PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - POSTGAME: Ketel Marte DELIVERS AGAIN as D-backs COMPLETE SWEEP of Giants

Episode Date: May 21, 2026

The Arizona Diamondbacks continue their winning ways by completing a sweep of the San Francisco Giants and proving they can win games in every possible way. Arizona’s offense came through with timely hitting all series long, while the pitching staff delivered quality starts in every game of this series to shut down one of the hottest teams in the National League. Ketel Marte stayed red hot at the plate, Merrill Kelly delivered a third consecutive solid start, and the D-backs bullpen locked things down with no runs allowed to secure the series sweep. We break down the biggest moments from the series, what this stretch says about the D-backs moving forward, and why this team suddenly feels like one of the most dangerous clubs in baseball again. Plus, we preview the upcoming four-game series at home vs the. Colorado Rockies. 0:00 D-backs sweep Giants  5:30 Ketel Marte heating up  16:40 Did Mike Hazen cook?  29:15 Merrill Kelly on the mound  34:15 This bullpen 🔥  38:50 Torey Lovullo talks series win  48:15 Taking advantage of Rockies/Giants stretch  59:30 Colorado Rockies series preview 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.

sweep of the Giants and I don't know what's more impressive. Kutel Marte's resurgence in this series or the fact that the Diamondback starters gave them three quality starts to sweep the Giants for the first time since July of 2022. We're talking about it all right now and we're turning on the cactus lights. Let's go! This podcast presented by our friends in Circle K, believe it or not, it's me. I made it. I'm alive and we are here doing another post game ago after a Diamondbacks win. This time they complete the series sweep.

of the Giants beating them today by a score of six to three. Thrill back to you guys here. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as a man who's just barely getting by on four hours of sleep. But thrilled to be here and thrilled again. He's talking about the Diamondbacks getting the job done in this series. I am not alone. Of course, I got my dog, your dog, everyone's dog,

Damon Dog on the ones and twos today. Damon, ski to you. And how pumped are you that the Diamondbacks finally got this sweep done? Get the brooms out. Get those brooms out. I know we need a broom for the office for these exact occasions, but of course, this show is brought to you by our friends at Bet365. Bet365, where winning is everything. Download the app today and use code PHNX 365 when you sign up. We're also brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app. Create an account and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase terms to apply. D-Backs win. D-backs win. And it was another game where they got, I guess, all parts working in the same direction.

The machine was working and it was always something we knew could happen. We knew this team would win games if they could get their starting pitching, their bullpen and their offense kind of rolling all together. And they did that both in this game and in this series. The Diamondbacks win today by a score of six to three and complete the three games sweep. They improve to 25 and 23. And I guess once again it's time to send little Perdomo up Mount 500. Let's go.

Let's go, 25 and 23. And as Mark says, they're a run differential. Almost positive, you guys. They're at a minus two run differential. Which is crazy, considering the blowouts that they've sustained. I know, right? They were at like minus 31 at one point. They've been bad.

A lot of parts of the Diamondbacks team has been bad. But things as of late have been trending in a very good direction. And that is all parts of this team, right? the offense is up. Their team OPS now, I believe, is in 11th in Major League Baseball, if not 10th, after today's game. Their starting pitching and relief pitching ERAs are both in the top 20 in baseball. Guys, did you believe it? And the Diamondbacks, most importantly, are the hottest goddamn team in the National League.

Currently riding a four-game winning streak. They complete their second series sweep of the season. and this is the first time that they have swept the Giants in a three game or more series since July 25th through the 27th back in 2002, nearly four years since we've gotten the sweep of the San Francisco Giants. And of course, the story of this one was Catelle Marte staying hot after last night's walk-off winner, hitting a two-run homer in this game and going three-for-three in the series finale win with a walk. also yet another quality start from the pitching staff.

And again, these things are things that we knew if the Diamondbacks could get some quality starts to help this bullpen that has been better than we could have ever imagined it being. We knew this team could win baseball games. But the offense was the key. And Catel Marte is the main story. He is the main character in the Diamondbacks offense. Ketel, Ketel, Ketel. That was the story of today.

That's been the story of the last 24 hours. Marte was two for four in game one of this series, one for five yesterday delivering obviously the most important one of that entire game with that walk-off home run winner, the first of his career. But Catell is not cooled off and today goes three for three with a walk and a home run, bunch of RBI. And it all started with Cotel. And the first inning right away, Marte hit a lead off double. He advanced a third on a Vargas ground out and then scored on a Pardomo sack fly to tie the game at the time at score one to one. after Kelly gave up a home run in the first inning. In the third inning, once again, Marte involved in the offense,

involved in an inning where base runners were on and the Diamondback scored. Ryan Waldschmidt would hit a lead-off single, and with one on, Cotel Marte hit his seventh home run of the year to give the D-backs a three-to-two lead at the time. Funny part about it, 415 feet to center field, right where he just missed the one by a few feet last night in the eighth inning that would have tied the game. Of course, we don't care about that one,

considering what he did in the ninth inning of that game. 104.9 mile per hour exit below has been, as has been everything Catelle Marte has hit this season. Cotel Marte has the second most hard hit balls in all of baseball this year. That doesn't seem fair. That's wild. That doesn't seem fair that Cotel Marte has the second most hard hit balls in baseball. Obviously, hard hit balls in exit below of 95 miles per hour or more,

for those of you that may not be familiar with it. And they can count for outs, obviously, because you could still hit a ball very hard and have it find a glove. That's what's been happening to Kattel all season long. But after this stretch on this three-game series, Kattel is now hitting 235, and his OPS is finally above 700, which makes you start to feel very good about this offense and that things are trending in the right direction, right? But it was all about, like I said, it was all about Kattel today. In the fifth inning, here was the wildest, the wildest hit of the day. The wildest thing Kattel did all day long was in the first. fifth inning, you got Tim Tawa and Waldy, both getting singles to get on. And with two on,

Marte, after just hitting a 415 foot home run, 104.9 miles per hour off the bat, Bunce, Bunce to load the bases, Bunce for a single and gets on. Vargas would hit a ground out that would score Tawa to give the Diamondback to the temporary lead at 4 to 3. But then Haraldo Pardomo would pick up his wrist king crown once again and adorn it upon his head with a two RBI double that scored Waldy and Cotel Marte to put the good guys up by a score of six to three and that score would stand. Sean in the chat says wasn't Cotel at 208 like five days ago? Yes, Sean. Yes. In fact, we did an episode like what felt like yesterday where we were talking about the offense, the offensive struggles being the biggest weakness of this team right now. And it was.

I think it was more frustrating. Like a bad team just loses games, even if they score runs, if they don't score runs, it doesn't matter. But this team and the pitching efforts that they've been receiving from this staff has been incredible, right? The Diamondbacks starters, I can't even explain how good they've been. And again, I can't explain how the hashtag the meeting impacted this entire staff. But the Diamondbacks got, have now with Kelly's start today, their 11th quality start in the team's last 15 starts dating back to May 5th, hashtag the meeting. I can't explain it.

