PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - POSTGAME: D-backs NARROWLY Escape Tigers in Home Opener Behind Michael Soroka's DOMINANT Debut

Episode Date: March 31, 2026

Michael Soroka delivered a debut for the ages in a Diamondbacks uniform, racking up 10 strikeouts and an immaculate inning to power Arizona to its first win of the 2026 season over the Tigers. But while Soroka was dominant, the bullpen nearly turned a historic night into a disaster late. We break down everything from Soroka’s electric performance to the tense finish by the pen, plus hear from Torey Lovullo, Soroka, and Corbin Carroll after the game. We also dive into the controversy surrounding the new ribbon boards at Chase Field and how they’re impacting sightlines for fans in the 300 level (and even Derek in the press box). And as always, we wrap things up on a Monday with your questions from the Mailbag! Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $36: https://gophnx.com/intro-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.

Well, the Diamondbacks really know how to make an 8-to-nothing lead exciting, don't they? We are talking about Michael Soroka's Immaculate inning and the bullpen trying to waste it, and we're doing it right now. NextDeebacks podcast brought to you by our friends in Circle Kla from Studio K. It is the PHNXD Back Show. I am your mayor, occasionally known as Derek Montia. Thrilled to be joined by you guys. Thrilled to be joined by Danielle, our official photog of the sports world.

And we also got our guy Damon Dog on the ones and twos tonight. Thrilled to have you guys here and thrilled to be talking about an actual Arizona Diamondbacks victory. As much as they tried to throw it away and give it away, the Diamondbacks win tonight's game over the Detroit Tigers by a score of 9 to 6. And I would like to point out Damon was in fact wrong on the pregame show. Not that that matters much. What do you got? Oh my God, you're right. What are we doing?

Damon sleeping on the job. No, he's not sleeping on the job. We're all sleeping on the job. Are we out of batteries? That is the reason why we started 0 and 3. That is the reason. Someone stole the batteries out of there, use it for their stupid recorder or whatever. I know it because these guys are a bunch of children around here.

They take the batteries out of our cactus light. But maybe the cactus light doesn't deserve to come on. You know, I have never been happier to not be a producer here anymore. Yeah, no. As I am right now. Yeah, yep. And Kellyn's right there, Damon. We also have the wrong score bug up because we are,

Talk to about the four to five. That's, get that off my screen. But welcome in, of course, the true score of this game is nine to six. D-backs, I guess the big story of this game is that the debacks were up at one point by a score of eight to nothing in what was appearing to be a dominant victory over Detroit and one in which Michael Soroka absolutely shoved. Seroca became just the fourth pitcher in Diamondbacks history to toss an immaculate inning. he joins biong Kim randy johnson and wade mylie who was the last one to do it on october 1st 2012 he also struck out 10 in his d-back's debut and he now has the most strikeouts for a debuting starting pitcher in franchise history moving uh one over randy johnson who threw nine

strikeouts in his debut back in 1999 so a dominant a dominant performance tonight from soroka although It wasn't very long. Yeah. He did throw a lot of pitches. Yes. Yes. When you strike out 10 in five innings, yeah.

Your pitch is not going to be great. You're going to throw a lot of pitches. Yeah. You know, David and I were talking about before the show, not exactly efficient necessarily. Yeah. But when you throw like him, when you throw like he did today,

I mean, efficiency is the least of your worries, honestly. Yeah. Five innings, no runs. Ten strikeouts. I mean, what more do you want, man? I mean, it was, it was an impressive performance.

You know, the only thing, like you said, maybe one more inning would have made it feel so much more dominant. But overall, still five innings. I mean, I think what the Diamondbacks need right now is less bullpen. Yes. And we saw that they need less bullpen. Why would you say that? Yeah. But, of course, we got so much more than just that.

I mean, this game really was an offensive, like onslaught here from the Diamondbacks. And it started early. They put up two runs in the first inning, three runs in the second, three more. in the fifth, another run in the seventh that ended up feeling in very, very important, thanks to Vargy and his solo home run. Damon has some apologies that he has to make in regards to that as well. He's not, it's not a great night for him. He's not, I took a picture with Pardomo in the elevator.

He's very angry about that. There's a lot of things not going on. But I guess the bad here, obviously, is that the Diamondbacks end up, you know, having this game that was a blowout, was a route coming back, you know, and being a close game. But before we talk too much about the pitching, we do have to talk about this amazing offensive output tonight from the Diamondbacks. In fact, from kind of both teams early on, I mean, even though the Tigers didn't put up any runs through the first three innings, there was only one ground ball out. Yeah. That's it.

Yeah. Or two, one for each team. Because I think Gabby hit into a double play, and I think there was won by the Tigers as well. But, I mean, the game starts off with Cattel Marte with a lead-off single, and then he's immediately brought home by Corbyn Kemp. Carol on an RBI triple. Corbyn is the fastest man on the planet. He even said after the game that he doesn't even hear the crowd or anything when he's running that fast.

Which is too bad because, man, there's nothing like that sound. Oh, man. Oh, my gosh. Electric. Electric. So great to be back. Yeah. It's an electric crowd tonight there at Chase Field.

And, I mean, it was close to 50,000 people. They had the fourth highest 50-50 raffle in, you know, in team history. So just a big night. A lot of people at the ballpark, a lot of noise being made. And it was all very, very cool. And again, we have some video and some sound here from the clubhouse. But the Diamondbacks, again, their offense put it up. They did the thing.

Prudoma walked in the first. Gabriel Moreno did ground out and a force out. But that did score Corbyn Carroll. That made it a 2-0 game. And then, you know, you just kind of got contributions offensively from all over the place. In fact, Perdomo was one of the only players that didn't get a hit tonight. He did get a walk, though, and extends his on-base streak now to, I believe, 20 games. So he's still working that on-base streak.

It is one of the longest in Major League Baseball history. I don't know what Otani did tonight if his ended, but I do know that Perdomos should still be going on. So, excuse me, it's up to 21 games now with tonight's edition. So that dates back to September 9th of 2025. Just a lot of offense, though, in this game. I mean, again, even Nolan Aronado got himself a hit. He has not had very many of those. He was one for five tonight with a run scored.

He did hit the ball hard today. He did hit the ball hard a couple of times. Absolutely. Yeah, that's for sure. He seemed a bit more confident and he seemed a bit more competent there in the box overall. But the Diamondbacks, again, they tack on three runs in the fifth inning. That was amazing to see. And that was with Corbyn Carroll's big home run there.

Diamondbacks get that home run from Corbyn. Carroll and they increased their lead eventually up to eight to nothing only for Joe Ross and Ryan Thompson to have one of the worst innings I've ever seen a bullpen have. Wasn't great. And then things got close. But here again, Corby and Carroll ends up going two for four. He's just one single and one double short of the cycle. You also had Gabby Moreno going two for four with an RBI, a walk, and a run scored.

That was very good to see. and Gabby was hitting the ball really hard as well. Yes. Hitting the ball like you expect Yappy to hit. He had the, what was it, the double down the right field line. He had a ball through the four and a half hole, five and a half hole, I should say, over on the, over on the left side. Just a very typical Gabby Moreno day. Just all around, really, really encouraging offensively for sure.

Nolan Arnano put the ball in play hard a couple times, really hit the ball on the nose and his first bat there. Just really, like, again, really, really encouraging. Can't gloss over I'll tomorrow Vargas going two for four. This is DeBacks baseball, man. This is exactly what you expect. This is why I was on opening day in LA. Everybody's gloom and doom. Like, guys, this is what the offense is going to be.

This is how they're going to be all season. They're going to grind. They're going to put together innings. They're going to score a lot of runs. And that's what they did today. It was really great to see. Also, speaking of Ildomar Vargas, a big home run there. Like I said, late.

