PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - POSTGAME: D-backs WASTE Late Rally in SLOPPY 2nd Half Opener vs. Cardinals

Episode Date: July 18, 2026

The Arizona Diamondbacks let another winnable game slip away Friday night, falling to the St. Louis Cardinals after a string of costly mistakes. Merrill Kelly battled through five innings and allowed just one earned run despite shaky defense behind him, but an early error by Ketel Marte, a brutal baserunning blunder from Jorge Barrosa in the ninth, and another disastrous outing from Paul Sewald proved too much to overcome. It didn’t help that Arizona's offense went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position, wasting countless scoring opportunities in a frustrating loss. Dalton Feely from Jomboy joins us in studio to break down everything that went wrong, discuss Torey Lovullo’s growing frustration with the team's sloppy play, and debate whether the D-backs are beating themselves more than their opponents. Plus, in an effort to lift Damon’s spirits after another painful loss, we put him to the test with a surprisingly difficult dog trivia quiz. Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $36: https://gophnx.com/intro-offer-youtube JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4 An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/ Branded Bills: Use code 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 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.

We tried to call in the reinforcements to ensure the Diamondbacks won their first series after the break, and it didn't work, unfortunately. Too many mistakes tonight cost this team, and it's not this guy's fault, but we are going to play the blame game and assess whose fault it is and how the Diamondbacks lost this particular game to the Cardinals by a score of 5 to 4. Don't you go anywhere. We're starting right now. Well, I guess we get to still take those challenges and turn them in at the prize counter at the end of the week.

Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Diamondback. show live from Studio K, presented by our friends in Circle K. It is your mayor of PHNX, occasionally known as Derek Montia, and I'm definitely not alone tonight. I do got a very angry dog, not Lucy. She's a doll. She's tremendous. She's not angry at all, but I got an angry Damon dog on the ones and twos tonight. Of course, he's definitely not the Neback's dog tonight.

And I am ecstatic to be joined by this man, our friend, Dalton Feeley, from John Boy, thrilled to have you here, sir, and wish it was under better circumstances. I'm pumped to be here. I wish I could bring better energy. You always do. I usually do. This is not on you. I just feel so deflated.

I told you guys before the show like this is a weird feeling. I don't like this feeling being on the show and studio being like sad. I know. Tell me about it. Neither one of us do. We just want to cancel post game shows whenever they lose, but we just can't do that. But this show is brought to you by our friends at Bet365. Go download the Bet365 app right now.

Bet365. We're winning is everything. Use our code of PHNX365. When you sign up, you'll get yourself some bonus bets. We're also brought to you by the GameTime app. Find folks at GameTime. Go download their app, create an account and use code. PHNX for $20 off your first purchase, terms to apply.

We do got a four, what was it, a 110 start tomorrow? 110, yeah. Not a bad day to maybe use that, but maybe the results will be better. The Diamondbacks lose this one by a score of five to four, and they dropped to 49 and 48 on the season. The big story of this game is the insane amount of mistakes the Diamondbacks made from start to finish. I feel like when we talk about Diamondbacks baseball,

we don't think of sloppy baseball, right? We think of maybe not being clutched with runners in scoring position. We don't talk about like their errors, right? And today it was just what the physicality errors, the mental errors, everything just went completely wrong in this game. It was a weird one to watch. Yeah, no, you're absolutely right. And you're also right about just overall the Diamondbacks brand of baseball.

Damon and I have discussed that before. What the hell even is Diamondbacks baseball? And really when it comes down to it, you're right. Diamondbacks baseball is good defensive baseball. It's fundamental baseball. And they did not play that tonight. They did not utilize the rules of the game. I mean, and this is on a night where the Diamondbacks went four for four on challenges.

And you're going to still have me angry about challenges. challenges. You still made me upset on the night you went four for four with challenges, and that sucks. But again, Merrill Kelly did have a shaky first inning. Those challenges did come in handy to help him get out of it. But he only got charged with one earned run overall in this outing. And even though it was kind of not a sharp outing from Merrill, he still gave the Diamondbacks five innings and three runs over those five

endings. He gave them a chance to win. This offense, once again, was abysmal. throughout the majority of this game. And again, they still had more extra base hits. They had more scoring opportunities and probably should have won this game. It comes down to the mistakes, Derek. Because again, they had chances to win numerous chances, probably more than this, which I think is five,

but I can't always count. But Derek, like, in the first inning, right, there's an error by I could tell Mar-Tay. I don't know if it hits Merrill Kelly's glove or whatever, but it's the first base runner gets on base. Gavin Moreno, the best challenge of the night. It's a three two count. Would have been an RBI walk instead turns it to strike three.

Yeah. Two outs in the top first. Merrill could get out of it. Instead, Mason, when it comes through with a hit with runners in scoring position, which is a weird thing to see as a D-Bex fan. I don't really know what that is right now.

What is this hitting with runners in scoring position? Right. And then so it's their early two zero hole, but it could have been even worse if it wasn't for that Gavin-Marino challenge. You're right. You're absolutely right about that. The challengers were on point. though they didn't use them, one, in the most crucial moment of the game there,

with Catele Marte striking out in the final batter of the game, and it was a ball. No other way to put it. The Diamondback still had two challenges after going four for four on the day. But really, I mean, this was a game that Cattel's mistakes single-handedly had a huge impact on this game. And that's the bigger thing is mistakes happened, and you and I were talking about this before the show,

mistakes happened throughout a baseball game and throughout an entire season. all the time. It's very hard to play flawless baseball. But rarely do mistakes impact you the way that these mistakes cost the Diamondbacks today, right? Ketel Marte with the one out, he makes that error and they allows the base runner. That was Ivan Herrera. He gets on. Then Merrill Kelly loads the bases and gives up the two out, two run single that would score Herrera, but it was a two out two run single. And instead, the inning should have been over because as you said, Gabriel Moreno challenged a a ball four that would have walked in a run.

Instead, that ends up being a strikeout. That was a critical call. And again, the challenges, they were on point with the challenges all day to day. That was a big one. You had Predomo challenging a pitch in the fifth inning to change a strikeout to end the inning into a two-out walk.

Right. You could tell him, Marte, challenge one. He was right. And he still struck out, but he was right, at least on the challenge pitch. And then Perdomo challenges again on a 3-1 pitch in the 8th, and that would reverse a strike to get a lead-off walk. Corbyn Carroll would then subsequently hit a two-run homer

to tie the game up in the next at bat. There are two things that happened in this game to me. One, the mistakes instantly cost them, and they weren't able to overcome the mistakes. Cotel Marte getting that error causes eventually two runs to score, right? But the same thing with the challenges. I have been imploring this team to use their challenges. The very concept that a high leverage moment only happens in the seventh or eighth or ninth inning in baseball is insane, considering how often we see an early lead dictate the outcome of a baseball game.

I'm not thrilled when challenges are used with like two outs, no runners on base early in games, like low leverage situations early in the game. But that said, high leverage situations do happen early in the game. We saw at the top of the first inning. Gavin Moreno challenges, wins, it saves a run. literally could have been a way worse of a top first. We don't know what would have happened. The butterfly effect

really comes into player. That could have been so much worse. I do want to say in that top first though, real quick, that could tell more terror. I'm curious what happened there. Again, I was sitting on the side in the stadium today.

He did. It did come off of Kelly. Yeah, it was deflected off Kelly. He didn't see it well. We asked him after the game about it. We'll have his answer here shortly because we did have video from the clubhouse. But yeah, I mean, basically,

he just, he owned up to it, said he made a mistake there. And again, there was some, even some discussion in the press box about whether that should actually be an error. Especially nowadays, where I feel like we're very loose with what is an error. Yeah. Like, again, you kind of get, I guess, you get penalized for being athletic. Because if you can put yourself in position to make a play and you don't make it, then you get hit with the error.

But if you're not even in the zip code of the ball, then it's just a hit, right? So this one felt like a little bit of both, right? It felt like, yes, Kelly, it coming off of Kelly and spinning possibly the way it did, caused it to bounce out. It could tell his glove. Of these, of the mistakes that happened tonight, that's the one I'm like most lenient. Yeah. Because I think that wasn't the big mistake in terms of the result, but it wasn't necessarily a mistake.

Yeah. That makes sense. It just, it's like one of those nights where the challenges ended up being huge and impactful. And then the mistakes ended up being huge and impactful, too. You add the biggest mistake of the game, as many of you are discussing in the chat, obviously, Cotel Marte not challenging that final strike. When you have two challenges still in your pocket, I mean, I kind of blame Tori for that one. And I know it's not Tori's call.

