PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - POSTGAME: Ildemaro Vargas’ Two-Homer Night Extends Hit Streak to 20 in D-backs Win Over Sox

Episode Date: April 23, 2026

The Arizona Diamondbacks finally unleashed the kind of offensive explosion they’ve been searching for all season, taking down the Chicago White Sox 11-7 to even the series. We break down Ildemaro Vargas extending his MLB-best hitting streak to 20 games, Nolan Arenado delivering his most impactful performance yet in a D-backs uniform, and the bullpen once again stepping up to shut the door late. Plus, we look ahead to Gabriel Moreno’s expected return against the Milwaukee Brewers and what getting key pieces back could mean for a team that’s been grinding out wins. 0:00 SKEEYEE THE D-BACKS WIN  4:25 Ildemaro Vargas does it again 🤯  11:00 Ildemaro Vargas & Ketel Marte from locker room  24:20 Geraldo Perdomo (and Nolan Arenado) is back  32:00 E-Rod back down to earth  39:30 Munetaka Murakami is unbelievable  45:30 Back end of the bullpen strong again  1:02:30 Rubber match vs. White Sox tomorrow Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $36: https://gophnx.com/intro-offer-youtube WHILE SUNS ARE IN PLAYOFFS Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $32: https://gophnx.com/suns-playoff-offer-youtube JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4 An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/ Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order! Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visit https://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotes bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets! Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/ Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 40% 2+ pairs of off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you! When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Arizona Diamondbacks win again, and Ildamara Vargas is the next Barry Bonds. Another edition of the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast, A-O-K, presented by our friends at Circle K, welcome in. I don't care if I'm bothering those losers at the Suns next door. We won tonight, so I'm going to get crazy. Welcome in to you all. This is the PHNX Diamondbacks show. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX.

We got your dog on the ones and twos tonight. Not out at Bark at the Park. No, no, no. He's working hard behind the Mac. It's Damon Dog, aka Damon Farrell. Bark, bar to you, Damon. Happy, happy night. Yeah, incredible game, Derek.

One of the best games this season, no doubt about it. Well, and I mean, this was a night where things looked like they were going to go the exact way that the last two games had gone. Oh, my God. You have no idea how sick I was. You had no idea how sick I was. But we'll get into who was sicker. I was so out. I was so out on this game.

You were out last night and you couldn't have been more out. But I'm glad you guys are here. Thank you guys so much for joining us. Get in here. Hit that like button. This is the PHNXDBX podcast presented by Bet365. Bet365 where winning is everything. Download that app right now and use our code of PHNX 365 when you sign up.

We're also brought to you by the fine folks at GameTime. Go download that GameTime app. Create an account and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase terms do apply. Game Dog. Got ourselves a big win tonight on a night where, honestly, the pitching staff, which has not, has not, actually hasn't been terrible, right? It's pretty much carried the load so far this season for an underperforming offense overall. But the pitching tonight, not solid. Eduardo Rodriguez, not the Siong winner.

We were hoping he was going to be all season long. Yet the offense still picked this team up and managed to win this game tonight by a score of 11. to seven. The debacks improve to 14 and 10 on the season. And Damon, you know, anytime we address the record after a win, we got to send tiny Perdomo up the mountain. Send him up the mountain. With six games left in the month of April, two more wins could secure the Diamondbacks, a winning record here, which would be a pretty impressive feat overall considering how daunting this schedule was and how undermanned this team has been. Not only have they been undermanned based on the injuries,

we knew that they were going to have to deal with at the beginning of the season, but they've lost Gabriel Moreno, they've lost Jordan Lawler, they've lost Pavin Smith, they've lost Carlos Santana. Do I need to keep doing this? Because I don't want to do it anymore, but you get the gist of it, right? Diamondback's offense, though, finally woke up tonight and unleashed an 11-run 16-hit night to pick up their struggling pitching, which has not been doing great the last few games,

and even the series here with the Chicago White Sox at one. game apiece. And now, again, I've got to give credit where credit is due. Our guy, Jack Summers, wrote an article about this White Sox team being somewhat of a trap series because of how good offensively they were just against the athletics of Sacramento out there at that minor league ballpark that they claim to be a place where major league teams should play. I think they scored something like 22, 23 runs in that series. And they came in super hot. And again, put up a lot of runs today against the Diamondbacks, right? So luckily the offense was able to have this big explosion and it was all led by Ildemarovar Vargas and his two home run night extending his hit

streak to 20 games going back to last year and extending his hit streak, his franchise best, hit streak to start a season to 17 games. And that all was part of a big second inning where the diamondbacks, you know, we're down two nothing early thanks to Erod not looking very strong out of the gate in the first inning. But in that second inning, man, they just put some things together. And it all started with Jose Fernandez drawing his first walk of the season, even though he has been very good at the plate, even though he has contributed offensively to this team far more than others in the lineup. He is not drawn a walk yet. He was able to actually get two tonight. So a nice job of Jose Fernandez kind of having some patience at the plate and seeing that translate over to

him getting on base twice there with those two walks. But the second inning continues with Nolan Aronado, who is back. In fact, we speculated that he might be back. We wondered if he might be back. And he is, in fact, back after this big night against the White Sox. But he got things started there in the second inning with a single to put runners on the corners. And then our guy, Vargy, aka the fabulous Las Vargas, comes into the game and hits a three-run

bomb to put the Diamondbacks up three to two. That extended his MLB best hitting streak. like I said, to 20 games. It extends his franchise record to start a season to 17 games and gave the Diamondbacks just a little bit of hope, right? I was like many of you. Damon was like many of you. Even with the two runs that the White Sox put up there,

it was a shaky first inning by E.Rod. And this game very much looked like it was going to go the same way that the past two have. And Vargas not only has been incredible. And, you know, obviously as the longest hitting street, that's currently going in Major League Baseball. But he, you know, it felt like the game just turned at that moment. And the White Sox wouldn't have go, the White Sox would not go away in this one.

But the Diamondbacks did not stop. They put their foot on the pedal. They kept, you know, trying to be aggressive. And it worked because they put up 11 runs tonight. Ketel Marte doubled in that same inning in the second and was brought home by a Corbin Carroll RBI to push the lead up to four to two at the time. Ildemarovar Vargas, his career best 20 game hitting street dates back to September 26 from last year. And again, like I said, it's the longest major active streak, a longest active streak in Major League Baseball.

His 20 gamer is tied for MLB's third longest streak since 2025 with Jackson Churio, behind Jose Ramirez's 21 gamer and Bobby Witt Jr's 22 game streak. So he's on the verge of, you know, being perhaps putting together one of the best hitting streaks of the past two seasons. And his 17-game hit streak is MLB's fifth streak of 17-plus games to start a season since 2012. So it's not a feat that's been accomplished much. What he has done to start the season has been incredible. In fact, only Pablo Sandoval back in 2012 had a longer hit streak to start the season.

He had a 20-game hit streak to start that season. Meanwhile, Vargas is tied with Bryson Stott from the Phillies, Brian Dozier from the Minnesota Twins and Alexei Ramirez from the Chicago White Sox back in 2014. That's a name I haven't heard in ages. But his 17 hit streak is the second longest single season hit streak by a debaq since 2022 behind Catelle Marte's 21 game hit streak back in 2024. He's the sixth Dback to have a 20 plus game hitting streak. And there's some good names in there too. Louise Gonzalez had a 30 game hit streak.

