PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - POSTGAME: D-backs Sweep Giants AGAIN Remaining MLB's HOTTEST Team

Episode Date: May 28, 2026

The Arizona Diamondbacks are absolutely owning the NL West right now. For the first time in franchise history, the D-backs have started a season 6-0 against the San Francisco Giants, completing their SECOND sweep of their division rival in just 10 days. We have more on Ketel Marte extending his league-leading hit streak to 11 games, Michael Soroka delivering yet another quality start, and the bullpen locking things down with a scoreless performance to secure Arizona’s fifth straight win. Plus, we discuss how much stock to put into the D-backs going 11-2 during this stretch against the Giants and Rockies, what it says about this team moving forward, and when some key injured players could finally return to the lineup. 0:00 LIGHT THAT CACTUS 🌵💡  4:00 11-2 record against Giants & Rockies  20:50 ANOTHER quality start!?  27:05 Dodgers series = true test  29:15 What happened at #TheMeeting?  34:45 Paul Sewald is lights out  42:50 Series sweep in San Francisco  47:00 Injured players on their way 📈  1:02:40 Downplaying these wins is silly Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $36: https://gophnx.com/intro-offer-youtube WHILE SUNS ARE IN PLAYOFFS Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $32: https://gophnx.com/suns-playoff-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 own the San Francisco Giants, sweeping them for the second time this season. Cotell Marte remains the hottest hitter on the planet, and the pitching staff gave this Diamondbacks a two earn run masterpiece. We're talking all about it right now. Let's go! Welcome into another edition of the PHNX Diamondbacks post-game show. Presented by our friends at Circle K, it is I, your mayor of P.HNX. It's occasionally known as a minority stakeholder in the San Francisco Giants due to my affiliation with the Arizona Diamondbacks. I'm thrilled to have you guys here and thrilled to be talking about yet another D-BACs win here, taking 11 games out of this 13-game stretch.

And we're going to talk all about it. Of course, I am not alone. I am joined by my dog, your dog, the D-BACs dog, Damon dog himself on the ones and twos. What a sweet, Damon. How sweet it is. Your brooms out, Derek. Get your brooms out, folks. The Arizona Diamondbacks are in fact, the hottest team in major league baseball,

just as we all thought they would be. Am I right? At the very least, I know there's going to be a number of people trying to dismiss these wins and say it's against the Rockies and the Giants. And fine, that is true. And these teams are bad. I never think we tried to build it up anything more than that. But we're going to talk about why these wins are important and how good it was to see the Diamondbacks

take care of business here. these particular NL West rivals. Of course, this show is brought to you by our friends at Bet365. Bet365, where winning is everything, just like this 13 game stretch was for the Diamondbacks. Download the app today and get in on the Cotelmartay bets. Use that go to PHNX365 when you sign up. We're also brought to you by our friends over at GameTime.

Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms do apply. thrilled to see you guys here thrilled to be talking about another Arizona Diamondbacks victory. The D-backs win this game over the San Francisco Giants three to two. And what a performance today by the pitching staff on a day where the Diamondbacks' offense didn't have much, but had enough for the D-backs to take the lead in this game and for them to improve to 31 and 24 this season. Damon, I know you're jamming on stuff, but you know what time.

it is send our little guy domo up the mountain. All right. Do you do we all right. Seven games over 500. It truly is Derek's favorite song. Well, I could listen to that on loop all day long, all day long, all day long. They are now 6 in 0 for the first time in a season against the Giants in franchise history. They have been 5 and 0 before, but they've never been 6 and 0.

The debacks have multiple sweeps versus the Giants in a season for the second time, all time. Just the second time in franchise history, we have more than one sweep of the Giants in a season. The debacks have won five of their last six series, and more importantly, they finish this 13 game stretch versus the Giants and the Rockies with an 11 and 2 record. There were people in this chat that said that that was the minimum number of games that they needed to win over this stretch. And I was like, how gluttonous can you be? But here we are sitting here after this 13-game stretch with an 11-2 record. They talked about it on the broadcast,

but I don't think you can say enough about how difficult it truly is to win that many games against an opponent that sees you that often. You know, it's just a matter of time before the pitching staff and other things starts to pick up things on your hitters, on your pitchers, on your tendencies. And you would feel like the Giants, you know, here, weren't able to win a single game against the Diamondbacks over this six-game stretch. And the Rockies were able to eke out two wins over seven games.

So it's an impressive feat, and the Diamondbacks have proven that they are a team that can take care of business against the teams in baseball that are not, you know, above 500. The true tests come up here after the Mariners series when we welcome the Dodgers to town. And then, you know, again, throughout the month of June, there are some other teams that are playing Really, really good baseball right now. That, I think, is where we will truly see where this team stands. But with that being said, I don't care. What was great about today's win is the pitching staff took care of business.

It was once again, they were once again the star of the show with Michael Soroka giving the debacks another quality start while the bullpen provided three scoreless innings to secure the sixth win this season versus the Giants. And that is really what it comes down to. Their offense was missing early in this one. Where did it go? I don't know. I don't know. San Francisco is a nice place.

Maybe they just took a day off and went to the beach. I mean, to be fair, the Giants can't really hit either. So there's a lack of offense in San Francisco kind of just in general. Yeah, absolutely. You're right about that. Their young players have been getting it done for them. Meanwhile, guys like Matt Chapman and Raphael Devers have not. But today, they had another young star step into a role where he dominated Diamondbacks.

Giant starter Trevor McDonald. filling in for Logan Webb looked like Logan Webb today. It felt like we were facing Logan Webb in this outing. He only allowed one hit and one walk through the D-BAC's first five innings with five strikeouts. And man, that was a frustrating start. It felt like this was another day where the Diamondbacks' offense was just going to shrivel up and die under a rock. But in the sixth inning, they finally broke through and tied the game up. It started with a Cattel Marte single, as so many things do lately.

this is extending his hit streak now to 11 games. I believe was it Contreras? Who? Contreras was the other. I'm unfamiliar with. Contreras? Oh, there it is. You're speaking of.