Tori can't explain it. Nobody can explain it. Derek loves the meeting, man. You know what's funny? I've become the official quality start slash the meeting like journalist. It's like my job to ask in the post game scrums about the quality starts and about the pitching staff. In fact, I asked Tori Day, we'll get around to his answer here.

shortly, but I asked him, gave him a kind of like, which son is your favorite? I was like, what has impressed you more? The three quality starts that the starters gave you in this series or the fact that the Diamondbacks relievers did not give up an earned run in these three games. Not one earned run. What? What? I don't even understand it. And none of you do either, but we're just all happy it's happening. And then in the seventh inning, Marte in his fourth plate appearance, would walk. This would be the only time where he wouldn't score. by getting on base, but you just can't say enough about Cotel and what he gave this team today. And it was on both sides of the ball, too.

Cotell Marte was incredible defensively today. In the sixth inning, he made a leaping snag to rob Bryce Eldridge of a base hit. And then in the eighth inning, he made a real slick sliding play to get dead, Rafael Devers, on a ground ball that probably would have squeaked through for a single. So Marte was just doing it. You could tell his confidence level right now, especially after, last night's walk-off winner is just through the roof. It's so high. And Ketel did everything today to help this team win this baseball game. Without his efforts, they don't win. Period. If Marte

doesn't have the day he has, this team doesn't score possibly any runs, right? Maybe one run. So, Ketel, a huge part of this team, a huge part of this game. But as were a few other guys as well, you got Geraldo Pardomo going one for three, but with three RBI, that double was huge. And he also had a sack, uh, sack fly that scored a run. Uh, and then you also had, can I just say on perdomo, Derek, that that like feels like he needed a performance. Like I can't remember the last time that it was like, man, Perdomo really helped the team win today. Yeah. Yeah. You know, like he's done okay here and there, but like it hasn't been like necessarily Perdomo ball. No, because again, even when Perdomo, like put, put last season aside.

He did everything well last season and for sure. He hit home runs. He hit with runners in scoring position. He got on base to score runs. He did it. all. But prior to that, the Risp King nickname that we gave him was because it felt like Coutel Marte, even though he had a 250 batting average, was that guy. He was him that when they had runners in scoring position,

he was going to bring them home. It was his job. It was his duty. He would not lay his head to rest at night until he brought home the runners, right? He's made for the moment, I think is a good way of putting it. Like, the pressure doesn't really get to a guy like Perdomo as much clearly. Well said. And not

just that, but I mean, take us back to our favorite answer that he gave ever in the history of knowing Prudomo when he was talking to Steve Zinsmeister and he was out injured. He told Steve Zinsmeister when Steve asked him in a, like, in a whimsical way where it was supposed to be like a folksy answer about like, oh, I miss hanging out with the boys in the clubhouse or whatever. Like he was like, what do you miss the most about, you know, not playing right now, right? Road trips, hotels, you know, maybe just playing in different stadiums, whatever. No, Ketel said being down 02 in the count. That's a different kind of sicko right there.

and I love him for it, right? So hats off to Bredomo for getting that big hit. And kind of like with Cotel, right? You feel that big hit is possibly that kind of thing that could get things going. This team is too tight right now. This team has too much pressure on each individual player to think that they need to go four for three

and hit six bombs with nine RBI, right? None of them are going to do that, and there's no reason to try. But, you know, again, you got you got to sometimes just do less to do more in baseball. Ketel, again, he didn't give a damn about your expected stats. He still does it. So it was hard for a coach like Tori to try to get him to buy in on just continuing doing what he's doing,

but stop being so down on yourself about the lack of numbers and lack of hits and the lack of results. Essentially, when you're hitting the ball 104 miles per hour, the idea here is that that can't keep finding gloves for too much longer. Yeah. Eventually, you're going to find fans in the seats or you're going to find grass. And Kattel found grass and the seats over the last 24 hours. Touch grass. He touched grass.

And we needed him to, right? So I don't think that there's any doubt or any question about who is the man of the match today and our king snake. It is Ketel Marte. Our guy, of course, having himself an outstanding day. Catelle goes three for three today. He had himself a home run, a double, three runs scored, two RBI, a walk. So many stats that we can't even fit them in on the Kingsnake set.

But there it is. And there he is. It feels so good to be giving Cotel Kingsnake multiple games in a row. It feels so good to see our leader leading, right? And that's what really, really we needed from Cattel. You can say everything you want about Pardomo being disappointing. and other guys in the starting lineup not producing, but I mean, when it was Ketel, it's kind of devastating.

He has been the constant of this team for the last four years. And if he isn't hitting, it's really hard for this offense to get going. Luckily, though, they did not, you know, they did not change their ways. They stuck with it. It's the reason why baseball is so frustrating for us as fans at times to watch and to see managers in front offices stick. with their decisions because we feel like they're not doing anything to change it. Meanwhile, on their end, they feel like this guy, guy like Marte, is just one game away from

the floodgates opening up. And that feels like what happened, especially with that home run last night. Because today he comes in the day's game and he just did it all. He literally did it all. Marte has hit safely in five of his last six games, hitting 400 over that stretch, 10 for 25, with two doubles, two home runs, seven RBI, and three walks. Marta has hit safely in four straight plate appearances dating back to the ninth inning last night,

and he is on a roll. So maybe what we can get here is, again, some contributions from a few other guys. Corbyn Carroll was not in the lineup today. Tori told us before the game that this had nothing to do with getting hit in the head by the reliance. throw last night at third base. Though that seems up for debate.

Here, I mean, he didn't say it was completely not due to that. What basically Tori said was he was going to give Corbyn a day off and it was going to be soon. It was going to either be today or tomorrow or on Saturday. Okay. So it wasn't like fully up to that, but it kind of had a little bit to do with that. Because that happened, he decided definitively that the day off was going to be today. Yeah.

Corbin was available. he was available off the bench and Tori had said that there was a good chance that Corbyn could get into today's game even though he didn't. Diamondbacks didn't need that from him but again if this game was on the line late and a spot came up in the starting lineup, you bet Corbyn was probably going to get an at-bat in today's game. But it's good news and again even though that there was some concern we did talk to Corbyn last night after the game. He had said then that he had gone through protocol, that he had gone through all the health checks and that he was doing just fine. So very positive news there when it came to Corby and his injury, but I do know a lot of people were concerned today when it came to, you know, him not being in the lineup.

Also, another quick health update that Tori gave us before the game. AJ Puck faced a lot batters yesterday. He hit mid-90s and he will be getting into some sort of simulated complex game, something like that by Friday, I believe is what the plan is. Maybe not Friday. I mean, if we can continue this hot streak here, Derek and then start getting these reinforcements back? How special are we talking?

