PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - POSTGAME: D-backs’ Bullpen MISMANAGEMENT In Mexico City HANDS Padres the Win LATE

Episode Date: April 26, 2026

Things couldn’t have started much better for the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 1 of the Mexico City Series against the division-rival San Diego Padres. Zac Gallen was dealing early, and Alek Thomas�� second home run of the year helped Arizona jump out to a big lead.nBut everything shifted after Gallen was struck by a comebacker and forced to exit. From there, the game unraveled quickly as defensive miscues piled up, Geraldo Perdomo exited with an injury, and Brandon Pfaadt struggled the second time through the order. The Padres took advantage and never gave the lead back.We break down how this one slipped away, the key turning points, and who ultimately deserves the blame for a frustrating loss in Mexico City.   Join Derek Montilla and Kevin Thomas on the PHNX D-Backs Podcast!   0:00 - Calzones for dinner 3:00 - Alex D'Agostino joins the show 3:15 - Zac Gallen removed from the game 5:00 - Brandon Pfaadt / Bullpen management 19:00 - The schedule 30:00 - We are cursed still? 31:30 - Ildemaro Vargas hitting streak + 2nd inning 34:00 - Game Recap 41:00 - King Snake (Jose Fernandez) 46:00 - By the Numbers 47:30 - NON-TELEVISED Games?! 58:00 - Game 2 preview + Gabriel Moreno continues to be hurt   Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $32: https://gophnx.com/suns-playoff-offer-youtube   JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4   An ALLCITY Network Production   SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube   ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports   MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker   ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix   PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/   ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/   Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order!   Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visit https://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotes   bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets!   Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/   Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.   Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 40% 2+ pairs of off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.   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!   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.   #dbacks #diamondbacks #arizonadiamondbacks #mlb #zacgallen #corbincarroll #ketelmarte #mlbtheshow #mlbtraderumors #tradedeadline #traderumors #allstargame Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, the Arizona Diamondbacks let this one slip away late, but more importantly, they didn't just lose the game. They lose Zach Gallen after he got hit by a comebacker and they lose Geraldo Perdomo to a sprained ankle. We're talking about it with our guy, Alex Dagestino, right now, don't you go anywhere. No skis from Mexico City because the Diamondbacks lose this one. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast live from Studio K presented by our friends. You know I wanted to be going crazy right now. You know, there's never been a time in my life that I've wanted to light that little cactus light up more than after winning a game in Mexico City, even though Suarro cacti do not grow

in Mexico. But instead, we are here talking about the Diamondbacks losing this one by a score of six to four to the San Diego Padres. Thrilled to have you guys here. I wish it was under better circumstances. But, of course, I'm not alone. I'm joined by the one, the only, the large intimate himself, Kevin Thomas. on the ones and twos.

I'm glad to have you here with us. My alter, like, he is the, what is the, the giga producer today, right? You are like the Alta, Ultimo producer. Yeah, I guess you can say that. Doing Cardinals, doing sons, doing Diamondbacks. What don't you do, Kevin Thomas? Did you do Mercury too? Not today, but I was yesterday.

But normally. Yeah, that was yesterday. He's a well-versed man, of course. We're thrilled to have you guys here. This show is brought to you by our friends at Bet365. Of course, download that app, Bet365, where winning is everything. Get that app and use our code of PHNX365 to sign up. We're also brought to you by our friends at GameTime. Download the GameTime app today. Create an account and use code PHNX for $20 off your

first purchase terms do apply. Shout out to Jason who decided to switch over to Calzone's for dinner tonight. That's a good move. That's a good move because after as much as I love Mexican food, I don't know if I could stomach it after watching the Diamondbacks lose this game by a score of 6 to 4 there in Mexico City. And it's not their fault. It's not their fault. It's the Diamondbacks fault. And we're going to get into whose fault it is exactly that they lost this game. We are not doing that alone

with just the two of us. We got our guy Alex Dagestino joining us from of course, P.HNX and D-Backs on S-I. Alex, this one kind of was a weird game overall, right? Like I think we all expected to see maybe

much more offense, much more many more home runs flying than just Alec Thomas hitting one and Thai France somehow getting two. But this is this this somehow feels like a very disappointing loss considering how good this game was going early on for the Debex. Yeah, that that's it kind of all just went downhill at once and everything went wrong at the same time. Yeah, I mean, I wrote an article for Debex on SI coming in where I said this might be a bit of a problem for Zach Gallen because that the elevation is 2,000 feet higher than Coors Field.

And Zach Gallen is giving up the most hard contact of his career and getting the least swing and miss. And yet he came out there and pretty much looked like an ace for three innings. And then it all fell apart. Well, it all fell apart because he got hit by a comeback. And then even, I mean, good effort there by Gallen to stay in the game and get through it. But he was removed from the game after going back to the dug. out. Apparently it is a right shoulder contusion. It could have been much worse considering how hard

that ball was hit and where it was headed to. Zach did a good job of kind of covering up there and taking the brunt of that there in his shoulder. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was interesting because he had a pretty lengthy conversation with the trainer, with Tori. It's kind of seemed like he was maybe, I don't know, he didn't, I never saw like that look in his eye of like, yeah, I'm definitely staying in this game. He kind of had more of a defeated look to him. But I give him credit for staying in the inning. I do think it's a little strange that he was good enough to go for the rest of the inning, but not good enough to pitch. Maybe there was some swelling, something going on. You never really know. The word contusion is always a little bit more encouraging because it's just essentially bruise,

but we don't know yet if there's going to be more imaging or what that might mean going forward. And it sucks because, like you said, everything was going good until that moment when Zach came out of the game. And even then, Brandon Fott came in and looked very strong, honestly, like considering how fast fought had to get ready there to come into the game. But I do think that there is some, there is a problem to a degree with having a pitcher like Brandon fought in the bullpen. you think you can go to him and have him give you another six innings and save your bullpen and such. But unfortunately, Brandon Fott needs to be treated like any other arm in the bullpen. Yes, he can be a long reliever. But there is no reason why you would ever let any bullpen arm throw, you know, see the, see the lineup twice.