You're speaking of Conreras. Got you. He also had a hit streak that ended the day. So the Diamondbacks, Ketel Martay's 11 game hitting streak is currently the longest active streak in MLB. it's tied for, again, that was William Contreras, who went 0 for 3, I believe, today. Marte, again, just killing it over this stretch. He's hitting 24 for 47 over this stretch. And again, just six doubles, four homers, 17 RBI, four walks.

And he continues to be the driving force right now behind this team. You said it best yesterday. you know, and I clipped it, put it out there because I just, I loved what you said, but I mean, the one thing that felt like it was missing from this team this season was those big moments from Cotel Marte. Instead, what we were getting is over five performances, strikeouts on, you know, pitches far out of the zone and chasing at stuff. And just kind of a lack of luck, as we said, when he was getting the ball bat on the ball, hitting it 101 miles per hour, but right at a defender. We also knew that if Marte stayed the course, things would turn for him, and boy, have they. And it's just great to see Catell. He didn't even contribute necessarily to the runs being scored today, but he was still two for four today and extended that hitting streak.

Corbyn Carroll grounded at that time in the sixth inning into what would have been a double play, except it's Corbyn Carroll. And he was safe at first base. Why do teams even try? I'll say this. You might as well just fake the throw to first and like throw home if it's like if there's a guy on third. or something. You're not going to get Corby. Just do something else with the ball because you're not going to get Corbyn.

But we talk about his speed, his speed on triples all the time. And that's going to be the talk of the season for Corbyn as he chases the triples record and chases being the active, current active leader in career triples, right? But not enough is said about the amount of outs Corbyn prevents at first base with balls that are a little slow rolling balls to the shortstop that would be an out with 95%. of hitters in baseball, you know, or things like this where it's a double play and Corbyn just prevents that double play from happening. Without that double play, or without him preventing that double play, the Diamondbacks don't get the tying run in the inning. And again, it just proves to be very important with one out instead of two outs, Perdomo singles to put runners on the corners.

And then Adrian Del Castillo delivered for the second consecutive game in a big spot hitting an RBI single that scored Corby and gave the debacks their first run of the day. then Waldschmidt came up he challenged a 3-1 ball this time he was right the call was ruled a strike but was overturned Walshmet walks to load the bases What do you think those nerves were like Derek

after he blew it yesterday Like you think he was like oh my God That this better be right Or else Tori's going to be really really mad at me If I get this challenge wrong again I feel like knowing Tori Lavolo And this is just speculation and guessing I feel like Tori probably went to him after yesterday's game and empowered him to do it again.

Trust that eye, baby. Yeah. Yeah. Didn't work out. Yeah. Yeah. Like literally, you're probably right. But also I think it's human nature.

Oh, the nerves. Yeah. To be like, oh my God, all of a sudden, I'm kind of second guessing myself when I challenge. You're not trying, especially like it's a three one call, right? Yeah. So the other thought goes through your head that even if you're, even if it goes three, two, you could still walk. Like, it's not like a. a strikeout where it's important and it saves the out.

But again, he challenged it. He was right and he walks to load the bases. And then Vargy delivers with another sack fly. Like I said, this man's becoming the leader in like getting in runs without actually getting a hit. Him and Perdomo both. Yeah. They still get the job done.

And today was one of those days for the offense where they just had to string together whatever they could to manufacture runs. And like I said, they did just enough. Vargas's sack fly ties up the game at two in the. sixth inning and then the seventh inning with one out, Tommy Troy and Cotell Marte, both single to have runners on first and second. And then Corbyn, once again, with his speed, reaches on a fielding error by relief pitcher Matt Gage to load the bases and Pardomo hits, as Damon said, a sack fly RBI that scores Tommy Troy and gave the debacks a three to lead. Runs were

a premium today. So again, they didn't do the best job of scoring a bunch of runs, considering what their pitching staff did. They, you know, again, they did enough and it was, it was great. This win, though, this win belongs to the pitching staff. And we're going to talk about Michael Soroka's day as well as what the bullpen did for this team. But the biggest defensive moment for the position players came in the eighth inning because the diving backs again just held on to a three-two lead with one out, Willie Adomas doubles in a three-two game.

And it feels like that's just an inevitable tying run at that point, right? Luis Reyes hits a single to the out. outfield that Barrosa missed making a diving play on, similar a little bit to the Tommy Troy situation yesterday. We said Barrosa would have it. Maybe he wouldn't have. Maybe he wouldn't have. So Tommy Troy and Barrosa both had that kind of, you know, outfield going, like laying out for

it trying to make a highlight real. But Walt Schmidt backed up Barrosa perfectly, perfectly. And then made a strong, perfect relay throw to Jose Fernandez, who then made an incredible gun down Adomis. at home plate and got the lead runner out. Yeah, that throw was nuts. It was crazy. You throw that like 110 miles per hour?

I credited Walshmidt with making the good throw. And then like when I immediately watched it back on the replay, I was like, oh, no, no, no. That was all Jose Fernandez. Like Waltzschmidt made the, made a, like I said, a strong throw to get it into Jose Fernandez. And they probably had no business selling, sending Adamas on that, considering how fast Walshmit got the ball into the infield. But regardless, the defense played it perfectly. Then the very next, very next interaction is Kevin Ginkle picking off a rise at second base to end the inning and the threat.

And again, it was just an incredible way to go very quickly from having a run and scoring position for the Giants. And that being the tying run in a very low scoring game to getting out of it with two quick outs, all defensive kind of outs, you know, where they made those outs happen. Since May 17th in the ninth inning against the Rockies, the D-Backs, are errorless in 91 consecutive innings now, which is the MLB's longest active errorless streak. Damn. That's how good this team has been.

They had a season high 84 inning errorless streak from April 13th, April 25th that they just eclipsed with today's game. And El Greco in the chat says, if you blinked, you missed that whole set of events. And he's not wrong. Like it all happens so fast. And, you know, again, you probably,

there's probably people that went from doing this to very quickly looking up and seeing that the eighth inning had ended. So great job today. And again, on a day where offense was not easy to come by for either team, top performers in this one included Perdomo going one for due with an RBI and a run scored. You had Adrian Del Castillo going one for four with an RBI, Vargas one for three with an RBI, and then our guy could tell Marte extending that hit streak to 11 games with a two-for-five day.