It's just crazy, right? How much of a wagon are we at that point? We have gone from the beginning of this season to say, we said at the end of the season, hopefully this roster can stay above water enough that when these guys return, maybe we get maybe our season will turn around. Yeah. The team is playing so well right now that we legitimately had a question on last post-game show about these guys returning and messing up the chemistry that we currently have.

Can you even fathom thinking that at the beginning of the season when we were wondering what the hell this bullpen actually was? Can you imagine Paul Seawald getting his 11th save and being 11 for 12 and save opportunities here by May 20th? I couldn't. I didn't. And I think we should all be thankful that the parts that the Diamondbacks brought in, that the parts that we had said, like, I don't even know how they're going to fill this roster with the limited budget they have, have somehow worked out magnificently. You know, Mike Hazen gets his fair share of criticism and blame for when this team isn't playing well, but again, probably not enough praise for what he was, he's done to bring in guys

like Jonathan Lois Iga on a minor league deal who has been outstanding and gets the nickname Johnny Lazzania that's just filthy. You got Taylor Clark coming back. He pitched in his hundredth game today in a diamond. back's uniform, he continues to be outstanding. Michael Soroka on seven and a half million, you picked him up for less money than you could pick up most relievers on the market, and he has been delivering quality start after quality start. So miss me with the Mike Hazen is a bad GM chat, because that is something that I will not get on board with. Things

don't work out. And when you're given a limited budget, you're definitely not going to go out there and do what some of these other teams are doing financially. But the guys that they brought in have helped this team win, including bringing Nolan Aronado in on that trade and, you know, making the call to go to some of these minor leaguers as early as they did, including Ryan Waldschmidt and Jose Fernandez. These are tough decisions to be made. These are not decisions made by Tori Lebello. He does not have any say at all in whom Mike Hazen calls up from the miners and he has in fact confirmed for us that he doesn't even give like a, hey, I like this guy. He doesn't even do that, right because that's not his job his job is to focus on the main roster and to focus on the guys that are you know on the injured list and returning or guys that you know are here not guys that potentially he might like to have on his roster so again when those decisions are made and a decision like df alex thomas and trading him to the dodgers so that waltzschmidt can have his spot that is a decision made exclusively by the front office in mike hazen and that is a decision that has turned out to be pretty good so far considering waltzman again

now hitting 324 with an 822 OPS at a major league level. It's guys like Ryan Waldschmidt, Derek, and we were having this conversation yesterday leaving the studio where, you know, I think you feel like yes, is Mike Hazen, does he deserve criticism at times? Absolutely. Especially for, you know, certain approaches, not investing as much as he probably should in the bullpen from time to time, although this season he seemingly is being proven pretty correct as far as the bullpen goes, at least as of the last month or so.

why we defend Tori on this show is because we think personally me and Derek that Tori takes too many arrows for personnel decisions absolutely as you just highlighted things that he has nothing to do with so it fall it should fall that criticism on Mike Hazen but here's where i think that you know a lot of debacks fans like we can we can be reasonable and say like yes Mike Hazen makes mistakes but at the same time think about how much talent is in this organization right now like it i think that the expectations are higher because people look at the players that we have and say, this is a really, really solid team. This is a team that can win games.

This is a team that has a lot of pieces from its starting pitching staff to, you know, the lineup top to bottom to, you know, some players that you're bringing up in the minors like Ryan Walsh Schmidt, who look every bit apart and were, was a first round draft pick a few years ago and has been great in the minor leagues. Like the organization as a whole has seen such a talent increase from this. regime. And as a Diamondbacks fan, like, yes, we should be striving for the top. We should be

striving for winning the World Series. And yes, we haven't gotten to that place yet. But I feel like getting angry with this brain trust at the top as much as DeBax fans do when you look at the night and day difference between when Mike Hazen took over versus now of what this roster looks like and how much more talented we are. Like, I think that it's tough to argue that like the direction of the franchise is not a positive one. Because at least we're relevant now. Like we're not having these shitbox years where we're the worst team in the division. Like we're putting together teams that are at minimum 500, at minimum competing for a

wild card spot, if not doing a little bit better. Look at what they did last year, right? They were a dumpster fire at the trade deadline to the point that they got rid of all of their guys with expiring contracts outside of Zach Gallen because they couldn't find somebody to give them a nothing return for Gallen that they felt like trading him is worthwhile. Yeah. And when all of a sudden done, they were hoping that someone else would pick him up this off season so that they would get that compensatory pick. Didn't work out.

They bring Gallen back. Gallant pretty good in his start in game one in this series. Another quality start delivered by this pitching staff overall. But again, not every move is going to make, you know, is going to work out for the best. Not every move is going to be completely, you know, the kind of move that, you know, is the exact move you want to see made. You and I, we had a lot of move. this offseason that we want to see made that the Diamondbacks didn't pick up on. In fact, I was getting razz for the Tatsuya my, you know, drum I was beating, right?

He's stupid idiot, Derek? You tell me, you didn't know the future, right? Like, but again, that's what happens. We have guys we like. We have guys we don't. We have deals that we see happen that we get jealous of because we felt the Diamondbacks could have afforded it. But at the end of the day, they were still on a very limited budget. And the pieces that they brought in, at least up to this point, have made this team competitive.

They're two games above 500. They are in the race right now for, you know, the wild card spot and possibly for the division, at least theoretically, right? They're not that far behind. And with the pieces they have returning, there's a good chance the competitive level of this team is going to take a step forward. But going back to what you were saying in last year, right? Last year they were a dumpster fire at the trade deadline. And they still gave the wild card, you know, hunt a run for their money. and they were still there up in the race right until the final series of the year.

Yeah. This team, even when they don't have the talent on it that you would think would be enough for them to compete for a playoff spot, they surprise you. They're good. In fact, you could definitely argue that in 24 and 25, they vastly underperformed versus what we thought. And they had entirely too many wins that they just let slip away that. And they had no business letting slip away. To my point, to piggyback on that, like, that's a reflection of the expectation. because of the talent on the team.

Like you look at the team and you're like, man, we should be making the playoffs because this team is way better than their record is indicating. And that's a, you know, obviously it's somewhat of a poor reflection on how you've played, but it's also a positive reflection on the roster that you have in front of you because you feel like there's talent.

You think that you're, you have an expectation level. And Coolbro comes up here and I know he likes to troll me, but like says like Damon, you fall for the hazing criticism too. remember the Blaze are in Auto Talk. We obviously we were a little bit doing the D-Backs doomsday thing at the beginning of the season, but I'm pretty sure I said in my like initial point there that like I am guilty of this too.

