PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - PHNX D-backs Post Series: D-backs win their first series of 2022

Episode Date: April 28, 2022

On this episode, Derek, Makayla, and Jesse are discussing the D-backs game three and series win over the Dodgers, Zac Gallen's tremendous outing, how bad attendance has been across baseball, and more! 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.

Suck it, L.A. Suck it. Yeah, they did. Suck it, L.A., she's right. Thank you guys so much for joining us, of course. This is your PHNX DBAX podcast. This is our post-series show. I am your mayor of PHNX. Derek Montaia.

This is your social media goddess of P.HN.X. Michaela Perkins. And we, of course, are joined in the corner now. We've relegated Jesse, the vice mayor, to the corner, because he's been bad. And, yes, Jesse, how are you doing? Thunderstick, Jesse Friedman. I have been bad. The moment I leave, the Diamondbacks win two consecutive games.

So maybe this is for the best for everyone. Jesse, you also know that all of this good stuff happened after I dapped a baby in the press box. I can't confirm. I did not pull my hamstring. And the Diamondbacks went on to win two games against the Los Angeles Dodgers. We're excited about it, obviously. Thank you guys so much for joining us. So can we talk about my title for a second?

The social media goddess? I have one other than the social media goddess. Okay. Because I also am on this podcast. Yeah, you have more to you than that. I feel like I should have some mayor title associated with my name now since I see. Everybody, see

what happens? I start giving out fictitious titles and now people actually want promotions around here. Well, we'll figure that out, definitely. We'll get you a better title than that. It's just such, it's an all-encompassing title for you and what you do for us, but of course this show is brought to you by the fine folks at the Draft King

Sportsbook app. Go download the Draft King Sportsbook app now. Get down on the NBA playoff action. New customers can bet just $5 on any NBA team to win and you will get $150 in free bets instantly.

You win no matter what at the Draft King Sportsbook. I apologize for any issues I'm having with my microphone apparently, but again we thank you guys for joining us. I'm just so excited. I, microphone or not, I will shout without a microphone because the Diamondbacks beat the Dodgers. I'm surprised.

They really stepped up in this game in this series. And most importantly, they have been playing a lot of, they've been making a lot of mistakes. Yes. And in the last 48 hours, we saw them play some relatively error-free baseball that led to their first series win. Yeah. Coming into the game, they led the National League in errors with 17, which is not great,

not a great way to start the season, especially when you're so used to seeing the Diamondbacks being so solid defensively. I think Mike Hazen especially has preached, you know, this defense over everything. mentality and like winning baseball games through their defense. So to watch them commit so many errors so early on was kind of alarming, at least for me, because I wasn't used to seeing that. So, you know, knowing that they came in leading the National League with 17 errors, it's like, okay, we need to figure out how to fix this.

I think they're starting pitching starting off so good. Their offense was horrible. Their defense was horrible. And now this series was finally the series where it kind of all splits. Like the starting pitching was a little shaky, especially that first game. and the first Zach Davies, I don't even want to talk about it, type of deal. But the starting to pitch you kind of looked shaky,

and then the defense looked so great, especially yesterday, and the bats were awake against. So they kind of, like, look-plodged error, like, problems. But I'm really glad to see them doing so much better defensively, as well as the bats, like, continuing to, like, drive and runs. Hold on.

Sorry, everybody, I'm going to fix your mic, because you've got a little echoing much. Thank for your patience. It's, it's live. It's live internet. It's live internet. It's totally fine. This is how it goes.

Jesse, what did you notice, though, in those games? I don't know. Is my Mike Echoey, too? No, you're fine, Jesse. It's awesome. Oh, excellent. Excellent. Okay, yeah, I feel like you guys really hit it on the head when you said that the script

has kind of been flipped here, right? The Diamondbacks for a number of games this season have been the team making the mistakes, right? making the costly error with eighth, ninth innings that have unfortunately been enough to turn the game into the other team's favor on multiple occasions. We've seen the Diamondbacks lose multiple games, really just because, you know, they made costly mistakes. They didn't necessarily have the other team beat them. They kind of beat themselves.