The Diamondbacks did not have, I believe, a single extra-base hit. No, they did not. They had six hits on the day, the same as the Giants. And again, pretty much the biggest difference there is that defensive error by Matt Gage, right, the throwing error to get Corbyn Carroll that allowed the winning run to score, Diamondbacks continue to play perfect defense, and their pitching staff continues to deliver for this team. I can't say enough about how impressed I truly am by how, you know, by how this 13 game stretch has gone.

We're going to do a little bit deeper dive into it on tomorrow's show as well as preview their upcoming series with the Seattle Mariners. That starts on Friday. And, you know, it's throwback Thursday. So we're going to do all that stuff. But speaking of the series with the Mariners on Friday, Damon and I will be joining all of you guys. And we hope you join us for a watch along right here on the Ph.NXports YouTube channel. going to be hanging out, hopefully eating some delicious Hawaiian food and watching the Diamondbacks. Maybe keep this role going against Shane Mariners and making Shane sad.

And I don't like to make Shane sad unless it's Mariner Diamondbacks. I was going to say, unless in this case, I really want to make Shane sad. Yeah, this is, this is the case mostly that I want him crying like a little baby boy that he is. And like not even like the fun sad. Like I want him legitimately in here like, you know, talking about like the umps and stuff. Yeah, like, yeah, like if that call. What is it? That call would have gone our way.

Yeah, that's my one. Exactly. I want that. I want that. So, but you were going to talk about the pitching staff because, again, they were truly the stars of this game and we're going to do it on the other side of this break. Don't you guys go anywhere. You are watching the P.H.N. X.

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just a hat, a fictionalado like Damon and I. So head on over to brandedbills.com and use our code of BBPHNX for 15% off your first order. Truly the best, most comfortable hats in the game. Can't wait for them to start expanding their Diamondbacks catalog in particular. Yeah, that's very true. Because we have that limited edition one for the season ticket holders. Yeah. But not everybody gets a piece of that hat there. That's right. That's a hard. That's an exclusive and hard to come by. But I'll tell you, we could all use some help managing our energy bills every month here in the desert. But June is right around the corner. It's knocking on our door. And you know that means summer is here. And of course,

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Who else is hyped about seven games above 500? Is that what he said? This team is a freaking wagon. Yeah, he said, hey, chat, is what he said. Remember when we said eight and five in this stretch was the goal? How about 11 and 2? It's a great point, man. I mean...

To be fair, we said bare minimum was 8 in 5. 8 is the bare minimum for us to not freak out. Correct. 7 and 6 would have been a disaster. And a losing record would have meant it's time to shut up shop. And Damon and I need to go find other jobs. I think I said nine wins and I'm feeling pretty good about it. Eight wins and I'm feeling satisfied with the stretch.

And anything less would be a disaster. So it was well into the good portion. When we were, you know, one and two in that four games set against, the Rockies, I started thinking about it. And I was like, you know, as much as I said eight wins would be acceptable. I felt like at that point, if they ended up only winning eight, considering how many wins they acquired early on during that 13 game stretch, it would have been a problem, I think. Because you would have seen them lose a lot over this last, you know, over the last two games of the four game. Oh, yeah. With the start that we got in that stretch, if we ended up only with eight, it would mean that we basically probably lost this giant series getting swept, right? 100%. But again, the thing that the Diamondbacks have gotten time and time again, inexplicably,

has been quality starts from this pitching staff. The debacks have 17 quality starts after what Michael Soroka did today in San Francisco. That is 17 quality starts in the month of May. That is the second most in franchise history. And they do have the opportunity here with a few more games left in May to actually either tie the franchise record or perhaps pass it. And that would be something considering the pitching staffs this team has had throughout its history. Michael Soroka, as we have already said, is the next coming of Randy Johnson or Kurt Schilling, depending on which arm you really want to talk about him throwing with. But I prefer Randy Johnson. But he gave the Diamondbacks, like I said, another quality start today. He used as slurb a lot again in this one to

get ground balls and weak contact. He gave up a single to Arise in the first, and that was all that he allowed through his first two innings, but then he finally got into a little bit of trouble in the third inning. He gave up a lead-off single to Drew Gilbert, and then with one out, Willie Adomis doubled, and Luis Arise got a two RBI single to score, to give the Giants a 2-0 lead.

And then Michael Soroka got stingy. Michael Soroka, Damon, and he just got selfish and stingy and just decided he wasn't going to allow another hit the rest of the game. And that's exactly what he did. He got, like I said, got a lot of groundouts in this one. But what he also got was he retired the next 11 consecutive giants through the end of the sixth inning to end his outing. Bro gave up two runs and said, that's enough. I'm done with this.

And then just shut it down. Shut it down. Incredible. Incredible outing for Michael. And again, we've seen Soroka do it with so many different, in so many different ways this year. We've seen them do it with a strikeout heavy performance. As of late, though, like the rest of the pitching staff, we've seen these leaner strikeout performances that focus more on getting soft contact, getting weak contact, getting flyouts or getting groundouts. Regardless of if that is actually the game plan or not, it seems to be what's happening.

And it seems to be happening with his slurve, which he used 30. of this outing and got three whiffs on it today. And he used the four seam almost an equal amount. So the four seam and the slurb just complement each other so well. And Damon, if we could take a look at his pitch chart, you'll see why. The slurve doesn't really land in the zone. It's that periwinkle color. It kills one guy.

It did murder a guy. It did take out his kidney or his spleen. No, but as you can see, the majority of the slurves go down and away. to batters and end up out of the strike zone. Meanwhile, he kept his forcing fastball up. And again, those two pitches combined together, just really, it's not like the slurb ends up being hard to hit necessarily. It's just you're not going to put a barrel on it.

You're not going to hit it and make good contact on it. It's a pitch that average 80.6 miles per hour today. And it's also averaged 80.6 miles per hour, all season. long. It's a slow pitch that comes out of the hand. It comes out of the slot looking a lot like the four seam and gets a lot of confusion from batters. And it worked today. He also used a sinker, 17% of the outing, cutter 14% and change up 10%. He did not get any whiffs on any other pitches besides, oh, he got one on the singer and one on the change up, but majority of it was the slurve. But he is not making guys miss. He is not making guys swing and miss right now.