The Tigers made a pretty significant comeback. cut the lead to two runs and you had Vargy come in and hit a solo home run there in the seventh inning. And I think more than anything that top of the seventh inning was such a disaster for this team that you just really don't know where momentum was going to take you after that. And again, having Vargas come out and extend that lead to three runs seemed to be huge. And it also seemed to be the thing that kind of put, you know, whatever the hell, you know, was going on here to rest. right but a lot of it had to do with you know tory trying to with a big lead save his bullpen right and i know that there's a lot of questions about why they let it get this out of control you know and obviously we'll discuss that but jordan lawler he also had himself a good night two for three a run

scored an rbi a walk for jordan lawler and tory credited luller you know for that you know play where he made it in the second base and they reviewed it and overturned the call as the big moment in the game. He really did feel like that more than anything was Diamondbacks baseball, that ability to get in there before, you know, the throw and be safe there in a critical moment was huge. It kept the inning going. And the Diamondbacks ended up getting, I believe they ended up getting one more run there from that instance. Yeah. And to me, that was also, we were talking about, Damon and I were talking about this before the show as well. That was the biggest play of the game for me. Even before, you know, Tori mentioned it. Again, Dback's baseball.

baseball really running out a routine ground ball. I think most teams probably would have just phoned it in. Ended up being a huge run in the game. Bases loaded two out the very next sitting, I think it was, right? In the seventh, you just never know when a run like that is going to be huge. I want to address the comments from both Ryan and who was an AZ native 97. in the replay, the crowd invested in the replay. Chanting Safe was one of the best things I have ever seen in my entire life.

DeBax fans, I'm going to look directly in the camera. DeBax fans, please make that a thing. That was phenomenal. Just in general. Please, I'm begging you for every single replay chant what we wanted to call to be. I don't hate that. It was phenomenal. It was so good.

It also felt like the audience and the crowd there knew. Right? Like, it was like everybody, everybody in the stadium knew that it was saved. And it, it started from the beginning. It just kind of gave you chills to see all of those opening day ceremonies, the flyover, the anthem played on a clarinet, by the way. Yeah. It was touching to me personally due to. I cried when they played the roof opening music.

I was bawling my eyes out. It was embarrassing. It was great. I mean, it was, it was all like just, it was real special. It's our place. It's like Damon said, it's an airplane hanger, but it's our airplane hangar. Damn it. And when we get to take the roof off and we get the jets flying over and we have everything

It's emotional. It's emotional. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, but no, absolutely. And they played the electrical shock, the whole, the whole, man, you're a real one if you remember that way back in the day. The electrical shock buildup. Yeah.

Oh, my God. The second I heard the electrical shock, I started crying, just bawling. That's D-VAC's baseball, man. That's just what, that's what's all about. It was just such a great crowd. Like, I cannot, like, the safe is really what got me. Like that was like this is a baseball crowd. You get to an opening day crowd and sometimes it's just like a bunch of people that want to be there.

Right. It's fun. Opening day. Sure. We'll go to one game of year. It's a vibe. It's a vibe. This was a ball crowd.

It was phenomenal. And I mean, again, it was. It felt like play out baseball. Honestly, it really felt like play out baseball for a little bit. It did. And it was a very pro diamondbacks crowd, which is something I think they needed. You know, like this franchise, unfortunately, just based on the way that we are made up here in the city is always always has to deal with that opposing fan base. It's not just the transplants that

come from a different city. It's the fact that for years and years and years, we were just the Cactus League, you know, state. And a lot of people have their allegiance to teams that simply are in their neighborhood or simply that they just rooted for because we didn't used to have. I was a Cubs fan before the DeBacks came around. I mean, because I lived right down the street from Ho-Hocum Park, right? And there's that there's that. And the fact that like here in the valley, right, We had the TBS Super Station and we had the WGN. Yeah. So we got games from Wrigley Field here live on TV here before we ever even had a team.

It makes sense. You know, so I don't ever fault the fact that we're just like this here. But I do know that it means a tremendous amount to the players. I know it means a tremendous amount to Tori. We heard them all address it after the game and they kept talking about, you know, how electric this crowd was here tonight. So it definitely felt like the Diamondbacks, you know, got exactly what they needed here after getting swept by the Dodgers and, you know, coming in here. They got a huge offensive output.

They got a great starting performance. And they were reminded that their bullpen is bad. And that, again, even in a route like this, even in a game where they had, you know, an 8 to nothing lead, they still, you know, needed to, I guess, play the game a little more carefully. And again, I understand what Tori was trying to go for here. This bullpen, they've already used six relievers multiple times. Well, I was going to have multiple innings back to back and back to back games. Ryan Thompson also pitched in multiple games. He picked in what, three out of the four games this season, right?

So, I mean, we're already getting to the point where the arms that Tori can count on reliably are getting taxed. And, you know, he's using entirely too many relievers. you hope that who cares if Ross gets dinged up there, right? But what you didn't want was this. For the go-ahead run to it. Not to mention that it just turned into a whole catastrophe with Brian Thompson coming in and the box and everything like that. But we'll get to all that.

We want to first here, though, from Tori in regards to his opening statements after this win, because I'm sure this took a big load off of his shoulders after losing those first three games to start the season. And for the fans, it was a great atmosphere, a great win, and for us some incredible fans that were extremely energized and just pushing us the whole night. So I was proud of the way we fought. We had a chance to have things really reverse on us, but the guys just drew a line in the sand and said, you know, we're going to find a way to win this baseball game. And I was really proud of him. Started with Michael Soroka, five scoreless, an emaculate inning.

I think this is the first time I've ever seen one up close and personal. And he really started dialed in later in his out of his outy, maybe it was a little bit too amped up, but did a really nice job of making pitches when he had to. It was a full mixture of pitches. And offensively, we just got going early. You know, I was very curious about how this team would respond in the first five innings, and they addressed all my concerns. I thought the most powerful play of the entire night, you might think it was Corbyn's home run and triple,

where we made – I feel like we really made a statement was that hustle, play it by Jordan Lawler. That's who we are. That defines exactly what we do. We hustled in the second base, got us an extra point. And those are the little things. We went inches all over the place because we can do things right. And they add up to big things. But specifically on Corbyn, the home run, the triple, four RBIs is a great night for him, a little bit of a breakout. And piece by piece, I know he's going to answer a lot of the questions for you guys. Is his power back? Am I worried? The answer is no. And I see things like this. And I know he's capable of doing. But Lawler with a couple hits, Marino all over the baseball.

We just got to eliminate that one bad inning. It's happened a couple times to us in LA, and we're going to figure that out. And when we do, we're going to get on some really nice runs. I think what's frustrating about it is, like, how many different pitchers it's already been that I've given up that big inning, right? You already have Juan Murillo, who was practically perfect

during Cactus League play blow it. You had, you know, Clark, who was the other guy that was really good during spring trading that blew it. And now tonight, you had, you know, a combination of Joe Ross, and Ryan Thompson and Joe Ross hasn't looked strong so I imagine

unless he can turn things around he might not be a member of this team for too much longer but I mean Danielle already cut him before you got in here by the way Daniel was like won't be on the team for very long I didn't go that far

TFA is what we're looking at home listen I need I'm I was happy to hear it because I need someone to match my energy from time to time because I'm sick I'm sick of people defending guys well you know the Dodgers are so likable and oh.

Howdy fantasy owner? Derek has to, chill out over there. Derek has to always find a way to be like, well, he's a good guy, actually, and a father, by the way. You're talking about a father. What is wrong with being a dad?

Nothing. Go be a dad, not in Arizona. For another franchise. Oh, my God. But, of course. Ross dress for less. Our guy Gambo called him. Hey, hey, I told Gambo you like that one.

And then we high fived over that. And I sent you a picture. But if you're looking for someone to not defend the guys, you got the wrong two people. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Well, at least those two people. That's why I'm back here. Yeah. He stays over there.

But Abner's not wrong. Please Brandon Garcia. Please save us and come shove. You want to know something crazy? The Tigers, they had two left-handers in their bullpen. What? I don't even know how that works. But anyway.

Again, the Vargas home run, huge in this moment. I mean, it shouldn't have been. it should have been a drop in the bucket for a huge offensive night, a night that really got their offense moving in the right direction after struggling in Los Angeles the way they did. But instead, that Vargas home run was kind of a lifesaver here for the Diamondbacks. And Tori thought the same. This is what Tori had to say.

