PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - POSTGAME: Diamondbacks Offense Stalls, Zac Gallen Struggles in Loss to Braves

Episode Date: April 26, 2025

Our best Diehard deal! Just $3 A Month https://www.gophnx.com/intro-offer-youtube We aren’t sure who to blame for the Diamondbacks 8-2 loss to the Braves on Friday night. The offense was missing in action, the defense from reliable position players like Eugenio Suarez and Geraldo Perdomo was atrocious, and Zac Gallen continues to be inconsistent on the mound this season. Our friend Jesse Friedman from Snakes Territory stops by to discuss if it’s finally time for the D-backs to turn to Jordan Lawlar after his big night for the Reno Aces, Chase Field falling apart before our very eyes, and more! Join Derek, Jesse, and Kevin for the PHNX Diamondbacks Postgame Show! 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/ 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/ Branded Bills: Use code PHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order! The D-backs are hosting Golf Night on Monday, May 5th vs. the Mets. Purchase a Special Event ticket package through the special link and receive a game ticket and a limited-edition D-backs rope hat courtesy of Branded Bills! https://www.gofevo.com/event/Dbacks6165 Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. 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! Monarch Money: Use Monarch Money to get control of your overall finances with 50% off your first year at https://www.monarchmoney.com/phnx Waymo: Download the Waymo One App and Ride Today! https://apps.apple.com/us/app/waymo-one/id1343524838; https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.waymo.carapp Carol Royse Team: To buy/sell your home, call Carol Royse at 480-776-5231 or visit carolroyseteam.com All Pro Shade Concepts: Call 623-204-1476 or visit https://allproshadeconcepts.com/ now to schedule your free estimate! 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. #dbacks #diamondbacks #arizonadiamondbacks #mlb #zacgallen #corbincarroll #ketelmarte #mlbtheshow #mlbtraderumors #tradedeadline #traderumors #allstargame Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, the Arizona Diamondbacks blew another game. This one was bad from many perspectives. Who's to blame? The offense, the defense, the bullpen, everybody? Yeah, probably everybody. We got Jesse Friedman joining us on the first edition of Friedman Fridays. Don't you go anywhere. We're starting in 30 seconds.

Well, that's probably the most appropriate usage of this music yet because this one was a stinker. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montea. of course, I'm occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. I got my guy Kevin Thomas on the ones and twos. He's occasionally known as large, intimate. And of course, you guys are all occasionally known as our family. Welcome into another edition of this show.

Of course, PHNX Diamondbacks is brought to you by our friends of Bet365 from GameTime. Of course, if you have not downloaded the Bet365 app yet do so now. You sign up using that code with PHNX 365 when you do it. And you'll get yourself some bonus bets for betting just $5. Of course, over at game time, use our code of P8X. H&X on your first purchase, you will get $20 off of that first purchase. I am not thrilled to talk about this game. However, I am very thrilled to talk about baseball with this guy, the one and only former

co-hosts of this show and current host and lead guy over there at Snake's territory from our friends of Fowl Territory. It's the one and only Jesse Friedman. Jesse, first question, have you been drinking water? I need to know that. You look like you have. You look hydrated. You look like the beach there is doing wonderful things for you.

How are you doing, pal? I'm doing great, Derek. I think it's been about 129 days, give or take, since you and I last talked baseball together in a setting like this. So it is good to be back. And I have my water bottle right here that you'll be happy now. In your honor, Derek, I've been staying very well hydrated the past few months. I appreciate it.

That is good news, my friend. that is good news. But what's bad news is I wish we were here under better circumstances after the Diamondbacks losing tonight to the Braves by a score of 8 to 2. Their record on the season stands at 14 and 12. And obviously, Jesse, I know we haven't had a chance to really talk about this particular season, but I mean, at one point, we were talking about the depth this team was adding. We were talking about other things in regards to this season looking very positive. And right now, after tonight's loss, things might be at their bleakest. I know we have guys returning, but it really feels like things have really changed for this team.

Three days ago, they're 14 and 9, right? And everything is feeling hunky dory in Diamondbacks land. And then you lose back-to-back, back-breaking games, right, against the Tampa Bay raised. I mean, both in extra innings. I think it was one for 14 with runners in scoring position. on Wednesday. And then the game yesterday, the D-backs had all kinds of opportunities. They didn't pick up the baseball particularly well.

And that trend continued to today, Derek. I mean, I thought the biggest moment in this game was probably a E. E. E. E. E. E. E. Hennio Suarez, making that throwing air in the sixth inning that ultimately turned a three-one game into a five-one game. Granted, the Diamondbacks only scored two runs in this game when all was set and done. So I don't know if you can place the blame fully. on any one party in a game like this. But it's been a rough few days for the debacks,

but they're still 14 and 12. It's still early. I wouldn't be pressing the panic button at this point in the year. But yes, a rough few days for sure. There's no getting around that. Well, and you were right. This one was a team effort in the loss, if you will. I mean, I don't know what was worse tonight.

I don't know if the pitching was worse. I don't know if the defense was worse. I really feel like, again, the offense didn't get rolling, but I felt like the defensive mistakes this team made in this game just compounded everything, added all sorts of extra stress on the pitching staff, kind of had guys deflated, you know, despite the fact that Tori said they came in today kind of in good spirits and kind of ready to go and felt like things were kind of that the energy was high in the first inning, but that energy quickly changed for this team.

