PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - POSTGAME: D-backs Rally for COMEBACK Win Over Phillies Behind Michael Soroka’s 10 Strikeouts

Episode Date: April 11, 2026

It looked early like the Philadelphia Phillies were ready to ambush Michael Soroka and the Arizona Diamondbacks, but the Snakes flipped the script with a massive fourth inning and another dominant showing from the bullpen. Alex D’Agostino joins the show to break down Soroka’s 10-strikeout performance, the all-around offensive effort from the lineup, and the D-backs extending their win streak to three games. Plus, the latest injury updates on Corbin Carroll and Gabriel Moreno. 0:00 SkeeYee to a big time win!!!  4:00 Alex D'Agostino joins the show  16:30 Is D-backs Baseball back?  30:15 Jose Fernandez stays hot  37:00 The NEW Spot?!  44:50 Phillies *almost* tie it up in 9th inning  48:00 Michael Soroka K's 10  53:40 D-backs take game 1 in Philly  1:03:00 Bad City Connect jerseys across MLB 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.

The Arizona Diamondbacks found a way after an early deficit to turn things around on the Philadelphia Phillies. And Michael Sorroca once again was outstanding with another 10K strikeout performance. We are talking about all of it right now with our guy, Alex Tagastino. Don't you go anywhere. Into another edition of the PHNX VATBAT podcast, presented by our friends at CircleK. It is your mayor, PHNX, occasionally known as Garrick Montia. thrilled to have you guys with us and thrilled to be turning this little fellow on.

That's right. Light up your cactus lights. Get that emoji in there. And welcome it to the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast. The Vax win their third game here in a row on their East Coast road trip, beating the Philadelphia Phillies by a score of five to four.

On a night where, quite frankly, Michael Soroka looked like everything was going to fall apart for him. But he somehow found a way to lock in, give this team a decent outing after allowing four earned runs in the first inning and striking out 10 Phillies to help the Diamondbacks win this game. Of course, I am not alone. I got my guy Damon Farrell, aka Damon Dogg, on the ones and twos.

And we always got Bet365. We've always got Bet365. Bet 365, where winning is everything. This podcast is proudly presented to you by our friends at Bet365. Download that app today and use code PHNX365. We're also brought to you by our friends at GameTime. Make sure you download the GameTime app. Create an account.

Use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase terms do apply. Woo! What a win, Derek. What a win. And what a historic performance by Michael Soroka on a night where it looked like it was going to be quite the opposite. It looked like maybe the night where Michael Soroka finally came back down to earth. But instead, after giving up some big runs early, this pitching staff, did not allow another earned run for the remainder of the game after that first inning

and wins by a score of five to four. And Mighty Schumann might be right here. He says, King Snake, right field wall. Yeah, well, with what happened there in that ninth inning, it might be the right field wall. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I will give out the Kingsnakes around here, not you, though I appreciate your input. Also, I'm going to yell at a piece of Yoshi's in here talking about what time we're going

live. Where have you even been? This is the man that abandoned us throughout the entire offseason, and now he's going to show up now that we're playing baseball and tap his watch on us? I don't think so, sir. Go back to rooting for your Mets. But this is a Diamondbacks podcast, and we are thrilled to be talking about this win, and I'm thrilled to be joined by our guy, Alex Dagostino, writer for PHNX,

writer for Sports Illustrated. Alex, how are you doing? Let's bring, where's Alex? Get Alex in here. Jeez, man. You just asked for Alex. Get him in here. It's not like it was like a 10 minutes of way.

I'm done talking to. Damon, David's over here. What's that now? Get on it, Damon. Come on. I'm doing great. I'm doing great. Big win today for the Diamondbacks.

And obviously, you know, this is a part of the schedule where we truly thought that they were going to struggle understandably. You know, this is a rough schedule out of the gate with some big opponents. And, I mean, so far the debacks have not only done a good job of, you know, keeping their head above water, but now they are two games above 500 and have won three in a row against the Mets and now the Phillies. So it feels like an impressive effort considering what our expectations were for this team. Yeah, this team is eight and three since leaving L.A. I mean, that's that that would be if they started eight and three and you didn't have that one opening series, you would be looking at a team that you're very, very excited about.

Like, wow, they're looking really good this year. They're getting it done. Now, obviously, you can't get rid of that. But there's a little bit of extenuating circumstance opening day in L.A. they've really, really took that and started playing their own brand of baseball again and winning using their brand of baseball. Well, and I hate, I always feel like it's loser talk whenever I say this, but I think they played the Dodgers extremely well in that series too. So again, it's one of those things where shockingly we had Dodgers fans in our comments after that three game series complimenting the Diamondbacks and saying like, you guys could have easily won two out of three in the series. good game, you're going to be a tough team.

And first of all, getting compliments from Dodgers fans was jaw dropping. But on top of that, the fact that they were admitting that showed that, you know, it wasn't just loser talk to sit here and say, hey, they played them tough, even though they got swept. They did play them tough. But it did feel like this was an extension of what we've seen from the Diamondbacks before, where they can play good baseball and keep games close. But unfortunately, they can't hold a lead late, which they had a lead in every single one of those games at some point. and they also can't, you know, find a way to score late runs to kind of put these games away.

But these last few days, they've found a way to do that. Maybe not today. Today was a very weird game, a very weird start to today's game. Michael Soroka looked like he was going to maybe not last very long. It looked like maybe we, you know, and I hate to be this guy. Alex, you know I hate to be this guy. But I was like, oh, here it comes. Here's the bringing back down to earth performance for Michael.

Seroca giving up four earn runs early. It didn't look terrible, but he definitely didn't look effective. And it felt like early on there he couldn't even get an out. And then after, you know, a base clearing home run, suddenly he's a new pitcher and he locked it in from that point and gave the Diamondbacks, you know, five and two-thirds innings from that point of excellent, you know, pitching on the map. Yeah. And I mean, obviously he just wasn't, he wasn't landing his pitches in that first stretch of batters.