And for once, the Diamondbacks are on the other side of that, right? The Dodgers kind of beat themselves in this game. They really did. As much as the Diamondbacks, you know, as much as the D-backs, I think played pretty well in this series. I think the story of this series from a Dodgers standpoint is that the Dodgers beat themselves here. I mean, Gavin Lux was throwing the ball all over the place in this game. Freeman missed a pop fly. I guess this isn't a Dodgers mistake. This was an umpiring mistake, but Dalton Varsho got away with a check swing and they allowed him to head over to first base and

they called it a walk. And the Diamondbacks wound up getting an extra run out of that as well. So there were just a lot of things that went in the Diamondbacks favor. And, you know, this is a nice change of pace for DeBax fans who are used to seeing these things work out the other way. That's exactly what it is. It was seeing things work out in the right way for the Diamondbacks, right? Last night was the same thing, right? The error that Varsho got on and eventually led to some runs being scored, that was a big mistake on the Dodgers end. That weird Chris Taylor situation where he didn't think.

David Peralta was going to catch that fly ball and was halfway between third base and home when they doubled him up at second. There was just a lot of bad baseball on the Dodgers end. I think here, though, that this is what we talked about when we kind of

hark on Lavello's comment about winning the inches. They won the inches in these games. They played as close to perfect as they could play. They still made some errors, but their errors weren't as costly as the Dodgers. And they capitalized on Dodgers errors when they did make them.

It seemed like every time the Dodgers had an error or something like that that happened, that's when the Diamondbacks were able to score. Yeah, the Diamondbacks just played really smart baseball. And I think somebody in the comments said it, oh, Martinez said, this is baseball at its finest. Keep playing like this and the playoffs might not be so far away. I'm not sure if I'd necessarily agree with the second half of that. I like that.

But this is baseball at its finest. I think it all kind of started clicking for the Diamondbacks in this series. It all looked like they were working as a team. They were firing on all cylinders. And it was really cool to watch. And I'm so glad that their first series win of the year came against the Dodgers because I hate it. Well, yeah. But it's important, right?

It's important for belief. It's important for you to believe. It's important for them to believe, right? Yeah. They now know that they can beat the Dodgers. Right. And if you look at the Dodgers, the Dodgers lineup, like it's intimidating. It's scary.

It really is. They come into Chase Field with like this big macho, like, oh my God, it's the Dodgers. And it's like a David versus Goliath situation where you've got these teeny we needy little Diamondbacks who don't really have the same power in their lineup that the Dodgers do and they can still beat them. It's like literally David and Goliath. And it was so cool to watch and definitely a huge morale booster, which is so needed. And I think these are the moments in seasons that really help get teams back on track. And I hope the Diamondbacks can just take this and build momentum off of it and continue to win.

I don't necessarily know if the playoffs are in the picture this year. Let's look ahead of ourselves. All right. Let's take this series win and be excited about it. But you're right. I mean, that's the beautiful part about baseball. Baseball has all of these like almost magical like variables that get in the way, right?

Yeah. Confidence, self-belief, self-doubt, all of these things that like, I don't know. Yes, other sports go through them. But, I mean, you could literally be the. kind of guy that can tear the cover off the ball, but somehow because you don't believe you can or you think you're in a slump, it literally translates over to an inability to hitting the ball. Right now, they have not only the ability to score that they've seen, they've been able to keep these games close. They've been able to keep these games close all season long.

Let's be honest, outside of two or three games, every game they've lost, they've been in. in this series, they just kept it close enough for their offense to do what it's done over the past 10 days and score just enough runs for them to win. Yeah, I mean, the offense, I don't know if the offense today was necessarily like, you know, the biggest part of the win for the debacks. I mean, two hits is not necessarily what you're looking for. But it was adequate. It's getting the timely hits, right? They entering this series, they were like, or actually entering this game, they were seven for 37 with runners in scoring position. So getting guys on base and getting them over to second, even if it's based on an error by the Dodgers, it's not a slam dunk for the Diamondbacks to drive those runs in, right?

The Dodgers had fewer opportunities than that. They were able to convert one of them based on a Diamondbacks error that they made. So like the mistakes really were the reason why any runs got scored in this game. Can we talk about Zach Gallen? Please. I absolutely need to talk about Zach Gallen. I mean, this guy's incredible. What a performance.