And I know it's up to the player to make the call. But I also think that there is some coaching to be done that says if you strike out looking, and we have two challenges, baby let it rip. I don't care if that pitch was right down the middle. Let it rip. We have two challenges. Let's at least give ourselves just a blind shot in the dark at that pitch, not being a strike. And yeah, this happened to be ball.

It was a rule. Right. You know, call strike three. There's two challenges. And again, I'm very curious to what Katel Marte was thinking there because maybe it was a coaching thing like you're saying with where it's like, hey, in that, in that situation, like we ever, all 26 guys has to know when this bot, you can. can challenge. You are allowed to challenge. Even if it's middle, middle, you can do it. But it was just shocking to see that not be challenged. No, you're absolutely right. And you also, I mean, in my opinion, the bigger mistake, even bigger than that one, is Jorge Barrosa getting

picked off in the next inning. And, you know, Nolan Aronado draws a lead off walk. Barrosa comes in as a pinch runner to use his speed to try to score that run. He ends up getting picked off. And I don't have an explanation for it. You made a great point that if at least he was trying to steal second and get himself in the scoring position, at least that's better than him simply getting picked off or taking too big of a lead over there first. If he was not stealing in that spot, there is no excuse for getting picked off there. Yeah.

You're coming in as a pinch runner because you're fast and Nolan Aeronado. That's the right move. Like you want, because Talo hits the double, like that was the exact reason why you have Jorge Barros on first base because at his beat, he probably scores from first base. and if he doesn't, let's say he doesn't get picked off and he's still on first base for the Tawa double. It's second and third one out for Cotel Marte coming up in the top of the order.

So that is a really good spot to be in instead takes a runner off base. Tawa's double is now with no one on, man on second, two outs, and then we know what happens after you. I mean, just of course though, Tawa would double, right? Like, oh my God.

Of course he would double right after Barrosa gets picked off. Just assuring us that had they not, made that mistake, they would have tied the ball game up. You know, it's just incredible. Not to mention, you would have had a runner in scoring position with one out instead of two, with Marte coming up to the plate. And again, that's an alternate branch of the sacred timeline that we don't know how things work out. But we do know that they missed lots of opportunities on top of the mistakes as well, right? Gabriel Moreno doubles to lead off the fourth. He gets stranded and would not score.

Moreno did extend his streak of reaching base safely to 33 straight starts. So he continues to be incredibly consistent this year. Meanwhile, in the fifth with two outs, Ketell singles and Perdomo walks with two on. They failed to bring in a run there. And again, probably once again, another one of the most egregious mistakes they made in the seventh inning, Ildemarovar Vargas hits a triple with one out.

And the Diamondbacks failed to bring in a runner from third base with less than two outs. Derek, they went 0 for 9. Over 9. With runners in scoring position. They, since June 1st, have been the worst team in major league baseball with runners and scoring position. And it's so frustrating just because we know this offense can be good. Like, if we've seen it in the last couple of years, this offense is the motor of the team,

right? And to see, I thought maybe it would be a week or two, right? Because every team goes through struggles, right? With runners and scoring position, sometimes it ebbs and flows. We're way past that now. It's been a six or seven weeks span where it's been. brutal. It's been the worst in major league baseball. And I don't know if it's an approach or something's got to change or some lineup constructions got to give, but it's since June, it's been really bad right now.

And what's crazy is they were hitting 290 with runners in scoring position in their first two months, right? Yes. Yes. I feel like one thing that hurts my heart is that Tori on, it was asked tonight, post game about how, you know, what's going on with runners in scoring position. and like he puts it in such a fairy tale-esque way right but he's like this is your moment this is the highlight reel that's going to go on you know MLB network and you should sit back and and be patient in that moment and enjoy it and like all this kind of very positive rhetoric about it I we'll probably show you that clip but I just found it to be like that in one way he was right but on the other hand he was too like foxy about it like it was too much of a

like sweet kind of nice wholesome thing he was like telling you to like i guess you know and i'm sure this is something he's told the players to kind of get them to ease up in these moments right but like right i don't know man i need more coaching direction and less of a this is your melb network moment kind of thing about these big at bat with runners in scoring position I will say it's been such a long stretch. Like at some point, maybe there aren't answers per se. It's like he's been,

it's been asked over the last few weeks. Like, what else could he say? Yeah. That's going to change. No, that's very fair. You know, it's interesting. The one that really got me was, I believe it was with Moreno double

to lead off the inning. Kepler first pitch, grounds out the second, great out. Runner goes from second to third. Yeah. Gariel comes up first pitch again, ground out.

Runner stays at third base. Yeah. Yeah. in those spots and again it's not like i played major was that the one where it went to i believe the shortstop he kind of like was it yeah it looked like maybe moreno might have been able to score but it was it was going to have to be a like a really well-timed run and everything was after going to go his way i mean i still think you probably would have been out at home but just what a waste of opportunity yeah you know what it's i think what's annoying about it and taking one pitch the first pitch that's you know

you're not seeing pitches you're not taking pitches you're not at least working the account and account exactly that's the point i was getting at because when tory's talking about hitting with runners and scoring position right i think like being confident being patient wait for your pitch you don't have to attack that first pitch and again it's not like i played major league baseball but like watching it's like you don't have to jump at the first pitch right warehouse game legend right here next to me okay so let's calm down you know what i did no kudos i did just sit at home runoff cover ploof off the last game i'm just said no um but yeah it's very frustrating situations with runners and scoring it really is maybe this weekend it snaps out of it because

i'm here i'm fingers crossed i need it we need it but yeah no i mean you're right and i i just feel like it's such situational hitting they're so bad at uh also manufacturing runs had they manufactured another run had they been able to get uh one of those guys in scoring position over this this game feels different i'm i offensively they just were it was too little for the majority of the game i mean tim tawa did hit his fourth home run of the season to lead off the third inning and tie the game up at two Tawa coming after that at bat Tawa eight hits in his last 14 at bats yeah three home runs eight RBI he was he's been on a tear man and it was great to see him continue it after the break he was probably the only guy that didn't want to see the all-star break come and again I think someone said it in the

in the chat the top of the order would go down in order to end the inning after Tim Tawa hits that home run right where's where Where, you know, again, where's Catelle? Where's Pardomo? Where's Corbyn? Corbyn does show up. I'm not going to say he didn't. But, man, he's been really struggling so much so that that home run that he hit was his first home run since June 17th.

It is July 17th. It is one month homer drought for Corby and Carroll that he finally ends. And that was after Pardomo walked off to lead the eighth inning using that challenge once again to do so. And then Corbyn Carroll hits his 14th homer of the year. And it was good to just see those guys doing it because again, it's been a struggle watching the one, two, three hitters in this lineup not produce. I will say Corbyn Carroll did flip the narrative today

because going into the home run at bat, his first three at bats, he ended the inning all three of those at bats. So he has been struggling over the last couple of weeks too, which is weird. We've seen him struggle in 2024 over the course of the first half, but this is the longest, I think we've seen him struggle since then. and it's been that high fastball. We know that's been like his kryptonite so far.

So it was really good to see him hit that game-tying home running the 8th and because that changes the narrative because if he goes over for tonight, I think it's like, what's going on with Corbyn, what's going on with Corbyn? Hopefully, again, this, you know, I try to be a glass half full kind of guy. Hopefully this is the swing that starts to get him going again because it had been a month, like you said, for the power outage. We'll see now. Hopefully he's back.

I, my biggest concern still is that when I, all of this started, it started on a night or during a stretch where it looked like he hurt himself. And I know that they're not going to let him play hurt. They're at least not going to let him play with an injury. You know what I mean? But you're going to play hurt quite a bit through the baseball season. And I think that's it. I think he's sore. I think that there's something wrong with his shoulder that's preventing him from being able to reach those high fastballs. Swinging at them outside of the strike zone, I don't have an answer for that. But I do feel like, you know, that there might be something wrong with his body that's keeping his mechanics

from being what they normally are. And what I will say to that, Derek, it's that we see, we've seen over the years with Tori and the management of health and injuries, like we've, that excuse me, that the debacks have given guys off, right? They, you sit, even when you're hot, like you have scheduled days that you're going to sit. And right now it seems to me, at least with Kattel, Pridomo and Corbin, those guys who usually get those days off, I feel like have to play more and more because there's been struggles throughout the rest of the lineup. So you kind of need your top three guys to go. And so I don't have my computer on me.

