PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - POSTGAME: D-backs Fall SHORT in 9th Inning of Finale vs White Sox, Drop 2nd Series of Season

Episode Date: April 24, 2026

Despite another strong outing from Michael Soroka, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ offense was nowhere to be found as they fall 4-1 in the series finale against the White Sox. We break down the D-backs dropping just their second series of the season, Paul Sewald’s struggles to find the strike zone in a costly late inning, and the irony of Arizona stumbling during a stretch that looked primed for wins. Plus, we preview the upcoming Mexico City series against the San Diego Padres and the latest update on D-backs prospect Ivan Melendez. Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $36: https://gophnx.com/intro-offer-youtube WHILE SUNS ARE IN PLAYOFFS 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We really got to stop putting Paul Seawald into tie ball games. Well, welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast live from Studio K, presented by our friends in Circle K. Glad to have you guys here, and I do wish that it was under better circumstances. My name is the mayor of PHNX occasionally known as Derek Montia, and we are here talking about the Diamondbacks losing the series finale to the Chicago White Sox by a score of 4 to 1. Of course, I am not alone. I'm never alone. And in this case, I got your dog, my dog, the bark at the park himself, Damon Dog, aka Damon Farrell on the ones and twos today. But he's not very happy with this team. And neither am I. Neither should most of you be, of course. This show, as always, is brought to you by our friends at Bet365 and Game Time. Make sure to go download that Bet365 app. Where winning is everything. Download the app and use our code of P. HNX365. We're also brought to you by our good friends. GameTime where you can download their GameTime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase terms to apply. Diamondbacks lose the finale of this series by a score of 4 to 1, and it was mostly a pitching

duel for the majority of this game. Michael Soroka dealt once again, allowing only one run in five innings of work today, but the debacks were equally stifled by White Sox starter David Martin, who, or I believe is Davis Martin, who held them to a one run in six and a third innings pitch. But unfortunately, with a tie ball game late in the top of the ninth, the Diamondbacks turned to Paul Seawald, which they should learn maybe not to do in tie ball games. He gave up a three-run homer to Andrew Benin Tendi for a White Sox win. Debacks dropped to 1411 on the season.

And this is just the second series, believe it or not, that they've lost this season. I know we've talked about it a lot, but the only ones. only other series they've lost is been the opener where they got swept to by the Dodgers, but that is to be expected. This is a Chicago White Sox team that we probably should have beaten. But kudos to this team for coming in hot, staying hot offensively. That was going to be the big, you know, the big key in this series was could the Diamondback slow down the Sox bats after what they were doing to the athletics in the previous series?

Plus, they're a young, you know, exciting team. that's coming together and still figuring some things out. After watching them in this series, I would definitely say that they are not, they are no slouches and I don't know if we should be that upset about losing it. However, we came so close to once again winning another series. And it sucks that not only did Paul Seawald blow it there in the ninth, but it also very much sucks that this offense wasn't able to do much, right?

after a night where these two teams combined for 18 runs and 27 hits, just one, like 12 hours ago. I'm not even going to say one day ago. Like we were just here. I still have sleep in my eye. And yet here they are locked into a one-one tie for the majority of this game. And again, Diamondbacks offense just kind of inexplicably disappears. That's kind of what happened today. the Diamondbacks were 0 for 5 today with runners in scoring position where the, you know, White Sox were four for eight.

And they did not have many opportunities themselves, but they did capitalize on those opportunities late. Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks got an early lead in this one. They got their first run in the first inning with one out, Marte single, and then was brought home by an Adrian Del Castillo RBI double. That was ADC's third double of the season. A few innings later, Aramis Garcia. He got the start today at catcher, but was eventually. replaced by James McCann behind the plate, got his first hit in the majors

since 2002 there in the third inning. But Diamondbacks definitely had a difficult time today putting together hits and having those hits string together in one inning. And that was the big problem with today's game. Aldemarovarvarez, though, he did the thing. So as much as we don't have a lot of positive things to talk about considering that one run

was the only run they scored today. Vargy extends his MLB best hitting streak to 21 games with a two-out single there in the fourth inning. So hats off to Vargas for still doing the thing. I know we've talked about it so much during this streak, but it's just, it's, you know, it's a great thing to see for a guy like Vargas. I believe there was a tweet. I'll get to it here shortly, but an incredible tweet about the percentage of, you know, of his career that he has achieved over just this 18 game span. And that, that is impressive. It's what makes this most,

the most fun, you know, to be seeing right now with, with Vargas. But overall here, just a great, great, great, great streak here for Vargas. His 21 game streak is tied for MLB's second longest hit streak since 2025 with Jose Ramirez. And he is behind Bobby Witt Jr.'s 22 game streak from last season, from April 8th through May 1st. So, I mean, again, just impressive, impressive what he's been able to do. And again, this was the tweet. It was from our guy, Neil Casera, who I love Neil. We've talked before.

Neil was a big proponent, I think, of those t-shirts for Cattel, supporting Cotel last season. But he said, Ilamar of Vargas has been in the majors for 10 years, 7.3% of his career hits, 7.9% of his career doubles, 9.9% of his career runs and career RBI, 12.5% of his career triples, and 20% of his career home runs have happened in 17 games this season over that 10-year span. Right. I mean, that's truly what this is in baseball. There's times where, and there's, baseball is comprises of a ton of these guys, right? Journeyman or utility infield. or backup bench guys, role players, whatever name you want to call them, right? But these guys that are there and they're contributing across baseball, but they don't really

get that opportunity. And that is something that is really just blossoming here with Vargas. He is one of those guys that throughout his career has always been seen as merely a backup, merely a, you know, a utility kind of option. And now he's just having this wonderful stretch of his career. baseball can be like this. Perhaps this hit streak ends and then that's it and Vargas comes back down to earth and he no longer hits 383, right? But it's just nice for a guy like this to have this stretch to be hitting, you know, multiple home runs in a game like he did last night to have three in this series. And to keep this hitting streak going. His 18 and this is where things get complicated. So again, 21 game hitting streak dates back to last season.