And that seemed to be to me a big mistake. I felt like that was a big mistake when they came out because Steve Berthewm on the broadcast, brought it up. And the minute he said that, I was like, yeah, I don't agree with this particularly. Like, and more importantly, there wasn't another arm getting warmed up in the pen, which is been a continued problem in my eyes when it comes to Tori Lovolo and his bullpen mismanagement. It feels like in his eyes, having another guy get warmed up is some sort of disrespect to the pitcher on the mound or something that's going to show that pitcher that Tori doesn't believe in him. And it's just the most ridiculous way to manage a bullpen that I've ever seen.

I mean, I just cannot understand why, considering you know, you were going there late, we're in the seventh inning, we're going through the lineup a second time, doesn't feel like having a guy getting up and getting stretched out, getting ready. There is the worst idea. Brandon is unfortunately unable to register an out. And it wasn't entirely his fault. There was some bad defense in that inning. And ultimately, a really bad play by Perdomo.

that not only cost them two outs, but cost them Perdomo on top of that, who had to leave the game with an apparent sprained ankle. So it was just all bad there in the seventh inning. Yeah, and that's exactly, you're exactly right. And I never like to really go in on Tori for these, like, in-game decisions. It's not Tori's fault that Brandon fought can't pitch. It's not Tori's fault that, you know, Perdomo didn't turn the double play. But at the same time, I 100% agree that his hook was too slow today.

And I think there's probably a little bit of something to be said for if you're struggling through an inning as a pitcher and you see a guy warming up in the bullpen behind you, you probably start to speed up a little bit. You probably start to press a little bit. But that's on them. That's not on the manager to babysit those emotions. So yeah, I'm not going to kill Tori for trying to let fought continue to go. But at the same time, I agree that it was definitely a bit of a maybe didn't act quick enough when he should have. have maybe had somebody warming up a little sooner. And Faut's issues have always been in the middle of his outings. And Fott's entire deal for why he was better suited to be in the bullpen was that he could get you two to three really good innings and then it got shaky. And the problem that I think we're seeing that reared its head today is that the Diamondbacks still view him as a starting pitcher. The Diamondbacks still view him as go out there and get six, seven innings, throw 80 plus

pitches we need to keep you stretched out we need to keep you available to slot into the bull or to the rotation which he might have to do if gallon misses more time anyway um but i think that's i think that was kind of all part of the equation is that they were still treating him like a starting pitcher in a in that moment of like now he's got to work through this inning he's got to get to keep his pitch count up he's got to stay stretched out when maybe two to three innings is the max for him for maximum efficient effectiveness absolutely and i agree with you and i think that's what frustrates me so much with this. Like, it was why I was surprised that they moved him to the bullpen instead of using

his final option to send him to Reno to keep him stretched out. I know that's a demotion. I know that even, even though I don't know how these pitchers truly feel because they're probably not going to share that with me, I do have a feeling that they would still rather be on the major league roster than going down. However, I also feel like starting pitchers would rather stay a starting pitcher rather than be a bullpen arm because that you never know at which point in your career that is the beginning of you just being a bullpen arm and not being a starter any longer right no pitcher really knows

that sometimes the problem is is that you go to the bullpen and you're far too effective and now they just see you as that and your your role has become that in this case what you said is 100% true the diamondbacks are trying to essentially have their cake and eat it too when brandon fought brandon comes into the game in the fourth without stretching out much. He gets that little extra time due to the injury to Zach Gallen. But he took no time at all to start dominating Padres' batters. Struck out Fernando Tattee Jr. and Jackson Merrill there in the fifth inning or in the fourth inning. And then got Mani Machado to line out to center field. And then it was more of the same with a strike out of Bogarts and a ground out of sheets. But then with the two outs, he gave up a solo home

run to tie France to make it a four one game. And then he still strikes out for Mien to end the fifth. And again, the diamondbacks had him roll. through those three innings, fourth inning, fifth inning, sixth inning, and that should have been it. That should have been the end of it. But unfortunately, like you said, it feels like they wanted to get his pitch count up to as close to 80 as they could get.

There was no one else warming in the pen. And in the seventh, he walks Merrill, gives up a single to Machado, balked on three disengagement, moving all the runners up, one base. Bogart's walks to load the bases, so it didn't really matter about the bach, and then Fott leaves the game in an absolute mess, right?

So like it's it's one of those situations where I agree with you. I have at times said that, especially if this was fought starting, like you need, we need more innings out of you and it can't all fall apart the minute that a base runner gets on, which seems to also be the case with Brandon Fott. Yeah,

pitching out of the stretch. For some reason, he's just no longer effective. Yeah, it's just, I think it's discouraging because it looks like the exact same thing, right? Like that exact same thing of like he, I mean, he really was dominating those first couple of innings. And it wasn't even kind of that, you know, accidental outs kind of deal.

And he was, he was getting whiffs. That curve ball, the curveball and the sweeper were looking really, really good. And he rebounded from the home run, which is another thing that sometimes doesn't happen. But yeah, I think probably like by the time the second base runner got on there probably should have been Taylor Clark's inning from that point forward. And it just kind of like you put a reliever in a situation, base is loaded, no outs. That's saying, here, guy, go be the bad guy. Like here, go go be the guy everyone's mad at at the end of the day. Enjoy.

And that's tough. But also if Pernomo turns at double play, it maybe doesn't. and it maybe doesn't spiral as hard. I know. I know. I mean, Vargas also made, you know,

missed a play there that you could argue could have been made, right? Like there were some, there were some balls hit in that seventh inning that it, it felt like it was far more than just Brandon Fott's fault, right? And so I will,

I will happily say that. But it shouldn't get to that point. And I guess that's where the discussion comes up about who's to blame for that situation. I do feel like defensively, and it sucks that Perdomo got hurt on that play on top of that, right? Because he not only doesn't turn the double play, but they lose Perdomo,

and they have to bring Tim Tawa in. And it's a huge downgrade as far as offense and defense. They move Vargas over to shortstop. He ends up making an error there in the ninth inning. Didn't really matter, but still not the sharpest defender there at shortstop. and everything just kind of felt off balance from that point on. But, you know, again, it's like you get bad defense, you get some bad luck, you get some balls making their way through.

