PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - POSTGAME: D-backs SAVE SEASON With EXTRA-INNINGS Win Over Red Sox to Avoid Sweep in Boston

Episode Date: August 20, 2026

The Arizona Diamondbacks needed a win on Wednesday in the worst way, and they had to go 10 innings to get it. The Snakes rallied late to beat the Boston Red Sox and avoid a three-game sweep, snapping a three-game losing streak and keeping their season alive. We break down Brandon Pfaadt’s nearly outstanding start that was spoiled by Mickey Gasper, Gabriel Moreno extending his hit streak to 13 games with another clutch moment, and the D-backs offense coming through with two huge runs in the 10th inning to secure the victory. Was this the most pivotal win of the season for Arizona? Plus, we have the latest on Ketel Marte’s continued absence, a story that doesn't appear to be going away anytime soon. 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 BBPHNX15 at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order! Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visit https://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotes 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.

Are we back? Are we back? Diamondbacks finally win a baseball game, snapping their three-game skid, and avoiding the sweep at the hands of the Boston Red Sox. Turn on those cactus lights. We needed this one. To another edition of the DeBacks Postgates show right here on PHNX, L'OK, presented by our friends at Circle K. Oh my God, did we need that one? Welcome in, folks. My name is Derek Montaic, the mayor of PHNX, and the Diamond may have just saved their season. You know, we talk crazy on this show. I am not alone. I have you wonderful people here in the chat with me.

I'm thrilled to have you guys here. And thrilled also to be joined by a man who's also very relieved to see the Diamondbacks for the baseball game. It is your dog, my dog, and the D-Backs dog. Definitely Nolan Arnato's dog right now. It's Damon dog on the ones and twos. And boy, Damon, we, I said it already, but we needed that one. The Diamondbacks needed a win.

They needed something to be excited about. They needed something to remind them that they are alive inside and that everything is still good in this world. Maybe that's me. Maybe I'm the one that needed that. But regardless, we got that with this win. The Diamondbacks avoid the sweep, beating the Boston Red Sox in 10 innings

by a score of 7 to 6. And like I said, this is a big win. This is also the PHNX Diamondback show presented by our friends at GameTime. Go download the GameTime app right now, create an account and use code P-H-N-X for $20 off your first purchase terms to apply. Diamondbacks now improve Damon to 67 and 61. It's a 6-7.

It's a 6-7 day. It's a 6-7 day. They win 6-7. Like the score, Derek? It's 6-7. And they also improve to 6-7 on their record, 6-7, 6-1. Send Perdomo up the mountain already. What are we doing?

Oh, the Diamondbacks are now 15 and 18 all time against the Boston Red Sox, but more importantly, in the world of strange, strange, strange stats, Damon. The Diamondbacks have won seven straight Wednesday day road games dating back to nearly this time last year, August 13th, 2000 and 25. In the chat, Mark said that 6-7 is that the year that Derek was born and Jordan responded 1867. Yeah, you guys are all bad people. Mark, you're a bad person. Jordan, you're a bad person. Damon, you're the worst person of all the way. I'm just, I'm happy to have cultivated this community.

Yeah, I think that it brings us closer together when we can all make fun of Derek for being old. Indifference News says, good to see you guys off the ledge. Us off the ledge? Us off the ledge? Go read the comments from the live chat last. night. But yes, we, we were ready to call it a season. I had a thumbnail that may or may not have been made up that said, is it over question mark as the words on it? And may or may not is also being a little far fetch there overall because it may. Everybody in this office saw it.

Everybody knows you made it. But the Diamondbacks again, they got a very, very, very, very, very much needed when overall this team has kind of been spiraling so they just have never in their life needed to turn things around more with a victory this feels like it's far more than just about avoiding the sweep it's far more than just going three and three on the road trip which they do do now this is the first chance that they've had to kind of have something positive occur for this 26-man roster since the news of Cotel Marte not showing up for game one in Boston happened. But man, overall, you had a good feeling.

You had at least a good feeling that we had a chance with Brandon fought on the mound. Little did we know that fought wouldn't make it six innings, nor would he give up what he's normally been giving up with just two earned runs or less. And he was that close to doing so. But a guy that I look entirely too much like right now, Mickey Gasper, had himself a series and gained himself some new enemies for life, for life. Me and Damon hate that man more than we hate traffic and having reservations canceled on us by the restaurant.

But Derek, I've never been more confident in my life that someone was cheating. Like, I've never been more confident. This is like, this is like I'd imagine, and I was a little bit young for it, but this is like what I would imagine people were thinking when Barry Bonds was in his heyday. and he gained just a like face, you know, muscle just all the way. Like his neck was three times the size as it was when he was on the pirates. Like Mickey Gasper is cheating in some way, shape, or form. I just can't prove it yet because there's no way that a guy with zero bombs walks into this series

and hits a home run in every single game. Yeah. There's no way. I refuse to believe it. And I just think that, you know, like there were people that were like the red, The Red Sox are cheating. The Red Sox are cheating before this series started. I'm going to read it. I'm going to read it. Stop. Hold on. I'm going to read it. We have been getting tweets from Bruce Wayne. I think I believe him. It's Bruce Wayne. So typically a guy named

Bruce Wayne is trustworthy. But he's been telling us that the Red Sox are actively cheating. This came, this exact image was sent to us before the series even started. And basically it accuses the Boston Red Sox of cheating with a few schemes that help players know what pitches are coming, a system to send the batterers an idea of what pitch is more likely to come. Basically, they're saying, a small team of workers used cameras from different angles to study the pitcher's posture grip and how he may hold his glove on each type of pitch. He throws the pitchcom system to digitally hack or intercept signs from the opposing teams. Then they send this information using pitchcom technology to either their first base coach

or the coach in the dugout. After that, they relayed to the batters. And this sounded like the biggest conspiracy theory I had ever heard. And then when the Diamondbacks, like I said, they were down 7-0 in game one. I was like, let's run that back. Let's talk about that pitchcom cheating thing again, right? What's odd is today it was just some first pitches that Brandon fought through that Boston Red Sox pitcher or hitters jumped on. I don't even know if there's anything you could say there as far as what they could have stolen, right?