That's the current hitting streak that he's on. That is the best in Major League Baseball. But then he also has his 18-game hit streak, which is the hit streak for this season. It is the longest in franchise history to start a season, and it is MLB's second longest streak of 18-plus games to start a season, dating back to 2012. And we kind of covered this a little bit last night. But he now moves into second place behind Pablo Sandoval,

who had a 20-game hit streak. to start the season back from April 6th through April 27, 2012. And here we have Vargas a few games away from possibly tying it and maybe surpassing it. So again, great, great stuff from Vargy and probably the lone bright spot besides Adrian Del Castillo's RBI double today for the offense because they did not get much going. And that sucks to see, like I said, one day removed after we just saw this offense blow up. and put up 11 runs and 16 hits on the board just one day ago. And there is a lot going on. The Diamondbacks not only, you know,

this is a day game after a late night game like that. Those games tend to be pretty unpredictable. The debacks don't take batting practice on day games like this, which is something that I have found to be outrageous. Over the years, it's been a staple of this team, but it also kind of, at times, very much, coincides with laxadaisical performances offensively and that is something that I just personally don't agree with that that's just me like you know it feels like batting practice is an important thing and the one

thing that you tend to see is the you know opposing team still still getting some batting practice and so i would like to see that change but uh it's it's inconsistent offense and that's been the story so far this year. The problem is, is that if you start mixing inconsistent offense with bad starting pitching, then things go south for this team real fast. You can look at the underlying metrics and very much see how this team has been lucky up to this point. Even some of the starting pitchers have. But it's also ironic that for the last, what, four games, we've been searching for a solid starting pitching performance. And that's not to throw dirt on Zach's name when he started, I think, in Saturday against the Toronto Blue Jays. But I think he gave up nine hits and it very much

look like he was starting to break there even though he didn't, right? But here we have Michael Soroka going out there and shoving today. So of course he only gets one run of support on a day where we finally get starting pitching to not give up multiple runs in the first inning and to pretty much keep the, you know, the white socks off the board for the entirety of his outing. But it is what it is. Defensively, the Diamondbacks were solid today. There were no real major mistakes. I mean, this one was a one-one baseball game up until the top of the ninth inning. So outside of Paul

Seawald, you know, making those mistakes, not being able to find the strike zone and giving up that home run, this team was solid defensively. My favorite play, though, was that Geraldo Perdomo play to end the third inning, where you got that double play on a ball that it was hit, a liner was hit

at him. He tried to catch it. He dropped it. Caused some confusion on the base path there. And of course, there was with bases loaded. So it was a huge, huge moment in that particular baseball game. And again, it's what kept this at 1-1. But what

ended up happening was Perdomo drops the ball. That means that the runners have to advance because it was bases loaded. So the runner that's at second starts going but then stops. My favorite part about it is this

I don't know who it was right now at the top of my head, but the runner just stops and stands off the base with like his arms at his side. I have no idea what he was doing. I don't know what he was doing. I don't know why he was more arms were at his side. I don't know why he was standing up so straight up. He was like he was pretending the umpire was a Tyrannosaurus Rex. And if he stayed still enough, he wouldn't see him or something. I don't know. But basically it was like maybe a tag play, maybe not. Perdomo, of course, played it perfectly as he tends to do. And he got the double

play. And again, overall, there was some great defense in this game. Alec Thomas also attempted to make a diving catch that he did not make, but he like swung his arm up and grabbed the ball and kept it from getting past him and kept the runner from advancing. And it was something that, again, it was very impressive to see because a lot of guys probably that would have gone all in to try to make a sliding catch to make that play probably would not have been able to recover as well as obviously Alec did there.

but I do know that we did talk to Tori after the game here, and I believe I think everything was kind of just, you know, a little bummed out. But Tori talked about the offense being frustrating or having a frustrating date here at the plate. Like I said, just one day removed after putting up the runs that they did last night. This is what Tori had to say about that. Yeah, I believe in our offense to be able to do something like they did last night every single night. So, yeah, it's frustrating on one side, but I know how hard this game is very challenging, especially when their starting pitcher was throwing the ball as good as he was, and he's got good stuff.

So we got to be better. I know that. I think we can beat any type of starting pitcher out there in the big leagues, and, you know, our guys just didn't get it done today. So we've got to be better on Saturday. Obviously, you know, especially with the conditions in Mexico City, and we're going to talk about that series a little bit before we get out of here today. But with those conditions in Mexico City, there is definitely an opportunity for the offense to put up a lot of runs, right?

