PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - POSTGAME: E-Rod Tosses SCORELESS GEM & PCA CRASHES OUT as D-backs Win Series vs. Cubs

Episode Date: August 27, 2026

The Arizona Diamondbacks somehow managed to score just one earned run against the Chicago Cubs’ starting rotation this series and still walked away with two wins and a series victory. Eduardo Rodriguez delivered another scoreless gem, while Jordan Lawlar launched a game-winning solo homer to seal the deal. We break down the win, Pete Crow-Armstrong losing it over a missed balk call, and how the bullpen stepped up to hold the Cubs down in Games 2 and 3. More importantly, we discuss why taking a series from one of the best teams in MLB could be massive for the D-backs’ playoff hopes. Plus, we look ahead to a wild weekend series against the San Francisco Giants, where Arizona will play four games in three days and somehow, we still have no idea who is starting for the D-backs. BECOME A DIEHARD: gophnx.com/join JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4 An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/ Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX15 at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order! Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visit https://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotes Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 40% 2+ pairs of off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you! When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I don't know how they did it. You don't know how they did it. But the Arizona Diamondbacks somehow take two out of three here against the Chicago Cubs and send PCA into an absolute crash out. We're talking about all of this, including more on this upcoming series where the Diamondbacks have four games in three days. Turn on those cactus lights. We beat the Cubs.

Welcome in to another post-game edition of the PH&X Diamondbacks podcast. Presented by our friends at Circle K. my name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX and a man who is never late. Whenever this show starts is exactly when it was intended to start. And I can only say that in regards to the post-game shows

because Phoenix downtown traffic is difficult. And Damon can attest to this. This game flew by today. So don't blame us. Don't blame Damon. He's got this Wildcats podcast thing to do. And the Diamondbacks and the Cubs didn't even give him time

to catch us. breath. But of course, we are thrilled to have you guys here. My name is Derek Monti, occasionally. Once again, it's your mayor, PH&X. That is your dog, Damon Dog, on the ones and twos. And we are thrilled to be talking here about another Arizona Diamondbacks victory. This time, the D-backs finishing off the series and taking two out of three against the Chicago Cubs, winning the finale by a score of two to nothing. And of course, this show is brought to you by our friends at Game Time. If you used Game Time, could have got yourself some last-minute tickets.

on and over, seeing Mega Ran throughout the first pitch, and seeing your Diamondbacks beat the Cubs today. So, of course, make sure to download that app, create an account and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase over there at game time. Terms do apply. The Diamondbacks do, in fact, win this game by a score of two to nothing. And the Diamondbacks do, in fact, win this series after only putting up one earned run against the Cubs starting pitchers in three. games and 20 innings pitched. The Chicago Cubs starters

recorded a 0.45 ERA, I believe, in this series. And that's impressive overall here. But, of course, the debacks do improve to 71 and 63. And Damon, it's time to send

Little Perdomo up Mount 500. This is the Diamondback's first home series win. against the Chicago Cubs since 2003, nearly three years since they have beat the Cubs at home, and they do it

scoring very little runs overall in this series. The Diamondbacks scored just seven runs in this three game series, and they take two out of three. The Diamondbacks have also won nine of their 13 series post-all-Star break. They've split one of those

series, and they lost the other three. But the story today was, it was once again another pitching duel between these two ball clubs. As Tori said, after the game, it felt like whoever scored three runs was going to win this one. Well, neither team scored three, but the Diamondbacks did score two, and that was enough to take the series finale.

With Eduardo Rodriguez pitching an absolute gem on the mound today, he shut out the Cubs, and he once again gave the Diamondbacks seven strong scoreless innings in an outing, right? but that's the big story of today's game is that Erod absolutely shoved once again. He started the game with a strikeout of punk-ass PCA, that petulant child that really showed his true colors today. Tori said it much more eloquently than I did.

He said he was a gamer and he's, you know, very competitive and all this stuff. What I saw was, you know, somebody throwing a tantrum on the field who probably should have been ejected from this game and the only time he reached base today because the other three times today he struck out. And yeah, I'll say it. I've learned to hate PCA today. I didn't know what all the fuss was about of hating him. I'm on board, guys.

PCA, you're on the list, pal. You are on the list with a lot of other guys. But those guys are on the list because they were good against us. You absolutely weren't. And again, the only time you reached base today, you acted like a small child over a bach, and we'll get to that here shortly. But like I said, he started the game with a strikeout of PCA, and after the game, once again, we really understand the hate that this guy gets.

He walks Suzuki in the first, but we get a lineout, and then a strikeout of Michael Bushty in the inning. Then he would have a one, two, three second inning with a strikeout of Pedro Ramirez in there, a one, two third inning with another two strikeouts, including PCA striking out once again. and then in the fourth Erod was hit in the hip glute gluteous area there by a comebacker

from Sayas Suzuki but he would be fine and remain in the game. In fact, I would caution that I don't even know if Erod would have had a choice to come out of this game. I looked at my friends and said that man's leg would probably have to be falling off right now in order for the Diamondbacks

to remove him considering that at least at the time of this show right now we only have three pitchers in our starting rotation Don't forget that. It's a bold strategy, but we'll see if it plays out well for him. In regards to those pitchers, though we do have an update here later in the show in regards to who is going to start for the Diamondbacks

in game one of their series against the Giants where they do have four games they have to play in three days. At least they get a day off. So good for them. But that was all done because apparently the Giants' schedule, if they would have played on Sunday, would have actually been too many games in a row where it would have been violating the MLBPA, the CBA.

That's literally how many games they were expecting the Giants to somehow play in a row. Do better with your scheduling MLB. That's a whole other episode. He walked Bregman, but then he got another strikeout of Bush and Nico Warner to line out to get out of the fourth inning. Then in the fifth, he gave up a lead-off single to Tyrone Taylor, who stole second.

But that would be the closest he would get to scoring. and that would almost be the closest that any Chicago Cub would come to scoring, besides PCA, who did make it to third in the sixth inning. Erod would get another strikeout to end that fifth inning, but then you got the sixth, and it started with a leadoff double by PCA. He would advance to third on a Suzuki ground out. And then with two outs, PCA started faking a suicide squeeze,

like he was going to steal home where they were going to try to bunt home. and so Erod kind of came home with a quick pitch that James McCann pick but didn't throw and then PCA started losing his mind and wanted a bach on Eduardo Rodriguez's part and I don't know I think box like this are pretty stupid but I will say that if you go back and watch Erod's feet I think Damon pointed out to me that he did kind of do a little double step there where neither foot was on the rubber right Damon that's what it kind of broke down to yeah i mean it it was honestly a pretty egregious non-call if i do you think so myself yeah i mean again i will i will always defer to people that can watch the replay multiple times on

a television for sure it's different for you being at the games it's a little difficult not only do i not have any audio when we're at the games but we're also like talking about it and there's a lot of clamoring going on during this moment not to mention things continue to escalate with pca so much so that he he did get the umps to meet, but according to what I was told, they couldn't overturn the non-bock call anyway. Like, the bach call needed to be made in the moment and you can't review it, nor can you, like, could the umpires get together and discuss it? At least that was what I was told. I might be incorrect about that, but the meeting might have just been them saying like, hey, it did look like he balked and maybe the crew chief was like, well, tough because you needed to call it at the

moment. We can't like call it now, right? But overall, um, it just went from something where they, they wanted the bach and he thought he saw the bach to the ums conferring deciding it wasn't a bach or at least deciding obviously that they couldn't change it then at that point. And PCA went absolutely ballistic. He was out in the grass on the infield. He was charging the umpires. Like, I don't know. He was going to fight the entire crew. Uh, and he had to be restrained. by known sign stealer, third base coach, Quentin Barry. He just acted like a spoiled petulant child that didn't get what he want. And honestly, he should have been tossed from the game at that point.

