PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - POSTGAME: D-backs Offense WASTES Eduardo Rodriguez Gem In Loss To Braves

Episode Date: April 4, 2026

Eduardo Rodriguez delivered another dominant, scoreless outing, but it didn’t matter because the Arizona Diamondbacks offense completely disappeared in a frustrating loss to the Atlanta Braves. We break down E-Rod’s continued excellence, what’s going wrong with the D-backs bats, and how late home runs off Paul Sewald sealed another tough defeat. We also discuss the unfortunate news of Jordan Lawlar’s broken wrist and what it means moving forward, plus a positive update on Merrill Kelly’s rehab start with the Reno Aces. Is there at least one reason for optimism despite another loss? 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.

Eduardo Rodriguez shoves tossing another gem for the Diamondbacks, another scoreless outing for Erod, but the offense once again does not back him up, and the Diamondbacks lose after Paul Seawalt gives up two solo home runs in the ninth inning. We were talking about all of this, plus an update on Merrill Kelly right now. Well, maybe we thought we were going to get a win there for a second, but things change quickly. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNXDBACs podcast,

live from Studio K, presented by Circle K. Of course, this is the PHNX D-Backs podcast. That was too much energy after a loss like this. Am I right? It's Friday night. We maybe should be celebrating. I probably should keep that energy for a win, not a game that the Diamondbacks lose by a score of two to nothing.

Welcome into the PHNX D-Backs podcast. As you know, my name is your mayor of PHNX, occasionally known as Derek Montia. We got your Damon dog on the ones and twos. She's not very happy, occasionally known as Damon Farrell, by the way. Welcome in to you guys. Glad you guys are here. Of course, this is the PHNXDBax podcast presented by Bet365.

Bet365, where winning is everything. Download the app today and use code PHNX 365 when you sign up. We're also brought to you by our friends at GameTime. You can download that GameTime app, an aesthetically pleasing app, create an account and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase over there. Game Time terms do apply. Diamondbacks got absolutely wrecked in game one of this series. Thankfully, we didn't do a post game show.

after that 17 to 2 loss. And the lack of offense continues tonight as the Diamondbacks lose by a score of 2 to nothing. And I mean, let's give it up for Eduardo Rodriguez, a guy who, let's be honest, Diamondbacks fans have had a tumultuous relationship with, mostly because Erod did cost this franchise quite a bit of money. And in his time here, not only has he not been very good,

but the fact of the matter is is that Erod has been injured pretty much the entire time that he's been in Arizona Diamondback. He has said a few times that he has felt healthier than ever and that is the reason why we have seen him pitch so well and it goes back to the championship game there in the World Baseball Classic facing a very tough Team USA lineup

when Team Venezuela beat them for that championship. But tonight, Eduardo Rodriguez, recorded his first ever career back-to-back starts with zero earned runs allowed to start a season. The last time he recorded back-to-back starts with no earn runs came from May 4th through May 10th, 2023. The season right before the Diamondbacks brought him over. So the Diamondbacks are getting right now the E-Rod that essentially they have been hoping that they signed back in 2024.

Tonight is the first time he tossed seven innings with zero earned runs in September 24th, uh, 2023 with the tigers when he was with the tigers. So erod very, very good tonight. Incredibly good. Um, and just overall,

uh, a wasted gem. Truly a wasted gem from Eduardo Rodriguez. And you could say that about all, both of his starts here as, uh, the 2026 season started for erod. Tonight,

the most spectacular thing about his outing was, uh, the 41% change up usage. He went to his, change up 41 times tonight, including, you know, Tori, as Tori talked about, throwing six changeups in a row to Ronald Acuna. That's just insane. He pitched a contact.

He got a lot of groundouts. He, you know, he was very effective. He had some great defense behind him as well tonight. And that is the reason why he was able to go out there and hold this Braves team to zero earned runs in seven innings. He did throw his four seam as a secondary pitch. He threw that 37% of the outing. It did only max out at 93.4 miles per hour, where I believe in his first outing, it was touching 97 miles per hour. Not a huge concern there, but again, just a dip in velocity. Also a dip in velocity for Paul Seawald, who we'll talk about here shortly. But again, Erod was kind of

throwing everything. He threw 12% cutter. He threw 9% curbed ball, 8% sinker. He mixed up those other pitches nicely, but at the end of the day, he just kept going back to his change-up. That was really, really good tonight. He got 11 whiffs and three strikeouts. And that's, again, just goes to show that Erod was not attempting to overpower batters, much like Zach Gowan in his scoreless outing when the Diamondbacks were able to beat the Tigers, one to nothing, right? A lot of this was about just being effective and more importantly, giving the Diamondbacks

length. And that's the most important thing about tonight is he was able to go out there and give the diamond back six innings pitched. And, you know, that that is very encouraging considering how short some of the outings, even the good outings, for instance, like Michael Soroka's 10 strikeout outing, was still just a five, five inning outing. So this is, you know, one of those nights where it's unfortunate that the offense wasn't able to do more because Eduardo Rodriguez, quite frankly, deserved the win. He deserved the win. And I think we have Tori here after the game. Tori discussed Errod's performance out there tonight.

Mixing pitches and hitting edges. That's really what comes down to getting in a great rhythm with Mac. And the change-up is what stands out to me. I think last year he was mostly fastball cutter, breaking ball. He threw six change-ups in a row to probably one of the better right-hand hitters on baseball in the Kuna and got him to fly out. How often do you see that? So there's confidence in the pitch.

and there was execution behind it. And so it's a full mixture of pitches on top of a 91 to 94 mile hour fastball that he can throw anywhere he wants. Is this the best we've seen it looks since he had here? Yes, by far, yeah. Man, he didn't hesitate.

He didn't hesitate to say that this is the best. This is the best he's looked. And again, Erad has said in the past that when he's on his game, he looks like a ballerina, Damon. He looked like a ballerina. in tonight. But again, he was also kind of

going up against the Braves team here that just put up a ton of runs. I think that's the most impressive thing is one day removed from them, putting up 17 runs and having several innings where it felt like the Diamondbacks couldn't stop the bleeding. As far as the Braves' offense was concerned,

they held this team, you know, to, I believe, just four hits total here tonight for Errod in his seven innings pitched. Zero earn runs. He'd walked one. struck out three. Again, he is not allowed a run in his 12 innings pitched so far. And Damon, his whip this season is 0.92.

Erod's just been outstanding. And again, I mean, if you told me Erod was this good to start this season, I would have definitely thought that D-backs had a winning record. That's for sure. That's a great point. If you told me that Erod went scoreless against the Dodgers and the Braves in his two first outings of the year, and the Diamondbacks were three and five.

They lost both games, no? I would definitely say what the hell happened, you know. They definitely lost both games. We were fairly confident that the offense this year was going to be good, well-rounded. You know, maybe not the power that they had last year when Gino was smashing home runs and Josh Naylor was adding in on that. You had guys at the corners that had far more power than the current guys at the corner, are aging veterans over there.

but I'll say like Nolan Aronado, his stats over the last two years are fairly troubling when it comes to his hard hit rate and the amount of balls are just a lot of things involving his swing metrics. His baseball savant page has a lot of blue on it, right? But what was disheartening, Damon, is tonight I watched Nolan Aronado smash a ball, went right to a defender's glove. Like he finally really barreled one up and had it with. with a high exit Velo, hard hit ball, and instead it just found a glove, right? He also was, he looked pretty good in batting practice and he wrote one all the way to the wall,

but it fell short for a flyout. And again, it just feels like nothing is going going Nolan Aronado's way and nothing is going the way of a lot of the Diamondbacks batters. When you look up and down this offense, things are atrocious and we're gonna talk about that in its own. But we do have to talk about what happened here with the bullpen.