He was all over the place. He was leaving it in bad areas to be hit. He was throwing balls that were pretty uncompetitive. But then, yeah, then he settled in. I mean, that's, and to be honest, I think this is one of the games. I think this might be the biggest case for Soroka to retain his rotation spot is what he did tonight. And it's because as a reliever, you are not afforded the luxury of settling in and figuring out how to get five and two-thirds innings, five and two-thirds scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts

after giving up four runs. The game is already lost at that point if you're coming out of the bullpen. Yeah. And it's not the first time he's done that either. I mean, that's basically what he did against the tigers. He didn't give up a run against the tigers, but he had all kinds of base traffic in the first like couple of innings. And his last inning was an immaculate inning.

So it seems like Soroka is a pitcher who gets better as the, as he gets a feel for his stuff. Right, right. And I mean, again, early on, he was going to his foreseem a lot. It doesn't really feel like it's not his foreseems a bad pitch. It maxed out at 95.4 miles per hour. It's just not necessarily his best pitch. It's that slurve. But he has to have the fastball command in order for the slurve to work in order for batters to kind of be fooled by that. But yeah, he went, he went heavy with his fastball usage in this one, 43%. His slurve 28%. but he did get six whiffs with the fastball. He got five whiffs with the slurve, four whiffs with the changeup, and one with the sinker.

And I mean, again, he still threw a nice mix of pitches overall that he set up with that fastball throughout the outing. But that slurve, man, that continues to be a very good pitch for him. And overall, he just looked like, like you said, it was his ability to rebound and then give the Diamondbacks what he gave them after that. It's been an impressive, I guess, an impressive thing that Brandon Fott has been able to do in the past. However, it's just unfortunate that you can't, you feel like Brandon Fott can't get through an outing without having that big inning, you know, come up, right? Like, it feels like it's inevitable that at some point Fott is going to run into a wall, especially once base runners get on. It feels like base runners lately have really caused him some issues coming out of the stretch. Michael Seroca, however, though, I completely agree with you.

his stuff just got better as the outing went on. And he has been impressive. I mean, he is in historic territory now, according to the Arizona Diamondbacks themselves. He joins Randy Johnson as the only D-back starting pitcher to post multiple 10-plus strikeout performances in their first three starts with the club. And Randy Johnson didn't even do it in his first start.

He only had nine strikeouts, that chump in his first start. But meanwhile, Soroka had 10 in his first start. in 10 to night. Randy Johnson had 15 in his second start as a diamond back and then 10 in his third against the Dodgers, which is always fun to see. But just a huge night for Soroka. And, you know, again, a guy that has very quickly

with a limited sample size, a limited amount of games has solidified himself as that starting rotation option with the news especially today that Merrill Kelly is joining the team in Philadelphia and will most likely pitch on Tuesday against Baltimore Orioles. Yeah, I think I saw what Merrill's supposed to throw a bullpen on Sunday, I think it was. Yeah, right.

Or something like that. Yeah, it's going to be a really tough decision. I mean, Tori's probably going to, he's probably, it's probably going to be one of those that comes down to the wire. And it's like, oh, I don't know. I don't know. Like, we haven't really thought about that. We just want guys to go out there. It doesn't sound like they're considering a six-man rotation at all, which there are pros and cons to doing.

that and they're going to have to do it all over again when Corbyn Burns comes back too. So that's, there's that. But yeah, I think Soroka has made his case. And at this point, his experience in relief is the only thing that is really standing against him. Sure. And because I don't think, I don't think they're going back to that well with Ryan Nelson. And so it's probably like, it's probably going to come down to Fott and Soroka. And that's a pretty tough, that's a pretty tough decision to make for the debacks. Not only that,

but like you said, then they have another tough decision to make once Corbin Burns returns as well, right? So I don't know what they're going to do, but I've kind of thrown it out there. I have at least, uh,

you know, speculated that based on options, based on minor league options, it feels like Ryan Nelson and Brandon Fott are in danger. And I don't say that just because of the, the minor league options. I don't feel like they needed to do a lot to outperform other pitchers in the starting rotation, but considering those are the two guys that they can keep in the organization and also keep stretched out should something happen to one of the other

starting pitchers that, you know, again, the minor league options thing might just make this easy or an easier decision overall on the team. I don't love the idea of optioning any of the starters at all because, I mean, again, Brandon Fought and Ryan Nelson are like our guys. We've watched them develop at a major league level and they've had some huge contributions to this team in their history. It also doesn't mean that they're like they're done, right? This is a really weird year with a few guys on one year contracts like Nelly and Fott are still a huge part of this team's future. However, you know, again, it might just be keeping them as starters and the way that you can keep them as starters with that many guys for your rotation is by optioning down to Reno,

which again, it sucks. No one's going to love that. And I think I don't know how a major league pitcher would feel, but I feel like some guys would maybe rather be optioned and stay as a starter rather than being converted to a bullpen arm where they might end up staying in the bullpen. And that's not what any starting pitcher truly wants. Yeah, in terms of role, I mean, even Soroka said that,

like ahead of the season, which was kind of surprising to hear him say it so bluntly, was like, I think I'm better out of the rotation. I would rather start if I have the opportunity. And like, good on him. I mean, I know he'll do whatever, whatever they ask him to do, obviously. But, yeah, the tough part about optioning a guy is you're sending him to the PCL, where a five ERA is average. And so what happens when they go down and they're giving up a lot of runs?

And then it's like their confidence maybe might be shot already from being sent down. And then that happens. And obviously we're talking about major leaguers. And they're not, they're not 22 years old either. Like these are guys that have significant major league experience. So that's on them. But right now, I think, yeah. Because the thing with thought, though, is that he's really, really effective for like the first three to four innings.

So that almost screams long reliever to me. But at the same time, he's made some elite starts for this team in really big moments and gone eight, nine innings before. So it's like there's just. just so much in this equation that makes it really hard to project. Soroka and three starts now has a 2.87 ERA, a 15 and two-thirds innings pitch, 23 strikeouts, and a 1.21 whip. I mean, if you would have told me that we were going to get that out of a guy that the Debex got this offseason for $7.5 million, I don't think I would have believed you, right?