He is making guys swing and hit crappy, heavy balls that are going out of the strike zone that they're barely getting a bat on and grounding out the majority of the time. He goes six innings today, gives up four hits, two earn runs, zero walks, three strikeouts. The thing that Soroka is doing, I think, is most impressive because of the fact that he seems to be able to kind of change his approach, at least I think, again, as the, Damon would attest to, I don't know ball when it comes to what Michael Soroka's game plan. Specifically Michael Soroka. I'm not going to put that on you with anybody else, but Derek, as you keep talking about him getting that weak contact, as Michael Soroka told you himself.

He's not going out there trying to do that, bro. Say what you will, but I feel like Soroka could get more swings and misses if that's what he was actively trying for. Yes, I agree with you, Derek. I think he's just trying to keep it a little bit more close to the chest. Yeah. Yeah. Obviously you're putting all his business out in the streets. Yeah.

Obviously you want to, you know, induce soft contact when you're a pitcher if you're going to give up contact whatsoever. And he's not a guy that's pumping 100. So he's not just going to make you swing and miss all over the place. So yeah. I mean, I think he's getting the job done right now and he's limiting that hard contact, which is, you know, what keeps the Giants only at two runs today. It's a great performance. Well, he, of course, is our king snake today, considering nobody else did very much on the offensive side of things.

Got to give it up for Michael Soroka, getting yet another quality start for this starting rotation, six innings pitch today, two earn runs loud, four hits. You know, again, just an amazing day for a Diamondbacks pitcher. No walks, three strikeouts, but we don't care. The no walks we very much care about, the three strikeouts, though, I don't give a damn. I am fine with a three strikeout day

if you're going to hold any major league baseball game to two earn runs or less. Major league team, not game. But I guess that series, like I'm not trying to get ahead of myself here. Mark's talking about it already in the chat. But like if you beat the Mariners and win another series there,

is this like all of a sudden this Dodgers series becomes like a playoff series? It's almost too much. Yeah. It's almost too much. They probably don't care as much. No. But I'm saying like for us like if we were to beat the. the Dodgers in that series all of a sudden,

we're sitting there going like, okay, this guy's the limit for this team. I think the Dodgers have experienced, you know, I've already experienced like the Padres kind of trying to infiltrate their top spot and doing so for a brief period of time. And, you know,

they understand the assignment. They've been through this before. The Dodgers are, as you said at one point, a team that has learned that winning 100 games doesn't matter. As long as they win the division or hell, even get a playoff spot. The Dodgers are going to be the team to beat when the postseason comes around, right? But as far as we are concerned, I think that it does give this team confidence.

And it does give this team the ability to believe that not only can they beat the Dodgers, should they be able to do that over a three-game stretch, but also just the belief that, you know, that this team could be a top team in the NLS. Stop feeling like a little brother and start feeling like an equal, start feeling like a team that can make something crazy happen because it's baseball. And if there was ever a sport that something like this could happen in, it's baseball. Yeah, definitely. That and hockey, I think, are the two sports where it's just getting the dance.

Yeah. Be the last team in the playoffs. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if the Dodgers were the best team over the course of the entire regular season. If you play them in the playoffs and you are playing better baseball than them for a three-game stretch, you're moving on to the next round. We've seen it happen with our own eyes. So I feel like, you know, just get me in the dance.

And that's all I really care about. And as of right now, the Diamondbacks are right there smack in the middle of it. Sean says, do we have the tiebreaker over San Diego right now? Is it based on division or league record? I believe it's division record is after head to head record because we've split with the Padres already. But obviously, it doesn't really matter right now. It doesn't really matter. It's more just that they're in second place in that slot.

Like I think, you know, alphabetically, Arizona's before San Diego. So that's what I'm rolling with. That's my personal highbreaker. The starts though, Damon, I mean, 17 quality starts in their last 22 outings since hashtag the meeting. And again, Tori can continue to deny. Manager of the year. He can continue to deny that he had anything to do with this. But I'm starting to think more and more that a magically.

Spell was cast in that room or some sort of like Danhausen was in that room. Danhausen had to be in that. My new goal, Derek, is for like MLB network when they're announcing these awards. I want them to be like, and here's our National League manager of the year, Tori Lovolo who gets his first award here in year, what is it, 11 in Arizona. And then, you know, they go to like his resume for the season. And they say like on May 4th, the Arizona Diamondbacks had the, 30th ranked starting pitcher ERA in baseball.

After Tori Lovolo's meeting with that starting pitching staff, the Diamondbacks finished with, you know, the 10th best starting pitching ERA in baseball. Wouldn't that be special? If we could make the meeting so worldwide that it's being talked about as a bullet point as to why Tori Lovolo deserves a major award, Derek? Wouldn't that just make every Diamondbacks fan so happy to see, Tori awarded, you know, such a huge accolade. I know one that wouldn't be.

I know one that wouldn't be. But we don't need to go into that. I think I know who you're talking about. I think he'd be fired up. Well, since hashtag the meeting, the Diamondbacks rotation ranks among MLB leaders in innings pitched first overall at 137 and two-thirds innings pitched. This was coming into play today. I'm not going to calculate more. I'm not doing more math.

So you're just going to have to take it with coming into play today. but they were first in innings pitched per game at six and two-thirds innings pitch per game. They were first an on-base percentage allowed at 261. They were tied for first with 14 wins. They were second with whip, whip collectively as a rotation with a 1.00 whip. And third overall, best ERA over that span with a 2.48 ERA. Is that good? Is that good?