Go ahead, Jesse. He's had just a crazy start to the season. I mean, he's pitched 15 innings over three starts, and he's allowed one run. I mean, it is, it has really been incredible for him. I think he's allowed six hits total over his three starts so far this season. And yeah, I mean, today it was, I think this was his most impressive outing, even though, you know, his last outing was great as well. But doing what he did against this Dodgers lineup. Right.

I mean, I think the Mets lineup is good too, but my goodness, I mean, Trey Turner, you know, batting third and just the whole top of the lineup is stacked with Freddie Freeman, with Mookie Betts, with, you know, Cody Bellinger is in there, Chris Taylor's in there. There's just, it's a ridiculous lineup, right? And seeing Zach Gallen do this against this caliber of team, you know, on one level, you're like, oh, he's just going toe to toe with Julio Urius, you know, they pitched roughly the same.

It was such a good pitching match. Yeah. Oh, my God. And we talked about that, Jesse. We talked about how maybe some of those changes made to the lineup when Tori did make them in Washington, when they had that double header, was kind of looking down the road at what the matchups would be with this Dodgers team, perhaps. I have no way of knowing that because we didn't get confirmation from Tori. But it seemed like they essentially sent out their best opportunity to win this series. And it worked.

I think Brute Squad said that shrewd managing by Tori to make our first series went against the doyers. Absolutely. Not to mention the fact that let's say there has been some shrewd managing by Tori with the pitching staff, right? We've seen them kind of have these guys on a bit of a shorter leash. So that way we wouldn't see those starters give up that big inning and kind of ruin their outing. And it's worked. I mean, Merrill Kelly and Zach Davies both gave up some runs early on, but they were able to bounce back and keep the team in the games. Unfortunately, Merrill Kelly's outing, they weren't able to get any offense.

But in Zach Davies outing, and again, with Zach Gallen, they were able to do just enough to give this team enough offense to win, right? I'm not going to split hairs about how much offense there is at this point. I'm just excited that they're scoring when it's important. And more importantly, I'm excited that the bullpen, even though it's been a bit of a roller coaster with Ian Kennedy and Mark Malanson at times, seems to be able to do the job, even though, again, Kennedy was the one that gave up the run today. I was going to say, I don't know if I agree with you on that. Well, I mean, Kennedy really has been a bit shaky despite the fact that he had a bit more of a solid start. But Mark Malanson has been really good for this team in these save opportunities.

Also, too, how cool is it to see Nick on Med hit a home run? Yes, right. I like the biggest Nick on Med stand. I'm so glad that he is back in the lineup and playing baseball just because I think he provides such a valuable piece in his leadership qualities and his seniority on the team. And so I was really bummed when they had to start the year with him on the injured list. But to see him back in the lineup, freaking smashing the ball, got a home run, his first of the year, right? Yeah. So great to see.

I'm so happy that Nick Ahmed is back just because I think he provides so much more to this team than just like his defensive skills on the diamond. Well, and the bigger thing here is that we, you know, it feels like the team's better defensively with Nick Ahmed there. All of a sudden, Nick Ahmed comes back in the mistake. that we've been seeing kind of, I'm not going to say they stopped altogether, but it feels like there's less and defense is a little bit tighter. He's a magical man. The same way that I feel about Merrill Kelly taking the mound, just like a sense of calmness. That's how I feel about Nick on my to shortstop. Like, I just feel so much better. And that's not to take away from Heraldo Perdomo. Perdomo. I still really like Geraldo as well. But I think Nick just like provides me that

that sense of like comfort and familiarity and just like utmost confidence like when he's out there that I just appreciate about him when he plays. Yeah, I can't can't agree enough. What do you think, Jesse, about having Ahmed back? I think it's really big from an offensive standpoint too. Obviously Nick is, yeah, Nick is not necessarily known for his hitting, but against lefties, he's been one of the debacks best hitters over the last few seasons. So having him back is huge, having Jordan Looplo back for a game like this is huge. Obviously only the two hits, Julio Urias was really a handful in this one. But the Diamondbacks offense against lefties looks a lot more formidable than it did a couple weeks ago. And on the whole, I mean,

this Diamondbacks team is 8 and 11. I mean, if you had told all of us from the beginning of the season, right, that they would come out of this hellish start to the season, right? The schedule that they've had has just been crazy, right? Probably one of the strongest schedules that any team has had so far. To come out 8 and 11 is really pretty good for this Diamondbacks team. It's exactly, I think, where we, before the season, we would have taken that as a win. Yeah, oh, totally. Huge win.