That's my feeling. But again, just because I feel like that, you know, meetings, reviews, all of this stuff they've done in baseball have helped at least demonstrate that they are trying to do their best to get the call right. However, not in every situation. Can they just overturn the call? And I, again, I'm fine with him wanting the Bach. And I'm even fine with PCA being knowledgeable enough to know that that was a Bach if that was the case.

And if Damon's saying it was fairly egregious, then I can only imagine that what happened was, like what I said, it was missed in the moment. And they really decided that even if it was missed, they can't confer now and change the call. It's like one of those calls when you're watching a football game where you're sitting there and you're like, but why can't you go back and review it or. give us the right call. I agree. There's lots of things in baseball when it comes to that, right? But glad that didn't happen because that would have scored PCA. I think that he only doesn't get tossed, Derek, because they knew that it was the wrong call.

That's fair. I genuinely think that's probably the case is that. That's a good reason. Is that they're like, you know what? Kind of a valid crash out on his perspective, from his perspective should have been called. It's probably one of those situations where every ump kind of expects someone else to call it. You know what I mean? where you're like, oh, the guy behind second will call it.

And then the guy behind second is like, well, I didn't have a good view of it. I didn't see it. What about let's go to the guy over at third. And he's like, but I was waiting for the whole plate on fire. I was waiting for you guys. Yeah. I feel like if it was truly, you know, like a very questionable call and could go either way. And that was his response to it.

Sure. He would have, he would have been tossed from the game. But because they knew they messed up, they were like, all right, Pete. Okay, Pete. Yeah, Pete. You're right. And also it helps being, you know, kind of propped up as the superstar that he has been this season as well. It sounds like he is the favorite right now for the NL MVP.

And honestly, as long as it's not Shohei Otani, we're fine with it. That's the thing I was telling you is that you were like, I've learned to hate Pete and his, and he's his fraud MVP that he's about to win. And I was like, the only thing I'll say to that is like, I'm not a big PCA lover at this moment in time, especially not after this series. but I, you know, the idea that, you know, he is going to defeat our greatest enemy for the MVP. Like that, that is something I can get behind. 100%. So I'll be, as long as he's not playing the debacks, I'll be rooting for his MVP campaign because he seems

like the only person that can rip it away from Shohei Otani's hands. Yeah, that still feels kind of gross, but I'll take it. I'll take it. Let's hear here from post game. Let's hear from Tori first on the non-bought call where Tori felt like base. on PCA's reaction alone that he was probably right about it being a Bok. Here's what Tori had to say. Just what my eyes are telling me right now, things happen so quick.

I haven't looked at a, I haven't looked at a replay. You're talking about the Bok, potential Bok, yeah, based on the reaction, maybe it was a bach, I don't know. PCA seemed to really get upset. So I have not seen it. I just know that we talked about the potential for him to do something like that, and Erod was trying to quicken up his delivery, and I'm not sure if he stepped off or not.

I haven't slowed it down enough to see if he did our job. Well, we also asked Erod a little bit about the Bok, and, of course, E. Rod said there was no Bok. What Bok do you speak of? Here's what E. I had to say about the non-call. I mean, the guy met on the third base. He started running out. I just went with pitch, and that's it, you know. So I was just trying to go past.

to the play because he was coming in, so I just went in fast. And after that, I just got made on third base, and I just kept throwing the ball right what he wanted. And we got out of that in. Well, as much as I hate PCA now, Tori's feelings on him seem to be a little bit different. Here he is, once again, kind of praising PCA for his competitive nature.

Yeah, he's an intense competitor. He's like, he's getting after it. Everything the PCA does is fast. like electric. So I was one of the best in the game. And his response maybe told him how frustrated he was. So whatever happened happened and we won the game, that's all I can go on. My favorite part about Tori talking about the non-bock call, David, was that at one point, I think we have this clip.

He just looked at us and was like, based on your facial reactions, it was a bach, like looking at us, Here's what Tori had to say about it. I guess us giving away whether we thought it was a Bach or not. I don't quite know what video we're talking about. That would be Tor. I think it's Torion umpiring decision for non-bock. You know, that's all you can do. You want the umpires to get together.

And I don't know what they're saying. I can't read lips and I'm not watching on TV. But the fact that they got four guys together to try and get one play right, that's all a manager or a team can ask for. So they follow their process. I think if all four of them have it, they're going to call a bach. And then they just, they break it down from there. But, you know, without them all having it, I think they got their minds together and did the best they could.

So it sounds like it was a bach based on the reaction and the facial expression you guys are giving me right now because we wouldn't be talking about it. So, you know, I mean, he's not wrong. But I think, I think overall it was more of, and I even said this story right then after that video ended, I was like, it's actually more about PCA's reaction, right? like bot calls, non-bot calls, stuff like this happens in baseball games all the time. And again, you sometimes get the call right. Maybe you don't. Maybe you get things to go your way. Maybe you don't.

But again, I think you can call it fiery competitiveness or, in my opinion, you could call it walking onto the grass, completely out of the base path and being out. That's what I call it. Like, I don't care of time was called. How far PCA came into the infield when he's not on defense is egregious. And, you know, I think Damon's explanation of it, by far is the best one, right? The fact that this basically, they knew they got it wrong and, you know, they let him have his tantrum. But Erod didn't care. It didn't impact Erod any.

He did walk the next batter. But like I said, he still got out of the inning and he was still fantastic. He gave the Diamondback seven strong innings today. And he was incredible. Like his – do we have his pitch chart, Damon? His pitch chart just is beautiful with how much red there is all over the place, but mostly high and up in the zone. His four seam fastball was excellent.

It was excellent today. And he leaned on it quite a bit. He used his four seam 45% of the outing. It produced a 36% whiff rate. I mean, he was getting whiffs all day long, and he filled up the good old circle case strikeout meter. His four seam today maxed out at 94.3 miles per hour, which was a little bit high on his backs and an average 92.7 miles per hour, which was high on his average as well.

Again, the key here was his fastball changeup combo, which has worked so well for him all season long and really just dates back to advice he was given in the WBC that has now carried over for all of this success he's finding this year. You know, his change up, cutter and sinker, they all looked great. His change up, he used 35% of the time. He got nine whiffs on that and a 40, 3% whiff rate on his changeup. He threw the cutter, sinker, and curb ball all minimal amounts of time, 10% of the outing or less. And he got one whiff on the cutter. But again, it was the changeup and the four seam that just that just couldn't that Cubs

couldn't do anything about. It was a great mix of pitches and they had a great game plan going on. But as you can see, once again, this is where we talk about like the grouping and where you want to throw the pitch. He wants to keep his four seam up in the zone. you see maybe six, seven pitches that are below that point and two of those or three of those are way out of the zone so they weren't even hitable. Same thing with the change up.

You want the change up landing on the very edge of the zone or the corner or outside of the zone low, down, away. If they do make contact, it's going to be weak contact if they make contact. But they were swinging and they were missing a lot today. And Damon. I mean, this is what it's supposed to look like. This is, you're right. This is exactly what it's supposed to look.

look like, especially with that mix of the other stuff in there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the anti-merel. Because Merrill's was not, with too much in the zone, way too much in the zone, especially when it came to the change up for Merrill. But nine strikeouts today. That, like, come on, the strikeout meter is almost filled all the way up to the brim. That's how you feed the strikeout meter. That's how you feed the Circle K strikeout meter.

Nine strikeouts. The strikeout meter doesn't want to be fed. It wants to hunt. but at this point in its age, I mean, it's been around for a long time, right? Like I said, it's got one of those European plugs you need an adapter for in order to make it into, you know, a normal outlet.