So right now it's just important to ensure that these guys all kind of like are flush this one, move past it, and can hopefully get their bats going again. But this was a frustrating day overall. Not a lot of good performances offensively to discuss here. Catelle Marte was 2 for 4 today. A lot of guys had one hit. Alec Thomas, one for 2 with a walk. Aramis Garcia, again, that first hit for him since 2022. And James McCann continues to struggle at the plate,

but he didn't, I think he did not end up having a play's appearance. James McCann's hitting 216 now. Alec Thomas hitting 194. And Jorge Brosa was over 4 today with three strikeouts. He's hitting 211. And so again, some guys not getting it done. We are going to get Gabriel Moreno back. So hopefully that will provide some relief there from the catcher position,

perhaps more offense. And again, get things going there as far as that is concerned. But Diamondbacks still have a lot of guys out to return. And this lineup could continue to change. What they need right now, though, is to get their offense on track consistently. Right. And I thought, again, that last night was going to be the beginning of that. think Damon and I both did.

It was just nice to see that breakout performance, and you just hoped it carried over, and it did not. But again, credit to the White Sox starter there was named Davis Martin. He did an outstanding job today. Equally as outstanding as Michael Soroka, so both starting pitchers absolutely deserve credit for their performances today. But again, the Diamondbacks, they went over five with runners in scoring position, and just overall couldn't get anything really going today but uh let's see jason says i propose to the chat

committee that every time derrick uses a tory line like flush it the studio sounds an alarm and uh red lights flash well you know sometimes you just get nicked up a little bit when you're out there like paul see you all did tonight but we're going to flush this one and we're going to move on uh we're going to recover from it like we do uh we're going to go out there tomorrow and try to win a baseball game Is that how many was that those three four maybe in there? I don't know. Damon needs to keep track of this for sure. But we are going to take a quick break.

Of course, we still have a king snake to give out to and nobody on the offense deserves it at all. Illamara Vargas probably does, but I mean, we've done that, what, two days in a row now, Damon? So even though he does deserve it for his hitting streak, this offense producing one run kind of disqualifies them from receiving that award on this particular day. But we're going to take a quick break on the other.

On the other side of this break, we're going to talk about Michael Soroka and the pitching staff and what Paul Seawall did there in the ninth inning. Don't you go anywhere. You're watching the PHNX Diamondback Show. Well, you know I love Circle K. It is Derek's Thirst Stop. It is Damon's Thirstop. And it is America's Thurstop.

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whenever and wherever you'd like. Love the play from Arizona Lottery must be 21 and over to play. All right, well, it was another outstanding performance by Michael Soroka, and I'm ready to officially sign off on Damon's, at least the Randy Johnson, Kurt Schilling part of his thing. I'm ready to sign off on the Randy Johnson part

because this was not only an outstanding one run allowed performance, but just like Randy Johnson, he didn't get any run support. Remember those? days. Oh, I do. He gave up four singles today in the third inning. That was his only major kind of like, I guess, issue that he ran into. That led to one run and the only run that he allowed in this game. In fact, he allowed seven hits total and all seven were singles. The other

three were semi-meaningless singles overall. And he kept his four seam and his cutter up in the zone to batters, which is something that is a big part of his game. In fact, it's also something something Paul Sewell discussed about his game. But the complimentary pitch that worked really well today for him was the slurve. I think, did I send you the pitch chart, Damon? You did not, but I could go find one for us. See, this is what happens. Sometimes after a loss, I don't feel like really doing my job and I'll download stuff.

But then I just am like, what's the point? I get it. What's the point of this? But in this case, the point is that Soroka deserves his flowers because I just feel like, you know, again, his season hasn't been perfect, but you could definitely argue that Michael Soroka has been the best starting pitcher in the rotation. And I think you would have a hard time arguing against that. Maybe you could make a case for Erod, but after his performance in this series, you know, maybe Erod wouldn't necessarily qualify. But Soroka, I think it's the way that from one start

to another, he seems to adapt. And as you can see here with his pitch chart, like I said, He kept that four seam fastball and the cutter up in the zone, up in the top half and, you know, above. And then he was using that slur really nicely all over the place. It was just a great complimentary pitch. It got a lot of weak contact. He threw the four seam 38% of the outing and the slurve 27%. And he also threw the cutter quite a bit at 23% as well. And then he also threw the sinker and the changeup.

But overall, it was those two pitches and the difference in where those pitches are landing in the strike zone how they look how they're tunneling but overall so far michael saroka has been very effective at you know i guess adapting from game to game and finding a way to get outs like he's had his big 10 strikeout performances where he was dealing today he goes five innings pitched he gives up seven hits like i said all singles he gets one run he did walk one batter uh and six strikeouts he wasn't necessarily overpowering batters as much as as he has in some of his other performances but again, it was a stellar day, and Soroka is not the reason that the Diamondbacks lost by any stretch of the imagination. He lowers his ERA this season down to 2.60, and he just continues to look outstanding for, you know, this guy that was considered to be kind of a scrap heap reclamation project that you were bringing in to simply fill a fifth starting pitcher roll.

You sign him for $7.5 million. and so far here through essentially the first month of the season, he has been your best starter. You know, I mean, he has a 1.16 whip, 34 strikeouts, and 27 and two-thirds innings pitched. And, you know, again, just continues to be a very, very nice pickup this offseason for this team, right? So can't say enough about, you know, Soroka.