I mean, Zach Gallen looked good for two batters, right? He was throwing strikes. It was two up, two down on seven pitches, and you felt like Zach Gallen might be locking things into place, and maybe he was going to have a big bounce back outing. And to his credit, this wasn't a terrible game for him. I mean, five innings, three runs. Like, it's not what you're looking for from a pitcher like Zach Gallen,

but he did settle in pretty nicely retired. I believe it was the final 10 batters that he faced in this game. But, yeah, I mean, he went. from getting the first two outs on seven pitches in the first inning to needing to to throw 27 pitches in order to get out of that inning. And I think he was at 79 pitches by the end of the third. So yeah, you just, you need a guy like that to be able to get deeper into games. And both he and Corbyn Burns, of course, Burns was, at least I thought better in his outing yesterday. But those two guys have still combined this year to average five and a third

innings per start. And that's just not going to cut it from two guys that you figure could be two of the better starters in baseball. Right. Not to mention the fact that this bullpen has been good, but we knew they had some shortcomings. There's just been a lot of stress and pressure put also on the bullpen. I know that the Diamondbacks made the move before the game to bring in Jillber Diaz for the case of the way this game went, right? They were going to put Gilbert Diaz in there just for length and to eat up some innings. Most likely, in a game where they were losing like this game. But again, the,

Gilbert wasn't great tonight. However, the defense was awful behind every pitcher tonight. And so again, you could take a look at the offense, which kind of disappeared in this one. And not just disappeared, Jesse, but they had really bad luck. I mean, the amount, the amount of balls in the press box,

we thought were home runs that weren't home runs, the amount of things that just didn't go their way tonight. I know we've talked about it with expected stats before and all of that other stuff. But it just, when you see that ball by, who was it? I think it was Verdugo that hit that ball that dropped in between

Lourdes and, you know, Gino and Perdomo. You just felt like things were not going to go the Diamondbacks way, considering those things were happening for the Braves. And meanwhile, the Diamondbacks are hitting home runs that are coming inches within being a home run. Instead, they're going on the other side of the foul pole.

Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. The Diamondbacks lost this game 8 to 2. but for those of you scoring at home, I counted six runs that they could have scored on foul home runs. Barrosa nearly hit a three-run homer late in the game. He also just missed a solo homer early in the game. And then there was Corbyn Carroll alleged two-run home run that lasted about, what, 60, 90 seconds, something like that,

which was honestly maybe the funniest moment of the game as an observer. Like Corbin just so clearly knew that that ball was foul, but the umpires didn't. And so he just had to do the obligatory trot around the bases, knowing that it wasn't actually a home run. I really enjoyed that. But yeah, that's six runs right there of near home run balls. But unfortunately, Derek, it's a brutal game. And those count as strikes. They count against you.

So, yeah, the diamond, I think there was some bad luck in this game on there. And I think that's fair to say legitimately on the pitching side. You mentioned that for dogo double that scored a run that really just dropped into no man's land. I wonder if Lordus Guerriel, maybe if he was breaking for that ball a little more aggressively, might have had a shot to make that play. And then after the A. E. E. E. E. E. E. Hennio, Suarez, Air, base hit that scored the next run in that inning, I think was like 80 miles an hour off the bat or something like that. So there were a few big hits for the Braves in this game that really weren't hit all that hard at all.

Well, and again, the defense, I mean, at times I might have just been too critical. And I know a lot of people probably were. Once we started seeing some of those mistakes get made, you know, it felt very much like these were balls. Even though, you know, they were coming off the bat at like a 95 mile per hour exit velo and they were, they were being hit hard. So they're difficult balls to field. It's just something that we are very used to seeing the. Diamondbacks do is make even difficult plays look fairly routine. And that has not been the case this season. And it definitely wasn't the case tonight. We have a video here from Tori talking about

those mistakes. Very much so. And that's what's driving me crazy. That's what's very frustrating to me. I spoke to the guys today and we've told we got to tied some things up. And, you know, I think they were there. They did in certain areas. Like I said earlier, but there was some some plays that weren't made and they hurt us. Do you think that's a collective thing where once one guy makes that type of play, everyone else starts a chip in a bit? Shouldn't be. I think it could be while we're watching it, yes.

And we know how much those mistakes impact everything else in the game, right? But it was just one of those things like Gino tonight was awful, Jesse, and I don't know how to say it otherwise. I mean, at the plate, he was still. productive in a few instances. So he had a better night at the dish. But it's like he had to sacrifice his ability to be a good defender over there at the corner because he just, he missed a ball up the line there in the second inning that, again, that was one of those balls that was 95 mile per hour. It ends up being a double for Eli White. And that's how the first run scores.

It wasn't an easy play to make, but it's just a play that we've seen Gino make time and time again. In fact, when he was struggling last season in the first half, we often said that his defense was at least there. And that was what was keeping him on the field when his bat was so was so bad. I think Gino has gone from a guy who made all the routine plays and a few exceptional plays every now and then to what you're kind of talking about right now where he's not only not making really any exceptional plays. Like you mentioned that play down the line, I don't know how many third baseman in the league make that play, but there probably are some. Like I don't. I don't think it's an impossible play to make.

And, yeah, not only is he not, you know, coming through and with some big plays every now and then, but you're starting to see him look a little bit more tentative out there in general than you're used to do. That was his fourth throwing air of the season, which they said on the broadcast is the most in all of baseball. Obviously, we're only a few weeks into the end of the year at this point. So, yeah, the defense has been rough. I kind of wonder if some of that is carrying over from his offense.

It's obviously been a rough few weeks for Gino here offensively. So, you know, maybe that factors into things. But there's no getting around it. It's been after those, that first week of the season, whatever it was, where Gino looked like he was just picking right up where he left off and he had five home runs in a week or whatever it was. The last couple weeks with him have been pretty rough. Man, and Jesse, I don't know. I mean, I feel like the time is coming that.

the Diamondbacks can't afford to not do something about Gino. Again, this is a guy that is currently hitting 167 with a 690 OPS. He is also making egregious defensive mistakes out there. And Tori just said yesterday, just yesterday, he said that one of the problems with Suarez is that he's not getting his feet set before he throws. And then that was on display tonight defensively from him. But meanwhile, you have Jordan Lawler coming just a home run short of the cycle for the Reno Aces tonight. He was three for five with a double, triple, two RBI and a walk. And I mean, everybody has been clamoring here in the, in the Diamondbacks internet

sphere, block a sphere, Jesse for Jordan Lawler to come up. We know that we've talked last season about this. We've talked this season about this. Like the biggest problem is playing time for Lawler. But now it's starting to feel like that shouldn't necessarily be the case. And maybe they should give him at least an opportunity. to come up here and play at a major league level you can definitely make the case for sure uh you know tim tawa is playing really really well right now and it sounds like el marty is maybe going to come

back within the next week or something like that so um so it does still feel a little crowded to me i mean i guess if if people want to have the like d f a eohenio suarez conversation we're not doing that again. I get, yeah, because, yeah, right. We all saw how that ended last year and people who were asking for that in April or May did not exactly wind up looking very smart at the end of the season. And I think just objectively, that's a hard case to make, at least at this point in the year, given what Gino did for you down the stretch last year and how he looked at this point in the season, which was honestly much worse than how he's looked so far. Uh, I think, I think you kind of owe him the benefit of the doubt at this point in the year.

