PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - POSTGAME: D-backs’ Offense in FULL MELTDOWN, Scoring Just ONE RUN AGAIN in Loss to Astros

Episode Date: September 5, 2026

The Arizona Diamondbacks’ offense has hit ROCK BOTTOM, scoring just one run for the fourth consecutive game in Friday’s loss to the Houston Astros. We break down what has gone so wrong for the D-backs’ bats, Merrill Kelly’s strong start that was wasted without any run support, and Gabriel Moreno continuing to shine despite the team’s offensive struggles. Plus, it’s time to play the Blame Game to determine who is responsible for this offensive collapse and what can the D-backs do to finally get their bats back on track? We also have a VERY positive update on Corbin Burnes’ return, along with the latest roster moves involving Tommy Troy and Jorge Barrosa.BECOME A DIEHARD: gophnx.com/join JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-lockerALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX 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 BBPHNX15 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 visithttps://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotesGametime: 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.

Who broke the Arizona Diamondbacks offense? Was it you? Was it you? Fourth consecutive game that the Diamondbacks have scored only one run, and of course, three of those games are losses. We are talking about this, plus the return of Corbyn Burns and why we wish maybe he would also get into the starting lineup with a bat.

Don't you go anywhere? We are screaming about this game right now. No ski, no ski. But we are live, live. We're live from the Studio K, presented by Circle Okay, this is the PHNXD backs post game show. I am Derek Montia. I don't want to give any other titles.

I don't want to do much because if the Diamondbacks offense doesn't want to try, why should I? Why should I write notes? Why should I plan a show? Why should Damon work hard on graphics? If they're not going to try, why should we? It's for you guys because we love you guys. And we're always going to try hard for you guys.

And we're never going to let you down the way this offense let you down. But this is the PHNX Diamondback Show. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. You got your dog, my dog, and not the DBAX dog, Damon Dog on the ones and twos tonight. He's already dropped one F-bomb on this network today. And he cannot wait to drop a second one tonight. At some point, when that's going to be, guess is as good as mine. I'd do it right now.

Stay tuned. But honestly, stay tuned. I want to drop one right now after watching the Diamondbacks drop. this game to the Houston Astros by a score of three to one. Of course, this show is brought to you by the fine folks over at GameTime. Go download the GameTime app right now. Use our code of PHNX when you sign up, create an account, and get $20 off your first purchase for using that code of PHNX. Terms to apply.

And maybe if you come out, the Diamondbacks will score more than one run because they haven't been doing that so far. Maybe with the support of you, they'll do it. Because, again, like I said, they lose this one three to one. Four games in a row, four games in a row that the Diamondbacks have scored one run. I don't even know what the odds are. Like the odds seem incredibly unlikely of that even happening, right? Like, what are the chances you only score one run in four straight games? How is this offense that was just scoring nine, ten, seven runs and wins just one week ago,

now reduced down to this. And I mean, hats off to the Houston Astros. We knew that their bullpen was very good. We knew that Javier had not played many games due to his injury, but again, he is fully back on track. And the Diamondbacks could not do much against either the bullpen or the starting pitching of Houston tonight. They dropped to 74 and 66.

They're now 5 in their last 10 games, three and three in their last road game, six road games as mid as they could be lately. And more importantly, the Diamondbacks have not had a hit with a runner in scoring position since last Saturday in San Francisco.

Did, Damon, did you hear what I just said? It is Friday. It is Friday, September 4th, and the, Diamondbacks have not had a hit with runners in scoring position in the month of September. Utterly baffling, Derek. It's like a made-up stat.

It sounds fake, doesn't it? It's September 4th, and they haven't had a hit with a runner in scoring position since August 29th. O for 17 in the Philly series. 0 for 4 again today. So that totals up to 0 for 21 for those of you with it. are good at math and just a bad performance all the way around you know the game started with this offense going one uh one two three and that that felt like that was just everything for them the rest of this day i i just you know you you see them take a couple of good at bats you take a couple of fair

decent at bats could tell martay did not look completely lost at the plate he looked like he was able to take some pretty, you know, competitive at bats. But, I mean, there was the moment where he hit into that double play that Gabby Moreno should have been either on third base, after all was said and done, standing on third base, or at the very least should have made the out at third base and found his way. Kattel at least found his way over to first and said it was a double play.

Everything they did offensively didn't work today. They had a couple of walks. including Pardomo walking and stealing second base, which was his 20th steal of the season. So again, if I'm going to do the thing that Derek Pontia does and highlight the positives in the third inning, with two outs he did walk, stole his 20th base of the year, and Pardomo is now one of seven diamondbacks ever to record consecutive seasons

of 20 plus stolen bases. So shout out to Jerry P. He also has it safely. 10 of his last 12 baseball games. And he's hit against the Astros quite a bit so far in his career. He did walk in his second at bat, but he did have kind of like a seven straight at bat hitting street coming into this game against the Astros. Speaking of which, I want to hate the Astros, but it's very hard to when I look across

and I see Dalton Varsho, Christian Walker, and Tony Perez-Chico over there. right i mean that's Derek i've been over this before on this show but i hate it it's when it comes to the astros the things that the dodgers were doing to ruin baseball simultaneously were far far far far greater crimes than beating trash cans in the dugout i mean are you looking into any of this pablo torre stuff i we're talking about different we're different planets in terms of cheating and fraud and all of this. So like I don't want to hear like the Astros or the bad guys anymore. No.

