryan Nelson really have a pretty rough outing today. And Tommy Henry's pitched pretty well of late. But if things were to take a turn for the worst there, the debacks would be in a difficult position. Because at this point, with Dre Jameson in the bullpen, Brandon Faud is kind of their primary depth option in Reno. And I don't know if the debacks want to go back to Brandon Fott right away. They probably want to see him really make some adjustments and, you know, work on his command in particular. It sounds like that was the biggest thing that the debacks were targeting with fought. So, yeah, basically with Drey Jamison in bullpen, which I think is where he will likely stay,

the debacks rotation depth is a little bit thinner. They're sort of locking themselves in to Ryan Nelson and Tommy Henry being in the rotation, unless they're going to make some quick decision here and go get Dre Jamison out of the bullpen. but I don't really see that happening. Well, I hope whatever they do, they stay consistent because we know that that's a huge part of all baseball players, you know, plans. And that's the reason why you can't really do this stuff and expect the greatest results. But what I will say is I am dying over here. I need a drink.

I need to stop by Circle K and take Tiny Derek's advice and get myself a Polar Pop. You can check out your local Circle K for the best beer, coffee, snack selection, premium gas, and so much more. more in-house entertainment as well. Stock up at Circle K, America's Thursday. Get yourself a nice coffee for just $1.89. They also have Red Bulls 3 for $8, Monsters, $3 for $6. After paying what I just paid in Nevada,

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The link is in their bio. Check out at Four Peaks Brew or at Four Peaks Pub to keep up with the latest at Arizona's hometown brewery. Must be 21 or older to drink Four Peaks. Please drink responsibly. I don't have much voice left, Jesse. but before we get on to probabilities for the rest of this Rocky series, as well as some stuff from down on the minor leagues, I just wanted to tell you of the story of us finding this man.

Oh, yes. Yes, please do. We are not exactly the type of group of guys to shy away from having an adventure, let's per se. And finding a cell phone on the floor in a casino is something that's a very delicate matter. You know how important this could be to somebody. That could be their entire lifeline, right? They might not even be able to get home to where they need to get back to without that cell phone. So we did want to make sure that we did everything we could.

We didn't want to just go drop this off at a desk and the lost and found. We wanted memories. So, of course, the first thing we did with this lock cell phone was figure out how to open it up and start taking pictures, taking pictures of whatever we could find, Jesse, ourselves. We took a lot of group selfies. we found strangers to interact with. We took pictures of them. We filled the phone with pictures and videos

just to make sure that whoever got their phone back had plenty of treasures, hidden treasures, you know, to really dig into when they got back. But as we were having a good time filling up their memory card with photos of free. We got a text message from a man who was a friend of his and we were able to text them back. Security is nothing on these phones, by the way.

These were all things we were able to do with this phone while it was locked. So we need text messages back. We come to find out that this phone belongs to a man named Frank, who is also in Las Vegas for a bachelor party. Frank is not the man of honor. However, Frank is a guy that has his friends proclaim, we all needed to meet. So of course, when they came to get the cell phone, they took us back to their room so we could meet Frank. And yes, of course, Jesse Frank came out of the shower completely nude with nothing but in town.

Junk. There was a lot of chanting his name in the room and like just a lot of strangers hugging a man that was completely naked. It was a weird thing, but we did become friends and he wanted to hang out and have dinner

and stuff later. So these are the kind of things you do when you are in Las Vegas Vegas, not just in Las Vegas, any time in life. These are how you meet your best friends. These are the stories. And you go on to say, that's how Frank ended up in my wedding,

right? That's the way that these things happened. But it was a very hangover, you know, short period of time for us. And we had a good time. A lot of other things, too,

which I won't go into now at this point. But anyway, look at you guys, Derek. The Saints of Sin City, right? Right. Being a good Samaritan,

finding this guy's phone. It was, it was, yeah. And I mean, we, we had better things. things to do, but nothing was better than having some weird experience like that happened.

But it's not the only crazy stuff going on in Nevada or going on in the Arizona Diamondbacks minor league system, Jesse, that's for sure. We do know that Joe Manciply is on his way back soon. We know Carson Kelly is also on his way back soon. Any updates on those guys? Yeah, Joe Manciply is throwing a live session tomorrow in extended spring training. He'll actually be caught by Carson Kelly. Tori said that if all goes well there,

that Joe Mantiply should be headed out on a rehab assignment. So I think we're pretty close to getting Joe Maniplied back in the majors. Carson Kelly, like I said, will be catching that game. He was also catching today. Those are his first times catching

in like an actual game. So yeah, Carson Kelly has has had some at bats. I think he's had 15 at bats over the last few days. We didn't get any details on the exact results of those at bats an extended spring training. But it sounds like he's doing well.