And honestly, couldn't really imagine where this team would be right now without him, which kind of sounds crazy. Here's Tori talking about this loss and talking about Soroka's performance today. This is one of those little grinder day game after night game feelings today. You know, I thought both starting pitchers did an excellent job. Soroka had his pitch count climb into that in that fifth inning. We were very comfortable sending him back out there, had things been going in the same direction now for that sixth inning. But it declined to a point where we started to maneuver into our bullpen.

and the bullpen did a really nice job. And then unfortunately, ball just got nicked up. You know, a hitter that's been in this league a long time, jumped on a mistake, and that was a difference in the game. And we really couldn't solve the puzzle with their starting pitcher. He had real good stuff, was challenging the zone. We had some hard-hit balls. We had some opportunities, but we just couldn't cash in at the right time,

the right situation. You know, defensively, I thought we did a really good job. We had really heads-up played by Pardomo. Those are little plays that we practiced and talk about, you know, touching the runner and then tagging the beach. base, the order of that is super important. So our guys are super engaged. Just a tough, tough, tough game to lose because I feel like whoever got that big hit at that

big moment was going to win it. It had that feel all game long today and they were the ones that did it. It's weird because if the ninebacks would have lost this one two to one and Seroca would have maybe given up an earlier second run or whatever, this, you know, this one's easily on the offense. And I still think that the offense deserves, you know, a decent amount of the blame for losing any game where they were only able to put up one earn run. But obviously Paul Seawalt is going to take the brunt of this one and for good reason, right? Paul Seawalt could not find the

strike zone today. And it continues to be this thing where the bullpen as a whole is constantly impacted by the performance of one of the members of the bullpen, right? Like it, even in wins, you know, you had Ryan Thompson giving up a bunch of run runs. Today you got, you know, Paul Seawald giving up three earned runs. Like this bullpen is going to be a bottom bullpen all season long, but the reason isn't going to be because the entire bullpen is bad. You have guys right now, like Juan Murillo, who has been a stud for this team, given them multiple, you know, multi-inning performances and has done an excellent job. Both him and Kevin Ginkle shoved today. They gave this team three innings of relief. They both allowed one hit, zero earned runs with two

strikeouts. Ginkle gave him an inning in two-thirds and Juan Murillo gave him one in a third inning. Ginkle lowers his ERA despite that some of those bad performances down below Ford at 3.97 today. And Morillo is at 2.13. He is by far one of the most elite portions of their bullpen. And as we talked about last night, it's just great to have that power arm that can come into the game and throw 100 miles per hour and just kind of dominate like he did. But Paul Seewald was the absolute opposite of that. Paul Seawald came in and walked lead off battered Chase Midroth in the ninth on four straight pitches, including one that was a strike that he challenged and got right and overturned for the walk. Then Tristan Peters moved him over to second on a sack month. Edgar Carrow walked,

and these are guys in the bottom half of the White Sox lineup, obviously. And then, of course, like clockwork, like absolute clockwork. We have a home. run and end the game. And like, again, it is kind of sickening overall to see what happened in this one because you felt like the Diamondbacks played well enough today, both defensively and, you know, pitching wise that that they should have been able to find a way to get this one. This one should have been a walkoff in the bottom of the ninth. And instead, Andrew Benint Tandy hits his second home run of the year, puts the White Sox up

four to one and, you know, your shoulders just kind of droop considering that you've already struggled all day to put up, you know, any kind of offensive battle. It didn't really feel like they were going to be able to overcome that lead. They're late and they were not. But the big question still has to be posed as to why the hell are we putting Paul Seawald into a baseball game with it being tied? It does not feel like the results have been there. it doesn't feel like for some reason he can muster up, you know, the performance they need.

And of course, there have been games that they put him into where it wasn't a safe situation and he performed just fine. But it truly feels like this was not necessary. And I don't think people would be blaming this team if they went to Jonathan Loisigua and he blew this game or another reliever and they blew this game. The one guy that you could put in that would have given up this kind of run that you feel like is, definitely on Tori for turning to him is Paul Seawall. It wasn't a safe situation. It wasn't a day where, you know, you felt like the Diamondbacks necessarily were going to put up that run.

So why not put in a reliever that might be able to offer you, like Loisiga, multiple innings of relief instead of your closer in Paul Seawalt. There's a lot of things that didn't make sense here. But obviously, you also have the fact that the minute that Seawalt came in, he just couldn't hit the strike zone. couldn't hit the strike zone, right? So it wasn't great,

and it's obviously what lost them the game, but don't let the offense off the hook too much here. But we have more from Tori here about Paul Seawald, but I did first want to hear from Seawald himself, and I'm going to give you, I'm just going to say this, and Damon's probably going to hate me for saying it, most of you might do, but I give Paul a lot of credit because in my time is covering this team,

in cases where like a reliever blows a game, It's not very often that you actually get to speak to that reliever. And he just owns up to the mistake he made and to how bad he was that day. And Paul did that after this game. So I think we have, do you say we have Tori and Paul combined in the one? No, we got Tori's separate talking about Paul Seawald. We have all of Paul Seawald's scrum here combined. Yeah, let's hear what Paul C. Wall had to say about not being able to find the strike zone today.

Yeah. Happenance a couple times a year. You throw enough where you just feel like you don't know where it's going. And today is one of those days. You just hope somebody lines out pretty much. And just one of those things. It's got to be a helpless feeling when that happens. Yeah, there's nothing you can do.

There's no way to alert the team. It's a three-batter thing. And then it's a little too late before you realize that you can't throw strikes. So it's just disappointing. let the guys down and do this chance there in the night. But we'll get back after it this weekend, and hopefully it'll be better. Where do you want the pitch to benefit you there?

Up, it's a fastball, trying to throw it up, to throw it up, just never good for me. So, yeah, I just couldn't really throw a slider for a strike, couldn't throw a fastball for a strike, kind of just stuck there and trying to get in the mode of you really want to walk him either and kind of just throwing down the middle. So it's tough.