But Erod, fantastic today, man. Seven innings pitch. Two hits. Zero earned runs. Three walks. 9K. And Roll of Fatty says, we have won since Derek stopped saying,

quite frankly, those days aren't over. Those days aren't over. I'm going to pepper that in at least 11 to 12. 12 times an episode. Don't worry. But again, Erod is, in fact, our King Snake for today's game and for good reason. Seven innings pitch, zero earn runs, two hits, 9K. Come on. What a day. What a day. And it's getting to the point where this is not even a shocking outing from Erod. We just, we see him do this and then we say, that's our guy. That's our ace doing it once again. And, man,

Cannot say enough about just how he is the reason the diamond backs are in the position that they are in. Period. Say his name. He is him. Hashtag say his name. Say his full name. Eduardo Rodriguez. I'm going to tell you this.

Roll your R's too while you do it. Eduardo Rodriguez. That's the best I can do. I'm bad at that. But the diamond backs now have won 21. 21 of Erod's 27 starts this year. And, I mean, we could sit here and talk to Tori all day long about Erod. And I feel like we constantly do.

We find ourselves, you know, discussing with with Tori, what, what is he doing? How is he doing this? What, you know, and I mean, I even feel like sometimes that, you know, he doesn't, he's all out of superlatives to say about his starter. But let's first start with Tori on Eduardo Rodriguez. here's what he had to say about his big day. Conviction with his pitches, got into a good rhythm with Mack. Yeah, there was a lot of swing and miss on the change-up. I thought the four-up fastball was swing and miss as well.

And he just was pounded in the zone. I think he had good finish to his pitches. And from a hitter standpoint, I can relate to it and give you the thought of what it feels like standing in the box. When somebody is just driving pitches in at you, they feel like they're 10 feet tall and standing on top. And that's the feeling that I think Erod has right now, that you can throw anything you want and there's going to be weak contact or swing and miss. Well, we also have more from Erod here on what was working for him and how he felt today in his outing.

Here's what Eurad had to say about this start. I mean, everything was working. The fastball location was great. The change of the color. I feel it was one of those that you just go out there and just follow what the catcher call. You know, I feel like this is the best I feel. gear on the mound. Yeah, I mean, like I said, stuff was great.

Even the double by, the PCA will throw a curble down away. I think was a good curveball down away. And he did it really good. You know, the base suit. The first place of the game was a fastball opening, good, great location. He just made a good swing. So I feel like everything was working great today. That's the first time Erod has not been wearing the aloe hoodie with the aloe hat.

The beige and the black, right? beige hoodie or brown hoodie, black hat? black hat after his starts by the way if anyone's keeping score great callback by roll of fatty by roloffati roll of fattie roll of fattie roll of fattie uh he's a ballerina and it's frat with a joint i get it in his mouth i mean that's it's excellent there's no notes it's perfect there's nothing it's also it's also brandon fought's like face that he makes when he's pitching so it looks like he's literally hitting a joint yeah no uh and rollo fottie says he's a ballerina leave it at that For those of you that don't know what that reference is, is that Erod's wife once told him when he is on, he's spinning on his tip he toes.

He looks like a ballerine out there on the mound. Everything is smooth. Everything is very much fluid. And he's dancing. And he was definitely dancing out there on the mound today. Tori discussed what has given him this ability this season. What has been kind of his secret here that has allowed the Diamondbacks. to win 21 of his 27 starts.

Here's what Tori had to say. Yes, this run has been one of the best runs I've ever seen from him. I was very close to his career as a 2019, 20, 21-year-old. But he was in and out and growing and learning. The past couple years here, he's been battling injuries. We've seen him get on some month-long runs, but this has been extremely consistent. And this is the run that you look for.

You get on that wave and you want to ride it, and I think we're all on the board with him. We're enjoying it and getting it done together. I did ask Erod about his game plan overall. Like we've talked about it, the game plan for this team seems to be pitching to weak contact and pitching to contact. Like not going for those strikeouts, not having a day like this, even though Erod and Michael Soroka can give you, even even Brandon Fott can randomly give you an eight or nine strikeout day at any time. It doesn't seem to be the norm for this team. And kind of asked Erod about that how he did it today versus doing it the way that he's done it, you know, so far this season.

and he talked about their game plan heading into this game. Yeah, I mean, it's always depends on what you play and what the hitters you are facing. I mean, we always had a plan for a, I mean, we do a meeting before the winning. We know what we're going to do against the hitters, you know. I mean, for me, like, you've just been on mistakes, you know, against the game in San Diego and a lot of mistakes, and they can vanish up. So that's how, that's how it is. If you execute the pages, you're going to get results, and that's what happened today. Impressive day.

Impressive day here for Eduardo Rodriguez. and again, the bullpen combination of Juan Morillo and Brandon Garcia was outstanding. They seemed to still be the guys that, you know, Tori Lavello is going to count on in these high leverage situations. He did bring up how good Justin Martinez has looked, how good he looked specifically yesterday and yesterday's win. And Tori just said he's not ready for J-Mart to pitch back-to-backs yet, but those three. I mean spiritual last night from J-Mart. I know we talked about it on our emergency post game, but like, Derek, I'm still thinking about that 100. three mile per hour pitch that he threw last night my guy is back i mean he's never been more back

we've never been more back then after we've never been more back than after we'd winning these two games a hundred percent a hundred percent and a new in the new dbacks meme for 2026 dropped on my twitter account last night if you were curious because last night there was a point where it had never truly been more over yeah and then we got to a place where we've never been more back today yeah and that is the story of the diamond backs the other story of the diamond backs is that we have Brandon Garcia, Justin Martinez, and Juan Maria in a back end of our bullpen, Derek. I mean, have you, like, literally, I don't know if I can ever remember a time like this in my life. We've had some, like, pretty good bullpens, but these guys are like, we, we even have, you know, like, our,

our kind of middle rotation bullpins. I know Taylor Clark's not been great recently, but like Taylor Clark, Lois Seiga, like those got a ginkle. Brian Thompson even before he, you know, kind of had that like fall off in the last month that before he got hurt was fantastic this season that we've just had a damn good bullpen all year long and it's been probably the other than the defense the best aspect of this team if you're ranking you know erod obviously like if you're doing solo players i think you're very much right that he's like the MVP of the team but if you're doing units as as as a whole baseball team why this team is is as good as it is i think it's number one defense it's number two the bullpen yeah in my opinion yeah you're right especially

this season this season more than any season ever in our team history. And sorry to interrupt, but I was pointing at that fraud SPG, who's a known Cubs fan, and I wanted him to know. I wanted him to know. I saw him. I made eye contact with him and I wanted him to feel the sadness that I was projecting his way after his team lost to our team. This is a team, Damon, by the way. Rumor has it. The SPG was crying like PCA. That's what I heard. That's what I heard. He was also throwing a fit about the Bach. The Cubs, prior to today's game in the last three games combined have scored 30 runs coming into today

30 runs in three games from the Cubs. 19 of them were in one game. So it's a little bit skewed number there. But seven nothing in the opening victory and then four runs in yesterday's loss for the Cubs. And now today the Diamondbacks hold this team to zero runs. Zero runs with a huge win. And again, this everything, you know, pitching wise,

worked in every possible way. But offense still would love to see a little bit more out of it. We're going to talk about that on the other side of this break. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the PHA next time in Beck Show. Well, if you've been up thinking about upgrading your ride this summer, now is the time during the Sanderson Ford summer sales event. Right now you can drive home a 2026 Ford F150 STX or 2026 Ford Explorer,

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Come early at 4.30 p.m. You can watch the P.HNX Cardinals show. live as well and attendees can use of course cards f f f for 25% off a room at the heila riversorts and casinos it's a great place to do so and you diehards also get 10% off that hela fantasy football draft package so rsvp for free right now and the link is in our show notes damon we got a lot to talk about here when it comes to the offense and again not actually a lot to talk about because not much happened in this game offensively for this team the debacks were just held to two hits through their first, what, five innings, I believe.