But agreed, like Jordan Lawler is playing really, really well in AAA. And if he continues to put up numbers like that, you're probably going to have to just find a way to get him some opportunity in the majors before too much longer. The Diamondbacks did score a run late again, Jesse, in this game. They've been doing that at least. They've scored 57 runs in the seventh inning later, and that excludes extra innings.

and that leads major league baseball by by a considerable distance. They're almost 10 runs ahead of the Cubs, depending on what they did tonight in those innings. But on the flip side, speaking of the Cubs, since the Diamondbacks played that first game against the Cubs where things went crazy, since that eighth inning where they scored 10 runs, the team collectively is batting below 200.

And again, you don't really feel like a single moment in a baseball game can completely kind of deflate your team. But it does feel a little bit, like, since that particular game that this team hasn't kind of bounced back from that loss, even though they have won. I think that this team right now, I mean, Corbin has been outstanding, right? So maybe you'd consider Corbyn to be their best offensive player. But Catelle Marte finished third and MVP voting last year. And he's been out for basically the entire season. So, you know, as good as Tim Tawa has been lately as a fill-in, you're still missing a really important.

bat in the two hole in your lineup, right? And Geraldo Pardomo did a really nice job there for a while, filling in in that spot, but he's kind of come down to Earth and started to look a little bit more like the hitter we've seen in recent years. So I was kind of skeptical that the Diamondbacks were going to be able to keep up the insane offensive pace that they were on even without Catelle Marte in the lineup. You've seen some guys start to come back down to Earth. And what the team really needs to happen, Derek, is for Lordus Gurriel Jr., for Gabriel Moreno, for Aohenio Suarez, as we were talking about earlier.

You need some of those guys to step up and kind of help pick up the slack here. Because that's really what made this offense so good a year ago was that you just never got a break. Like if you're a pitcher against the diamondbacks, it was one through nine. Everyone's a competent hitter. And on paper, the diamondbacks still have that kind of roster, but the results just have not. been there to this point in the year. Well, Jesse, it's funny because the offensive struggles obviously don't happen in Reno. And that's one of the reasons why I cautioned people to not look at Jordan Lawler's numbers and think that he could be producing at that same level at a major league for major league team.

Right. So there's that factor as well. Jake McCarthy was three for five tonight and he is currently hitting 500 for the Reno Aces. This was a guy that was absolutely struggling. Now, it's a small sample size. I only believe he's played like two or three games, but still it just goes to show that you go, you go to Reno, you start hitting there.

And I mean, you can get going offensively. You can put up some big numbers. It just doesn't necessarily mean it translates, you know, to the big league club. Also, AJ Vukovic, Jesse tonight, had a great incredible night for the Aces, five for six with two home runs. He's their right fielder.

So again, his name might start coming up in regards to some of this stuff too, because again, this team, I almost feel like this franchise has kind of set an expectation for fans over the last few years that if you're not performing, we will find somebody to replace you. And it's not, that's not something special to the Diamondbacks, but it is something unique to teams that are trying to not wait around and see if guys can come out of stuff, but, you know, and can't afford really to be patient with guys coming around and coming out of their slumps.

But we've just seen that happen so far. and it's so hard with Gino especially to not think at any point he's going to come out of out of this slump that he's currently in. I mean, this is a team that has a lot of position player depth. So it's sort of like if anyone at any position really is not playing well, then there's someone in the Diamondbacks farm system who's probably at least a viable replacement for that player, right? I guess maybe catcher would be the exception where the organization doesn't have a ton of depth there. But yeah, I mean, Gino at third base, you know, Lordus Gerell in left field. I don't think, I don't think anyone's talking about replacing Gabby Moreno because, again, there aren't really any other options.

And he's Gabby Moreno. And I think he's pretty well established at this point. So, yeah, I don't know how much I really buy into the Diamondbacks being anywhere close to replacing a Gino at third base. I could maybe see the one thing I could see is with Gerell. left field struggling to the extent that he is. Maybe we allow Randall Grishick to not literally sit out for two weeks because the Diamondbacks haven't played that this was the first time they played a lefty.

He was on Melkarton at the stadium, Jesse. They were looking for Randall Gritchick and they thought he'd gotten kidnapped. It is wild how much he's been missing in action. And like, again, I know, like we were just talking about Pavin's splits and how they don't, they don't even bat him. you know, they won't even let him hit against, you know, certain pitchers, right? So it's like it's the same thing with Gritchick. And I guess it works, but I don't know, man.

I mean, one, it's the fact that you're not really in a rhythm at all as a hitter. And two, I don't know, some of these guys might just be better hitters that they don't, you know, they only need to face a righty or a lefty in certain situations. I just, you know, I don't know. It's worked out for them in the past. You look at what some of these guys that left like Jock Peterson are doing for other teams. and you're seeing how they're struggling because the diamondbacks did a good job at protecting them and making sure that they were basically only hitting in situations that that benefited them or were,

you know, an advantage for them, right? But I don't know. I don't know. This is one of those teams right now that is very frustrating to watch. And again, the guys in the second half, like you said, the, what is it, the five through seven hitters are just have been atrocious for this team. Defense has been atrocious, a lot of bad things. In fact, Jesse, I can't even give my Sanderson Ford deep drive of the game to an actual home run. So instead, I'm giving the Sanderson for deep drive of the game to Corbyn Carroll's two run home run that wasn't a home run in the seventh inning.