Paul Goldschmidt had a 26-game hit streak. Tony Womack had a 24-game hit streak. And then Danny Batista and Catelle Marte both had 21 game hit streaks. But Vargy wasn't done. He wasn't just settling with one. In the third inning and with one out, Nolan Arnato gets on via walk. And Vargas hits his second home run of the night

to give the debacks a six to three lead. At the time, that one was 405 feet to left center field, 103.8 miles per hour, exit velocity, and he has put up a lot of home runs in a hurry. He has five home runs this season, but three have happened essentially in the last 24 hours. And Damon, I need to hear a little something from our guy, Ildomaro Vargas, aka Ildomoro Vargas, because he just keeps hitting more and more hits. I like that one a little bit. Also, someone said, sorry to make you sick, or something about, I,

I got to figure it out. There's a funny one in there that we got to get to. But Damon, first, let's get to Ilamaro Vargas, and let's hear from him in the clubhouse about his big night. Primarily, to God, second, to every one of my companions, that I see the felicity of them. They know the luch that I've gotten to be here. I think that's an opportunity that I always wanted to the hearing coach. And, de really, I feel very content with an opportunity that if I've given. So, you know, first of all, he needs to thank God for the opportunity, but the group of teammates, they had been super supportive. The positivism in the room is off the chart, and they've seen how much he had grind in the past to have this opportunity.

so he's super thankful to the teammates and the coaching staff for preparation for these games. We heard from Nolan Aronado before the game, and we asked him a little bit about, you know, obviously the night that, or this stretch that Vargas had, and that was before him going out there and hitting two home runs. And Aronado, who obviously is a veteran and been around the game a lot, he just had nothing but glowing things to say. When I said that, I literally, he was literally smiling and glowing. while he was talking about it, but he was just talking about how much, you know, what Vargas means to this team, about his preparation, and most importantly, just what kind of guy he is. Like, there was a lot of talk about the vibes.

There was a lot of talk tonight about the power of friendship. And Vargas himself credited, you know, the way that this clubhouse interacts with each other, the way that they are for being a big part of the reason why he's on this tear that he's currently on right now. But he was asked about the power and where this power is coming from. This is what Ildamorrow had to say. Where's the power coming from? Why are you hitting so many homers?

You know, because you know, you've been a good battalion. I mean, I see. I only see. I'm only living the dream. Of truth, I'm working too in a gymnasio, with my immobility. And, of really, that me, I feel very content, because the things are me as well as the team also. Yeah, he doesn't.

really know where the power is coming from. I mean, obviously, he's actually working on his mobility, though. And that's one thing that he could credit to, but he doesn't really have a straight answer for that. I think he was talking... He was going to first base. He said, you're going to first base. Yeah, yeah, I think so. I think so. I'm going to the movie. He said he's in the movie now. playing first base. I need my dream.

A lot of smiles and yeah, it's the first base power. When you go over to first base, you have that power. But I mean, everybody was glowing about Vargas's big night, obviously. We discussed it with Tori. And, you know, Vargas is a guy that's been around this team a lot. He has had multiple seasons with this team. He's had multiple stretches. And overall, he's just never been this kind of player at any point in his

career. And it's just been, I think it's been a lot of fun for his fellow teammates, Cattel, Perdomo, for Tori, to see him flourish like this and have this moment, considering that this was a guy that was tagged essentially as being a role player for the majority of his career. Utility infielder, a backup guy, that kind of thing. And we're going to get around to Damon, once again apologizing Dillamara Vargas. But first, let's hear from Tori. This is what Tori had to say about Vargas and just everything that he's been able to put together lately. I mean, I love Vargy. There's no mystery to that.

This organization has welcomed him back several times. He's just, he's a, he's a great piece for a manager to have. He's very versatile. He's engaged. He's shown a high baseball IQ. We've watched him grow up several times through, or several years through the times that he's been here. He just brings a, he brings a steadiness to this ball club.

And in that role, it's very difficult to play inside of that role. And right now he's on a heater, and we're going to enjoy that run with him. And he's going to continue to get the opportunity to go out there and perform. What do you think has led to his power surge? He's always had, I thought, really good power is a right-handed batter. And he's just maintained that. I think he's kind of perfected the right-handed swing. He's made a really good adjustment all the way around on the pitch selection from both sides of the plate.

For me, that's always an indicator that somebody's maturing. And when you can do that, you're going to be able to find yourself in some advantage counts you're going to be able to drive the baseball. I think my favorite thing that came from this was when just asked about what his teammates have said and what his teammates have thought. Vargas basically said that Perdomo and Kattel come up to him at the start of every day and basically tell him that he hasn't done nothing. You ain't done nothing.

You got nothing going on. You know, and it's fun. It's lighthearted. And it's a big reason once again why he's been contributing in the way he has. But I think this is what Kutel had to say about Vargas and about some of the harassing of him that they do. Vargas was saying you try to keep him humble. Is that a good way?

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. He said that Vargas said to him I'm pretty, you like, at the beginning, he's he's not, he says that he no has done anything, that he's still, that he's not, that he's in serious.

Yeah, I mean, you know, I know him in 2003, you know, I know the class perroter than he. Definitely, he said, he's, they've known each other since 2013. He knows the caliber of player

that he is, and he's super excited that he's going through what he's going through. What looks different to you at the plate about him right now? What is different than today to the other than at the home? No, I think that it's just more of physical, he's more force and has more force. But he thinks it's actually the same type of player. He's obviously he's more physically matured.

and with more experience on the plate, but it's the same spirit as a hitter. I've seen that power in there during the years? Yes, in the past, you, you think, or you've seen, or you've seen, that he had demonstrated now? Yes, from Riceai. Definitely, yes. I believe he even said in English, I need a translator, and we were like, come on, buddy, come on, no you don't, but. No, you don't, but all the good things to say about Vargas.

And of course, it's amazing because now what we got, especially tonight, was the entire lineup kind of got going. You still have Lourdes struggling. You still have James McCann, but we will have an update on Gabriel Moreno for you before the end of the show. But like tonight was just that big breakout night where you, the offense has been carried by the six through nine guys. The guys that have been doing it, Jose Fernandez, Catelle Marte, has not.

You know, Heraldo Pardomo has not, but Ilamaro Vargas has. Some of these guys have just been, you know, again, carrying the load. And now you can see what this offense could be on a night like this with contributions from everybody. You know, Catelle Marte was two for five tonight with the run scored. He made a couple of big plays there defensively at second, including one in the first inning that really helped this game not get out of control. It was on a hit by Colson Montgomery with the bases loaded. It still allowed a run to score, which made the game two to nothing at the time. But man, that ball probably should have snuck through the infield for a hit and probably

would have got two runs in, maybe three runs in. Who knows? But overall, it was a big play there from Cattel. And still, even though not what the other guys have done, but Cattel still still contributed here and you feel like the offense is getting going on all cylinders. But before we move on, obviously, there's no other, there's no question about it. Although Nolan Arnado is an honorable mention for Kingsnake tonight, Ildemarro Vargas, once again, back-to-back Kingsnakes last night and tonight.

Obviously, keeping that 20-game hit street going is a big part of the reason why he wins this award, but he was two-for-five tonight with two home runs and five of the Diamondbacks 11 runs in the form of RBI. So again, Elmaro Vargas, the 11th debaq to homer in three consecutive plate appearances because he homered in his plate appearance last night in his final plate appearance, and then he homered in his first two of played appearances in tonight's game. The last one to do it was Gino Suarez in his four home run game back on April 26th last season. But Vargas is only the second deback to have three plus consecutive plate appearances with multi-run homers. So there you go.

He is the only other one to do it, part of the coaching staff, Damien Easley, who did it back in 2006. But the last MLB player to have three consecutive plate appearances with multi-run homers was Kyle Schwerber last season, August 28, 2025. So Vargy doing the thing in a very unexpected fashion. But again, his contributions tonight were a big part of the reason why this team won after their pitching staff. gives up seven runs in this game overall. But big contributions from lots of players tonight. And again, some weird stuff happening in the fourth inning. We had a bach that scored run.

Corby and Carroll singled in that inning. By the way, he also then stole second and stole third. You can't stop this man. This man's a machine. And then Perdoma walked with Guriel batting. and then Carol or basically it was a engagements, three engagements thrown over to Pardomo at first base, caused the Bok and then Corbyn came in.

That scored the Diamondback's seventh run. And Jose Fernandez would walk for a second time, and Nolan Aeronado would deliver with his second hit of the night, scoring Pardomo, increasing the lead at the time to eight to four. What did he say? He said, disengagement, Bach, piece of Yoshi says. Yeah, disengagement walk. That's exactly what it was.

But overall here, big night from Nolan Aronado. And you love to see that. You feel confident about Gatel Marte getting things going. You feel confident about Geraldo Pardomo getting things going again, right? But great to see Nolan Aronado have a four for four game where he was really five for five because he also walked. So he was four for four with three runs, three RBI, a walk. And then Aronado had a big home run there. late to increase the lead.