Like, I mean, a first pitch like that, I think they were just guessing fastball and guessed correctly, especially when he gave up that lead-off home run to Nick Sogard to start the game, right? But again, Brandon Fott, he had a scoreless street coming into this game. He was still able to hold the Boston Red Sox to just two runs for the majority of the game. And then right before his day wrapped up, Gasper, who again, we hate and I might have to shave my mustache now because of how much I look like him, ruined, you know, Brandon Fott's day, ruined our day, ruined our loss. lives, you know, we thought it was all going to happen again. And again, you can't help.

But when you get told something like this and see the offense that the Red Sox have put together in the series, you can't help but be suspicious overall here. But they've had such a weird up and down season where it feels like they're just, there are games where they just, their, their offense is unstoppable. And there are other games where they're just a different, completely different type of team. Right. But again, like I just, I've never.

It sounded insane. And then next thing I. know I was fully bought in, David. This is like when Sammy Sosa. Eat us like this. I couldn't help me think like, yes, this is real. This is like when Sammy Sosa's bat broken, all the bouncing balls came out of it, Derek. That's how I feel right now after watching Mickey Gasper play baseball.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, after watching this Red Sox team in the series overall, it's been, it's been suffocating, right? So. Yeah. They get in, you know, AZ cards nerds put it a couple times in the chat. Time to get the hell out of Boston. Oh, 100%.

It's like Florida. to that stupid stadium ever again. It's like Florida. Get me out of Florida. Get me out of Boston. I'm done. Take me back to the West Coast. Best Coast.

Where I know things are sweet. Anywhere else than there, right? Yeah. Again, the offense had themselves. I mean, what do we want to talk about here first? We want to talk about Brandon Fodder. Let's talk about the offense since they did the thing today. I mean, Peyton totally dominated the debacks actually through most of his start.

Corbyn Carroll singled in the first inning, but he was put. out on a Gabriel Moreno, uh, inning, ending double play. And it felt like once again, this is what we were going to see. Um,

in the second, Perdomo had a lead off walk. Aronado strikes out on three pitches, Tawa strikes out on seven pitches and then, uh, pop up ends that inning. The third, the third inning was the first real threat that it felt like

they were putting something against Holy. Uh, and again, another mustache guy that now I have to reconsider everything that I'm doing with my face because of this guy and the way he dominated. Yeah, Derek. You're, you should really shave that must.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Damon, yeah. You don't even get me started on you. But Jose Fernandez was excellent today. He had a lead off double there in the third inning. That was his eighth at the time of the season. Waldschmidt has been putting together some tremendously good at bats himself. He had a great day. I think Waldy was on base nearly every time he got up to base.

He went two for three with two walks in this game. So incredible day from Waltzman. And just overall, just some really good at bats that he's putting together much better at bats than many of his other teammates in the starting lineup. And again, it's looking more and more like between his at-bats and his defense that Walt Schmidt is just here to stay. This is no longer a, hey, you know, we're going to, you know, option you and bring you back and option you.

Like, Waldschmidt right now is far outperforming Jordan Lawler and several other outfielders and absolutely deserves to remain on the roster. It's funny what happens when you give a guy regular at-bats and how they can get in a group like that. but it's been defensively, it's been offensively, Waldie's been great. Al-Lamar Vargas hit into a field, there's choice there in the third inning that should have,

at the very least, just pinning out. But Jose Fernandez did not stay put at third base, and you see that inexperience in that moment. So the put-out is at home on Fernandez. Vargas makes it the first, and then with runners on first and second, Corby and Gabby both strike out to end the inning. Then the offense put up a one, two, three, fourth inning,

and again, it looked like this was going to be another one of those days. Another one of those days. But with one out in the fifth, they finally break through. And it starts once again with Fernandez, who hits his second double of the day. Now is ninth of the season. And then Ryan Walshman, again, just like I said, delivered with an RBI double that scored Jose and gave the Diamondbacks their first run of the game. The Diamondbacks were down two to one at the time.

Then with two outs, it started to look like they were going to be dead in the water again offensively in that inning, Damon. And Carol walked to put two on. Gabriel Moreno. It's like that same point, that same point in the game that it was yesterday when he hit the grand slam. He delivers one game. Greatest five minutes of my life. I mean, that's how this felt too. That's how this felt too because, I mean, I know it didn't put him up by what, you know, by by big, you know, lead. But Gabby Moreno hits a two run double and gives the Dima Baks a three to lead. That was Moreno's 26 double of the year. And he has extended his hitting

streak to 13 games, which I believe is a season high. His other. streak was reaching base safely. So this one is a hitting streak. But again, that's all they would get there in the fifth inning. They did have two outs when that scoring occurred. So it was just great to see them do that with two outs. Then in the six, we get some more runs. Nolan Aronado hits a really loud lead off single that banged off the monster there. I was supposed to hit the monster for a single. Aronado. Is that Steve Berthume on the PHNXD back post game show? Yeah, that's probably wrong. Monster, monster. Anyway, Arnado advances to second on a towel flyout. And then Arnado's best friend, Lars Neutbar, pinch hits for Jordan Lawler and hits his first home run as a deback.

Give your, I want, I want you in the chat to give your flowers to Tori Lavolo. Tori Lavolo's Masterclass. Masterclass. Say something else about it. Because Lars Newbar has not been good at the plate, Nor has Jordan Lawler. This was almost like a push for me. Honestly, when he put in Nart, Newbar for Loller, I was like, flyout to fly out, right? And instead, it wasn't a flyout. It was a very long, long hit ball.

It went 420 feet hilariously. And it had 110.5 mile per hour exit Vila. It was Newt Bar's fourth home run of the season, but it was his first home run as a Diamondback. Newt! Two-run shot gives the Diamondbacks or pushes the lead to five to two. Then, Damon, then came the moment where we could only enjoy that five-two lead for five minutes. Thanks to Mickey Gaspar.