Absolutely, absolutely. So I don't want to dismiss that. That was a really quality of Fargus had two. It's today too, right? So all of the baseball from both sides of the plate, but we had a little bit of an exhale. We got a quick run there. It was a great swing, and it was a very, very critical moment. This is a game of runs.

This is a game of stopping momentum. This is gaining momentum. And I think he gave us a little push forward. That was a big moment for us for sure. Well, of course, we felt that. We definitely felt that because there was a gigantic sigh of relief in that stadium. And again, that was another thing that was great about the crowd. was like us all going through it together.

Don't get me wrong. There were some Tigers fans there that were making some noise when they started coming back in that seventh inning. But my God, like you could just hear the desperation and sadness from an exasperated crowd here watching this whole thing go down. But of course, we might just have to do a double-headed king snake tonight, which you know we don't do around here often,

but tonight's game might call for it. So maybe the first guy that deserves it is the guy, the machine, Corbyn Carroll, who had himself a hell of a night for this team. He was, of course, had everything the Diamondbacks needed offensively, basically, got them going, got them started, had those big extra base hits, two for four tonight, four RBI, a walk, a home run, a triple, a stolen base. He did it all. He did it all.

And Corbyn Carroll, again, continues to amaze, I think, every. everybody, right? Like, we're just so used to it. But I was even going to ask Torrey, like, I was going to say to Tori, how many times have I asked you in like the last year, does Corbyn Carol ever cease to amaze you? You know, and the answer is always no. He never ceases to amaze him with everything that he's able to do. I think this above everything, though, is, is, just just goes to show that Corbin, like, he's not normal. He's just so ahead of schedule on everything. he's so good at what he does. And again, he talked after the game a little bit about, you know, his swing and, you know, how he feels.

Apparently, like this, it sounded like today was one of the first days that he's actually felt pretty good. This is what Corbyn had to say after the game about his swing and about the way he feels. I feel good. I felt really good today. Didn't feel very good before that. So let's see how we wake up tomorrow. I thought I've been on the right track for the last couple days in terms of just what I've been looking at in my swing and what I want to fix. Just felt like my hands were getting a little too far away from my body a little bit more uncontrolled and a little bit more like loaded with my hands as opposed to load with my body.

and so I thought I did a nice job of adjusting you know the last game of LA was a little closer to what I wanted and then today it kind of felt like it clicked had a really good session in the cage and then you know was able to take that over to the game um Sean really liked I'm not gonna I'm not gonna read his chat but Sean really liked it he did you use certain words that made me really feel like you really like that two-handed swing that he put on but yes I mean it's great to see it's great to see because you know know, Corbyn's, you know, had all these weird swinging injuries, changes, things impacting his swing, injuries mostly impacting his swing, right? But, you know, again, he's had to make a lot of mechanical changes, a lot of corrections to his swing. He went from having the flattest swing plane in baseball to essentially having the highest percentage of swings that were perfect last year. Like it's just amazing what he can do and he's done this all with injuries shoulder injuries changing everything you know It's it's it's it's amazing yeah and you don't get that level of thoughtfulness from from young players like him

We forget he's he is a very young player still Yeah you don't get that level of thoughtfulness you don't get that level of Of self-reflection that you get from from from Corbin That's very fair He he he reminds me a lot of Devin Booker in the sense that we just kind of take him for granted And you watch a son's game. He's right up there. Oh,

Oh, books dropping 25. He's dropping 30 again. Yeah, that's just kind of what he does. Oh, yeah, Corbyn had another triple. He had another home run today.

It's, it's just, it's, it's what he does. And it's, again, just like he made a really nice play out in right field.

Damon, we were talking about, uh, expected batting average. He took, he took away, he took away a hit, um,

early on in the game. And one of the very, very sketchy bend, but don't break innings early on in the game for Soroka. And he just, he just, he's Corby and Carol, man. That's just what he does. And it's just so impressive. Alec Thomas also had some incredible plays out there in center field.

Maybe not incredible, but. Oh, his siding play was incredible. They're all incredible because he makes them kind of look so effortless. Yeah, he does. It's crazy. The, uh, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, like, he's always going to get there. Yeah. Well, of course, we were going to take a quick break. I did want to remind you guys, though, though, this is still opening day week. Today is opening day for us, our home opener, which means you can get our opening day deal over at PHNX. Join us, become a diehard, get yourself a year for just $36. That's $44 off, 55% off our regular price. You get one of these amazing shirts or hats of your choice from our locker and man. I love a lot of these.

That new snakes logo, that's hot. That's hot. Shout out to Eric for that one. You also get access to our Discord Lounge, which is the best place to be a diehard member, best place to be in Arizona fan. You get 20% off merchdice and events, and you get access to our diehard only articles by myself and by Alex Degasino. So make sure to join today. You can check it out over at go phtnx.com slash intro and become part of our family right now.

Like I said, we're going to take a quick break on the other side of this break. We're going to talk about the pitching, both the good and the bad. Michael Soroka making a historic start for this team and the bullpen trying to historically blow it in a way that would have made me march out of Chase Field before I even saw the eighth inning. And I was this close to that. It was very hot in there too, so there's that. But we're going to take a quick break. Don't you guys go anywhere. You're watching the PHNX Diamondback show.

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com and get started on your next project right now. You like that new Window Depot little lower third there. Yeah, that's pretty hot. They just want to make clear that they're a proud partner of the Arizona Dimesbacks. Of the Arizona Dimebacks. Just like you were wondering. Just like we are. Well, we're not really, but kind of.

We're kind of. In a weird way. Partners in a way. I don't know if they know that we're partners, but we're partners. Yeah, no, we are. I call it a symbiotic relationship. They say it's. They say who?

They say, Derek, what? I call it a marriage and they say, I've never heard of Damon before. Not one day in my entire life, have I ever heard of Damon? But I have heard of Michael Soroka. And he is very good tonight. Of course, Michael Soroka making history. Ten strikeouts is the most for a starting pitcher making their debut in this franchise. as I said earlier, Randy Johnson had 9K.

He's a loser, right? Just 9K, come on. You didn't get double digits. Speaking of Randy, he was in the house. He was there. Got a huge ovation. And he needs to be there every game now. Road games, home games.

It doesn't matter. He's there a lot. They just don't show him. It's kind of wild, though, to think of Randy Johnson being present. To watch Michael Soroka. To do what Soroka did. Yeah. Immaculate inning, breaking his record of the most strikeouts for a debuting pitcher.

We're like, it's just amazing. He does have to show up to every game now. Yeah, he does. And his wife, too, because they looked adorable together. And I was thrilled, I was thrilled to see them. But Tori discussed the importance of Michael Soroka tonight and everything he did in his debut. This is what Tori had to say. I saw that on the board.

So I didn't, those are little things that I don't know. And I didn't even know as an immaculate any until the pitching coach turned to me and said, that was unbelievable. Did you see that? So I get kind of locked in and I don't see the bigger picture sometimes. But as I look back on it, 10 strikeouts know. runs five innings it was a solid outy for him and to be honest with you i think there's more in there so um 10 punches is is a lot and when you do it in your debut in front of new fans you're gonna have a lot a lot of really new uh supportive fans coming at you real quick so that's what we all need that

he's not wrong he's not wrong we all need that there are people already looking to buy a michael syroca jersey right now as we speak and and rightfully so because he was incredible you think tory's the thing in himself right there like we could use a couple pictures this fan base likes. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well,

I will say this. I will say this. Eduardo Rodriguez got an amazing ovation. Huge ovation. Huge ovation. That was awesome. They did like just, they did the,

you know, the lineup and they did all the guys that weren't in tonight's game. They didn't get the pyro. They didn't get the, I mean, it was some little league level pyro. There was big pyro in the outfield,

which kind of matched it made it cooler. But, yeah, there's some independent wrestling, pro wrestling pyro right there as the guys were, coming out. Justin Martinez got a big big applause too. Yeah, he did. Yeah.