And again, just make you feel good that Aronado might, in fact, be back. He reached base four times tonight with three plus hits and one plus home run. It was the first time he's done that in a game since 2024. And again, he's just doing the thing. It's great to see Nolan Aronado. He's been putting together slowly, but tonight was by far his best night as an Arizona Diamondback. But again, it's just you get this stuff from everybody on a lot.

a night like this, you have Corbyn Carroll going three for four with his fourth triple of the season. He had an RBI, two runs scored, he walked and he stole two bases. That was Corbyn Carroll's 47th career triple, which is the second most in franchise history, five behind Stephen Drew. And Damon, you tweeted out about Corbyn Carroll's 47 career triples. I'm just going to continue to be that guy, Derek, because it's it's genuinely the most insane thing I think that's going in baseball right now. We have the best player at a certain skill set, I think in MLB history, actively playing

right now. And he's in like what year four of his MLB career. And he's about to take the active lead for triples, probably next season, probably not this season. Although it's possible, he's only eight back right now, which is not out of the question. And he already has four. Yeah. He has four this season already.

I know. And it's just like, yeah, I want to take the Thai cobs and the, you know, bubblegum Johnson's out of it, Derek. Corby Carroll is just straight up the best triples hitter in MLB history. And so I just, I, it's just a crazy statistic. He already has almost as many as Mike Trout. Mike Trout. It's wild. It's wild.

He also collected his first two or more stolen base game of the season. He has 25 of those. in his career, which is tied for the most in Major League Baseball since 2023, ahead of Ellie de la Cruz, who has 23, and Jose Caballero, who has 24 for the Seattle, for the Mariners, Tampa Bay, and the Yankees. But another guy that had some triples. Heraldo Pardomo, two triples tonight, three for four, an RBI run, score to walk. And he's got three on the season now, Derek.

Three, again, in last 24 hours. That's Corbyn Carroll's competition. Yeah. That's his competition for the triples. Right. It's going to be Dombo and Corby and Carole going for it, right? But, oh, man, this just felt good. But the pitching staff did not let us feel very good about this game, Damon. I mean, this one got close, entirely too close. And every time the Diamondbacks kind of distanced themselves from the White Sox,

more runs scored and the run, and, you know, it felt, it felt bad. It felt bad. It's another case of you can't feel like everything is running on all. for this team. The offense explodes and has a, has a tremendous night, the kind of night you've been wanting to see all season long. And then we get a poor performance from Eduardo Rodriguez, Ryan Thompson, and, you know, the White Sox stayed in this game. They hung around in this one entirely too long. And, you know, we needed to bring Paul Seewald in as we do to close games to put out the fire there at the end. As one would. As one would, right? But before we move on, I did

want to hear from Tori. Here's what he had to say about Pardomo and Cattel's kind of slow start and their, you know, night that they put together tonight. I believe it was on Aeronado and-O-Arenado and Perdomo. Yeah, absolutely. It seems hard, you know, and guys don't just come out of the gates, hitting 400. And I think Jerry really spoiled us last year with a great year that he had.

But I told you guys a couple weeks ago, I'm not worried about him at all. It's an average. And by the end of the year, his OPS and all the little things that he does offensively are going to be right in line. You know, the one that we're getting to know is Nolan. And we've watched him work. We've had conversations with him. He's open to coaching. So when he surges and has this type of a day, we're going to celebrate that with him because I don't think anybody's working harder at trying to find where he's at and have days like this.

And we know that's in there. We saw, you know, glimpses up in Baltimore, and he's continuing to do it today. It's a really nice day for him. Now, Damon, you cook something up in regards to Geraldo Perdomo. Yeah, I mean, I just, Derek, and I tweeted this as well, when Perdomo got the kind of the dagger RBI at the end of the game. And obviously, Perdomo had a great night before then because, you know, he had the beforehand triple. He also had that kind of push bunt that was absolutely beautiful. And only Geraldo Perdomo would be able to.

to execute at that level after practicing it earlier that day. Did you see, by the way, I don't know if you saw when that went down, Derek, the look on Jeff Bannister's face on the broadcast that they showed. I don't know if this is something that you're privy to being in the press box. They show Jeff Bannister on the broadcast, Derek, and he looks across the dugout at somebody. I'm presuming it's Tori and that they kind of had this like cooked up like, hey, why don't we tell Jerry to do this pushbunt thing against the lefty starter? Because, you know, the way that he comes off the mound, we think that he can locate the ball properly and make this happen.

Bannister looks across the dugout and he goes. You could tell that it was his brainchild. He like, he gave like a little like point and like a, how about that? A little like Rye smile. And I was like, that's just perfect, man. But long story short, Derek, like great game out of Pardomo. tonight. Great game out of Pardomo most of the nights recently. In his last 10 games, we got a 361 average, a 442 on base percentage, a 556 slug.

If you're curious at home, that adds up to a 998 OPS. Is that good? I think so. I think so. Only 2 RBI in the stretch, but four stolen bases to boot as well. and this is coming, you know, in a stretch, Derek, that actually the front end of that stretch didn't look that great, but I thought that let's do 10 game sample size. I'm not just going to rip the last six games where he's hitting 550 and roll with that. But like, there are people that were out on Perdomo.

And now I know that's a little bit exaggeratory, but there were people in this chat and I won't name names. Maybe it was he who shall not be named specifically who were looking to trade. to trade the lifeblood of our organization because he had a rough 20 game stretch to open the season. How about this 10 game stretch? Is that good enough baseball? Is that good enough offense from a shortstop? As Carlos says, never give up on Jerry. I'm just wondering. Because as I said, I am writing down notes of the people that gave up on Geraldo Perdomo after a rough 20 game sample size. It's unbelievable, Derek. I don't know how many times we got to do this with the guy.

I had to do this when he was the nine hole hitter. And I was like, yeah, actually, I don't think we should just give his spot up after our World Series year for no reason at all. And then he has continually gotten better and better and better after those years. Now, barely after a top five MVP candidate year, top three MVP candidate year, people are sitting here being like, I just think that maybe it was his Linsanity run. It's over. Yeah.

No. Yeah. No. That makes me sick. No. That makes me sick. How dare. you people. How dare you? This is a man that was given an extension by this organization for a

reason, Derek, and not because he was a one season wonder. They did it before the season because of how much they believed in this guy and how big, big of a player that he is. He's the starter for the Dominican Republic national team at shortstop. I don't know if that means anything to anybody. And he's a leader and he's a captain and he's a hero, damn it. And I won't have anybody ever come after him, his lineup spot, or just speak on his name ever again on my watch. It won't happen. There you go. Well, I will say there's a lot of talk about where Domo hits in the lineup. And again, I agree. I don't think it's going to change, but we don't like that. And I agree with that. We've never liked it. We've, we've never liked the fact that they've been so rigid with Kattel,

that Kattel has to hit first or second. And that's Kattel. That's Ketel's wishes, right? So, You know, I still don't love the way the top of the lineup is constructed. Maybe that's the reason why those guys had a little bit of a slow start. But if they get rolling, then I don't care. And I don't really like, I don't put one of those guys above the other after seeing them perform the way they've been performing recently. It feels like at any point, any of them can be extremely good and just pop off. And really it doesn't matter where they hit because they're all getting on base. They're all driving each other in.

this team is just constructed differently. This lineup is constructed differently. This bullpen is constructed differently. Every goddamn thing about this team is just different. It shouldn't work. And for some reason it is. And the Diamondbacks are four games above 500 in a month where we thought they were going to be like, if it was, if they were 10 and 14, I think we would still be like,

not bad. It's not over. It's not over. Right. That's because that's more of what we were expecting rather than this. And I know this isn't lighting the world on fire, but the Dodgers just lost two games in a row. The Padres lost tonight, and who is to say anything has been decided. That is the way that reality works, and we can go out there and have guys like Ildomaro Vargas and Jose Fernandez playing like goddamn all-stars.