Gasper? I don't care. I don't care. I hate him. I hate him. Mickey Cheater. He's a cheater. And he's a known cheater.

Known cheater. You know, he has, I think, five career home runs or six career home runs and five of them are off the Diamondbacks. Something like that. I'm looking now. Five career home runs. He has four career home runs and I think five now and three are off the Diamondbacks. Yeah. I think it's four.

I think it's four. I hate him. It says four for his career and it's not updated for three on the season, which have all come against the Diamondbacks. So I'm just assuming that it's five and three are against the gamebacks. Well, again, Diamondbacks get there. They get that five two lead. It doesn't last very long.

They are tied five, five, and then, nothing from this offense. And the seventh, Bargis hits a lead-off single. Gabby walked to give him two base runners, but then Perdomo would fly out, Aronado strikes out, a one, two, three, eighth inning where they didn't produce much. And then Welchmidt walked to lead off the ninth, advanced on a Corby Carroll ground out and stole third base, all in one inning.

Sorry to cut you off here, Derek, but one of his two home runs that he had before this season was against the Diamondbacks, and he played on the twins. So it's not as if we were playing the twins every year. It's not like he was on the Dodgers or the Padres or something. something. He was on the twins. He hit one against the Blue Jays last year and one against the diamondbacks. So four out of his five career home runs are against the Donovanbacks and three of up game in this goddamn forsaken series. I mean, I've just, three in the series. I've just almost

never hated a player more than Mickey Gasper. Oh my God. He's up there like for he's like on in the top five like already at this point. It's unbelievable. Corby and Carol you were saying. I just had that was a necessary update. Walt Schmidt walks to lead off the ninth. He got the second on a Corby and Carroll ground out and stole third. And again, this just kind of goes, feeds to the legend there a little bit of Walt Schmidt and what he is becoming for this team. He has become that guy that like, look it, he was single-handedly trying to score run. I think it was, was it Durbin or yesterday that did the same thing, right?

And then he scored on a wild pitch. So you just never know what's going to happen when you put yourself 90 feet away from home plate. again, Walschmidt was trying to win this game in nine innings and not go to extra innings, but that would not happen. That's as close as he would get to scoring and that's close to the Diamondbacks would get to taking a lead in, I don't know, what do we call? Regulation, but we go to extra innings. And with Moreno as the ghost runner there in the 10th inning, Perdomo laid down a really good

sackbunt. I mean, he almost was safe at first base on the sackbunt. And then Nolan Aronado goes full Luis Gonzalez. broken bat, RBI single to be the hero, score Moreno, and give those snakes a six-five lead. While I was celebrating, Damon was melancholy? There's another word that I'm really just dating myself with. But Damon didn't believe. Extra credit. Damon said, Damon said six runs is not enough. And boy, was Damon right. So, of course, the Diamondbacks listen, Tawa walks, McCann walks. The Boston Red Sox, who have one of, if not the best, they actually have the best bullpen in all

baseball. They put in a guy who just simply couldn't throw strikes. Was it, it was Moran, right? Moran comes in. Could not throw strikes. In fact, I was mad anytime any badder actually tried to swing at a pitch. But Tawa and McCann both walked to load the bases and then Fernandez would walk to bring in a second run on a basis loaded walk. That put the Diamondbacks up seven to five at the time. They did give up one run, the ghost runner, in the bottom of the 10th, but that would be all that Boston would score, and the Diamondbacks would go on to steal this one by a score of 7 to 6.

And I don't think there's any other way to phrase it because as happy as I am that they won, this did not feel like this was going to be a Diamondbacks win. This 100% was set up to be a walk-off win for the Red Sox. And again, the Diamondbacks, though they were not perfect tonight, they prevailed. And most importantly, give some love to the bullpen.

This bullpen did what it's been doing all season long, and once Brandon fought left the game, they locked it down. It was shaky at times. They didn't, again, they weren't perfect, but they did not allow an earned run for the remainder of the game, and the Diamondbacks were able to hold on to the win. But offensively, a lot of guys...

Biggest win in franchise history. I mean, Damon. This is another one of those where it's like, I don't know if the win means as much as the loss would have meant. Was it? Was it a must win or a can't lose? It was a can't lose. It was a can't lose that game.

Full stop. Full stop. I mean, must win is, you know, when we're closer to the end of the season and we're trying to get our way into the playoffs. This was we have to stop the bleeding because we are going to be dead. And I know we get hyperbolic about it. I know we say the season is over. That's what we do.

We're just guys like that. But in reality, we don't believe. that. We know there's a lot of baseball left. And again, there comes a point where you kind of move from being just overreactionary to actually feeling like this could end this season, even though we're still in August and still have 30 days to play. The good thing is, is that of those, you know, plus, what, 41 days that we have left, you got series against the Phillies, series against the Padres. So at the very least, it's not out of your control. The Diamondbacks kids. in make up ground on both of those teams and both of those series,

plus some of the other teams that are in the race are still on their schedule as well. Not to mention that chump-ass team from San Francisco, they have four more games against and three more games against the Colorado Rockies. Feed those games to me there. I don't even know if they're going to field nine guys for the Giants game. I don't even know if they had nine major leaguer. They might quit. Vitello might be out there on the field.

The Diamondbacks now, yeah. I mean, this was a big, this was a big one. The debacks instead of being two games out like they were yesterday are now just a game out from behind the Padres who lost today. And, you know, I think beyond just the wild card standings, like this mattered for morale reasons. You know, this week has been tumultuous. This week has been something that I'm sure none of them expected was going to happen.

And I'm sure a lot of their minds are in other places, especially in that first game, you know, that happened on Monday. Like, I think it's impossible. to say that they weren't getting their ass kicked in large part because a lot of the team was worried about what's going on with Catelle. Yeah. And I do think that like you've had a couple days now to steady the ship, but you needed to see a win happen against a good team in the Red Sox or else I really do think that this thing was in danger of spiraling out of control on the debacks. Hopefully now you can sit there, take the moral victory almost of going 500 on this road trip against two of the best teams in baseball.