Like Mike Hazen criticism is something that I oftentimes like to shift this podcast's focus to because it feels like the chat goes after Tori so much and I sit up here and go, no, I think that this is a thing that we should be blaming Mike Hazen for, not Tori. And so I was trying to put my hand up and say, I criticize Mike Hazen quite a bit. But at the end of the day, I am cognizant of the talent that he has accumulated in comparison to past Diamondbacks general managers, at least since I can really truly remember. And I'm saying it's night and day. So like, I'm just trying to keep the perspective of like, yes, he deserves criticism from time.

From me, I give it to him. but at the same time, like, I can take a step back and say, perspective, wide perspective, this franchise is in such, such a better spot with Mike Hazen in charge than essentially almost every other GM we've ever had. You're right. Mark and the chat is bringing up Goldie. We were very much on board with a Goldschmidt reunion, far more than we were with a Carlos Santana signing this off season. That's for sure.

Just like we very much wanted Miracami. And how electric with Miracami have been on this team with the way that he's killing it for the white I kind of wanted one of Murakami or Akamoto. Yeah. And it feels like either one of them, both guys are like huge like kind of swing and miss power bats. But like, we've talked about that. The Diamondbacks probably could use like one guy who does that and plays DH every single day. If we had Morikami, the plumber, oh, unbelievable. The water pressure at Chase Field would be incredible.

It would be incredible. The video of him saying power, but in a Diamondbacks jersey instead of the White Sox jersey, that would like, that'd be like my alarm waking up in the morning. Oh, man. So many, so many water-related thumbnails we would make. But, oh, well, we're going to take a quick break on the other side of this break. We're going to talk about the mainstay, given the Diamondbacks, another quality start and the bullpen just being outstanding. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the PHNX Diamondback show.

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Damon and I are going to get that boys trip out to Heala going here real soon. I heard Jesse's coming out from California, me and him were actually planning on hit and healer river, but we kept you out of the chat. Yeah, that sounds on brand for the two of you. Very mean to me for no reason. I feel like I only yell at Damon three times per week, so I don't know why he doesn't include me in any of this stuff. Merrill Kelly is a guy that a lot of people didn't want to include in the starting rotation

with the way that his season started out. And, you know, baseball is baseball. It takes a while to get back into the swing of things. And you can pitch all of the simulated games, backlock games, even minor league rehab start you want, but nothing is like getting into actual major league action. And it feels like even though he did have a rocky start to his season, Merrill has gotten himself on track.

He has been very good and he delivered again today, gave the debacks another quality start from the rotation in this win. And I didn't know really how this one was going to go based on the early results. So with two outs in the first, Kelly gave up a home run to Casey Schmidt. That was his ninth of the year. in the second, he kind of gave up a dinky one out single, the Matt Chapman, who then scored on a Bryce Eldridge RBI double to give the D-back or give the Giants a two-to-one lead at the time. And then in the fourth, he gave up three straight singles.

I don't think they were in straight singles, but eventually with two out, he gave up a single there that scored one run and pushed the lead at the, or had the game at three all at that point. But he wasn't perfect. He definitely wasn't perfect. He has been better in his two previous outings, but he got outs. That was what was important today. Merrill Kelly once again showed his veteran ability to adapt, and he got outs. He pitched to contact, didn't walk any batters, and honestly, he threw a real nice mix of pitches.

He threw six different pitches in this game, but his primary pitches were his four seam, which he threw 33% of the outing, and his change-up, which he threw 25% of the outing. The change-up, he was able to keep love. and away to batters for the most part. His four seam fastball once again, he kind of dotted the edges and such with it. I think we have a look at his pitch chart here, but you'll see a lot of colors staying in the same area.

Sinker really didn't work for him well today. He didn't really seem to have good command or control of that pitch at all. He did throw at 7% of the outing. But again, he threw his four seam 33%, and his change up 25%. Those were his two primary pitches and those two pitches worked well together. Got some contact there, soft contact on the changeup, as he tends to do when that change up is going well for him. And just overall, again, it was a nice outing from Merrill, who, you know, his maximum Velo on his four seam maxed out at 94.2 miles per hour.

He only got nine whiffs on the day, but four of them were on the change up. So that pitch was just complimenting the four seam really well, helped him get outs. And like I said, it was another outing where a diamond back starter was able to go into the sixth inning. He got through six. He said at one point that they might have even pulled him in the fifth. But again, he was efficient, got out of that one on a few pitches. And again, gave the diamond backs yet another quality start here from Merrill. Plus, he still had something in the tank.

I think he was at 85 pitches when he was pulled from the game. So really what this was kind of about was Merrill, we talked. video here from Merrill here shortly, but we talked to them overall about his last outing in Colorado. Apparently, Merrill was experiencing a little bit of discomfort in his shoulder, but felt better today. So again, that just kind of attributed it to the altitude there. His line today, he went six innings pitch, gave up eight hits, three earned runs, no walks, and 4K. And again, like I said earlier in the show, Merrill gave the debacks their 11th quality start in the team's last 15 starts dating back to May 5th.

Unbelievable, Damon. Like unbelievable, considering that if you look at their stretch from the beginning of the season through up to that date of May 5th, I believe they had two quality starts in that stretch. So we're talking about a month and a half

and yeah, not great to start the season. A lot of work from their bullpen, a lot of innings put in by their bullpen arms. But again, Merrill Kelly, very good today, despite what one non-ball-knower in our chat is saying, it's crazy. It's crazy to see a pitcher get a quality start in Major League Baseball and somehow not

think that that's a good outing. Merrill Kelly, despite what fools say, has been very good for this team, continues to be very good. But, you know, another thing that's been very good for the Diamondbacks, this bullpen, man, this bullpen has been outstanding. and you cannot say enough about what they have given the Arizona Diamondbacks in this one, or in this series.

No runs, no run runs in this series. But again, it started out a little shaky, but Brandon Garcia, he didn't seem to have his location today. He walked the second batter in the inning on four straight balls, but he did have a little mound visit. They locked in.

He got two thirds of an inning in, one walk. One thing I did like is, this game was close, and this game still ended close at six to three. And Brandon Garcia did not look like he had his best stuff. Brandon Garcia looked a little bit like some of his outings perhaps during spring training, where, you know, he wasn't able to register a single out. And I think Tori got a little nervous, went to the bullpen, went to Taylor Clark, kind of early. Like I think, I think Brandon Garcia only saw three batters total. And I mean, I have to admit. I like that. Like that was, that was, that was. That was,

is the way that you want to see Tori proactively managing these situations and not just giving up runs and not letting guys who don't look like they have it go out there and blow the game for the team. Who knows what Brandon Garcia would have done. I mean, he brought Taylor Clark in literally just for one out. What a way to celebrate your 100th game again in the Diamondbacks uniform. But Taylor Clark got the out, got the job done. But again, I do applaud the pivot. I do. I do applaud getting nervous that Brandon Garcia wasn't making you comfortable on the mound and you decided to go to another pitcher. That is the way that we have been kind of wanting Tori to manage their bullpen and today he did it. Let me ask you a question about a different situation, Derek,

when Brandon Fogg gets brought into the game up three runs in a high leverage spot with Juan Maria seemingly available. I saw some people pretty upset that, you know, Tori was maybe not rolling with his strongest guy in that moment? Obviously it ended up working out, but how did you feel about that usage of Brandon Faw? Well, Brandon Fought, what's interesting about Brandon is that I don't know what they're doing with him. We've talked about the way that they want to keep him as this long reliever and they want to keep him just on the border, just on the cusp of being a starter should they need him. And that's not exactly giving Brandon the best opportunity to flourish in the role in the bullpen. And I mean, it limits his usage because if you don't need a long reliever and games are going well, then you don't really need to toss Brandon. I think that's the reason why Brandon Fott got into this game was because he hasn't pitched in a game in a bit. And I think Tori wanted him to get some work.