And if they contribute and could tell Perdomo and Corbyn all do what we know they're capable of, that right there is enough for this team to be a winner. Believe it or not. And I can't even believe I'm saying. We want the West, Derek. Hey, yeah, we want the West. We want the West. We just want a wild card. We want the West.

but let's go ahead and take a quick break, Damon, because we could probably go on for 60 straight minutes without taking a break. I'm fired up now. I'm fired up. I'm ready to go. You guys, thank you for being here. You're watching the PHNX Diamondback show,

and we will be right back. Well, let's face it, after a serious accident or injury, you want to hire an attorney that's focused on your best outcome and not how much money the firm makes. That's why you should call the husband and wife law team first. This team brings hundreds of years of combined trial experience, not to mention that Mark and Alexis Breyer are absolute sports fans. They know ball when it comes to sports and they know ball when it comes to. They didn't give up on Perdomo. They never gave up

on Perdomo and they know what it takes to get the W in the courtroom. So of course, they have multiple certified specialists in personal injury and wrongful death. And that is important because in Arizona, the state bar has certified less than 1% of all lawyers as a specialist in injury and wrongful death litigation, making them experts in the field. They are trial lawyers. They will go to trial for you and they know what needs to be done to prevail in front of a jury in a courtroom. Most importantly, while they can't guarantee the outcome of your case, they can make promises to you as their client, one being that you can cancel your fee agreement with them at any time for any reason, another being that you'll receive as much in your pocket as they receive for

their fee, even if they have to reduce their attorney fees to do so. And again, this most important one is you can speak with one of their lawyers as often as you choose about anything you want to discuss, including people not believing in Geraldo Perdomo. So if you've had a serious injury, call the husband and wife law team first at 602, 783, 8,841, or visit their website at the link in our show notes and tell them PH and XenCENCHI. I hope you never have to use that number,

but I also know that whenever you go through something like that, it's hard to know where to start, and the husband and wife law team is where you should start. But, of course, if you want to get out and see this dynamic team play baseball, game time is the way to do it. You can get your tickets for less. And if you're a procrastinator like me, you save by procrastinating. You save by getting those last minute tickets.

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It's actually 1120 million. Yeah, and I have a date. game tomorrow. But no, it's game time. What am I talking about? It's game time. It wasn't really game time for Eduardo Rodriguez there in the first inning. Another slow start from a starting pitcher. And it definitely was, oh shit, here we go again. Right. That's what it felt like. Rodriguez immediately gives up a pair of singles to the first two batters he face. Then struck out the notorious Murakami, who has been just incredible so far in his young Major League baseball career. And then he issues a walk to load the bases at the time. He then walks another batter to bring in the game's first run.

And this was when I wanted to start packing up my stuff and heading back to the office because I didn't want to see this all happen in front of my eyes again. Luckily, the Diamondbacks put up a much better effort than they did yesterday. But, you know, he just, he got out of it. Again, that ground out, that defensive play by Cattell was key for this team at that moment. And again, even though it let a run score, it kept it from being. this kind of avalanche run scoring. And then he would get Tanner Murray to strike out to end the inning before it became yet another catastrophic first.

But Erod, I don't know exactly what's going on. We didn't get a chance to talk to Erod after the game. And when I looked at his pitch mix tonight, he leaned on his four-seem fastball as his primary pitch yet again. And it's just so odd to me. It's odd to be present and hear what an athlete has to say and then have that game plan, I guess, change? Because Eduardo Rodriguez himself told us that one of the things he discovered

while pitching for Team Venezuela with Salvi behind the plate was that, you know, his changeup became a very valuable tool for him and that, you know, they kind of convinced him to start using that as his primary pitch. Tonight, he went 41% forcing again and 29% change up. I know that the change up thing seems to be something that is kind of an edict around this team. I also know that the pitchers have all kind of been coached to just be more aggressive, to be throwing in the strike zone. They would rather see these guys make mistakes in the strike zone than missing.

And it feels like over these last three days, their starters have been missing a lot, and it almost feels like they're trying to be too fine, be too fine around the edges. But you could just tell that once things weren't really working for Erod, he just fell right back onto that four seam usage. He got three whiffs on it. He got two whiffs on his change-up,

and his four-seem maxed out at close to 95 miles an hour. It was 94.6. But he gave up seven hard hit balls in this one, four of them for hits, some home runs. And, you know, again, ERA just came back down to Earth a little bit, as it seems to be the case right now with everybody in the Diamondback starting rotation and pitching staff. It's not all doom and gloom by any stretch of the,

imagination. You know, again, it's, you still have Erod going out there and putting up much better performances even tonight than he has for the majority of last season, besides a couple of stretches, right? But he gave him five innings tonight. He gave up six hits, four earn runs, three walks. He struck out four, gave up the two home runs. But the, I think the most important out of the entire outing for him was caused by James McKeown. can challenging a play behind the plate. This was at the end of his outing essentially. It was at the end of the fifth inning.

He was done. His pitch count had been maxed. Colton Montgomery, excuse me, Colson Montgomery, who's another thorn in our side so far during the series. He was at the plate. And essentially he walked and James McCann challenged the pitch. It was reversed to a strikeout. And instead of having bases loaded in the,

you know, fifth inning and needing to go to your bullpen because he was maxed out for his pitch pitch count. They got out of it. And I mean, again, that was such a huge moment for this team, considering that White Sox did not stop putting up runs. And they continued to put up runs against the bullpen. Taylor Clark was not perfect. He was used for a second night in a row. He was used for multiple innings last night. I think one in a third innings pitched. He was, he got an inning of work. He did get hit hard on a triple by Tristan Peters, who scored and would cut the lead at that time to eight to five, but he did limit the damage, and he only gave up that one hit, that weren't one-earned run. He didn't strike anyone out and didn't walk anyone. But this is how good

Taylor Clark's been. That run ended his 11 and two-thirds innings scoreless streak, which started with his second outing after the Dodgers game or started in that Dodgers game. He has not allowed a run since the first game of the series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. So Taylor Clark has been incredibly effective and again, was not perfect tonight,

but he did his job and he kept this game with the Diamondbacks having a lead. Meanwhile, Ryan Thompson, what an adventure the last few games have been. Am I right? What an adventure. I don't know what happened a few days ago or whatever that might have set this off. Oh,

WrestleMania. Of course, it has to be WrestleMania weekend. But Ryan Thompson, again, after not registering an out in yesterday's loss,

he comes into this game. He walks lead-off hitter Miguel Vargas, who had a home run and is a dangerous hitter. But then he gave up, I swear to God, what looked like one of the biggest home runs

I've ever seen a human being hit at Chase Field. 4501 feet to Murakami for his 10th home run. of the season. He has hit five in a row. Yuracami is insane. Five straight games with a home run from Yuracami. He's insane. Yeah. I can't believe people tried to convince us that this guy might just be a not very good in major league baseball. Yeah. They're like, well he's got

remember how bad I wanted him, Damon. He's a little bit swing and miss. And you're like, oh, he's a little bit swing and miss. He's going to bring you 40 home runs. I'm sorry. What did you say his power tool was again? Oh, it's 80. Yeah. 80 on a scale of 20 to 80. Oh, interesting. And it really plays.

I mean, you see it. Every time he connects with the baseball, you're like, holy shit, that's leaving the ballpark. He even hit one to center field, Derek. And that one went over the fence to center field, which was crazy. But there was another one that went to the track where I was like, oh, my God, he just hit a home run out in center field that chase. And then he didn't hit that one out.

and then he hit the next one out, Senator Field that Chase. He really is unbelievable. And I was just sitting there thinking, and I was looking at the contract that the White Sox signed him to two years, $34 million. Don't do that to me.

Don't do that to me. Like, that guy should be our designated hair, guys. I know. Right? Like, he should be, like, we should have signed him. That's so doable. It feels reasonable. It feels like that's possible.

and it feels now in hindsight and maybe it's you know hindsight's 2020 but like what an obvious hit that Murakami was going to be a good major league baseball player what what a difference he makes that young team that whites this white sox team is a young exciting team and I know that they're they have some good pitchers that I'm all in I told you last year in the summer I was like my white socks get on the come up since since we're on the topic and I'm going to disclose what I texted you, which is one thing I found tonight, White Sox fans are kind of delightful. I'll put them right up there with like Toronto Blue Jays fans. You know, like I don't know how to explain it, but they were just nice and cordial. They didn't try to take over Chase Field.