Herald O'Prodomo had a two-out single in the first inning, and nothing happened as of that. And in the fourth, Nolan Aronado hit what would have been a double down the third baseline, but Nolan Aronado might in fact be the slowest player in Major League Baseball. For Nolan, he ended up getting thrown out at second base, and I'm not going to kick dirt on Nolan's name. He's a vet. We all know. I'm not, look it, like I'm somebody that's going to talk about someone else being old. How dare I? But I will say that it is probably a play that most players in the Diamondback starting lineup make. And it was reasonable for Nolan to try to stretch it into two.

He just really at this point doesn't have the speed on the base path. And again, that's really what came down to. Look, what's remarkable to me is how incredibly agile that man is when he's playing defense at third base versus the running on the base path. But again, who am I to judge? And if he's an unc, what does that make me? So we're not going to have that discussion. But we are going to talk about in the sixth inning when Jordan Lawler won the game for the Diamondbacks. To start the sixth inning, he hit a lead-off home run to break the scoreless tie and give the debacks a 1-0-0.

It was Lawler's third home run of the season. It went 364 feet to right field. And it was 99.8 miles per hour exit below for that one. And as Ernesto said, the other day, he just has such easy pop, it feels like. Like he, the ball can fly off Jordan Lawler's bat in a way that it doesn't for other people on this team. Yeah.

You're, yeah, definitely. And again, Lawler yesterday suffered a really scary moment when he got hit in the helmet and had to exit the game. Luckily, he was fine. Luckily, he was able to play today. But luckily, he was able to get his karmic revenge on this team in the best possible way. And that's something you could say about this win overall. Karma. Karma for the Cubs.

Because we all know what happened in game one. Not only did we get Mollywopped, but on top of that, it was kind of an embarrassment when the Cubs are so egregiously stealing calls for Merrill Kelly and stealing signs and relaying them to their hitters that Merrill caught a midgame. And again, whatever.

Like, Tori did get, you know, I guess schooled afterwards. told that he was in the wrong. They were in the wrong. They were not bending the rules in any way and that that is permissible. Having a coach steal signs and relay those signs into the team is permissible.

But didn't seem to pay off for them because overall it felt like some pretty bad karma there for their cheating ways. And the Diamondbacks get a very big carmic victory last night with the Ryan Welchmidt walk off home run and perhaps an even bigger one today by beating them simply by a score

of two to nothing on a day where their offense didn't have very much going on, Damon. And I'm not, I mean, I'm not trying to get too, too, too, too, too carmicky here. But I do feel like, uh, they kind of got what they deserved. Yeah. I mean, I, I, you know, I, I know a lot of Cubs fans probably wouldn't really like to hear that. I don't do this podcast for them. It's also great that that Barry, the third base coach was involved in the PCA situation as well. Yeah.

He's the one that's holding the PCA back. He was kind of the peace. Yeah, he was the peacekeeper in that situation. It's fitting that he's on. our thumbnail today as well for the instant karma of it because he's the one that was relaying the signs about Merrill Kelly. And I also, you know, I would love to, I know I said that at the time that like I don't know enough about what's conventional, what's considered a written rule on written rule about that kind of stuff.

And I know that Tori Lavolo conceded, but I feel like we almost waived the white flag on that one a little bit easy. Like, again, I want to know more information about all of it. I want to know, you know, is. Do you ever see third base coaches relaying pitch information? You know, I'm not asking if it's illegal or not. I'm wondering if other coaches do it, you know? Is this a thing that only the Cubs are doing?

Again, I don't know enough about it. I'm ignorant to it, but I don't want to see us back down that easily. You know, I was going to. That being said, we won the final two games in the series. I was going to ask Tori something about this. And I couldn't really, like, formulate the question properly, at least in the way that it would have sounded like, I was intending to. But I wanted to ask Tori, like you see someone like PCA act the way he did.

How would you feel if it was one of your players acting that way? It would never happen. We don't get Diamondbacks players to act that way. And I mean, don't get me wrong. This is a little hypocritical coming on the back of what's happening with Catell Marte over this stretch. But we're just saying, in general, in a game, reacting to a call, reacting in such a way that you could describe it as being classless. And I am actually fairly shocked about how classless the Cubs have seemed over the last few days going back to just being so fine with stealing signs and being like, oh, you should do something more about it if you don't want us to steal signs. And then PCA's tantrum that he threw today, right? How about winning the series? Right. Well, I'm just saying that's that's the part

that matters to us. But overall, I mean, like you said, we don't we don't see. We don't see. Diamondbacks players act this way because they wouldn't because Tori manages this team with certain expectations and part of that expectation is you're not going to show up your opponent and you're not going to embarrass this franchise with the way you act out there. We're going to accept calls. We're going to, you know, we're going to turn the other cheek when they hit us. We're going to do all of that stuff. And some people describe that form of managing is kind of soft, almost like what you're saying where like I don't want to just accept that they're stealing some. and be like, oops, sorry, we were in the wrong for thinking that you were in the wrong for cheating, basically.

But that's that kind of how it feels. Yeah, that's, that's one of those ones where I, yeah, you know, I know people want to paint me and you to be like full Tory apologists where every single thing that he does is the greatest thing ever. And, you know, we could never go against him. But I do think the diamond back's wave the white flag a little bit easy on this kind of stuff. They want to be so likable. You know, they want they want to be so friendly with the dots. and the Padres and all these teams that we play so often that we're competing with, they should be our rivals in it.

I wish there was a little bit more of like an FU attitude that this, that this organization had rather than being like, we're the good guys, right? Everyone loves us. It's Tori. He's the most likable guy in baseball. Like, you know, if the Cubs are going to be, if Ryan Flaherty is going to be at the dugout screaming FU at our bench, then you know what? it's now gotten to a place where it's beyond where, you know, them stealing pitches from us,

they're being disrespectful about, about how they're going about it as well. Yeah. And it's like, yeah, it's kind of, I don't, we'll do what we want kind of thing. That, exactly. It's like that, that's the part where for me it goes beyond the line of like even like, I don't even care about the, the pitch stealing. It's like if you want to act like that, then F you guys too. We're right there with you.

Not, okay, sorry. Let's let's, hey, let's hug it out, brother. It's all good, right? We're chilling. We're fine. We're friends. And it's like, no, one day later, like, we should be like, it's still F you. It's FU forever, Ryan Flaherty.

And honestly, I brought it up. It's like, Craig Counsel, you're testing the waters, brother. Yeah, yeah. Show some love. Yeah. Check in. Check in when you come to, when you come to Phoenix, Arizona. How about just, how about just like not be like this?

I don't know. I, I am glad that at least to a certain degree, the Diamondbacks do play with a level of class. We had somebody asking there, Damon, about, I believe it was in the bottom of the seventh inning. Pardomo got a lead off single in the seventh. And then the- I'm sorry, Rola Fadi said Tori invited the whole Cubs over for Sunday dinner this week. That's why we're not going.