I would be very curious to know when was Corbyn's last off day. And I'm not saying he should have an off day, but it goes to the point saying that he's been struggling. Usually you sit, you know, Tori's been very good about managing like load management, health, making sure someone's right. I do agree with you. I think something might not be right. He's not 100% currently.

But he, it's the debacks are kind of like handcuffed a little bit where you can. You can't really sit him because he is the guy in this lineup that has been producing to begin the year. Well, and defensively, you still want him in the outfield. And overall, if he's able to play and he's able to go out there and tell you that he feels okay, you're going to put him in the lineup. Cool, bro, brings up something very interesting that I do not love, considering that one of my most incredible experiences of my entire life was going full tarps off while watching Catelle Marte hit a walk-off home run against the Dodgers

and Coolbro says in the chat, the team tonight made the tarps off crew leave at the eighth inning? I thought this was the United States. Is this not the United States of America? I think it is. That's crazy. We needed the tarps off crew in the ninth inning more than ever. Now we know why Barrosa got picked off.

Now we know why Marte did or struck out. This explains everything. More importantly, Jason has a bigger explanation, Damon. and he says J Army Strong, wait, wait, wait. I know why they lost first game back since Pavin rejoined the organization. I'm not laughing. We were undefeated. I'm just saying we were undefeated.

He's right. I'm not laughing. We are going to say, though, that. I'm laughing. I'm laughing back here. Damon's laughing. He's not in a good mood, so he's going to be very min-spirited tonight. But Corbyn Carroll gets our king snake for tonight.

Again, that was a great home run to see. First home run in a month. And something that he needed, we needed, and hopefully this team that really seemed to outperform the Cardinals tonight, even though they lost, hopefully they can, you know, get this rolling and take the remaining two games of this series against the Cardinals. The loss does snap a five-game winning streak that they had going against the Cardinals at home, and the D-backs had a four-game winning streak overall coming into the break. So unfortunate that those end tonight, especially on Dalton Feeley night, especially on U of A night when we were out there with the Spivey's? I don't want to talk about it. Oh, God, Trace Spivey.

You know me, I'm not a big U of A guy, but Trace Spivey won me over tonight. That guy, that guy is something special. He's cool, isn't he? He's cool as hell. And not only is he cool as hell, but he truly, like, players sometimes say the exact thing that a player should say. And when they do, you're like, you nailed it. Tonight, he said the exact thing a player should say,

but with sincerity and feeling that made me not feel like it was just him saying the right thing. He was talking about throwing out the first pitch at Chase Field and just how much it meant to him. You can tell he's been a DeBacks fan his whole life. His whole life. Like me. He's like of the age group of kids that like Diamondbacks have been here since they've grown up in Arizona since they were little kids. And he got to obviously, you know, have the heightened experience of his dad being a legend of the team as well.

Absolutely. Yeah, it's incredible. It was just, it was cool to hear him, you know, talk about how much that first pitch meant to him and how he's just, he's still a baseball guy. He threw gas too and then looked us straight in the eye and said, I had to take a little bit off it because my dad was breaking in a new glove. I didn't want to hurt him. I don't want to hurt him.

I love this man. All right, we're going to take a quick break. And on the other side of this break, we're going to talk about a few guys I don't love so much and you know exactly who I'm talking about. Don't you go anywhere. You're talking about day. No, no, no, but you didn't come in in the ninth inning. Don't you go anywhere watching the PHNX Diamondback show. Well, big shout out to Shady Ray's. Of course, you guys know how much I love Shady Ray's mostly because I'm a very forgetful person that loses his sunglasses at all times. And I don't care if my sunglasses cost $5, $50 or $200. I am just equally mad about losing them,

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pH and XSR to get 50% off two or more pairs of polarized sunglasses and make sure to get yourself a nice pair. I just brought Damon a pair of like baseball type outfielder glasses because I'm trying to get Damon back on. This is true. I'm trying to get him back in the outfield just in case. He's trying to make me feel better on an eye like tonight. It's not working. Well, I also have this little Perdomal bubble head that says things. Should we make it say something real fast? Oh, yeah, I'm no part of that. Does that not make you feel better? That makes me feel right.

Go on. All right. Well, you know what else will make you feel better? Pure edibles, Damon. Pure edibles will make you have a great night, especially after a game like this because they have a wide variety of candies, not just gummies. They have a full-fledged line of candy,

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Just a delicious tasting high whenever you want it. And of course, this one was made specifically for me. So go find yourself some pure edibles products from one of over 150 dispensaries across Arizona, now including True Leave. And we have the momentous return of somebody that we've missed very much in this chat, Damon. it would appear that be calm C clearly. Our guy, BCSC is here. We've been missing BCSC around the office,

not just on this show. Honestly, I've been asking. We missed you, BCSC. And not only have we missed you, but I feel more confident saying we are more back than ever now that you are back than I think David and I've ever sincerely said

throughout this entire season. So God bless you. BCSC says, I miss Ryan Nelson, so ducking much, babe. we feel the same. I feel exactly the same about Ryan Nelson. He is a babe. And his fastball is so hot.

So hot. But it wasn't a hot start for Merrill Kelly tonight. Started with a rough first inning for Merrill. And his defense, again, did not help him out much with that Cotel Marte. Mistake with one out behind him. That was that error he committed that we discussed. Then he gives up a single to Burleson, a walk of Jordan Walker, of course, below the bases. And then there's that Lars Neupbar walk.

On a three-two count that would have made the score one to nothing at the time, but Gabby challenged it and the ABS overturned it for a huge strikeout there. With two outs, though, again, two outs would have been out of the inning. He gave up a two-run single to Mason win. That put the Cardinals up two to nothing and then gave up a lead-off single to Jose Fermin to start the second. Kelly picked him off, and then he walked Weatherhole and got Herrera to strike out to an inning overall. Some good work after the first, right? gets himself in a little bit of jam in the second, gets out of it.

1, 2, 3rd, 1, 2, 3, 4. Things were bowling for Kelly. As he says after the game, he got economical with his pitches there. Really wanted to give the Diamondbacks an extra inning after the fifth, but was cut short at like 88 pitches. Kind of makes sense, but also with a fully rested bullpen, I guess it makes sense. You also want to try to keep your starters fresh

and not have them go back out there and throw 12 more pitches, just for the sake of throwing 12 more pitches. But again, Kelly did give up a solo home run in this final inning of work, and I think that kind of sealed his fate for the day on that one. 100%. It was the third time through the order. JJ season for the third time.

I think it's a 3-1 or 3-2 pitch, takes it to right field, and that thing was crushed. And so I think it was the right choice and taking Maryland. I think he retired like eight or nine in a row. Like you said, one, two, three, and the third and the fourth. Like, he definitely got better after the first inning. So like you said, kept the snakes in the game, kept it here, just wasn't enough in the end.

And yeah, Sean says the damn, this game broke. Derek's friend since Burke, Johnny Walker, not happy in the chat, sent a super chat just to ensure that we would say what he has to say. And that's Johnny thinks someone needs to be fired. Johnny says somebody needs to get fired. Now, I don't know. I don't know how good, how much good that does. we were talking to, of all people, you know, someone who is a, covers the Philadelphia Phillies. And we talked to them about the Rob Thompson, you know, Don Mattingly thing.

The one difference that he could see is that Don Mattingly is like a no-nonsense kind of guy. And to a certain degree, it's, I guess Rob's style of managing, based on my limited knowledge of it, seems a bit more like Tori, right? Where he was not necessarily what you consider be a player's manager, but just not the guy that has a definitive edge in the way that someone like Don Mattingly does. That's just like straightforward,

all about business when it comes to baseball. And, you know, I guess that makes a lot of sense as far as that roster, you know, respecting him. I just, in my opinion, I think it's just so late to make a move like that. And I don't know if that does anything right now. to be honest I think the only reason I say it and I'm not suggesting it but the only reason why I could see it working in a similar way is it feels like the replacement naturally would be Benister yeah and banister to me strikes a former manager and he's and he just strikes me as the same kind of guy as Don Maddingly he's a very not no nonsense kind of guy so I don't know though I I've said it time and time again I'm not jeopardizing Sunday Sunday Sunday

especially this Sunday. It's supposed to be eggplant parmesan and I'm not missing out on that. But more importantly, I still think Tori is the right guy for this particular team. And I just... I don't know if firing him is going to have the desired result that everybody

that wants him fired is going to have, but on the flip side, it's been so long. You know, Tori's been here so long that it's hard not to feel like a potential change might make you feel, you know, that something is going to happen. Some sort of shakeup is going to move this team.