It just all felt preventable. It all felt preventable. And, you know, I can't even blame Taylor Clark. The game was handed over to him in an absolute disaster. And even though I do feel like a reliever should be able to come in and get you out of a situation like that, I don't know if Taylor Clark's the one to do that. And I don't really blame him for coming into that game and in that situation it's in. But at the same time, too, you did have some, like, I don't know, high powered options there to maybe go with.

I don't, I didn't love going to Taylor Clark with that, you know, situation. I know Taylor Clark has been reliable, but I also know a few other guys in the bullpen have been a little bit better when you give them an inning, you know, with base runners on and such. you know so i don't know it felt like a lot of bad going on i still take it back to the idea that you know i guess the topic we've been discussing to start this whole thing off and kind of focusing on is that brand of fought cannot be used as a starter that just comes in the games to also give you another five innings he just can't and that's unfortunately what cost the diamondbacks in this game and that's not something i blame brandon fought for either i know that's you know that's you know, probably something he also wants to do, but every pitcher wants to give them as much

length as possible. Every pitcher wants to be a starter, all of that. So none of that surprises me. It comes down to how you manage the game as the person in charge of this team and what decisions you make. I know it might be too easy for me to sit here and quarterback or Monday morning quarterback this or couch quarterback this for Tori. But, you know, again, I, I, I, I, I'm basing this primarily on my MLB, the show experience. I just feel like based on the way that video game makes you get guys to a certain point before you can bring them in the game, I'm a little bit, I care less about my digital player's feelings than more it does. And I will have two guys up in the pen at all times, just in case one guy blows it.

And it's the same two guys every time. Anybody in my pen, right? So I know it's different. It's video games. It just still feels like that's a weakness of this team and something Tori is just reluctant to, do. Be prepared for this inning to turn sideways on you. And I'm not asking him to do that after he put fought in in the fourth inning. I'm not asking for him to go and get a guy warming up thinking that fought's not going to make it out of the fourth. I'm talking about looking ahead and realizing

that there's a good chance the second time through the lineup. There's going to be an increased probability of guys hitting Brandon fought after seeing him one time. So I just felt like it would be good game management, especially considering you know you have another off day on Monday, to just go to your pen and go to a different guy earlier than what he did. But obviously, you know, it's easy, hindsight's 20-20, so it's easy to sit here and do that to them. You can always, you can always look back and say, oh, they should have done this when something doesn't work out, but then like the day where Bryce Jarvis gets a three-inning save and you're like, wow, that was a good decision. You know what I mean? So it's like, I think maybe to

certain extent what i'm what i'm thinking maybe the thought process was to bring taylor clark in that inning is partially the venue um because of the elevation and because of the way that things were kind of going with the ball flying taylor clark has a 63.2 percent ground ball rate coming into this game and so i don't wonder if the thought process was maybe try to get a ground ball get like a force out at home or a double play ball or something like that um i'm not sure why you wouldn't maybe go to Ryan Thompson in that situation. But maybe they were saving him for an eighth inning or something like that. Or clearly, you know, the swing and miss is kind of what you would hope to have too.

But also swing and miss guys like Loisiga or even Murillo tend to get pretty, tend to get hit pretty hard when the ball is in a hitable spot. That's a fair. And so maybe he's trying to think, he's thinking, let's not let this turn into a grand slam. am, but then it just didn't really matter. Right. Well, and you're right, because especially in that ballpark and the elevation, you were, you were expecting some ball that has no business flying out to go, right?

And it didn't. We didn't really, I mean, that Thai France second home run was a little, a little, a little, a little cheap, but it's still going out by a decent margin. And it was, it was, we got to, I got to address this. It was shocking to find this out. Kevin, I sent you the baseball savant on this one. That home run by Ty France was a home run in 29 out of 30 Major League ballparks. The only one it was it was Coorsfield.

The only ballpark that it wasn't a home run in was Coors Field. I had my guy Errington who loves sports but isn't the best, isn't the biggest baseball fan, asked me how that's even possible, knowing that Coors Field. is Coors Field. And I told him it's part dimensions, right? It's where that ball would have landed and where it would have been. And he proceeded to go on an entire rant about how stupid baseball is because of the fact that all baseball stadiums are different dimensions. And honestly, I can't disagree with him when it comes to that because that's an insane thing to see that that home run dinged in every ballpark except Coors Field. But I mean, overall, I think that there is something

to discuss that I don't really want to discuss, but I feel like you're the right person to do so with. This schedule when we started the year was obviously very daunting. It's something you and I discussed several times. You wrote about we've had as a topic. And we were very pleased with how the Diamondbacks got through this month. Right. And we should still be, right?

I'm not going to take anything away from them. They got the job done. They took care of business. They won a lot of series. They could still split this one tomorrow by winning. And if they do, then they still have only lost the opening series against the Dodgers and that weird series that they just lost. against the White Sox.

But now in looking at the teams they beat, those teams are all struggling. And it's starting to feel like it's lesson of accomplishment that we beat the Phillies, the Mets, and the Toronto Blue Jays, who all right now have some of the worst records in baseball. Now the Diamondbacks beating those teams help them have the worst records in baseball. But still, it's feeling a little bit more like maybe there's just been a change here. And, you know, even though the schedule looked like it did, we had no. idea what any 30 of, what any of these 30 baseball teams were going to be in 2026. And now that we're here playing baseball, we are very satisfied with results against teams that we figured would be

hard. But those teams like the Phillies, they just lost, what, 10 games in a row? And that's, we're on an epic losing streak as well. And the Toronto Blue Jays have had a slow start. And, you know, I mean, the, the Braves split and beating the Baltimore Orioles the way they did, it was probably two of the more, you know, the two of the more confident, confidence building, you know, as far as this team's abilities. But it's just, again, one of those things that now that they've lost to the White Sox and the way that this game went, I think the question is relevant. Were they as good as we thought they were? Or were they just beating up on teams that were worse than we thought that they were going to be? Yeah. I don't think I expect the Phillies to end with a losing record or a

significantly losing record. I expect them to improve a little bit. The Mets, I don't know. I keep expecting the Mets to improve, and they just kind of don't seem to be doing that. Yeah, at the end of the day, though, you got to take care of who you play. And they weren't winning, they weren't barely winning these games. I mean, they were winning close games,

but they were winning close games because they were doing all the little things right, and they were taking care of business. They weren't doing these crazy ninth-inning comeback gimmick, you know, stuff to barely be these teams. A bunch of home runs out of nowhere and stuff. Yeah. So I would say that even if these teams are not that good, I don't have a problem with the way that they handled business.