I think it's pretty clear the Dodgers are the have always been the bad guys. No, I like I like several players on the Astros. I'm just saying. I want, uh, Yordana Alvarez on my baseball team. I like Christian Walker's mustache very much. It enthralled me. I would do anything for Yordaun Alvarez on my baseball team. I would have, I said it on this podcast this season about 20 times.

I would trade the Reno Aces to get Yorda Alvarez on this baseball team. They can have two AAA squads in Houston. I don't care. We got Yordon Alvarez, the best hitter in baseball. You know what? You bring up a good point. Why talk about this loss when we could talk about the fact that Mark Walter is actually

the founder of Gugentheim partners for those of you that might not know. If you guys, we should just retweet basically the entire pop. Pablo Tori finds out shows from today. Why should we sit here and do this? We just need to like talk about the fact that that's a The show, Derek. Throw the rundown in the garbage. We're just talking about the Dodgers and their fraudulent scheme to the top.

Right. There's no other way to put it. Right. So millions of Americans hold life insurance policies. And we all pay into these life insurance policies. Right. You do. I do.

We all do. Right. But this is my type of cope right here. Your team loses a pivotal baseball game and you just fully put the attention in the microscope on your greatest enemies in life and the bad, nasty, nasty things that they're doing. I'm all for it. Yeah, you're not wrong. But they're bad people. And Pablo Tori, bless you.

You already took down the Clippers. You already took down one organization in Los Angeles. Let's get another one. Let's get another one. My favorite part is how they like use like Magic Johnson as like the like Goodwill. like face of all of this corrupt They just made him a billionaire. They just made him a billionaire for the fun of it.

Allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly. I'm going to say allegedly 15 hundred times just to make sure that we don't incriminate ourselves when it comes to this. But I need that. Because I'm going to say some wild stuff.

Let's talk about who has incriminated themselves, Damon. And that's this Diamondback's offense. They should all be arrested for crimes against humanity when it comes to what this offense is doing right now. It's diabolically bad. And it's, you know what? Like, I do agree with this from the standpoint of they're obviously not getting enough players on base.

You know, three hits tonight is nowhere near good enough. No one's arguing otherwise. No. But you did have opportunities. Did. You had bases loaded. Despite only having three hits, you did have opportunities. There's another standpoint where, or part of the game where you have a runner on base and

the tying run at the plate and you immediately ground into a double play. You had some opportunities to get maybe a run or two across, and you managed to screw it up every single time. And that's what really has been consistent between the last four games because there's been varying degrees of offense. I feel like in those four games. But the thing that they all share is that no one can get the truly important hit that gets a run across the plate.

People can maybe get on base. They can draw a walk. they can, you know, hit a single. But when it comes to getting someone in scoring position, it's just in a complete and utter disaster right now. It feels like no one wants the bat in their hands when there's people on second or third base. Dating back to the double header last Saturday.

Yeah. Corbyn Carroll is now 0 for 18. He had one hit in, let's see, that was Friday's game. He had one hit. And then prior to that, Corbyn Carroll was 0.4.50. So one now for 30. Three. Derek, I know he's our sweet, sweet, sweet special boy.

But I think I'm just going to say it. If this team doesn't make the playoffs, I think a big part of the reason is going to be because Corby and Carroll has gone from an MVP candidate. to a below average baseball player for an MLB standard over the second half of this season. And it's just not good enough. Mixing and he's mixed in a player of the week award in there as well. I know. Is the crazy part is he he had such a good week and he still,

his stats have faltered this bad. It's crazy. It's really bad. As far as that in the Ketel distraction. And I know that we won some games in between then. Yeah. It doesn't help. anybody.

Batting average this season with runners in scoring position. Diamondbacks are tied with the Chicago White Sox 241 for the 23rd, batting average, 23rd in baseball with runners in scoring position. So I mean, Derek, I know that this was before this game tonight, but there was a, there was a, uh, a graphic that we used on our preview show. for this game and it was the you know astros dbacks comparison yeah and going into this series the debacks were 22nd no PS in baseball they were like 16th like yeah like three series ago yeah

they were 100% they were the middle of the pack like three series ago and they have dropped so much just in the last week and a half here that they are now find themselves as like one of the bottom 10 offenses in the sport it's crazy but it's what we're watching right now for sure like it it checks out merrill obviously wasn't fantastic tonight but he buckled in as he often does after a rough start and ends up looking pretty good at the end of the game right like it feels like he maintains his level absolutely through the fourth fifth sixth innings well he ended he ended the game with uh with a one two three inning in the six right yeah it was the cleanest inning he had the entire game right and then the and then the the

bullpen does their jobs but you're just you're getting nothing on offense from anyone that's not named like perdomo right now it feels like debacks ops team ops is down to 708 and gabby 708 7 08 currently 22nd and major league baseball so there's still 22nd but they're down even a couple yeah hundreds of a or thousands of a place oh man i'll tell you and again like you said they had those opportunities it's not like they didn't they had bases loaded with one out nolan aronado it you you just You see him hitting into double plays and inning-ending situations all the time lately, it feels like. I mean, Nolan Aronado has quite literally never gotten a hit with runners with bases loaded.