We refused to go. Plus, we got our trip to Vegas. We got laundry to do on Sunday. Sorry, we're going to have to rain check, Tori, on that one. But I will say when it comes to that infield fly rule, The infield fly rule that Go Bulls is talking about what about the first flyout that they didn't catch to get Perdomo at second. That seemed to BS. I know it seemed to BS, but it's not an infield fly rule because there was no double play in place there for that to happen. So what they did was they got the lead runner. And the lead runner was Perdomo. And that was more important to them to get Perdomo than it was necessarily to get Nolan Aronado over there at first base. So the, uh, the The pop-up would have just been Nolan Aronado. If they caught it, it would have been Aronado being out,

and Perdomo's still on first. Instead, they get the speedier Pardomo out at second and leave Naurado, who had just gotten a few innings earlier, thrown out trying to stretch a single and a double that most people would have gotten a double. That's good gamesmanship, honestly. That's a smart move from the Cubs. They played that well. And I know it kind of does seem like BS, but they played it well.

overall. But this was on a day where they were trying. The Cubs were trying. That's why PCA was trying so hard with the Bok. There were no runs being scored. That one run by Jordan Lawler, which by the way, would have been a home run in 25 out of 30 ballparks, but not Fenway, Wrigley, Coors, Angel Stadium, or Dodger Stadium. And that always makes me laugh when it's like those ballparks, then it wouldn't have gone. It's funny because depending on where it gets hit, it's always the same ballparks. Like it is. Because those parks have those weird factors where it's more about the dimensions of the

park and not like how the ball would fly or anything like that. Well, yeah, there's that. And also like, like, I don't know if it takes into account like wind aspect and stuff like that. It does not. It does not. Yeah. And it doesn't even take into consideration like the elevation and cores.

Like that's weird. It can't. Well, it can't. They can't say like, the ball would have flying farther in Denver, but it would fly farther. There's a lot of times where you look at the, where it would have been a home or and Coors is like one of the two places that it wouldn't have been a home run. And Wrigley, on the other hand, I feel like there's a lot of times on left field homers where it's like one of the only ballparks that it would be a home run in. Like when you're looking at a guy that flew out and you go, how close, how many ballparks would that have been a home run in?

And you check and it says two out of 30 and it was like at, you know, it's a pretty shallow home run. And or it would have been a deep fly ball, but it would have been a shallow home run at Wrigley Fields. So, like, they, it's just, it's, that's the cool part about baseball, in my opinion is that you can, like, almost conform your, your ballpark to your team's skill set and vice versa. Like, if your team, if you're, if you're the Yankees, you want nothing but left-handed hitters on your team because they could just poke the ball over the fence. I mean, unless you're Baltimore, you're not exactly changing the dimensions of your ballpark regularly like they do, right. But so why not? In some cases, well, you're right. You're right.

But I'm just saying in some cases, you almost have to, like, draft your team. or whatever towards your like oh this guy will hit good at chase field right like that's that's kind of a crazy way that you have to look at i don't want a guy who hits a lot of center field homers at chase field because those are just all deep fly ball outs yeah where we're at yeah well we have more from jordan lawler here briefly since we're talking about his big home run uh jordan lawler discussed getting back into the game after getting hit in the head in yesterday's win um and again he's fine and everything's fine. The helmet did what it was supposed to do, but

still a scary moment for Loller overall, and it's great that he's back in there, but he was asked here what you know, like, what does it feel like to get back in there after having that moment last night? This is what Loller had to say. I mean, it's just part of the game. I've gotten balls up and in my whole career.

I'm on the plate too, so how it is what it is, and this is a game I love to play. So just play, play it as it comes of the territory. Except to get one of the opposite fields. For sure. Yeah, I did that a lot kind of coming off and that was on my first ones up here. Apotako there for Jordan Lawler.

He was also asked kind of just about this team and the way they're playing right now. I mean, it really feels like, you know, they came together after getting drummed in game one and they found a way to win the series and take the final two games. There is something special about that, right? We were all ready to close Chase Field up for the season after the game won loss. And now look, now look at how many Cubs fans we sent home sad. This is what Jordan Lawler had to say about this team, never giving up. I know we've always had it, but we're just a resilient team.

We're never out of it. It shows before you come back. And that's just our DNA and never say diamond back. It's a real thing. He said the name of the movie in the movie, never say Diamondbacks. Never say Diamondbacks. Well, he helped add another run in the eighth inning when the Diamondbacks got James McCann on through a leadoff single. And then Jordan Lawler singled on a ball to right field to Suzuki.

So the Diamondbacks had runners on first and third. And then Ryan Waldschmidt hit a sack fly that was going to score James McCann. But Jordan Lawler got caught up trying to advance to second without tagging up. And I'm not exactly sure what happened. I don't think anybody really wanted to talk to him about it. was it extremely important. But, you know, again, with this game being so close, that ends up being a double play. They did get the runner to score and they did still have one more out.

But again, in a very close game, mistakes like that could end up being, you know, crucial to wins or losses. So, but the ninebacks do reach two nothing. And that is all the runs that were scored in today's game. So that's where we're at with this team. And not a lot of great offensive performances today. but Geraldo Perdomo was two for three. And yet, Jordan Lawler also going two for three with a run scored, an RBI, and a home run. So definitely honorable mention as far as King Snake goes for Jordan Lawler.

But this one felt like the Diamondbacks got it based on the baseball gods a little bit here. And I don't know. Damon, do we have Tori talking about this being karma because I'd love to hear that one? We got Tori on the win in general. I don't know if it was kind of in his initial thing. And we also have Tori on just kind of riding the momentum. Let's get that one. Let's hear Tori about riding the momentum,

especially he was talking about after that bot call didn't get called. And it felt like everything in this game kind of shifted at that point for the Diamondbacks offense. Jordan Lawler comes up in the seventh. And basically the very next batter after the Diamondbacks get out of that sixth inning gives them the lead and ends up being the game winning home run. Here's what Tori had to say about the momentum shifting in that moment. I think so. I talked to you guys about synergy and the momentum is a real thing. We got out of that, and it was a big out by Eddie to close out that inning and was still zero-zero.

And we came back into the dugout and took advantage of maybe a little bit of an emotional dump by them, frustration by them, and we stepped into the right space. Totally opposite of what happened on day one, I think we lost our composure and they took advantage of it. So whether they did or didn't today, I don't know. but you've got to be ready to take advantage of those situations than we did. And we did ask Tori about Jordan Lawler's home run, especially after coming back from getting hit in the head, like I said last night, and then being the hero in today's game, essentially. Here's what Tori had to say about Lawler's big home run.

Yeah, I believe in karma. I think things happen for a reason. And for him to stay on a breaking ball out over the plate and drive it the other way, really made a statement that I'm going to dig in, and that did not impact me. You know, to have a 97, 98-mile-hour fastball floating at your head is can be pretty scary and traumatizing, but he's a tough kid.

And I think he stood tall right there and got the job done. It was a great moment. Great performance overall today. I mean, on one hand, it's still frustrating for the offense to only put up two runs, right? And you kind of feel like most days the Diamondbacks don't win this game. But you also have to take, a look at the body of work and how many close games this team has been able to win all season long.

It's been a part of their DNA. It's been a part of their success. They've been able to stay in close games, win close games. A lot of that, as Damon was talking about earlier, has been the ridiculously good performances by the bullpen, keep these games scoreless once they come out and enter the game or at least hold, you know, the opposition to minimal runs being scored. But again, this is one of those wins that you, feel like shapes you as a team, especially the closer and closer we get to the end of the season. The Diamondbacks know how to win these gritty wins. They know how to win these ugly wins. They know how to steal games like they did last night with the Ryan Walschman walkoff, especially being held

scoreless in seven innings by Clay Holmes and then putting up those five runs once he exited. I'll remind you, this is a good bullpen too. This is not a Cubs bullpen that's necessarily a pushover or, you know, a problem for that team. In fact, I think their bullpen erie was better than their starters coming into the series. Probably not the case anymore. That was an excellent performance by their starters and not such a great one by their bullpen. But great overall performance here from this team.