And I also will say that I think the White Sox are a very underrated hitting team. Combined with the Debex did not hit the ball well and did not execute well offensively. But I think the White Sox are a much better offense than they get credit for, especially Murakami.

That guy's a stud. But, yeah. So, you know, I'm not, I don't, I don't like to look at who they beat and who they didn't beat and complain about it. Because unless it's, we're talking about like the Dodgers where you know it's going to be like a tough challenge or like a team that I don't know, like the 2025 Colorado Rockies. I actually am a little bit scared of the Rockies this year. I know. But we play them in the Giants a lot. And if those teams are playing good baseball at that time, that's.

series or that stretch that I was really looking forward to in May might doesn't get much easier. Yeah, it might be awful. You know, it might be difficult. I agree with what you said, by the way. And I like the, I think that was very well said is that, you know, they were winning games in a, in a very, I guess in like not some sort of way where it was like a fluke. Like they were winning games using solid defense, having solid pitching performances, bullpen was stepping up. Like they're, They won those games because they were closing them out and playing what looked like a different brand of baseball than we saw them play for the majority of last year. But also, you know, that that was the reason why with this game being as close as it was and the margins being what they were, that that seventh inning was such a disaster for them today because they did not do those little things that you just described right.

You know, it was even if you don't want to blame them entirely for the defensive mistakes that they made, those are still the kind of plays that they were making that led to those wins that we're discussing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, it's playing Debex baseball. I can, I can almost guarantee you that Tori in his post game interview today said something to the effect of this is not DeBax baseball. We're not playing DeBex baseball.

We got to push it. You know, all of those things that I know, everyone has. the chat probably loves hearing from Tori. Brandon just got nipped up there. He was grinding a little bit, you know, this is what we do. Yeah. So I bet but that's it though. It's like you can always tell like when they're not playing to their identity, they don't

win games. And that's that like maybe that's true for a lot of teams, a lot of the time. But I feel like very specifically it's it's like you can just tell when this team is not playing the way that they are normally playing and to their strengths. And whenever that happens, it's like you can almost just guarantee they can't, they're not going to find a way to win a game unless they get back to that, that identity that they have. I will also say that to play devil's advocate just because Killer Rex just got here.

I will say that like, you know, losing Zach when he was having the game that he was having also completely changed this, right? And that's nobody's fault. That was just a fluke accident that occurred on a comeback. that hit Zach and required him to be removed from the game. But again, even beyond that, it didn't feel like Zach leaving the game was what caused everything to unravel.

It was simply said, it was simply that seventh inning where we get to that point and you don't make those changes. You don't actively get, like, it's just one of those things where like Tori's management of the bullpen always feels like he can't exhaust the bullpen. the bullpen. And that's the part that feels so weird

all the time. It's like, yeah, you have to save the bullpen for future wins. But we also need to win this game now. So going to the bullpen, proactively and making that change and not having Brandon go through the lineup a second time felt like an obvious move

there that was missed. And again, something that, you know, Tori, again, is far too reluctant to do at times for some reason. With fought though, I feel like it's as we discussed earlier. It's going to be even worse. So hopefully they figure out a way to utilize him because I still feel like Brandon can be a huge weapon for them out of the bullpen if used correctly and only for two to three innings max not trying to get him through the rotation multiple

times. As you said though, he might not be in the bullpen any longer because of Zach is removed from the starting rotation. Brandon steps in and at least for now this whole situation is kind of figured out, but unfortunately, it's without gallon in the starting rotation. So that remains to be seen. But I thank you, of course, our guy, Alex Dagostino for stopping by, giving us some insight here. Of course, you can read all of his writing, not only right here on go phtonx.com, he just gave his full NFL draft grades for the, was it for the Cardinals or was it for everybody? It was just for the Cardinals, right? Just no, just for the Cardinals. Yeah, but check out my draft grades. I don't want to take God, I would never do that.

We need you covering baseball, so. But also make sure to check out all this stuff over at Sports Illustrated. It does a fantastic job. Alex, thank you again for your time, bud. Thanks, guys. We'll see you soon. All right, well, we're going to take a quick break. And on the other side of this break, we're going to talk more about this game.

And I'm going to scream about the bullpen usage. So let's go ahead and do that. We are going to take a short break. We'll be right back. You're watching the P.H.N.X. Diamondback show. Well, with Bet365, they kind of tap into something. that I might like to do, especially if you're watching a losing baseball game, which is just kind of stop watching that game early.

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You know we'll be missing out on a win. So, of course, get down on the Bet365 early payout offer. They can't stop bullpens from ruining your day, but they can help them stop from ruining your bets. So download the Bet365 app right now. Use our code of PHMX365 when you sign up. Bet 365, we're winning is everything. Gambling problem called 1,800 gambler. 21 and over only must be physically located in Arizona.

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Visit maceu.com slash my style to apply. Insured by NCUA. Membership is required based on eligibility. Some benefits require no cost registration, activation, terms, conditions, and exclusions to apply. Oh, damn it, Kevin. I was ready to be in a great mood, especially with the way things were going in this one.