I don't think in his entire D-back's tenure. What's crazy about that, Derek, is he has two grand slams and I'm saying. I know, I know. He has two grand slams. And yet every single time he comes up to the plate with bases loaded, I like, I like can't, I like cover my eyes because I'm expecting the double play slash strikeout to happen every single time. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you, man, there's a lot of bad going on right now for this team offensively that is just hard to explain. It really is hard to explain. They're collectively cold. We did have Gabby Moreno's,

you know, solo home run in the fourth inning. And that gave me life. That made me feel a little bit better about things. But you, you know, Gabby's, it feels lately like Gabby's doing it alone. I'll say Perdomo has felt pretty productive, you know, lately. He finds a way to get on base, even if he's not having a great game. He finds his way to get in a scoring position. I don't feel like, you know, Perdomo is part of the problem right now. No. Even Cattel Marte had some good at bats today.

Today was just a matter of nobody else doing anything and even those guys not doing much, right? But Moreno's home run did go 387 feet to left center field, 105.1 miles per hour off the bat and that was his 12th home run of the year. Pretty much the only shining, shining moment of this game. And for that reason, plus his two walks, Gabby Moreno is our King Snake in today's game. No surprise there. But he also had the double play where he made that base running error, trying to get back to second base instead of just running it out and trying to go third.

Another example, Derek, of the offense. getting in its own way. Yeah. When you have a runner in scoring position. This is a close game. There were less than two outs there. You could have gotten them to third. You poke a single through.

It's a one run baseball game. So even your, yeah, our Kingsnake tonight, the guy who clearly deserves Kingsnick, he deserves blame too for his part in. As Sean says in the chat, Sean says, even Gabby botched the tag on Yordon at home and had that terrific basing running, base running blend. Yeah. Yeah, no, it was. It was a bad night at the office.

You flush it, Derek. flush it I don't I don't care for you saying that I don't like it coming out of you it feels fine coming out of Tori I don't like it coming from you at all um what did I do I don't know I'm just my anger is misplaced tonight and I want to scream I don't know who to blame the Dodgers okay let's we've been over this you're right you're right I forgot let's get back to that so Guggenheim really encourage you guys to check out all the great work

Pablo Tori's doing. No, he's not wrong. Pablo Tori is a legend in this game right now. I mean, from the fact that he turned down staying at ESPN to go work for Metal Arc and be able to kind of have that, you know, freedom, right?

But it was also, it's also ironic that one of the things Pablo Tori wanted was like financial backing for him to do this investigative journalism work. And the same company that literally backed up you know a brink truck for pat maccophie wouldn't give pablo tori money to cover what we would consider the other side of of the sports journalism world not just the loud entertaining side of an

idiot up there screaming things brother we we have no place to talk pro res you know guy that loves pro wrestling and stuff just being an idiot on camera who wants to watch that who wants to watch to maniacs yelling on screen right calling each other idiot It's an overreacting about everything, right? No one. You could have had Pablo Tori as well doing this stuff on the other side. Show is incredibly entertaining, but more importantly, like literally Pablo is proving how important journalism is, literally shining a light on stuff that is causing investigations and, you know, like leagues to penalize the clippers to the point where their next draft pick is currently in fourth grade right now.

first round draft this is crazy all right this is a crazy side tangent no i'm telling you i know i want to talk about anything besides this one to three to one loss that's for sure one run in four games damon it's crazy oh man so back to the dodgers right let me tell you why they're screwed now we're going to take a quick break on the other side of this break we're going to talk about Merrill Kelly, who did not have a terrible day, but he did have one bad inning tonight. We're going to talk about that. Don't you go anywhere. You're watching the PHA next Diamondback show.

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Well, back to Circle K. Who is introducing the new Inner Circle 2.0 right now. If you have not signed up yet, now is the time. There's no better time than to get in on the new Inner Circle 2.0. If you're an existing Inner Circle member, don't worry. You don't need to sign up for anything new. You don't have to worry. Your account is already leveled up, which is, again, part of this whole thing.

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He's there. Make sure to enter your phone number at checkout or the pump to ensure that each visit is counted. New enrollees can save 25 cents off or down still on their first five fill-up. So sign up today. join the Inner Circle 2.0 for free by downloading the CircleK app today. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. Well, Merrill Kelly had himself a pretty good outing tonight.

I think that he gave the Diamondbacks the exact kind of outing that you would hope to get out of Merrill, right? Anything better than tonight is outstanding. But Merrill Kelly came out, gave the Diamondbacks six solid innings of three-run baseball, and he gave them an opportunity to win this game. That's all you can ask for from Merrill. He had a one, two, three first inning. He gave up a single to Christian Walker in the second that did no damage and only warmed my heart, considering especially how bad Walker has been doing lately.

But the third inning is when Merrill Kelly finally ran into some troubles. He gave up a lead off home run to Yanir Diaz to make it 1-0 at that point. Then a couple of one-out singles to Pena and Alvarez and then RBI double to Isaac Paredes that made it 2-0 and then Alt-2. two, they hit a sack fly that made it three nothing. No major damage, no major mistakes, but it did feel like at that point,

Merrill was maybe starting to get a little run down, maybe it tired, maybe it was looking like perhaps he was going to have a shorter night than we anticipated or would like to see. But, you know, he kind of dug in deep and got out of that inning and really did not allow more than one base runner

per inning for the rest of the game. Give out a two out single to Diaz, in the fourth inning and a one out single to Alvarez in the fifth. That's the only other hits he allowed after that third inning and those three runs given up. And then as we said earlier, Damon, as we were talking about, he finished strong. He finished his final inning like he started his first with another one, two, three inning there in the six. So Merrill was, Merrill was good tonight. His change up was really good. He used his change up a lot. He relied on that. He got 29% usage out of his change up tonight and got five whiffs on it.