He went out there, pitched one inning, got three outs. And, you know, there was no drama in this one. But, I mean, I do feel like this is finally Brandon Fott officially being a bullpen arm, right? not trying to pitch him three innings, not trying to have them throw 40 pitches. Instead, he just went out there, got one inning of work, and he did his job. And I think in that capacity, Brandon fought can be a success. You know, but again, you got to pick your lane with these guys. And you can't, like, kind of ride the fence and have you kind of like, let's make him like a hybrid both things. Like, you just can't do that. That's the reason why those things don't exist.

You know, usually a long reliever isn't even a very good reliever, right? Usually long reliever is just a guy that can give you length, but you're not necessarily having him go into games and, you know, win you baseball games. Maybe hold games, maybe not let things get out of control, maybe come in when a starter gets injured or really doesn't have it early. But, you know, I don't know.

I've not liked the way that they've used Brandon fought up to this point. And I think that if you're going to have him in the bullpen, that he should be just utilized the same way, utilize any other bullpen arm. We were wondering what they were going to do with him. We thought that maybe when they brought him in, Damon in the eighth inning, that perhaps they were going to give them the two-innings save and let him come out again for the ninth.

They did not do that. They turned to Paul Seawald. And Paul Seawald came out, and he got the job done, one inning of work, one strikeout, no hits, no walks, no runs, no nothing. And the Diamondbacks get out of this one. Paul Seawalt gets his 11th save. He is 11 for 12 and save situations. And the Diamondbacks again secure the sweep of the San Diego.

Francisco Giants. And Damon, I think just in honor of Killarex, let's hear from Tori, because I know it's his favorite guy. Here's Tori talking about sweeping the Giants. Good day. You know, you're always curious about what your team's going to look like on day three when you have a chance to close out a series and sweep, salvage a win, win the series. So that last day is always such an important day for so many different reasons. And I think Merrill was the key reason why we went out there and were able to be able to to kind of get some footing. I know there were some early runs, but he went on lockdown, I think.

After the Colorado complete game, we clipped him a little bit short, and it was a conversation he and I had prior to the start of this game. I wanted to do that with zero stimulus, and you know, just want to protect the athlete. He feels great, he looked great, and then turn it over to the bullpen. You know, it's nice to see Paul go out there and get another save, continues to just attack hitters and do his job. But everything was set up throughout the course of the day by what Merrill did, got that footing, and then offensively we went out there and had some really, really quality at-bats.

No more, none more impressive than Cotell Martez. Continues to swing the bat extremely well, understands what the bat's asking for, driving baseballs, playing great defense, and that's contagious. You know, Pardomo had a nice approach to get that RBI in the middle of the diamond, that he doubles down the right field line to break the game open. So there were so many good things that happened inside of the day-to-day, and we're playing good baseball. We're picking up the ball defensively, timely hitting,

and that's kind of deback baseball. You watched it for eight-and-a-half innings today. So we'll have the evening off, regroup a little bit, and then come out tomorrow and face a very stubborn Colorado Rocky team. And I have it on good authority that they will be celebrating with some sort of Hawaiian barbecue party that they're all getting together for. I rode in the elevator with Tori wearing a Hawaiian shirt and I was very, very disappointed that Damon and I didn't get the, didn't get the invite to that one.

We are Hawaiian food. We literally are the biggest connoisseurs of Hawaiian food. It's pretty sad. Yeah. But, you know, going back to the fought usage, like you said, Tori was asked about Brandon fought and how they plan on using him going forward, him coming into the game today. here's what Tori had to say about Brandon fought. No, it was a situation.

We wanted to get him an inning. I know it's normally going to be the Murillo inning right there. I have ridden Juan a little bit, and I felt like getting Brandon an opportunity to get in the game. We were going to cover him with Juan if we needed it and turn it over to Paul. It was just something we talked about as a staff pitching coaches and I pre-game. Get him an inning, just get that feel back, and he threw the ball really well and turned a over to Paul. Well, no free ads, but to those asking about Hawaiian food in the chat, there's a new place called Mobetas in town. You've got to check it out. It's downtown. Max is going to kill me,

but I don't care. We'll move it on. One thing that I asked Tori actually was about this pitching staff that they have right now. We have said that pitching wins baseball games, and that is the reason why I think 24 and 25 were such a disappointment for this franchise, right? their pitching was terrible both years subpar. The offense, better than we could have imagined in both of those seasons. But really what let them down is a pitching. This year, the opposite, right? Pitching has been outstanding.

And at times, you just don't know what to expect out of this Diamondbacks offense. Right. But again, in this series, the Diamondbacks got three quality start, quality start from gallon quality start from Ryan Nelson and a quality start today from Merrill Kelly. And then from the bullpen, they got zero earned runs in three. straight games. It's, it's, it's been impressive what the pitching staff has done. And you can say what you want about, you know, the offense and Ketel Marte's contributions, but these games aren't

won without this pitching staff being as good as it is. And I asked Tori what's been more impressive to him, whether it was the bullpen or the starters. And he, it was a difficult choice for him. I, I had to make somebody mad. That's what my job is, is to always make people mad. Here's Tori's answer. You're going to make somebody mad of me. I like that. I try to be very fair at all times. I love starting pitching.

I believe in starting pitching. I think the tone is set by the starting pitching. If they do their job, they're going to turn it over to a bullpen that's ready to execute. So if I had to pick one of the two, I love the starting pitching that's gone out there and done their job. There it is. I mean, you know, you could, you, I know that's probably a silly question, Damon. starting pitching wins you baseball games.