Yep. And you just move on and you say, okay, it is what it is. You know, as you've been saying, operate as Katel's been, you know, hurt right now with the knee situation. And, you know, hope he plays for the team again at some point this season. But, yeah, definitely lost some firepower this week. Needed this win today to kind of hold the pace here in the standings of the wild card. It's hard to give it the king snake to one particular guy. It felt like Brandon fought might have been.

you know, in the driver's seat for that, but unfortunately it gives up five run runs in that very last stupid at home run by Mickey Gasper. But in regards to this particular game, I'm going to give it to Jose Fernandez. Jose Fernandez is our king snake for today. And I'm going to give you more reasons than just his stats.

Fernandez was two for four today. He had an RBI. He had a run scored. And he was Damon the, you know, know, one of the driving forces behind the rallies that the Diamondbacks put together. Yeah. Right? Do we have the?

No, we don't. We don't. Okay. I'm making it, though. You're, all right. Sorry. I had to let my takes fly. This game meant everything to this organization.

I hear you. I hear you. But again. Shout out to Jose Fernandez, though. I mean, you know, got called up, been, you know, on kind of on a fly. And here he is, and he's producing, which is nice to see. I mean, Mark's right. Newt pinch hitting and getting his first home run as a diamond back is also a definite candidate and an honorable mention.

But Jose Fernandez, you know, he was kind of thrust into this moment, into this spot. Not only was he called up due to a potential, Noel Narano, I.L. stint, but he was called up in the midst of this entire story, this entire situation with this team, you know, unraveling and coming apart. and he was asked to step into a huge series when the D-back season is on the line, not only over there at third base, but, you know, to step in against one of the better pitching staffs in baseball. And, I mean, I know it was a struggle for him at times

in the first two games, but today, I mean, he just delivered with two huge doubles, just rockets off of his bat. And he's the only guy in this game that had extra base hits. But I think that it also goes to say that this is once again another guy having an amazing kind of return from Reno. I don't know how long he'll be here.

I don't know how long he will be asked to, you know, help this team win baseball games. But he went two for four today with two doubles and RBI. And, I mean, the game winning walk. Yep. Right? I mean, he takes a very patient at bat. It shouldn't have been hard with a guy that couldn't hit the strike zone,

but I'm not going to take that away from him. He still is a young guy that was called up and put into that moment in extra innings. And he came through by having an excellent bat and walking and bringing home that run. It would have been easy to swing at the first pitch like other guys did and pop up, but he didn't. And I think that it was almost unfair

to ask all of this of him for this kind of series in this kind of atmosphere in Boston. But again, I think that he deserves his flowers for what he did. And I think there's a lot of guys. Once again, Newt Barr absolutely deserved it. Walt Schmidt, I just couldn't stop talking about Waldie and how good he was today. I mean, just in the ways that he had some great at bats, walk twice, two for three, the stolen base, everything.

You know, Walt Schmidt had a double as well. And again, just three total bases today. So, but again, Jose Fernandez, he is our king snake for, for. delivering big for this team in a couple of moments today. We're going to take a quick break. And on the other side of this break, we're going to talk about Brandon Fott's Day and this bullpen doing everything they could to hold on to this one. We're also going to talk about Mickey Gasper some more and how much I hate him.

I might shave my mustache off live on this show. We'll see. Stick around. Folks. You're watching the PHNX Diamondback show. Well, shout out to the Window Depot because summer might be winding down, but it's not really getting any cooler, right? Just moving from 116 degrees.

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and i mean it started off in the worst possible way there there's no other way to say it with the very first pitch to the very first batter nick sogard put the diamondbacks down one nothing with a home run. We have the pitch by pitch. I don't know why I have this, but we have this because, I mean, it wasn't a great pitch. It's a 92.9 mile per hour forcing fastball,

basically right down the middle of the plate. You thought maybe you would sneak one by to get ahead in the count, and that did not work, right? This was Sogarde's first home run of his MLB career. Yeah, that's right. That's a theme here with this series where we gave up a lot of home runs and hits to guys we probably shouldn't have. More importantly, this was the first home run Brandon Fought has allowed since June 30th.

He went eight starts in a row without allowing a home run. And the first one he gives up is to a guy on a first pitch that hits his first career home run. get my baseball team out of Boston, Massachusetts right now. But we got, of course, a one, two, three second inning here from the Diamondbacks or for Brandon Fott. So that was good. But then again in the third inning, Fott gives up another first pitch, lead off. First, like, home run to this time, Jaron Duran. Look at this one.

This one was a four-seem fastball, 91.3 up in the zone. They were looking for it. Some say they knew it was coming. Those are accusations. I'm not going to... Some would. I'm not going to levy, but somewhat. That one went 388 feet in that stupid stadium to right center field.

It was 100 miles per hour off the bat. Whatever. But still, overall, after that, fought like dialed it in, right? and he does what he does. He minimized the damage. Yes, they were on home runs and he has not been giving up a lot of home runs. But from there, he didn't allow another run for several innings. He gave up a one out single to Contreras in the fourth. But then he got three strikeouts in the inning to get out of it or overall. And he also gave up, Damon, can I get back on screen? He gave up a one out single to Duran in the fifth. But that ended with a strikeout of Sogard. And that felt good. after what he did early. But the goddamn sixth inning with one out in the sixth, Fott gives up a single to Willie, a pair of singles, actually, to Wilior Abraeu and Wilson.

I got to do it. Coltrera's. But then he got Durbin to fly out, and he had two outs, and it felt like it was just inevitable that Fott was going to end his day with a final out of Mickey Effin Gaspur, and instead Fott gives up a three-run home run

to Mickey Fenn Gaspur. to tie the game up at five. And that was that brief period of time between the top of the sixth and the bottom of the sixth, where for five to seven whole minutes, we lived in a world where we thought the Diamondbacks were going to win this game,

and then we lived in a world where we knew they weren't going to win this game. And yet somehow, they won this game. Baseball's funny. We got Steven in the chat asking, is Gabby Moreno, the most underrated player in the league? By far. I don't even know if he's underrated.