I would have happily taken that. I probably would have believed that, you know, I was maybe on some OGs gummies when I heard that. Oh, transition. Here we go. I would have thought maybe I had Maybe I had gone with too much of a dosage on my OGs gummies Because of course we're enjoying them Jesse not so much

It's because he's in the little box Yes please I want to hear an OG's story 100% Okay so everybody knows that I really like the Indica Orange Crencicle flavor ones Because they just knock me out and I have the best sleep of my life Well I Wasn't reading the labels carefully and I took a sativa one Yesterday instead of it goes

And I was so dialed in. I was literally on my hands and knees scrubbing my baseboards, like cleaning my entire apartment. It was the best experience of my life. I have never enjoyed being high more than I have when I take OG's gummies. And I just really need to tell you guys that I'm obsessed with this company and the gummies that they make. Like, not only do they taste good, but like they just make me the most amazing high person on the face of the planet. All right.

Well, it's education time. Yes. And Indica is a strain that calms you, makes you sleep. Sativa tends to kind of make you a bit happier and euphoric. You might have even heard of like hybrids and that's where they try to blend these two together. But if you're taking one and expecting the other sensation, then you're going to have a busy night cleaning your floorboards apparently. It was great.

That's why you got to make sure check out the label. Make sure you know what you're getting. And of course, stop by your local dispensary. They can help you out. They'll make sure to point you in the right direction, whatever you're looking for as far as Indicas or Sativas. Grab some amazing scratch made team. THC Gummies from our friends at OGs. And of course, get all their amazing flavors.

They have a delicious variety of flavors. There is the tropical orange creamsicle. Watermelon. Coming out of the new flavor, Pena colada. Pena colada. We all tried a Pena colada. It's really, really good. It's really good.

That's the, that's the, and this is coming from a guy that hates hot pineapples. So let me tell you, Penaecalada, it's the way to go. Also, they're going to have their new mini-OGs three milligram microdose option on May 3rd for those not wanting to dive right into the regular 10 milligram option. and spend their nights, again, awake and watching like every episode of their favorite TV show on binge watch or something. But if you're interested in trying the amazingly delicious variety of flavors that OG's brands has to offer, go to OGsbrands.com. That's OGEEZBrands.com to find OGs near you. And let's talk a little bit about the road that the Diamondbacks have ahead because, like you said, Jesse, that was a hellish schedule to start this season. But now they kind of move into a position where it's not to say that it gets any.

easier because it's still major league baseball teams. It's still very hard to go into St. Louis and play the Cardinals there. The Cardinals are a pretty good team. Yeah, much more winnable games than some of the teams they face so far, though. And they get out of the NL West a little bit for a while, at least for about six or seven days. I think it's going to be big for them just having a break from, I mean, I think it's easy to forget that the New York Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers literally have the two best records in baseball, right? now, right? And the Diamondbacks have played nine games against those two teams so far. So they've literally played about half of their games on the season against the two best teams in the league.

And again, to come out of that eight and eleven, I think is a huge, a huge victory for them. And moving forward, I mean, I think this month has been reasonably successful. Obviously, there are things that need to be cleaned up, especially the defense, as we talked about earlier. But, you know, if the Diamondbacks are able to clean some things up defensively and able to find a way to get some of their guys going offensively, this has the makings of a team that I think everyone can agree is a substantially more watchable product than what we saw last year. Right? We're not necessarily talking playoffs that, you know, we don't want to be the people who after, you know, the first series win of the season, you know, instantly the Diamondbacks are, you know, in the think of the playoff discussion. I don't know.

The best team in baseball right now, Jesse. In the last 48 hours, they have the best team in baseball. Let's not be those people. We'll get there. We'll get there. We'll get there. We'll see what happens. They thought the Rockies were going to World Series this year after how they started.

Now the Rockies suck again. Yeah, they're back to, like, 10 and 7 now. Yeah, they're coming back down. We knew they would. We knew you would. We told you Patrick. Actually, Patrick told us, but that's whatever. Yeah, I think Patrick kind of did a little going on there.

But, yeah, I mean, you got to tap the brakes. Really, you can't get too high or too low in the month of April, right? still it's just still so early in the season. But look, guys, I got to run and interview a Diamondbacks coach for a story that I'm about to. That's right. We've been talking about this story for two weeks, it feels like. But Jesse has been working on an excellent piece. I can't wait for you guys to all check out over at go phtnx.com.