Starting pitching helps the bullpen not be taxed. Quality starts and getting into the sixth inning and seventh inning will help your bullpen put up zeros. That's the way that this machine works together, right? And yeah, of course, starting pitching is definitely the key there for this team. But you have to also be impressed, like I said, once again, about the bullpen and what they've been able to do. And I know once again, Max is going to kill me,

but there's a discussion from Sean in the chat about a pokey place here in the town, and it's actually in my neck of woods. It's called Coybito pokey with a K, K-K-O-B-I-T-O. And the reason why I'm giving this information isn't just to make Max angry, but this particular pokey eatery is owned by former Arizona Diamondback Todd Stottlemeyer. So there you go. Former coach of the Arizona Diamondbacks Todd Stottelmeyer. We do this and then Derek goes like, man, we've just been really going late on

shows recently. I don't understand how we make it to like an hour 10 every time. Why are we up at 1 o'clock in the morning, Damon? Well, let's hear one more thing from Tori and then we'll take a break. Tori, you know, we asked them about this recent hot streak. This team has been on four straight wins, a series sweep here. Here's what Tori said about. This team being the hottest team in the National League. Yeah, I think, yeah, we play good baseball. That's all I care about for me to go back and and remember certain stretches. It's hard for me to kind of give any of that some value,

but I love where we're at right now. And I want to say we're playing very solid baseball in just about every area, and that's what I want us to continue doing. If I have to answer the question, I'm going to say as good as I've seen in a long time here, where we put together quality at bats with good pitching, timely hitting, and real good relief pitching. And I have a reason to believe this can continue.

you. We're going to take a quick break, and on the other side of this break, we are going to take a look at the numbers from this series and how well this pitching staff truly did over these three games. Don't you guys go anywhere? You're watching the PHA next time in Beck Show. Well, of course, the husband and wife law team is the law team for you to contact if you are ever in an accident or serious injury.

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Visit 1AZCU.com for all the details. All right. Well, let's take a look at the numbers from this series because, again, Diamondbacks sweep this three-game series and things look really good, including that run total up there at the top. Diamondbacks scored 23 runs in this series, 12 runs in game one, five runs yesterday,

six games in the finale, to the Giants eight runs. The Diamondbacks pretty much beat the Giants in this series, in game one alone. But they also outhit the Giants. They had 35 hits to the Giants 24. The Diamondbacks and Giants both had four home runs each in the series. Runners in scoring position, again, the Diamondbacks took advantage of their opportunities and they converted with runners in scoring position going nine for 26 for a 346 batting average with runners ready to go. Meanwhile, the Giants were two for 18 in the series for 11 batting average. Starting ERA, Very good for the Diamondbacks. 3.79 in this one, 9.39 ERA for the starters for San Francisco. And then bullpen ERA. Big fat goose egg for the D-backs, 0.00 to the Giants 3.86.

And here it is, Damon. Here is this stretch. This stretch that we probably put way too much stock in. The stretch that you and I probably have acted like it's too important. to the season, considering it's just May. But I think it was more about if they lost a bunch of games over this 13-game stretch to the Giants and the Rockies. Winning what we said they needed to win,

that's almost kind of a bare minimum in a way, right? Like we said that in this 13-game series, the bare minimum should be eight wins. And if you win less than eight, then it's time to start seriously doubting this team in 20. And there's still a lot of games left to play in this 13 game series. I'm not going to act like it's been decided. But here we are six games in, and the Diamondbacks have five wins, right?

They've only lost one game so far. So they're almost already to that eight win total. They have a four game series here at Chase with the Rockies. And then they finish things up in San Francisco with another three games against the same Giants team. I'm not going to, like I said, I'm not going to act like them coming in. out with 10 wins is going to win them the season. They're not a playoff team just because they win 10 out of 13 here against these two teams. These are just the bottom teams in the division, teams that really struggled in the beginning of the year, and teams that the Diamondback

should win series against. You got to beat the teams that you should beat. They did that in April. They probably didn't do that enough to begin May, and now here they are over this 13-game stretch, starting it out here at least after their first six games with a really nice. record of five and one. Yeah, I mean, it's, I think that, you know, you're obviously, it's not make or break to your point, but I don't think that we're really over exaggerating with how important this stretch could be, because I think that it could, maybe it couldn't make the season fully, because you still need to play a lot of really good baseball, but it absolutely could have

broke this season. If you, if you had the opposite record right now, instead of five and one against the Giants and Rockies in these six games, you were one in five. How are you escaping out of that with a below 500 record going into those series? Now you have five more losses or four more losses to add on to that 500, below 500 record. I mean, that felt like that could have been debilitating. And so, yes, like the playoffs have not been made because of these games. But it's also a momentum builder as we talk about as you get these reinforcements back.

As you go into the trade deadline, you got to build up above 500. so that you feel like your buyers so that the players have confidence that they're going to have a good second half of the season. And this is such an important stretch for that because now you have the Rockies again in a four game slate. And then you get the Giants again in a three game slate. It literally means everything. Win these next two series. And I think you go a long way in terms of kind of setting yourself up for at least a deep, deep season run of being a, a potential wildcard team.

Even if you don't make it, I think that this is the type of stretch that can get you set up for being relevant the rest of this season. Damon, I've been sitting here quietly seething. And this time it's not about something you said. And believe it or not,

it's not something that Killer Rec said either. Ooh. This is actually something that Jason Armstrong, one of our favorite diehards in the chat said. Damon, if you wouldn't mind scrolling up a little bit in the live chat, Jason made the comment right here. You passed it.

You passed it. to go back down. He said, D-backs are the Carissa Codell of baseball, not a 10, but not bad either. I've never been more upset by a comment when it comes to. That's saying something because Derek, Derek, it gets pretty upset by the course. Carissa Codell isn't a 10? Yeah, it's because she's an 11. If you're not familiar, Chrisa Codell is the Fox 49 morning anchor from Tallahassee who goes on to social media and reads mean tweets. meets about herself and mean responses about herself because she is what one would describe as a thick girl.

But I say thick with two Cs in the best possible way. Carissa Cadell could bench press me anytime and she is not maybe not even 11, probably a 12, Jason. So let's be careful with what we say in the live chat. Just saying. Just saying. He says he's married. He doesn't get a call her at 10.

Yeah. Well, meanwhile. Bonk. Yeah. Is that bonging me? Oh, yeah. I'm bonking you. Damn it.

I'm bonking the guy who's getting emotional talking about how attractive a woman is. Yes. See, Katie even agrees. She said she just Googled her. She's a babe. She's a complete babe. But Damon, before I get too upset, let's take a break. Let's take a break so I can cool down.