I think the story's starting to get out, but he definitely isn't getting the kind of press he deserves for what he has been doing for this team this year. What he's been doing for his pitching staff. Gabby's now hitting 307 with an 855 OPS. And again, he's not doing it necessarily with a ton of power and a ton of home runs, but that's not what this team needs.

This team needs the consistency of Gabby's bat right now, and he's been providing it. And again, this is on a day where Marino went one for four with a walk and two RBI and a run score. So he wasn't even the driving force behind it, but he had himself a solid day. And again, extends his hitting streak to 13 games. But Brandon Fotz's day was weird.

He still did an excellent job of command and control in the zone. We have his pitch chart here. He went with his four seam, 34% of the outing, but he did do a good job of mixing things up here. He used all everything, the entire kitchen sink, all six pitches that he throws.

He is forcing maxed out at 93.9 miles per hour and average 92.6, which I think was actually a little bit up. But he got three whiffs on it. The pitch that was really successful today was his sweeper. His sweeper, as you can see, with the yellow pitches there, kind of all over the place. But for the most part, Fought wants those down, down, either down in the zone or down and out of the zone. He got seven whiffs on the sweeper today.

17 whiffs total for Brandon fought against the Red Sox. So almost the anti-game plan of what the Diamondbacks have been doing this year. Definitely not pitching to contact anymore, not against this team, because somehow they'll just sneak it inside of the foul pole somehow on a home run that shouldn't be a home run elsewhere. But again, three whiffs on the changeup.

He used that 18%. So he's a sweeper 20%, change up 18%. Curbball 14%. Through the cutter a few times, through the sinker a few times. He got two whips on the curb ball and the cutter each and then three whiffs on the change of. So again, a lot of swing and miss today for Brandon fought. And he filled up that Circle K strikeout meter. The Circle K strikeout meter deserved this.

Deserved a day like this. And we deserved a win like this. Eight strikeouts today for Brandon fought. And that pleases the Circle K strikeout meter. very much so also pleases us what would have pleased us more would have been brandon fought getting the the quality start keeping this one yet again under you know two runs those two home runs he gave up he would have just been able to finish off gasper we would be talking about a six inning day and probably fought as king snake in this game instead he gave up in five and two thirds innings pitch seven hits and

five earned runs for his worst outing essentially since returning from triple a reno but still no walks and eight strikeouts. And I'll blame that Cracker Jack Stadium for the three home runs that he gave up. The bullpen, though, they absolutely deserve their flowers collectively for what they did today. Juan Murillo came in. He kind of put out the fire there with Brandon Fott. They're giving up that home run. It wasn't even like Fought needed to come out of the game, but it did feel like it was time and things might continue to unravel.

Morillo gives up one hit and one walk in his one inning of work. He did have one strikeout. Brandon Garcia also looked incredible. He got a big strikeout of Contreras. He had a walk and a K and two-thirds inning of work. Ginkle also put in two-thirds innings of work with zeros across the board. And then Jonathan Loisiga gave the Diamondbacks too strong. He did give up a hit and the run for the Ghost Runner there in the bottom of the 10th,

but no run runs for him. And again, this Diamondbacks bullpen did not give up any earned runs for the remainder of the game. another really, really strong outing from them on a night where they needed it. They needed it. So they really needed to hold on to this one and secure the victory. And after fought, gave up that home run to Gasper. I mean, it was probably, you know, pretty, pretty devastating to this team. So the performance this bullpen gave really, they really stepped up.

And that's what I was saying about needing one of the starting pitchers to do that. with the way that this team has been struggling offensively, the Diamondbacks needed one of their starters. And I'm not blaming Brandon fought for that stupid Gaspur home run. But I'm just saying, man, it was like in this series, nobody could really be counted on at all. And they're kind of lucky to be leaving Boston with the one win to make this road trip three and three.

Again, a three and three record that Damon and I had openly said, if they could go three and three, that would be good. We weren't going to go crazy about it, but three and three was probably the best we could have hoped for because we did say if they went four and two that they were going to win the World Series. Starting to see where people say we overreact a little bit. I don't think we, I think we may be underreact. You're probably right about that. That's how I feel.

That's how I feel. But then people gaslight me in the live chat. So I don't really know how to feel sometimes, Damon. But again, outstanding job here by the bullpen. And we are going to take a look at the numbers overall from this series on the live. other side of this break. So don't you guys go anywhere. You are watching the PHA next Diamondback show.

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Call Kim Caballero today at 4804895012. That's 4804895012 and tell her PHN Accentgy. All right. Well, Damon, I know we were kind of a mess here with our numbers, but this series was a mess for the Diamondbacks. I don't know any other way to phrase it. I don't know any other way to cut it. This is probably the most disgusting graphic I've ever seen you make.

And it's not due to the pictures you used or graphic images that you placed on it. Yeah, it's usually something that's a little bit more disgusting like maybe John Curtis always watching on screen or something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, I mean, this is a disaster. And I hope it's correct because you did half of it and I did half of it. And so I don't know if our math is mathing right now. But I think it is. I think it is too because, again, this team definitely gave up plenty of runs in this series.

But, man, I'll tell you, this starting pitching year A for the Diamondbacks, this bullpenny URA, 9.94 starting year A, 6.08 relief ERA. It's just awful. It's awful. And then, you know, the Red Sox, they were what they were. I mean, at least the Diamondbacks were able to get to Peyton Tolly and put up three earned runs on him today. And, you know, yesterday they put in an decent effort with Moreno's Grand Slam home run. But overall, they get out hit 38 to 21 in the series.

The Red Sox had seven home runs to the Diamondbacks two. And this, the runners in scoring position. 8 for 25 for the Diamondbacks, 11 for 33. Somehow the runners in throwing position are so close, Damon, yet the Diamondbacks got out scored 26 to 12, 11 to 1 and 9 to 4 in two of the games. Oh, God. It's bad. It is bad.