He might end up being the best off-season acquisition that any team made. that's very early to be saying that. But I'm saying if he can somehow maintain a sub 3RA, three ERA throughout the season and cost you $7.5 million, like I would have a hard time finding another pickup that was that much of a value overall based on what you're paying him. But at the same time, I mean,

it does still feel like whenever we've speculated about the rotation, at least prior to the season starting, It was always Soroka and like Erod as kind of the odd man's odd man out. I even remember Tori kind of being surprised because several of us asked questions about Soroka essentially not being in the rotation. And he was like, your guys are making a lot of assumptions basically. You know, like you guys, I had nothing. I mean, you could tell as far as he was concerned,

didn't even seem like Soroka was necessarily one of the glaring options to not be in the rotation when that time comes. So just a lot of interesting things there when it comes to the Diamondback suddenly having an abundance of good starting pitching to the point where here we are talking about them having one of the best rotation ERAs in the National League right now. And I'm not going to get excited about it. I'm not going to get crazy. But it's just a really nice thing to have. Of course, our offense, meanwhile, still struggling to kind of figure things out. but someone in the chat said it, Damon.

I think it was Sean, but you love to see this offense kind of producing. It said right here, I'm loving this offense, relying on homers. The last couple of seasons just wasn't hit. It did feel like it was a big time feast or famine kind of thing with the offense when they had those home run hitters and were relying on that. Now it seems like this team can kind of put together an inning like this fourth inning that they put together where it's just contributions across the board from the lineup up and maybe guys not having a great night, but again, putting together timely hits at the right

time to bring in some runs to overcome the four run deficit and to give these, give this team enough runs to win this game. Yeah, I mean, this is, whenever you hear Tori say this like, we're playing D-BACs baseball, like that's what this is. That's what this has been. This is, this is the type of baseball they played in 2023 when they won a pennant and went to the World Series. This is the identity of this team. And it's also the identity of a lot of very successful teams, like the Brewers, for example. Have you ever watched the Brewers score multiple runs in an inning? It's one of the least aesthetically pleasing things you could possibly imagine. But it's effective and it's consistent. And that's, I think, there's much more consistency in being able to build innings like this

as opposed to relying on, you know, Gino Svarez hitting 50 home runs in a season or Catell or Corbyn, for that matter. Well, the big story for me, besides Michael Sorokas 10 strikeouts and his kind of bounce back there, is this bullpen, man. I mean, this was a one-run game. We have joked. You can't give this bullpen a one-run lead and expect them to hold it. Well, God damn it, they did it tonight.

Diamondbacks gave him a five to four lead, and Loisaga and Juan Murillo and Paul Seawald shut the door on the Phillies. One inning from Johnny Lazzania, who we're giving him this again. He gets these things again. And three strikeouts in his one inning of work. One point one innings pitched there by Juan Murillo. He gave up one hit, but he also had three strikeouts. And then Paul Seawald, one inning of work, one very, very long hit that almost went out of the bank.

But luckily did not. Stayed in for Crawford triple. And the Phillies were not able to bring him in. And we were talking about a Diamondbacks victory. Just a big, I mean, again, a. big night big night big game not an easy offense for this bullpen to go out there and hold them scoreless and you know these these are probably three of the guys that tory trusts the most right now in high leverage situations or at least has demonstrated he trusts the most and they got the job done

yeah it's really encouraging to see these guys come in and just not look rattled no matter what inning they're coming in i mean i even said that to you guys before like okay yeah see well gave up a really concerning massive triple there, but also he didn't freak out and he was throwing strikes and he got the next batter out. And like, I don't know if last year's Paul Sewell does that. Yeah. I think Loisiga, they're still kind of trying to figure out what his role is because he doesn't seem to be all that great when it comes to like a lockdown late inning. I was a little concerned about bringing him in with a runner on because he's been really good at allowing the leadoff runner to reach. and he turns around and retires three straight.

And so maybe that's kind of his role as kind of getting kind of the bridge reliever, the guy that gets you to your back end. Juan Murillo has been unbelievably impressive so far this year. His command looks a lot better. And he's been there, he's been like the primary setup guy at this point. And I don't feel bad about that at all. No, walks were his biggest problem, you know, not taking the ball in the strike zone. attacking hitters.

I think that's the biggest thing is these pitchers are attacking hitters. Even Paul Seawald was not scared. And let me tell you, Alex, some of those pitches were 90. 90.5 miles per hour right down the middle of the plate. Paul Seawald has no fear to be throwing those. But again, it's like couldn't be more middle of the plate. Oh, it couldn't have been more middle if it tried. Couldn't have been more middle if he tried.

And then the one that he throws the slider down and out of the zone is the one that Crohnitz. Yeah, that was ridiculous that ball win as far as it did. It was ridiculous, right? But, I mean, again, I mean, it feels like once again, whatever this pitching staff is doing, whatever Brian Kaplan is doing, whatever Jeremy Blyche has brought to the team,

seems to be working very well early on. And across the board, I mean, it's kind of funny because you have starting pitchers at times going out there and just pitching the contact, Eduardo Rodriguez, Zach Gallen, their power numbers are down. We're not seeing them go out there and give us 10 strikeouts like we're seeing,

out of Soroka. But tonight, 10 strikeouts from Soroka, three strikeouts from Loisica, three strikeouts from Juan Morillo. Like, they were going at it tonight, and they weren't necessarily pitching the contact. And especially Johnny La Zania, that guy has some good stuff, man.

Like, Juan Murillo has some good stuff. Like, those guys throw hard, and it's good to see that. It's nice. Plus, you got to admit that as much as Paul Seawald goes out there and throws 89 mile per hour fastball at time, it's got to mesh you up as a hitter

to be watching Juan Murillo come in and hit 101 and then see Paul Seawald coming in and throwing you 91. I mean, it might even look like a change-up at that point compared to what you were looking at earlier. So they might be on to something as far as the mix and formula is concerned. But I mean, whatever they're doing,

as far as analytics, as far as their change of, you know, philosophy, it feels like this pitching staff, both the starting pitching staff and bullpen are much better than we thought they were going to be when this season starts. And I mean, again, there's still some things to figure out with the bullpen, but there are a few pieces in here that I'm starting to really like. Yeah.