We'll talk about the upcoming series here with the Rockies on the other side of this break. Don't you guys go anywhere. You're watching the P. Diamondback slash Carissa Codell Appreciation Podcast. Well, we could use, I'll use some help managing. our energy bills every month here in the desert. And whether it's the hot, heat and the summer or the cold up north,

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for all of those wonderful things in life you're trying to do. Find all of your options to manage your bill at APS.com slash let's talk. And you know Circle K. Circle K is Damon's Thirstop. It's Derek's Thirstop. It's America's Thurstop. And for good reason. It'll get you hydrated for less. And I don't know if you just heard me say it, but the summer is almost here. In fact, you know, we're experiencing a little nice weather right now. But things are about to get hot fast and you want to stop by Circle K. That'll change quickly. Yeah, it'll change quickly and Circle K won't. Circle K will always be there for you, always offering you the most delicious drinks that you can imagine and for less than other places. And whether. you're looking to get yourself some coffee in the morning or an energy drink in the afternoon, perhaps even some beer on the way home. It doesn't matter. Circle K has got you covered. And if you join the Inner Circle, their free membership program will save you money,

easy to get downloaded and get enrolled. Then you just use your phone number to score Circle K deals like 79-cent polar pops and 99-cent frosters. Plus, when you buy three Coca-Cola 20-ounce products, you can save yourself 25 cents off per gallon on gas on your next fill-up, which is extremely valuable in today's day. Join the Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today. Terms and conditions to apply at participating locations, visit CircleK.com for details. Derek, I looked up who Carissa was and I didn't know her name, but I did know her face. You definitely know her bit.

Yes. Her bit online. And I have heard you speak about her before. And this is not a bit, guys. Derek, Derek is actually he. Derek's a fan. He's enthralled. Derek's a fan.

Yeah. I'm a fan of her work. That's one way to put it, I guess. I don't know, but I'm a fan of a lot of people, Damon. I'm a fan of you. I'm a fan of yours. I'd go to bat for you and say, Damon's an 11 out of 10. That's for, right?

I mean, look at the eyebrows, right? We discussed the eyebrows last night alone. But, of course, if you want to see these eyebrows up close in person, if you want to see me and my stupid face and all your fellow PHNX diehards, we have a great way to do that. And that is with our official PHNX Diamondbacks takeover of Chase Field. We got two of them, and I'm going to do them in chronological order this time. Hell yeah, bro.

Thursday, June 4th versus the Dodgers, we will be out there. And August 25th versus the Chicago Cubs, we will also be out there. We'll be having some fun watching the Diamondbacks take on those teams. We'll also be stuffing our faces at the Bar S All You Can Eat section. Your ticket includes entrance to the Bar S, all you can eat section,

along with a PHNX DVax merchandise of your choice, whether it's a shirt or a hat, and as always, die hard to get 20% off that ticket purchase. So get your tickets now at go phnx.com. slash events. And I'll tell you, we got another important series here. Like this 13 game stretch isn't over. The Diamondbacks have four here at Chasefield against Colorado Rockies.

And in case you may have forgotten, Saturday, I mean, we've been talking about it. Saturday is actually for the color purple. Whoever wins Saturday's game, if you come to Saturday's game, you get this amazing Serpientes jersey as a giveaway item. I'm going to be wearing this immediately, but you also get to see the Diamondbacks win ownership of the color purple. I want to see the Diamondbacks beat the Rockies so bad in this series that at one point they leave their dugout collectively as a group

and raid the Rockies dugout and take the purple fur coat. Look at Damon. You know, he's going to wear that for three straight days. Hell yeah. I'm not wearing to sleep. This is amazing. This thing's probably hella comfortable. It feels like it.

I kind of like the idea of them going to the, you know, one side logo look with the Serpientis. I don't hate that at all. Yeah. I hate that at all. No, it's not bad. That might be a future look for this. I'm a big fan of the flag patch. Everyone knows me.

I'm an AZ boy. But, I mean, look at that. You got the flag patch on it special. You put a flag patch on anything when it comes to the state of Arizona and I'm all in. I literally shut up and take my money. The color purple is ours. Well, and of course, we have to beat this Rocky. team first to own it. But I do think that we're in a good position right now and the Rockies come in here.

I'm not going to say struggling by any stretch of the imagination. The Rockies are just still a team that's trying to rebound from their worst season in franchise history. Right. So, but they're a young team. They're kind of fun to watch. And I will say that overall, the Diamondbacks can't take them lightly because it's the exact kind of series that you find yourself really quickly either, you know, splitting or maybe even losing. And that could change things very fast for this 13 game stretch that we're talking about here. But let's take a look at the Rockies here at a glance. And we can see what kind of season this team has been having up to this point. The Rockies, as of now, I don't know.

I don't know if we got this. They were playing a game when I got this information together. So this is coming into play today without the results of their game. lose, I believe. They did lose to the Rangers. Yeah. They were playing. I needed a Josh Chung, Homer really bad, and I didn't get one.

You needed it like you needed air. I might not be able to pay rent this month. Oh, my God. That's not. That's never good, Damon. That's never good. Oh, am I not supposed to be doing that? No, no, I guess not.

I don't know. Gamble responsibly. They did lose five before. They did lose five before. So they are now 19 and 31, 19 and 31, not just what we have showing there. But coming into play today, they were 19 and 30 with a minus 53 run differential. they were three and seven in their last 10 games. They're still three and seven in their last 10 games.

They are now minus 54 on their run differential. Their team OPS is 699, which is tied for 19th. Of course, their starting pitching ERA is 5.69 and is dead last in baseball. I don't even know why any pitcher would ever like sign with the Rockies. Kyle Freeland, unfortunately, sadly, has been there for like how long at this point, man? Yeah, no, that's a great. Kyle Freeland, like that guy has been in prison. He used to be kind of good.

And the Rockies have since, like, made him one of the worst pitchers in baseball. He has stuck it out so long in Denver that he went from being, like, mediocre, which at Coorsfield, mediocre is, you're an elite pitcher to just straight up one of the worst pitchers in baseball. Kyle Freeland in 2018 had a two. 0.85 ERA in 202 and a third innings pitched for the Colorado Rockies. He had a 7.8 war and was 17 and 7 that season. That's insane. Yeah, in 33 starts. That's like you Baldo Jimenez type stuff when he was a young candidate.

That's crazy. And now 7.22 ERA this season with a minus 0.4. The Rockies literally jailed Kyle Freeland so long that they made him a despicably bad picture. Like you've got Stockholm syndrome now. Like, this guy could have probably made so much more money if he just pitched anywhere else other than Colorado. That's what I mean. Like, why would you as a pitcher ever, you know, like you're going to get drafted there.

You're going to, you know, maybe get traded there. And it's a, you have no say in it. Right. But the minute that you have free will and the ability to leave, why wouldn't you? You would have to throw so much money at me in order to keep me there. And even then, like you said, it's a detriment to your career. Unless you're a hitter. You throw money.

Yeah, unless you're a hitter. I saw, I saw, remember people this office. and being like, Gino should just go sign with the Rockies and try to get to 400 home runs. And it's like that is not a bad shout. If you're a player that has like a kind of a middling legacy, you're like, ooh, the counting stats would be huge for me in terms of what people think about me all time.

If I can reach a certain threshold of home runs or something like that, go to Colorado. Yeah. If you don't care about winning. Yeah. Which a lot of people do care about winning. They do. But sometimes you just need a rebound season.