Before we do that, I'm disgusted with that. I don't even want to do that. But before we do that, Damon, I think we have some video from the man who we want to hear from, one Eduardo Rodriguez in the clubhouse after the game. Yeah, we have Erod here talking about the usage of his changeup tonight. Let's hear it.

Let's hear it because his change up tonight was phenomenal. I mean, like I said, we had a really good plan on it, you know, and it feels good on it. I feel good with the change of today. And I'm okay, what's calling? I just kicked on it, you know, like, sometimes you have to go up there and see what you have working and just keep throwing it, you know, and in the workout.

I mean, he almost hit it out the last one, but we're going to get it out and know how good the hit the hitter he is. And we throw like, I think what's six straight or five or five or something with this and end the workout. So if I had to go on doing it again, I will do it, you know. I'll tell you, man, he has seemingly had some confidence build here based on his WBC, you know, performance and everything. I'm sure that taking on a lineup like that Team USA and handling it the way he did has to make you believe in yourself a bit. And I think Nick Piccolo said it, right? Erod's a vet. It's not necessarily about building up his confidence or whatever,

but it tends to be more about, you know, how, you know, his pitch mix and what pitches he can rely on and what he's confident in outside of the four-seem fastball, which is what got him here. His breaking stuff, his secondary stuff is why he was an effective major league pitcher, you know, why that stuff is good and how effective that stuff could be, right? It's the reason why he had the confidence tonight to throw six change-ups against Ronald Acuna. But this is what Erod had to say about just that WBC carryover impacting his season. I mean, like I said, like I always tried the pitch of guilty and all the year.

I mean, like, the last two years, I've been kind of, like, go down in the injury release and all that. And I was just using my pitches. And right now, the only thing that I feel like I change from getting the experience in the OEC was try to use more of all my pitches that just stay with the fasts. You know, I mean, you guys, you know, against Dominica, which is too many fastballs and I end up, give it to homers, you know. So it's about it for a mix and not when to throw, when to use it. And that's what we've been doing the last two games. I hope it to keep doing it. The other thing about Erod, as I mentioned earlier, was the fact that even though, you know, it's not necessarily something we all think about.

Erod has essentially been injured his entire tenure as a Diamondback. And this is kind of his first stretch where he has had a chance to not only get over injury and not have another one occur, but basically he's gotten himself to 100%. And, you know, again, had to ask the question if this is the best he's ever felt in a Diamondback's uniform. This is what he had to say. I mean, yeah, I mean, last year, the first year I don't pitch almost at all, the whole year, last year going down for a week or two, so only dead. And this year I had an opportunity to go from the beginning. And for sure, I feel this is the most healthy I feel on the size I got here. So, Erod, of course, especially on a night like this, where the Diamondback's offense almost got no hit and did not muster up any runs.

Nobody in the offensive side deserves anything. Erod is our king snake for tonight's game. Erod again, seven innings pitch, zero earn runs, four hits, three K, and he looked incredible doing it. He was effective and efficient. I think that's the biggest thing. Those three strikeouts, that's not sexy, but seven innings, zero earned runs, that's very sexy. That is hot. And of course, it means that, you know, sometimes, again, the Michael Soroka outing is a perfect, like,

antithesis to that, 10 strikeouts and only five innings pitched, right? sometimes if you have a lot of strikeouts, you're not able to go that deep in the game. Gallin and Rodriguez, both in their last two outings, have been able to give the Diamondbacks strength, or length, excuse me, and strength, you can say strength, too, and also scoreless outings. So, again, Erod deserves his flowers. And I want to say something, too. When Eduardo Rodriguez walked off of the mound, Damon, after 90 pitches thrown, and seven scoreless innings pitched, there wasn't a single,

diamond back fan that I could see. And I'm not, I don't mean to, if you were there and you did this, you have to understand this is a very high level view for me from the press box. I'm just looking at a crowd of people that kind of are all one. And what I didn't see was a crowd of people that stood up and applauded this man as he left the field. And I think that's kind of ridiculous. There are so many instances where we give the flowers to the athletes for doing, you know, the smaller things, right?

going out there and holding this hot Braves team to a scoreless outing over seven innings deserved a standing ovation. It deserved, you know, maybe even something from Chuck over the announcement, right? Like, I think that Diamondbacks fans need to be better when it comes to this. There were more applause and there was more excitement about a kid running on the field without his shirt on and getting tackled and do, for all intents of purposes, is also just making some security guards look foolish. But, you know, there was more excitement about a shrieker, essentially, on the field

than there was about Erod leaving after this kind of outing. And this is the type of thing that we all need to be better baseball fans about. That's it. I mean, for real. And Killer X, you're this close to getting kicked. I'm just going to warn you right now. So I'm not in the mood for your BS when it comes to this. you and I should be on the same page about this.

Should we not? Should we not? I know E. Rod has been bad in his time with the Diamondbacks. I know he's mostly at a five ERA and a FIPP to back that up. But again, when a guy like this puts in a performance like he has, especially two in a row like he has, he deserves his flowers from the crowd. And I think this was a moment where, you know, we just, we showed that we needed to be a little bit better as baseball fans. but yeah i mean 100% i think debacks fans we're not we're still in the stages of building the fan base derrick

we're not we are not one of the premier fan bases in baseball i say with my vest turn ahead the clock jersey on that my good friend derrick bought me uh but we got matching ones yeah we do have matching ones david thought i was going to have it on under this shirt i really wish i did right now just to rip this bad boy off i told sean and ernesto in the U of A chat that I thought that gunned in my head, you'd wear this tonight. So I'd be shot in the head if I did in fact bet that. But I do, you know, obviously this, this organization is still fairly young.

We talk about it a lot. Like I am of the age of the kids that have grown up being D-BACs fans their whole life. And I'm mid-20s. And it's like, that's, that's a pretty, that's a, you don't, you're not working with the biggest pool of fan base there. we will continue to get better and more fan support and become better baseball fans as this organization gets older. But yeah, it's still in the growing stages for sure.

Yeah, no, I mean, I just think it's stupid. I think that an amazing performance like this deserves it. Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's what this platform is for, right? So we can get here and, you know, kind of fan police people. Now, if you're Derek. If you want other advice, you can boo the hell out of Paul Seawald when he comes into the game.

and immediately after both teams could not score a run for eight goddamn innings and just literally give up back-to-back solo home runs. It was incredible. I mean, if you find losing a game to be the kind of thing you think is incredible. But in between there, Juan Modillo continues to be good. He was scoreless and hitless in his inning of work, and he got one strikeout. But like I said, Paul Seawald came into the game. and unfortunately coughed up the two solo home runs back to back

and the Diamondbacks end up losing this game two to nothing. Ryan Thompson did come in and then Jonathan Loisigga was up warming in the bullpen during the bottom of the ninth inning, which also just seemed like that you want to talk about coping. That seemed like coping for me for sure. But really did keep my fingers crossed there that the Diamondbacks were able to score some runs there late and overcome Paul Seawald giving up the lead. But alas, that is not what happened.