Even when they won yesterday, they weren't like doing some sort of weird, aggressive White Sox chant. I've been impressed by the turnout. Like I didn't know there was this many White Sox fans in general. But hey, look at what happens when the team starts wins. Absolutely. Absolutely. And Again, you don't ever change your allegiance, I don't think, when you're a Chicago sports fan. You picked one of those two teams, and that's the team that you chose. And you're going to die wearing the cap of that team. So I get it and I respect it. But also I really respect White Sox fans.

Oh, yeah. Because I think it's a little easier to go, even if, especially if you move and stuff to go be a Cubs fan. Even if they're bad. The vibes at Wrigley are just. 100%. And undefeated. You're going, like, White Sox games, like it's kind of like, you know, it's not necessarily. fairly like a like a you know what's what kind of ballpark it's like a very like urban ballpark and

and i thought it was a super cool vibe i enjoyed it a lot when i went last summer but um it's it's it's like not like a thing to do as much as going to rigour right and i don't know i just think that you know like it's not an easy you really got a love baseball to go watch white socks games really for them the white socks have been so bad man like i i i wish i could find it i've tried to look for it a million times but there was like a panel of fans of like a team and their content creators and they were,

it was a White Sox fan and a Mets fan. And they essentially had to argue their case as to why their team was the biggest embarrassment. Oh, I remember this. Yeah, and the Mets fan was like, you know what,

like I already know like I'm losing this before I walk in here. But like here's my case. I'm just going to lie in out there. And he had to start it off because then the White Sox fan went and explained that they've made the playoffs. like 11% of seasons in franchise history since like 1850.

It's like the, it's you've, you've never heard anything worse. And our one team that was really good ended up being absolute cheaters and a stain on baseball's history by. Well, and then they won in 06, which came out of absolute nowhere,

right? And then, or was it 05? But yeah. And then they, and then just never any, have not had a semblance of being decent since. And so, yeah, I mean, it's, it's just a wild roller coaster being a White Sox fan.

But now they have Murakami. Yeah. And that's all that matters. It's, it's a, that's an exciting, fun situation. Yes, the plumber, the plumber, the super Murakami brothers or something. I do something right there. I always cover my bases. Yeah.

Because when I know Yoshi's around, when I'm like, I think it might have been 05. Before I'm even getting the words, I think it might be 05. But yeah. But yeah. But yeah. It's 05. But yeah. like you tried you tried anyway but i'll tell you this much uh ryan thompson it was such an odd

outing for ryan thompson because then he gives up a single uh before a man visit from brian kaplan completely settles him down and he went five earned runs in two games without recording an out and then suddenly he gets caro to ground into the double play and then he struck so strikes out one of the White Sox best hitters in Colson Montgomery to get out of the inning. Right. So like somehow that mound visit changed him and something needed to, something needed to get through to him and tell him that, you know, things were falling off the rails for sure. But even though certain parts of the bullpen are still sketchy, I'll tell you one, that isn't. And that's Juan Murillo. That guy is a certified G and a bona fide

stud. And a horse. And a horse. And an absolute horse. And a dude and a stud and a guy. you know, and I mean, I'll tell you, man, overall here, the diamondbacks have been very high on, on Morillo. They've been high on the fact that, you know, they've said it. They said it last year. I remember hearing it several times. If Morillo can limit his walks, if he can limit his walks, if he can limit his walks, you know, because that's what it feels like always gets him in trouble. And I think the reason why that is, one, because his command isn't great. He's throwing so hard that it was hard for him to stay in the strikes down. That might even be more control. I don't even know.

I tried to explain that recently, and even I don't know. But it seems like his command is outstanding. And it also feels like he is not afraid to throw his nasty stuff down, you know, in the strike zone and challenge hitters with it. And that's something that I think all of their pitchers need to be doing more. But Juan Murillo, again, just absolutely, he just makes you feel good, Damon, when he comes into the game. Like when you're sick and even though you know a night. bowl of chicken soup doesn't actually do anything. You're like, this is going to make me better.

And someone brings you a little blakey. That's what Juan Morio does. It calms me down. It makes me feel like everything's going to be okay. And, uh, I mean, it's nice to have him as a setup man. They're late for Paul Seawald, who once again did the thing. Paul Seawald. Can I just say I dropped Paul Seawald in my fantasy baseball team after the Mets debacle.

And after he gave up that, you know, absolute rocket to that dude. for his, yeah, for his, that, that opening win of the Mets series. And I think ever since then,

he's been absolutely lights out. So credit to Damon. This was a non-save situation, right? So I was a little worried about bringing him in, but he hasn't worked in a number of days. Plus,

if they don't need him tomorrow, then there's an off day on Friday, and they might not use them again until Saturday. So you just get to a point where it's been entirely too long and you need to get him some work in there. And he shut the door. And it was just a nice,

you know, overall, outing being an absolute, you know, kind of disaster, which it could have been, but he did get it back on track. This bullpen is really just starting to put things together. You can't give it a one-run lead all the time and expect it to hold things down. But tonight, this was a night where even when the pitching staff, you know, stumbled and gave up some runs, the Diamondbacks offense just immediately would put more runs back up on the board. They scored four in the second, two in the third, two in the four.

four, two in the six, and then one more in the seventh inning. And again, it just felt like every time the White Sox had some sort of response or some sort of comeback kind of brewing, the Diamondbacks would then answer. And that's something that we have not really seen out of a few, you know, out of this team, definitely not at this level where they put up 11 runs in a game. So just a great night. Again, not, there's plenty you could dwell on here as far as giving up seven runs and everything that happened.

but I just feel like the dimebacks once again are finding a way to stay in these games, to grind these out and find a way to win, and they did it again tonight. Here's what Tori had to say about Eduardo Rodriguez and the pitching performance overall tonight. On the mound, you know, I thought E. Rod gave us what he could. He gives us five innings, and I think there were some mistakes today, but he made some pitches when he had to. In fact, he was down to his last hitter there against Montgomery. and got them back into the dugout with a chance to win a game,

and that's what starters were supposed to do. From there, I think the bullpen was adequate. I know there was one situation we got a little linked up, but overall we won a game, and we lost a couple tough games. We got beat up a little bit, but the guys came out and really stuck their foot in the dirt and said, let's go out and win the way we know how to, and I was proud of the guys for that.

We also have a little more here right from Tori on the bullpen. This is what Tori had to say about their performance tonight. Those are two back-end guys, not a mystery. I've been shoving one into that very back-end, eighth inning, seventh inning, depending on where we are in the order. He's going to get that max load, the most difficult part of the lineup. So they've been great, and Juan is emerging. He's got a really nasty streak in him,

and he's going to go out there and want to collect big outs at the right moment. So I like that. I like that mindset. Paul is very focused. He's got great leadership qualities. You know, the relievers following them around like the Pied Piper, and then he puts that emotion down. He puts that roll down.

When the phone rings, he's got to come a new game, he goes out there and duplicates pitches and fills up the strike zone. And that's been the reason for a success, in my opinion. I mean, I just asked them there, especially about, you know, those two guys kind of being his, I mean, that's his high leverage guys right now. Juan is his setup guy and Paul Seawald is the closer. I don't know why it works. It shouldn't work.

just like a lot of things we've said on this show, like we said earlier, but it does. And again, I do think that Seawald's calm nature and his experience is the reason why, you know, Tori says that the rest of the relievers fall around like the Pied Piper. And it's just, again, it's because, you know, I think that this team is finding a way to bond, whether it's the position players in the clubhouse, whether it's the guys out in the bullpen. It doesn't matter. It just seems like they're finding a way to come together. make each other better. I think that's kind of been the key with this team, which is so cool.

But we got a super chat here from Johnny Walker, Damon, about Paul Seawl. Your buddy. My guy, Johnny Walker, a friend since kindergarten. Johnny Walker says, no, that was too long. That was too long. Every year. Yeah, yeah. He says, considering Bullpen was the biggest question this year and most years, it's Pauli Seawall, the MVP of the young D-back season. Man, you know, you got to tip your cap to a few guys. So I think it's a team effort. It's the reason why they're winning is they're not just getting it from Paul Seawald. They're getting it from a myriad of sources.