It's bad. And again, there's a good reason. that obviously the Diamondbacks didn't play their best baseball. There is, it cannot be said enough how much baseball players are creatures of habit. And not having one of the guys that's been there pretty much every, every day you've been there, you know, suddenly without explanation, is a huge distraction. The last thing they need against,

needed against a Boston Red Sox team that was playing this good of baseball. And I don't blame them. I don't blame them for coming out on in game one of the series and losing 11 to 1. It's just not something that you can expect baseball players to do when they have so much on their minds. They're talking to each other before game. They're talking to each other in the dugout. There's a lot of whispering going on. You know, I don't even know if it's whispering,

straight up shouting if it was me. But, you know, again, the timing on this probably is the worst part of it. But again, the Diamondbacks need to press on. And hopefully this win just reassures them that they are still a good baseball team and they can still win baseball games. And they have another series coming up here against the Cincinnati Reds. At home, it'll be nice to come play at any ballpark that isn't Fenway. And they have a day off, which is another thing that they kind of need right now.

They need to decompress. They need some time away. They need to, you know, at least have time to deal with this whole situation that's going on themselves. Right. But overall, this wild card race, they're still in it. And I know it was all doom and gloom just yesterday. But Damon, we're not. dead yet. We're still alive. Yeah, it takes a little bit more to kill a couple of sons of

bitches like me and Derek and the people here in this chat. I'll tell you that much. We've been down before. Yeah. We've had our asking. You can beat us. You can break us. You can take away our best player. And while none of us have any idea what's happening with him, uh, still don't really have a confirmation of where he resides currently. Uh, but I'll damn it, we're still going to be in this wildcard chase until the end. Believe that. It's like Craig's dad said, you live, you live to fight another day. And we've, we lived. We almost died in the series of Boston, but we live.

And like you said, now we sit still outside of the playoffs, Damon, but one game out from a playoff spot, two and a half games back from the Phillies who continue to not lose games. They've won five in a row. Did you make that happen? You like to blame me a lot for like results of things that happened, but I feel like ever since you said the Phillies are not making playoffs. They've maybe not, like, lost a baseball game.

Oh, God, you're right. You are right. You are right. I think I called them frauds and said they were due for a collapse. I think, like, Bryce Harper and Kyle Shorever were watching the podcast. Probably in Brandon. And I meant every word. We know Brandon Marsh's.

You're still frauds. You're still going to collapse. And I will see you when you are on the outside looking in. That is what is going to happen to the Phillies. Squidward meme. Watching everyone have fun playing down below. Are you going to say anything from outside of the club? You can't even get in.

You know Brandon Marsh watches this podcast after the investigative journalism that was done by one Derek Montia in discovering the ant farm that lives inside of him Marsh's beard. So we know that he's a listener of the show. Wouldn't necessarily call him friend of the program, but definitely listener of the show. Well, I mean, he didn't like that we exposed him like we did. he knows that the truth is out there and he's got to laugh it off right he's got reporters in the clubhouse at citizens bank park asking him about ants in his beard and he's got like what ants what are you talking about i don't have any ants in the beer you got one guy leaning in a little too close he has to push him away you know that kind of thing right but i don't care let's

beat these guys they're up right now 41 in the top of the nine so i think they might win six in a row and there might be some truth to the thing that damon's accusing me up potentially i don't love that let's see we got some super chats what are we got in the super chat first one is in a super chat i just mighty schum and i highlighted it because he said mickey gasper and jeremiah jackson will live infamously in the mind of diamond backs fans those are two enemies of the state yeah we'll bring them up and people will literally say who i am i am literally classifying both of them as enemies of the state uh the state being the arizona diamondbacks baseball club yeah um fc yeah if they ever uh show their face at Chase Field ever again.

I say we arrest them on the spot. And there's got to be cops or security or something at Chase Field. I think that it's, you know, it's. You don't have to actually charge them with a crime. And we don't do, we don't do, uh, what's it called, uh, extradition? We don't do that. Right. Like if you, if you want your guy back, you better be willing to trade something for your guy back

because we're not just extraditing Mickey back to freaking Boston. It doesn't work like that. We'll take something from you in return, please. I also, one thing I don't understand, do we not have any friends at TSA that can, like, you know, make some bags get lost or something for guys? Drop like a utility knife in his pocket. I'm just saying. I'm just saying.

Oh, whoa, he's got a weapon. They checked sand I brought back from the beach in Puerto Rico to make sure it wasn't some sort of explosive material. I watched them check a lady's unopened cereal box that she brought with her before my flight to Alaska. When I went to Vancouver. I had a brownie tested. It was just a snack that I had, but he was very suspicious that that brownie was C4 or had something special inside of it.

And I mean, that's an accusation. Yeah, allegedly. Allegedly, the brownie had something inside of it. But you can't prove it. Yeah, you can't prove it. We have just toast here $2. You said, we are so back. Unk is back.

Vargy is a stud. Is Unk Derek? No, Unks, Nolan Arna. Got you. Yeah. Biggest single in Debeck's history after Luis Gonzalez is single in the game seven, of course. 100%. Cool bro, 199.

As disastrous this felt, we take three and three versus Boston and Atlanta. Very true. And then goes on to say, big Sean concert at ASU was fun last night. It is a disaster tonight. It's concert. It's concert season. It's concert season. Don't be downtown the night if you don't need to be.

Because, boy, you are going to be in trouble. There's a Noah Con concert going on at Chase Field. Damon and Pedy are both going to Mortgage Matchup Center to see the same band. That's fun. That Pity and David. Oh, Pity's going? Pety's going. Pedy's going, yes.

Pedy knows ball. Yeah, Peeley definitely knows ball. Rufus to Saul. Damon, Pedy, let's do it. And I'm going to see what I call a genre of music that I refer to as sublime music, basically. It's a little stranger intrepidelics over at the Van Buren. But don't be downtown if you don't need to be down here. All the parking spaces are taken up and all the food has been eaten.