Everybody else kind of you expected to, but you're right. Justin Martinez got a big applause. AJ Puck, nobody cared about. And that was, I was kind of sad about that. Regardless, Michael Sorroka, everybody cares about now. And we want to hear from him. Here's what Michael Soroka had to say about making his debut tonight. Yeah, again, it's special.

I think the best part was being able to put up zeros after, you know, we put up a bunch on the board. You know, I think that was the, that was the goal. strikeouts added up and I think obviously it's a good thing I wouldn't sit here and deny that but again I think there was a lot early on it was just kind of in and out of the zone a little bit saw some long counts still had some traffic and Gabby and I worked really well together and the pitching coaches in the dugout we had a good plan and put things together and just finished our pitches when we

needed to I think a lot of it goes back to the breaking ball just being competitive in and barely out of the zone. Ryan's pointing out the pavement also got a big ovation. That wasn't actually the entire crowd. That was just Michael Rokickey screaming and making all that noise all by himself. It's freaking wild. It's wild.

And half of the noise he was making was just despite me. Yeah, it was just to rub it in David's face. But I think everybody was impressed, you know, with Soroka tonight. Corbyn actually was asked about what it was like watching Soroka do what he did. This is what Corbyn had to say about Michael's night. Yeah, very, very impressed. I remember facing him last year and thinking like Dan, like pretty good breaking ball. And I thought he pitched really well off that tonight and then did a good job of just filling up the zone and using all his pitches.

Seedron Thompson. Yeah, and obviously, you know, he's right. Like Michael Soroka is a guy that has had great stuff in the past, but he also addressed tonight. how he kind of had to like adapt throughout his career and kind of change what he was doing. He said at one point he wasn't pitching the results as much he was just trying to transform himself, you know, not letting the results impact him, but trying to get to this place where he is at now. And now we still remains to be seen if he can do this over a consistent stretch of two or three starts. But if he does that, it's going to give the Diamondbacks a very, very difficult decision to make here when Merrill Kelly returns.

one that Tori didn't even want to touch. Tori, it was like, I don't want any part of that question. Because right now, you can't worry about that. You feel like things will work themselves out. But again, I mean, it's a good problem to have. It's not a, if everybody is pitching so well that you don't know who to move or what moves to make in order for you to just have a five man starting rotation, then that's a good problem to have. Yeah, yeah.

And I mean, again, adding one of those guys to the pen, even though they'll hate. it very much might be that thing that could help the pen kind of move a little bit closer to being you know something that's that's serviceable versus what we've seen absolutely i think of look look back on the on the the really great bullpins of of dback's history we had you know josh colminters the long guy right yeah the guy who if if a guy doesn't doesn't go deep into go deep into an out and you have a guy that can pick it up like that i look back at uh ryanelson in the World Series in 23 where he went what five innings I think it kept the debacks in the team what I really want to talk about is pitch selection here for for Michael Sorroca oh yeah no I mean there was not a single comfortable swing on a ball aside from the the double on the off of the home run porch which debacked outfield defense somehow managed to keep from scoring yeah I want to what obviously Obviously, let's talk about the, let's talk about the immaculate ending here.

Okay. Oh, for sure. So very first, hobby or bias. The slurve. Sinker. Strike one. Slurve. Slerve.

Sre two, or strike three. Next matter. Carrie Carpenter. Slerve. That's six in a row, right? One, two, three, four, five. Five in a row. And then cutter, sinker, fast.

What are you supposed to do with that? Well, and everything's landing in the zone. Yes. The tigers had absolutely. no clue what was coming. Because there were multiple times, at least off the top of my head, I'm looking it up here,

but trying to count on the fly, there was at least five or six times off the top of my head where Michael Soroka tripled up, quadrupled up on the swerve. And what that does to a hitter, I mean, you see it in the results, right? Ten strikeouts.

He had, let's see, I had it up here. He had 21 whiffs tonight. He had 48% of his, pitch is thrown tonight. We're slurts. And five strikeouts on the sorve and then four were the four seem fastball. When you're looking one pitch that tops out at 95 and you just keep getting that the slurve, it's good luck, man, good luck.

No, and I mean, I think that the one thing is is that pitchers don't necessarily attack. It's something that we've seen the Diamondbacks talk about with all of their pitching staff. They try to be too fine. They're trying to pitch on the edges. They're trying to like, you know, really just fool that. instead of challenging batterers. And it felt like, especially in that immaculate inning, that's exactly what he did.

He challenged batters, he went after him, and batters were just kind of sitting there with their bats on their shoulder, expecting it's out to be that, right? He's gonna come with a fastball at some point. Yeah, he has to, and he never did. And he never did. Never did.

And that's the reason why that immaculate inning went the way it did. And then there was a really interesting about I saw in the fourth inning. We had cutter, sort of, sort of strikeout, right? Next batter, nothing but fastball. And it was a... None of a fastball against Parker Meadows. And it was ball, ball, ball, ball, right? So go with what you know,

goes on what's working, man. It was, it was, yeah, it was a, it was a pitch selection masterclass, I thought. It really was. It really was. And I think there was also some confidence there. I feel like the offense that the Diamondbacks put up early gave him that confidence to like not have to be perfect.

And he discussed that. He talked about not needing to be perfect a few times. And in fact, he brought up the Immaculate inning. We asked him about it. here's what he had to say about his performance there. The Immaculate, was that your first one ever? Yeah, it was definitely in pro ball as my first one ever. Yeah, it was pretty special.

Obviously, you know, I think I've talked to you guys about, you know, not putting too much stock in results, but I think that's one that's worth celebrating. You know, I think it's something I wasn't really really aware of until the last pitch. You know, I mean, Glaberer, he's a good hitter. He's quite passive too, so I want to make sure if something in zone, just give myself a chance to get it done right there.

Pretty cool. I tried to play it off, but started smiling off the field. Do you think about it right before that last pitch? Yeah, like I said, that last pitch, the crowd started to get loud. You know, obviously I knew I struck out the two guys prior, but, you know, I realized I don't think I'd been out of the zone that in yet. So just gave it a good rip, and, yeah. I got the result we're looking for.

Are you aware of, like, how rare immaculate names are? I am, yeah. I think I watched Chris Martin do it with the Braves in 2019, maybe. And, yeah, I've seen all that. I actually think I've seen a couple. But it is extremely rare, and it's going to be something pretty cool for me. He's just so happy. I've never seen him happier.

He's just so happy. I love it. Oh, man. So Canadian. I love it. So happy. I'm thrilled for him. You know what I mean?

I really am. And Noah, his hair is fantastic. Oh, yeah. Who's sculpting? The immaculate comb. Immaculate hairdo is what we got going on. More impressive than the inning itself. God, I mean.

Unbelievable. It's just amazing. Again, March 30th. Now, 2006, mark it down the fourth time in Major League Baseball history. A pitcher is thrown in an immaculate inning. Fun stuff. Fun, fun, fun fact. Wade Miley did it on October 1st, 2012, versus the Rockies, and Randy Johnson did it on

August 23rd, 2001, very important year, against the pirates. Now, the reason why this is a fun fact is both of those emaculate innings, the one by Miley and the one by Johnson, featured a pitcher hitting. Ooh. So the only true immaculate innings here are by Young, Young Kim, and now Michael Soroka, because those are the only two immaculate innings where they truly faced three hitters on that. So there you go.

I wasn't expecting to throw shade at Randy Johnson today. No, no, especially on a day like this. Yeah, not the day I would throw shade on. Yeah, no, I don't. I don't throw shade. He was there today. He was, yeah, he's a very intimidating man. He is awesome.