I've been told that's good. This is what I was saying yesterday where it's like, I really don't know what to do with my hands. Because it truly is new territory for me as at least, you know, since I've been a little bit more conscious, I know that the Diamondbacks and the, you know, the genesis of the organization were built on pitching clearly. But as we've gotten older post like, say even like Brandon Webb,

Dan Heron, it's felt like, man, we just don't have good pitching staffs. And when we have a decent year, we make playoffs. every time. And now you have a rotation right now that is just, I mean, they're just pitching their asses off. And they're doing it so consistently that it's, it's completely and utterly shocking to me as, you know, someone that's gotten so used to being like,

well, the offense has it, but the pitching is really letting you down in big moments. And that's the other part of this, Derek, is that it's not only just, are you winning these games, are you getting good starts consistently, but you are getting performances that are, keeping these close games in your side of things consistently. And we were talking a little bit before the show started of like,

these are the games they lost last year. They always found a way to lose them. Last year, 24, they were finding ways to lose them. In 23, they found ways to win them. And this feels a lot more like 2023 where these close games, this is a team that is finding ways to win. They've played a lot of close games. Paul Seawald, knock on wood,

continues to be a top three pitcher in the entire sport behind, and maybe not even behind, just in a coordination with, you know, one Terek Scoobel and Paul Skeens. But, yeah, these close wins are, they're special. They're special. They're special. Keep them coming. Diamondbacks are.

Or a couple blowouts. Diamondbacks are 11 and 8 in one run games this season. Pretty good. And that's pretty good. It feels like undefeated to me. It does. Well, and again, they've let some slip away. You know, they've had some nights where their offense didn't do much.

Don't forget they lost a one-nothing game to the Pittsburgh Pirates when Paul Skeen's pitched, right? So, like, there's been times where this offense has really been the true culprit. In the past, it was the pitching staff. In the past, it was the bullpen more specifically that you didn't believe in. Yesterday's game was a game that that bullpen typically would let slip away. And they weren't perfect. They each reliever yesterday gave up an earned run and made that game far closer than it needed to be. But today, the bullpen was lights out once again.

and again, can't say enough about Kevin Ginkle, making an incredible pickoff of Luis Arise at second base to end the eighth in just a big moment. He gave up two hits in his inning of work, but no run scored. Ryan Thompson didn't look strong out of the gate, but he still gave the Diamondbacks two thirds of an innings pitched in one walk. Brandon Garcia came in and did his job for one third of an inning

with that one strikeout. And then Paul C.Wald, Damon. Paul Cewald inexplicably continues to be one of the best closers in all of baseball. getting his 14th save of the season. He is now 14 out of 15. He had one inning pitched with one strikeout, another strikeout for the kids, and the Diamondbacks closed the door on the Giants and beat them for the sixth time in six games. Unbelievable.

The Seawald stuff is so funny to me, Derek, because like if you had asked me, let's say, let's dial it back to about five months ago, say in like December. And hey, Paul Seawald's the closer next season. I'm screaming. I'm kicking my feet in the air. Derek has me in a straight jacket. Yeah, confined to a table and a hospital.

Uh-huh. And now we're sitting here and you're talking about how he's 14 for 15 and save opportunities. I know. And like they haven't even really been that like on the edge. Yeah. They haven't even really been like, well, you know,

like remember when Fernando Rodney was coming in in 17 and like every out he'd get would be on the warning track? Yeah. And you'd be like, Yeah. You'd be like, there's David Peralta camped under a ball in left field. Oh, he'd still be doing this. Yep. And that's out number three.

The debacks win by one. Yeah. Yeah. He had like 40 saves that year or something. Yeah. Like he like led the league at one point. Yeah. He was really good that year.

But he did have some batted ball luck in my opinion, just based off the eye test. Seawald feels like he's like not giving teams anything. Yeah. For the most part. He gave up the bomb yesterday, but it was inconsequential. I don't know, man. I don't know what I'm watching. I'm just, I'm happy to be so dead wrong.

That's all I care. That's all I'm happy about. Because I hate watching. There's nothing worse than having a team that's really good, but your bullpen lets you down. Yeah. And we've experienced that too much. We thought we, 100%. And I think that we have experienced that way too much recently.

And like, no one's more happy to be wrong about that than me. Paul Seawald continue to prove me wrong. Continue to make me look like a clown. I love it, man. I absolutely love it. Steve, our guy Stephen Bananas in the chat, had asked a little earlier about Brandon Fott's contract. And I've seen this a couple of times, so I just want to clear up the misconception about this or misunderstanding. Brandon Fott is not making $20 million a year.

He doesn't make that until in 2013 where that's a club option in 2022, where you could make $25 million on a mutual option. That will not happen. The club option probably won't happen either unless Brandon Fott is incredibly good between now and then. However, this year his payroll hit is $3.4 million. Next year, it's $5.4. In 2028, it's 8.4. In 2029, it's 11.4. And in 2030, it's 15.4.

To be honest, that's actually not even bad for a reliever salary. No, the only two years are really the only ones that you look at and say that's, you know, you want maybe him to be better than what he's currently giving you. I was going to say at that point, he either needs to be back to being a starter in the rotation to be earning that money or he needs to be one of the best relievers in the bullpen. But either way, in 2030 money, 15.4, I'm sure will be nothing because that's probably more like 10 million now this year. That's a fair point as well. I mean, inflation is out of control.

And that applies to contracts in sports as well, right? Especially a sport that doesn't necessarily have like a maximum contract cap. you can just pay whatever you want in baseball. It doesn't seem like that's stopping really anytime soon. But I would be shocked if that club option got picked up in, what was it, 2030. Yeah, yeah, it's a club option and then there's a mutual option after that. Yeah. But, hey, you know, the bullpen again, bullpen has done a tremendous job here.

They've done a tremendous job all season. And when you take a look at where the Diamondbacks pitching staff now sits as far as across Major League Baseball, the starters, 4.05 ERR. A on the season is now the 13th best ERA for starting staff in all baseball. Let's not forget that again, on May 4th, the night of May 4th, this was the worst, this team had the worst pitching staff ERA in all of baseball. What kind of Jedi Yoda mind trick did Tori play on these guys? I don't know.

Something right? The force is at play. There's no way it was on May 4th and the force is not at play. here. What I would like is him to bring me into his office and for him to convince me that I could make a million dollars. Whatever, whatever he's done here with the pitching staff, I want Tori Lavallo to help me believe in myself as much as he's made the starters. We got this brand new Puerto Rican chap. He's pretty, he's not really conventional size for the position, but we think that we can get a little bit more out of that frame.