So stay home. But anyway, Derek, if someone responded to my, speaking of my Nolan Aronado take of biggest single in D-BACs history after Luis Gonzalez's game seven walkoff and said, oh, come on, dude. Yes,

great hit, but don't put it in the same sentence as that World Series winning hit. Not cool. Are we not doing jokes on the joke app anymore? I thought the joke app was for jokes. Is it not for jokes? Not cool. dude not funny at all all right i'm sorry i'll shelve it next time try it next time this is your workshop and stuff what can i say

but we're going to take a quick break and on the other side of this break we have no choice but we still have to talk about katel marty and the investigative journalism work that we have done around here in regards to finding one common thread between what happened last year and happened this year don't you go anywhere you are watching the p hnx diamond back's conspiracy podcast Well, if you ever ever, if you're ever involved in an accident or serious injury, you got to hire a lawyer that you can trust because the lawyer you hire does matter. That's why you should contact the husband and wife law team first. Mark and Alexis Breyer are the husband and wife law team. And let's face it, after serious injury, you want to trust a lawyer that has your best interest in mind and not how much money the firm makes.

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Sherees Espinoza Dash, who is the agent for Cotel Marte, shared the following with John Marosi. She said, he is currently managing a personal matter and will be undergoing an MRI on his need tomorrow. Kutel appreciates the unwavering support from fans. Teammates, the Diamondbacks organization, and Tori Lavallo during this time. He remains optimistic about his recovery and looks forward to returning to the field to contribute to the team as soon as possible. Obviously, a very, very PR statement there, right? But one that makes, I think some people feel a little bit better. A lot of people actually questioned, why wasn't this the very first thing we heard? Why wasn't this on Monday?

day what was relayed and a good agent probably should have done a better job at handling that we don't know if kattel had contact with his agent and i will just say that sometimes in life you have a problem that's so personal you don't want people to know about it and in some cases you are dealing with it and the last thing you're thinking of because of how it is impacting you is to call and tell other people i'm not justifying it i'm not saying it's right but there's there's a good chance that even the reason why this message from his agent came out as late as it did was due to the fact that Catell might have not been communicating what's going on with anyone. Mike Hazen appeared on, was it Wolf and Luke today, Damon? Yeah.

And he discussed basically still not having spoken to Cattel. He said he talked to Cattel through text messages and that he has a face-to-face meeting currently set up with Catell for tomorrow. But he kind of said the same thing that basically Tori said, which is he sounded unsure if he was going to, if Cotel Marte was going to play for this team again. Yeah, they've both used the word hope or hopeful, Mike Hazen said a couple times and that there's like a lot of variables right now. Tori after the game was asked about the situation again.

And he said that last year he had a little head. up and this year he had no heads up about Catelle and you know the um I don't really know necessarily what to call it the no show the back-to-back no shows the last two seasons. I almost feel like it's the lack of communication more than anything. I mean without a doubt. I think that's why the team's time without communicating. Yeah. I think that's why his teammates were very concerned is because they were like, well, he hasn't

said anything to anything. This wasn't Cotel leaving Massachusetts for the. Dominican Republic. So it's weird because it's not the same thing. It's not the same thing as leaving the All-Star game with obviously days off still on the break, right? You have like an extra day off after the game, you know, flying to the Dominican Republic and trying to squeeze in a quick, you know, trip home when you are already on the East Coast and you have that free day makes sense a little bit if you have the money to make a quick flight like that. But obviously it wasn't a quick flight and could tell him his time.

This was different. This was Boston. This was Cattel never left Boston until he came back to Phoenix for the MRI. And we, we know sparse details about it that almost seem accusational towards Cotel, right? I don't know what factors into this situation. We still know very little about it. However, Damon did discover one common theme yesterday between these two incidents. And it's the city of Atlanta, Georgia. Last year, it was obviously notoriously right after the All-Star break that, you know, the Cattel Marte absence went down and that was after the All-Star break in Atlanta that Cattel was present at.

The Diamondbacks were not present, but Cattel was present there, obviously. then this season, it was after a road trip that the Diamondbacks took in Atlanta. I don't know if there's any connection there. It's just kind of maybe a coincidence potentially. It feels like a coincidence. Or you could infer that it has something else, but it would be reckless on our part to use our platform to do that sort of speculation. It's just an interesting, you know, tidbit there that both occurrences are right after Cattel happen to be in Atlanta and then directly afterwards. he is uh he he's missing in action yeah necessarily i guess reporting for duty the only more

coincidental thing if is if he would have actually been m ia in my aunt then that would have been that was a bad joke but uh overall here it's it's i mean it's interesting and i also think that kattel again is probably dealing with some some personal issues right but there there is something to be said about a comment earlier in the chat. And I think it was from Mark Damon, but I might be wrong about that. It was more about, you know, Gabby Moreno stepping up here for this team

and the Diamondbacks moving on. Like, I'm not saying that they're going to like literally move on without Cattel, but it's like I said, you got to treat it as an injury. If Catell doesn't return this year, it's the same as him injuring his year. But Mark says, I look at the debacks and I say this now with Gabby Moreno. Hey, Katel, we're good, bro.

You can go. You don't have to. You can hang around. Still great. But you can go. We're all good here. And that's a terrible sentiment to feel. But it's understandable.

And at the same time, it's like if there's all sorts of weird rumors out there, Damon. There was a Instagram account that was alleging that his entire problem that he's having right now is with the Diamondbacks organization. And that doesn't seem to be coming from a credible source, but that is gaining some steam. I almost think, I don't know, but there was a screenshot that Cotel Marte had liked that post. I searched the likes on that post,

and there was no Cotel Marte like on that post. So either he liked it and unliked it, or someone's trying to cleverly Photoshop some stuff in to make it look like this situation is different than it actually is, right? That's an AI issue these days. Everybody has it at the power of their fingertips. It's so easy, right? Oh, man.

Hey, take this picture and make it tell them what a tail like it. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's definitely a weird situation. I completely understand people that are maybe a little bit fed up with Cattel doing this a couple seasons now in a row where the lack of communication is for sure the main issue. Like, you know, people go through things. We don't know what this situation is. So I think that it's, you know, fair from our perspective to refrain from judgment on why he's sitting out, but at the same time, it's not unfair for us to say that he needs to

communicate with his employer, the people that pay his salary, pay for, you know, him millions of dollars to have the great life that he gets to live. And it feels like you got to be able to, you know, look Tori in the eyes, look Mike Hay's in the eyes and say, I'm not showing up for work today because of blah, blah, blah. That's the minimum that you owe the diamondbacks in this situation. and a lot of people would say toughen up and play the game that you're paid millions to play. And I think that that's not even an unfair, you know, stand to take on this matter.