Because at least it was fun. And he made us believe in things again, made us believe in happiness, made us believe that this Diamondbacks team could win a game. So there was that. But of course, we are going to talk more about the pitching on the other side of this break. Don't you guys go anywhere. You're watching me. You're watching Jesse. You're watching the PHNX Diamondback show.

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All right, Jesse, well, we have some more bad news. It wasn't, wasn't, didn't end up being terrible, but the, the broadcast tonight did show Corbyn Carroll that he wince during an at bat there in the fifth inning and then kind of shaking out his elbow, his shoulder there. It was just something to kind of add on to the pain of this game. But we did talk to Tori Lavallo afterwards. And he said it was nothing of concern here very briefly. Here's what Tori had to say.

Right. Nothing there. It was just a little bit of a little, felt a little elbow discomfort, had nothing to do with the shoulder. So that was good news, at least hearing afterwards that there was no further pain, I guess, that we could be, that can cause us from this game. I did notice that on the broadcast before, before they went back in a show to replay of it. I noticed it in the moment. It was like, did Corbyn Carroll just wince because he tweaked his right shoulder again, the one that was surgically repaired? And yeah, I think he did. He just had a little moment there. And I, yeah, I'm not surprised that it, you know, Tori kind of blew it off. And really,

I mean, Corbin hit the foul home run ball in his next at bat, right? So that was fairly reassuring to see him swing like that immediately after this incident happened. So I'm not, I wouldn't be worried about it, worried about it if I was a Diamondbacks fan. But, but I understand if that made people's hearts skip a beat there for a second because there, there are some traumatic memories tied to, tied to that whole situation from, from a couple years back. Jesse Jack Summers was beside himself. He was, he was, he was going through it. He was really, he was really struggling with that one. And yeah, rightfully so because he would point out to me every single time Corbyn was shaking his right arm a little bit. We do have to give Kingsnake out or do we, Jesse, because I just made the decision that as far as this game goes, absolutely nobody deserves King Snake in this game.

Not nobody, not, not, not, not, not Corbyn for his triple, not Tim Tala. Nobody deserves it in this one. Actually, you know what? Elizabeth in the chat, Jesse. She says, she says your king snake. So there we go. I guess well, you know what? Let's pivot, Kevin.

Let's make Jesse. Jesse is the king snake for this game with a great return to this podcast. And gives me a chance to finally save my voice for one night because Jesse, my God, I'm, even I'm sick of hearing from me. But Zach Gallen, we talked about it briefly earlier today. This was not a good night for him. I think he did do a great job after that inning of getting things back on track. And I also, this is one of those games.

We talked about being unlucky. I don't fully blame Zach. I don't think this was a terrible outing. The biggest problem was the pitch count, just being high there on a night where, quite frankly, the Diamondbacks really needed him to be more efficient. And eventually he got to that level of efficiency, but he wasn't there in the first two innings, especially in that second inning where the wheels kind of fell off for him. the narrative with Zach for a while now and you and i certainly discussed this at length last season

is fastball command right just being able to really dot his fastball where he wants to something we've seen from him in the past but the last year and a half it just felt like that fastball command was really inconsistent and it was a little bit shaky early in this game i think that that definitely led to the pitch count rising as much as it did but it did get a lot better. In this game as a whole, Zach, I believe, was 14 for 21 in first pitch strikes, which is 67%. That's really good. Yeah, that's above average. Yeah, coming into this game, Zach was at 55.7% for his first pitch strike rate, which was by far the lowest number of his career. So, so yeah, that was a step forward for him today. He was eight for his last 10 in that regard.

so it seemed to get better as the outing went on. And, you know, you can analyze Zach Allen and what has plagued him for probably a long time. You could spend a good while kind of looking at all of the various factors there. But strike one is just really important for any pitcher, and especially someone like Gallen who's not going to overpower you necessarily. Strike one is really, really important. And you saw that within this game,

Like when he was not throwing strike one, he was getting himself in trouble. And Braves hitters, to their credit, works some really good at bats early in this game. And then when he started getting ahead later on, then he really had his way. And he retired the last 10 batters he faced. So I don't, you know, I'm sure there's more going on with Zach Allen that we could, that we could pick apart. But throwing strike one would really do, would really go a long way for him in the grand scheme of things. And he did use his. fastball quite a bit tonight. He had heavy fastball usage. Fifty-eight percent of his pitches thrown

tonight were fastballs. He did have better command of it. We have his pitch chart here. But, I mean, sometimes when Zach would miss, he was really missing. And again, it really also felt like you could just see his body language and the way that he reacted to some of the way plays were going. And I mean, it includes the defensive plays behind him. It's not to say that a lot of those were balls that were errors or mistakes made by the defenders because they didn't get to them. It's just what this team has kind of hung its hat on. It's calling card has been how good they are defensively and how many times they make those great plays behind their pitchers.

Maybe in a lot of cases in the previous two seasons, maybe that defense has made some of these starters look better than they actually are. But it feels like, you know, again, you could you could see it there out of Zach. And luckily, I mean, the thing I commend him for is picking himself up there and, you know, realizing how much the team needed a solid outing from him, despite what his pitch count was. He gets up to, I believe, 103 pitches. But he gives them five solid, five solid innings that, you know, again, offense wasn't working. The bullpen went on to not work and give up a bunch of runs. But, you know, at least at that point, the team still had a chance to win that baseball game when Zach exited.