Hey, whatever it takes. I could probably give you something to DH. I've been, hitting the hell out of these little pop-up wiffle balls that we have here in the office. There we go. We're going to take a quick break. On the other side of this break, we're going to take a look at the amazing numbers from this series sweep. And once again, just enjoy the fact that the Diamondbacks have completely

owned the San Francisco Giants so far this season. We will be right back in a few minutes. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the P.HNX Diamondback show. Let me tell you about Buchanan's Whiskey. Buchanan's Whiskey is the whiskey for the world. World Cup. If you are heading to a World Cup game and are lucky enough to do so, or if you're watching at home, Buchanan's is the whiskey to choose. And just yesterday, just one day ago, I learned of a Buchanita, which actually sounds like a song by Babani. But instead,

explain it to me. It's an amazing drink, Damon. It's basically a whiskey version of a margarita. It's one and a half ounces of Buchanan's deluxe mixed with four ounces of pineapple juice. It's that easy. It's that easy. I had a little ice. And let me tell you, when you put these two together, magic happens. Magic happens. It's easy to make and even easier to drink and you can be your own bartender. Don't even tell people what's in it. Just surprise them with this little Bukinita. Tell them it's a Bucanita and they'll be like, what is that? You'll sound cultured and awesome. And again, a great way for you to spend some time here around the World Cup. Buchanan's whiskey is rooted in London. It is the welcoming and bold spirit that has made its way

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Terms to apply. Again, create an account and redeem code PHNX for $20 off. Download the GameTime app today. Damon, what time is it? Game time! All right. Let's get back to Game time because, again, the Diamondbacks swept this series from the Giants. And you know, when we get into a sweep,

We love to look at these numbers. Let's take a look at the numbers from this series sweep. Here, D-Backs outscored the Giants 16 to 9 in this one. Diamondbacks had 25 hits to the Giants 20 hits. Those weren't extra base hits. Those were regular old hits. But home runs were three for three for both teams. Not a lot of power in this one.

And again, as we said today, the wins were swirling. So no home runs hit by either team. and I don't think I think maybe there was just the Adomis two doubles as the only extra base hits in today's game. Runners in scoring position. Diamondbacks were 7 for 25 in the series. They had a big day in game one going 5 for 13,

but just 1 for 7 and 1 for 5 today. The Giants were 1 for 8 in game 1. 1 for 9 in game 2 and 2 for 4 today. They were 4 for 21 overall for a 190 batting average. Meanwhile, the debacks had a 280 batting average with runners in scoring position. Starting pitching and relief pitching ERA, really where the battle was won, especially in the last two games, considering the Diamondbacks one, games two and games three by combined three runs total. Starting pitching ERA, 2.84 for the series.

Three quality starts, two earned runs allowed by each starter, seven earned runs or seven innings pitch by Merrill in the opener, six, six innings pitch yesterday, and then six innings pitch today. by Eduardo and by Michael Soroka. Meanwhile, the Giants, 3.86 ERA for their starting pitching staff. And again, bullpen ERA is both very close there. 3.38 for the debacks, 4.22 for the Giants. But two scoreless performances by the bullpen in this series, game one, two innings pitch with no runs allowed. Today, once again, three innings pitched, no runs allowed by this bullpen staff.

It's impressive. It's impressive what they've been able to do. And again, I know that. that the haters are going to be here talking about this being a team that they should beat. But these are still Major League Baseball teams. And you can never sit there and guarantee no matter how good you are that you're going to go in and sweep a team at their home after seeing them 10 days ago at your home and sweeping them at Chase Field. It's an impressive thing that the Diamondbacks have done against the Rockies and the Giants.

And again, this Giants team split a four-game series with the Dodgers. So say what you will about their, you know, see. season so far. And yes, it's definitely been a disappointment for them in San Francisco. But they are a team that's been able to beat good teams at times this season. That's what to me makes this most impressive. It also makes it impressive that, again, today the Diamondbacks held a one-run lead late in a very low-scoring game. And yesterday, they held off the kind of comeback that the Giants were putting together that seemed like it was one of those games, as Damon said, one of those games that we lost last year. One of those games that kind of

takes the air out of your balloon a little bit and, you know, derails your momentum. Instead, the Diamondbacks stay hot going into Seattle against the Mariners team that just swept the athletics. So they're playing some good baseball right now. However, they have not played very good baseball all season long. So this is a good opportunity for the debacks to, you know, again, go into an environment like Seattle and perhaps keep their winning ways going. We hope that's the case. But beyond that, they come back here and they play the Dodgers.

And again, that Dodgers series is going to be big, Damon. I don't think you can say it's not. You definitely are right, though. It's probably less important to the Dodgers than it is to the debacks. However, don't forget what the debacks did to the Dodgers in the playoffs in 2023. Don't forget that the reason why this monster exists is because of us. We did that. We created this monster.

And we are the ones who will have to put it down. eventually, I guess, because that's the way that horror movies and such work. But this might be the perfect time to at least get a little retribution for getting swept in that opening series. And, you know, showing the Dodgers that we are no pushover. Not to mention the fact that all of this is still without the return of A.J. Puck, Corbyn Burns, Pavin Smith, Jordan Lawler. We've now lost Lordus Gurriel Jr. and Nolan Aronado, even if it's just for a short amount of time. and again, just a lot of guys that are ending up on the aisle are not available for this team. The guys that are getting it done, of course, you can tell Marte lately, Corbyn Carroll continues to get it done all season long.

But you got to credit what these young players that have been called up have been doing. Jose Fernandez might be at the end of his stretch. He might be, you know, might need a stint down in the minor leagues because of his struggles. but again, he was awesome for this team, and he helped them win a lot of baseball games. You also have what Waldschmidt and Tommy Troy have done as of late. And again, Fernandez is proving to be valuable that he's still on the roster with Nolan Aronado

down currently on the day-to-day injury situation. But again, this team is only going to get better as they get pieces back specifically more starting pieces or one very important starting piece, as well as some very, very important bullpen arms. Interesting to see how what the roster looks like after that, what decisions are made, but also interesting to see how these guys help.

You know, this team, this chemistry, they got a lot rolling right now with the bodies that are here. So, you know, those returning players, hopefully they impact this roster in a positive way and help keep this thing going. This seems special. This seems fun to watch. And again, that series with the Dodgers is going to be very, very important.