I think we do have the pitch chart for Merrill. We got his four seam tonight also was pretty good. He got three whiffs with that. It maxed out at 94.3 and averaged right around his average this year at 92.3 miles per hour. But those two pitches were, you know, his main two. And again, you can see this beautiful grouping, right? all of the changeups are in the same location down and away there you got all of the four seam fastballs up and in and exactly where merrill you know wants them a couple of stray four seams that kind of got out of there but uh those two pitches were very good for him tonight eight whiffs total on those two five on the changeup three on the four seam fastball he also got two whiffs on his curb ball and one whiff on the cutter his curveball he got a strikeout with too which was uh kind of a little little unprecedented there for mrs Merrill, but use that 15%.

He threw everything. He threw his slider, 13%, his sinker, 12%, his cutter 7%. So a lot of stuff there in between. But again, the two pitches that we're working for him, once again, are those two pitches that have done the job, change up forcing. Four strikeouts tonight for Merrill Kelly. And I guess, you know, with the way this season has been going, four strikeouts is actually a little bit better than normal.

for the circle K strikeout meter. So also, I guess people get to take home a tiny circle K strikeout meter in some form I heard. And that warmed my heart. So I hope you're playing along at home with your strikeout meter as well. Fill it up to four. I know both of you are probably too sad to get it out of whatever drawer you stuffed it in. But it's all right. Six innings tonight for Merrill, I think that's the most important part.

Six innings and three hits or three earn runs. He did allow seven hits. No walks. again, very good for Merrill and then the four strikeouts. And then don't make me say more good things about this bullpen because they once again did the thing. Justin Martinez and Derek Law, Derek Law, who has the sexiest name you've ever heard in your entire life.

And then Justin Martinez also going out there, getting two strikeouts and one inning of work and looking like an absolute certified G and a bona fide stud. And you could say the same thing about Derek Law, but more in like a dad type way, you know, like Justin Martinez is like the cool, like sexy version of being a certified G and a bona fide stud. Derek Law is like the, I fixed the, you know, the bathroom toilet and I got the grocery shopping.

And that's what you're attracted to at the end of the day. That's why you love James McCann so much. I love me a man that gets stuff done around out. I love dad energy. You think James McCann could, like, build you like a wooden chair set, like for your kitchen or something? James McCann would allow me to sit on the couch and drink an old fashion while he put together all the stuff we bought from IKEA. Correct. And then James McCann's going to go out on a Saturday night.

He's going to put on face paint and he's going to win a championship belt in a pro wrestling match with tassels on his arm. That's the kind of energy I'm looking for. Derek, for people that were wondering, a little inside baseball here, Derek was building chairs. all night for the office here. So that's kind of just a look into. I was yesterday I was literally in a suit for our stupid fantasy draft building chairs and sweating in the main area. I mean,

it's what I do. I do the dad stuff around here. Damon, if I wouldn't have opened those boxes and put those goddamn chairs together, they would have become part of the, the decor in this office in those boxes. We would have made like a full. Yeah, you guys would have started

setting stuff on top of them and using them as desks. Yeah, probably. Standing desk. Sounds like a good idea, actually. I'm kind of mad you open the box. Standing desk would have been sick. Fatty Schroeder asks a great question. He says, why do they always play like this in September?

I don't know. I mean, the Astros aren't a bad team. And the Diamondbacks offense just sucks right now. That's the point that we're trying to make by talking about this. Merrill giving up three runs. in an inning and three runs over six while the bullpen held it scoreless is typically the type of day that gives you a win. You win games like this, just like you should have won that first game against the Phillies. I was to say, I think you should probably win the Phillies series

by the same circumstance. Absolutely. Two one, two one. You lost the game two one. And now you've lost four or you've scored one run in four games. You should consider yourself lucky that you didn't get swept in that Philly series at this point. And I don't know what the answer is. Tori saying they're missing the fastball. Like, yeah, if you miss the fastball, yeah, if everybody on the team in the entire starting lineup is missing the fastball, then yeah, you're going to have a bad day a lot. And they are having a lot of bad days right now offensively.

So I don't know because- It's just guys like Kattel are not supposed to miss the fastball. You know what I mean? Like he's never supposed to miss the fastball. Right. Just to put it over the damn fence. Corbin shouldn't be missing fastballs. Yeah.

I think that there's also this idea that this team didn't need to pick up one of those guys like Gino as cool bro is talking about. That was egregious the whole time. Anyone that was like replying to me being like in what's you going to do? I don't know. What is the rest of the team doing? You don't think that guy might be able to hit a couple. What is anybody doing right now? Yeah.

Besides Gabby. He can't DH. We've been. Bad all season long about home runs. Go look at the stats. We're like 27th in baseball or something like that in home runs as of right now. It's really low. It's really, really low.

And it's not good enough. And home run hitters would help fix that problem, frankly. Yeah. Yeah. Luis Robert. Another example. I mean, Outfield wouldn't have been. Outfield wouldn't have been probably priority number one.