And Tori said that in about three days, Carson Kelly could be headed out on a rehab assignment of his own. So good news for both of those guys. While we're out it, I'll throw out Kyle Lewis's name as well. Lewis hit two home runs in the game yesterday for the Reno Aces. He has really started to look like himself offensively. So I don't think the debacks will rush him back. It sounds like they're still being careful.

and making sure he has the endurance story has talked a lot about building back endurance as being kind of the main thing that they're really trying to figure out right now, even more than the results. But yeah, so far so good on that front. And we probably will see Kyle Lewis in a couple of weeks, I would think, as well. So good news on all fronts there. Good news, but complicated, right? Like things are going to get complicated.

And we're going to see them probably make some decisions that aren't going to make people happy. But that, I don't know. I think that the Diamondbacks right now could very much use. I think Carson Kelly there splitting some time with Gabriel Moreno. It'd be great to see Kelly back. Joe Mansepply, just a huge part of this, you know, bullpen, obviously. Christian Robinson is moving along through the organization. What's going on with that?

Yeah, Christian Robinson. Today was the day. We talked about this way back at the beginning of the month. We talked about how Christian Robinson had, or the debacks at a 30-day period. Stated in order to actually make a roster move and send him down to Visalia. Presumably, he is in good shape, working his way back from the hamstring issue that he suffered in spring training. And he is expected to be in the lineup for the Visalia Rahide tomorrow. So for the first time in three and a half plus years, Christian Robinson is going to play a minor league

baseball game tomorrow. So yeah, it should be exciting to see how he does. And there's such a very wide range of outcomes, right? Christian Robinson could really struggle. And I don't think that would really surprise people playing in his first minor league game in three and a half years. But he also was at one point a very highly touted prospect in a guy who already had a lot of success at the low A level a few years ago.

So you wouldn't necessarily be shocked if he's able to just sort of pick up. up right where he left off and find his way to Hillsborough before too long. So that'll be something to watch. Peter Solomon was the guy that debats DFA'd in order to make room for Robinson on the 40 man. Not a huge surprise there. But I will say Christian Robinson, we did see him really smoking the ball off Madison Bumgarner during the minor league or not minor league camp. That was last year.

I forgot lock out all that stuff during spring training. And it was good to see him in there. He looked really good. He didn't look like he was maybe in the. the best physical shape, or maybe not playing shape yet at the time, but he just looked a bit stocky. But besides that, I'm sure that's just a matter of not really being, you know, in camp and training and stuff. And I'm sure we'll see Christian Robinson probably look great. But he was one of the, he was an extremely talented player and a really important player for this

organization. So it's, it's like weird. It's, it's not talked about enough about, you know, the loss of him and kind of how one of their, the crown jewels of their minor league system was, was almost completely out of baseball, right? So I mean, if he could come back and be anywhere close to what he was projected to be, he could be a great player for this organization. To put things in perspective,

Paul Goldschmidt was still a member of the Diamondbacks when Christian Robinson played his last minor league game. It's been, it's been that long since we've seen this guy. And yeah, some people had him ranked back in the day as the number one prospect in this organization. He said he was 46th and all of baseball, I believe. Yeah, he showed up on some top 100 list, which is really impressive for a guy playing at the lower levels of the miners. So, yeah, you know, big time potential here.

Like I said earlier, there's a very wide range of outcomes, especially this season as he works his way back into it. But yeah, it sounds like hopefully we'll be able to talk to Christian. himself in the next few days and just get his perspective on this whole situation and this roller coaster ride of a few years. I know he's been through a lot. But yeah, you know, once Drew Jones comes back from from his quad injury, which is taken a while, but it sounds like he's making some good progress. He's out at extended spring training played in his first game on Saturday out here in Arizona.

So once he get Drew Jones back in that lineup for the Visalia Rahai, you have a pretty exciting outfield with Drew Jones and Christian Robinson in there every day for Vicelya. Kyle says if he comes back and makes the majors, the D-BACs will start a legacy of incredible comeback stories. Absolutely right. And that's definitely one of them for sure. Yeah. Let's take a look at the probabilities for the rest of the series against Colorado Rockies.