And the Diamondback's offense that did nothing tonight, pretty much lost the game. I'm not even confident if Seawald gets through this and this team goes to extra innings that they were going to be able to get it done with the way things were going offensive. God, Derek, they had two hits. It was just going to delay the inevitable. I mean, I had obviously I tweeted about Seawald and, you know, some people and I don't disagree with them were responding to me with like the. offense lost us the game.

And I'm like 100%. That doesn't mean that I can't tweet about Paul Seawald serving up meatballs for back-to-back home runs takes the dude five pitches to lose a shutout ball game. Yeah. I mean, that's comedic. You have to talk about that. Ernesto says two pitches in to blow it. It's kind of funny, all things considered like a Charlie Brown statement.

It was. It was. It was. And so, you know, on the one hand, yes, we're going to make fun of Paul Seawald or talk about the performance that was. but on the other hand, it's literally impossible to win a baseball game scoring zero runs. Yeah. Literally.

Literally. So it's like this team showed nothing that was that they deserve to win tonight. Unfortunately, the Braves have Robert Suarez and Jose Aglacius, right, that they turn to two guys that they pull out of the bullpen. But we, unfortunately, have Paul Seawalt. And that's the name of the game. Here's the thing is, is that Paul C. historically has not been very good against the Braves, and Paul Seawald historically has very much not been good

when you put him in the ball games that aren't safe situations. Ricelle Oglacius, by the way, before piece of Yoshi attacks me. I can't. There it is. I knew it was going to be piece of Yoshi. Derek, I want you to attest that I got that in before, you did. You did.

Sorry, P. That was in before the wire. Before PCOshi, the chat pulled up on our end. I think on his end, he got it in. first but i just wanted the record to show that i got a buzzer beater in there before you got that you got that i want for sure for sure but um yeah i mean i i don't know i don't know it doesn't make much sense uh and i do think the diamond backs i mean i you know you know how much i hate to agree with killer x it's one of my least favorite things to do in life damon but killer x says

here that uh paul sewald might have given up the home runs i think it's what he said but it's story's fault for putting him in. I mean, I will just say that based on, you know, the bullpen and the way things have gone, I do think that there were better options, and I still don't understand turning to your closer for a non-safe situation, especially considering that you just had to not use him a few games ago because you had him come out two in a row, and I don't know if this was time just to get him in to get work or what now here, two games later, but I'm with Seawald Mantiplier there. You got to end it with lasagna. You got to bring in Johnny. You got to bring in Johnny Lazzania there. I don't know. Also, they just called up Taylor Rashi for length.

If your hope is that this game is going to go into extra innings, wouldn't you want to bring in your long reliever there to, I don't know. What do I know? What do I know? I'm just a chubby podcaster. That's all I am. Chubby content creators, David made me correct on myself the other day. We got more just for just for Killer X. We got Tori here talking about the loss. Here's what he had to say. Mind Erod. E. Rod was fantastic. Seven scoreless,

just mixing pitches and getting in a really good rhythm with Mac. It was fun to watch, you know, and you're talking about a pitcher's duel, two guys getting after it and keeping their teams in the ballgame by executing. Erod did everything he could to help us win

the game today. You know, fortunately got clipped in the ninth inning for a couple of solo home runs as part of the game. But, you know, the main focus I have right now is how we can get this team going offensively. There's, there's, you know, some guys that have been very proven. There are some guys that are, we're waiting to get going. We feel like it's a matter of time before that happens.

But, you know, we got to stand on the foundation and we've got to believe in the things that we know we can do well enough to go out and execute get runners on base and score some runs. That's the bottom line. We got two hit tonight. And there's going to be days like this. I know it. We scored one run the other day and won a baseball game.

I just believe in this team offensively. We're going to figure it out. And these guys are working their butts off. And unfortunately, we just didn't get anything going today. So just like I said, yesterday we're going to wash this one off, come out tomorrow, try and try to figure out a way to get this thing moving the right direction. We also have Tori talking about Paul Seawald's night and how it didn't exactly go the way they wanted it to. Here's what he had to say about Paul Seawalt giving up those two home runs.

He dipped a little bit. I know it was what, 90s. 91, 90 and a half, yeah. So he can pitch there. I know that. I think there were some mistakes in some odd zones. You know, you've got to be careful with certain guys. Well, you've got to be careful with every hitters because they all have hot areas.

But not concerned for me. I think he can pitch there. But I know he needs rest. I know he needs to get out there and pitch and help us win games. But we can't overdo it. We can't over flood these guys. We've got to give guys rest. When we feel like there's a need for him to have a day off,

which he had a day before yesterday, I think. And we're going to do it. But I'm not concerned about it. I'm concerned, Damon. I got my concerns. I'm concerned that Paul Seawald was missing with his sweeper out of the zone. And then his fastball was landing belt high, maybe even lower. I don't know.

It was belt high dead center of the zone because if so, maybe it might even be like a little more perfect than belt high. And he's throwing it 90.5 miles per hour. It was a four seam fastball both times, 90 miles per hour, right in the middle of the zone. Like, there was no command, there was no control. These were meatballs right down the middle of the plate. And unfortunately, you know, especially against a team that's just hungry there to get something to hit like that, right? Like just a 90 mile per hour fastball dead center

Uh gonna be waiting for that they've been waiting for that all game and that's what they got there from Paul CWald late so Derek it's game eight And we got our manager up there talking about how our closer can pitch at 90 to 91 miles per hour It's never been more over like I said the Braves have two guys who we would kill kill kill to have in Arizona. One of them, they signed this off season when we were interested in Robert Svarez as a setup, man. As a setup, man. Don't do that. That's a team with aspirations.

Don't talk. Don't look at me in the face and say that to me. Johnny Lazzania and that's all we need in this bullpen. Hey, hey, hey. No, and he's anything good. Johnny Lazzania. I'm not blaming him. I'm blaming Mike Haysen for thinking.

That's a bunch of gabagool. For you know that that's for thinking that that's a worthwhile investment in the bullpen. 90 to 91 miles per hour. closers throwing in game eight. I mean, it's, it's horrible. It's, I had somebody, it was, uh, my guy, Wildcat or his beer down is his name on, on, on, on Twitter. And he's a big D-backs fan.

And he, he, he tweeted at me and he's like, looks good when people aren't making contact. But when people make contact with Paul Seawald, it goes to the moon. Things don't look good. Because he throws it right in the middle of the plate or a little bit up. Yeah. He, he allows for fly balls to be hit. He throws a rising fast. people are usually going to get under it.

And he throws batting practice speed. So it's just when they connect, it goes a long way. And it's, I wanted to buy in on the first two games and it looked pretty decent with the eye test, but I'm fully off. Paul CWalt can't be your closer. Not if you want to win baseball games. The dude's not good. Tori, please, please, please stop this before it's too late, man.

Because this is, it's going to cost us more games. I guarantee it. Well, again, also, maybe just bring it. your closer in closing situation, saving situations, save opportunities because Paul Seawald, not very good outside of those, but still for some reason inexplicably is good at closing games. And Diamondbacks at this point need two months of that out of him. Is he going to be that for this whole two month span? I don't know. I'm not going to necessarily let one game here determined that, you know, it's a wash

considering that his other two outings were pretty good and he got the job done, right? However, I'm not done yelling at the offense because this is another game where, what, what? Out of their, they have six, seven, eight games played, out of their eight games played, there have been now four games where they have scored two runs or less.