No. You know, anyone. Anyone. You can deach anybody. What we needed was something to get this offense going. And to be fair, this, you know, this team was not struggling like this just a week ago. This has been a brand new problem. And we've known all season long that this offense can go cold, has been bad, can collectively be as bad as they are.

It's more frustrating when the pitching staff is pitching like they are lately. Yeah, they had that stinker in game two where they gave up seven earned runs and most of those came late for Marardo Carillo. But for the most part, it's been all right. They've been amazing. The bulls have been amazing. They've been giving you a chance to win almost every baseball game. But the offense isn't doing it. And even though we're talking about a big return here next week, that return is not a guy that's going to return with a bat in his hand.

Yeah. Nor does it really feel like Lord is being added. to the rosters after they were expanded is going to be the answer that this offense is looking for you're telling me the guy who's hitting like 110 in in triple a isn't the answer to our problems at the major league level i don't you're not like this i don't like this at all yeah no it's not it's not i don't know what the answer is that either who could have seen that coming yeah at least we had ryan waltchman challenge a pitch and win it tonight that felt like a yeah huge step that was huge that was huge uh yeah it's just not good enough right now as as for usual the entire season

gabby's hit in the baseball so we know we got that we can check mark our three whole hitter in the lineup is going to show up yeah um james mccann probably needs to play more they probably need to find a way to get both them in the lineup because i feel like yeah that's a guy that yeah is fairly consistent at the plate this season i agree um so that's something probably to think about a little bit more as well. And it's so weird too because you typically want your you know,

your catcher to get some time off. But Gabby can DH. No, but that's what I mean, though. I mean, you typically want your catcher to get actual time off and not just DH, right? So the problem is that both

catchers in baseball, they play almost every game because that's what the type of guys that they are, right? Like, Yadi's never out of the lineup. He's never missing a game. I guess my point here being is you don't really want McCann's bat out of the lineup either. So it feels like no matter what, you kind of want to

like flip-flop those guys and have one guy, D-Hing and the other guy catching. But that's going to wear both guys down very fast, right? And again, more so than, yeah, like their usual rest time for sure. But I do think it can be done for a stretch like September. I think it can be done for a small portion of this season where you have a home stretch and there's an end goal in sight, which is getting into the postseason, right, in this circumstance. And then, you know, And after you get there, it starts all over again. But yeah, I mean, you just got to find different creative ways to make this offense tick because it's just not working at all right now.

Yeah. Getting choked up thinking about how bad this offense is, Derek. I know. Me too. Me too. Amen. Well, I have something to confess. There was a time where I teared up when I was talking about Ketel.

And it really wasn't emotions getting a hold of me as much as it was just a lack of sleep causing me to literally lose my mind while hosting. hosting the show. And if there's anything that's going to make me lose my mind, hosting the show is this team's scoring one run in four consecutive games. Anyway, let's go ahead and take a quick break. And we're going to do the thing you guys have been waiting for. We're going to get to blaming people. Let's take, let's take two minutes and we'll be right back. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the PH&X Diamondback show. Oh, I'll tell you, Window Depot. They'll distract me from this baseball game right now. They'll

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And when we do that, we're definitely going to be covering the chase, which for those of you that don't watch NASCAR is the playoffs for NASCAR. And it's incredible. And right now, you can get in on one of the most important races of the season from October 16th through the 18th. The Chase returns to Phoenix Raceway.

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Phoenix Raceway.com. That's phoenix Raceway.com. Every lap counts. Every point matters. The chase at Phoenix Raceway, October 16 through the 18th. I'm tripped out says have any of you guys ever tried running the Phoenix race for just the one mile? Uh, no, not that. But I, I have done a few races in my life when it comes to, uh, the running kind. And I am very excited because the folks at Phoenix Raceway are going to let me go drive my car on the track. That's nuts. Uh, actually that's happening, uh, you know Brent Brennan did that last year.

Did he really? Yeah, UVA's football coach was like the guy they had in doing it last year. Now they have Derek Montia. Well, I'm a mayor. So, I mean, let's, I would argue. I mean, a coach, a mayor, like, I don't know. It depends on who you feel like is more important. But we know what you guys want to do.

You guys want to determine who is to blame for this loss. So, Damon, if you wouldn't mind playing some blaming music and putting me up on the billboard on some Arizona freeway so that I can be a god and determine whose fault tonight's losses. It feels right after watching the Diamondbacks score one run for their fourth consecutive game. Pitching, you guys are taking the night off. We're not lighten that light up. pitching three runs.

Yeah. Scoreless bullpen? No, not on my watch. That's a quality start from Merrill Kelly. That's a scoreless outing. Damon, light the batting light up. My God, can you make this like so bright that I can't even see the screen? That's how bright it needs to be because there is a problem.

Maybe it should be flashing. It should be a warning light. Maybe the fact that it's in blue doesn't let you take it seriously enough. Maybe that needs to be in red because we have a problem, folks, and it's the offense. And I feel like it's just one of those things that gets worse. Like the worst the struggles are, the worse it gets. The more they try, the harder they try, the worse it gets. And that's the slump that they're in right now.

And that's all you can call it. Slump. It is a slump. It's an awful slump. It's as awful as Noah calling that batting on this graphic. Yeah, it is. Right. And I still can't believe we haven't gotten him to change it yet.