We have that DNVR crew talking trash to us, which I still don't understand. But they're going to get a, they're going to go to dose of gallon on Galentine's Day tomorrow with Zach Gowan versus Kyle Freeland. Yeah, fun pitching matchup. Kyle Freeland has a 386 ERA, but he's a really good pitcher. You know, him being at Corse Field and dealing with that environment make his numbers look a lot worse than he really is. He's really been an incredible pitcher this year.

One of the better pitchers in the National League. I don't think top 10 or top 15 is really a crazy argument there. Kyle Freeland's been really good. So good pitchers duel tomorrow. So Connor Seabold has had some good outings recently for the Rockies. He goes against Tommy Henry. Most likely on Wednesday, I don't believe the debacks have made that official. But that's what Tori said after the whole fiasco on Saturday.

Because Tommy only threw those 10 pitches, he will likely pitch on Wednesday. And then on Thursday, it looks like we'll get Chase Anderson, former Diamondbacks legend, Chase Anderson, who is with the Rockies and has helped that. has been very good for them as a 1.31 ERA since they picked him up as he goes against Zach Davies. Oh, Jesse. Of course, he has an amazing ERA. All right. Well, we got the Rockies close out the month, but you've got to be very thrilled with the fact that the Diamondbacks hit the, what, 31 win mark here by Memorial Day?

31 and 23. Yeah, it really felt for a few days there, like, all right. I mean, we knew the debacks were doing a lot of things right. And it, you know, it felt like they were on a really positive trajectory this year. But kind of felt like the wheels were coming off a little bit there when the debacks lost those three games in a row. But, you know, this team continues to bounce back in situations where we think, you know, they might be down and they might not really be able to work themselves out of the rut. Debacks have come back and won a big game yesterday against the Red Sox, another game today. You know, you've got one of your, one of the best pitchers in the National League going for you tomorrow in Zach Gallen.

So good opportunity for the debacks to keep this thing rolling. Jesse needs to hop in that shower behind him. I need to take a nap. That means, of course, I'm going to head down to the office so I can nap in our recliners at work because they're way better than the recliners I have here. But let me tell you, they have some comfy furniture over at morefurniture.com. and they have everything you need for your house, everything to get ready for football season when that comes back around. They got stuff for you to get ready for the summer and patio season.

Got all sorts of stuff going on. So make sure check out more furniture.com. And of course, check out Jesse's Chase Lounge section, which is an official area at any more furniture location that you go to. They have all the Chase Loungeers together there. They also help us furnish our studio with their white glove delivery service. So we thank them for that.

You can save big on the best furniture in the Valley. when you head to more furniture.com. And speaking of patio season, patio season, of course, means patio beers. Patio beers, of course, means illegal peats. Illegal peats not only has some great beer selection, but they have the strongest margaritas you can find in Arizona. And you can check out all of their Arizona locations.

They have happy hour 3 to 6 p.m. daily. However, all illegal peats locations have extended their happy hour for Memorial Day to 3 to 8 p.m. So stop in today. Check out what they have going on. either their Tucson or Tempe locations for a house beer bucket for you and the whole crew, five pints for just $15. Soak up the sun with a loaded burrito and crisp beer on the patio over at LegalPete's. And don't miss out on that queso.

The queso is incredible. Check out their full bar and they're irresistible drinks that they have over at Illegal Pets, your go-to spot for burritos, buddies, and beer. Jesse, I had enough of my buddies and I definitely had enough of beer for now. But I'm going to rebound. I'll be back. My voice hopefully will also be back with me tomorrow. You will be back. I will be at Chase Field, in fact, tomorrow. Checking out this Arizona Diamondbacks match up with the Colorado Rockies.

We hope to see you guys out there too. Of course, message us, send us a text or tweet. Let us know if you're going to be out there. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse N. Friedman. Of course, our producer, Damon is at Damon Dogg with a DAWG. Our show is at PHNX underscore DBAX. but of course all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

I don't have the energy to bark today, Damon. I'm sorry, but yeah, you got to do a little bark at the end when you follow him. We appreciate you guys for popping in and joining us here and putting up with me and being at 60%. We thank you guys for your time on behalf of everybody here. We love you. We appreciate you. And remember, kids, baseball is fun. But it is so much more fun when, uh,

Pavin hits home runs.