We're going to take a look here on the other side of this break at the series numbers as well as where they currently sit in the wildcard standings. Don't you go anywhere. You are watching the PHNX Diamondback show. Like I said, I'm a NASCAR guy now. And I cannot tell you how excited I am for October 16th through the 18th.

at Phoenix Raceway. To see my man, Ryan Blaney, return to the Valley, return to that racetrack that he has dominated on so many times and continue to do so. And again, if you have never experienced the joy of NASCAR, this is the perfect time to come out. You already know that this is one of the most important racetracks in NASCAR, but this is now one of the most important races.

The Chase returns to Phoenix Raceway October 16th through the 18th, and you can watch NASCAR Championship Contenders Battle at the Freeway Insurance 500. in one of the most critical races on the road to the championship at this iconic track. And nothing matches race weekend. The smell of the rubber, the roar of the engines, it's amazing. But I will say what is even more amazing is experiencing the best access in motorsports where you can go inside the garages, walk the track, meet the drivers,

and catch the pre-race concert with the Desert Diamond Casino Infield Experience. the road to champion the road to the championship runs right through this city right through phoenix and with naskar's new chase format every position and every point matters as drivers fight to keep their hopes alive secure your seats at phoenix raceway.com that's phoenixraceway dot com every lap counts every point matters the chase at phoenix raceway October 16 through the 18th and it's very sunny out there phoenix raceway so make sure you have yourself a good pair of sunglasses and i suggest starting with shady rays because once you've go to Shady Ray's, you'll never go anywhere

else. Not only does Shady Rays have some amazing frames that will make your face look beautiful and some amazing lenses that'll protect your eyes from the sun, polarized lenses. Not just polarized lenses, but they have levels to their lenses as well. But as I've told you time and time again, they also

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A 0.45 starting pitching ERA for the Cubs, like I said, one earned run allowed in 20. Innings pitched. And yeah, the Diamondbacks ERA, not bad at all at 3.26. It's just no 0.45. It's no one run. Diamondbacks gave up seven earned runs and 19 and a third innings pitched a start pitching. Their bullpen gave up seven and two thirds or four runs in seven and two thirds.

pitched and the Cubs there had six earned runs in five and two thirds. 9.52 ERA for the Cubs bullpen 4.69 for the dimebacks. Nice. Nice. Overall here, Damon, I think that this, like I said earlier, shows this team, demonstrates to this team that none of these numbers matter and that you can get blown out and literally flush that game. And I know how much so many of you love when Tori says that. But, you know, it's very true.

It's very true. And speaking of Tori, here was his overall thoughts on this win, what the offense did well, what Eduardo Rodriguez did well, and of course, how this bullpen continues to be excellent for the dime. It was a massive win. You know, I've said that word a few times. I felt like coming out of Boston out, I use that same word. And, you know, in day one, we got our ass kicked, by the last.

Cubs and they deserve it with that game. And the way we rallied around one another, we won an emotional game yesterday. We came out today and executed an extremely high level on the mound and the most critical times the boys locked in. And we scratched across another run in the 8th. We had the solo home run by Lawler that gave us a lead, but nothing distracted us today. We were following our game plan doing the things that we wanted to do and it had the feeling that there was a big emotional dump by both teams last night, that it was going to be a race to

three. That's what I was thinking. The first team that scored three runs was going to win this game, and it held tied to two, and credit to our pitchers. You know, the execution portion of what happened in the eighth inning, we don't utilize those types of plays, but we pull it out of our bag, and the thing that really fires me up is when you don't do things like that very often and pull it out of your bags, these boys do it, and they're expected to do it, and they're ready to do it. And we got super aggressive, and it translated to a big run. Made a mistake on the bases there, but getting that extra run was the most important thing in that inning. E-Rod, you know, filling up the zone, fastball cutter, change up.

Didn't matter what he was throwing against a very offensive team that came in here, and they'd scored to 125 runs in three games. I don't know what it was, something ridiculous. And they're a good team. And for us to do what we did today, really makes a statement. So we're going to fly up to San Francisco. you know, it's going to be bumping on the way up there. I know it. They deserve it.

I want them to enjoy this and feel what they've done because it's a pretty special win. And then we got to at some point tomorrow wake up and get ready for a very stubborn San Francisco team. And four games in three days is not easy. And these guys are trying to do something really, really special. And we're right in the middle of it right now. Unfortunately for us and the Diamondbacks, everybody that we needed to lose pretty much won today. The only team that lost today that we wanted to lose

or that impacts this wild card race is the Cubs. And I think that's something that's worth talking about right now, really when it comes to where the Diamondback stand in the wildcard standings right now. You have the Chicago Cubs being kind of brought back down to Earth a little bit, right? And I mean, they're still considerably ahead of us, but they have some tough games still to play on their schedule. They still play the Marlins two more times and that Marlins team has been pesky.

They play the Brewers and they've been engaged in a battle with the Brewers all season long. And their season finishes up, I believe, against the Boston Red Sox that is still the hottest team in Major League Baseball it feels like. So their path isn't easy and they have a lot of games that they still need to win in order to secure their position for that wild card spot. I feel like the most, the biggest benefit here to beating the Cubs two out of three. is making this pack a little tighter. And perhaps maybe starting the downfall of one of the teams that's ahead of us for a wildcard spot. Perhaps this is what starts the Cubs on a little bit of a losing, you know, snide.

They do have the Reds, I think, as the next series that they're playing. But like I said, after that, they got the Brewers. They have other teams ahead of them that are, you know, just as difficult to beat. Diamondback schedule ahead isn't extremely easy. But we do have four games against the Giants. And we got more games against the Rockies. I know that we still have that big three-game series next week against the Phillies when hopefully we have Cattell Marte back.

And, you know, maybe with this time off and getting himself to 100 percent, perhaps Marte can be at his best in a way that we really haven't seen him this year. But, you know, right now this is a – this was a huge win for the Diamondbacks. And, you know, every win is going to continue to be crucial. But again, that everything is very close and with Siri still against the Phillies and the Padres, as Grock told us last night, no need to panic. No need to start waving the white flag. Grock told us to keep waving the red flags.

I don't know if we, I didn't know we waved red flags. Grog has the guts. Oh, Grock is him. Grock, everybody last night was in shambles when the Diamondbacks were down four to nothing. And the only person that still believed in the Diamondbacks was an AI that is part of Twitter slash x.com. So shout out to Grock. Grock knew. Grock believed.

Grock never doubted us for a second. But again, a lot of baseball still to play, as Grock informed us, and it's not time to wrap things up yet. We might, in fact, actually be back now after this series. But we're going to take a quick break on the other side of this break. We're going to talk briefly about that series with the San Francisco Giants that's coming up. And Tori did give us a little bit of info on who will start game one.

of that series. So don't you go anywhere. You're watching the PHNX Diamondback show. Well, Las Vegas is tomorrow. Me and the fellas are going to be heading on a road trip. A much needed road trip. I know Damon's Mr. Vacations, but I need to get out of here. I can't wait to get to Las Vegas. And of course, our first stop is going to be Circle K. Circle K is the place to stop on your road trip. It's the place to fuel your car up. It's the place to fuel yourself up. Make sure you get yourself all the snacks for your road trip. And more importantly, since we're inner circle members, we know we're going to save. We're going to save on gas.

We're going to save on all sorts of stuff. We're going to get our 79 cent polar pops. I don't necessarily drink coffee in the morning. I do when I'm here because the espresso's downstairs are delightful. But I will say that a good old fashion soda. Soda pop for me in the morning is the caffeine I need for a road trip. But of course, if you sign up right now, you'll save on all of this stuff, you'll be eligible for those 40 cents off per gallon, inner circle fuel days.