Big mistake while he was in the off season. Yeah. Yeah. We probably should be all over that like ASAP. Now it's the now it's Cardinals time of the year. Derek, reminder on your phone after the show's over. It's, it's not, it's, this is not good. It's just not good.

But we will, we will take care of it. And I'll tell you this much. I, I want to, I want to add another offensive light and light that one up too. That's how that's how bad. Yeah, it does feel like the offense holds like 99% of the blame. I mean, was there anything defensively tonight? Yeah, I'd be missing the tag on Yordon. But I mean, again, it's mistakes are going to happen.

Things like that are going to happen. I mean, I'm not. Bing, Bing play. I still think that they had some solid defense as well behind them. They turned some double plays. They got, you know, they kept this Astros team to just three runs. You know, they, they, Yordon didn't go crazy and didn't beat them. so I don't really feel like the defense is to blame as much as the obviously the hitting is by far the biggest culprit but the other the other entity to blame is manager the story at this point how could you not blame the coaching staff for this offensive performance that's gone on now for four straight games you know and you can't even like be like oh it's a road trip and sometimes it happens so it was three of these games were at home and

You know, now here you are playing like this in Houston during a very crucial time where, you know, you got some of your opposition not playing very well either in losing games. On one hand, great. If that's the case and we're able to stand pat, then at least we don't lose ground and we don't find ourselves looking, you know, up at the Padres. But if they win tonight, then, you know, that's, that's terrible. And again, this is not an easy team to beat in the Astros just because their record isn't great. And they have a lead in their division right now. So they absolutely have something to play for.

The fact that this coaching staff doesn't have these guys prepared, better prepared to come out there and put up more than one Gabby Moreno solo home run. I don't know how you can't blame the coaching staff. They, I mean, they put together the lineup. I mean, they're the ones that are collectively. getting these guys ready before each and every game and it feels like they're just not ready at all people in the comments Derek calling you raffy call monti monti call monte monte that's that's kind of how that's what my mind went to six so two Derek isn't really a great one to

make into a raffy thing but i think we can do it with montia call monte monte Come on to Okay, that's too catchy So we're getting me down off of here Before people start asking me to help them with their A lot of people also saying Derek Another one of the most popular chats During that blame game segment was

Light up the Mike Hazen Light Or blame whoever didn't get this team Starting pitchers or sluggers at the deadline At the deadline And I think that I think that those are Damon dog talking about it all off season long Yeah, no, I'm

I mean, I've been I've been pounding the table. Derek, stream goes dead because I do that. I've been pounding the table. Perfect way to end it. Perfect way to end it. For two things, starting pitching and guys that put the ball over the fence for since the offseason, since the winter. And those were unfortunately the, I think the avenues that Mike Hazen did not fill the

best throughout the course of the off season. You know, he invested heavily in Maryland. Kelly and Zach Gallen. Those didn't work out all that great. So that has been part of the struggle with the starting pitching staff. But we've known we've needed starting pitchers for a very, very, very long time. We've known we needed a power hitter literally since the off season. And what did we talk about at the deadline, Derek?

We were saying, man, this team has earned the opportunity for their GM to go out there and get them a couple of upgrades at the deadline and find what it takes to go. get this team into the postseason. Because they had a better record than probably what they should have when the deadline rolled around. If you just looked at the team, you looked at what Tori's been working with for much of the year. And you failed to do so.

And now it feels like right now we have a severe lack of firepower going into the final stretch of the season. I think all of us feel exactly that way where we're looking at our team versus other teams that we're playing versus the Phillies. And you're saying, this is the team that we're competing. heating with to make the postseason against? More importantly, let's pay attention. Corbin's nowhere to be found.

Cattel's been, you know, literally MIA, that points this season. Jerry's not been himself. It's been the Gabby show all year long. And it's just like unfortunate. It's guys like Eduardo Rodriguez and Brandon Fott and the bullpen. Brandon Fod, Michael Soroka for a stretch.

Yeah. Those are all of the reasons why this team is won this many games up to this point and it wasn't a colossal failure. Right. This team has also been very good about staying in games and their offense showing up at the right times. Even though their offense has been dreadful, they will show up at the right times. They will score three runs in a two-run game.

You know, they'll do that. And that's how, again, how they got to this point of having this many wins and still being relevant in September. But as the comments said earlier, what happens in September? And we can't let that happen again. We can't have another year where this team falls one game. short of making the post season. Yeah. And if that happens...

And if we do, I will completely agree with everybody's sentiment about firing everybody. You don't need to fire Tori because his contract is up at the end of the year and you just don't bring him back. If that's, if that happens, Derek, I'm going to, I'm going to agree with people and say, you know what? I think it's probably just time to move on. He might not be the problem in my opinion, but he's also not a part of the solution. Yeah.

Because he does consistently have these downturns in September as well. But my point was what I was trying to say is, I think it's... maybe a little bit less him and more so like, we all knew that we needed better players. And we don't have any of those better players right now. And now we're seeing the effect of that happen in real time where the team just doesn't feel like a playoff team half the time. Then they show up.

And when we're at our lowest with them, that's when they play their best baseball. So when we do this doom and gloom depressing episode, tomorrow is likely the day they go out and score 12 runs. and everybody's like, what happened? Somehow win the series against the Astros. We're back here on Monday. God, I hope so.