But I don't know. I don't know if that's the case. And again, I don't know if I blame Tori for what went on tonight. Though, again, a manager is to blame a little bit for the preparation of their team. And they definitely did not feel like they were prepared tonight. Yeah,

I just can't give them the benefit of the doubt just for tonight because it was just like uncharacteristically sloppy. He even said that about the team. Like he has to give them a mulligan on a night like this. Which is fair. Yeah. But still. a very frustrating night.

In fact, probably one of the more frustrating games. And Merrill gave up his share, but he still limited the damage. And those two runs because of the error in the first inning were not earned. So Merrill only had one earned run charged him tonight. He goes five innings, gives up four hits, three runs total, but one earned, walk two, three K, not a terrible outing overall from Merrill. He did go to his four-seeing fastball the most, but he had a nice mix of pitches tonight. 32% forcing usage, 25% change-up usage, everything else, 15% or below.

His fastball maxed out at 94.8 tonight, average 92.4. You got one whiff on that, but he did get five whiffs on the change-up, which those two pitches complemented each other nicely. Got a couple of whiffs on the other stuff through the curb ball, the cutter, the slider, and the sinker tonight. But overall, it just didn't seem like Merrill had very good command over his stuff, Damon, I think we do have his pitch chart. And it's just, we've talked about this, right?

Like, it's, there's, there is, on a good night, when a pitcher has a good night, you see a certain flow to the pitches. Not every time. Like, you know, it can, it can still be all over the place. And sometimes that's an even good thing because they were just so, like, you had no idea what they were going to throw or where they were going to throw it, that it was hard to predict them. But this, this one, again, a lot of pitches far out.

outside of the zone and a lot of those that are far outside of the zone were early on that was that first first inning that it really looked like he it looked like it was going to be a disaster it looked like he wasn't going to be able to throw a pitch in the zone for a stretch there was there was a four pitch walk to be in the first inning of the game and like oh like when I saw that there's two pitches there were nowhere near to zone and you could probably tell on the screen which ones those were tough but a great bounce back like five innings three runs is it quality no but it was They kept them in the game. It was a three two game when he left. It's a one run game. And you know, one run games, one swing in the back and change everything. So again,

Kelly, was he great? No, but he was serviceable. He did a job. He kept the snakes in the game tonight. Yeah, that's it.

And again, he is one of those guys that he's had a rough season. I'm not going to act like Merrill hasn't, but there's just something different about Merrill's bad outings than Zach's bad outings. Right? Like neither one of them have been very good this year, but it just feels like when you see Merrill,

like Merrill still seems, like he can go out there and battle and fight and win you a baseball game or at least keep you in a baseball game like you did tonight which is interesting because i feel like you would think zach's stuff is better yeah but his fastball has just been so badly yeah and kelly's change up has been i would say the best pitch of all of those so far between gallon and kelly's repertoire so that has been the pitch that has gotten him out of trouble and i think we saw that today too where he kind of found it back in the third inning a little bit he was able to mix that change up been a little bit more, keep the hitters off balance a little bit in the third and fourths

innings, and that's really kept them in the game. Agreed. Well, let's hear from Merrill. Here's what Merrill Kelly had to say about tonight's loss. That's a frustrating one, I think. You know, coming off the break, obviously, we had a good week leading up to the break. You know, obviously wanted to carry that momentum through here. You know, we grinding that one out.

It was definitely a hard-fought game on both sides. You know, obviously, we had some opportunities there. throughout the game and definitely, obviously, towards the end of it, I would have scratched up across, but, you know, ball didn't fall our way. Hopefully we'll do more. There was a lot of frustration. I think I felt tonight.

I think that Merrill felt frustrated overall, but again, he was not thrilled with how he performed. Still felt like it was good enough, though, to help the team win. He was also asked about if it was too hot down. there. If it was getting, you know, with the humidity and the heat, it didn't seem to bother him. It doesn't seem to be something that's...

He said, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? What are you going to do? Not resign with the Diamondbacks, I guess. Not resigned with the team that's in Arizona. He didn't cramp at least, so there's that. I was going to say, especially with this history of cramps, like that's, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Well, here's what he had to say about his outing and how he felt overall. Okay. Not great, not terrible. I'm definitely moving in the right direction from where I was. still feel like I'm going the right way. Obviously that that first inning get a little away from me, but other than that, I felt like it was solved.

Just the way I feel is the ball's come out of, and location-wise, other than those blocks, you know, was better than it than it has been at the beginning of the season. Damon, you're being requested because apparently we're being too positive, and that's something that I get accused of by Damon, way too often. I really do accuse him.

that off because every time I really do like not to like be like oh I speak for the fans but I do think I wear it on my sleeve a little bit more because I can because Derek has to be a big Jay and you know show his face you know how professional yeah exactly you're mr. professional and so I can come on here and scream and yell and be a crazy person but yeah tonight is an absolute unmitigated disaster I don't want to hear any silver linings I don't want to hear about anything other about than how we're going to win tomorrow and turn this thing round because what a disaster. Do you want to hear from Tori on being pissed off? Sure. Let's hear it. Here's Tori about being pissed off. Let's go. Yeah, I'm pretty pissed. So, um, and we all deserve to be.

We all deserve to feel that way, you know, so I don't, I don't have to justify it. You guys saw it. And that's not Dbacked baseball. So, um, especially coming off of the type of baseball that we were playing. And you guys sat here and asked me, are we ready? And I told you we were. I think we were. But we just lost a little bit of our focus the most critical time and that's not what I like. I like for us to execute at a high level. So we'll be okay if we do it right. I do want to say Derek watching that clip like that's he seems like very frustrated after this. He was he was simmering.

He came in, he sat down and he ripped. He hadn't had a chance to talk to Catell and basically said straight. I haven't seen Cattell, but I'm going to talk to. to him. It had to still talk to Barrosa and like basically it was like it was the threatening kind of language you hear from dad when everybody in the house is going to be in trouble. Everybody's

getting in trouble for the party that they had and the party tonight was not a fun one. Not a fun one to watch or attend. That's for sure. He did say the one line this is not D-Bax baseball and I said earlier in the show like that's like yes you you were right

like that was it ugh good podcasting by me not your using words. Yeah, no, no. Yeah, no, that's the perfect type of energy that we need. That's what they want. But again, you go 0 for 13. That's deep X baseball, right? Like, it's, it's a, it's, it's, it's true because of how consistent their weaknesses have been this year, that it's easy to overlook those weaknesses when they happen time and time again. But when they were compounded tonight by the mistakes they made defensively, offensively, this one, that one, Barrosa getting picked off, Catele not challenging that play, not hitting with runners in scoring position,

but also making a ton of defensive mistakes that cause runs to score. Yeah, you're pissed because you're like, damn it, we're, we already have all these other weaknesses. We can't start being bad at the things that we've been good at. Absolutely. Up to this point. Yeah. And overall, like there were some good things in this game minimally, like the Tim Tawa, double, the catchy hat in center field, Corbyn's game, tying home run.

But ultimately, the narrative of this game is all the mistakes. which absolutely sucks, but it is the main storyline because it's a game they should have won and everyone at home, everyone in the studio knows that this game was a D-back's loss, not a Cardinals win. 100%. That's exactly. That's so well said because when we're going to look at the numbers here, they're going to make you sick. But here was Merrill before we move on talking about if he could go one more inning being cut short there, I believe at 88 pitches and five innings pitch.

Here's what Merrill had to say about that. Yeah, I felt like I had it in me. You know, obviously I threw a lot of pitches early, but I feel like three through five was pretty economical. I don't know how many pitches I had after the fifth, but definitely felt like I could give us one more. And here we also have Tori LeVolo discussing Merrill's outing and Merrill not being the problem tonight.

Merrill was very efficient. I think if, you know, there's a couple plays made behind him. There were some really good defense that was played behind him. But a couple of things that happened that led to a couple of running runs. You know, I clipped him at 88 pitches, 87, 88 pitches. It was hot in there. I know that Merrill in different settings, ones like these, has a little trouble.

But he said he felt fine, but I just wanted to get into the bullpen and preserve, or get into the bullpen and just giving them a chance to get running again in the second half. And it worked out well. But we made a couple of mistakes with count leverage. That's one thing that's bothering me. when we were on the mound. We got to finish off hitters when we're supposed to. We didn't.

Things lingered. We gave a base hit. All that stuff. And you guys saw it the same way I did. So we'll tighten that up tomorrow. Well, again, Merrill Kelly, five innings pitch, four hits, three runs. Only one earned. Two walks.