And of course, they have their meal deal matrix, which for $3.40, and $6, they will keep you fed and for less. So join the Inner Circle for free right now by downloading the CircleK app. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. And game time, like I said earlier, is the way to go see amazing baseball games just like this one. Last minute. Save yourself up to 60% off by procrastinating and buying tickets through game time.

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so you know your total up front with no surprises at checkout. And you can save even more when you choose a section and let GameTime choose the seats for you with their zone deals. So take the guestwork out of buying tickets to every type of event with GameTime. download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code P-H-N-X for $20 off your first purchase. Terms to apply. Again, create an account and redeem code P-H-N-X for $20 off. Download to Game-time app today. Damon, what time is it? Game time?

It's game time. And it is, in fact, game time because the Diamondbacks don't get a day off for rest. We are going to be doing a post-game show tomorrow from Las Vegas. And part of that is this series with the San Francisco Giants coming up. And the Diamondbacks, again, have taken. getting care of business all season long against the Diamondbacks, or excuse me, against the Giants. But this would be a time where, of course, things would aggregate, right? To the, to the, to the, to the, to the, to the means.

That's how this works or, you know, whatever. But the Giants. This would be the time that the Diamondbacks, like, just allow the, you know, a worse team to come in and get the better of them. Yes. Yes, that's kind of it, right? Like, when things are going our way and everything is, is heading in the right direction, But the Giants are 54 and 79 this year. They have a minus 74 run differential, and they are 3 and 7 in their last games.

They are 17 and a half games back from the final wildcard spot. And in fact, they are in a battle with Colorado Rockies for what looks to be close to the worst record in the league. There's also the athletics and the Angels. But again, like Damon said, this would be the perfect time for this team to sneak up on us out of nowhere and find a way to win some games when the Diamondbacks need to beat up on a lesser opponent. They do have a double header on Saturday, and that's not an easy task for either team. Plus, again, the Diamondbacks were getting ready to get on a bus like right now. They were kicking us out of the club out so they can go get on their buses,

head to the airport and get to San Francisco. So again, this is a team that has not had a good season, but you can't take any team lightly. They're not a good baseball team. They're not a good baseball team. I mean, here's the numbers compared to the Diamondbacks here overall. And, you know, their 20th in OPS at 714. They have a 4.33 team ERA, which is 23rd in baseball. And I mean, this is also a team with like a huge payroll as well.

Right. So at the very least, we are nowhere close to the catastrophe that this team is, even though some of our numbers aren't much better. Outs above average, obviously, incredibly good. Yeah. Diamondbacks, 32 outs above average. Third Major League Baseball, minus 14 for the Giants, 21st in baseball. And Damon, you said that earlier.

That's the Diamondbacks calling card, is how good their defense has been. And lately it's been their bullpen, you know, overall here, the Diamondbacks bullpen. They have a 4.24 ERA for their starting pitching, which is now tied with the Cubs for 50. but their bullpen ERA much better than that. So Giants, meanwhile, 23rd best starting pitching ERA at 4.41. But when you look at the relief ERAs, things are actually trending in the right direction for the Diamondbacks. I mean, they're still right there. It's like 16th, 17th, 18th where they've been all year long.

They're right there with the rays and the pirates at that, around that area. They are 18th with a 4.14 relief. but they've had some really bad individual performances from guys as we've said all year long who are no longer part of this bullpen right Zach Lattel and I mean don't even get me into the early season stuff right plus all of James McCann's appearances are also factored in there as well but I still feel like right now we are Joe Ross Joe Ross I'm going to continue to say it Joe Ross is the guy that your MLB the show like road to the show guy when he starts off and he's generic and they just give him a random name

and a random bill. Joe Ross. Yeah, literally your guy's name. It starts off as Joe Ross and you have to start editing your player from that. It's crazy that that guy pitched games for us this year. DeBacks do lead the season series eight games to one. So when they go in and sweep these four, it's going to be 12 to one, right? Right?

God, I hope so. God, I hope so. Let's make that happen. Let's make that happen. but the bigger question is probable pitchers. Damon, I pray to God that you didn't actually do a graphic. No, God, no. Yeah, no, there's no reason.

There's a game on Saturday, game one on Saturday right now is listed as TBD versus TBD. Electric. I mean, who doesn't want to buy tickets to that pitch in that? Well, it's San Francisco. It's a beautiful ballpark. I'd go. But, of course, the Diamondbacks do not have a single. starting pitcher listed except Merrill Kelly going in game four of this series. However,

we did hear from Tori, and it sounds like that is not set in stone. That is not the plan. Here's what Tori said about their decisions for this series, at least one of those decisions. Yes, we do. So tomorrow, Kerberra will be our starting pitcher. We made a move, but let us tell you what that move is. But Kerrero will be the starting pitcher, TBA, Kelly, TBA. And, I'll keep you posting on that. We have a lot going on right now. There's a lot of moving parts. We have extra relievers.

You guys are following that very closely. We have off days and backup this weekend. This is going to be a little bit of a gritty weekend for us, but this team is gritty, and I think they're ready to go. Let's hope so, because right now we have no idea who's going to start in several of these games still.

But we will get some more information as things progress. And Eduardo Cabrera, or excuse me, Yeah, Cabrera is going to be Jose Cabrera, not Eduardo Corbara. I'm looking at Eduardo Rodriguez's stats. You can't, you just can't stop thinking about Eduardo Rodriguez. You know, earlier they someone, someone. And I get it. Like, EGod.

EGod? That might be, uh, yeah. Derek, I've been calling him EGOT all a year. Have you? Yeah. Oh. Yeah, I like that. Derek does this thing where he, where I talk on the show and he just nods his hand and

pretends like he's listening. In some cases, I don't feel like I even pretend. You like Geraldo Pardomo? That's your favorite play? I didn't know that. Yeah. Who knew? What's going on with you at Killer Act?

You guys like friends or what? You hate Otani or what? I guess I'm kind of figuring some stuff out now. I just can't stop thinking about Erod. Again, season high tying nine strikeouts today for Eduardo Rodriguez. In each of his last two starts, he's allowed zero runs over five plus innings. The last time he recorded back-to-back-such bids was May 10, 2020, when he was still with the Tigers. So two games, scoreless.

And this time for the Diamondbacks, it was a good, good, good day overall for you, Rod. But the Diamondbacks first series win since 2023 against the Cubs at home. And it couldn't have come at a better time, especially with all of those, all of that blue and red in the crowd. It was great to send all of those people home. Very, very sad. But we are not done. That was the best part, Derek. They funded, they funded, like, us to get a player this next off season.

Shout out Cubs fans. Yeah, we appreciate that. You guys, you guys. All the sweets were filled, everything. You guys showed up to Chase. You put money in our pockets. You won. You saw your team lose.

You saw your MVP candidate throw a temper tantrum on the field. And be completely ineffective for the majority of the series. And we thank you for it. Thank you for whatever free agent we're going to get in the off season. That is for, from you guys, Cubs fans. We appreciate that. We appreciate it. Well, we got some traveling to do, some packing to do.

I haven't even opened a bag yet, David. I haven't thought about one thing I'm bringing. I am a wreck internally right now. Are you bringing nice clothes? Oh, it's Las Vegas. You expect me not to bring a suit? It's the only place I wear a suit. I don't wear a suit to church, but I'll wear it to Las Vegas.

See, like I'm more of like a, like, I'm one of those guys in Vegas. Like, if I'm wearing something nice, I'm wearing like the most touristy, like, I'm wearing a Hawaiian shirt. button down, khakis. Like, you're going to look at me and be like, is this guy like... You're describing what I wear every single day to the ballpark. That's true. Yeah. Yikes.