Is my math right on that? I think it might be. So, or no, three games because they lost yesterday's game. So, not four games. games that they've scored two runs or less. You can't win baseball games, scoring two runs or less. Offense, we're going to talk about that. On the other side of this break, don't you go anywhere, you're watching the PH&X Diamondback

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You're right. It is. It's always game time. Damn. L. Damon. L Damon. L Damon. Leman.

L. Well, welcome on back to the PHNXD Back Show presented by that 365. Big story of the night is really the lack of offense. As great as it is that Eduardo Rodriguez had the amazing outing, it is nothing without offense. As Damon said, you cannot win baseball games when you go, when you don't put up any runs. That's kind of how sports work.

Tonight, we had Catele-Marté finally breaking up the no-hitter being thrown in this game by Braves starter Grant Holmes, whose hair looked amazing, and he was equally amazing on the mound tonight for Atlanta. He just kept Diamondbacks batters off, off, just uncomfortable all night. A very similar outing to Eduardo Rodriguez, where he wasn't necessarily overpowering batters. He had four strikeouts when all of a sudden done and 3K, but he went six innings with only allowing one hit,

and that one hit was to Cotel Marte there, in the sixth inning. So not a lot of offense from this team. The only other hit was an Alec Thomas hit later. I believe it was in the eighth inning. And both of those hits were harmless, harmless. Nothing, nothing even got going for the Diamondbacks tonight. Corby and Carroll did walk twice. He was on base twice. And he was trying to do his best to cause some chaos and, you know, cause grant home some uh at least a look seemed to affect him a little bit also the crowd lost uh count of the disengagement there and wanted a bach when there was only two uh another case of be better debacks fans but offensively this team is in a hole right now there are a lot of pieces that

aren't working out the diamondbacks currently have several players several players hitting below 200 and in fact, Corbyn Carroll's 269 batting average is the highest on the team right now. Cotell Marte is hitting 167 with a 532 OPS. Gabriel Moreno is hitting 192 with a 519 OPS. Nolan Aranato 167 with a 334 OPS. Alec Thomas 154 with a 454 OPS. James McCann's hitting 11 with a 422 OPS and Carlos Santana is hitting 0433,000. with a 207 OPS.

I'm ready for some change. And I know the one big question that a lot of fans have is, where is Jose Fernandez? Where is the one guy that seemed to spark this offense just a few games ago that somehow has completely disappeared? I know he got into the 17 to 2 route late in the game, but that was after that game had already had the white flag waved, and I don't really have an answer for you.

It doesn't seem that Jose Fernandez is injured. He was taking batting practice before the game. And I think really at the end of the day is that the Diamondbacks don't want to lean on him heavily just due to the sudden call up and make him perhaps crack under the pressure. I don't really know. I know Diamondbacks fans have already fallen in love with him. And I think even if he was struggling, it would be better to see him in the lineup than not in the lineup. So unfortunately, I don't have a real explanation here for you as to why the Diamondbacks are not putting Jose Fernandez in the lineup.

I have some stats here, Derek, on the season so far from Nolan Aeronado and Carlos Santana. They're cumulative stats. Are you prepared for this? Yes. I'm also prepared for the lights in the studio to come on right now. They will happen at any moment. Right. Five for 47, a 106 average, one extra base hit.

15 strikeouts, two walks. Is that the two games against Atlanta? That is the season for both of those players. Oh, my God. For who? Santana and Aeronado. Arnaud. The two veteran corner infielderers that you brought in that have gotten a lot of playing

time in the early portions of this season. Sorry for not outlaying that property. That's via PHX Logan on Twitter. I want to shout him out for pulling those stats. but awful five for 47 this is the veteran leadership that we brought in yeah i think it's unacceptable to have jose fernandez sitting on the bench when you when you put something like that out there on the table this guy at least fires up the fans he's proven that he can hit and his very very limited opportunities that he's been given it's a small sample size but it's better than the larger

sample size of sucking so i think we need to see a lot more jose fernandez moving forward let's let's talk about something else too Blaze? Let's talk about Blaze. Is that what PZ Yoshi's bringing up here in the chat? Derek, did you see the play tonight? Did you see the play he made? Did you see the play he made?

Did all of you out there see the play he made? I don't know. If Blaze is making plays like that, I don't know why Nolan Aaronon is on my roster. What did we do this for? What did we do this for? My concern is, is that now we're getting to a point where we're adding players to this team

because, no, I'm getting a hell of a deal here. You wouldn't believe the deal. We're going to pay it Nolan Aronado, $5 million this year and $6 million next year. Okay, but why? We don't need a third baseman. Well, because it's Nolan Arnato. A guy who hasn't had a hard hit ball in two seasons.

That's probably not true, but I will tell you, when you look at his baseball, Savant Page from 2025, it's not good. And obviously our hope here was, all right, well, maybe this is a good, you know, like reclamation project. Maybe this is a good, you know, person to add. But then the result is that the Diamondbacks do not feel like they need Blaze Alexander on this team anymore. Ultimately trading him for a reliever who's not even on the Major League roster.

And now what we're watching is Blaze had more hits than Nolan Arnato and make more explosive plays over there. Look, I love Arnato's glove. but did he not just make an error last night? You know, he's not perfect. And the problem is that... That play might have cost you the game. I mean, I know that it's like it unfolded like crazy. When that happened, that was massive.

I mean, we could talk about like that entire game. Sure, I did, of course, a debacks recap. If you haven't subscribed on our audio feed, make sure to do that. We got a lot of audio podcast. We're churning out here, including Dbacks After Dark and Dbacks recap on days that Damon and I cannot do a post game show. But yes, I mean, that game is the 17 is two scores laughable and ridiculous, right? But it got that way because James McCann came out and decided to go with his slider instead

of his four seam in the ninth inning and give up five runs. And if he would have stuck to his four seam, James, you would have been striking dudes out. Well, it's also because of Ross pitch for less. And it's also because ginkle is stinkle now. The Kevin ginkle, yeah, like the transfer from Ryan Nelson leaving the game due to a reverse call, another reversed call. Air not like an error. Like it was like things unraveled on Ryan really fast.

But the bigger point is that Kevin Ginkle couldn't come into that game and get one goddamn out. Yeah. Kevin Ginkle is terrible now. And they're bringing him in early too. Do you notice that? Like Kevin Ginkle is not coming in in high leverage situations any longer. He's coming in like the sixth inning. They probably want him to prove that he can pitch at this level again because he, it's been a while since we've seen that.

Last year he was awful. You know, this year he's been terrible to start. So, and this is coming from, you know, the president of Ginkle FC. Seriously. I almost tweeted it, Derek. When you texted me, Ginkle sucks last night. I forgot if that was the exact language, but. I don't recall that.