I mean, do I expect this to continue at this level? Probably not just from a talent perspective. But you never know. On the note of philosophy and game plans, there was a report somewhere, you know, middle of the middle of spring training from, from, I think it was Nick Piccolo, where essentially with the addition of Jeremy Blyche and some of the, I guess, internal stuff, the Diamondbacks are changing with their pitching

development. They actually intended to come into this season game planning to a pitcher's strengths as opposed to the hitter's weaknesses. I believe that was, I think, yeah, like maximizing what a pitcher is able to do. as opposed to trying to attack their hitters in their weak spots. Right. And emphasizing the stuff, the velocity, the movement. Taylor Rashi is throwing 92 miles an hour all of a sudden.

He has a disgusting slider all of a sudden. When did that happen? Right? So I think we're actually seeing kind of a wholesale development internally that looks good right now. I'm not going to tell you you should expect this to be this solid all season. But I think the changes are, I think the changes are doing. what they were supposed to do. Yeah. No, they are. And I mean, when you think of it just from the perspective of trying at all

times to worry about where the weaknesses are for a batter, trying to remember which part of the box has the blue square and which part of the box has the red square and all that kind of stuff, right? Like it feels like at times it might be too much data that a pitcher is trying to calculate in their head and work a game plan out with a catcher rather than just going out there and trying to get it out, you know? And I mean, I think that sometimes you hear from some of the best pitchers in the game, Hall of Fame pitchers, that when they were going out there, they weren't, they weren't even thinking sometimes. They just, you know, they didn't want to complicate it. They didn't want to have all of this analytics running around in their head. They just wanted to

throw the ball and try to see if they can get this guy out, you know, and as much as analytics does have its place in every sport, right? There just might be a point where the approach you were going with might be worrying too much about that data instead of incorporating it a little bit, but still going with certain things like gut feelings and old school, old timey sound and stuff, you know, stuff Brent Strom would tell you, you know, like, got to go with your gut kid, you know, that kind of thing. But like when Ryan Nelson takes his fastball, throws it straight down the middle with 22 induced vertical break and says, here, hit it and they can't.

Yeah, you know what I mean? And I mean, even Paul Seawall did that with his fastball and it's not that good. but he's like, I dare you to hit it. And they couldn't tonight. They had a garbage pitch that's low and out of the zone. I still don't understand that one. But again, it just, it feels good. Diamondbacks, you know, again,

their offense seems to be waking up a little bit. Another night where, again, they could only put it together in one inning. Everything outside of that felt like it was kind of a little bit of a lax effort. But again, it was enough on this night for them to hold things down. And I think it's just impressive that this bullpen was given. a one run lead and they somehow got the job done. So hats off to them and hats off to the Diamondbacks for whatever changes they made with their pitching staff to be effective and be working. Yeah. I mean, at this point, you just, you got to ride the wave. You got to say, if this is what

we're getting, we're going to take it, you know, one game at a time. It's that it's that classic, you know, team, you know, player, coach, manager speak. But that that's exactly what it is. You got to take it one day at a time. You can't, can't overreact this early in the season on either side of spectrum, but if you're getting quality outings, you capitalize on it. And they finally are capitalizing on it. And that's, that's encouraging to see. I do think that, again, there's some confidence on the offensive side and the pitching and maybe some confidence in the pitching side about the offense. You know, like that especially seeing them win a game like they won against the Mets in the finale, being able to put up those seven runs late. Like, you feel like even if you have a deficit,

that this team is getting back to their ways of last year where you can feel like a five-run deficit is something they can easily erase and four-run deficit, they did that tonight. So impressive job overall. Alex, thank you so much for your time. Appreciate you stopping by. Make sure to check out Alex's stuff over on D-BACs on SI

and on PHNX. It does a great job. So thank you, Alex. Appreciate your time. Thanks, guys. Have a good one. Follow him. and by the way, Alex Dagg A-Z, because he's an incredible follow as well.

And again, I didn't get to talk to him about it, but I did want to say Jack's rubbing off on him a little too much because last night when I said something about the bullpen, Alex was going to kill me for calling it too early in that game. But I did not. The Diamondbacks won. They won then, they won now, and they're on a three-game winning streak. And we're going to talk more about this game on the other side of this break.

Don't you go anywhere you're watching the PHNX Diamondback show. Well, our friends at Bet365 always make watching sports more fun, and they make this time of the year more fun. Make sure to check out Bet365 during the best part of the sports calendar year. We got the NBA playoffs here. We got baseball here. We got NFL hockey playoffs. We got a lot of stuff.

I don't want to hear about the man. Don't even talk to me about the man. But you can't talk to me about getting done. The who? The who. I have no idea who she is. That's better. I don't care about Tusky.

I don't care about their Zameth, even though I'm very jealous of it. Yeah, you don't care so much that you know everything about them. I know everything about them and might have bought a hat. But anyway, the next few months are... Are you serious? No, I didn't buy a hat. I hate that team.

If you bought a hat, I was going to quit the podcast. I know. Yeah, I wouldn't have done a podcast with me anymore either. But I'll tell you, now is a great time to check out Bet365. If you haven't done so yet, and if you aren't quite convinced, they have one of their biggest offers of all time going on. Right now, they're offering Bet10 Get365, where any new bet 365 user can sign up, make a $10 bet,

and you'll get $365 in bonus bets. Win or lose, it is the perfect party favor. So check out Bet365 and their app right now. We made some bets tonight. I was two for three, went over on the eight runs. They gave us nine, said Michael Soroko was going to get six strikeouts or more. He gave us 10. I almost know everything, but what I didn't know was Illamara Vargas

was only going to get one base instead of two. Anyway, get down on the Bet365 app, and you can have this kind of fun. The amount of fun I had tonight. Bet 365, where winning is everything. Download the app today and use code PHNX365 at sign up today. Gambling problem, call one and under next step.

Please gamble up responsibly. Must be present in Arizona. $10 minimum deposit required bonus bet wager excluded from returns. New customers only, 21 and over only. Time limits, minimum odds in terms and conditions apply in app only. Boyd or prohibited. And everyone needs a checking account. You know that.

I know that. And of course, you want a checking account that gives back. to you. Doesn't just take your money all the time. Get a checking account with built-in benefits. Get the Mountain America My Style checking account, which has perks just for you, including restaurant deals, mobile phone protection, telehealth access, identity protection, and more. They offer you discounts on loan rates. They offer, they have offers on travel. They have offers on events and so much more. New stuff being added all the time. So make my style for your lifestyle at Mountain America Credit Union. Visit maceu.com slash my style to apply today.