3K, slide up the circle K strikeout meter. And again, the circle K strikeout meter deserves so much better than that. So much better. We have to get an adapter. It's like one of those like your people. in plugs. It's like, the amount of 0, 1, 2, 3,

and 4 strikeout games we've gotten since we implemented this. I genuinely think that in non-Erod starts, we've done like 0, 5, or 6 strikeout games. It's unbelievable. And, yeah, I mean, and Soroka being out does not help that either. Yeah. No, not at all.

Yeah. My goodness. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you, it also doesn't help when your bullpen isn't really helping out much. And tonight, they did not do much to help this team win this game. Of course, Clark did give the dime backs an inning of work with just one hit, one walk allowed. Kevin Ginkle remains a G.

He gave one inning of work with just one hit. But then Morillo, he's still, after being the, you know, by far the most dominant-looking arm in the bullpen for his stretch to begin in the season, still continues to kind of unravel. And it started, once again, with a walk, which was his issue last year, not, you know, walking too many batters, putting guys on. He gives up a walk to Burleson, a single to new bar, and then a wild pitch allows the runners to advance and score eventually on a sack RBI by Mason win to put the Cardinals up by one.

Then there was the complete disaster that was the Seawald outing tonight. With the game tied in the ninth inning, Seawald comes in, he gives up a lead-off single. That should have been an out. Once again, this one was to Fermin. That one was also on Ket. I mean a little bit more of a difficult play to make, not an error,

but still just one that you felt like you've seen Kattel make in the past. I'm not putting it solely on him, though. But it's another one of those situations, like what we've talked about with Zach Gallen outings, where that wonderful play doesn't get made behind him to back them up, and then you almost feel like that causes him to unravel more, which is what happened, because then he walks, crooks, gives up a single weather hole, and that loads the bases, then a sackflop. by Herrera gives the Cardinals a five to four lead seawald is immediately relieved and replaced by

brandon garcia who comes into the game looks like a certified g and a bona fide stud completely dominates the the st louis cardinals and makes you wonder why paul seawald ever came in in this game in the first place well derrick that's the most frustrating thing because i feel like in this game with all these mistakes i really think the the only issue i think from tory tonight was putting paul seawald in the game during a non-save situation. I feel like everyone knows in 2026. That has been a big issue. And I don't know why it is.

I cannot give you the why. I'm just going to give you the numbers. Here's my handy-dandy phone right now. Going into tonight, going into tonight in 2026, non-save situations, Paul Seawald has thrown 11 in the third innings to a tune of a 635 ERA. 635.

That's not counting tonight where he gave up fun fact, another run. In a saved situation, He's actually been, he's been pretty good this year in a safe situation. I know. I cannot take that. I do not want to take that away from because he's been pretty solid. And I think he's only blown one save this year.

Make it make sense. But for some reason, like you would think a pitcher would struggle in save situations versus non-save situations and be better in that spot. No, for some reason, Paul has the reverse splits. He has been solid this year, but I don't get why he came into the game. Like you said earlier in this in this show, the bullpen's fresh. well why is it going to Ryan Thompson's here

and I would have put Ryan Thompson before in the ninth before there's the automatic run on second I'm just saying like wouldn't you want to retain your closer hypothetically for the closing of a game that might still happen

like yeah it's a tie ball game at that point you're just managing to get through it to the point where theoretically you want to try to get to the 10th and have him come in then it and then win the game.

I would say in most situations outside of the Arizona diebacks, like I'm cool with putting the clothes around a ninth inning because you might not get to that point where you have to have to need them. And if you use somebody else, maybe they give up a run. I get it. But for this specific team and currently what's been going on in 2026, Seawald has just shown it. And for some reason in non-save situations, he hasn't been able to pitch in them this year.

He's been pretty solid in safe situations. I'm just shocked that Tori went to him. That's the thing. And that's where I don't know who to blame. because something I harp on all the time is to place blame on the athlete when it's the athlete's fault. And when Paul Seawalt can't perform in non-save situations, I feel in my heart like that's on Paul Seawald. Right. But again, there comes a point where you're the crazy one for thinking you were going to get a different result than the same result you've gotten every single time by putting him in in non-save situations.

It's crazy, but it just might work. Ah, well, and like, here's the thing. Let's look at this objectively. If it did work, if the Diamondbacks didn't make mistakes, if Paul Seawald's outing did not become a complete disaster, which it still wasn't because after all of a sudden, then he only gave up one run. And again, I know that caused them to lose, so it was a disaster,

but it's not like he gave up five runs, and the game was completely over, and you didn't have a chance to win it. But if Paul Seawald holds there in the top of the inning and they get to the bottom and Barossa doesn't get picked off and Tim Tawa hits the freaking double, we walk off the Cardinals. Yeah. That's the timeline I want to live in. Revisionist history is awesome.

That's the branch of the sacred timeline I want to be in right now. And the worst other part about it, maybe not the worst part, but I argue with the worst part is that it's against the Cardinals who's a team that the Dynbacks are currently chasing in the NAA wild card chase. Yes. cannot lose games on these people. So that's a team you really cannot lose. And more importantly, Tori didn't really have an answer for the Seawald situation or the

non-save situation. Here's what Tori had to say about putting Paul Seawald in there in that moment. Yeah, I've done it a few times, and I know it hasn't worked out. I've told you guys that I think about going in another direction, but I chose that route and it didn't work out. objectively Kevin Ginkle should have pitched on you of a night

objectively he did he did oh I thought that someone said that he should have got that situation he was pitched early I would have loved him in the ninth God yes just for the just for the fields

just for the vibes on you of a night bring him back out give him a nine innings on you my god that's Kevin Ginkles music I know he's got a football career to worry about but I would have rather seen Trace Fivie there in the ninth inning rather than Paul Seawald

come in in that non-save situation. And like we said, Tori was upset about this loss. He was more upset. I mean, Steve Gilbert even asked him, like, you seem more frustrated by this loss than any other you've had this year. And he was like, yeah, yeah, I am. Here's what Tori had to say overall about this loss.

Okay, it's a pretty frustrating loss for the reasons that we are all thinking about. And, you know, you guys watched the game. That was a very sloppily played game. And the fact that we were in it is impressive, but we got to do things to deback way, and we all know what they are. I know you guys are going to ask me about the last pitch of the game.

I haven't had a chance to talk to Tell. I was looking for them. My responsibility is to come in here and talk to you guys, so I do not have an answer as to what happened or why. I learned of those details a couple minutes ago that the pitch was a ball. The ABS system is in place. Clearly, I don't want to speak for Gatel.

You guys will have a chance to talk to him, but he thought it was a strike. And sometimes you got to trust your own instincts and possibly thought it was a good pitch. And he just checked off of it and lost his ability to challenge as soon as he stepped across home play. So I'll get that answer tomorrow. I'll get a chance to talk to him. We've got to learn about the system. And we're not perfect. So it's frustrating.

of course, but there are 15 other things that happen in this game that are still eating at me right now, and we will address them one by one as a coaching staff, and we will address them one by one with the players, so we get better and learn from it. That's what we do. We coach until they learn, and we execute on the level that I anticipate and what is our standard. We didn't get there today. So that's what's eating us alive in there right now. The beatings will continue until morale improves. No, this was one of the, those very frustrating nights where he's right. Like the Catelle Marte non-challenged there, that was a problem.

But if you were prioritizing mistakes made tonight, that would be very low on the list compared to some of the much bigger mistakes made by this team throughout this game that could have resulted in them winning it. But we're going to have more from Cattel and from Tori in the clubhouse here on the other side of this break, as well as we're going to take a look at numbers, play the blame game, and give Damon the promised dog quiz that we were supposed to give him after you guys made your wonderful donations

on yesterday's episode. Don't you go anywhere, you're watching the PH&X Diamond Back Show. Stupid quiz. Yeah, we're not in a good mood tonight. Derek's giving me freaking pop quiz. Yeah, I'm over here trying to make people smile. Not a pop quiz if he just told it's going to happen.

He's right. I'm giving you a few minutes to study. It's like a semi-pop quiz. And look, I'm always having a good time because I always have Casamigos ready to go margues on hand. And that, see, when you know that, when you know that at your house, you have Casamigos ready to go marg's.