So, Jesse, we thank you for your analysis, of course, as always. And go Diamondbacks. Go Diamondbacks. All right. All right. I'll see you guys later. All right, man. I do want to comment on something he said, though.

He said, like, the way that the Diamondbacks have been playing are substantially, it's easily, substantially easily more, we can watch them easier. Like, it's substantially better watching them than it was last season. Yeah. And I think that's super important because I am concerned about baseball as a whole right now. Just like looking at the attendance numbers around the league between the A's, the rays, the Orioles, the Marlins, like, it's kind of scaring me. And the Diamondbacks are kind of on like that same wavelength as those teams are in terms of

attendance. Like they're not obviously packing the stands every night, but they're, you know, they're not like the worst in the league when it comes to attendance. And I just like think that having baseball games like today against the Dodgers makes it so much more like, people are so much more willing to go out and spend money at a ball game and like watch that product than they would be if it was like how it was last year. So I just really want to encourage people to like get out there, support the team, like support the Diamondbacks because I think there's going to be moments like there were today that are going to happen throughout the entire season. And I think this team is worth supporting. Like, it's not a dumpster fire where, you know,

Mike Hazen is going out there and saying this team is going to absolutely be garbage and we don't care about what any of you think, like someone in like baseball looking at you, reds. So I think it's just important to get out there. And I think it's great to watch them be better than they were last year because last year was so miserable. Like, it's so nice to finally have watchable, consumable baseball. I think the thing about the Diamondbacks fan base is, if you're going to criticize us, is that we tend to only come out in the good times. And that's why I encouraged on a piece that I wrote

to just go out and enjoy the moments, right? Enjoy moments like this series. Enjoy that opening day walkoff win. We've had 20 games played, right? 20 games played, 19 games played, whatever. They're 8 and 11 now, so that's 19 games played. And I mean, they've already delivered, I feel like, I mean, even last year they had multiple no-hitters.

I'm sticking with that. One note here. And, you know, some great moments, right? But this year already feels like we've had more moments of joy and happiness, more exciting moments from this team than we had in all last season. I know things started off slow. And I know it was easy for people to immediately fall back on the shit, here we go again. Right? And it's true.

I get it, right? I cover this team. You think I didn't say shit here we go again? I'll be the first to admit. You couldn't pay me to go to a Diamondback. game last year. I'm sorry. I would, there's no shot in hell that my butt would be in a seat watching the product on the field that they had last year. So like, I'm the first to admit that that that was me last year too. But it's just great to see so much of it. I think obviously like a big

difference in this team. No, I and I'll even say that from the opposing fan perspective, which tends to be a bit of a sore point for fans, right? They don't want the building filled with opposing fans. Well, then the only choice we have is for us to get out there and fill up that stadium. Right. That's the only choice. It's under. understandable for there to be this attrition in in fans attending games, right? Totally. There was a lockout. There was a middle finger held up by MLB at both the players and the fans that they,

you know, were going to stop baseball until they got their way with this whole negotiation process, right? Yeah. So some people get bitter about that. Some people are petty and they just won't go to games anymore. Some people, and this is probably the bigger percentage, actually don't give a shit. Like they actually don't. want to go to games anymore. They actually lost the little interest they had in baseball by baseball

doing that to itself. It's the Eric Andre meme of him shooting Hannibal and then being like, who would do this, right? MLB shot MLB's season and then they're asking, who did this, right? I mean, it's just one of those situations where at the very least, I've seen more people at Chase Field this year than I felt like I saw at most times last year, with the exception of a Dodgers game. on Saturday night like we had, you know, this particular series was a weeknight series. And again, the Dodgers fans represented well, right? They usually do. It's just different, right?

It's, there's, they're not only the best team of baseball, but there's people that even live here in the valley that have loved the Dodgers for longer than the Diamondbacks existence, right? So, I mean, the thing that you can't get mad about, though, is the fact that anybody's coming to that stadium and paying money to watch baseball there. And Omar Martinez says winning fixes these types of things, which is totally true. Like if the Diamondbacks start winning, more people are going to go to games. So I just, for everybody's sake, I hope that they can continue this positive trajectory.