But like you were pulling the curtain to start back on our text messages. I almost went straight to my Twitter and just said, as the president of Ginkle FC, I must admit that we're cooked chat. It's over. It's done. It was fun. 23, I'll never forget it. It's the best I've ever seen a reliever

looking at Diamondbacks uniform. What he did in 2023, mowing down superstar players left and right, was special, Derek. It's over. It's done. I don't know if he has it anymore. He probably's going to go to a new organization

and he'll be right back to being Kevin Ginkle, but it's not probably going to happen here in D-Bax land. So it's unfortunate. And yeah, we have dressed, we have pitch for less still in this bullpen. We don't. Oh,

he got awesome. option today. It was option today. It's a party in my city. Joe Ross was designated for assignment. Taylor Rashi was the move that the corresponding move. That's right. That's good. And then the debacks do have, I mean, they have young pitchers that honestly pitched really well that I think some of them weren't necessarily in the mix due to the

fact that the diamond backs seemed to go with a more veteran presence, right? They didn't really bring up too many youngsters. Andrew Hoffman is one of the few guys. Andrew Hoffwin, Juan Murillo, right? But you got Ginkled. And they've pitched good. Those are two of the best. Hoffman and Murillo are probably the two best relievers that you've had over the course of

these first eight games. But the debacks decide would go to with Lois-Zaga and they go with, you know, Joe Ross. They go with, yeah, Johnny Lausagna, he's on point. He's earned that nickname. But the big, big problem here is the offense not going. Like, let's be honest. Again, even yesterday, let's say that doesn't turn into that mess that it turned into.

The Diamondback still probably end up losing that game five to two, even if it doesn't end up being a route of 17 to 2. And tonight, another night where the offense is just, you know, just shockingly bad. And when I say that, I just mean, like, again, there are things that we like to see. There are things that I will say, and then people will disagree with me on,

but like lengthy at bats, taking pitches, doing everything you can to try to get a starter, especially a guy that's throwing the way that that the Brave Starter was throwing tonight. Grant Holmes, like, you can't just sit there and be swinging at the first pitch. You got to be taking pitches. You got to be battling. You got to be Jerry Perdomo, who has not even been very Jerry Perdomo himself. You know, so you just got to get down there, O2 in the count, start going to war with the pitcher.

And the Diamondbacks aren't doing that. They're not able to put together good at bats and they're not able to, you know, drive the pitch count up on on any starter it feels like everybody's able to go length the diamondbacks are lucky that they won the one oh game against the tigers to finish that series up and honestly they got to figure some things out if they don't want to find themselves losing this four game series or once again getting swept here at the end of the braves but here's tory once again talking about uh kutel corbin and the offense and how they need to figure out a way to get this offense going Corbyn and Ketel are really good hitters.

They're going to find their way on base. I know that Ketel's grinding a little bit. He had a couple really nice approaches today. So it's going to happen. We're going to get guys on base, but it's not just Ketel and Korb. It's the bottom of the lineup as well. So we believe in that group of three in their ability to get on base and turn it over to the top of the lineup, keep putting pressure on pitchers.

So Ketel can get fat as well. So it's just, it's not moving in a good direction right now. How do we get Pardomo going? How do we get Cattel going? I believe in them, let them work hard, and they're going to get their reps, and you're going to find, they're going to get their opportunities of the medscore position. Damon, you just said something to me that made me choke. What was that that you just said?

I said, if you're curious, Derek, Blaze Alexander is hitting 400 as of today. and making awesome plays at their face. Oh, brother. My goodness, that is not good. I mean, that was a trade that was all, like, I think when the moment it happened,

we were sitting up here and we were like, Cade Stroud better be good, man. Yeah. Because you're giving away a player that I think that we all collectively as a fan base, not only really liked personality-wise and like kind of had like a little cult following, I think within the Diamondbacks fan base, but also a guy that could play a lot of positions,

also a guy that had potential and that looked like he was really coming into his own as he got more time and experience in Major League Baseball, and he's a vibes guy. And then you got a AAA pitcher out of it. You got a AAA pitcher out of it. And that's what it is. And we got Cade Stroud.

Mike Hazen. Mike Hazen should be allowed to GM this team, except for when it has anything to do with a relief pitcher. Then he should digress and go to the rest of his squad and then they can make the decisions collectively as a unit. But if it involves a bullpen arm, I want almost not, I want Mike Hayes and almost nowhere near it.

Please. And thank you. Yeah. I don't know what else to say. I think you've nailed it. Nate want to know how Jake is doing. Jake McCarthy, at least Jake McCarthy is not doing well. Jake has three stone bases.

He does, but he's hitting 1-11 with two hits. He's gotten, yeah, he has more stolen bases than hits. He does. He has four stolen bases. I forgot about Locklear, too, Killer X. And I hate to agree with Killer X right now, but that's, it's diabolical. It's not good. We got four first baseman, Damon.

What are you talking about? What are you talking about we need a first base, but we got four of them. It's fine. Please let Jose Fernandez play first base, man. If Jose Fernandez is sitting on the bench and we're watching Locker, And Cochlear and Pavin and Carlos Santana all switch off starts. And we got Jose Fernandez just backing up Aeronado who can't hit. God, that's going to be devastating.

Gross. Well, let's take a quick break. On the other side of this break, we were going to talk about the numbers from this game and also more bad news. More bad news because, yes, you may have already seen it, but Jordan Lawler did in fact break his wrist in yesterday's loss. so things aren't getting any better. Awful, but also, did you see what Yoshi said about Jake's fielding?

He's at minus 3 BRS. How? How? We're eight games into this season. That's nuts. You know who was leading the league tied for the league lead in positive defensive run saved? Two. Jordan Lawler.

Really? With two. He has two defensive runs saved already. We're going to talk about him on the other side of this break. Don't you go anywhere. You're watching the pH next. Steve Beck Show. Well, of course, Bet365 always wants to help make

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at our numbers from tonight's game. Damon, let's take a look. Not great. Not a lot here, right? Neither team really did much. The Braves had six hits. Diamondbacks had two. Braves were one

for six with runners in scoring position. The Diamondbacks O for two. Two extra base hits by the Braves. We remember both of those. Those happened late. Expected batting average for both teams was pretty much a push. 206 expected batting average for the Diamond Diamondbacks, 217, expected batting average for the Braves.

And more importantly, the Diamondbacks, zero closers to the Braves, two dominant closers. I don't love that. I don't love that last part at all, Damon. A lot of two zero braves on this graphic. Two zero score, two zero extra base heads, two zero closures. Nothing. Gross. It's gross.

Tomorrow the Diamondbacks have Michael Soroka going on the mound against Bryce Elder. to the point that it feels like the pitching matchup is not the problem anymore, right? Like, I see this, and I already have confidence in Michael Soroka, even though you just pitched one outstanding game so far this season. But I do have a bigger concern about how this team is somehow going to get their offense started. And I know in the past, when they have struggled offensively, they've just snapped out of it. I can't explain it.

Can't, you know, don't. don't have a reason behind it, but I don't know, man. If they're taking batting practice, maybe cancel batting practice. If they're not taking batting practice, maybe get their asses out there and make them do double batting practice. I don't know. But things aren't good, and they definitely got worse today with the news that Jordan Lawler is being put on the aisle with a broken wrist. And that sucks because he got hit in the hand in last night's ridiculous blowout loss, a 17 to 2 loss to the Braves. and even with it being 17 to 2, the bigger loss is the loss of Jordan Lawler.