But we have a lot more on the injuries, an entire pile of injuries to discuss, including a very important Pave and Smith update that I just received about two minutes ago. We're going to talk about all of this on the other side of this break. Don't you guys go anywhere? You're watching the P.H.N. Next Diamond Beck Show. Financial success begins with the right institution and the right account. And that right institution is Mountain America Credit Union. And the right account is the one and only my style checking account.

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taken over Chase Field, presented by Circle K. On Thursday, June 4th, will be taken over Chase versus the Dodgers, and on Tuesday, August 25th, we will be taken over Chase Field versus the Cubs. got your ticket, including your piece of PHNX debacks merch, choice of a hat or shirt, as well as your game ticket in the bar S All You Can Eat section, as well as diehards. You guys get your 20% off right now. Get your tickets now at go phnx.com slash events. I did make the announcement last night that it was the cutoff for getting your merchandise at the event. I've had a few people ask me if they can still buy tickets. You absolutely can.

there are four tickets remaining. So again, almost sold out. But if you can get down on those, you will still get your choice of a piece of D-BACs merch, but it will not be available at the event. It will be sent to you after the fact. So apologies on that, but we did have to get the order in so that we made sure as many of these pieces of merchandise are here for the takeover as possible. But speaking of going to see some baseball games, the Diamondbacks have a long list of players. returning from injury. A lot of those players will be returning soon. And again, the roster crunch is going to kind of be a little bit of a complicated situation for the debacks. One guy that I'm sure they can't wait to get back. And I know one guy in our chat named Michael Rokickey can't wait to get back. It is Pavin Smith, who has missed time. He's been out since March 30th with left

elbow inflammation. He is expected to be back. Who's doing that? Who was doing that? Did you hear that? Was that just me that hurt that? I did get an announcement, an email sent to me, like I said, a few minutes ago from the Reno Aces saying that infielder Pavin Smith has been transferred to Reno for a rehab assignment, meaning that he's almost back, folks. Yeah, he's almost back. Should buy property. Yeah, that's how Damon feels. That's those comments belong to Damon and Damon only. I'm actually just doing it because I think it's funny with Pavin at this point.

Like, Pavin genuinely should be on this team based off the current construction of the roster. Put him in that D.H, please. Yeah, over ADC. Yeah. Who also got 2 RBI today, to be fair to him. I agree. But Pavin would probably be better. Tori Smith, or Tori Smith, that's a different guy.

Toro Lovallo said Pavan Smith could return from the injured list at some point during the Dodger series next week. He underwent surgery on April 16th to remove loose bodies in his elbow. he's been taking at bats at the spring complex and is expected to get his first rehab assignment today, May 27th for the Reno Aces. Might not be in the lineup today, it might be tomorrow, but again,

Pavin should be back very soon to this team. Meanwhile, Nolan Aronado also should be back soon. He did experience right growing tightness. He's listed as being day-to-day. He very much wants to play and did not want to even be out of the lineup today, but it turns out he did wake up to. and felt a little sore, so they decided to give him the day off.

He exited yesterday's game in the sixth with tightness in his right groin and was held out of the lineup today. This injury is not believed to be serious. And again, can't be without Nolan too much because his bat has been, his bat and its glove have been a big part of the reason why the Diamondbacks have won so many baseball games up to this point. But also returning soon, AJ Puck, ladies and gentlemen, AJ Puck. He is expected to return now around the All-Star break. That was the expected date. But he made his first rehab start at rookie level Arizona Complex League on May 23rd. He threw 10 pitches and retired the side in order with a strikeout.

You love to hear it. A plan is to make more rehab outings at the team's complex. and then probably make two rehab starts with Reno and then return to this team. It is May 27th. So as far as things are, you know, stacking up, it would appear that AJ Puck should be back to the Diamondbacks around the midpoint of June. This says All-Star Break. I'm going to say midpoint of June.

Is that okay to say? Am I just being a fool, Damon to kind of override MLB.com? I don't know. but we also have Lordus Gurriel Jr. He had left hamstring tightness. He's expected to return in June. He felt that tightness in his left handstring, making that sliding catch on May 22nd

and has been placed on the 10-day injured list. The bigger one that I'm a bit concerned about is the expected return date for James McCann, who has been listed as returning in late June, early July now, which seems a lot farther out even than the four to six-week estimate, but I'm guessing that's what that is if I'm doing the math correctly. But again, it seemed like at the time it was a little bit more of a serious injury. And Tori wasn't super concerned and also not concerned.

So he said right in the middle. Carlos Santana may never come back to this team. And again, if that's the case, then Damon and I are going to just probably have to have a fist fight. I was going to say, I think we might have to do some sort of boxing match. We're going to have to fight each other physically if that happens. I mean, we might have to do it anyway if it doesn't happen. So regardless of the outcome of the Carlos Santana thing, I told you already in, you know what, I don't think I actually have like the nastiness in my heart to do this. But it would be funny to do a tracker of how many times you said no chance Carlos Santana was not was going to get TFA.

And we could just do a nice little like bell ding ding. No, I don't want to do that. But last but not least, Jordan Lawler, of course, also very close to. making his return as well. He has been doing as much baseball activity as he can. He's been swinging in the cages. He underwent another CT scan on May 15th and everything came back. Good.

Everything was healing properly as it should and he was on pace if return. I do believe that the earliest he can return from that is like June 2nd. So probably won't be that early, but I also probably wouldn't be surprised to see, you know, maybe him return within a week of that date. That would probably be pretty safe to say. Again, though, got to be very appreciative of the guys that have come up and filled these roster spots from the minor league system and proven that they can play at a major league level, Tommy Troy, Ryan Walschman, Jose Fernandez.

All of these guys have been key to the Diamondbacks staying on track. Not to mention the fact that I love competition. And I truly think the competition brings out the best. everybody. Competition is the only reason why sometimes people have a reason to get up and try in the morning because there's one op that they want to beat and they will not rest until that op is beat. I think that the fact that the Diamondbacks main roster guys who are injured or returning or whatever, they know now. They know now that the kids are ready to play. And they know that even if guys like Fernandez and Tommy Troy get sent back down, notice I omitted one name there, you will very much

have to continue to play for your time. Because knowing what those guys can do at a major league level makes it that much more tempting to call them back up and get them started and have them help us win baseball games rather than guys that can't. So again, a lot is still up in the air with these roster moves and how things are going to, you know, what the front office is going to do.