You know how excited I was. Things got started off with the team representatives, or excuse me, these two teams being represented by WWE wrestlers, which you know Kevin and I love. And I think we have a quick shot of those two guys. Of course, Mr. Bouyaka, Buyaka, 619, Ray Mysterio is here representing the San Diego Padres as he does all the time, even in his song that he comes. out to and meanwhile we get my friend ray phoenix who i've taken pictures with midmatch multiple times um he doesn't spell his name phoenix the way we spell it though so there's a little difference there it still feels very appropriate honestly that ray phoenix was our representative though right because of the the different spelling i just now put together like obviously that's not the

one reason why they picked ray phoenix yeah but i get why it's so fitting now yeah i get it i i feel like if we would have had Penta representing us in this game, we wouldn't have lost this game. Because you would have had zero me. We would add zero meido, right? Cerro Mieto. Mexico City, housing. Yeah,

yeah. But instead we're still cursed housing. That's for sure. We need to get Danhausen. Kevin, by the way, sent me a cameo link to Danhausen. So we're going to work on getting him to uncurse our team getting injured because

that didn't stop again today, did it? The pile of injuries gets bigger, doesn't it? I could have Perdome go up the little mountain. And instead of it being Mount 500, it could be the bodies that he goes up that are the injured bodies from this team. I'm sick of it and I can't stand it.

And we don't know the extent of Zach Gallen's injury, nor do we know the extent of Heraldo-Pradomo's sprained ankle right now. But that's how, that's what we get. That's what we get in this loss. That's a six to four loss. Diamondbacks dropped to 14 and 12 on the season and now lost four of their last five games. All bad. All bad.

And the only good for the Diamondbacks. really, and this one was that second inning where the offense finally made things go boom and give the Diamondbacks an early lead. And it was fun with two outs. Ildemarro Vargas did the thing again that he does. Career best 22-game hitting streak with that single there in the inning.

It's his, goes back to September of last year, tied for the major's longest active streak since 2025 with Bobby Witt's 22-gamer from last season. his 19 game streak to start the season is the third, is tied for the major league's third largest, longest streak to start a season dating back to 1998. Kevin was two years old when this started.

What? No, is that right? No, not even close. Kevin's baby. But Edgar Renteria had one back in 2006. That was 23 games. Pablo Sandoval had one that was 20 games in 2012. And now Ildamaro Vargas ties Nate McClure.

from Pittsburgh with a 19-game hit streak. His 19-game hit streak is tied for the fifth longest single-season streak in Arizona Diamondbacks Club history. So Vargy keeps doing the thing. He ties Matt Williams for the longest for that 19-game streak. He's got Catell and Danny Batista's 21-game streaks in one season ahead of him, Tony Womack 24-game streak, and then a Luis Gonzalez 30-game streak from back in 1999. And the Diamondbacks weren't done there in that inning.

Of course, Nolan Aronado singled and then with two on and two outs, Jose Fernandez had a two RBI double, and that gave the D-backs a two-to-nothing lead. And what more can you say about Jose Fernandez or, again, the six through nine portion of the lineup? These are the guys that continue to get the job done, and they did it today. With Fernandez on the Pride of Mexico himself, Alec Thomas, hit a two-run bomb that at the time increased the lead to four to nothing. And things were good. Things were good for the Diamondbacks.

And it stayed four to nothing for a substantial period of time. Like we said, Zach Gallen, though, unfortunately would get hit by that comebacker and be replaced by Brandon Fought, who was still very good. But on the flip side, the Diamondbacks put up those four runs there in the second inning. And it was another day where they vanish after that. They put up four runs. They said, adios. work well done and the offense exited the building at that point.

It seemed like the Diamondbacks had, I think, five base runners total for the rest of the game, maybe six, but they only got three more hits between then and the end of the game. So the offense definitely didn't keep things rolling and this was not a game where they continued to apply that pressure to their opponent as they have not done all season long. Pretty much that game two versus the Chicago White Sox was the last time we truly saw them continue to add on and they needed to in that game, considering that their pitching continue to allow runs. But their defense was fine until it wasn't in the seventh inning.

Cattel made a really good play that Rob Jake Croninworth there in the third. And then the sixth inning, right before that bastard seventh inning, in the sixth inning, Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a ball 110 miles per hour that Geraldo Pardomo turned beautifully for a double play to end the inning. It was 6-4-3. But then we had the opposite of that in the seventh inning. And it seemed like once things started to unravel for Brandon fought, things unraveled for the defense and things unraveled for this team.

Vargas, of course, made a mistake there. Geraldo Perdomo's misplayed double play is huge, right? So there's a lot of discourse right now as to, you know, the defense being to blame, Geraldo Perdomo being to blame. Prudomo sprained his ankle on the play. So I don't know exactly at what point he tweaked it. It looked like it might have been when he was like planting for the throw. But nonetheless, it definitely, you know, was a disaster of epic proportions.

It not only lost this team essentially the game or contributed heavily to it, but now we lost DOMO. And that's not great. You know, Pridomo was finally starting to put his offense together. Defensively, he's made some mistakes. He hasn't been as solid as he was last season, but still he's been playing some good defense. and he's definitely still a better option than the other options

the Diamondbacks have for shortstop there. So his loss is going to be felt for a while potentially. And like I said, it's just another person that ends up potentially on the IL. We also have some news about Gabby. We'll get into a little bit later. But really in this one, this one was bad. And Book's journey is right. Damon is in shambles.

He couldn't even make it on the show. That's how bad. That's how down bad Damon is right now. Books Journey also says should have brought Juan Morillo in the seventh. I agree with that. I think Alex did make a very good point about Taylor Clark's ground ball rate. And I'm sure that that had a huge impact on the decision to go to Taylor Clark. I just don't believe it was the right one.

And I also think that at that point, it was far too late. I don't know if anybody that you're going to bring into a game with zero outs and bases loaded is going to be able to get you out of the jam, at least without any right. run scoring. But yeah, I don't love that. I also don't love the nickname Drip for Vargy. Jason bringing up the 98.7 Arizona Sports has been trying to push this idea that Ildemar Vargas's initials are IV, so we should call him drip. Kevin, I need you to weigh in on this because I do feel like as an older person, I don't necessarily have the range on this one to feel like this is old guy thinking. But is, am I wrong?

saying that if you heard a guy's nickname was drip, that the first thing you would think is that he was the flashiest dresser on the team? Yeah, I think it's just like too vague. Like, I think it's like, like if you're going to, it's like pretty much calling someone swag.