Just with all sorts of misplaced feelings. It's hard to feel that way right now with how they've been hitting the baseball. It just feels like this team is just, they got not, they got no answers for anything on offense. And I just wish that they had like another star type of bat to lean on. Someone earlier made the comment that they, and I don't need you to throw it on screen or go back to it. But the sentiment was I hope that they get swept. so that we can just stop being given this false hope, right? And I hated that comment.

No, that's loser talk. Right. But I understand why that person feels that way, just from the perspective of the pain is part of sports, though, right? Oh, especially with this team. It makes the wins feel that much better. It's why going to the World Series feels so good because we're not used to that. Yeah.

That's what I was going to say. You know, and I know that it's probably fun. to win so I get it and this might sound like loser talk to but like when you're a dodgers fanning you guys just throw money at the wall and pay 120 million for the kyle tuckers of the world to make be a below average baseball player that can't be nearly as fun as having an organic homegrown built team that you know makes it all the way right now we got to find a way to finish the job when we get there i understand that part but it's just like there there is a part about the pain making the the the highs feel as good as they do.

Yeah. And we, listen, we're locked in. Like, I know that that person is probably going to watch every game and is also a sicko and definitely is like just saying that because they're like, I just don't want to feel the pain.

But yeah, the ups and downs of the season where like, again, it's so hard to feel like we're back when we're always also over when it's always over. When it's always over. But I mean, yeah, it's not.

It's not. easy to take. Nate Cleveland says if we score 12 tomorrow, though, emergency pod. AZ cards nerd who is not a fan of Tori. I'll be working, Derek. Yeah, I know you will be. AZ Wildcats podcast.

You have a VAT fans. Come on. Come on. I didn't get it out during the week. But we are undefeated on Fox this year, as Sean brings up, and we are on the national game on Fox tomorrow. Let's hope that takes over. AZ Card's nerd says Tori is worse than Gannon.

there couldn't be anything that was less true than that. There couldn't literally be two coaches in Arizona sports history that are more different than those two individuals. So I know you don't like Tori, but... I like Gannon too. I mean, I did actually kind of like Gannon. He was nice to us, but anyway, let's take a look at the numbers real fast, Damon,

because I just want to, like, flash them and then get him off my screen. I don't, I didn't do them. You didn't do them? No. Why? Because I forgot. No, no, not why I forgot. No, why even do them?

They're- Why would we even do them? Yeah. Why? I forgot, but also, like, I'm, this is one of those moments where I'm, like, kind of glad that, like, I didn't do them. Did you know both teams had two extra base hits? Like, looking back on it, I wish after the game ended, I looked at you and I said, no, I don't think I'm going to do the buy the numbers, actually. Most of the time when the Diamondbacks have a dreadful performance, their expected batting average is actually, like, hilariously.

Yeah, hilariously high. Not today, Damon, 137 expected batting average. It's $2.35 for the Astros. 26.7% hard hit to 24% for the Astros. Checks out. O for four with runners in scoring position. One for two for two for the Astros. Two extra base hits for both teams.

D-backs for one for two on challenges. Astros O for two. I mean, I didn't want to look at the graphic anyway. So that's fine. AZ Catcher G. Yeah, he's giving you a bear down. He's ready to move on past this and go right on to to U of A football.

And I can understand that. I also want to watch football at this point after this baseball team left me disgusted. We got, of course, A.Z Catch G says, Derek on the billboard makes him look like one of those lawyers. He will fight for you. You're goddamn right. Like I said earlier. I heard the husband and wife law team is asking for maybe hiring another lawyer, another partner, I heard. Well, what was weird was they came in this office.

Briar, Briar and Montia. They immediately assumed that I passed the bar at one point because of the mustache. and I guess my age. It's something about having the gray hair on the side. Yeah, the salt pepper. Yeah, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, I look, I, I look entirely too much like the dad from Invincible, right? So, um, because of that, they were like, he's a lawyer.

He's got to be a lawyer. Uh, Katie Mavis. Thank you so much for being a, uh, supporters club member now for six months. She says, I wish Kelly pitched to Walker in the ribs. Like he said he wished he could have laughed. The last time the Astros were at Chase. Oh, they've had some fun times, haven't they? They also showed tonight on the broadcast when Perdomo hit the home run off of Kelly last year when he was on the Rangers.

That was good times. That was good times. Much better times than right now, because right now are not good times. But we're going to take a quick break. And on the other side of this break, we do have some positive news to talk about in regards to Corbyn's return and some roster moves that were made today. Don't you go anywhere, where you're watching the PHNX Timingback Show. Well, of course, you know I love Arizona Lottery. You know I love all of their draw games.

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my friend Michael Velasco, aka Rock Knowledge. He has been a DJ here in the Valley locally for years and was great to have him here in studio for the first time. So again, shout out to Rock for being here. And he is my co-host every week on DeBacks After Dark. So if you haven't had a chance to check out that show or any of our audio podcast, you can subscribe to this show wherever you get your podcasts at.

Full episodes are on all podcast platforms. and you can get exclusive audio-only content weekly. We'd love it if you leave us a five-star review and say some kind things about the show. If you like it, make sure to check out, of course, the link in our show notes. We got a big return next week, and it was something we were hoping for,

that we were planning for, and we knew was coming. Now we have a more specified date, according to John Gambadoro. And this was, I don't know if this was like a, it didn't seem like an insider knowledge thing, but he did say he expects Corbyn Burns to pitch in game two of the series against the Kansas City Royals next week. That would be on Tuesday. And, I mean, again, cannot say enough about how exciting it is to get somebody of Corbin Burns caliber back.