It's kind of a strange feeling when you came in last night and everything's clean and then just, you know, wake up the next day? it wasn't good yesterday either, just my first walk, and just didn't feel like it was great yesterday either. So they really battled. They good at bats all weekend or all week against us and ended with pretty good ones there in the 9th

and ended up losing this series. So it's disappointing. I mean, again, hats off to the White Sox because what he said there is absolutely true. This team has been very good offensively. Paul Seawald wasn't the only guy that they were nicking up, right? You also had last night where it felt like

every time the Diamondbacks put runs on the board, the White Sox were able to counter and keep that game close, even though it was finally that, as I said, that cathartic game of offense where the Diamondbacks were just able to get a bunch of hits and keep adding on to the lead as the game went on, something that they haven't been able to do for the majority of the season. This team has been winning close baseball games to solid pitching and solid defense, but in many of the outings,

they've been able to at least get enough offense that gave them a chance to win a baseball game. They did not get that today. But Tori did discuss Paul Seawald's outing. Here's what Tori had to say. Yeah, there were the misses to the leadoff hitter. You walk a lead off hitter. It usually doesn't end well.

So we got to put the ball on the plate. Yeah, Paul probably had a little bit of trouble finding the zone for that first hitter and then just made the massive mistake to Benetende. And it's supposed to be a fastball up. It was down right in a sweet spot. So yeah, I think fastball location was a little off today for him. I would say so. I would definitely say so.

And then, you know, the problem is, is that, like, again, I'm not going to defend Paul Seawalt, but I was having this conversation with Alex from 98.7 in the, you know, booth. You just don't really realize sometimes how truly hard it is to be, especially a pitcher in Major League Baseball and throw that ball into that little imaginary box, right but I can only imagine when you're Paul Seawald and you only essentially throw two pitches and you have no command or even control of either one of them that that's got to be a terrifying moment on the mound that you know you're just out there for three batters and that's it that's all that that you got to figure something out and like you said you hope that they hit

into a ground out or something like that or maybe a flyout but for the most part whenever he was able to locate in the zone. It was it was Meatball City. It was straight down the middle. It was just a T-ball situation and again like I said that was just when he was able to hit the zone. He still walked two batters to get to that point. What I also didn't like I don't know, it's four to one at that point. He was

able to register another out. Just leave him in there. I don't really understand bringing Loisaga in for another a third just to get one out of a game that you're down suddenly four to one. Things like that don't make sense to me. And considering that they've been trying very hard to, you know, limit the amount of usage for some of these relievers, that doesn't make any sense to me. But nothing makes me sicker than seeing this many comments from Killarex in the chat.

Let me tell you that right now, Damon. It's just nothing but Killer Rex. So I would love to hear from somebody else that actually has a sane opinion, by the way. But of course, I'm going to give it just in an, honor of Killer X. I'm giving the Kingsnake today to Paul Seawald. No, I'm not doing that. We're going to give it to Michael Soroka because he deserves it today. Five innings pitched, only one earned run allowed, six strikeouts and one walk. And again, Michael Soroka has been just the, I guess, besides Dildomar Vargas, the most pleasant surprise on this team so far this

season. Both of those guys are essentially like from a similar, you know, situation where they're just, not only are they producing as one of the best players on the team, but it's easy to say that they've been outproducing their value and what you would expect, what you would have expected to get out of these guys. You know what I mean? So again, Seroca, love what he's doing. Still think of that comment he made back in spring training when he said he thought the best way that he could help this team win baseball games was by starting.

He was right. He was 100% right. So we're going to take a quick break. And on the other side of this break, we're going to talk about the numbers from this series. And then we got little information about Diamondback's prospect that we are sad to see be released from the organization, as well as a preview of the upcoming series in Mexico City with the Padres. So don't you go anywhere. You're watching the PHNX Diamondback show. Well, if you ever find yourself facing a serious injury or accident, you want to hire an attorney that's focused on your best outcome, not on how much money that.

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Visit play atheela.com for more details. Well, the Diamondbacks, of course, lose this series and it is only, like I said earlier, the second series loss of the season. They split the series with the Braves there, and they have won five series so far, which is what puts them at their current winning record. but let's take a look at the numbers from this series, and they're not great, especially the ERAs for the pitching staff.

A lot of runs were scored in this one, and a lot of runs were scored by the White Sox. They once again put up 20 plus runs in a series like they did against the Athletics. White Sox scored 22 in this series. The Diamondbacks put up 17 runs. The Debacks get out hit 35 to 32. The White Sox add eight home runs to the Diamondbacks five,

and then we get down here to the ERAs, which get a little ugly. We got a 6.19 starting ERA, let's see, for the Sox. Those were reversed, by the way. The Diamondbacks had an 8.16 ERA. The Sox had a 6.19. Got the relief pitching ERA, 5.40 for the Sox, 6.39 for the D-backs. And then ABS challenges. Diamondbacks, A, they were active in this series.

and that's something that we wanted to see out of them. Alec Thomas had his fair share of success with challenges, though I did think he did lose one today. And yes, Geraldo Perdomo's biggest fan wanted to get in here and talk about that for sure. Someone said it's NFL draft time, so I don't even know why we're doing a show right now. Should we just wrap it up now, Damon, and get out of here?

We actually should wrap it up not too far from now. No, I mean, 100%. 100%. I thought people were just, you know, dropping off because I was feuding with Killer Rex again. But our guy, Coolbro, we appreciate you. He sent some super chats. Cool bro said DFA, Seawald.