Assured by NCUA, membership is required based on eligibility. Some benefits require no-cost registration activation, terms, conditions, and exclusions do apply. Shout out to Peace of Yoshi. The piece of Yoshi says there was a snakes fan in my section who also refused to call the game early. Appreciate you out there in the trenches to help this team when I think he was at the Mets game, the finale of the Mets game. but or maybe you were there in Philadelphia tonight, but big night tonight overall. Of course, like I said earlier, we have the Diamondbacks pulling off a big offensive inning. Inning, once again there in a fourth inning, Damon, you know who it started with.

It all starts with Jose Fernandez. It always starts with Jose Fernandez. I mean, of course it started with Jose Fernandez. It used to be Pardomo, right? We always used to say it always starts with Pernando. For some reason, the Diamondbacks have it in their heads that Pardomo is, is, is, he He's a third hitter. He is only a third hitter.

And you're like, well, it's, he's done his best work in the one hole or the nine hole. It's not necessarily working the best. I would say his best work was, you know, probably last year where he primarily hit first, second, or maybe even third a lot of the time. But I want to, I mean, I think that it can't hurt to switch things up and move him back more to the lead off spot. But it does feel like Jose Fernandez does get a lot of things going for this team as of late. And, yeah, I mean, it was that inning, Derek, where we were sitting there and we were saying, you know, don't got to get it all back here. Yeah. They did.

Yeah. But we were like, don't got to get it all back here, but got to get something going on offense in this fifth inning. And Jose Fernandez let it off. And what does he do? Rip a single. Let me see how, I mean, how hard off the bat that he hit this thing. I would imagine it was pretty, pretty gosh dang hard, Derek. 110.9 miles per hour off the bat.

He hits the ball hard. I mean, he really does. He's just a specimen from, you know, his size, his athleticism, how hard he hits the ball, his bad speed, how fast he runs. Espo was watching the game. And Espo was like this Fernandez kid looks like a... He said he looks like a star. Looks like a star. Yeah, he just has the makeup of a star.

And, you know, I think that obviously we were kind of tongue in cheek on his debut being like, this is the franchise, hand him the keys. But like, there was an element of seriousness of like what we're watching here doesn't exactly. look normal. He looks like a guy who could be a fixture of this, this organization for a very long time. And man, did the Diamondbacks need someone to come, kind of come out of nowhere and provide that this season because we've talked about how much they need, like, those kind of middle of the lineup bats. And Jose Fernandez is almost, like I say all the time, he's just been undeniable. Tori can't even do his typical Tori, you know, like, I'm going to put him on the bench for the time being thing because he can't because Jose Fernandez is that good.

He needs to be in the lineup every every day. So we found our first basement. We have him. He's here. They're undefeated still with Jose Fernandez in the lineup in the starting lineup. He literally looks like Arod, Yoshi. Like I say it every, every game I watch him. But I'm like, this dude literally like the high socks and the athleticism.

100%. You're like, is this Arod? Am I looking at Arod while I'm playing baseball right now? It's crazy. It is crazy, man. And I, I mean, I hope he's a tenth of the player that Arod was because that would be a valuable ass player. You're right. I mean, he doesn't even have to be a Hall of Famer, but he is all our Hall of Famer.

And I'm ready, Damon, to get the statue erected out of it outside of Chase Field of him. Yeah. D. Dan in the chat says this is my favorite Jose Fernandez podcast. This is goddamn right. The only Jose Fernandez podcast. The only Jose Fernandez podcast. Derek, I've said it before.

51, 20, 11. Up in the rafters. 11 right there. And I've said it. We're going to retire. We're going to retire Jose Fernandez in the middle of his career. We're going to retire his number in the middle of his career. People are like, what about, Damon, what about Catell?

Isn't four going to be up there? Yeah, after 11. Yeah. Because 11's getting retired, as Derek said in the off season. Yeah, we're going to do that one in the off season. By the way, Dan, tell Michelle and Stanley. I said hi. That's her dog.

By the way, this inning, huge inning for the nine. Diamondbacks. And again, it's another case where they were able to put up a bunch of runs. I'm not that concerned overall about putting up a bunch of runs and then not being able to score. It's almost part of their DNA. It's part of baseball. It's part of the Phillies today.

They put up four runs early. It looked like the Phillies were going to score 20 runs on the Diamondbacks with the way the first 10 minutes of this baseball game win. Instead, my thing back's coming back against the Phillies? Do you remember that happening? Is that a thing that happens? I don't remember. In Philadelphia.

I didn't know that was a lot. Oh, yeah, it's the thing that happens all the time. It's one of my favorite things that happens in Philadelphia. And this one, again, started with Jose Fernandez and his 110 mile per hour exit Velo's single. Tim Tawa walks, and then Alec Thomas has like a little soft single that he beats out. And the bases are loaded for one could tell Marte. Actually, I think Jorge Brose has struck out in between, but Marte then gets the snakes on the board with a huge two RBI single. That scores Fernandez and Tawa.

Then Vargas adds on with an RBI single that scored Tom. to make it a four three game. Again, can't say enough about Vargy. Went one for four. Let me down a little bit with my bases total, but I'll forgive him, considering the production that he continues to provide this team.

And Vargas is one of those guys that gets those timely hits when the Diamondbacks seemingly need it the most. In most cases, what we've seen is they're six through nine hitters, which he's not right now. He's their number two hitter. But, you know,

those guys have been a bit of a black hole for this team at times, including Alec Thomas, including Barrow. just those later in the lineup guys, those guys have been contributing, if not an equal amount, a greater amount than the top of the lineup guys.

I mean, the Diamondbacks lineup seemed so top-heavy when the season started, and yet somehow we are watching Marte and Perdomo struggle. We see Corby and Carroll out of the lineup for the second day in a row due to that hit flexor injury that he's kind of experienced. Back tomorrow.

You know, and yeah, he will be back tomorrow. He was available today. He was available yesterday if the Diamondbacks needed him. We don't. We don't. We don't. We don't. We don't.