You know what I mean? Like it just doesn't like, like if I called you like, hey, swag, you're like, what? Yeah. Are you saying I'm like ironically cool?

Yeah. Am I actually cool? I don't know. I don't know. I just, I'm not behind drip. I think there's something cool with IV. I don't even know how to use swag.

Like, NBA. Is it as a verb or is it, no, okay. Good. I'm glad people in the comments are agreeing with us here. What were you going to say? I'll say, though, like, NBA nicknames on like Stan Twitter, chat. Correct me if I'm wrong. They like doing like the and then the nickname.

So what if he was just like the injection? You know what I mean? He injects some hits. He injects some maybe wins. Yeah. I'm not saying it's the start that we need to have. I'm not saying it's the nickname. but it's a start.

It's better than drip. I'm going to say, it's better than drip. I'm going to say that I like the injection 10 times more than drip. Right? It's just better. And Kevin just thought of that randomly right now

in this moment. He didn't put any force. He didn't know I was going to ask him that question. He didn't make that up beforehand. This is like a freestyle. This isn't a predetermined. Jarmy says no. All right.

Well, they're out on injection too. That's fine. Jay Cuddy also is out. Vargy is. As far as I'm going to. Zard, Vargy is his actual nickname. That is what the other players call him. So if Kutel call him Bargi, I'm going to call him Bargi, right?

That's the way that this works as far as that is concerned. But I don't care what you call him. He is the fabulous Las Vargas, and he deserves all the credit for what he has done. Unfortunately, they're just not getting that complimentary production. And today was another day where the six through nine guys did it. You got Aronado going two for four. you got Jose Fernandez, two for four, and then you got Alex Thomas with the big home run today going one for four with the two RBI. Catell, O for three, Tawa, O for one, Barrosa, O for one, or excuse me, Pardombo,

O for three. Catell was one for four. Corvin Carroll was O for two with a walk. Del Castillo was O' for four. Lourdes is O'Riel is O for four. Lourdes is absolutely lost at the plate. I believe he has one hit this season, and I know that they're waiting for him to put it together, but it does feel like since they've added him to the starting lineup, he's just been a black hole there. And unfortunately, when you're plugging him in right there in that middle part of that lineup, before you can bridge it to those six through nine guys,

you're not getting through to them. It's almost an automatic out. So it's just kind of unfortunate that, you know, that that's the case. I want Lord just to start putting it together. But this was kind of my concern about guys returning from injury. Baseball is a fickle sport. So when you return, it takes your while to get back into the swing of things.

Lord is going to AA Amarillo and hitting a home run does not necessitate that he's going to come back and be able to do it at a major league level right away. And again, I was worried about this. I'm worried about this as we go on and we continue to get position players back, including Gabriel Moreno when Jordan Lawler returns, all of these guys. Now we don't know how long Pranoma is going to be out for. We don't know how long we're going to miss that gallon for. that gallon doesn't miss any time out of the starting rotation, but if he does, we do have Brandon fought, and I don't love that option any longer, especially after tonight's performance, but we do at least have Brandon fought. Meanwhile, as far as Pardomo is concerned, Jose Fernandez could possibly

slot in there to play shortstop. Maybe that can move some things around. Burosa goes to the outfield. Maybe they put Lourdes at D.H. I don't really know what the answer is to get this offense going, but without Pardomo in it, I'm worried that it's going to only be that much more of a struggle for this team to find a way to produce runs. But one guy, again, that deserves all the credit in the world. Obviously, Ildemar Vargas, we could give him King Snake. It feels like every single night. But we got to give it to Jose Fernandez because this man is amazing.

Two for four, a double, two RBI, a run score, and he's doing more. This is a guy that continues to do it consistently, consistently at the plate. he makes exciting plays. In fact, the one thing I don't love is that I think D.H is far too often. I think he has too much to offer this team elsewhere other than for him to be constantly being their D.H. But he's hitting 319 with a 782 OPS. His extra base hits have kind of subsided a little bit, but he had that big double today.

And I just still am amazed at what he is able to do night in, night out for this baseball team when he wasn't even supposed to be a member of it for the 2026 season. All of the projections and forecasts had Fernandez joining this team next year. And I'm not joking when I say that he is a, he is becoming a National League rookie of the year candidate. I know we know we've known that since game two, but all kidding aside, his production has not fallen off. And he just consistently delivers for this team.

I think that if he obviously can get some more, time, you know, in the field and find ways to help this team improve and win games other than just his bat. I definitely think that he will be up there for that, for rookie of the year contention. But again, Diamondbacks have to win in order for that to continue to be a thing. And they did not today. I have a lot to complain about, but we have some numbers to look at before I do complaining about this game and tomorrow's game not being nasty. nationally televised. Well, right now there's not a whole lot of you in here.

So maybe they were right to make that call. But we're going to talk about it on the other side of this break. Don't you go anywhere. You're watching the PHNX Diamondback show. No, I'm kidding. I know you guys aren't here because, you know, they lost. So that's fine. But one way that you can win is to go to Circle K because you never lose at Circle K.

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Kevin, let's take a look at the numbers from tonight's loss. It's unfortunate. But again, it's also weird because here we are, the Diamondbacks out hitting the Padres 7 to 6. this was not the game we thought we were going to see. We thought we were going to see these ridiculous, like, fly balls that just kept going that normally would have been caught midway in center field, but instead they just leave the stadium. We did not get that tonight.

We got a few home runs, three of them, but definitely not the night offensively that we were going to see for either one of these teams. And at one point, it very much looked like the Diamondbacks might have won this one by a score of 4 to 1 or maybe even 4 to 2. But instead, they lose this one 6 to 4. Diamondbacks were only one for four with runners in scoring position or excuse me, that was actually reversed. Diamondbacks were two for five with runners a scoring position

and the Padres were one for four. That one's not on Kevin, that one's on Ayrton. Two extra base hits for both team. 30.4% hard hit percentage to 30.3% very different, very, just basically the balls were hit identically. And then the expected batting average was 220 for the Diamondbacks, 262 for the Padres. No ABS challenges allowed in this game because the stadium there in Mexico City does not have the technology to have the ABS challenge system.