He was a wonderful human being, super nice once you get to know him, talk to him. Still Randy Johnson. What I love. He's still Randy Johnson. What I do love about him is how he will profess himself how much of a jerk he was when he was pitching. Like, he would, he will tell you. you don't talk to me on game day when it's my turn to pitch like that's just it so again and as a photographer I want like he has never talked to me about anything but my camera oh I'm sure he loves

your photography oh my gosh yes there's a there's a bonding thing there um just like me and jerry p bonded in the elevator over a silver slugger award I'm going to try to fit that in here as many times as possible but the rest of the by the way it is mailbag monday I know we're gonna maybe get to that so I just wanted to preface this with drop your mailbag question in the chat. We're going to do it this way since we didn't have a lot of time to get it out there

and we will try our best to answer them here before the show wraps up. But we do have to talk about the bullpen, which I don't want to do. It's awful. It's terrible. It was as bad as it could have possibly been. Maybe not.

Maybe like losing the game as bad as it could have possibly been, but this felt bad. But just watching Joe Ross and Ryan, or excuse me, Ryan Thompson, I was about to say Ryan Nelson, struggle the way they did. Ryan Thompson seemed like he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.

And I know that's an old-timey phrase that I shouldn't be bringing up in this modern age. But he couldn't hit the strike zone if his life depended on it. And not only that, but he was also being completely thrown off because some sort of movement, some sort of part of his delivery, the umpire was determining was a bach. So they had a runner move twice on two box during Ryan's, you know, outing out there and he's just already struggling to find the strike zone so yeah he was flustered for sure and very uncharacteristic that's not ryan thompson right no very uncour characteristic um but we want to talk about the bullpen i'll be honest i don't really know if there's that much to talk about

other than it was just bad man they think it was bad and and see not as a whole right that's i'm gonna ginkle looked great we we do this we do this taylor clark taylor clark looked great one leo came in and luckily stopped the bleeding. And somehow stops the bleeding. Paul Seawald looked like, I'm, I'm just going to say, listen, I'm going to say it. That looks like 2023, Paul Seawald. Is it too early to say that?

That's who it is. Absolutely. Absolutely. But this is a team he was on. This is a team he was on. Yes. So it's like, you know, velocity, deceptive velocity, deceptive stuff.

He's missing barrels. He looked like Paul Seawald. That said, listen, okay, I am never going to disrespect a major league baseball player. I have worked in this industry for too long to not respect what they do. Get out. Just get out. Take a chair.

Joe Ross didn't look the best. Stop it. Stop it right now. Absolutely not. Joe Ross was a goddamn dumpster fire out there. I've never seen a pitcher not be able to be effective at all. That was incredible. Six runs in two thirds of an inning's five hits, one walk, one strikeout.

It was awful. It wasn't great. I just couldn't believe that it transferred right over to Ryan Thompson, who was not able to register a seal out. Okay, here's the thing. Here's the thing for me about the Joe Ross thing is I don't think he's going to be a very big part going forward. No, no. To me, it's a, he's, I don't like say, I don't like saying things like this.

I'm going to say it. I mean, I don't like saying things like this, but it is, it is sort of, it does sort of feel like a stop gap until the lefties, the young lefties are ready to go. It's not a stop gap until then. It was basically the fact that Brandon Garcia was so bad that they could not put him in the bullpen and they determined that Joe Ross had a better spring than their other options. He had experience. Plus, he's not like a young piece that if you have to do something with him, it's good. Like, they don't feel like it's going to hurt them to DFA Joe Ross if it doesn't work out.

So it's easier to put him in early here in the season and allow him to eat up some innings and then turn to your young arms when you see that they've kind of developed and figured some things out at a AAA or not, I won't say double A level, but at a AAA level, but it's already hard enough in this organization to ever determine that your pitchers are developing because of Reno. But what I will say is, is that a 32.40 ERA gets you DFA'd. Being ineffective, get you DFAid. And this team last year at some point adopted like this shorter leash

where they were not going to allow these guys to hurt them. They were cutting guys, they were signing guys, they were calling guys up. They had 17 different pitchers close out again. or attempt to save for this organization last year. So it's, you know, it's one of those things that this is not working with Joe Ross. And I understand, like I said, Tori wanting to leave him out there, even though the things were going bad just because it still wasn't that bad. But my God, like that performance and so far all of his performances during the regular

season have stuck. And that's, that's really it. Now, well, Derek, I did want to ask you something. Now, I know that you frequently play the game MLB the show. Yes. And when you create a player in MLB the show, there's a created player name that pops up. Are you familiar with this name? Yes.

It's Joe Random. Yeah. I'd like to start a petition. We call it Joe Ross. Okay. And it looks like Joe Ross. Okay. Because I never want to see this guy suit up for my team again.

Let's make him a creative player in MLB the show. He's that. of a guy, Joe Random, Joe Ross. Yeah. Dress for less. I mean, Cool bro says, maybe I'm being a Tory apologist, but where is he supposed to go with no lefties? Definitely somewhere else.

What the problem with Joe Ross was is that that outing turned on him, and there was no Ryan Thompson up getting warmed up. There was no pitcher getting warmed up. It just felt like Tori was going to let the game be lost or be won by Joe Ross being out there. I will play devil's advocate on this. And having an eight to nothing lead is not something you're thinking about right away. nothing and how many of those runs were with two outs right you're not expecting an absolute implosion with two out at some point at some point out but it happens as as as horrible as the tigers

looked today as as as as the as they're at bats looks you expect them to run into it out at some point and it just didn't happen yeah um and you know just today and and it just it hasn't been joe ross's season so far um and i again i'm very careful to put too much much blame on on players because I know what goes into it and I know I you know whatever but it just it's it was not a good look today I mean again though waiting until the lead has been cut in half before you even have a guy getting warmed up in the pen that's where I have a problem and that's where I've had a problem historically with the way that Tori runs his bullpen Tori refuses to contingency plan like in some cases he's brought it up that he's like trying to show that he believes in that person like

He doesn't want them to second guess themselves because they look over and see now that Ryan Thompson or Juan Murillo is warming up. But my God, this is... Do you remember when baseball? They're grown-ass men. This is grown. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

We're grown-ass men. Okay. They are human beings, though, right? Like, there is a mental side of baseball. Do you remember back in the day when the Chasefield bullpen phone would like echo through up? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Oh, it was loud as hell. What kind of like mental game is that playing? Like I get it. It's hard. When you're out there struggling and oh, oh, they're double barrel action out in the bullpen. It's hard,

man. It's hard to reset. And I get it. They're professional baseball players. They should be able to, they should be able to handle this. But at the same time, it is a very,

very mental game and it's very easy to lose that. You're right. But the problem is is that Tori can't manage this team. Like he's always worrying about like egos and doing all of that stuff. Right. Like, That right there seems like basic management to me, especially considering that, you know, the two runs scored pretty fast.

You know, like, yes, you're right. There was a point where they had two outs and then they continued to score with two outs and you could never seem to get that final out. But man, did the things just turn quickly to a point where you would just like to see a little bit more decisive, quicker action? And that's something that they're going to need to do

in order to win baseball games. They just lost two games by one run to the Dodgers. and in a series where out of all of the innings played, they did a good job about playing the Dodgers for a lot of that series. And the result is three losses. Yeah. And that's sort of been the story of this season, right? One or two big innings a game.

Yeah. And that's it. The big inning is what ruins it for this team. Well, and conversely, you know, the bullpen honestly has been pretty good outside of one inning in every game. You can. Yeah. That's the part that's difficult as well. And it's a different guy every time.

that it's hard to pinpoint blame on one particular person and be like, wow, this guy sucks. Obviously, Joe Ross had the worst performance of anyone this whole year so far. But like in the other games, you know, Ginkle gave up what? Two runs. It wasn't like it was a disastrous Kevin Ginkle performance. It lost us a game, though. So it feels like the bullpen is finding a way to lose his games. Yeah, he gave, I think it got attributed to Ginkle in one of those games.

No. I think one of the runs was. Yeah. Was Ginkled. Regardless of the. In regards, even in that instance, Juan Morillo was blamed for it and the bullpen was blamed for it. And realistically, that was a game where the Diamondbacks needed score more than two rounds. I was just going to say that for me, it's, it's funny.