But I wouldn't be surprised to see them still do some pretty crazy things and still trust in these young players. that have proven to them that they're ready to play at a major league level. Mark says, I still believe in Lourdes. He will have a month where he hits OPE. He has 900 OPS. Mark, you are not wrong. You are not wrong, sir.

Damon, I think we also have a super chat that we didn't address from our guy, Coolbro. Of course, yeah, we got Coolbro, 499. Don't understand people complaining about the teams that they have beaten this season, that they haven't beaten this season. You can only play who is in front of you. Would you rather them lose? That's such a great point, man.

I think like, again, I tried to be real about it, and that's what we try to do on this show. We also lose our minds, and we're also insane people when it comes to over-analyzing things or getting overly excited about things. Yeah. When it comes to, you know, what the beginning of March and April look like for this team, with the pieces they were missing and, I guess, our diminished expectations for this team, it felt like it was. a lot to get through. It felt especially like that road trip that they had on East Coast swing against the Orioles, the Mets and the Phillies. That looked like a disaster waiting to happen. You started the season out with three games against the Dodgers. There was just a lot of difficult tests over the course of that month that they passed. But again, in retrospect,

looking back, a lot of those teams that they beat were losing a lot of baseball games. So again, from that perspective, it made it a little easier to feel like, yes, they did what they needed to do. And as you said, they beat the teams that were put in front of them. However, you know, when they face some of these other tougher tests, especially like a red hot Cubs team in Chicago, they, you know, they didn't kind of live up to it. They didn't step up to the challenge, right? But since hashtag the meeting, the starting rotation has absolutely stepped up to the challenge. And given this Diamondbacks team a chance to win nearly ever. every single night since May 5th.

So again, the pitching is such a big part of this whole thing and is the main component that helps any baseball team win games. You have to have quality, reliable pitching that you feel can help you night in and night out win. With the way the bullpen has been pitching and the starting staff, I feel like that's established at this point. Not to mention the fact that you're only going to get better when Corbin Burns returns here in like a month.

In like a month. Oh my God. Right? So it's very exciting, but also understandable that people still want to see this team beat teams with above 500 records. And I don't think that that's that outrageous. I do think it's outrageous the amount of comments we got after yesterday's win that people wanted to kind of downplay this and act like them winning this many baseball games against the Giants and the Rockies is no big deal. and it is whatever, you know, but the Diamondbacks, you know, this season are still 8 and 16 against teams with a, you know, above 500 records.

So they still have a lot to prove when it comes to beating, you know, the better teams in baseball. No doubt about it. The one thing I will say is mathematically, teams are above 500 because they win baseball games. So most teams that are have above 500 records are doing so because they're beating bad teams and, you know, merely. going 500, having a losing record against winning teams. That's literally how baseball seasons work. So I think it's ridiculous to be like, oh my God, beat a good team. Well, that's not really how teams make playoffs. And then as we've already talked about in this show, all you got to do is make playoffs.

And then you have as good of a chance as almost anybody. So, you know, frankly, I think that that's a dumb, disingenuous argument. Derek, I did want to say or highlight one thing that I tweeted yesterday that I thought was funny and the response that I got on social media was hilarious to me. I tweeted after Ildemarovar Vargas was called out with the pitch clock violation and, you know, obviously previously in the game, that ball got lodged under the fence out there at the Giants ballpark. And I said something to the effect of Major League Baseball is clearly.

out to get the Arizona Diamondbacks. And I tweeted it because I thought this would be really funny if you were a fan of a random team and you were somehow this was thrown into your timeline. And you're reading that and you're like, what the hell is this guy talking about? You mean the team that's won four games in a row? But also like, why would the league be out to get the Arizona Diamondbacks? And I got so many responses from people being like, what on our? earth are you talking about and then I wanted to go in like defense mode and then I was like wait a

second this was literally the entire joke that I was making it was the whole like thing it was a personal humor thing like it was to make myself laugh and it worked hook line and sinker got all these people to be like what are you talking about crazy diamondbacks guy and uh it's the fact that MLB is clearly out to get us it's clear it's clear but you know also some people were responding Derek and being like, what do you mean they're out to get you? You guys just got 13 games against the Rockies and the Giants. Yeah, because we also play all of our other games against playoff teams so far. Kind of works itself out. It does. It does. And the Diamondbacks are the hottest team in baseball. Fact. They are on the longest winning streak currently active at five games,

and they are nine and one over their last 10. Not to mention 11 and 2 over this 13 game stretch against those two bum of bums of teams in the NL. So great job, Diamondbacks, keep it rolling. We'll be back here tomorrow with a 12 p.m. show. We're going to talk about that series with the Mariners, as well as discuss how good

the Diamondbacks were over this 13-game stretch, plus so much more, including a trip down to snake farm to see how some of our minor leaguers are doing. So make sure to join us for that. Until then, you can follow us on social media. I'm at Cap underscore Caveman with a K. Damon is at Damon

dog with the DAWG and as always we're all Damon's dogs bark bark our shows at p h and x underscore dbacks but as always all roads lead to at phnx underscore sports on twitter instagram and facebook cool bro sent another super chat he said asu baseball playing simultaneously on friday might have to throw that one on what we're doing our watch party too cool bro was wondering if i was going to be hate watching here's my answer to that derrick and i'm going to keep it real short and simple i do not care about as u baseball enough to sit down and hate watch your game. Do I root against your happiness, cool, bro,

and the happiness of all other Arizona State fans out there? Absolutely, I do. Because I know how you guys act when you win stuff, and it's your immediate reaction is, take that U of A. And it's like, okay, congrats on your win, guys. So I will be rooting against ASU baseball, but I will not be spending my, my time,

my valuable time and energy watching it. Yeah, for sure. But good luck to you. Well, we'll be watching that. So make sure to join us for the watch-along. Make sure to come back here at 12 p.m. tomorrow. And then again, also on Friday, make sure to join us for another post-game show. Until then, hope you all have a wonderful evening.

Behave yourself, Mark, and remember, kids, baseball is fun. But it is so much more fun when Catele-Marté has the longest current hitting streak in all of MLB.