Even losses like this one don't hurt as bad because I'm just going to go home and get some delicious margaritas in me. Also, it's a great drink to have during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. You can enjoy the World Cup with Casamigos ready to go margs and your friends and your frenemies. We got the big finale coming up,

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All diehards who attend will receive a free drink ticket for the event. The show starts at 6 p.m. So make sure to join us. We're going to be having a good time not only during the show, but after the show. We're betting on red. That's all I'm saying. But again, it is that time. It is everybody's favorite time.

It is time for us to play the blame game. So I need a little blaming music and I need us to determine who exactly is at fault for tonight's loss. Damon if you wouldn't mind. All right. Well, we're just going to move closer together. Yeah, there we go. Now we're talking. Get your mic over here.

Now there's two of us, two gods on the billboard on the ice at this freeway. One blame game. Who will be blamed? Everyone. You're all to blame. Pitching, yes. Of course pitching is to blame. Merrill, you're kind of to blame, but not really.

You pitched your way out of it. Paul Seawald, you are absolutely to blame. And Juan Murillo, you also. deserve some blame as well. My goodness, this is going to be a full sweep, I think. I mean, yeah, and taking a look here, it's hard not to imagine. Not to spoil it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The batting, 0 for nine with runners in scoring position. Light her up. Line it up. I'm going to count Barrosa being picked off with the batting portion. No, I mean, yeah, it's offense overall. And you're absolutely right. I think that the and again, it should say offense,

for sure. It should say offense. This is, Noah designed this and he doesn't know baseball that great, all right? We're going to redo it. We're going to add a pavement Smith light. Don't you worry. We need, look, we have spots for action to. Okay.

Strike two. I'm working the count. He's not, okay. All right, but he's not entirely, he's not to blame tonight or is he. But overall, the offense, again, too little, too late to get their offense going. Too many scoring opportunities squandered. And, yeah, the ultimate salt in the open wound is Tim Talon delivering that double right after Barrosa gets picked off.

So, yeah. And Super Chat here from Cool Bro 297. He says, I blame Wilbur. He's just yelling into the void right now. I also blame Wilbur, though. He's just a crazy person. He was at Chase Field. He was there with his girlfriend.

You had Baxter trying to, like, slide in in a weird, like, thruple situation. I don't know. Or maybe he's just Mr. Steele your girl. I don't know. He's his girlfriend, Derek. Wilma's his wife, you idiot. Not based on what I saw on Baxter and her doing. You know what?

They have a little bit of an open marriage situation that they have going on. I don't want to get into it. That's none of my business. Yeah, I don't want to get into it either. Fine. Fine. Fine. Moving on.

Defense, obviously to blame. I mean, it just kicked things off bad defensively with the Cotele. Martyr. It was the second play of the game. It was literally the second play of the game. It really was. It really was. And again, it just set the tone for how this night was going to go as far as mistakes being made.

And more importantly, like I said earlier, those mistakes costing them. Immediately, like them not getting away with those mistakes at all in any way, shape, or form. Last but not least, we got the manager, Tori. Also, our guy, Johnny Walker, really wants to throw some blame Joe Mathers's way. And that's crazy to me, considering how good Joe Mathers been as a hitting coach for the last three seasons, you know. But, yeah, I mean, managers. Maybe it should say coaching. Maybe instead of batting, it should say offense.

And instead of manager, it should say coaching. That one's a stretch. I mean, like, I'm just saying because like last year when we had our, you know, our situations with, with Sean Larkin at third base, how would, who would we blame when we lose those games? When we lose by one run, like, there's no one to blame here on the blame game. Maybe it should say coaching. We need coaching up there.

And then that way we can just broadly blame everybody. And of course, I think tonight the coaching was probably the, the smallest of the blame game. If we're ordering this game, sure. Like I think it was just really the Paul Sewell decision. That's the biggest mistake. That was a massive mistake. I mean, the only mistake.

You do want to pinch run for Nolan Arnado there in that spot. I completely agree with it. Nolan Arnato is one of the slowest guys on the team and you're trying to score the game tying run, right? I just don't understand still how we got picked off. Can't get picked off. That was unbelievable. I can't believe that.

Just don't. All right. So we let them all up. We let them all up. Not surprised. Not a good sign. You win a head spoil up. But yeah, you're right.

Not a good sign. What's my prize for winning the blame? Oh, that you get. It's come back and do it all again tomorrow at one o'clock. That's your prize. You get to watch them do this again. Please play better. I mean, the big thing here, obviously,

is what happened there late in the game. You know, Cattel not challenging. Barrosa getting picked off, like everything there. But again, Tori talked about Cotel not challenging that last pitch. This is what Tori had to say about that situation. Yeah, Gabby had one on New Bar that was unbelievable. It was, you know, probably minimal certainty, but a very, very high impact part of the game, and it worked out good. And Merrill was like, you know, one batter away from wiggling out of

that mess. But, you know, you're right. I think I got to give these guys some credit. And the Marte situation doesn't bother me. It really doesn't. You know, we're going to learn from it. But we saw what happened. So, yeah, probably added to the list of 10 things that I'm thinking about. but that one that one doesn't is not as impactful on me as some of the other things that I watched uh keb missed Dalton they they passed like two ships in the night while keb was over there Kevin i want you to know Dalton even asked is that Kevin in there he did point you out he did point you out and he wanted to uh would to to hug you and meet you and do all that Derek enough of the kumbaya I want to talk about what Tori just said and yell about it because

how the hell is that not bothering him right now I understand that the list is long and that the airing of grievances involves about 50 things that went wrong that happened tonight. But that doesn't bother you. It's terrible situational awareness. You go to the end of the game. You have two challenges available. Use one. Even if it's a strike in the middle of the zone, you use one.

That's what I said. I mean, I'm still stuck on that island. Like, how do you not set? Like, just, I mean, a precedent? A precedent. Yes. Just have a known way. of handling business at the end of a game

that if we have challenges at the end of the game, I don't give a crap if you guys use them. Go up there and use them, especially if we're going to lose. Like, if it could potentially prevent us from losing the game, even if it's a blind prayer that you are going to get that call reversed, I say do it because, again, as much as we have been told you can turn your challenges in for prizes at the prize counter at the end of the week, there doesn't seem to be a prize counter.

I was asking for my prize before. I didn't get one either. I told you your prizes that you get to come back tomorrow and watch more baseball. I will say I will ying yang with with Damon over here. Just because I agree with Damon's sentiment. I'm just interpreting what Tori said as yes, that's the Cattel non-challel is an issue. Yeah. But the Cotel misplayed defensively at the first.

There are other things that were worse. I think like, yes, that was a dumb, no challenge. of course. That's on Tori. That's on Catella. That's on both. But that's something I would be shocked if we see that again, happen from the Diamondbacks.

And hopefully that doesn't happen because if it does, that's now, that's strike one. That's your mulligan, right? Because we have not seen that from the Diamondbacks. Yeah. Not challenging on a pitch like that. So fine. Happens again, larger issue.

But I think there were so many overall issues and then problems during the game that need to be addressed before tomorrow. I made a quick ranking. I think Barrosa getting picked off is the one. worst. Yep. Then the guys that are on third base with less than two outs, not getting them in, then Cattel.

I think that's my top three. I'm obviously combining the runners and scoring position as a, you know. I'd put Paul Seawald up there, though. Yeah, I mean, I guess. And I understand that that's not a good call, but like, it's under, it's more understandable to me than not challenging when you have two challenges. I just, I can't wrap my head around that. It's so, Katel just had no clue the situation up.

there. I guarantee you he had no idea that we had any challenges left. Let's hear from him. This is what Ketel had to say about not challenging that last pitch. Ooh, I don't know if I grabbed it yet. Let me pull it in here. Okay. All right. Well, we'll get to that here shortly, but he did give his reasonings for not challenging that pitch. It might not have been sound reasoning, but I mean, I think sometimes if you're asking me to explain why I didn't do it, my explanation isn't going to be great all the time. Like if you want honesty, sometimes my explanation is not going to be satisfactory because I'm just going to tell you, I didn't see it or I missed it. And that's kind of what Kattel gave us here in response to this. This is what he had to say.

I was looking a pitcher in that piece of swambered in that pitcher he put the two-semer was in a good direction a little bit of a little bit a little bit of a little bit.

I was looking for a breaking ball I got the two-seamers so I was a little bit surprised it's not much of an explanation he's basically saying like he was so busy looking at it being a changing a breaking pitch

that when it wasn't that he just assumed it was a strike because he didn't see it. Yeah. He didn't see if it was in the strike zone. I'm assuming you probably looking lower. It was up. You didn't know how high it was. Yeah.