Yep, I'm sure a lot of people are feeling that one. He also said Perpientes with Seawald in a non-save situation equals bad. That's a formula. That's proven. It might be a small sample size, but that might be an actual proven formula that we should avoid.

And he also sent us another super chat that said here to break up killer X. God bless you. Thank you for your super chat school, bro. We appreciate you. Hualdo Perdomo's biggest fan, like I said, can we talk about how good Alex was at ABS the last two days? Love to see it.

Absolutely. You love to see it, especially because it feels like he was confident in making those calls. They were very borderline. They were very close, but Alex, Alec was right, I think three out of four on those challenges. And I think that one thing Damon has been screaming about for a long time

has been just to be more active in using these challenges. Stop being so passive. Nobody cares about the percentage correct you get. The problem is that I feel like with the ABS challenges, it's hard to always say that a big at-bat late in a close ball game is when you want to use it. Like those calls can be just as pivotal earlier in the game as they could be late. It's all about when you score runs.

And of course, in this game, it could have been a big difference maker if they weren't using their challenges. So it's just good to see them out there. Diamondbacks were two for two in game one, three for five in game two, and then two for four today on challenges. Meanwhile, the Sox, they just won two out of their seven throughout the series.

So whatever. But appreciate you guys, of course, for sticking around through the NFL draft, right? You guys are the real MVP's of today. But we have a little bit of news, which is unrelated to today's game, but it is related to a loss. And that is that the Diamondbacks have released Ivan Melendez,

aka the Hispanic Titanic, from the organization, on the same day where they did bring back Lucan Baker on a minor league contract. So unfortunate because Ivan Melendez was a guy that we really were hoping we would see put it together and perhaps be a third basement of the future for this team. But most recently with AAA Reno, he was hitting 222, 280, 378 with his 658 OPS. He had two home runs and eight RBI, but again, not a lot of success, just 10 hits and 45 at bats for Melendez.

I think that what I've seen, what I've heard, it felt like he was not really developing into a major league infielder. So that impacted this decision. And again, also, because it's minor league, you never know when these guys are going to be brought back or what the purpose of this necessarily is. Interesting, though. And again, unfortunate because when you haven't named that good as the Hispanic Titanic, you need to make it in the Major League Baseball. Meanwhile, today, Aramis Garcia got the start for the Diamondbacks. And Tori, before the game, basically made it sound like it was because they called Garcia up as kind of an emergency backup catcher and haven't really used him.

So they wanted to get him in to the lineup today, and he was one for two, which is totally fine, right? But at the same time, it's an indication that when Gabby Moreno returns after this weekend during the Milwaukee Brewer Series, that he will be the candidate to be, you know, sent down option back to Reno or DFA'd or released, whatever, whatever they decide to do with him, right? So, again, they are moving towards a direction of being, you know, back healthy, back, 100%. Carlos Santana is coming along. Apparently Tyler Locklear sounds like he is further along right now than Carlos Santana and he's getting prepared to face live batters. That's a name that I feel like we've just kind of factored out of the equation completely. It'll be interesting to see how he responds to that, you know, and if the Diamondbacks decide to bring him up and have him, you know,

get reps at first base at a major league level or if they decide for him to continue his development in a AAA. So a lot of questions still about the roster. And of course, when the guys that are injured returned, as we kind of briefly discussed yesterday, it comes down to what happens with those, what roster moves are made in order to, you know, bring certain guys back. There's a lot of guys on the injured list. And of course, we want to say, you know, we want to say that, of course, if you do anything that those, A Fernandez, we will come for you. So again, just putting that out there, Not a threat, kind of a threat, but I mean, just take it for what it is. And when I say we, I don't just mean me and Damon.

I mean, all of us. I mean, everybody will come for you. That's all. That's all. Because we're already, we've already cemented the base of the statue out there at 7th and Jefferson. What were you going to say, Damon? I wasn't going to say anything. Oh, I thought you were just going to jump in with more.

You see all this behind us? We created this. that's really what it comes down. And we will go to war. Yeah, well, he created this. We are just disciples of the great Jose Fernandez. But we're going to take a quick break. On the other side of this break,

we're going to take a look ahead at that series this weekend with the first place San Diego Padres and see if the Diamondbacks can do anything to slow that team down in Mexico City. Don't you go anywhere you're watching the PH&N next Diamondback show. Well, we can all use some help managing our energy bills every single month here in the desert. But obviously, as we move closer to June, July,

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And when I say a good pair of sunglasses, I mean a good pair of sunglasses. I don't mean the cheap $5 ones you got at the gas station or the free ones that you got at a Diamondbacks game. I mean the really good sunglasses. And not only that, but they're very affordable. And they have the craziest lost and broken replacement. plan in all of iware you might be like me and say why would i spend money on sunglasses when i'm just going to turn around and lose them well shady rays has answered that for you uh they have changed

the game their sunglasses are made for real life uh and of course if you lose or break them even on day one shady raise will send you a brand new pair no guilt trip attached no no no uh no shaming you just replacements uh so of course shady raise is eyewear that has your back go to shady raise dot com and use code phnxsr 50% off two or more pairs of polarized sunglasses. And we have our diehard sales still going on because the suns are still technically in the playoffs, even though most of us don't believe that that's actually the case. But until they are bounced from the playoffs, you can right now get down on a $32 die hard sale.