And it's not just like consistently one source. Like we said, the starting pitching, you know, kind of held things together there in a way that we didn't expect it to hold things together. Then you had, you know, contributions as we've been talking about this season quite a bit from guys lower in the lineup. That's another thing that you did not get last year. you weren't getting quality starts from your pitchers and you weren't getting contributions from the lower, you know, end of the lineup once Perdomo moved to the top of the lineup. You were, you were hardly getting anything out of your six through nine guys. Yeah, not really at all. And that's that's what definitely feels different.

And so like when Perdomo Corbyn and or not Corbyn, Corbyn hasn't really struggled at all. But when Cotel and Perdomo kind of are struggling, all you really need is one guy to have kind of a good night to mix with those other guys at the bomb under the lineup and next thing you know you have enough runs on the board to win baseball games. But you're right. Paul Seawald, who gets so much flack for his poor performances, rarely gets the flowers that he deserves for being good. And I mean, this is a guy right now that has a 1.93 ERA. And I don't think he still has a lead of the, or I don't think he's got a piece of the lead, but he's definitely up at the top as far as saves are. I think there might be somebody with eight or nine saves at the most in baseball and Paul Seawald has seven so I don't have

that information right here he had he was the first to seven he was the first to seven but yeah it's been maybe been a minute since he's collected a save yeah and and again that's also just the way baseball is things can move pretty fast right but still regardless Paul seawald believe it or not whether whether you want to believe it or not Paul Seawald has been one of the best relief pitchers in all baseball. Meanwhile, you look at what the Mets paid for Devin Williams and the disaster he's been for them in high leverage situations and how many teams, how many games that team's already lost. And you got to be thankful that this is working out for us. Don't know why it's working out for us, but you should be thankful that it is because Mike Hazen seems to know

something we don't all the time. I mean, the underlying metrics, Derek, and I pulled these because I thought that they were relevant on the baseball savants here for both Paul Cwall. than Juan Maria looked pretty damn good. Yeah. I mean, obviously we knew. Wands especially. You look at the fastball VLO for Paul C. Walt, that's, you know, pretty obvious. You don't expect that to be high.

When he gets tagged, he gets tagged pretty hard. So the average exit Velo is fairly, fairly high as well, as well as like barrel percentage, hard hit percentage. Yeah, barrel percent. Yeah. But like a lot of the stuff that you, I think you want to see it high for a guy like Paul Seawalt is pretty high. Yeah.

The walk rate, the K rate, the chip rate, the chip rate. taste rate, you know, XBA. Like, I mean, that's not a bad looking baseball. Savant. And then Murillo is, yeah, it's just, it's special. It's special. He's special. And to hear Tori say he has a nasty streak?

Yeah. That's pretty, it's pretty cool. Oh, inject it into my vein. We don't have his nasty streak. We haven't had a lot of guys like that, Derek. We really haven't. I know. Guys that throw hard out of the bullpen and that can literally frighten you, you know,

guys that you don't want none of that of, you know, that kind of thing. Plus, I mean, this is this bullpen adapting with pieces that are on the horizon to return, right? So, I mean, it feels like things are only going to get better. The only thing I have a concern about is how to, how, you know, what's the chemistry like when you bring those guys in, you know, and when you, when you get A.J. Puck back. I'm sure everybody in the bullpen is going to be thrilled to have them. Chemistry. Well, I mean, that's what I say. This guy was out of it.

Chase Field yesterday thrown his bullpen just because he wanted to be around the fellas, just because he wanted to be around the boys. So, like, you, you, you, you kind of love that.

So it doesn't really feel like the kind of guy that's going to mess anything up for this bullpen. But I'm with you, chemistry, shmemistry. But I think this is a team that is unique in that, like, its whole 40-man roster feels like a very collective unit. They don't,

I don't think that the guys that are even, like, off the team per se for, you know, different stretches, whether it's injury or whether it's a rehab assignment or an IL stint. Like, they're all.

fairly locked in on the major league team and the situation that's going on. And I do think that that's a like, I know that people don't want to hear it, but that's, that's the upside of having Tori Lavolo as your manager is he, he finds a way to get a unit locked in on a common goal. And I think that everybody, you hear them mimic the same statements over and over again, which is a sign of good coaching because I think a lot of good coaches are like cult leaders almost. And well, you get, you get them to buy in. You get them to buy in. Yeah. And it's, you're, you're right, but also when someone explains something to you and makes you understand the purpose of it, it makes it easier for you to be like, yeah, I'm all about that thing, right? I mean, you, Damon.

Well, when everybody else believes it too, when the best players on the team believe it, when Geraldo Perdomo and Corbyn Carroll believe it makes it easier to believe. There is a reason that this man went through a season where they had a 17-game losing streak and a 13-game losing streak and he still has his job. And that is because this Diamondbacks team is never really going to be the kind of team with the budget. it to go out and get the biggest superstars across baseball. So the only way this team is going to work is by playing together as a team, as a unit, which can be incredibly effective in baseball like you were talking about with that 05 White Sox team. But you also have the fact that this team has so many young players,

and it just seems like Tori is very good as a manager at getting the most out of them. Look at what's happening now with Jose Fernandez. Look what's happening with Juan Murillo, right? And then on top of that, you also have, you know, that next crop of them. guys that are ready to come up here, which Damon can't wait to see one, Ryan Walschman, right? And again, you just feel good. Even Jordan Lawler, the transition that he's made from third base to the out out incredibly well for him. He looked prior to that injury. He looked damn good prior to the injury.

But before the injury, he looked like the most, maybe most consistent offensive player that we had at that moment in the outfield, right? And again, these are all things that happened under Tori's watch. So I know people don't like his decisions. I know people want to blame him for things that really aren't his fault. And there are plenty of things that you can blame him for. Trust me. But as much as people think that we glaze Tori on this show, it's mostly because we're just reasonable people.

And I would much rather blame the performance. And we have dinner on Sunday. Well, there's that too. I forgot. That's the garlic bread that keeps us coming back mostly. But we need to take a quick break. On the other side of this break, we're going to take a look at some of the numbers from this game.

And we'll, it's going to do that in about two minutes. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the PHNX Diamondback show. Well, we can all use some help managing our bills, especially our energy bills every month here in the desert. But it's particularly important as we get closer to those June, July, and August months where things can get very hot and very expensive for all of us. APS has several ways that can help us do exactly that. APS customers can check the monthly plan comparison section on their energy bill every month to see which rate plan could have saved them more money or to verify and confirm that you are on the correct rate. rate plan. Rate plan options help you save money and they're all right there in blue type in your

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Derek, I did want to shout out our guy, Terrence, tidbits, and his super chat as well, because he sent it in earlier and we did kind of gloss over it. $4.99, appreciate my guy, Terrence, says, seeing Corbyn bounce back from hamate surgery and be a top three player in baseball is awesome. Best base runner in the league MVP. Man, and I mean...

Special. It's, it's Corbin's relentless pursuit of getting better and being better, being the best version of himself. I've, you know, it's not like you don't see all these athletes out there every day, giving it they're all being fully committed to the sport. It's just, you know, when you see Corbyn go through something like that bone, that Haymate bone injury and everything he had to deal with, you feel like, you know, there's definitely some self-motivation that helped power him through

that and get him back to the lineup earlier than some of his contemporaries. obviously Francisco Lindor was able to make it back, but he hasn't had the offensive success of the plate that Corbyn's had. And then I don't even know what's going on with Jackson Holiday. I don't believe he's even returned yet from his injury. So again, we should just be thankful that, one, Corbin isn't an actual human being. He's a superhuman or a mutant or some sort of comic book character.

And two, that, again, he just has that motivation to want to be one of the best players on the planet. And that's really nothing new. Jackson Holiday isn't real. You can't convince us he's real. I don't think he had a similar break in his hand at the same time Corvin Carroll did. Corvin Carroll is carrying the Diamondbacks and Jackson Holiday has yet to play a game this year for the Orioles. Oh, well, it is what it is.

Is he even real, Derek? I don't know. I don't believe in anybody until I see them with my own eyes. And you know that. You know that about me, Damon. But let's take a look at these numbers because these numbers, are very real, and they are very good. A lot of times, you know, maybe after a loss, we're not interested in looking at these,

but I could look at this for five hours straight. Diamondbacks win this one by a score of 11 to 7. They were four for 12 with runners in scoring position to the White Sox 048. Great job by the Diamondbacks at, you know, preventing the White Sox from capitalizing on those opportunities. The Diamondbacks had seven extra base hits tonight to the White Sox four. It was pretty much a split hard hit percentage. Both teams were right there around 45%.