Yeah. You have to challenge it. If known a situation, I think it's overall blame there. I, I, yeah. Yeah. Also,

uh, cool bro with his super chat. Might be on to something as well. We're getting a lot of good theories here as to why this game went the way it did. Ooh. Oh for one with Lordus's different colored hair. He stripped his hair of the purple and went full blonde. I don't love it.

I have a question. Yeah. Um, are you going to dye your hair blonde? Absolutely not. Why? No. I'm not.

No, because no bets were made. And in fact, blonde? No teal. No. Yeah, it's shocking. No snake skin pattern or something in his hair. Like, I don't even know if Lourdes like cares anymore. I have homework for you.

I needed to find out why I was blonde. Yeah. I like it. I'm just curious to see why. I would have preferred teal. I think that would have been interesting. Maybe he's anticipating a trade deadline move. Yeah, he might.

Blonde is very versatile. He could be blonde anywhere. He's right. You can't be purple. God, he's right. He's right. I don't like that. No, I don't like that.

But he's right. It's like a blank slate, right? He's like clearing it out. What do I have to do? Am I going to be like Rocky's purple? That's a darker shade of purple. Am I going to be like Mets, blue, and orange? I'm going to have to go with two different colors.

Oh, God. Well, again, not a great night. And we also heard from Kutel here on that first inning defensive play that he made the mistake on that bounced off his glass. love here is Kattel's explanation for that mistake as well yeah you know when the ball kind of deflected off of Merro the my vision my sight was a little bit off so things that happened me no excuses well Tori

had more to say about the other problems that they had. The biggest one, and I think something we can all agree on, is that Barrosa getting picked off there after getting put in as a pinch runner and getting picked off when he would have most likely scored the time run is by far the most egregious thing that happened in this game. Here's what Tori had to say about that particularly. I haven't said anything to him yet,

but I'm going to address it through the hit, through the base running coach, which I have. he'll deliver a message and then I'll tighten it up tomorrow. And also... You can tell that one bothered him a lot. Oh, yeah. He didn't even really want to say anything about it because he felt like if he did, it was going to come off as...

He was going to divulge too much information about how angry he truly was about the situation. Right. He made the right call there. That was 100% the right choice. You know how you're talking about like sometimes it's on the athlete to perform? Yeah. That is Exhibit A. 100%.

in the right spot and then you make a horrendous choice, not choice, but like mistake to get picked off. Yeah, I completely agree. A quick question. I'm sorry, because I have a really interesting segue here. We talked about the dimebacks losing this game today, and I think we can all agree on that. What mistakes did the Cardinals make today?

Because we have so many mistakes that we've listed from the dimebacks. How many, like, what mistakes did the Cardinals make tonight? Well, Damon, let's take a look at the numbers from tonight's game because I think that that will kind of tell a little bit of the story here. Oh my gosh. Not right, right? Not great. Then one extra boost.

JJ Weatherholt solo homerum like he's only extra base hit. Yep. Oh my gosh. You're right. I mean, what did they do? They didn't give the game away to the Diamondbacks is what they didn't do. And that's what the Diamondbacks did to the Cardinals. Four extra base hits for the Diamondbacks to the one extra base hit for the Cardinals.

O for nine with runners in scoring position. Two for nine? The Cardinals, there you go. There's the big difference, right. This is hard hit percentage, 50% for both teams. Expected batting average, 231 for the Diamondbacks, 3.02 for the Cardinals, and they only out hit the Diamondbacks by one hit. So that's just still expected stats, not real stats.

ABS challenges, 4 for 4 should have been 5 for 5 to the Cardinals, 1 for 2. So, I mean, yeah, they didn't do much, but you're 100% right. What they didn't do was make mistakes that gave the Diamondbacks extra runs. and in fact when the diamondbacks did have something cooking they were able to get out of those jams without having those runners score yeah there was a play by mason win mason win player of the game by the way by far because he has a two run two out single in the first inning he also was an amazing play in the middle of the game runner on third base two outs unreal playing the whole couple hops to first base barely beats aronado saves a run in a one run game i think has the sack fly later in the game you have three rb i's in the game total like an impressive game but like you said the cardinals just didn't give away this game that's it that's it well let's hear from tory one last time here's what tory had to say about the hitting with runners in scoring position problem the diamondbacks continue to have this entire season yeah i think we were 0 for nine right um that to me is a part of the game that separates um you from being um

average team to a really good team. And when you do it right and do it well and you have the right approach, I can live with it. It's smothering balls, getting around balls, and giving up count leverage with early count contact on a pitcher's pitch. Those are the ones that we got to get better at. I think teams are smart. They see vulnerabilities. They study habits of our hitters and that's your time to dance. It's your time to have them talk about you on MLB network when you. you do something spectacular. So why rush through it? Take your time. Step in the box. Control the count.

Have a good approach. And, you know, enjoy it a little bit and embrace it. Don't be afraid of it. That's the exact, I know that's the exact thing he tells players that are struggling to hit with Rargeon's scoring position in his office. In that exact same way. I know it. Yeah. There's just some more F words, pepper game.

That's all. Just sprinkled in a little bit. all over what he when he answered that I think he really did have the Lord to set that in his mind yeah first first first pitch ground out run out third base one out it's got us what are you doing why are you swinging at the very first pitch yeah you know oh well we're going to take a quick break and on the other side of this break we're going to read your super chats and uh we're going to try to turn Damon's night around by seeing how much he knows about dogs don't you go anywhere you're watching the pH next time of that show well the window depot of course is

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the Window Depot more than just a window store. And the FIFA World Cup is almost over, but it's not over yet. We're still partying, we're still celebrating, and this summer is still all about soccer, and Micolope Ultra is proud to be a sponsor of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The entire planet is going to be locked in on the final, and here in the Valley, we are going to be having a great time watching whoever. whoever wins win it and it's still not the team USA. We're used to that though.

We know it's not Team USA around here, but we are still going to be having a great time. And of course, Mekyllab Ultra is the beer to match the moment, whether you're packed into a bar, watching at a party, or yelling at your TV at home. For every match, every goal, every play on the world's biggest stage, crack open something superior. Michael of Ultra, official beer sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 26. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 and Heiserbush. Mickalov Ultra Light Beer, St. Louis, Missouri. And that's, again, that's this weekend, but we still have another fun party coming up.

And that is our next watch party, or excuse me, our next D-BACs takeover. It's more than just a watch party. We're going to go to Chase Field and take it over again, presented by the fine folks at Circle K. Of course, that is going to happen on Tuesday, August 25th against the Chicago Cubs. Do not listen to the Damon when he says that it's another one of my favorite teams because he's just mean. but your ticket does include your choice of PHNXDBax merch of your choice shirt or a hat you get your game ticket and access to the bar S all you can eat section and you die hard to get 20% off so get your tickets now at go phnx.com slash events and you can get

that link in our show notes as well I wanted to argue with you when you called me mean Derek but my first inclination was like to stuff you in a locker like I'm feeling pretty easy like I feel like as much as you want to defend yourself against said accusations, the only thing that you're going to do is further implicate yourself. I'm feeling mean. I'm feeling mean. I know. Can we also be real? If you're doing that to someone, it would be to me over Derek. I mean, I can't defend myself. I have no ill will towards you. That's probably.

Derek, I have built up and double. Me and Damon have real beef. Real beef. Did you see this Carlos Santana's situation? We'll never settle. We'll never be okay ever again. if we were a relationship irreconcilable differences would be a term that would be thrown around a lot about our relationship. And how does

that make you feel? Oh, don't even get me started. Don't even get me started. And is that Jonah? Did Jonah just join the jazz and get it on the Maimon Smith party? Yeah, he's talking best. Oh, Jonah. I love Bison of Jonah, but I also love Damon despite how much

Damon doesn't believe that. And I did prepare a full dog quiz As part of our wonderful giving, day of giving yesterday, we had our giveathon to benefit Big Brothers, Big Sisters of America. And part of our tier that we reached if you guys donated enough money was that Damon was going to have to take a dog-related quiz. And I know how much, I know, I know Damon is aware of dogs' existence. I know he knows all Damon's dogs, but I don't know how much he knows in general about dogs. And again, I know that I try, I try to reverse the feelings of the P.

If we win, Damon knows I try to bring everybody back down the earth in the final segment. But if we lose, here I am trying to uplift everybody, including Damon, but Damon more than anyone else. So we have a 10-question dog quiz that Damon is going to take rapid-fire questions. don't stretch these out. If you don't know the goddamn answer, just admit it and move on, admit you were wrong, admit you made mistakes,

and we're going to move on. What's the over under? The over under is seven. Oh, I'll take under. How many questions are there? 10. Wow. Okay.