I don't know if people are going to like me saying this, but it certainly. wouldn't be the first time i said something that people didn't like me for on this show uh but but christian walker if christian walker is at first base we're not probably we're not talking about the genus war it because it doesn't happen because christian walker probably would have dug that out and josh neler almost did but he just wasn't quite able to finish the play and i think that's part of what you're seeing with the defense this year is that uh you know they did make a few more defensive miscues the last few years, then I think a lot of us realize it's just that Christian Walker was right there to clean up the mess time and time again. And so you just never realized. And now, you know,

I think Josh Naylor is doing reasonably well for himself. He definitely hasn't been a liability over there. And I know people have reported that he's he's out there early taking ground balls before every game putting his work in. But at the end of the day, he's not Christian Walker. And no one is, right? Christian Walker is one of a kind in that regard. But who points out, do we miss Seawks 150 batting average, though? Yeah, that's a whole other conversation. It's been, I still am trying to wrap my head, Derek, around how the Diamondbacks let both Christian Walker and Jock Peterson walk, and both of them have just been absolutely awful for the first few weeks of the season. I still would probably

bet on both guys to figure it out. I mean, maybe this is just a, early season blip. But man, I mean, Jock Peterson had like an 0 for 40 stretch or something ridiculous like that. O for 41 before he finally snapped out of it with a double. It's unbelievable. Yeah, for the hitter that he was last year to go through a stretch like that,

that is unfathomable, really after what we saw a year ago. Well, and again, there's, I know you remember the fire Tory crowd, Jesse, and they're bigger than ever right now. Let me tell you that group has grown,

but there's things like what you're saying that, you know, again, Tori and his staff deserve credit for the way that they, for the platoons that they chose, the way they picked guys to, you know, play certain positions, DH, all this stuff and kind of put guys in the best opportunity for success, you know, for them to face, you know, the pitching that they're best to hit against and, you know, basically finding ways to, we talked about it, piecemealing together.

like a DH situation putting together these two guys doing this and like again it's part of the reason why those guys probably had the success they had Christian Walker though you know you talk about his defense how uplifting was it at times right like where they would make that big play and you just felt like the team got a huge boost from Christian Walker you know picking up a liner right at him or you know digging those throws out that are bad from any of their infielders and just making it look effortless at times, right? Like he is a big, we miss him quite a bit. And honestly, even with him struggling offensively, I would still say, like, I might be

willing to take that considering how much it feels like these mistakes this team keeps making just weigh the whole team down, you know. They've done a good job at bouncing back. The bullpen this year has done a good job of holding games and giving the team a chance to come back with how good their offense has been late in games. but, you know, tonight they needed guys to eat innings and keep the game close. The defense definitely, the defense did not help them behind them, but they did call up Gilbert Diaz.

And at the very least, even though this game didn't go the Diamondbacks way, they gave their bullpen at least a chance to rest with Gilbert eating the, the innings that he ate. But it definitely cost him. Yeah, I will say quickly about Gilbert that, oh, man, his command was about as bad. as I have seen from a major league pitcher in a long time, frankly. Was it, and it wasn't. For you, was it where Moreno is setting up and how much he was missing Moreno? Or was it just how badly his pitches were missing the zone at times?

I think it was just how badly he was missing the zone. Like, it felt to me watching his outing, at least at times, like Gabby Moreno was, uh, was like trying to chase after the ball. Yeah. Like it wasn't like Gabby was, was, you know, just having to adjust a little bit. It was Gabby having to, you know, make very rapid movements in all directions in order to just try to keep the ball in front of him. So, yeah, and Diaz still through, I mean, you know, it was so kind of random where he would, he would miss his spot by eight feet. And then suddenly he would just dot the corner.

It was like, well, where did that come from? So, yeah, not a good outing from Jil R Diaz at all. And he also has not really gotten off to a good start in AAA either. Some people might have seen his numbers. I think his ERA is close to six down in AAA. 15 walks to 19 strikeouts so far, not a good ratio. So they really called him up just out of pure necessity, right? Right.

Ryan Nelson clearly is not going to be available for a while. And the rest of this bullpen has been used very heavily for the most part as well. So they needed him, even though he didn't pitch all that well today. Did at least this night give the bullpen enough of a rest for them to kind of reset, or are they still in a bad shape? I think they're probably okay now because, yeah, I mean, you basically didn't, you hardly used anyone today, right? It was really just Murillo and then Diaz, who certainly is going to be down for a while. Maybe they'll send them down tomorrow. I don't know.

Probably. I don't know what that will look like. But yeah, you've got some days off now. I think Ryan Thompson could pitch tomorrow. Justin Martinez, it sounds like, was available today. So he should be good to go tomorrow. Shelby Miller has seen pretty heavy usage lately. They might want to avoid him tomorrow if they can.

Jalen Beeks is kind of an ongoing situation with his forearm contusion that he suffered yesterday. So they're not in the best of shape, but I think they're probably fine for, for at least tomorrow's game. Well, we have more from the clubhouse here, Jesse. Here's Toy Lobolo talking on Gallin's outting tonight. I think Zach gutted out five innings. The second time he's done in a row. I was really proud of him.

You know, they chipped away at him early. The pitch count was climbing. And I think there was a base hit by a Verdugo that was responsible for a couple of runs. It's part of the game. But Zach just went out there and got stubborn in innings three, four, and five. and then we turned it over the bullpen and, you know, there's some good moments that took place inside in those last four innings, but it, it wasn't our type of baseball overall. But we've got to be better. Tomorrow's another day.

I think that obviously Gallen did pitch fine in this one, but still, I mean, the fact of the matter is, is that like the worst case scenario for this team was kind of Zach having too high of a pitch. count no matter how well he was pitching and needing to once again go to the bullpen too early. The Diaz thing is whatever. You know, again, it's, it's that, that was the purpose of him getting called up was to do this exact thing. I just can't help but wonder how this game would have, how Tori would have managed it differently if it was a competitive ball game. I mean, if it was a late, you know, a close game there, or if the dimebacks had like a

one run lead, are you, do you still turn to Jill Bird late and does it still go as badly as it did? It seems like that might have been the case. Yeah, I'd have to look at recent pitch counts and everything, like maybe Ryan Thompson. But Jaymart was available today probably, right? If they needed him for something important, right? Yeah, yeah, Jmart was definitely available today, at least from what people reported pregame. But yeah, in some ways, it might.