And at least we can get to a point where, you know, it's worth watching and worth supporting. Exactly. And now I will say the Clutch Canucks said Oakland's attendance is actually depressing, even knowing it's a boycott. And that's absolutely correct. It is depressing. And I think they are averaging like $7,000 in the game. Well, and I mean, I've been at a couple of 5,000, 6,000 games last season at Chase Field, and it's just, it's not great. It's depressing, right?

There's literally nothing that breaks my heart more than going on Twitter and seeing pictures of empty ballparks, like, while games are being played. Like, it crushes my soul. And let me ask you this. Well, that's, honestly, man, that's been something, though, since, like, they used to make fun of Marlins. Marlins have been made of fun of their entire existence about the lack of attendance. But, like, who wants to go to a baseball game when you're in Miami when there's, when they're, There's Miami just outside of the door. I know that I'm like a 90 year old man inside a 25 year old's body.

I would pay so much money just to watch Jazz Chisholm play baseball. Like I would be a person that would go to Miami Marlins game and sit there and say that I saw Jazz Chisholm play. You and Charlie Sheen. You and Charlie Sheen. I know that I'm in the small minority with that though. But yeah, I just, I'm sad about it. But it's fine.

It's fine. The dimex won a series. That's right. And that's the thing is is we got to build on these moments. We got to enjoy it. But most importantly, we got to get out there. And we have to support the team, I feel like. And they should let steroids back in baseball.

You totally derailed that. She takes these wild swings out of nowhere. The other day, she went on a whole tangent about hating babies. So I know that's why she's not that impressed about me dabbing a baby in the press box. Brute Squad barbecue said 94-95 strike caused 20% drop when they started playing again. And steroids saved that area of baseball. So honestly, she's not wrong about that. She is not entirely wrong about that.

But going back to Jesse's article, of course, you can get that as soon as he eventually finishes it. Here's the funny thing. Jesse wanted to talk to Merrill Kelly's surgeon about his surgery, his injury that he went through, the thoracic outlet surgery. And apparently Merrill Kelly hasn't been able to get a hold of his surgeon himself. But Jesse, talk to him for like a half an hour. So that's how that goes.

And you'll get that piece eventually over at go p.nx.com. Sign up to become a member. I also have a piece coming on the spring training economic impact to the state of Arizona. So get that over at go phtonx.com. If you haven't signed up to become a member yet, get your annual membership, get yourself a free t-shirt. Get yourself this free t-shirt. A lot of compliments on this one today at the ballpark.

So make sure to get yourself a free t-shirt over at p.nxlokker.com. You'll get that for being an annual member. If you're not interested in the annual membership, you can sign up for the month-to-month option and you'll get your first month for just 50 cents. Remember, no matter which membership you choose, members will get members-only discounts over at the PHNX Lockery.com, as well as access to our members-only Discord where we will be chatting about baseball all summer long. Of course, looking at the schedule coming up, like we said, we have Paul Goldschmidt and the St. Louis Cardinals coming up. They will be heading out on a flight this evening. By the way, they had a very classy celebration last night during their post-Dodgers win, and I wonder if it's happening.

happening again today. It was, there was a bourbon party going on in the clubhouse. So I was surprised that they weren't wearing like vests and jackets and smoking cigars. Right. Yeah. So, but yeah, again. Can I just say I hate, I hate looking at both Nolan and Paul Goldschmidt in a Cardinals jersey. Oh yeah. That's. It still upsets me and I'm so much over it. Every time I see Goldie take the field in a Cardinals red uniform, I genuinely want to die. It's doubly bad for you because it's both of them from your teams. If I could eradicate the Cardinals off the, like literally the face of the planet, I would do it in a heartbeat.

Oh, that's a strong fan base. You're going to have a hard time with that. Fight me. But I will say this. As the Diamondbacks go on the road, they got to make sure that as they take the field that their field is properly trimmed, no matter where they go. Don't do this to me. Yeah.

We're back to this, Mac. What are you talking about? If my math is correct, you guys can join over 4 million men worldwide who trust Manscape with this exclusive offer for you, 20% off and free worldwide shipping with the code D-backs at Manscape.com. If my math is right, that's 8 million balls. Oh my God, no. That is 8 million balls and not the outside to the, not outside, high and outside.