We just, we're just better, I guess, without them. I don't know. I don't want to say that. No, that's not the truth. That's not true. But Vargas adds on with that RBI single. Then we have to talk about this, Damon. I was, wait one second before we do.

This is my part of the podcast where I say, hail tomorrow, Vargas. I'm sorry, brother. Oh, yeah. Again. Damon. We're going to make Damon apologizing to Vargy like a post game segment. Yeah, it's going to be every episode. It's every episode.

post game episode. I'm sorry. You know who I don't know what to, I don't know what people want for me. I apologize I'll tomorrow. You're in. I'm glad I was wrong. I'm glad this is the apology section of the show because Damon, what I would like is an apology from that fraud Max Simpson. The guy who everybody here calls the ad man and I call him the bad man. And there's a reason for that. This monster came up. Now, mind you, there was a very,

if you're not familiar with the lore from this show, at P-H-N-X-H-Q-2, we had what we called the spot. The spot was a special spot because for some reason, when Anthony Totry

stood in this spot, magical things happened for the Arizona Diamondbacks team, including them going all the way to the World Series in 2023. Of which Tootry probably holds about top five share of the run.

Like it's like it's gotta be like, you know, Merrill Kelly. Paul Seawald is closer. Brandon Fy. Really getting the bullpen. Totally. Starring on the spot. Corbyn Carroll or something like that.

Like so much so that we were going to cut the spot out from the carpet of our old office and bring it here. Maybe even a section of the floor if it was possible just to kind of have it with us at all times and not leave it behind. But due to security deposits and being frowned upon. by the other, you know, other ownership group over there. We did not cut into the floor and take part of it with us. So today, and let me also say this.

Whenever Max stood in the spot, the opposite happened. Yeah, Max is bad luck. He's a mush. Black skies, thunder, rain, lightning. Acid rain. Oh, it was the worst. Burn your skin off. Errors.

Home runs in the World Series being given up by Paul Seawald. Max is in the spot. Locusts flying out of the sky, eating all the crabs. All of it, all the plague, all of it. That's all because Max stood, stands in the spot. So Max today made the decision himself without the consultation from Damon, me, or Anthony Totery, that he was going to make a new spot. He got out tape and made a little half box that he couldn't even be bothered to finish. He just made a C instead of a box.

And then he stood in it. So disrespectful. What happened? Perdomo struck out. For the first time in how long? For the first time after having the longest streak in Major League Baseball of not striking out, Perdomo almost immediately struck out the minute that Max stood in that box. Looking.

Heraldo Perdomo. A strikeout looking. And then he challenged it. And then he challenged it. And he was so wrong. Very wrong. It couldn't have been more wrong. The entire ball was in the strike zone.

All of it. all the all the all every part of it and then james mccan goes up there big body james mccan the mcannimal and he rips a double biggest knock of the game and it's all because max got out of the spot and max tries to take credit for it yeah afterwards i ripped the tape up off the floor because this fraud has no business making a spot let alone standing in it i just needed to address that i really needed everybody to know what happens in this office and what damon and i have to deal with while we're trying to get this team to a win. I'm so sick of being tormented by Max on this podcast.

Whether it's the spot or whether it's him ordering green bell pepper with half spinach pizza for the boys. And then acting like he did something. A charitable service. So nice for us. We offered to pay. But we offered to pay for pizza with pepperoni or sausage on it like a normal human being. Not a half spinach like red blooded American men.

I will never forget that as long as I live, Damon. No, and nor should you. You should be on your deathbed talking about the half spinach. I will be. It's that big of atrocity to the world. Max and his lore of, you want to talk about the lore of this podcast, Max continues to be the arch nemesis of this podcast. Oh, 100%.

Of Arizona sports as a whole, frankly. I mean, he might be the reason why we're cursed. I don't know. It's him or Danhausen. Sean has no idea about this story. Oh, Sean. Sean, like, Sean has been around for so long and he, and he is here every day that you forget, like, that he missed the 2020 run. But long story short, Sean, Derek and I are gearing up for a postgame show to watch the Diamondbacks play in the playoffs in the NLCS against the Phillies.

And as you know, we're very bad at taking care of ourselves. We are. We are feed ourselves. And so Derek was like, we, Derek and I are discussing, hey, what should we do for food? Let's get some food together. Let's order it. And then, you know, kind of save money on. you know, maybe a delivery fee.

Max puts his hand up and goes, guys, fellas, I got pizza for the crew. I'm sticking around for the game. I got pizzas for the crew tonight. Derek and I are like, dude, you're the real MVP, Max. Look at you. And we were like, do you need any, you want us to shake? We'll throw in some cash here. We can all pool it.

He goes, don't worry, guys. I got it. And then goes ahead and orders two medium pizzas, one cheese and one green bell pepper with half spinach. All green bell pepper half spinach. It felt like a joke. All green bell pepper half spinach. Why would anybody do that?

It actually just felt like a joke to me and Derek. Like he was playing some sort of game on us. Why not just go full spinach? Why even the half spinach? 100%. Because Derek, we've been over this. But it's because I started yelling at him as I, you know, me and no one can freak out like me and Derek. We have the best two crash outs probably in the office here.

And I'm like. It's because we actually. It's not a performative. We actually crash out. Did you get half spinach because you were trying to be, you know, conscientious of us, maybe not liking spinach, but you didn't think that maybe we didn't want anything to do with this pizza at all? And that was exactly what happened is that he was like, well, they might not like the spinach. We don't like any of it.

We don't like you, Max. We want pepperoni. We want sausage. We want. American pizzas. Not any of this European crap that Max wants to give us. The kind of Johnny Lazzania would make. You know what I mean?