What really would have been Tori's worst nightmare, Derek, is if this game went to extra innings. Once again, because Diamondbacks have had, I mean, there was the finale in the Cubs series, right? Yeah, it was three out of four, three other last four coming into this one, right? Yeah, yeah. They had definitely, like, no capacity for a competitive game going into extra inning. So fortunately, if you're looking for silver linings from this game, that's one thing. The bullpen is in decent shape, at least for tomorrow. That's what we do around here.

We do silver linings around here. Well, before we move on, we're going to hear from Gallen. Here's what Gallen had to say on his outing tonight. Pretty frustrating. I feel like the second inning was just unfortunate. I had three pretty good pitches. Like all three hits. But I remember, perfectly weren't, it was nothing over 95.

So it was kind of Redugo just booted in. White just kind of hooked the one down the line. Harris, you know, moved one in the right field. And I feel like I still made a good pitch to Riley. I'd throw the same pitch to do it over again. So yeah, a little bit unfortunate. I feel like Gabi and I had a pretty good plan. Pretty good idea what they were trying to do.

Probably we executed it, you know, fine. But yeah, I mean, still pretty unfortunate because I felt pretty good. I felt pretty good stuff. So just one of those unlawful ones, I guess. I feel like Zach's entirely, I know it's a loss, but he's entirely too sad for this one not really being on him. But I get it. I get where he's coming from.

And again, the Diamondbacks. backs as a whole have to put this game behind them. Here we have just a little bit more from Zach on putting this one behind him. Yeah, I mean, just really just try to keep making pitches, really is what it comes down to. I feel like that's what I was doing all night. I felt like they were trying to get me in the zone. I feel like I was in the zone for the most part. I think I was 65% strikes or something tonight.

Yeah, just like I said, a little bit. It's definitely frustrating when make good pitches and ball still. find some open space. But keep plugging away. I know this is standard answers, but it does feel like this team is kind of losing the positive vibes that they had early on here in the season. And again, it's just part of the game, right, Jesse,

that you go through your ups and downs. It just feels like they're pretty low right now as a group, as a unit. Well, I will say about Zach in particular, as someone who's who's spent a lot of time in the clubhouse and talked to Zach quite a bit over the last few years. He's basically always somber no matter how he pitched. So I'm sure you're probably familiar with that. Like either eight scoreless and he's still he still answer questions exactly in that voice.

Yeah, in a hushed tone and, you know, but I mean, there's no there's no question about it. Zach Allen has not been nearly what the Diamondbacks would hope that he would be. this season, right? I mean, he's legitimately not pitching particularly well in the grand scheme of things. And him getting back to form is a really important thing for the Diamondbacks if they, if they're going to go where they want to go this year. And I think on one hand, it's a negative, but on the other hand, another silver lining here that I can give the people watching or crazy enough to join us at 1130 at night after a pretty miserable baseball game. The fact that Zach Gallen and Corbin Burns have combined for, I think it's a 4-88 ERA to this point in the year.

Gosh. Like, in some ways, that gives you some hope, right? Like, the debacks are 14 and 12, and you can tell Marte basically hasn't played all year, and your one two-punch that you figured was going to be one of the best duos in the majors has pitched like a number five starter to this point in the year, right? The debacks are four and seven when either Corbin Burns or Zach Gallen is on the mound. So there's tons of room for improvement there. And given the track records that these guys have, I know it's been rough lately, but I still think Zach Gallen in the grand scheme of things in the big picture.

You know, I'm not not betting on him necessarily to win the Cy Young, but I think he's a fairly safe bet to figure some things out and be a better picture of the rest of the way. Jesse Elizabeth in the chat says, I stayed up for a vintage Jesse Pep Talk and he is delivering. Let's go, buddy. all right well we're going to take a quick break on the other side of this break we're going to take take a look at the numbers from this game even though we don't want to do that at all and we're also going to talk about what the hell is going on at chase field because that was not rain leaking into cold beers and cheeseburg don't you go anywhere we're watching the pho next diamond bag show well of course whatever the moment it's never ordinary at bet three six five make sure you sign up for bet three six five to help make watching live sports more fun they pioneered live in game betting and they offer the widest range of games and markets available for live in-game betting across 78 sports. Of course, right now you can get down on major league baseball bets. If you do bet on a team to win and your team goes up by five runs and you get down on that MLB early payout offer where you are a winner if your team goes up by five runs, regardless

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text next step to 533442 or visit problemgambling. of course we're going to talk about our numbers here and we've got to give a shout out to desert financial credit union for always keeping our numbers straight if you are an arizona sports fan there is no better place to do your banking than desert financial credit union they have these amazing debit cards that you can get you can show your team spirit with those they got cardinals they got Arizona state university NAU and more and of course for more than 84 years desert financial has been Arizona's largest most trusted local credit union dedicated to creating

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extra base hits to the Diamondbacks three and then expected batting average there was 249 for the Braves to the Diamondbacks abysmal 157 which still feels higher than what they even really hit in this game. You don't have you don't have foul home runs on the by the numbers graphic Derek because that's three oh. Three to zero. on federal home runs. That's what really matters. Oh, it's a bad night. It was a bad night, Jesse.

Yeah, I didn't realize the debacks expected batting average was that low. 157 is pretty rough. And really, this started in the game yesterday, right, where they did some damage early against the raise and then just completely went silent the rest of the way. We're unable to score. And the 10th inning, of course, we're unable to push across the ghost runner.