They took an x-rays initially last night. Those x-rays came back negative, but today they did a CT scan and did find that Jordan Lawler had a hairline fracture in his wrist. The good news is that it won't require surgery. And again, just to pep up Killer X's night, here once again is Tori Lovelo talking about Lawler getting injured. The other cruddy news was that Jordan Lawler broke his wrist. You know, it's one of those unfortunate things in baseball. It happens where it just takes off and just runs up and in on him and ends up clipping him in the right spot and he fractures a fractures a wrist. No surgery is needed.

He's going to be out for weeks. It's going to take a little time for that bone to heal, but I have full confidence that in time. I don't know what the timetable is. It's at least six weeks. I know that. And behind that, I have full confidence that he's going to come back and perform at the level that he was. level that he was prior to that injury. He's battled a lot of injuries. He knows how to handle this. He's going to probably compartmentalize it the right way. But I assured him that his spot will be

waiting for him because young players have an unusual thought every now and then that they could lose their position by getting injured. But I told him that if he gets back out here as soon as possible, we'll be waiting for him. He's going to come back in and help us win some baseball games. So in his place, we've called up Adrian Del Castillo, who was a little bit of a rehab himself. He's been d-haching, catching, just like left-handed bat. Very good bat. I think when he plays, I'm going to stick him in the middle lineup.

We need some part of that lineup in the middle to hold down the fort. Not the other guys haven't or they can't or they won't. It's just for right now. That's what I want to see. Somebody hit behind Gabby if Gabby were to hit forth. And I think Del fits that spot really well for us. Piece of Yoshi brings up ADC who's not gotten reps at first. what's wild is ADC is not the replacement at first base.

ADC is being brought on to DH. DH, yeah. So, yeah, I mean, it's pretty much just Carlos Santana. And if something happens to him, maybe then Jose Fernandez gets the play. I don't know. Jose Fernandez should be in there playing far more. So they do have him and that makes this a little easier. And they also do have Lordus Guerriel returning soon.

But Tori said that they are not planning on to deviate from the game plan for Lourdes. So they do not intend on expediting his return, nor does it sound like they plan on changing the, there it is, Damon, we knew that was coming. Nor does it sound like they are planning on changing what they plan to do as far as utilizing him at DH when he first returns to just kind to give him a bit of a softer landing to get his back in the lineup as soon as possible and to also give him time to ensure that he's 100%. I mean, the diamond bags, the one thing here with all of these injuries is that everybody seems to be ahead of schedule. However, the Diamondbacks are being especially cautious when it comes to all of their players,

right? So anybody that's injured, even though they feel great, even though everything is good. Like, Lordus legitimately is sitting there on the top step, just in baseball pants, ready to run out onto the field, right? And he's still not being allowed to join the team. yet there. But that is at least a good thing that they do have Lordus returning here soon. However, is it going to be soon enough? Is the question? In the meanwhile, they're going to have to have Jorge Barrosa and Tim Tawa filling in, and that certainly isn't going to help the offense any.

But I will say in the defense of Tim Tawa and Jorge Brosa, both of those guys are hitting better than other parts of the lineup, superstars in the lineup. So those guys deserve their credit, considering that they've been getting the job done at least better than some of the other players on this team right but yeah no doubt it's like the the offense is not bad because hori barosa and tim tawa play one out of every you know five games or four games that's not the reason that the offense is bad because kattel's hitting under 150 the offense is bad because corbin hasn't looked good the offense is bad they're not getting base runners not putting pressure on the opposing pitcher like even today you saw with holmes how how once Corbyn got on base, Damon, he was causing him fits. You know what I mean? Corbin was dancing around, jumping all over place, just being distracting, and the Diamondbacks didn't have nearly enough of that today. And again, it also gets to this desperation point where each guy seems like they're trying to win it for the team.

Instead of just being a base runner, finding a way to get on base, finding a way to gain as much information from that starting pitcher who's having a great day on the mound and relay it back to your teammates and try to get this awesome. offense, you know, woken up. Like the Braves were equally stifled today by Erod. However, they haven't had this problem offensively throughout their season. The Diamondbacks have. Yeah.

This isn't just a one game thing. This is a majority of their season. They have scored two runs or less and probably shouldn't even won some of the baseball games that they have won due to how little their offense scored. And instead, here we sit talking about, you know, yet another game where they were just listless offensively, right? Some of the bright spots have been Jordan Lawler, who hit his first home run,

sadly enough in yesterday's game before later being hit in the wrist and having his wrist broken. And Jose Fernandez, who also wasn't in the lineup today. So I don't know, but if the Diamondbacks truly want to figure out a way to get their offense going, I believe that the young players, the young guys, they're the route to doing that.

And, you know, you might have made a catastrophic mistake there. by trading Blaze Alexander, who would have been one of these young, exciting guys adding to this whole thing right now and to the vibes, right? The vibes are bad in the clubhouse. Blaze brings good vibes. And he still has a gigantic bag of Sour Patch Kids

to fuel him. So there's that. I'm not bringing everybody in the clubhouse Sour Patch Kids. Do you think you brought that with him to Baltimore? Oh, I guarantee. I bet he ate it on the plane. I bet it was in his backpack on the plane. on the plane on his carry-on to Baltimore.

Something to remember us by. I hope he just, like, I hope his biggest, I hope his biggest regret was that he didn't steal Jesse Jr. And take him to Baltimore with him. I hope his biggest, I hope that what he's thinking about right now is,

man, this whole Orioles experiment is going really well. Only problem is that they don't have nearly as cool of a podcast they covers their team. That's the last, that's the least. This town needs a mayor is what he's probably saying right now. I think, I think that,

you know, like you you just you expect these these hitters that are letting the diamondbacks down to pick it up the problem is can you expect edwarda rodriguez to have a zero er a day the entire season can you expect uh no michael syroka to throw 10 strikeouts every time and have an immaculate in like you're getting performances from your pitching staff that we dreamed of that we fucking dreamed of zach allen's out dueling terrick scoble in a game like you're getting performances that you that you Like you said, that you dreamed of things that if we were told before the season, Erod has a zero ERA through two starts, Michael Soroka's debut was unbelievable.

And Zach Allen out dueled Derek Scoobel. You'd go, okay, sounds like the Diamondbacks are freaking awesome. Sounds like you're five and one, six and one. But you're not because the guys that you expect to be the people that carry this team have been letting you down to an extent early on. It's just about playing complimentary baseball. It's what they talk about a lot. I think Tori mentions it a lot.

like you got to get the offense and the defense and the pitching right cooking at the exact same time and it i don't what i'm cautious about is yeah i think this offense is going to figure it out and we'll see some positive regression what does the pitching look like one that happens is it too late should you have gotten yourself a good like you said five and one six and one start to the season in the process and then all of a sudden you're feeling fine about hey we dropped a game tonight it is what it is but when you keep having games like this it stacks over a period of time. And yeah, we got to find out a way to have our pitchers pitch well like they have been. Because even the bullpen like outside of last night and Joe Ross's other performance,

hasn't been the biggest disaster in the world. You've gotten like, you know, Gingle gives up a run. Seawald gives up two runs. It's not like it's, it's like you can't win with it. It's not as devastating as it actually is. It feels worse than it is from the bullpen. Exactly. But a bullpen isn't going to be perfect. And a bullpen is going to allow a run here and there. what ultimately needs to happen is your offense needs to produce and fight back. You know, like, I get it. Tonight was another pitcher's duel. And when that's happening for both sides, it's easy to kind of like fall into that, that rut, you know, along with the other team.