They're not very hard. Oh, okay. But I'll still take the under. We did raise $15,000. So we have a, thank you, thank you. We have a bet to fulfill. fulfill or obligation to fulfill and here we go. Damon, are you ready?

Yes. All right. Let's start off with this dog is known for his rap catalog and his love of marijuana. Snoop Dog. Bing, one for one. Second question, what breed holds the Guinness World Record for the tallest dog ever recorded? Great Dane. Bang, two for two for Damon.

Now we're going to get into a little harder questions because Damon doesn't know old stuff. We're easy mode. What was the name of the dog and the Wizard of Oz, Damon? Toto. Yes. Three for three. Come on. Three for three.

All right. Which MLB Hall of Famer was famously nicknamed the hound dog. Man, that one I don't love hearing that. The hound dog. Can I get a quick hint of like what era, maybe, just like a decade? 80s. 80s. The hound dog.

I know crime dog. Yeah, you do know crime. And if I would have gone with crime dog, that would have, see, I needed to eventually, I needed to eventually. Stop the guv. The hound dog. I take it back. It's actually 70s. 70s.

Yeah. Yeah, my bad. I don't know why I thought 80s. I don't know, Derek. I'm going to have to call it a miss on that one. Yep. You're going to, this one is in honor of you once again calling the Cubs my favorite team. Ron Santo.

Ron Santo was the hound dog. All right. This one, another television. Show movie dog. What was the name of the Jack Russell Terrier owned by Frazier on the TV sitcom Frasier? Never seen Frasier. Man, Derek, is that one of the first TV shows they ever made? See, I knew it.

I knew you were going to. Oh, actually it's a spinoff of one of the first TV shows ever made called Cheers, Dan. Was it in black and white, Derek? No, no. This show was in color. You never heard of this? No, I'm talking about the show Frasier. I know Cheers.

I don't know. See? See? Frazier Crane. Okay, his name was Eddie. Moving on. Eddie. We got, we're four for six right now.

All right. Wait, we're two for four, I thought. No, you got, no, you got four. No, wait, you're three for five. Three for five. Three for five. Three for five. We're both wrong.

All right. What legendary NBA player was nicknamed the big dog? I mean, that feels so generic. Everyone's the big dog. They're all big dogs. They're all seven feet tall. That's the whole point. But this was marketed as the big dog.

There was t-shirts and stuff with the big dog on it for this particular player. Dude, this just feels like everyone is the big dog. Oh, you're going to hate yourself on this one. See, I was like, Damon knows basketball. He's going to know this one for sure. But then once again, all I have to do is date it. It just has to go back earlier than 1997 in order to stop date. Yeah, for sure.

The big dog. Jack? Glenn Robinson. Glenn Robinson. Ernesto puts it here in the chat. That would have been cheating, though. Yeah, Ernesto, no helping. Good job, Ernesto.

Yeah, for sure. We're going to get really hard on this look. In the 1993 film Homeward Bound, the Incredible Journey, there were three pets that made the journey home. Correct. Name any one of them. Oh. Any one of their three names.

I'm familiar with the movie, actually, on this one. Yeah. But that's a tough one, man. we're going to go with Max. Nice try. Nice try. We were looking for chance, shadow, or sassy is what we were looking for. Oh, you know what?

I throw Max guess out. No, Max is actually a good, you throw Max out there for any dog's name. There's a 45% chance. Yeah, with three options, there was a good chance, one of them. 100%. Loving the under name. All right. We got eight, nine, and ten here.

What breed of dog was Beethoven in the Beethoven film series? Oh, sign for North. Bing. There we go. He's bad. We know the same ones. I love it. Which dog breed?

Which dog breed is the only dog breed whose tongue is entirely black or blue? Wow. There's a whole. This is, and so like other dog breeds their tongue can be black or blue. Can have black spots. Can have other coloration. This is the one dog that has only black or blue tongue. Correct.

Correct. And I'll even tell you it's a mean bastard too. Oh. Mean bastard. Yep. Blue. But see, you got to know dogs to know this is a mean bastard. So, I mean, again.

See, this is like my, this is what you get from working out of animal hospital. If I could phone Dennis right now, this would be over. 100%. 100%. Also, a dog of this breed named Freestyle almost killed me one time. So that's fun. I haven't. Hmm.

While I was grooming it. Came for me. Chow. Be it. Let's go. That's five for 10. Oh. Oh, yeah.

You're, you're, we scraped 50%. No, you got one more. You got one more. You got one more. Final question and one more movie dog. What was the name of the dog that accompanied Marty McFly and Doc Brown? Oh, my gosh. Back to the future and back to the future.

Max. If you asked about the Grinch, he was ready. I know, I know. That's why I guess I should have asked about the Grinch. Good job, Damon. Good job. Actually, much better job than I thought you were going to do. So still a solid work.

Still a solid work. Well, we can't thank you enough for not only being here tonight, joining us for this terrible postgame show of misery, but more importantly for you trying to come here after the All-Star break and turn things around for this team. This man is a man of luck, so we appreciate him being here. We also got a ton of super chats that we got to go through. Let's tell the story of Super Cool, Bro, first.

Thank you for all of your super chats. First, Cool Bro says, they lost because it was U of A night. That one's at Damon. He says, I don't know if you can convince Goldschmidt happens with Tori. We don't talk about that guy around here. He also said, losing on kids free weekend, D-backs hate kids. Facts.

Possible fact. They did make the kids leave the tarps off section at the eighth inning. So, I mean, maybe there's something to that. And he also said, we're still above 500. Can we get Domo downhill? No, Damon refuses to throw Domo up there after a loss. In fact. Like Toron or something.

something. Yeah, yeah, we need, yeah, we need to worry, and he's going down. Last, he says, I blame Arizona Cardinals scouting for gambling, probably. Johnny Walker, he's still very mad at Joe Mather. He says, runners in scoring position, Joe Mather fire him, career 219 hitter hitting coach. Give me a break. And F does he know? I like a lot, actually, if I'm being honest. But also, last one from Super, from my friend Johnny Walker since kindergarten, he says, obviously Kattel, not challenging is the most confounding part of this. game balls take bad hops batter strike out pitchers suck got to tap that helmet uh that's a good take it's the most inexcusable i think which is right what what he's trying to say yeah because the game

was over it's a mental mistake you just do it just just to do it yeah uh also lots of love to a z cats g as always he says ginkle pitching in the ninth of you of a night would have been epic tonight was cool hanging out with a z football uh who is that no uh and the spice and Trace Biden. Yeah, they were great. They were great tonight. Great people. Sad we lost two, AZ Catch G.

And AZ Catch G also said Wilbur was the only reason we had a chance. BT&B. Stick up for Wilbur. I don't know. Wilbur wasn't coming out of the bullpen tonight. So I don't know if he... Over waved at you, Derek. He did wave at me.

He could have big time. He did. He did. He waved at me in a way that was very arrogant. I didn't like it. That's only my personal feelings on it. He's kind of a big deal. He could have big time you.

No, I know. I know. Meanwhile, I did hug Baxter and congratulate. him on his mascot home run derby championship. He won the mascot home run derby. I missed that. Wow. He's got a championship belt and everything. So very proud of my guy.

At least he didn't let us down. At least he didn't let us down. But everybody else did. Well, we thank you guys so much for joining us again. Big thanks to this guy. Make sure if you see him around Chase Field this weekend, you stop and say hi because he is one of our favorites around here. So, of course, you can follow him at D. Feeley 14, right?

Bang. Bang. I'm at K. Cave Man with a K. Damon, as you know, is at Damon Dog with a D-A-W-G. We're all Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. Our show is at P-H-N-X underscore D-Backs, but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. I know the wings flapping. I was, I love it. Great, yeah. But again, we thank you guys for your time. You guys are the best.

We appreciate you sharing a little bit of your time with us. It's your most valuable commodity. Be careful who you share it with. But until Monday, hope you guys all have a wonderful weekend. We'll be dropping another D-Backs after dark. over the course of the weekend, so make sure to subscribe on your favorite audio podcast for that. Hit the like button on the way out of here, and most importantly, try to have yourselves a wonderful rest of your night and weekend. And hopefully, Diamondbacks can get this series done before all of a sudden done. We thank you guys so much for your time. Appreciate you. We'll see you back here on Monday. Until then, we love you and remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun

when you don't make every mistake that you possibly could.