So, yeah, the offense is just really, Corbyn Carroll can only do so much, right? Like, it's felt in recent days that the Diamondbacks offense was thriving, but it was only because Corbyn-Carrill and Pavin Smith and Josh Naylor were combining for two home runs and seven RBI every game. And that just was only going to be able to go so far, especially against a lefty. I think that's something that makes it all the more important for, some of those right-handed hitters that we talked about earlier, Guriel and Moreno and Suarez, you really need those guys to figure things out because with a tough lefty on the mound like

Chris Sale, that's going to make it more difficult for Corbin Carroll and more difficult for Josh Naylor, who looked a little silly at times against Chris Sale. And then Paven Smith is generally going to be sitting in these games against the lefty. So really, really important for this team to get those other guys going. Well, we do have some super chats. What do we got, Kevin. Let's take a look at those super chats before we discuss anything further. We got a lot of those. All right. What do we got? Let's start with Brandon Chips. Thank you, Brandon.

Appreciate you so much. Brandon says, great to see you boys together again, Derek and Jesse. Cheers to Friedman Fridays. Hopefully we can all celebrate W soon. Yes, we need that. It's good for business. Much better for business. However, you guys are sickos here with us. Like Jesse said, 1133 on a Friday night after a loss, a bad loss. And we love all of you.

Bees says, we the people demand justice. for Pavin. Yeah, Jesse, by the way, people have not forget about the Paving stuff and they still want you to apologize to Pavan Smith and I feel like maybe it's earned now more than ever, but I'm not sure about that. I'm going to leave that up to you. I don't want no pressure. I won't put pressure on you about apologizing to Pavan, but we'll see if we can circle back to that eventually. Candice, thank you for your super chat. She says,

if tonight's game had a soundtrack, what song would sum it up? money for nothing? I don't know. What's a terrible meltdown by Travis Scott? That's still stuck in my head, but Ryan Thompson didn't even pitch tonight, so I don't know. I was going to say Feen by Travis Scott,

but Stephen Bannas, Mr. Bananas is not in the chat. Okay. All right. Well, he'll be sad. He missed that. Mays Devil says, hey,

at least J-Mart was fresh for today's game. I mean, did you want them to use them in a game like this where they didn't score any runs and they were going to lose anyway. Let's not do that. Let's not do that. Benjamin Hunley, thank you for your super chat. He says, to paraphrase Damon after the Cubs game, this is the type of demoralizing loss that starts a big losing streak.

Well, he wasn't terribly wrong because things have been bad since that loss too. And last but not least, piece of Yoshi, Jesse wants to know, does Jesse still believe Tucson isn't real? Boo! Tomato, tomato, boo! I've said a lot of things about, Tucson on this show over the years. I don't recall that it, I don't recall ever saying that it isn't real.

I don't think that's something good ever. Yes. It actually, I mean, in some ways, I maybe I wish that it didn't, you know? I mean, like maybe I'd rather be in that ultimate universe. This is your baby face? This is your hero. You wanted, you wanted him to come save the cactus light? He's not saving that no one's saving the cactus light.

No one's going to turn it on either. I just want you guys. Why don't we bring this guy back? I don't because I love him so much. And this is why because as much as people thought Jesse was going to fly in here and be the hero that was going to give him everything they wanted. They forgot what a true villain he also is as well. Jesse, we do have the probable pictures for the rest of the series, even though I don't, don't want to look at it. It's just wild to me, though, because I've said this time and time again, whenever you look at the three pitchers going up against going for the Diamondbacks in any given series, you feel like you have a great chance to win.

You had Zach Gowland, Merrill Kelly, and Brandon fought going in the series. Like it felt like this was at least a, especially in game one, a good matchup for the Diamondbacks. And instead, they made Chris Sale look entirely too good today. And I'm worried about the other pitchers because Chris Sale was, at least ERA-wise, the worst one that they were facing in the series. Yeah, I mean, on paper, you're right. Pretty much any series the Diamondbacks play, at least on paper, the starting pitching matchups are probably. probably going to look pretty good. Until you look at the stats.

Right. Until you look at the stats, which it's still early. But at some point, those stats do kind of start to mean something. On the brave side, though, like Chris Sale is a good pitcher. I didn't expect him to have a six ERA for very long. He did literally win the NL. Cy Young just a season ago. And then Grant Holmes and Spencer Schwellenbach are both really good pitchers, too.

So this Braves team is a good, is a good, baseball team. And I think the D-backs have caught them at a tough time, frankly. I know they were 10 and 14 coming into this game today, but I believe they'd won five of their last six entering this series. They're starting to heat up. You can see some of these bats in their lineup really clicking on all cylinders. And yeah, a guy like Kersail, like he was going to start to figure things out sooner than later. And D-Backs had some good at bats against him. I mean, they made him throw over 100 pitches to get through those five innings, but ultimately just scoring the one run. They weren't really making anything in the way of hard contact against Chris Sale tonight. Well, it wasn't just the team that is

falling apart, Jesse. Chase Field is also still falling apart. And we know that the battle between Maricopa County and this bill and the Diamondbacks, it's all very convoluted, right? We still have this house bill to 2704, uh, uh, uh, uh, Apparently, Jesse, the reason why we haven't heard much news on this is because it went through the House, got approved by like the Senate Finance Committee. But there is right now such a lack of support for this bill in the state Senate that they might not even vote on it, which means that this bill to improve Chase Field might just fizzle out and go nowhere. Why is that important? Because this is what cold beers and cheese. It's not great.

That is not. I don't know what water that is. I'm hoping that it's just a burst pipe, but that is not great. And to compound it, Jesse, that water that was leaking in the cold beers and cheeseburgers proceeded to leak down into the left field bleachers where they had to remove all of the fans

sitting underneath that area because water was pouring down on their heads, Jesse. I mean, what the hell are, we doing with this stadium and what what like it's just wild to me that this house bill that seemed very positive and was gaining a lot of steam suddenly sounds like it might end up dead before it even gets a vote in the senate i'm just thinking about the people who were probably blissfully enjoying a cheeseburger at cold beers and cheeseburgers then suddenly that cheeseburger became very soggy very fast.