We're talking about inside and tight balls is what we're talking about. And make sure that you keep those balls clean and over the plate with the performance package 4.0 by Manscape, which you can get over at Manscape.com inside this package for your package. You'll find their lawnmower 4.0 trimmer, weed whacker, ear and nose hair trimmer. That's a sensitive one for me.

Jesse still doesn't know about the ear. It's coming for him, though. The ear hair is coming soon. But of course, not only do you get the ear and nose hair trimmer, you get the crop preserver ball deodorant. Ball deodorant. That's a thing, Mac. Yeah. Crop survivor toner, performance box

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That was so uncomfortable. They said, when do you want to do it? I said, when Max on the show is when I said I wanted to do it. If you're watching this, you better go to Manscape right now and use that code just because I, that's because of the pure embarrassment she went through. Oh my God. The lawnmower does work for the ladies, too, by the way. Can we stop? Yeah, well, it's in the comments and I'm just confirming.

It was a question that was being asked. Just like today, someone wanted to know if David Peralta got his home run ball back last night. It was his 100th career home run. Did he get it back? He did get it back. Nice. When he walked over to his locker, it was in a little case already for him and everything. And he had some.

I'm much more comfortable talking about baseball. Yes, of course. We'll get back to the right. This kind of baseballs, right? But of course, yeah, that two run home run last night in the eighth inning was just incredible. Peralta just looks like he's dialed in again. That was something that was a bit concerning to me because I was very excited for his year.

He looked very good in spring. even when he was missing, it wasn't by a lot. And then much like the rest of the team, they just kind of floundered there offensively at the plate. Cattel Marte continues to have like the hardest hit ball in the game. And it's hit at like a 15, negative 15 degree launch angle, which means it's just going straight down into the ground, right? So it's not that he's not hitting the hell out of the ball.

But then even after we pointed out in the show the other day, next thing you know, then everything was a fly ball the next day. So it's like he's either overcorrecting or undercorrecting or whatever, but struggling at the plate. But it's great to see David Paralta back on track. Yeah, seeing David Paralta back hitting the baseball is definitely what I wanted. And I think he needs to continue that. But Cotel Marte is just stressing me out, like to the umpteenth degree. Yeah.

His defensive struggles, his offensive struggles, like, I don't know what is going on in his head right now. But I really hope that he can kind of work this out because my God, is it scary to me how he's performing right now? And I think when you look at the upcoming schedule, I think, you know, the series against the Cardinals might not be the best opportunity with the pitching staff that they have. But I think maybe against the Marlins, it'd be a good time to kind of show up and show out. So I don't know. I just, I hope that Katel can kind of get it figured out because it's just, it's sad to see him. There's not a lot of good things to say about Katel offensively right now, unfortunately. I mean, you know, he, so far his biggest hit.

of the year was a walk-off sacrifice fly against the Astros, right? So he hasn't had those moments, but David Peralta has. That's why in this series, even though he didn't play today, he is our Draft Kings, King of the Series. 375 batting average going 3 for 8 with one home run and

2 RBI. He has reached based safely in 7 of his last 9 games, and yeah, he hit that 100th career and go ahead home run last night against the Dodgers. So that alone qualified him for the king of the series. of the game, king of everything in this one.

Can you make a train noise? Choochoo! How many choochoochoo's are there after you chugga? How many chuggas are there after you choochoochoo? Two, too. No, no, how many chuggas are there? Chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, choo-choo-choo-choo-choo-choo. No, there's four or eight.

Four-eight is the only acceptable answer there. No, but can you make like an actual train whistle noise? Like, hoo-hoo. No, I cannot. There's like a viral channel on TikTok where people were trying to make train noises And I really want to know what people can do it. No, I don't know. We'll have to make a bit.

We need to go around asking fans around Chase Field if they can make train noises. But I still love David Peralta being the freight train. I still love him being who he is. You know, last night he gave the quintessential answer of, you know, they can't get too high off of that one win. You know, they had to come back and they did today. They were able to stay hot. The interesting thing about it, though, is once again,

David Peralta was hot in the series and he sits today. so I don't know. I hate that. I hate that so much. It's my least favorite thing about Tori Levello. No, I hate that. I subscribe to the idea that if you hit a home run in the previous game, you're automatically in the lineup the next day.