I mean, look at what I wear, Derek. I know. I feel like I have to start asking some questions. That's considered nice for me. I wear T-shirts and, you know, aloe shorts on the show. I think I'm E-Rod. I'm acting like E-Rod today wearing my aloe shorts. So...

People are asking about who's going to start. I don't know who's going to start. going to start but I'll tell you one name that I heard being thrown around entirely too casually today and that was Corbin Burns and it sounds like Corbin Burns return is much closer than I thought much closer than I thought and there is discussion right now that they might only have him like pitching two bridge camp games before having him come back and be part of the starting rotation he's already pitched in one right they said that they're going to have him throw a second one this weekend potentially and then come back maybe after that like he might not need a rehab start

the next start that he might make after his second bridge camp game might be against the major league baseball team on our starting rotation and even if he does need one start or whatever like it doesn't seem like he's going to be in reno slash amarillo for that long potentially so i could see you know or even vizalia i guess merrill maryll kelly did his in hillsborough so it could really be anywhere they decide but yeah corbin burns you know probably back pretty soon i forgot who tweeted it the other day though like he might be thrown like three capped at three innings. Yeah, I think it was Vic Piccuro.

Yeah. So like he's going to go out there, give you three innings probably in his opening start. They're going to ease him into it. But if you could kind of start keep ramping him up as, you know, maybe you make the playoffs. Yeah. That could be huge. Yep. That could be huge.

And I think they were said, they said his velocity was touching 93 miles per hour already. It's pretty good. So he doesn't throw that hard. I think his max below is like 95, right? Right. Right around there. So, I mean, he's not. Not in the front of so very, very exciting things for this team.

And again, huge, huge series win. Cannot say enough about, you know, making up ground on the teams in front of us and keeping pace today when those teams won. We do got some super chats, of course. Big shout out to Rollafati. He says, I got nothing. Put it towards the PCA Kleenex fund. Sick.

It's expensive. They run through a lot of those. You can get them in bulk at Costco, though. Well, that's where they buy them. But that doesn't mean that it's not a big expense. Bet the end of the year. They don't buy them there. They buy them like stupid people do.

They probably spend the most. They go to like the most touristy little like convenience store. The gift shop in the hotel they're staying in. That's, they're paying like $12 a box for Kleenex. Rumor has it, Derek, that the Cubs spend just as much in Kleenex for PCA as they do in salary for PCA. Ha. Those things are like almost neck and neck. Yeah.

Yeah. So much he cries. Uh, just toast. Thank you so much for your super chat. Appreciate you. Love you. He says, looked at the Cubs, put the fries in the bag. Fries, bro.

Fries in the bag. Shit's fries. Also said, New Bar and Kepler or Waldy and Lawler. What kind of question is that? Man. Newbar and Kepler, fire them into the sun. I will say, no, don't be mean. Okay.

Lars Neupar has a great walk-up song, Derek, as we discovered yesterday. He really does. He really does because Damon's a fan of that musician. So, of course. I just went to the Rufus. His old position on Lars Newbar is different. Lars Newbar goes Tame Impala and Rufus DeSler as to. That is pretty hard.

Yeah, it goes crazy. It goes crazy. I want Lars to be decent more than anything in the world. But yeah, it's not looking good right now. As I said yesterday and Derek agreed with me, Waldi has to start every game the rest of the season over Max Kepler. You can't, you just simply cannot have Max Kepler out there and Walschman on the bench. I wouldn't be surprised if one of the roster moves this weekend involved.

Max Kepler. Wouldn't be surprised. And Tori, again, was trying to keep some of that information close to the vest because not to not tell us the decision, but to not let those players start doing the math and worrying about if they're the guy that's going to get either optioned or DFA in the case of Kepler. Right. So I think that might still be coming, but the Diamondbacks roster is still currently at 39. The 40-man roster is still at 39. So they do have the ability to add that one player. But hey, we'll be back. We'll be back tomorrow. It's going to take us a little while to get to Las Vegas. Groundhog Mama wanted to know why we were going. And then someone told them, told her correctly that it's to get drunk and then leave you on the roof of some hotel that we forget about where. Yeah, you.

Yeah. Can't be. Well, maybe it'll be Kevin. He's the one on crutches. Like, yeah, it could be like the. It'd be easier to leave behind. And then you and I could both do the like when we realized we left him behind, the home of thing when we're all Kevin.

True. You know? True. I mean, I'm just thinking that like if you really want to get out of there fast, like and leave him behind, you know, Kevin's absolutely the better option right now. Yeah. Someone's getting lost. We don't know who it is.

I think this would be egregious if I didn't give a shout out to Ryan Hanley. I know we gave us brief shout out to him on last night's postgame show slash emergency podcast, but Ryan Hanley basically brought every person he knows, friends, family members, everybody do our takeover. I think he single-handedly sold it out by himself. But more importantly, Damon,

just like when Cotell Marte hit the walk-off home run during our last takeover, which, by the way, who chose the games that we were going to do takeovers? Oh, yeah, it was me. It was this guy.

It was me. And honestly, Derek, fair enough. I was thinking about that as well last night and how, you know, I've been obviously giving you guff all season that you pick your two favorite teams to do takeovers for but actually when it comes down to it I think it's important to do takeovers for those two teams in particular because yeah there's so many dodgers and cubs fans in the stands that we are doing our part at p hnx to galvanize people and

get diamond backs fans right in the stands that is right and to be bringing our friends yeah to be rewarded with two walk off bombs when we're trying to get more dbacks fans in the building building, both home runs just falling into a sea of blue. I mean, you just, you can't, you can't write a story better than that. No, you really can't. I hope a Cubs fan caught the baseball from Ryan Walsh Schmidt last night. I do too. I do too.

And I hope they had to stare at it and they had to know. And maybe, maybe just maybe. Just out the window in the car on the drive back, just staring at it. Drop it out the window. Ryan Hanley, though, the other part that I'm not describing adequately here is the dirty dancing scene that occurred between me and Ryan, both when Kattelli hit the walkoff and when Walsh Smith hit the walk off. Ryan was Johnny Castles. He lifted me up like I was baby, and he spun me around on the upper deck 300 concourse where there's no air, no air conditioning, and I loved every minute of it. We looked into each other's eyes and there's a special moment. More importantly, there was like a hundred very confused people around us,

wondering why these two men just came together to pull off this. Take their shirts off and do dirty dancing together. They spend the entire movie trying to pull that move off. Me and Ryan pull it off without a problem flawlessly. Put us in that dance competition. As Ryan says, cinema. It was cinema.

He's right. As was the series. So we thank you guys. again for your time. Hope you join us for our fun from Las Vegas tomorrow. Damon is going to be doing the Wildcat show at 4 p.m. And then we will be live for a postgame show for both Thursday and Friday from Circa in Las Vegas. And these guys doing their Wildcat show. We're bringing Kevin with us. And again, Kevin's the one we're going to leave on the roof. But of course, until all of that happens, until all those fun and shenanigans tomorrow, follow us on social because we're going to be showing,

doing we're going to be doing some stuff we're going to be filming some stuff we're going to be in a car i'm going to be annoying with my phone and uh we're going to do some behind the scene stuff if you're die hard keep your eyes peeled to the discord for that and also socials as well but make sure you follow us i'm a cap underscore caveman with a k damon as always is at damon dog with a da wg and we are all damon's dogs bark bark especially on national dog day happy national dog day to you damon uh our shows at p h and x underscore debaq d bax but as always all roads lead to at p h and x underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Love you guys.

Thank you for sharing some of your time with us. Appreciate it. We'll see you back here. Not here, but we'll see you from Las Vegas tomorrow. So make sure to join us for that. In the meantime, behave yourselves. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you get to watch PCA crash out after you beat them.