Diamondbacks, 48.5% of their balls batted were hard hit. Meanwhile, 44.8% for the Chicago White Sox. And the expected batting average there, 335 for the Diamondbacks. They were getting their hits in. 16 hits tonight for the debacks. 285 expected batting average there for the White Sox. And then ABS challenges. three for five tonight.

Let's get it, Damon. Three for five, and both teams were out of their challenges by the fifth inning. Love it. That's real baseball. That's real ball right there. That is ethical hoops. That's ethical hoops. Three for five, O for two with the white socks.

And they don't seem to be very good. James McCann, right after he had that amazing challenge behind the plate to end the fifth inning, came up to the plate and was just feeling himself. Yeah, he is. And then he challenged a ball that was so, it was like such a strike. It was such a strike. But. He saw the sexy man James McCann tweet.

Oh, yeah. And he started believing it. Yeah. You know, he started believing it. But overall here, again, a good win for the Diamondbacks. And now they have going to, I guess, Eduardo Rodriguez's Randy Johnson or is he Kurt Schilling. I don't know how this works in your metaphor, Damon. But Michael Soroka is on the mound tomorrow in the finale for the Diamondbacks.

And again, in that day game, they have a chance to win yet another series. And I think the win-loss record is what it is, right? It's impressive and it has been far better than we expected to see this team play this early in the season. But I think the more impressive thing is if they find a way to win this series tomorrow, that, you know, they just like the games themselves, they find a way to win. And that says something. That kind of is what baseball is all about

is winning these series when you play these teams. And you can't expect to win every series. That's not going to happen. And you definitely can't expect to, you know, like sweep teams all the time. But, you know, the fact is there's been a couple of series like with the Braves and in this one with the White Sox where this team kind of got punched in the mouth

and still found a way to come back and steal some games and win in the Brave series at least split that four game series with the Braves. and like I said in this one, they have a chance tomorrow to take it. I think, like, again, that is another trait about this team that hasn't really been there the last two seasons. And it feels like it's what winning baseball teams do. Especially, she to say that. Especially early in the season.

That's how you build up a good enough lead for yourself where you have something to work with in case, you know, you do hit a snagget at the halfway point or at the end of the year. so that you have some cushion. Yeah. Because, you know, you don't want to be playing catch up from the beginning of the year all the way at the end. That's what the dying backs did last year. They actually were playing really good baseball at the end of the year last year. Yeah.

But it was way too late at that point because the pitching had been so bad from, you know, Erod, Gowan up to that point, fought. I mean, it took trading everywhere, everyone away for this team to get their shit together. And then Gowan is our pitching decent. Erod to give you a decent stretch. Ryan Nelson to become like the focal point. And all of a sudden you started winning some games. But it took a lot, right?

It took a while. It did. I think that, you know, this is the exact start you needed to this season with this schedule. And it also, you know, part of that is winning series that you should win and the White Sox series, even though they're playing pretty good baseball right now. And even though, like you said, this is a trap series because of how the White Sox are hitting, I think that you still got to find a way to win this series tomorrow and continue to stack these series Ws,

especially against the competition that is still 9 and 15. They're not a good team so far this season. They're just a little bit of a dangerous team. And so got to deal with it tomorrow. And, you know, Soroka is definitely the guy who's pitching the best right now for the team. So I think it's the perfect guy to go out there and get that series victory. Well, I once again, Damon, do not want to put the cart ahead of the whole. horse. But I'm going to say that there is a possibility, there is a reality, there is a timeline.

We might not live in it, but there is a timeline where by Sunday the Diamondbacks could theoretically be the first place team in the National League West. I'm just throwing it out there. I'm just saying the Giants are beating up on the Dodgers. The Padres lost. We face the Padres this weekend. It's a four game swing. who the hell knows what could happen. Not that it matters, right? Not that it matters.

But that means that they go into the final series of the month with the Milwaukee Brewers, not only with a winning record, but fighting for first place in the division, that doesn't even seem to make sense, right? And again, this is a team that unlike some of their competitors, even though the Padres did just sign Lucas Gialito today, the Diamondbacks know they're going to get better, right? Whereas the Dodgers have already experienced some injuries that have changed their season somewhat. And, you know, the Padres again, they don't exactly have the pieces throughout the season to look forward to returning the same way that the Diamondbacks have an ace like Corbin Burns coming back to the pitching staff.

Like, oh, one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball is going to be part of our pitching staff again here, not too long. And oh, yeah, we also have two of the best relievers in all baseball. Frankly, no one. And correct me if I'm wrong, I definitely could be ignorant to this. But I don't think that anyone has even close to the talent pool, like returning potentially during the portion of this season. Guarantee. That the Diamondbacks have. Like you're bringing in a Cy Young candidate pitcher one of the, I'd say in the last two years prior to his injury, top 10 to 15 relievers.

in baseball and AJ Puck. And then another guy in Justin Martinez, who's one of the best, you know, and most promising young phenom arms out of the bullpen in baseball with just electric stuff. So I really don't know what other team really has those type of guys just on the, on the burner waiting to kind of, you know, be unleashed. Advantage diamondbacks. And the entire time, we've just said, how can they keep their head above water without them? And Paven Smith.

and without Pavin Smith and without Carlos Santana, you know, and without Jordan Lawler and they're still somehow doing it, right? And like, again, we joke, but all of those guys are going to return too, right? Like, it's almost going to get to a point where the Diamondbacks, just like with their starting rotation, are going to have some difficult decisions to make. Because I swear to God, if you do anything with Jose Fernandez besides start him on a major league level in the starting lineup for a major league team, Damon and I will come down there and have a conversation with you personally about it. And we don't make threats like that often.

But you know, we'll also be joined by like 5,000 of our very good friends who also would like an answer as to why you sent Jose Fernandez to AAA Reno. So let's not let that happen. And this is where I get myself in trouble where I then have to apologize to Elamara Vargas, which I actually don't think I have done yet. So I think we still need to get to that. You know what? You have the floor, Damon. Yeah, no, and I'll do that in a second here. But first I wanted to get to my take that gets me in this kind of trouble with other people. If so

help me, God, we are sitting in August and I am having to look at lineup cards that have Pavin Smith hitting fifth in playing first base and Jose Fernandez riding pine, I'm not going to be very happy. Not going to be well. And not a lot

of Diamondbacks fans are as well, because that would be honestly just a travesty to the sport. But yeah, I guess this is my time. Yeah, please. If you know, the floor is yours to go ahead and apologize to Lidemarovar Vargis, as you are expected to do on every show during this hit street. Yeah, absolutely.

You know, this is the portion where I put myself on the one shot. I look into the camera and I say, I'll tomorrow Vargas. I apologize. How many more of these apologies do you want out of me? How many times do you want me to have to embarrass myself live on our, YouTube postgame streams and, you know, get up on a soapbox and say, I'm a clown, I'm an idiot. I put my white face paint on, my big red nose, my size 22 shoes, and I get in my tiny little car that I was 15 of my friends in it in the morning because I don't know anything about the sport

clearly and you're the next coming of Barry Bonds. I love you, O'Don-Morrow Barges. Thank you for changing my life. That was probably, that, that's like a top five apology of all the apologies you've done already, but I appreciate it, and I do need to do one more commercial break. But when we come back, we're going to give you a positive update on Gabriel Moreno. And I don't know, let Damon rant a little bit more before we get out of here. I'll come up with something. Don't you go anywhere. You're still watching the PHA next Diamondback Show.

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bonus play or for finale entry the grand finalees are going to be at santan mountain on the 27th lone butte on the 28th bekeva on the 29th and wild horse pass on the 30th so for more information visit play at ela.com. Do not miss your chance to accelerate into luxury, play, earn, and win at anyone of their four casino locations. Well, I did kick unnecessary dirt on the suns earlier and I do want to take that back. You like to do that. You like to do that. I know that you're also, here's the thing. You're also hurt by the suns. So it's it's not like you're not feeling the effects of it as well. But this shirt, this shirt's a lunch lady shirt. And the reason why I'm wearing, it is because the designer that made this shirt

so happened to make Adam Sandler look like Devin Booker on the shirt right there. And that's the reason why I'm wearing it. It's like secret support of the sons. They hurt me. But I was not expecting them to win. I was not expecting them to make the playoffs. And very few of us were. Right?