For me, though, and I held true to this last year when I was very upset, Derek, and I had people accusing me in the chat of being anti-Katel, which is so not true. But I think that I always... You've been one of the biggest Kutel's appointment. I feel like I'm always somewhere in the middle. I think that we can hold Ketel accountable for him not being professional. I also think that the Diamondbacks,

take a huge hit and what their ceiling is as a team when Catelle Marte isn't playing for the team. Yeah. Regardless of whatever season that he's having this year, he's one of the better hitters on this roster. He strikes fear into opposing pitchers. You have to pitch around him. You can't, you know, just lob him up softball type pitches. You know, he is, he is a guy that is a game changer for this team and a needle mover. And we don't have too many of those guys.

So even though Gabby has really broken out this year, I need Gabby plus Catell, plus Corbin, plus Jerry. That's what makes this team. team, you know, win at a postseason type of level. And so, yeah, it's, it's like, I just, I can't believe the words that I'm hearing about Hazen and Tori saying, like, we hope he's back this year. That's correct. That's the stuff that's, that's blowing my mind because it's like, especially knowing how 100% be back this year. What are we talking about? Especially knowing, one, how Mike Hazen typically likes to keep stuff in house and not necessarily let too much information out. And two, how much Tori supports his players. So it's like both of those guys would usually

you use far more careful language. For sure. Than they are. And it's not their fault that they're not. They're just speaking their mind and being honest and open, I think. I think this situation has shocked a lot of people in the organization, disappointed a lot of people in the organization, and probably made quite a few people angry.

And understandably so. You know, but you take a situation like this for granted at times. Damon and I are guilty of that. We love this job. I was just talking to him that I don't even know. what my life would be without working at PHNX. I don't know what.

I don't know what kind of wreck I would be if I would have said no to Brandon Spano texting me one day and saying you wanted to have a chat with me about something cool that they were going to do here. Right. But the day-to-day grind of this job, which we were just asked about on the watch along yesterday, can be a lot, especially for Damon, who does a lot around here and has a very long, well, very long season. Damon has no off-season.

There's no off season for Damon dog. And as far as I'm concerned, I'm kind of a one-man band when it comes to doing all of the stuff that usually takes four to five people to do to cover a baseball team over 162 games. I know that you could imagine, but like I couldn't even imagine sitting in a cubicle and like working at a computer all day for something that I just don't give a shit about. So like I think that's, can you imagine this wild animal being caged like that? That's why I'm saying it's hard for me to think about. It really is. It really is hard for me to think about. corporate Derek.

It's, uh, it really was your like, it's your severance any Derek. What was it? With like a comb over. 100% 100% still having a good time, but doing it with games that he's making off a big brother and survivor for people in the office to play. And this is Audi Derek. Yeah, this is Audi Derek. Outie Derek's a lot of fun. Audi Derek has a concert to go do.

So does Audi Dam it. So we're going to go do that. But again, remember sometimes in life, you just got to, you know, realize how. how blessed you are, especially if you are a major league baseball player that can hit 275 and smash home runs like they're nothing, that you walk off the Diamond Bat, or you walk off the Los Angeles Dodgers

and make a guy like me take my shirt off in public, right? And you're beloved for the most part. Before this situation, he bought back a lot of goodwill with the fans who I think really had his back when the last situation went down. 100%. Even beyond probably where a lot of the fan base should have had his back. Yeah.

Because that's where people were. coming after us for being like, you guys are being too harsh on Ketel when I thought that we were just trying to hold him accountable. And people really want to be on Ketel's side. And so it sucks for this to almost like, this this trickles down to hurting the fans who support him, who love him, who want nothing more than to watch him suit up for their team. And especially when, you know, that's what his job description is. Deborah asks a good question just to clarify. She says, is Tori Mike saying that because of the MRI or because they are concerned to would no longer be a diamond back.

I don't think it's no longer be a diamond back. I think the thought overall here is that, you know, it's more about Cotel being gone, lost for the season, which doesn't have much time left. You know, if Cotel is either injured or if he's experiencing something that the team feels like he needs to be not a part of the 26-man roster for now, then, you know, then there's a good chance

he might not be back on this team in 2026. but Nick Bacoro said it best when he said this team's kind of stuck with Catelle. He's too good to just, you know, cast off. He's too good for you to trade for, you know, a ham sandwich just to get rid of them off the roster. Yeah, it's like I said yesterday, you have to, the debacks have no choice but to downplay this, even if they're upset by it because they have to retain trade value because this past off season, they could have gotten Peyton Tolly for him. Yeah.

And maybe Jaron Duran on top of that, who has been bad this year. but is a good player overall. And now, like, you're sitting there and you're like, well, are we going to get anything for him? Is, like, people are talking DFA. And I just don't think that's reasonable. But, like, the debacks have to sit there and say, like, well, this is no big deal. Sweep it under the rug. Because even if they want to get rid of him, if they're upset with them, they can't let that impact their trade leverage here.

Yeah. Well, we will be back again on tomorrow with a 12 p.m. show. We're going to do all the things we do around here. I'm going to try to do happy, fun stuff and not, maybe not any more could tell Marte's stories. But we know that's not going to happen. There's definitely going to be something that happens between now and tomorrow. Make sure to join us for that.

In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter, social media everywhere we're at. I'm at cap underscore K-man with a K. Damon is at Damon dog with a D-A-W-G. And as always, we're all Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. Our show is at P-H-N-X underscore D-Backs, but all roads lead to at P-HNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

You thank you guys so much for your time. Appreciate you. We'll be back again tomorrow at 12 p.m. Until then, have a wonderful night. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you can actually say we are back. Bye, Unk.