Like, they're not scoring. We're not scoring. Like, neither team has a huge sense of urgency because these games still at zero zero. But, you know, again, what we weren't seeing was immense patience from this team. from their batters at the plate, we were seeing the opposite, right? And I mean, again, it's the reason why it's sad

that Jordan Lawler is now out injured because Jordan Lawler was putting together some good plate appearances. And like I said earlier, he has two defensive runs saved in the outfield already. So there's no true doubt. There's no doubt there.

And that's a great sign early on and with his outfield, you know, switch that he's made. This is his first major league action in left field and he looks that good to start. At the plate, he might have been the most consistent best offensive player that the Diamondbacks have had this season so far.

I mean, I'm not saying like he was crushing the baseball. Obviously, he gets the home run last night. But it felt like his at-bats were consistent. Like he was getting up there. He was working counts, fouling off pitches, and taking some walks. He looks, he looks poised. He looks like he is ready to be. The wrench thrown in the middle of one of the only few guys who actually was playing pretty

decent office. Exactly. Because as Jack Summers and I were talking about, tonight and Jack is a brilliant mind, right? Jack was like, you know, what sucks about it isn't the injury time because that's what they're kind of downplaying. Luckily, this was a best case scenario overall for a break in the wrist. No surgery was required and it's a hairline fracture so they expect them to be back in a few weeks. The problem is, is that when you're back, you're all like, it's baseball and it's stupid and you're almost back to square one. So not only

does he have to heal, but then he has to get back into baseball activity, and it's going to take him a while for him to get back to this point where he was having this success at the plate. So it's all bad, and it all sucks, and I'm sorry. I didn't do it. It's not my fault, but I'm sorry that this is happening. So again, he was in good spirits after tonight's game, but I am not, and neither is Damon. And understandably, most of the fan base, also not in good spirits as we try to keep our fingers crossed here throughout this entire offensive situation and hope the Diamondbacks can figure things out. But we're going to take a quick break.

On the other side of this break, we're going to talk about Merrill Kelly and give you at least one piece of positive news before we get out of there. We're going to do that here in a few minutes. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the PHNX Diamondback Show. Well, of course, shout out to the husband and wife law team because they are some incredible. fans of the Arizona Diamondbacks, but they are also the first people you should think of if you are ever in a serious accident or injury. And of course, after you are through an experience like that, the last thing you want to think about is, you know, if the attorney you hire is focused on your

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Some benefits require no cost registration activation. Terms, condition, and exclusions do apply. All right, David. Well, I do know we have some super chats that I wanted to read before we move on. Our guy, Coolbro, 297. Thank you so much. We appreciate all of your super chats. Absolutely.

I give Cool bro a hard time, but we love you, Cool, Cool, bro. thank you so much for watching this show says i know it's early but hazin needs to be held accountable for trading away blaze for pitching that is not playing no lefties in a 40 year old first basement that's fair that is fair it's been kind of a disaster so far it really has and i mean except for saroka well michael saroka is has been has been pretty good jonathan loisaga has not been bad true and i mean to be fair aranato's glove has been great for a five million dollar pickup but unfortunately, his bat has definitely been enough to make me, you know, have second thoughts about it. And I still, I still believe in a guy like him with the ability he has to turn things around.

I'm just worried that we're in that phase of a player's career where, like, the desperation is truly making him lost at the plate, which he has looked at times so far this year. However, I didn't feel that tonight. I did feel like he was putting together some, you know, some better at bats, but it's still hard to argue that that's working out more than a guy that you used to have on your team, you had under long-term control, and that you traded away for essentially a reliever that's now pitching in AAA. So that's probably the most egregious move that he made this offseason, and there's a good chance we could see these things piling up before too long. But also, just not that long ago,

we were sitting here having discussions about how many starting pitchers we had and how good things were going for us and how there was a good problem with the pitching. And there still is because Merrill Kelly is looking pretty good and looks like his return isn't too far away. We'll get to that here momentarily. Coolbro also said there, Damon. That if essentially what I've been saying all episode, that if this was a situation where you said Soroka and Erod have pitched great, then I think what he's trying to say is like he would have thought a timebacks would be in a really good spot.

Yeah. And I still think they are. I still think pitching is going to be, is going to be very important throughout the rest of the season. And I don't think just necessarily because the offense has been playing bad, that when they figure things out, that it's going to cause the teeter, totter to go the other way, and the pitching to suddenly be bad.

Hopefully they can figure out the way to have both of those things work at the same time. What else we got there for Super Bowl? Will Tyler Locklear get any run, Derek? I don't know. Don't know. Don't know on that because he's getting pushed further and further out. and Jose Fernandez is people want him people want him we got Albert here oh well good good Albert made it to the live show thanks for showing up this time Albert we appreciate it

debacks are the shitbacks fire Tori erud is trash i mean erud is pretty good tonight yeah i mean once again proving albert doesn't know ball what else we got in those super chat there damon our next super chat is from terence tidbits who asks why is gabby hitting cleanup jerry corvin kettel Jose should be the top four hitters. Tori on thin ice. Team needs a spark. Yeah, I can't explain Jose Fernandez not being out there. And quite frankly, I can't really figure out, yes, Jose Fernandez, but outside of Gabby, who?

Lourdes when he comes back. Okay. That's, I mean, I literally think that's what you got to hang your hat on at this point. Yeah. Because we just don't have, we have a lot of guys who could hit sixth or seventh in your lineup and you'd feel pretty good about it. But we have no one that hits fourth in the lineup that you feel good about right now. And that sucks. It sucks.

Peace of Yoshi says, can we talk about Gabby's challenging. No, no, we can't. I don't want to talk about. You don't want to start Damon an hour and seven minutes into the podcast. It's 11.25 at 11.25 at night about our eight. Oh my God. If he starts, he's not going to go to sleep. Yoshi, we're the worst ABS challenge team in the league and it needs to be talked about.

And it's crazy. We're not. But we actually, we're, we are for the last. I mean, if you factor in how soft we are about it, too, 100%. That's, yeah. The one guy who makes challenges is Gabby and he stinks at it. Yeah. You know, it's terrible.

Well, we got one more super chat. Cool bro asking Dan Housen cursed Larsen. Dan Housen. He cursed the whole goddamn team. He cursed the whole goddamn team. And I swear to God, if I get my hands on Dan Housen, I'm going to drag him back here by his cape and make him uncurse this team.

Because he can break curses too. So, Damon, while he's added, I'm going to have him lift the freaking curse on this entire city when it comes to our sports team. Maybe we can get that done before they play Michigan. But, Derek, you'll notice no cool bro super chat about the ASU Arizona. a baseball game tonight. Yeah, that one, that one got left off. Don't, don't get me involved in your, I just, I just thought it was, it was curious. I have enough going on here with, with Paul Seawald, okay? I have enough going on. I just thought it was curious. I do me,

this is all I have, Derek. I know, it's all you have, but all I have is the fact, well, tell you, Reno Aces, we got them, right? They beat up the isotopes tonight, eight to nothing. By the way, the other day when the Diamondbacks won one to nothing, the Reno Aces also won one nothing on the same day and i cannot tell you how uncommon that is oh 100% at the bcel at it at isotopes field or whatever they call it it's dope's park they they have two of the three one nothing games in history at that park that's how that's how few there have been but uh ryan waltschmidt tonight two for five with a walk uh you got tommy troy two for six you got gino gruver damon four for five once again Gino Groo is currently hitting 375 for the Reno Aces.