Yeah. a one-year deal and come here and hit a smash-upon-old. That's what Chris Brian thought he was going to deal. Hmm. Well, their relief ERA, a little better, 4.44, 21st, Major League Baseball, and then they have minus three outs above average, which is tied for 18th. But it's interesting you bring up Kyle Freeland, Damon, because we have our probable pitchers here, and there is a TBD in game one, and looking at their starting rotation and looking everything. I don't know what Kyle Freeland's current situation is, if he's injured or what.

But probable pictures, by the way, sponsored by our friends over at 1AZ credit union. Shout out 1AZ credit union. 1AZ credit union, like I said earlier, they are rooted in Arizona and invested in us. And their mission is to help Arizona's live their best financial lives. But yeah, man, that TBD is kind of says a lot because I feel like obviously the Diamondbacks wrecked Kyle Freeland the last time we faced him. So, you know, it might be understandable that you don't want him there. but I feel like that should be his, that should be his spot. Jason is suggesting a bullpen game and I would not be surprised to see the Rockies do that.

Which is not good, which is not a good thing because the Diamondbacks are really bad against bullpen games. Well, and also that. Oh yeah, their bullpen ERA, much better than they're starting. They have a better bullpen than they do a starting pitching staff by a long shot. So I think, you know, at least so far this season. Well, we got Erod in game one with his 2.5, 3.3. ERA. Our ace leads the way against whatever the Rockies have to throw at us in game one. Michael Soroka takes the mound in game two against Shigano, who is quickly becoming a fan favorite

there in Colorado. Zach Gallen, meanwhile, takes the mound in game three. Zach has a 4.78 ERA now lowered it just a little bit, looks a little bit more presentable. He goes up against Michael Lorenzen, who has a 7.03 ERA and is gross and not presentable at all in any way, shape, or form. You're a gross individual. Michael. You're disgusting.

You make me sick. Yeah. Ryan Nelson and his cutter slash two seam fastball go up against Jose Kintana in the finale. Nelson's ERA still doesn't look great, but like I said about Nelly, three quality starts in a row in his last three starts for this Diamondbacks team. You got that out of Merrill Kelly. You're getting that out of a lot of guys.

So you just feel better overall. Plus, this game takes place here at Chase Field and not in Colorado. So you feel a little bit better about. like the variables and the part factors playing a role in this game overall. And if you could get to the Baraki's bullpen in that first game, if they truly do go with a bullpen game, I mean, how much does that open up for the rest of the series? Exactly. Exactly.

Especially with a four game series, right? Plus a four game series where the Rockies are on the road and now they have to come here to Arizona without an off day, right? And they have a bad starting pitching staff. So if those guys get rocked and their bullpen is taxed, then I mean it's to. game three right it could be legitimately like if you get off to a strong start in game one it could set yourself yourself yourself up for a potential 3-1 slash 4-0 suite absolutely absolutely well we will be back tomorrow with another post game show um so make sure to join us for that one 640 start time tomorrow

and friday game and i'll be here late but at least we get some sleep over the next couple of days hopefully but we thank you guys so much for giving us a little bit of your time it's your most valuable commodity so we can't thank you enough for sharing it with us you can't You can follow us on social media. I am at K underscore K-man with a K everywhere. And I did post my 20-hour day in a two-part video that Instagram suggested is way too long for Instagram. So please watch that just to give me the feeling that people actually see my content on that website. But of course, Damon, more importantly, is that Damon dog with a DAWG at the end.

We're all Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. Our shows at PH&X underscore D-Backs. But as always, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We're going to hit Russell's super chat, supposedly, they got sent in yesterday. Russell, just full disclosure on our end, and I can, Derek will attest this and defend me here, which is, you know, if Derek's defending me, then that means that truly, truly, this is what happened. I try to have never to do that. Exactly. I'm surprised. Honestly, Derek, you should have off air been like,

oh, yeah, Damon, I got your back. And then on air been like, no, no, no, I saw Russell's super chat. I totally saw Russell's super chat. Damon just refused to read. Yeah. So unfortunately, it must have been. some sort of thing on our on the end of our software that like screwed it up because it wasn't showing it in our feed at all. So let me give me a second here. Is it in D-Backs assignment or D-Backs assignments like Russell's in our Slack? Is it in Diamondbacks Discord on Slack Russell? I think that's what he's saying. Killer X is saying he sent a super chat and he's just a known liar. I don't think Killer X has ever sent a super chat. No, no. And if he would, I wouldn't read it. That's the way that works with that man but our relationship is complicated um we will not go off air until i find

the super chat from russell in the meantime we got one from cool bro derrick yeah cool bro says derrick was talking about drunk drivers and his ig um actually what i was talking about was how the uh high school parking lot is as dangerous as being around drunk drivers and i think my point was valid half asleep drivers children operating motor vehicles and people that are entirely too much of a rush this guy uh yeah that's a that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's Definitely a recipe for disaster, but oh, here we go. Okay. Oh, it was a membership one.

That's why it didn't get starred on our end. Sorry about that, Russell. We appreciate you and all our supporting club members. Yesterday, he said, let's effing go. Cactus light emoji. Cotel Marte, hot streak starts now. Please win on the weekend since I'll be there. Great start by the starters since the hashtag meeting.

Ryan, please hit your first homer to me. Man, imagine how special that would be. He came close. If you caught Ryan Walschmidt's first home run ball. That that is special. It had such a high arc and we thought it didn't even have a chance of going. And it went all the way up to the bullpen fence down the left line, but got caught. Maybe, maybe this weekend.

Shout out our guy Russell. Appreciate you, man. Thank you for your super chats and support as always. And shout out to all our supporting club members who have custom emojis. You guys are all awesome, man. We appreciate all you. You want to light the cactus? Yeah.

Do it in the chat with the supporting club members. Yeah. And Cool Bros says, gonna miss hearing Kurt Engel when Jake is up tomorrow. They should just play it anyways. Yeah, he has no choice over that. And then we, and then now we can finally do the. Yeah, you suck. You suck. Right.

Because we wanted to do it the whole time. But it was so conflicting. I did it. It was so conflicting. Sometimes I just did it quietly in the press box. I was like, you suck. It was such a conflicting thing because you wanted to get in on it all the time. I'm not even a wrestling guy.

I'm sitting there. And I feel like that's what he wanted. I feel like that's what you wanted. You don't go with the current. angle theme unless you want people to chant that at you. But then why are you being a heel to your own fans? I don't get that. I don't even know. Of which Jake McCarthy was.

He wanted to encourage us as people that root for him to yell, you suck at him. Maybe it was just a humbling thing. Maybe he has a humbling kink. I don't know. We'll have to figure that out. But again, we thank you guys so much for being here. We love you guys. We thank you for your time. We'll be back tomorrow with another

post game show and Friday. So make sure to join us for that. In the meantime, hope you all have a wonderful evening. Behave yourself. Jason, careful what you say about nines and tens. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when your pitching staff is the best in Major League Baseball.