And of course, you got to check out our D-BACs merch. We got ourselves an entire line of snake merch. We got three new hats. We got two new shirts. We got this beautiful hoodie and multiple colors. And of course, you can get a free hat or a free shirt of your choice. when you become a diehard today with that $32 intro offer,

which is happening right now. Current diehards can get 20% off anything in our collection. So, of course, sign up today. Join us. Come get down on all of this wonderful merch. By the way, I did have a little bit of a hand and specifically that purple hoodie right there. And I'm proud of that one.

Also, the unnamed pitcher blowing up a bird shirt, everybody should own that one. Everybody's shown that one. I don't know what that's in reference to, but it's allegedly, I don't know, an event that happened. But thank the rest. Those of you that have not abandoned us for the NFL draft, you're the real MVP's. You're the real king snakes of this program. So just for you, we're going to take a look here at the upcoming series with the Padres.

Derek, can I, can I spoil something here for a second? Please, please do. I've abandoned us because I did not make our Padres by the number or At a Glenn's graphic. You're a terrible person. You just gave up on the Diamondbacks once again. You're out on this team after another loss. Correct. I bet you're over there.

I'm out on the podcast. Are you watching the Cardinals show right now while you're doing our podcast? Is that what you're doing back there? No comment. I knew it. I knew it. I miss. Even my producer can stick around for the full hour.

What the hell are we doing here? What are we doing here? I'm just going to wrap this up. We're not Damon's dogs today. No bark, bark for you at the end of the episode. Sure. Jason said he completely forgot about. Carlos Santana.

Don't you feel like that's the case with several guys on this roster right now or that aren't on this roster right now? Like it's hard to remember that Carlos Santana and Pavin Smith and Jordan Lawler and all these guys are all injured and they're still going to return at some point and hopefully help this team win baseball games, but definitely create a roster issue when they return. But the diamondbacks have a two games set this weekend with the San Diego Padres. We have no idea who the Padres are going to send to the mound against the Diamondbacks, but we do know that Zach Gowan will be pitching on Saturday,

and Ryan Nelson will be pitching on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Padres, like I said, have been an amazing surprise, currently tied for the lead in the National League West. They have a 17 and 8 record with a plus 15 run differential this year. They're currently 8 and 2. It'll even look like they were going to lose today to the Rockies. They were down for the majority of that game, and they came back and found a way to win in the ninth inning

because it's the Rockies. But they've been doing that an awful lot. What's interesting, though, is the numbers don't necessarily support this Padre's team being necessarily as good as they are. Their team OPS is 682, which is 24th in Major League Baseball. Their starting ERA is 4.05, which is 15th. And then their relief ERA, very good as expected with Mason Miller holding things down there in the ninth inning, is 3.12, which is fourth. Damon and I expected both of those figures, or at least as far as where they were at in comparison the rest of the teams in baseball, to be much higher, considering their 17 and 8 record.

They also have three outs above average, which is tied for 12th. So none of these numbers, as far as the statistics for what the Padres have been doing this season, really blow you away. But the key to remember there is that this team keeps things close, and when it's close late, you are not scoring runs against Mason Miller, period. Mason Miller, in fact, has not allowed an earned run since Lordus Guriel Jr. hit that home run off of him last year on that, what was it, 104 mile per hour pitch that Lordus hit that off of. And mind you, Lordus, that was August of last year. And Mason Miller now essentially in two months since then has been so mad about Lordis hitting that home run against him that he has not allowed to run since. So pretty incredible. stuff. In fact, you know, it's it's kind of incredible to look right now at where the NLS currently stands with the Dodgers losing that series to the San Francisco Giants. And again, it's not a surprise

for the Dodgers to lose throughout this, you know, throughout the year to any one of their rivals here in the NLS. But it is funny to me overall that, you know, that it's the, it's the Giants. You know, that's one of the last teams the Dodgers absolutely want to lose two, but Dodgers are six and four in their last 10, just like the Diamondbacks. Meanwhile, Padres, eight and two, and they continue to put up, put up some impressive performances. The Dodgers have a plus 55 run differential, and the Padres, like I said, is only plus 15.

One thing that is crazy that I wanted to bring up that, once again, my guy Alex and I were discussing today, was that the Philadelphia Phillies, now have taken over for the Mets of being the biggest losers in baseball. They've lost nine games in a row, which I think is the most in franchise history, if I'm not mistaken. And they currently have Damon a minus 51 run differential. It is the biggest run difference. It is the biggest run differential negative-wise in all of baseball.

And it's not even close. The Kansas City Royals have a minus 35 run differential. and they are the next closest team. Other teams have like minus 26, minus 8, minus 19. Phillies are getting beat. They're getting beat by a lot. And that's also an aging team that you could easily say the window might have closed on as far as any kind of championship contention.

But as far as all of that goes, the reason why I bring that up is the Phillies, the Mets. These are all teams that, you know, are going to contend with the Diamondbacks potentially for a wild card spot. later in the year. And to see them this much out of it early is very encouraging. It's definitely a position that we might have expected to see the Diamondbacks more in considering what this schedule was. But I just wanted to reassure everybody that even though they did lose this series to the White Sox, they are still outperforming and they are still a better baseball team than I think any of us could have imagined, right? Even Paul Seawald with blowing today's game has still been better

than any of any of us could have imagined overall. Come on. I predicted 88 wins. That's about the pace that they're on right now. Any of us could have imagined? Any of us? I was talking about, first of all, the month of April. Wasn't talking about the entire season.