And I just, it bothers me so much when Tori makes those decisions. I just want, like, just, oh, let him play baseball. Brute Squad says food for thought. Should Marte stop switch hitting and just focus on one side of the plate? See, I wanted to bring that up too. And I don't know if I like that because I think one of the most special things about Catele-Marty is the fact that he is so good at being a switch hitter. I think it was what 2019 that he broke like all these all these types of records for hitting on both sides of the

plate. And I think that's one of the things that makes him so valuable as a player is how effective he is on both sides of the plate. And it, it in normal times when he's not struggling is one of the like a secret weapon you could say because you could put him in no matter who's on the other side or who's on the mound and you just have confidence in his ability to hit the ball. So I don't know if I necessarily subscribe to that idea, but I can see why someone would want to, like, ask that. I think it's because, once again, baseball is this weird sport of habit. Right. Yeah. I still think he's not right from playing center field defensively at second base. I think the MLB network wishes with all their might they could take back claiming he was going to be

the top second baseman in baseball this year because I don't think that's going to be the case. Do you think he should hit from one side of the plate? I don't. I think that honestly, it's, up to whatever he's found success with in the past. I don't think he needs to change that up because then that's changing what's made him successful, right? It might not be working right now, but nothing's really working for him. So it would be one thing if he was hitting righty better than he was hitting lefty or something like that. But unfortunately, he's just not hitting at all. Yeah.

It's like you said, there's no like difference in his righty lefty splits. It's just all bad. Yeah. He was, you know, he was his team's MVP last year. He hit 318, you know, and that was in a season when he went through. a number of hamstring injuries and other things, you know, that that kept him from being on the field regularly. So hopefully we see him get back because the dime back's knee him. And honestly, the way this offense is playing right now, the way this pitching staff is

playing right now, starting to buy in. And I'm starting to believe that this team can win and being competitive. How far does that go? I don't know. It's baseball. That's the ridiculous part about baseball. The Giants were supposed to win or, you know, be 500 last year and finish third the division and they ended up winning more games than they ever have in franchise history. That's why baseball is so amazing and why everybody should start going to games. But I also like, I think too, like I don't necessarily need the Diamondbacks to be like in playoff contention to think this season is successful. Like, to me, what would make this season successful is seeing breakout performances from players that we need to be pillars of this organization

in the future. So Cotel Marte, I like that. Zach Allen, Heraldo Pardomo. just these guys that we really need to be special so that when you have those players that are in your farm system right now finally make it to the league, everything kind of just like melds together and they become that that special team that we think that they have the potential to be. So I don't know. I don't need to see them compete for the playoffs. I don't need to see them be like a bunch of games over 500. I just need to see the people that we know on this team can perform to perform at the highest ability so that they can just kind of can. keep that momentum going in the future, especially when those pieces that were waiting on finally make it to the big leagues. Yeah, I agree with that. And I think it's an unfair assessment for Tori Lavello

to be blamed for the construction of this team and the success of this team, considering that they really didn't give him the right tools for this team to be competitive. It's not on Tori at all. Like, I feel like this is a strategy. That's where I feel like if things went too bad this year, that that's where it might fall. So for me, that I look, she's a Nick Ahmed stand. I'm a Toy Villavolo stand. That's the way it is. Uh, the guy is just an incredible human being and it makes it hard to, to not root for him when you know him and just some of the way he treats some of the people around the organization, not just the players, but everybody, right? Yeah. He truly cares about people and it's hard to find people that are, you know, that way, especially in a position

like him, it is, right? So, uh, but yeah, I just, I, I agree. I think the expectations should be, uh, you know, set in a way where we're happy with finishing better than we did last year. improvement, seeing this team start to emerge. The thing I like the most is the fact that they haven't been giving guys a very long leash when it comes to not performing well. Yeah. You know, they know the talented guys, they, they even know when guys are putting together great at bats, even if it's not translating over to hits and good stats. They, they know the difference, but they haven't been giving, you know, guys that haven't been performing well or haven't really found a place on this team too much time. The thing I like about that is it shows that they are moving on.

They're not going to wait for someone to come around. Whereas in the past, last year especially, it felt like they didn't even have a choice because they didn't have enough bodies to fill the team. But again, we thank you guys so much for checking out the show. Big shout out to David Peralta, our draft king, king of the week, king of the series.

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