You bring up Tori. We're obviously talking about the players, but it's Mike Hazen. It's a Mike Hazen thing. This is what Mike Hazen decided to invest in the bullpen this year. And then this is what we get to live with all season long. So if the bullpen continues to be the thing that loses you games, there's one particular person that deserves the blame in that circumstance. and it's the guy who didn't invest in the bullpen. And I'm getting that out here early so that everybody knows in game four.

I'm saying this is Mike Hazen's fault if the bullpen stinks, not Tori Lavolos. Yeah, no, that's fair. Even though I agree with your mismanagement tonight. You got to manage it. Yeah, I agree with you from tonight. And again, the bigger problem here is the Diamondbacks use seven relievers tonight to get the job done. And a game that was at 1.8 to nothing. And a game where your starter was dominant.

So that is what is painful about this. But we're not going to focus on the bad tonight. We're focusing on the good and we're focusing on this game being so good that we're giving out two king snakes. That's right. Michael Soroka, you get a king snake because you deserve it, my friend. Five innings pitch, four hits, historic night. 10Ks, the most by a starting pitcher ever in a debut in an Arizona Diamondback's uniform. Zero earn runs and an immaculate inning.

A lot of history being made by this. guy. So again, shout out to Michael Soroka for being an absolute beast and being exactly what the team needed. Maybe like I said, maybe the only criticism would be like a little bit more length would be kind of nice. But like you said, when you're throwing 10 strikeouts through five innings, you're probably thrown a lot of pitches. And both teams did that tonight. In fact, what do we have? Like 175 pitches thrown by the Diamondbacks tonight? There are so many. Oh my God. It was a insane. So many pitches thrown tonight by this team. So again, that's where things could be a problem down the road, an overly taxed bullpen that already isn't very good. That's what happened. We talked about it the first, the first game. That's exactly what happened. And overly tax early, overly tax bullpen early in the season, is what led to sort of the bullpen loows last year. And you're a little afraid, getting starting to get a little concern. That's going to be an issue now.

What I do like is that not only do we have the reinforcements that are eventually returning, but those are a little bit ways off. But we have guys, again, like Brandon Garcia had some weirdly bad outings considering how they were sandwiched between some pretty good outings by I am during spring. And I don't necessarily hold spring results in the highest regard. So it's hard for me to like think that he's washed because of what is spring, you know, what happened there in spring. But I feel like Brandon Garcia will be called up. I think that we'll see. And this stuff's always been there for it. I'm not worried about Brandon Garcia's stuff.

Like him and Philip Abner couldn't be more light night and day, but Philip Abner is just oddly like successful. Like he's just be any, I still can't, I still think of that moment where he debuted against the Dodgers and like struck out like Otani

and Freddie Freeman in like his first name. And then went on the, and if I remember right, the brewer is the very next game who had rocked it. Finish the season with the best record in all baseball like. Yeah. Yeah. But I will say that like again, you know, Again, there's Cade Stroud. I believe someone brought him up in the chat.

Like, there are guys that could definitely be right back up here as a replacement to Joe Ross or just again, as this bullpen gets overly taxed, just a new fresh arm that's added to the pen because they are going to desperately need it. And before we get too far into the whole bullpen thing, I get it, right? It's frustrating. One thing we got to remember, the bullpen on opening day, or game four, is going to be completely different from the bullpen that you get. Especially this bullpen.

Especially this bullpen. And especially under Mike Hazen's tenure, right? The bullpen changes. It's going to be completely different from the bullpen at the all-star break. And the bullpen at the all-star break is going into September. The only problem is we need to have a good enough record by that time where the season is not over because this bullpen destroys it. It's like they said. The season cannot be won in April.

But it can be lost. Absolutely. You know what I mean? So the Diamondbacks just have to be careful. And again, tonight was a step in the right direction. I also do like the fact, as crazy as this sounds, stick with me on this one, that it wasn't an 8 to nothing win because that is kind of like just such a hard pivot from the Dodgers series to where you don't really know what this team is. Like, we know what's wrong with this team. And it's not to say that we don't have good pieces here that Tori can focus on, but we've already seen how quickly, you know, the bullpen, which we knew was going to be bad, can be really bad.

And in this game, it was just a quick reminder that an 8 to nothing game became 8 to 6 like that. And it didn't seem like there was much the Diamondbacks could do to stop it at the time. Right. So anyway, Noah's in the chat being the exact kind of person I've warned all of you, Noah was. And none of you listen to me. So he's there. And we're going to have to read his super chat because he made it for me to read. He says, $499 super chat.

Thank you, Noah. He said, for Derek to read. Wow, wah, wah, boom, baby, dobskies, ready to roll. Bang, bang, bang, boom, boom, baby. Woo! Throw the coaster off the table. I don't have the coaster on the table, but I'll throw... I'm not going to throw.

I'm going to throw Lord's. All right, but we also got, I'm tripped out, says Soroka's low ball. Is that like a voodoo? Was deadly great. He looked great tonight. Also, I did meet the dog that has Lorde's hair. Wonderful guy. Cool, bro, says shout out to Taylor Clark for bouncing back.

Great point. Taylor Clark, another guy that the Diamondbacks, like I said earlier, was really good this spring, had that four run inning against the Dodgers. And, you know, again, when he even was coming into the game, I had my butterflies in my stomach considering what he just did in his last outing and how close this game was. I think the difference with Taylor Clark is he has the history to back it up. Yeah, no, that's true.

Very much. Like, you know, it looks like a fluke in L.A., right? You know what Taylor Clark's going to bring. And he bounced back. that's what winning teams do, right? We'll go back to the Elamaro Vargas home run. That's what winning teams. That's what good teams do.

They bounce back from adversity like that. And it was really impressive to see, honestly. Like, would we have rather a nine to nothing win? That's what talking snake says, not hearing Derek out on this one, A to Lowe would have been a lot better. Absolutely. But this is a team. Like, if you're forced to win games like this,

then you might as well win games like this. I will say this, though. I will say that, you know, again, the point I was trying to make is, is like, it's a good wake-up call and it requires this team to continue to try to improve and to take a look at itself right you're you're not wrong like eight to nothing nine to nothing would have been better right but I think early on in the season what we want is to see this team

continue to evolve and if things like this go their way then they think everything's fine when it's really not I would much rather have this wake-up call in game four yeah that's then in July yeah that's that's kind of where what I'm getting so for sure so listen I'm not saying it was good. Yeah. Nobody's here saying it was good. But I would, again, would much rather have this game now

than in July or August. So I guess get it out of the way. A win's a win. And learn how to win close games like this. You're not wrong. We're going to take a quick break. On the other side of this break, we're going to take a look at the numbers

and I'm going to scream about those goddamn ribbon boards that they put up because they blocked me from seeing the Legends race. And I need to have a talk with someone. Don't you go anywhere. You're watching the PHA next time in Beck show. Well, you know, I love pure edibles, and I've said pure edibles are versatile for for nights like this, right? Like, great night, great mood. I'm pumped. I don't know how I'm

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P-H-N-X for $20 off Download the GameTime app today Damon, what time is it? Game time. Game time. Damon, see, or if Noah's still watching, I told you Noah, yours are better than Damon's. What does he do?

Oh, Noah, Noah brought it. I'm just saying he brought it. I don't know what to tell you, but Do I not bring it for like 99% of the show? 99% of the show, you know, but I can tell. Sure, Noah can have that over me. My voice is, is almost gone completely. I hear your enthusiasm waning, and it's it is what it is.

I'm still going, baby. Daniel's still pumped. Daniel's pump. But let's take a look at the numbers from tonight's game. Of course, these are fun to look at. Diamondbacks out hit the Tigers 11 to 10, which feels like it should have been way more than that. Runners in scoring position, Diamondbacks had 16 opportunities. They only converted three of those.

Three for 16 with runners in scoring position. Tigers were four for 10. Both teams had five extra base hits. and both teams nearly had identical expected batting averages at 294 for the Diamondbacks and 295 for the Tigers. Kind of unbelievable, right? And then immaculate innings, just one. And it was full of the Diamondbacks.