And I don't remember you saying anything about Paul Seawald having a share of the league lead and saves in the month of April. So a little bit louder for me maybe to get that across. so it was a Paul Seawalt comment. It was not a Diamondbacks overall comment. It was about the month of April. It was about the month of April. And of course, it's kind of ironic that here when you looked at the schedule,

you were like, wow, that sucks for the beginning. But hey, when they get to the white socks, right? And that's what I'm saying is like it's very funny that when you looked at the month of April, all of these big problems, the Diamondbacks have somehow found a way to get through that stretch with a winning record and with B, most of the teams outside of the Dodgers as far as the series were concerned. But now you get to, you know, again, the part of the schedule where you thought this is where they might put some wins in and they lose this series to this young White Sox team.

They also have a series after the weekend with the Milwaukee Brewers that it feels like things are lining up well for them to have an advantage there with how many injuries the brewers have and just the way that that team currently has been playing. But even though they're dead last in their division, they're still 13. and 11 and you know again there's still a team that has a positive run differential which is something you cannot say about the Arizona Diamondbacks. Did did you have something this time or did you also have nothing this time? I just I think I just agreed with you. Okay. Is that okay? No I mean that's fine. Is that is that allowed on this podcast? You know I prefer when you agree with me but I'm not

And even when I agree with you, you're screaming yelling at me. Yeah, no, that's very true. You see what losses do to this podcast? Oh, we're in shambles. I know. I hate Derek all of a sudden. Yesterday we were best friends. You're not even watching our show.

Yesterday we were best friends. Yeah, we were high-fiving and hugging. Making weekend plans. Now I don't want to see your ass this weekend. Oh, we were, we were thrilled about traveling. Could you imagine if we had to travel together now to Mexico City? I would ensure that you missed your flight. That would be...

We'd be already there probably. Yeah, that's... Or at least we'd be, like, tiering up to go right now. I think Michael Soroka is already there. Actually, fun fact, Soroka and Eduardo Rodriguez are not taking the trip to Mexico City, which I'll say, as a father and a man that doesn't like to travel, that's a good move.

It's a good move. If I can stay home and just hang out at my house and not go and deal with that altitude, sickness situation, no thanks. No thanks. But speaking of this weekend series, like I said, we will be bringing you post-game shows on Saturday and Sunday. So make sure to join us for that. On Sunday, we'll also have a watch-along for that game.

So I hope you guys swing by for that. But before the watch count gets to zero here, because everybody scrams out of here to go watch the draft, I just wanted to say, appreciate you guys. Of course, so much for your time. Love you guys. We'll see you back here on Saturday. We are off tomorrow because Damon and I have to have some sort of counseling

or something with ESPO, I'm sure, so we can get past these issues. but of course we'll be back on Saturday. So until then, we hope you guys have yourselves a wonderful Friday. You can follow us on social media. I am at cap underscore caveman with a K. Damon is at Damon Dog with a D-A-W-G as if I care. Yeah, don't even follow me.

And some people. As Eric says, I don't deserve it. Some people are Damon's dogs, bark, bark. Our show is at P-H-N-X underscore D-Bex. But all roads lead to at P-H-N-X underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Heraldo Perdomo's biggest fan says, good luck with the counseling.

I do have to address the fact that you are actually part of the counseling as well because Damon and I constantly get into fights about him being Geraldo Perdomo's biggest fan. And I mean, you've kind of stoked those flames a little bit with just your existence and your, your screen. Derek sits there in the counseling and he goes, I know I have your back on this and I just say,

but I can't get it out of my head. Yeah. I mean, he gets really upset about it and he doesn't like being challenged to being Geraldo Perdomo's biggest fan. In fact, again, another one of our issues that we have to work out is how Damon is, how mad he is at me still for taking that picture with Perdomo and his Silver Slugger Award in the elevator after that one game. So we'll get through our issues. And like I said, we'll be back here on Saturday with another post game show. So appreciate you guys.

And I hope you guys join us for that. Until then, let's hope the Arizona Cardinals can figure things out. Did you see who we got, Derek? Who did we get? Did we get love? Jeremiah Love. We did it. We did it. Are an Arizona Cardinal.

We did it. All you need is love, Derek. Damon, how do you think that you feel when you're a player that gets drafted to the Cardinals? Ooh. Well, let's just let that one just exist and just simmer on that for a second. That's a thought experiment for you all to participate in. I can't imagine anything feels worse than that when you're the third overall pick and you're like, oh, so. We don't have a quarterback.

We have a below average O line, a bad team. I'm going to get hurt. They're going to hurt me. This is a bad. This is a disaster for my career. He was thinking about, can I get drafted by the chiefs at number nine earlier? And then all the sudden. Maybe the Cardinals trade down.

Can the chiefs trade up to number three to pick me? No, no, they can't. You're an Arizona Cardinal. Welcome, buddy. But we're pumped about it. I mean, he's probably the best player on the damn team. Yeah, I mean, that's a great acquisition. And, of course, exciting.

Exciting to hopefully see that team turn things around. And hopefully this Diamondbacks team can turn things around after this loss today. So we're going to flush it, though, after getting nicked up. There you go. There's two more before we got out of here. That's just for you guys. But again, we thank you guys so much for your time today. Again, we love you.

We appreciate you. Your time is a valuable commodity. Be careful which NFL draft you share your time with. But we will be back here, like I said, on Saturday. I hope you guys all have a wonderful Friday. We are going to enjoy the day off, or at least I am. I'm sure Damon probably has to work tomorrow. But, of course, until Saturday, hope you all behave yourselves, Jason, and remember kids.

Baseball is fun, but it is so much more fun when Paul Seawald just comes in for safe situations and not any other part of the game.