But we did see a few challenges overall head back. And it felt very much like. Is that not crazy? It's it's crazy because of the fact that this is an MLB season and a game probably should not be played at any place that doesn't have ABS technology. It's like having a game where you can't do like VAR and soccer. What if a major call gets overturned or can't get overturned because you can't challenge it. Right. And I mean, again, these guys have gotten very use to using the ABS challenge system already.

I know it's still a very short portion of the season, but I feel like these guys have already, like it must have been hard in some cases for them to not just instinctually tap their helmet to try to get a review call there. But I'm with you. This was kind of like I remember in the NFL some stadiums didn't have like, the sideline cam so then they couldn't use it at all in any games because not all of them had it and that's again a very stupid thing for me as far as that is concerned but uh another very stupid thing that i want to rant and rave about before uh we wrap up and get out of here we're going to give you a little update on gabriel merino before we do but these games

are not nationally televised these games were televised on debacks local broadcasting and if you add a subscription and same thing with the Padres. That is the biggest crock of shit that I have ever heard in my entire life. I will remind you that this series is the only international series being played in baseball this year besides any time we go to Canada, which is always an international series, am I right? But it's the only international series, right? NFL has like what eight nine international games

and they still do a great job of making it a big deal every single time Major League Baseball 100% drop the ball on this and I don't know if it's a lack of interest I really don't understand why they wouldn't do more to make this more of an event. There are not a ton of premier events in baseball, right? I mean like

and not only that, but this doesn't seem fair to have this be a Diamondbacks home game when you're sending them to a stadium that you know is filled with San Diego Padres fans. That I don't get either. None of this makes sense to me and it all seems like bullshit. But it definitely seems like a lack of marketing and promotion when it comes to an event like this. Again, they don't have very many marquee events, right? What do you have? You have whatever the, whenever you go to the field of dreams and then you have,

but that's nationally televised. You have the All-Star Game and the week of the All-Star Game events. That's nationally televised. But you don't nationally televise this series. Again, that is your only Major League series in baseball this year. I don't understand it. We didn't get to see a lot of the fun. Shout out to Ben Verlander because of his social media.

media, we got to see a lot of the moments that the Diamondbacks were partaking in, but not necessarily from MLB themselves. And again, this all felt like a huge miss. I'm not just saying this from a Diamondbacks perspective either, even though I do have my beef with this being a Diamondbacks home series. I will just say overall that this did not feel special at all. Watching this game was another normal broadcast done by the same broadcast team that we Diamondbacks fans. watch every single game, and there was no pageantry, there was no, just did not feel special.

And that's on Major League Baseball. In fact, it kind of makes me sick that when I look up the Mexico City series in our image services to try to find pictures from the Knights game, all of the pictures that come up are from last year's Mexico City series. and even on game day, the background said Mexico City series and the two teams on the logo were the Astros and whoever else they played, who escapes me right now. It was the two teams from last year. They didn't even update game day.

They didn't even give us that. Like this whole thing just feels like this weird makeup for the COVID season when we were going to do this series. And now they're like, here, you got it. We did it. there it's done. Why wouldn't you view this as a valuable commodity? Perhaps because it's taking place on the weekend of the NFL draft, which feels very stupid.

Also, if you wanted to make this a marquee event, considering how many weekends throughout the goddamn year there are when the NFL draft isn't happening? And we could have had it at then? Oh, baseball, you're very bad at this. I'm going to tell you that. I'm not lying. You're bad at this. I wish you weren't.

It impacts me personally in this show. It impacts Kevin. You're making Kevin sad. See? Kevin's upset. I don't like when you upset Kevin. Anyway, that's my feelings on this whole thing. I mean, am I right, Kevin?

I know you're not a huge baseball guy. And when you do, you root for a team that I don't care for. But I mean, don't you think that they did a bad job with managing this, promoting this, and not having it be an absolute? nationally televised? I mean, yeah, if you go to a whole different country to play the game, you've got to make it a big deal. You have to make it feel like it's important or else why are we going to Mexico City? Why not just send them to Reno?

Genuinely. Like I'm saying, if you're going to make a minor event of it, you might as well go to a minor place like Reno. I mean, yeah. You're going to a whole different country and you want to promote the league. You want to continue to grow the game and all this stuff and create more fans for these two franchises. And it has been like that in the past. the series with the Phillies and the New York Mets when they went to London. Like they made a big deal out of that.

I just don't understand why they're not continuing to do that with every single international series they do. And I would also be not making this big of a deal about it if they had like the NFL, multiple series internationally throughout the year. Like they have one still planned with these teams in London and these teams are going to be in Germany and such. That is not the case. This is the only international series this year. Books Journey is right. The Japanese series was huge too when it was what?

The Dodgers and the Cubs, right? This is the only one of these. I didn't see one commercial with Alec Thomas as a small boy in front of a TV watching his Mexican idols play baseball. Not one commercial like that. And he deserved it. But anyway, that's where I'm at. Shout out to Cool Bro for a super chat.

Thank you, Cool, bro. He says the Dodgers Cubs game is on national TV on free TV with an antenna and not this game. The Draft and Sons were on free TV with an antenna today. Do we still use antennas? I don't know. No. I haven't had rabid ears in a long time, but I do have LG channels and those work perfectly

good with or without rabbit ears. But you're all right. You guys are right. We're all right. MLB is wrong and we know it. and Jay Cuddy puts it perfectly. Could have been cinema, but the ball was dropped. And it could have been cinema.

And I think that's the thing that frustrates me the most about this is that like there's, I don't know, like, Hispanic culture has a huge impact on the game of baseball. You could argue it has the biggest impact of any culture on the sport. And I just feel like you did a disservice to this series by not doing a better job of promoting it and not doing a better job of making it available to baseball fans everywhere. You know, you had Dodgers fans saying the things that Dodgers fans say, which is, oh, neither of these teams are important enough to throw on national television. And that's the kind of crap you get when you do this to us.