Yeah, well, if I checked, the Tigers didn't have any. Nope, not a C losers. Believe it or not. I think it was 117th Immaculate inning, something like that in Major League Baseball history. Fascinating. Crazy. Crazy. And I've seen two of them.

Yep. Oh, you have. Yeah, it was only my eyes. Made while you want? Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. Well, I will say, though, that the people at the ballpark got a fun game. They got a fun thing to watch, but maybe their view might not have been so great.

As many of you may or may not know, the Diamondbacks installed new high-definition ribbon boards around their upper level of the stadium behind home plate. And they are high-definition, they are bright, they are colorful, they are gorgeous. And as you can see here, they also prevent me from seeing the Legends race. This is what my view looks like from the press box. Well, no, more importantly, look at that. Like, I cannot no longer see, though, this is from the 300 section. Yeah, that one's not great. Yeah, so as you can see here, the, like the metal rope, I guess you want to quote,

whatever you want to call it, wire that the wire that they have there that's like protective in there allows you to see through that wire and see the full. field. And I will say that this is a little bit skewed view. I was just kind of sitting down and like slumping. Like you can sit up and move a little bit forward and see the full, uh, stadium. So I'm not going to act like that was, you know, that. But Damon, if we could put the one back up from the press box, please. I just wanted to point this out. And again, this is just me venting about my own personal experience, but I'm sure other fans felt very similar to this. My, my view now, like, I can no longer see when I'm sitting in my seat, the tiger's bench.

or who's on deck. That's like that's what you're seeing there. Like again, I see plenty of the field, but there's just things that are so unnecessarily. Um, like ski like a blocked now due to this ribbon board. And it sucks, man.

It sucks. And it sounds like a small complaint, right? But it's a big deal, right? When you're, you're doing your job. You're trying to see who's on the bench. You're trying to see like what movements go. It's a big deal.

Like it is actually a very big deal. And I'm just saying like I, again, At the very least, it doesn't block the Diamondbacks bench, which is what I'm focused on and what I'm usually looking at. But it doesn't mean that there aren't things that we take away from seeing who the tigers are subbing in or who's coming into the on-deck circle or anything like that. And plus, as I said earlier, I don't get to see the legends race.

I have to stand up to watch Mark Grace lose. That is bullshit. Man, you missed a doozy today, too. Randy. Randy, is a winner, man. He's a winner. Yeah, Randy winning today made a lot of sense. that's for sure. But again, I know that Nick Picoro wrote an article about this.

It doesn't appear these boards are going anywhere. So I guess I just am kind of baffled by this decision. I'm baffled by the lack of awareness that this was going to change the view of fans. In the press box, they have to move the operators for the pitch clock and for the scoreboard and stuff that were down there in the front row on the right. Yeah. Because they cannot see the full field. That's not ideal.

Yeah. Not ideal. Like they're now sitting up in a different section. So it just, it sucks. I just think it kind of sucks. And I think the thing that, again,

that baffles me is like the lack of knowing that this was going to happen. Like that this was going to block the year. It reminds me of the Cardinals when they put the, the sweets on the field. And like as a photographer, they were like, oh yeah,

everybody's fine. And then you get there. Oh, no, there's no room. we can't have photographers anymore. Something that you're like, we don't care. Yeah, and just kind of thinking of after the facts. Yeah.

And there's nothing you can do about it because you invested a lot of money into it. I mean, Sean's right. And the AC isn't fixed yet either. And let me tell you. Let me tell you this guy. This guy was hot tonight. This guy was hot. We can't have higher chairs in the press box.

And I can't reach my computer. Full disclosure. We can't just fix these problems this way. We almost just made the thumbnail fix the damn ace. Yeah, we really did. We really did. Like pulling the curtain back. that's what I wanted to call it.

A piece of Yoshi is right, by the way. One of the ribbon boards already got smacked by a foul ball and broke. True. The one directly behind, right behind Home Plate. And it was like right in the middle of the Arizona A2 on top of all of that. So yeah, no, let's get, let's, I don't know. They're not going anywhere. They've spent too much money on them.

They're not going to remove them. And I don't think that there's any way that they can like move them. And I will say from the stands look pretty good. Yeah. They look pretty good. Shut up. You're right. They did.

The advertisements look good. You guys got to pay more for advertisements now. That's the way this works. But speaking of paying more for ads, we're going to take a quick ad break. And then when we come back, let's answer some Mailbag Monday questions real fast before we get out of here. Oh, or not.

Derek. Yeah, it's 1230 at night. I know. Let's go ahead and take a quick break. And then we'll get out of here soon. Don't you worry. But you're watching the PHA next time in Beck Show. All right.

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All right. Well, again, Damon says no mailbag. No, we can do quick mailbag. Damon says no bailbag Monday. I just don't think you realize how late we are into this show. I don't. I'm, I'm sorry. I thought we were excited.

I thought we were, I thought we were talking baseball. I thought we were having fun talking about. Oh, my boys. So you guys have been here for hours. Long time. How long have you guys been in the office? I'd love to know, Danielle. I'm scared of Derek.

Hey, I remember those days, man. I remember those days. I'm not going to play. That's what I thought. That's what I thought. Well, you know what we do around here on Monday's. David, let's go to the mailbag. Always something interesting in my mailbox.

I try to get to everything in my mail box. You know, some of us just live ball. Put the bad thing. You're scaring people in the show. All right. I looked ball for an hour in seven minutes. I think that's when I lost my love for the game. Let's bang these out, Damon.

So you can go home and we can always. get some sleep. Sean wants to know if there's a postgame show tomorrow. Yes, Sean, there is a postgame show tomorrow. So make sure to join us for that. If there was a 12 p.m. show. Oh, we'd be dead. We'd be dead. That postgame shows all week long. No, we'll do a 12 p.m. show during that four game set against the Braves. So we'll be at 12 p.m. on Thursday. But besides that, join us late after, hour after the game all week long. This is where we'll be. What else did we got there, Damon? I don't know exactly. I mean, we have Ryomis and in a couple. of mailbags here is our bullpen

worse than some AAA teams guys? I mean no no I think it's a tongue-in-cheek joke well right on a nose ball here's what I will say I mean it's not an unfair question like I do think that with the youth movement we was seen around baseball and how exciting some of these young players are I mean I know a lot of them are position players it felt like last year was maybe a little bit more of the like young pitchers kind of ascending and

making their debuts and breaking out but I don't know man I will say that our bullpen is bad. And I think that there is plenty of pieces in it that are good. And I think that like we said, it's going to adapt and change throughout the year. So the hope here is that the Diamondbacks just don't let any one reliever hurt them for too long if that reliever continues to struggle. Right. So if you see more of this from Joe Ross, I don't want to see anymore Joe Ross. I still believe in Ryan Thompson.

I think he was just kind of asked to get up fast and get warm fast. Yeah, he was put in a really tough situation. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, that's not easy to do. The box got in his head, too. You could tell. Oh, totally. Absolutely.

Did you guys see the box? Yeah. I didn't see either of the box. Yeah. I mean, I know the debacks weren't happy with both of them. They were showing that he didn't come set. They were saying that it was like all kind of fluid. Yeah.

And he does that. But that's his natural motion. He does that hip thing when he gets set where it's kind of like a swivel and then he goes forward. And I think that. they were saying that he wasn't necessarily staying getting set at any point. Okay. Yeah, because I was watching for a place that didn't announce it.

But my, what my thinking was he didn't come set. But, you know, that's such a, like, thing in baseball. Like,

I remember going to games and sitting as a fan and yelling, like, he's not coming set. And it's just, you know, it's like a carry in basketball. You just don't call it, right?

Or like the neighborhood play when you're rounding second base and you didn't actually touch the bag. Yeah, like, are you really, like, Giving him 180 feet because you didn't think he came set like

Yeah Whatever bill Miller Did we did we play the the Tory Answer on the box Derek? Oh, I don't believe we did We have Tori here on the box And he kind of explains why what the

D-backs were thinking in that moment There we go here's for your story talking about the box I don't know I'll probably hear a little bit more As we get a chance to hear of Bill Miller I had to say, I think he was calling it from first base. And I guess he was saying that the hips were still moving and the arms were still moving as he was starting his delivery home. You don't see it very often, maybe a little bit of a distraction to Ryan.