Love to see that, but, or I'm calling him Gino. Excuse me. Let me correct that. Lou James. Thank you. His mama called him Lou James. I'm going to call him Lou James. But the more important part about tonight's victory is that Merrill Kelly made his rehab

start for the Reno Aces against the Albuquerque isotopes. And he was outstanding. Merrill Kelly gave the Aces five innings, two hit, scoreless baseball. He walked two and he struck out to. I know it's a AAA team. but it's still a very, very PCL park, and Merrill Kelly did the thing tonight. In fact, the entire pitching staff did look good tonight.

You know who else was in that game, Damon, that came out through an inning of scoreless baseball, John Curtis, one hit, one strikeout for John Curtis. And John Curtis, he's always there. He's always watching. And again, he might be a name we see again here. If we do, maybe things have gone really bad. Things are awful if he's back on the team.

Cade Stroud also pitch. He has a zero ERA in this game. He has zero ERA in AAA this year. One inning pitched, one walk, one strikeout. So Juan Burgos also one inning pitched, one walk, one strikeout. But overall, big night here for Merrill Kelly on his way to returning. And again, on his way to causing perhaps a good problem, perhaps a problem for the Diamondbacks, as far as their roster is concerned when he's healthy.

Unfortunately, Ryan Nelson didn't have a good outing yesterday. And as I said, Brandon Fott is also somewhat exposed here due to the fact that both of those guys have minor league options. And there is a chance that they might option them to AAA Reno instead of converting them to bullpen arms when that decision is made. And that's not even definitive that it's going to be that it's going to be Brandon Fott or Nelly. It just feels like those guys are kind of exposed due to the minor league options they have. and it's almost like the other day, I wasn't the only one doing this, so I'm going to try to skew responsibility here,

but several members of the media were essentially asking Tori Lovalo about Michael Soroka kind of being the immediate choice for Odd Man Out. And Tori kind of made it, like, kind of made a reference to the fact that, like, that's not necessarily a, um, a foregone conclusion that Michael Soroka is going to be the odd man out.

And I mean, he's right to say that. Like, we just assume that based on when he was added to the team and the makeup of this rotation, everything like that. But, you know, Zach looked really good in his last outing and there's a good chance. He's not going away anywhere. Merrill's going to be back. He's not going anywhere. Erod now two scoreless outings at Michael Soroka, a historic, you know, first start.

Like, these guys are solidifying themselves in other ways. and so it's just making that decision lean a little bit more to one of the younger guys. Doesn't mean that their future is changing it all with this team. But for 2026, there could end up being a roster problem where they have to make a decision like that just in order for things to not only stay, you know, not only for these guys to stay stretched out and available should they need one of them as a starter again, but it also just might be the best thing for their career. You know, again, as I've said, once you go to the,

bullpen, it is a bit hard to get back out of the bullpen, at least over the course of that season, right? So I'm sure that neither fought nor Nelly want to have that happen to them. And in some cases, being an option of the minors isn't necessarily a worse fate than being converted to a bullpen arm. So, but unfortunate Nat says haven't fought's underlying metrics always been terrible. Yeah, they have. they've been pretty bad. I mean, there are times where he's had a lot of red on his baseball, Savant,

as well, if that's what you're referring to, I don't know if there's any other sort of underlying metrics you're talking about. Like expected stats and FIPP and things like that, like just other stats. Well, his FIP usually says that he should be, his ERA is higher than his FIP typically.

No, because his ERA is always in the fives and whatnot. And FIP is like, well, he should be better than that, but he never is. 4.75 ERA instead, but if you look at the,

like maybe like 2024 it's not the worst looking baseball savant in the world a lot of red and middle portions of that 2025 is pretty rough and and and i will say that fought overall he is a guy that bounces back better over the course of a game than most starting pitchers that that you see right so that also adds to it but you know again it's more about thought figuring out how to not give up that beginning and i i just i just feel like damon and and again this is the reason why i'm feeling this way is because there's a very short amount of time before Merrill Kelly is going to return. You know, and then you have maybe two months,

three months until Corbyn Burns comes back. And that just gives the Diamondbacks yet another difficult roster decision at that point. It could end up that both of these guys aren't in the starting rotation any longer. And again, it might not have anything to do with performance. If they're, they'd have to be pitching extremely well.

And if not, then there's a chance that just based on the options, that they are who the diamond, who they decide to part ways with out of the starting, starting rotation. But meanwhile, Joe Ross can no longer hurt us. He's been designated for assignment. Tori did say that he hoped that Joe Ross does clear waivers and comes back to this team. And I would, I would contradict that and say, I hope the opposite. But that's only because Joe Ross has not seemed effective. And, you know, the Diamondbacks threw him out there kind of in, yes, yesterday's, you know, debacle situation,

after they were already down by a ton, the very first thing he did was give up a solo home run to the first battery phase. So I just don't think the Diamondbacks need a veteran pitcher in their bullpen like that, who's that unreliable when you have young arms that are still showing a lot of promise. And again, if they're going to make mistakes,

they can at least make mistakes at a major league level where they're learning from them and getting better as the season progresses, rather than a guy like Joe Ross that doesn't really seem like he has much left at this point in his career. So Diamondbacks made some difficult decisions today, including one involving Jordan Lawler, and that really sucked as far as his broken wrist. But we will be back, of course, on Monday with a full recap of this weekend series. So make sure to join us for that.

And bring your mailbag Monday questions. I think they'll be in Baltimore. So we get to see Blaze Alexander live and in person, David. Can't wait for that. Cannot wait for that. But of course, you can follow us on social media. I'm at cap underscore K-man with a K. Damon is at Damon Dog with a DAWG at the end.

And we are all Damon's dogs. Bark, bark, to answer Cool Bros. question, Miguel Castro. It's got to be. But that's Joe Ross or Miguel Castro? I mean, Miguel Castro 10 times out of 10. Just demons from our past. All right. Well, again, love you guys.

Thank you guys so much for joining us. So our shows at PHNX underscore D-BACs, but all roads do lead to at PH&X underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys, again, so much for your time. Love you guys. Appreciate you, cool, bro, and all your super chats. You're funding dinner tonight.

He said you of A, Losey and baseball, by the way, Damon. They did not tonight. They did the first game of the series and ASU fans through a Super Bowl-style parade on the timeline, Derek. It's crazy. And then we handled business tonight,

rubber match tomorrow. I feel like everything ASU fans do as a Super Bowl style parade to you on the timeline. But when it comes to beating Arizona, Derek, that is a Super Bowl for ASU fans. Arizona fans, we, we, you know, I think our, our, our net is a little bit wider. We like to win final, go to final fours and win national championships, win the conference. ASU fans are obsessed with us. It's true.

True. Well, thank you guys again for your time. We'll see you back here on Monday. Until then, appreciate you so much. Terence tidbits, your comment earlier. very appreciated. Thank you. He's in Maryland.

The best podcast is this one right here. So love you. Thank you. Thank you all for your time. Appreciate you guys stopping by. We'll see you on Monday. Until then, have a wonderful weekend. And remember kids, baseball is fun, but it is so much more fun when you get your offense to actually score some runs.