You did this to us. We didn't do this to ourselves. But anyway, we're going to take a quick break on the other side of this break. We got an update for you on Gabby Moreno that isn't very good. I'm going to tell you now it's not a good update. I'm going to be upset. I'm going to do more yelling, but we're going to at least calm down to do these commercials, and we'll be right back.

You're watching the PHA to next Diamondback show. Shout out to our friends at the husband and wife law team. Mark and Alexis Breyer definitely know that this game should have been nationally televised. They also know everything that a lawyer needs to know when it comes to prevailing in front of a courtroom for you as their client. Here's hoping you're never involved in a serious accident or injury, but if you are, you should call the husband and wife law team first. This team brings hundreds of years of combined trial experience and multiple sources. certified specialists in injury and wrongful death litigation. And that's important because in Arizona, the state bar has certified less than 1% of all lawyers as experts and specialists in injury and

wrongful death litigation, making them again experts in that field. Plus, they know what needs to be done in a courtroom. They are ready to go to trial and they know their way, they know what needs to be done to prevail in front of a jury for their clients. Of course, they cannot guarantee the outcome of any case, but they can make some guarantees to you as their client, including that you can cancel your fee agreement with them at any time for any reason that you will receive as much in your pocket as they receive for their fee, even if they have to reduce their attorney fees to do so. And you may speak with one of their lawyers as often as you choose about anything you want to discuss, including the Arizona Diamondbacks Pool Pen Manager.

So if you've had a serious injury, call the husband and wife law team first at 602, 783, 8841, or visit their website at the link in our show notes and tell them that the mayor sent you. Mayor Ph. and X probably specify that because they know a lot of mayors. the fanatics app is a fun way for you to make sure you get the best gear all of your favorite sports teams gear it's the all in one destination for every part of your sports fandom in fact my favorite part about the fanatics app is that when you make an order every time you open it up the first thing it tells you is where your order is at and i love that because i love to stock my packages and my purchases until they arrive at my front door and the fanatics app helps me get that they also help me get official gear for my favorite teams and players including The latest drops, exclusive releases, and must have merch all in one place, and it's more than just shopping. You can play free daily games in the app to earn fan cash, which you can spend on all of your favorite merch, including jerseys, game tickets, collectibles, and more. So whatever you're looking for, it's probably in the Fanatics app, and it's all in the Fanatics app, and it's all built for fans like us.

Download the Fanatics app and start cashing in on your fandom today. Get it at go phtnx.com slash fanatics. app access appened open to all 21 and over to play no purchase necessary u.s only void we're prohibited we do have game two tomorrow which could change everything for us we do have ryan nelson on the mound who at times has been one of our most reliable starting pitchers but as of late you could definitely say is not that ryan nelson is one and two this season with a 6.97 era and 20 strikeouts going up against michael king who is a free agent pitcher that i have very very much much coveted and wanted the Diamondbacks to go after and they did not. Meanwhile, we got Michael Soroka, so we got Randy Johnson out of it. It's also, that's a pretty good consolation prize. But Michael King is 3 in one this season with a 2.28 ERA. He has 26, 26 strikeout.

So again, I'm not thrilled to announce that the Diamondbacks have yet another setback with an injury, but considering the way things have gone, it would seem like they are not going to take any chances at guys re-agravating anything. are coming back too early. And that seems to be the case with Gabriel Moreno. The update is that Gabriel Moreno will not join the Diamondbacks in Milwaukee, as previously reported. AZ Central's Nick Piccolo said that Milwaukee is not looking, quote, not looking like the right

time for a potential Moreno return. The new possibility is the following series against the Chicago Cubs, who Arizona will face off against from May 1st through May 3rd. and that is an extremely hot Chicago Cubs team. I do believe they lost today to the Dodgers, but they may have won 11 games, I believe, in a row leading into that loss today. So hopefully they come back down to Earth over the next few days, and we don't have to play a team that is that red hot as that team.

But as it stands, the Padres still stay in the race up there at the top of the division with today's win. They are 18 and 8, and they have a full game lead currently. on the Dodgers who are leading the Cubs, but we'll probably finish that one off and end up at 18 and 9. Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks, like I said, we sit at 14 and 12 in the division

and still have a lot of work to do. Now we have even more players to wonder about when they're going to come back and worry about when they're going to come back. And a lot. There's a lot going on for this team, a lot of moving parts. So hopefully they can keep their head above water.

There's still another, game to play in this series and then that series against Milwaukee before the end of the month. As excited as we've been about their schedule and about how they've done, they could still end up below 500 before the end of April. And that would probably end up feeling more as what we expected to see and probably a huge disappointment after we thought that steam had found a way to get things back on track. But some minor, minor mistakes there really led to today's loss and including the fact that they let Brandon Fott just stay in this game too long.

And that's something that I, that's a hill that I'm going to die on. But we thank you guys so much for stopping by. We appreciate you being here after this loss. We will be back tomorrow with a watch-along with Damon and I. In matching turn the head to turn the clock ahead jerseys, probably shouldn't be revealing that here. But if you've stayed to this point of the show and you've been here after this loss, then you deserve to know that information.

So make sure to join Damon and I tomorrow, 105 p.m. We'll be here in this office. We'll probably have blankies and be all comfortable. Maybe we'll eat tacos. I don't know if that's, is that, is that, what do you think, Kevin? Is that cultural appropriation? Is that tacos allowed? I think it's cultural appreciation.

There we go. I like that. I like that. Well, that's where we'll be. So make sure to join us tomorrow. We're going to do a watch-along and then we'll be back with a post-game show afterwards. So, of course, let's hope that once again, it's under better circumstances. Until then, you can follow us on Twitter.

I'm at Kapp underscore K-Man with a K on all social media. Kev is at Kev-O posts. It's a delightful name. And, of course, our show is at P-H-N-X underscore D-Backs, but all roads ultimately do lead to PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys so much for your time today. We appreciate you sharing it with us.

Hope you come back tomorrow. Until then, have a wonderful rest of your Saturday night. Don't let this team get you two down. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun. When your goddamn players stop getting injured.