But he didn't have a typical RT outing. So something was bothering him. I think the box kind of got into him a little bit. Well, I'll tell you, I've been really impressed with Ryan Thompson so far this regular season. So this was just hard to watch. I think that's where it really got difficult to watch this game. The box really rattled him. And honestly, I felt the booze rattled him too.

He was not the same. That's not Ryan Thompson. And that was more of Joe Ross's booze. It was just, we are sick of this. Frustration, right? And I'm absolutely not blaming the fans. It was frustrating for sure. But it was ugly.

It was not, not fun to watch. But I'm not concerned about Ryan Thompson in the sloth. In the slightest bit. I've said it a million times, but that's not who he is. Yeah, this was a difficult predicament to put him in, but, you know, overall, I don't, I don't think that this is who he is, for sure. All right. I think we had a question from Emily Williams, Damon.

Yeah, we did. Emily wanted, or also, Raima wanted to actually ask if we're going to do this closer by committee thing all year because it seems like guys do better when they know what their roles are. No, you're absolutely right. I think, I think for all intends and purposes, Paul C. Seawald is the closer. I think he showed that today. I would imagine, one, after today's performance,

and two, just how the bullpen has performed throughout this season, I think Paul Seawald is going to be your designated closer at this point. I agree. And Derek, a piece of Yoshi had asked who the setup men were, right? Oh, okay. Yeah, I guess. I mean, Ginkle and Thompson?

I mean, I don't know. I would, like, yeah, maybe. I think. I think right now it feels like Morillo is the setup. Man, now is that who you want going forward? I'm not quite sure. Yeah, they did have them in an eighth inning yesterday. And that's kind of been his role so far this season.

I love Juan Rio stuff. I do too. Yeah, I think we all love his stuff. It's just about him being able to control it and limit the walks. Can he throw strikes? Can he command that plus plus fastball? I like, I'll live and die with a guy like that, though, over a guy that throws soft as hell and is throwing like strikes for a living.

You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. Give me a dude who's going to make some swing and miss. who's going to be a little bit more high variance like that because if it hits, then it's going to hit really. And it's important to have that in the back end of your bullpen as well. You can have guys like that in your rotation, in your middle relief,

but in your back in the bullpen, you need guys who are going to blow you away. That's just how it is. I was still kind of taken aback by Ginkle coming in as early as he did in this game too. A little surprise there, but I think the plan there was to have Taylor Clark be the other setup man. Yeah. And I wouldn't be surprised to see that going forward as well.

I agree. I think they still believe in Clark despite that fourth inning thing. I like Juan Morillo. I mean, honestly, I also kind of like Andrew Hoffman, who they were putting in

in late inning situations all throughout spring. And Jonathan Loisaga, aka Johnny LaZania. Who knows how he factors in? He's been extremely good for this team. He's only allowed one hit so far

in two and a third. He got a pretty decent ovation as well, too. Yeah. Yeah, we're Johnny Lazzania. We know. We know ball. We know ball here, man.

Before we move on from the polpen thing, I did tell Danielle a story from the broadcast, Eric, that I had to share with you as well. Oh, I hear. Apparently, Paul Seawald would tell everybody that would listen this offseason that if he's hit in 93, he's one of the best pitchers in baseball again. And I just was taking it back because I was like, I'm sorry. I must have missed when you were the one of the best pitchers in baseball, your brother. He maxed out at 92.3 tonight. Yeah, that's what he's. He's throwing 93.

Sam. Is he the best pitcher in baseball again? Do you want your closer to be like, yeah, I'm okay. Yeah, guys, I'm a pretty good pitcher. I guess I'm okay. But no, you're closer to go and it's like, I'm the best pitcher on the planet, baby. We were just talking about this with Michael Soroka.

Scenes, Sewell, you know how it is. The best pitchers on planet earth. Oh, God. All right. No, talking about my guy, Paul, like that. Yeah. Quick, quick tangent. I remember when they first traded him, I was working for the team,

and they had a little get-together for season ticket holders. And it was right after he blew that save in Minnesota, where he gave up three runs without getting it out. And the first thing he did, he walked in, he goes, opens the door, he goes, guys, I promise I'm not a bad pitcher. I promise I'm good. Like, just believe me. That's just kind of who he is.

He's a confident guy, and that's what you need out of your closure. Well, Emily wants to know if there's any updates on Lord's Curry, Jr. He's fine. He's over there. I just threw him off the table. He's not dead or anything. No, Lordis actually is supposed to be back in mid-April. And again, it's going to be, I guess, a positive, you know, good thing to have him back. He's probably going to DH. Damon and I have discussed that a little bit. It would make sense. But the Diamondbacks are going to have a bit of a logjam. As far as players are concerned, when Merrill comes back, Lord just comes back, and all these other guys start returning. So good problem to have. It's a good problem to have. And I feel like what it should do

is hopefully keeps that pressure on the guys that need that pressure kept on them. And they need to perform well or else they know in the back of their head there's a good chance. It could be them going away in one sense or another. If you're a young pitcher, you don't have to worry as much about it being a DFA situation because you're just going to be sent down if you have options. But if you're one of these other guys like a Johnny Lausagna, like Joe Ross, like some of these other guys, there's a good chance that you don't perform well and you're just going to be cut. from this team.

So, um, that's, a log jam gives you chance to, you know, there's trades options. You can build on the bullpen everything. So it's a great problem. It's a very good problem.

It needs them, it requires them to be performing well. And that's really what we need at the end of the day. And if they are performing well, like we said, it's a good problem to have. So, um,

cool bro says you of A is so losing their next game game, Damon. That seems rude. But thank you for the super chat. And you know what? Win or lose. Cool bro will be on his couch with his popcorn ready. his feet up and he'll be watching his favorite college basketball team every single March.

And actually April now, because we've made it so deep into the tournament, like he does every single year, like the rest of ASU fans do every single year. So thank you, cool, bro. Because he's getting very honorary as we get later in the night. I'm sorry, am I not supposed to respond to my team that's in the final four is going to lose next game with fire? You should, you should respond to this one because this one was specifically for you from Noah. For Damon, pee, poop, poo, toilet fresh.

Noah loves Shoahe Otani. Wow. That's a bold proclamation out of it. Don't show your face in this office tomorrow. That's all I have to say. But Colbrose says the D-back swing song hit the right nerves tonight. Hell yes.

I did say to listen to it. I definitely say to listen to it. Objectively a bad song, but if they ever don't play it, I'm going to run. I'm going to burn this entire city to the ground if they don't play it after a D-back swing. 100%, Daniel.

I attended your subs game, and I heard that. stupid Cubs wins song and I was like yeah that's kind of electric I got to admit but anyway thank you guys so much for joining us thank you damon for sticking around and dealing with our BS I love it you can follow all of us I got a second win there you did you did once he knew mailbag Monday was no I got it's you know what that's on me I'm a podcaster my job's not hard my life's not tough and I apologize for my very small moment of weakness there chat it's fine it's fine I'll be better and I'll grow from it We love ball.

Is he talking about when he drafted Showy O Toney number one overall? Is that what he's talking about right now? Well, it's unsure. Anyway, this show's falling apart, and we're going to yell at each other after everything's done. But you can follow us on social media. I'm at Cap underscore Caveman with a K. Danielle is at Abrake-Daniel. Damon is at Damon Dog with a D-A-W-G, and we're all Damon's dogs.

Bark, Park, Park. Our show is at P-H-N-X underscore D-Backs, but all roads lead to at Ph.NX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys so much for your time. Time to night. We love you. We'll see you back here with another postgame show tomorrow. I will try to drink as much water as I can between now and then. You guys do the same. Behave yourselves, Ryoma and Emily. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when Michael Soroka is out there making history.