And I just wonder. I asked for some water. Not all the water. You know, I just, I wanted to drink. Somebody still waiting on their Coke to get to their table. Meanwhile, waterfall. Oh, man. I mean, it's funny to laugh about it, but

it really is embarrassing. It's embarrassing for, and like this happens, mistakes happen, pipe burst. It's not like, you know, buildings. This doesn't even happen in newer, you know, sports facilities, right? But I don't know what happened. And I haven't heard any word from anybody other than them trying to fix it quickly. And again, it just, it furthers this narrative that Chase Field is,

is a need of repairs and not just all the, the pretty facade stuff that people think that they're going to do. Like, these are real repairs that are needed to make sure things like this don't happen when you're sitting there enjoying your cheeseburger or sitting down in the, you know, left field bleachers. enjoying a baseball game. Yeah, it's not a good look, right? And there have been a lot of moments like this over the past few years. Of course, the iconic one last year where it rained inside Chase Field because they couldn't close the roof, right? Which I guess isn't an issue now.

Now they can close the roof with people in the building. Not fast enough. Not fast enough, Jesse. It's very slow now. I have two minutes on to that roof. opening music. Yeah, I have heard about, I haven't seen it with my own eyes, but yes, I've, I've seen the, seen the videos. And yeah, I mean, I guess the roof only, only does you so, so much good if it's leaking, as seemed to be the case today, cold beers and cheeseburger. So granted, that's not, not, I don't think that water was leaking from like the roof way, way up at the top of the building. Yeah, no. that's why it's even grosser Jesse that's why it's even grosser because I don't know where that water was leaking from clue clue heywood on Twitter claimed it's not him because he's in new orleans and I don't believe him I don't believe him I felt like it was too it was too convenient of an excuse for him to not be in town and not be involved with this in some way shape or form but yeah no I mean all jokes aside again this is the kind of things that are going to continue to happen and if this HB 2704

is actually dead. If it's actually not progressing, we do know they made changes to it. We do know that they wanted like Maricopa County to basically provide an equal amount of money that they were going to make off the taxes at the building, which seems absurd because there's no generating of that money from Maricopa County.

They just wanted Maricopa County to pitch in all this money. They took out the income tax portion so they don't receive the income tax from players or people that work at Chase Field. So the bill has changed. and things have happened. Yet those changes, I think only perhaps made it, you know, even harder for this bill to ever actually come, you know, see the light of day and be an actual solution here for the Diamondbacks in Maricopa to improve Chase Field.

And after tonight, everything needs improvement. The defense needs improvement. The offense needs improvement. But by God, the Chase Field needs improvements. So are you still paying the bill? If it starts rating on your food as you're eating, do you, what if you were like mostly done? Like you're getting up, you're on your way out. That's best case scenario.

Best case scenario is all you had was a few fries left. Maybe your drink got some water in it and they just feel bad and they cop the whole thing. That's probably the best case scenario. I mean, maybe it could be a solution for the, I mean, granted it's not that hot yet. but, you know, the air conditioner clearly isn't functioning. Do its full as power. So, you know, maybe the issues can kind of compensate for each other. I don't know.

Do this all over the stadium. Make it a water park baseball stadium and just open the roof in the summer. We'll have a great time. Jesse, this went by entirely too fast, but I am so thankful to have you joining us here every once in a while. Make sure to check out Jesse Friedman over at Snake's territory. with Jack. You guys do an incredible job. So thankful to see you talking about baseball here, also anywhere. So we thank you, buddy, for joining us. And of course, very excited to keep

being able to chat baseball with you. It means a lot to me. And I know it means a lot to this community. Oh, I appreciate you having me, Derek. Yeah, this won't, this won't be the last one. I don't know. Are we making Friedman Fridays a thing? We might have to. We might have. People love it. we're not exactly off to a great start. No, no. Kind of got obliterated. So maybe we have to change today at some point. But yeah, I'll be a, the plan is for me to be here regularly as, as a guest, roughly

once a week, something like that throughout the 2025 season. So very much appreciate all the kind words in the chat. I've missed, I feel like these people are our friends, right, Derek? Like whether we've gotten to meet them in person or. or not. We've spent a lot of time together over the past few years. So it's great to be hanging hanging out with all of you once again.

Appreciate you, buddy. Make sure to follow him over at Jesse Friedman on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K. Kev is at Kev O posts. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but as always all roads lead to at pHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Just a quick couple of super chats before we get out of here. Brandon Chips, thank you again for your super chat. Brandon says, how is San Diego, Jesse? won't be offended if you say it's way better laugh out loud Padres games question mark now we're going to let you answer that okay I don't want to hear how much better San Diego

is no we're not taking that we're not doing that you're not talking about San Diego and all this Tucson nonsense AZ Catch G says Pavin is the king snake tonight from the bench yeah why not Payvin is the king snake in our hearts at all times he is our ginger avenger but one last one last verbal super chat sorry

oh what do you got the chat and it has not been addressed has been asking for Jesse's opinion on the cactus light. And I think we need an official take from Jesse Friedman on the status of this specific little light. Do we light it up to? They just want us to turn it on and I refuse to. Why do you refuse to? Why don't you just give people what they want?

It's complicated. It's because of how bad they want it, Jesse. Sometimes in life you've got to keep things away from people because they just want it so bad. You know what I mean? Like they want it too bad. They want this on a shirt and it's not going to happen. and it's not getting lit up.

I'm telling you that right now. It's going down there. And it might, I threaten to make it disappear if they don't behave themselves. You got to have control over people, Jesse. And I realized I have it with this cactus light. So it's very important that I maintain this control.

But again, thank you. I know you don't understand anything about that. You are, you're a man that lets people do what they want. You just want to see people be happy. And I appreciate that about you. But we appreciate you guys joining us, like we said,

for this crazy late show after this terrible loss. But you guys are the, the real king snakes of this episode. We thank you for stopping by. We will see you on Monday with another Mailbag Monday episode. We will see Jesse next week, possibly on another Friedman Friday. We'll see. And of course, we'll see you guys here soon on Twitter and everywhere else.

We appreciate you your time. Thank you so much for stopping by. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it is so much more fun when you can chat about it with your friends like Jesse.