It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. But yeah, that's, I mean, every time we talk about it, I get fired up about it all over again, Derek,

because it's just outrageous that it even happened. It is. It's outrageous. You know, like you're trying to do a good thing for people and you want, you want to use it as like some sort of like guilt trip. Oh, yeah,

that's the other thing. And then the way he asked about it to this day. I don't care. you did. Oh, sorry. I guess I was being considerate by buying you guys pizza. No, no, you're not. You weren't. And you didn't. And I'm done with it. And me and Damon are going to buy some sort of weird pizza when Max wants pizza next. I can't wait to get him. I just don't know what weird thing would really bother him. So I'm going to have to figure it out. But Diamondbacks offense. Let's get back to that while we can. But baseball. But baseball. The McAnimal. James McAnimal. That's just such a good nickname that we're going to have to call him that until the end of time. They go. He delivered huge. And again, he came into this game, essentially because Gabriel Moreno left early with lower back tightness. Don't know how much that impacted him behind the plate when Soroka was pitching there early in the first. But it definitely looked like him and Gabby were kind of getting crossed up a little bit. Gabby leaves the game there in the second inning before his next at bat. And again, kind of fate here. Not only does James McCann come in and help Soroka get to 10 strikeouts. And essentially, do his part behind the plate to keep, you know, this game scoreless for the remainder of the game, but he also comes in and gives the Diamondbacks the biggest hit of the day. He was one for two with that double, two big RBI and the Diamondbacks took the lead at that time in the fourth inning

or in the fifth inning, excuse me, with five, five runs. I was saying fourth inning this entire time. It was five runs there in the fifth inning. And that was it pretty much from either one of these teams. A few more hits throughout the game, including that very long Justin Crawford triple there in the in the ninth inning but only a homer in two out of 30 ballparks Derek really may I add oh wow that kind of surprised me I checked it to to make sure can you guess the two you can guess one of them um right field oh Boston no no not in that part of right field who they Boston it's that wrap around on the short porch that's really that's it's Yankee stadium oh of course you see okay cracker backs cracker box uh yeah

I should have known that one for sure. But the other one was the Astros. Oh, yeah. Yeah, the Astros Stadium. That makes sense. Luckily, it wasn't in this game, but I will say. But, I mean, that made me feel a little bit better about it of just like, it's not as if just that high wall and right field was the sole reason that that didn't, that wasn't a home run.

If that was being played almost anywhere else, it's also not a home run. Might have even been caught instead of banging off the wall. It's possible. Yeah, because Barroso was there. He just, you know, isn't tall enough. He can't jump 12 feet into the air and, you know, rob that. I think it was in the sixth inning right before he left the game. Michael Soroka got Bryce Harper to fly out.

And it was to the wall. It was pretty deep. That was a home run in one ballpark. Yep. But you know who knew it wasn't a home run in that ballpark? Michael Soroka. Because as Bryce Harper was pimping that hit, Michael Soroka was just pointing up at it because he did it, which,

It went very high in the air and he knew someone was going to catch it. It felt like he like immediately was like that stayed in the ballpark. That's in the ballpark. And for it to be at the wall and you're immediately saying that's staying in the ballpark, to me it's like that's like a big ball in the moment of like, oh, he didn't get enough of that. He almost did, but he didn't. And Alec Thomas makes another really, really good catch. And Alex Thomas has been incredible this year, Derek.

He's leading all outfielers and defensive runs saved so far with four. That's, that was before. for the game today. So I don't know if that catch or anything out, any other catches had impact. But yeah, Alex Thomas is, he's back to his elite defensive ways out there in the outfield.

Now we just got to find a way to get it going at the plate because, yeah, it's been a little bit of a rough stretch offensively to start the season. But he gets the bunt today, which was nice. That was a single there. And that was a big bun single. Yeah,

that was a softly hit. Single I was talking about. It was a bun. And I mean, yeah, he's hit in 128 with a 3.76 OPE. it's just early. And I feel like one thing that's,

that's beneficial from these guys like Vargas and Jose Fernandez doing as well as they are, is it's taking the pressure off of those guys that feel like they need, you know, to perform in order for this team to win baseball games. I mean, again, Perdomo one for three today, Vargas one for four, Cotel one for four, McCann one for two, Aaronado,

O for four, still struggling offensively. Jose Fernandez one for four Not great Atawa 0 for 3 Thomas 1 for 4 and Barrosa 1 for 4 So no Nobody really stood out today offensively

But you got to give all the flowers You can to Michael Soroka And the bullpen I mean Soroka gets them for An outstanding performance And once again continuing to make history As a member of this Diamondbacks team Joining Randy Johnson

As the only other pitcher To have multiple 10 strikeout games in his first three starts with the franchise, and for that reason, Michael Soroka is our King's snake for tonight's game. Also, probably the right field wall deserves it a little bit, considering we gave it to the ABS system the other night, but Michael Soroka, five and two-thirds innings pitched, five hits, and again, man, that's just impressive considering that those five hits, four of those hits. I mean, the game starts off with a Trey Turner single, a Schwabber Walk, a Harper double,

a Marsh Homer. So again, and then he, you know, locks in after that. But of those five hits, three were in the first inning and all four runs that he allowed were all in the first inning. And from that point on, he only walks two, strikes out 10 and gives the Diamondbacks five and two-thirds inning. So great performance for Michael Soroka. And can't say enough, again, about the tremendous pickup that he has been for this team. Even considering just what's happened so far with Merrill Kelly going down to injury. It's just impossible to imagine the Diamondbacks getting this out of.

of one of their AAA pitchers that they call up, right? That's not going to happen. So adding Soroka to the roster for seven and a half million seems like, again, a crazy good pickup, at least for at least for now while he has this 2.870 R.A. Yeah. I don't want to completely take care of for this joke because I think it was a Facebook user, who's a big D-Backs fan on Twitter. But, and Sean mentioned it earlier.

Erod and Soroka is the new Randy and Kurt Schilling. Yeah. And it's, I'm sorry. there's just no if-ans or butts about it. That we're going to be in the World Series and they're going to be sharing a co-world series MVP trophy between the two of them smiling.

We're going to have Soroka coming out of the bullpen in game seven of the World Series. Oh, wait, you guys wanted Soroka in the bullpen the whole time? Oh, you're going to get them. Ninth inning Soroka out of the pen. He's running out to shut things down in the Diamondbacks of World Series champions.

I mean, it's stuff dreams are made of. 25-year anniversary as well, Derek. I mean, I'm just saying. There's a lot of good things. written in the stars. A lot of stuff. Hey, I'll say this.