So this is a team that was supposed to win 20 games and instead they're building something that you can see could be a success, a champion in the future. It's just not there yet because right now they have to take on six players at a time. The sixth one being the referee in this series with the Thunder.

Oh, yeah, eight. It's definitely eight on five for sure. But, well, Derek, I was going to say that, you know, that you have a little bit of Kevin Thomas in you. I know. Where you're nasty when the other teams in, in, in, in, in, in, at pH and exports that we cover are not. Yeah, well, because like, you like to throw it in.

It's not just. Ooh, Damon, had that final four game go this weekend. I don't just. Yikes. And you sit there and you're like. Man, Derek, that that was a little bit. Yeah, it was nasty. And then when Kevin does it, like, you yell at Kevin and you're like, you're so, you're so rude, Kevin.

How can you go after our teams? Kevin, Kevin pretends to be nice. True. You don't, you don't pretend to be nice. No, you never, you ever, you wear your heart on your sleeve. You're an asshole. You're goddamn right. I am.

Kevin. Kevin's so sweet. Oh, oh, I'm so sweet. Oh, I'm so sweet. Oh, Kevin Domes. Yeah, 100%. I get it. You're right.

You're right about that. That's a fair point. me 100% of the time, right? And that's why I'll tell you, you don't have a lot of time left to get down on our son's playoff deal to become a diehard. It's just while the sons are in the playoffs. And that's just going to be for what? Two more games?

The end of the week, it's over. They're squashing us. But if the run continues, so does the offer. So hopefully, hopefully they can get something going here. But overall, can join us right now, $32 a year. Get your free shirt or hat from the store. Get access to our diehard Discord, which is the best. best place to be in Arizona sports fan, 20% off our merchandise and events.

Look at these wonderful hats and this shirt and this hoodie. I love all this stuff. You get your diehard welcome kit and you access to die hard only article by our entire crew. So make sure to sign up today and do not wait. Do not hesitate because you could blink and the suns could be out and this offer could be gone. But Damon, good news. It'll be gone by Monday. It'll be gone by Monday.

Get in on the diehard offer now. somebody who will be back come Monday, well, maybe not Monday, but the series after Monday, one Gabriel Moreno, who was expected to rejoin this team. And again, this comes back to my chemistry thing and things working out just fine. I love James McCann. I love the McAnnemal. I love sexy man James McCann. I love big body James McCann.

I can't say that enough. However, he hasn't been having the greatest success at the plate, and it would be nice. if Gabby, who's bat was, he was swinging the bat pretty well at times this season, could get back in the lineup and find a way to just add to this production overall, right? It did feel like he's kind of been struggling with some nagging injuries. It was like a lower back oblique thing. And it feels like it's kind of happened throughout the year. So again, kind of like Corbyn.

We were talking to Tori tonight and Corbyn, or Tori was saying how Corbyn's like hip flexor thing is also part of his back. thing and all of it's kind of connected. And yeah, of course it is because it's the human body and all of these parts do connect. So it would make sense how one would hurt another. But Gabby coming back seems to be very good, at least for the offense, defensively. And with ABS challenges, I'm still not so sure about that. So hopefully we can see Gabby, you know, kind of have some better success there behind the plate as a catcher. It's not, again, James Buchan hasn't been, you know, gunning guys down on the base path or anything like that.

So you would really like to see, you know, Gabrielle Moreno get back to at least that portion of his game. That's definitely seemed to be missing not just this year, but last year as well. So, but, you know, also, Gabby's bat. I'd love to have Gabby's bat working and adding to this offense that is finally starting to get going. Yeah, James Buchan isn't a complete zero at the plate. He's not Jose Herrera in that regard. And we were sitting on the couch at the start of this game, me and my roommate, and he was like, man, I'm so glad. we don't have to watch Jose Herrera anymore.

What was funny is, and similarly to my Pavin-Smith comment, that's exactly what got me in trouble, that type of stuff saying that about Aldemarovar Vargis. You just want this team to upgrade those guys. I do. And Jose Fernandez, or Jose Herrera, it was time to, not Jose-Ran-Han-Has-How dare you. Get out. Jose Herrera, it was time to move on. He just, you know, he was a guy that I think was a great locker room presence. People liked him, vibes guy. pitchers thought that he called the good game

that's cool he also couldn't frame couldn't throw couldn't block couldn't hit for contact couldn't hit for power couldn't run so I'm sitting there and I'm like well he's not really providing us much in the way of helping us positively you know win these baseball games James McCann isn't a non-zero

but he provides you with something he's also not Gabby so I think it's pretty clear that this team's ceiling is a lot higher when Gabby is in the lineup and that's been my concern with Gabriel Moreno. Like people got mad at me when I put Jose Fernandez into the core of the Diamondbacks

franchise staples without Moreno with the big three without Gabby. Yeah. And obviously I was kind of kidding when I did the Jose Fernandez one. Not anymore. But I was at first. But Gabriel Moreno isn't on that list for me because of his consistent injuries, his consistent issues with staying on the field. And so, you know, we just really need him so, so bad to finish out this season strong.

I think it could be, you know, very, very, you know, game-changing for this roster if they hit a snack to have Gabby in their lineup versus not having him in the lineup. Like, yeah, need Gabby the rest of the season. Hopefully he can, you know, kind of stay consistently healthy. Well, and again, that's another guy that Diamondbacks are going to get back and they're going to get healthy, hopefully a healthy Gabby Moreno. Right now, the way things are going is there's no reason to rush any of these guys back. And I don't want you guys tweeting us that anybody was rushed back. Baseball is a hard game. and no matter how good you're doing on the backfields or in minor league starts,

rehab starts, any of that, that's not hitting against major league pitching and being back in the lineup. We're seeing Lourdes struggle and his return and it feels like it's going to take a little while for Lourdes to get back. But again, you have to, with baseball players, you have to be patient. And you have to give them that time so that they can get things figured back out. And they can contribute offensively for you and be somebody that's productive. and somebody that you need to want in your lineup, right? So I do think that we're going to see, you know,

some struggles at times with all of these players constantly returning and trying to get back into the swing of things, right? So that's my concern is that we are going to get very frustrated fast, I think, when guys return and they're not immediately going three for four and hitting the cover off the ball. But the purpose of this, especially now in April, is to get these guys back, get them healthy and get them locked in for the long haul of the season

and have them hitting, you know, above 275 when the end of the season is concerned. Fingers crossed, right? And not hitting 175. But we thank you guys so much for joining us. Damon and I have to go get some sleep because we're going to be right back here for another post game show tomorrow. And it doesn't stop. Baseball doesn't stop.

but it actually does stop because there's a lot of off days built into this week. So we will be off on Friday, but then back this weekend, or at least I will on Saturday with the aforementioned nice guy, Kevin Thomas. Damon will be back on Sunday after he goes down south to handle some wildcats business. I'm going to Mexico City for game one. He's going to be back. I'm driving. Non-stop trip.

Somebody in the chat did ask about our watchalongs. They said they miss watching us eat pizza while. guess what? You get to see us do that very thing this Sunday because we are going to do a watch-along for game two of that series with the San Diego Padres in Mexico City. So yes, we're going to be eating tacos more likely. That seems like more. Emily. But Emily, that one's for you. That one's for you, Emily.

But hopefully you guys will come back tomorrow and hopefully we'll be talking about another Diamondback series win after tomorrow's game. So until then, follow us on social media. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K. our guy Damon is at Damon dog with a DAWG and as always we're all Damon's dogs. Bark bark. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-BACs, but as always all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

We thank you guys so much for being here for this late night episode. Appreciate your time. Remember it's a commodity. Be careful you share it with and we'll see you back here tomorrow. Until then, have a pleasant evening, get some sleep, and remember kids. Baseball is fun, but it is so much more fun.

when you got Ildamaro Vargas on your team as your MVP.