Yes, we needed starting pitching, and we still need starting pitching. Let's be honest, I don't know who's pitching in game one of that series. and there's a very good chance that the person pitching in game one of that series could be yet another bullpen game that is, you know, kind of anchored by Jose Cabrera, but does feature perhaps an opener and another appearance by everybody in the pen. I don't know. I'm hoping that's not the case,

but also the Diamondbacks need to do at this point, whatever can help them win. That worked against the Phillies, so I could see them maybe turning to it one more time. After that, I would assume that Zach Gallen is going to return. to that spot in the starting rotation when it comes back up the following time, I believe that would be following the Texas Rangers series. So, you know, hey, at the very least, they're going to have a full starting rotation again, even if that starting rotation

features Gallin as a part of it now. The biggest thing about this is let's all hope, let's all collectively together hope that Gallen can come back and be effective, you know, just like Merrill Kelly was tonight for this team, Gallall. Gallon doesn't need to be perfect, but if he can go out there and get back on track where he's able to go five or six innings and give up three, four runs max, you feel like he can at least give you an opportunity to win without having to turn to bullpen games,

you know, four more times between now and the end of the season. But we also did have some other news in regards to roster moves. Tommy Troy was reinstated from the 10-day IEL, and the corresponding move was that Jorge Barrosa has been designated for assignment. And I know that there's a lot of people that have been clamoring for that, but I will say that I still kind of found it surprising, even though it's also surprising that Barrosa has made it all the way to September 4th as a part of this team. Shocking, Derek. I would have literally guessed Jorge Barrosa was number one guy who was going to get DFA went off the opening date roster.

Yeah. And he made it all the way to September. Right. And you know what? He had his moments this season. So, you know, I think it's a guy like that like, you know, You know, I don't want to like celebrate them, like, losing their opportunity to, you know, at their most playing time they've gotten at the major league level. Like Jorge Brosa was all right at times this season.

He is not a major league caliber hitter. I think that we all know that. And his time was up. But best of luck to him in the future if anyone claims him. I want to address a couple of things with Corbyn Burns in the chat. First of all, Corbyn's topping out at 93 scares, cool, bro. should not because that's he's fine he's fine he's pitching in a bridge camp game cool bro he's not pitching against major league hitters he's not trying to go out there and rare back and throw it as

hard as he can right now plus it's still not very far off from his max velocity as it's what's he said like 95 yeah 95 96 it's not crazy uh Ernesto says so two bull game bullpen games in a row no that is actually the reason why they decided not to have him come back prior to that. They were going to have them actually pitch, I believe, tonight in game one of this series. But the problem was, is that was going to be literally two bullpen games in a row dating back to Wednesday's game, right?

They would have had a day off, and then he would have given them probably three innings max today. But since he skipped today, and he did pitch in that bridge camp game, Corbyn Burns should be able to give this team somewhere in the neighborhood of four innings 65 pitches. I mean, and if he's efficient, then maybe just maybe he's able to stretch it to five innings, but that's still not the worst and it's still not what I would consider a bullpen game,

though they do have to be careful of usage. And that's another reason why Merrill Kelly going six innings tonight and only needing to use two relievers in tonight's game did feel like it definitely helps with that going forward. But again, you know is building something special, though, man. I mean, you look at that lineup, Pavin Smith, Jorge Barrosa, Adrian Del Castillo, right? They just had Tommy Troy on the team. I mean, it's a who's who of guys that used to be on the Diamondbacks. I think that that could be a pretty special AAA roster. I want to throw something.

I don't know why you. Why? I don't know. I'm not in the mood for your jokes, Damon. I'm not in the mood for anything tonight, all right? I'm not in the mood for this show. I'm not in the mood for this offense. I don't want this stupid stuff on my desk anymore.

Let's just wrap it up. I'm done. But we'll be back on Monday. So make sure to join us back here for that. We'll recap this series. And we'll decide if it's over or if we are in fact back. We're not, but we're not going to resist the masculine urge to say we're back.

We're just fully doing that. But anyway. The season's over, Derek. I know. it is. I know it is, at least for tonight. Candace says, can you guys tell Tori at Sunday dinner to have another meeting with the team so we can get the guys spark back? That's it. Tori needs to invite the guys to Sunday dinner instead of us. No, well, we can be there too, but also invite the guys. Maybe that's it. Maybe they're jealous of us. I don't know. Anyway, thank you guys so much. Appreciate you

guys. We'll be back to our Monday. Join us then. Until then, follow us on social. I'm at Cap underscore Caveman with a K. There's the bottom, they're staying stay live for the bottom of the 10th at Petco. I don't want to do that at all. I don't want, I don't want

to do it. I just thought I wasn't in the mood for any of this. Feels like this night could not get any worse. You want to watch a walk off at Petco and extra innings? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. I'm at Cap underscore caveman. Damon is at Damon dog with the DA This dog still doesn't work, which is the worst omen of this entire season.

Forget the one run in four games. This is when we knew it was over. Our shows at PHNX underscore DBAX, but all roads, as always, lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys so much. We love you. We'll see you back here on Monday. Until then, try to have a good weekend. Let's hope the DBAX turn things around.

And remember, kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun. when you score more than one run in four straight baseball games.