We got, remember Gallin got the one bird? Yeah. We got the one bird. We could get a bird. We might need to get a bird. I was going to say last time the wildcats were in a final four was 2001,

25 year anniversary and they broke that today or this year. Stuff. People are saying that, you know, my two beats that I cover, the two teams that I cover are, there's magic in the air between those two. people are talking about.

Well, let's take a quick break, and then let's talk a little bit more about this game. And then I want to talk about how Philly has the worst city connectors you've ever seen. And we'll talk about which new ones we might like and all the ones that we hate. Let's do that on the other side of this break. You're watching the PHNX Diamondback Show. Well, shout out to pure edibles. You know I love me, some pure edibles. And this is a company founded right here in Arizona, available at 130 dispensary statewide.

And, of course, they were created originally in Flagstaff, which is where, some of my friends tell me I live since I live so far north in the valley. But of course, they were created at Noble herb dispensary, the home of pure edibles, and now they're made proudly right here in Phoenix, Arizona. And we love pure edibles because they have a wide variety of effects, which are clearly listed on each tin, and also delicious flavors. Plus, they make more than just gummies, though their gummies are great. They also make hard candies, choose, soft candies,

their version of Starbursts that they call kicks and new candies all the time. Plus, they have their collaboration with Mother Road Brewing Company. company, one of my favorite breweries in this fine state. And that they bring you the Tower Station IPA all in one. One of my favorite beers available now in a THC. It's the same delicious crisp citrus and piney hops of Arizona's favorite IPA. But now with a smooth THC twist all in one device, no pouring, no waiting, just good tasting high whenever you want it. So go find yourself some pure edible products from one of over 150 dispensaries across Arizona, now including True Leave.

And Game Time gives you the fans the advantage with constant innovation in their app. Their app is incredible and it always helps you find tickets faster. You know what happens. You need tickets that's last minute and you're kind of scrambling to find some. And these apps, they're not very clear. They're not very user-friendly. And most importantly, they don't tell you what you're actually going to pay when you get to checkout. And those are all things Game Time absolutely does for you.

Dead simple to use the Game Time guarantee. means that you get 100% authentic tickets on time at the best price with no surprises. And of course, now is a great time to be buying Major League Baseball tickets with GameTime because you can save a ton of money. And of course, you can save even more by using their zone deal option where you pick a part of the ballpark where you want to sit and Game Time will find you the best deal. As well as, like I said earlier, all the fees are included so there are no surprises at checkout with GameTime.

So take the guesswork out of buying MLV tickets with GameTime today. download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms to apply again, create an account and redeem code PHNX for $20 off. Download the GameTime app today. Be like piece of Yoshi. Go see the Diamondbacks on the road. Find like-minded Diamondbacks fans and have a great time.

Damon, what time is it? Game time? Yes, it is. All right, well, let's take a look at the numbers from tonight's game. And, of course, these are fairly pleasant to look at the Diamondbacks, win this one by a score of five to four. And there's some interesting, I almost felt like, I almost felt like baseball savant was wrong tonight.

And as you know, baseball savant is never actually wrong. They are never wrong. So some of these things I found to be fascinating. Meanwhile, the runners in scoring position, that was just the Diamondbacks, of course, once again, giving themselves plenty of opportunities with runners in scoring position and doing a good job of capitalizing on that,

going four out of 11. And the Phillies were two for six there with runners in scoring position. This one, though, is the most jaw-dropping stat. According to baseball, Svant, the Phillies only had a 12% hard-hit percentage tonight. Meaning 12% of the balls they made contact with were at exit veloes of 95 miles per hour or higher.

And that's crazy. Diamondbacks, meanwhile, we're at 52.6. And that's honestly far more common. When you see us pull this stat, you'll usually see teams in about the 40 to 60% range for hard hit balls. A lot of them end up finding gloves or defenders. So, you know, outs can still be hard hit balls. But in this case, 12% by the Phillies. Great job here. Great job by the Diamondbacks pitching staff at inducing soft contact and getting these, you know, Philadelphia hitters keeping them off balance and getting them to hit. Ball in the gloves softly. The Phillies did have four. extra base hits. Most of those occurred in the first inning. The Diamondbacks just had that one double by James McCann. You had the 181 expected batting average here for the Diamondbacks to the Phillies 210, and both teams were 0 for one in ABS challenges. I don't know how that impacts where the diamondbacks currently stand, but I do believe they came into play today with the best percentage of ABS challenges won in Major League Baseball. But as Damon

and I have discussed and Damon has really stuck on you they the the diamondbacks don't use their challenges enough they have the least amount of challenges in all of major league baseball so that's kind of nuts piece of Yoshi says I flipped the hard hit percentages did I because that probably makes yeah I guess because the Diamondbacks it's team pitching you're correct so yeah it should It's 52%. Diamondbacks allowed a 52.6% hard hit percentage. You're absolutely. Philly's allowed a 12%.

That far, honestly, that was one thing. Again, when I said that didn't make any sense, that actually makes far more sense. The Diamondbacks, we're not getting very hard contact on this one. Like the one James McCann double is the only extra base. Yeah, lots of singles. You're absolutely right. I flip those around and I apologize for being dumb on that.

But thank you. You said, we are 15 and 7 in challenges. And again, I don't, yeah, I guess. But, you know, 15 challenges? in this many games, I mean, or what, 22 challenges, I still think that there's been Yankees games where the Yankees have challenged 22 times in a single game, if I'm not mistaken.

Yeah, they're just, they just don't do it all that often, but I guess if they're going to do it in this way, Derek, that this is what you want to see happen. If they're going to be conservative about it, you want to see them pick and choose their spots well, and you want to see them be effective with their challenges, which they have thus far. They have been.

Fair play. Except today when Pridomo was over one. I mean, he just couldn't believe that he saw. He's like, no way I just struck out with him. He goes, that looked like a strike, but I'm just going to go ahead and trust my eye here because there's a zero percent chance. I don't strike out. Exactly.

Exactly. That's kind of the thing. Also, Derek, great look at a horrific city connect uniform right there in the Philadelphia affiliates. Oh, God. It's really bad. It's so bad. Speaking of we're going to be talking about city connecting uniforms here in a second, but I mean,

good God is. Is that a bad city connect uniform? Oh, it's just bad. I mean, again,