PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - POSTGAME: Merrill Kelly Gets ROCKED as D-backs Lose Must-Win Series to Marlins & Fall Out Wild Card

Episode Date: September 17, 2026

We think it might actually be over, chat.The Arizona Diamondbacks dropped two of three to the Miami Marlins at home, including a brutal loss in the series finale, and their postseason hopes are hanging by a thread. We break down how Merrill Kelly turned into a strikeout machine but couldn’t make it through five innings, Pavin Smith, Gabriel Moreno, and Nolan Arenado trying to spark the offense with solo home runs, and the D-backs once again went ice-cold with runners in scoring position. We also take a look at the latest Wild Card standings, what Arizona needs to happen over the final games of the season, and whether the Snakes have finally run out of mulligans. Alex D’Agostino joins the show to weigh in on whether the D-backs’ season is really over and to help keep The Mayor somewhat rational in the meantime.0:00 - Intro 2:00 - Snakes Drop Final Game of Series To Marlines 33:00 - Merrill Kelly Had An Eventful Night!50:00 - BLAME GAME1:00:00 - NL WILDCARD RACEBECOME A DIEHARD: gophnx.com/joinJOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsMERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/coll...ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX15 at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order!Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visit https://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?ut...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.New DraftKings customers sign up with code PHNX, spend just five bucks, and get two hundred in rewards within 21 days. That’s code PHNX. In partnership with DraftKings. The Crown Is Yours. Gambling problem? Call one eight hundred NEXT STEP. Twenty-one plus. Arizona only. Eligibility restrictions apply. Fifty dollars in non-withdrawable Bonus Bets issued every seven days via click-to-claim for twenty-one days. Bonus Bets expire seven days after issuance. 1 football Boost per customer. Maximum bet limits and restrictions apply. Tokens expire at the end of the final select game each day when offered. Terms at d k n g dot c o slash offer.  Limited time offer.#dbacks #diamondbacks #arizonadiamondbacks #mlb #zacgallen #corbincarroll #ketelmarte #mlbtheshow #mlbtraderumors #tradedeadline #traderumors #allstargame  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, it's time. It's time to declare a time of death for the Arizona Diamondbacks 2026 season. Or maybe not? I don't know. We're going to talk about it. Our guy Alex Pagestino is here, and I'm going to overreact and he's going to be far more rational. Don't you go anywhere we are starting right now. Yeah.

Yeah, it's bad. Things are bad. Welcome into the PHNX Diamondbacks Postgame show. Live. Live. I feel naked. He took it away from me so fast. I can't do the screaming.

There it goes. Live! We're live from Studio K and we're not happy. There, that feels better. Presented by our friends at Circle K. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. I am thrilled to see you guys here,

but not thrilled to be discussing the Diamondbacks, losing tonight's game to the Miami Marlins by a score of 4 to 3, and losing the series to the Marlins, two games to one, which seems even more unbelievable. I am not alone. I am thrilled to have you guys in the chat here to support me and vent with me and scream about things with me. We got Freckled Mamba himself, Ayrton, on the ones and twos tonight.

Appreciate his efforts. He has been having a lot of work to do tonight with the sons and the emergency podcasts and all of that. But he doesn't understand the misery that we are all at going through. He lives in his happy little bubble over there in the basketball world. We're over here, absolutely livid and distraught about what may very well be the end of the Diamondbacks 2026 postseason hopes after losing this game to the Marlins. This show is brought to you by our friends at Game Time. Make sure to go download that Game Time app, create an account and use code

PHNX for $20 off your first purchase terms to apply. And I needed to bring in some reinforcement. So we got our guy here from not only PHNX, but from Sports Illustrated and all over the place. Alex, thank you so much for joining me. I needed someone that was a bit calmer and rational, more rational to deal with this one tonight. I mean, I know that you were as heated as the rest of us were in regards to the blocking the plate situation in extra innings in last night's game. My favorite part of your whole description of the event was if this rule, if this is the rule, then you can't wait for the CBA. And I'm telling you, I'm with you 100% on that because that whole situation is just as dumb as it could possibly be. But, oh, Diamondbacks lose a tough one here, not just this game, obviously, but this series to the Marlins.

They dropped to 80 and 73. And they have not won a home series at Chase Field against the Miami. Marlins since May of 2022, Alex. It's insufferable how much this Marlins team seems to own the Diamondbacks. Kind of feels like Florida teams in general seem to have the Diamondbacks number.

I hate having to watch them play Florida teams. And yeah, this was a tough one. I'll be honest, it was kind of subdued because I was way more, I was way more bothered by last night's outcome. Absolutely. But this was more of just like, not so much anger as it was just like, yep, that would be how this one ends. That would be how

this series ends. That would be how this season ends. Let's be honest. I mean, I know mathematically they're not eliminated. I know there's no E next to their name, but the story of tonight is, it's over. Thank you fans. Yeah, it feels like it. It really does. And to take the bat out of Cate's hands in that situation, too, is just so disappointing. Let's talk about it. Yeah. I mean, look, okay, I don't want to bring up the Cattel drama. I don't want to go back into all of that. But you, the team brought him back, welcomed him back, forgave him for whatever and said, we need you to help us win baseball games.

And there is Mr. Walkoff home run standing as the winning run. And he doesn't even get a chance to take the winning swing. I mean, that is the part that hurts the most about this. Because I was actually feeling pretty optimistic. When I saw Sandy Alcantra, who threw 101 pitches, two days. ago warming up for the save one run lead a little bit of pop in the in the order coming up i'm like i think they're going to win this game and when kattel came up i said he's winning this game and he didn't even get a chance to and that's just crazy and and the other like come on pavin hit one to the warning track by yeah you know

the the the bullpen that went all the way almost to the wall tower will let one rip that went 396 feet for an out to center field. Like it did. It felt inevitable. It felt once we got a base runner on that not only was Ketel going to hit a home run and win this game, but again, it was going to be a two-run home run and they were going to walk it off. Wasn't even going to be an extra innings tied situation.

And instead, Jordan Lawler comes in as the pinch runner and gets thrown out, attempting to steal second. And it's absolutely the worst possible. way, Alex, that this game could have ended. You never, you never make the third out on the base path, nor, like, I know you're desperate. I know you want to tie this game up. I know you're thinking about, you know, the fact that all game long you were able to get two hits in an inning, all game long you were able to get a runner from first over to second or from second over to third. It was that last little stretch that they still haven't figured out going 0 for six with runners

in scoring position again tonight, right? But before we move on and scream more about this, let's hear from the two people involved in this decision and in this moment that ended the game. Let's hear first from Tori. Here's what Tori had to say on the thought process behind Jordan stealing in that moment. Yeah, we have a very sophisticated system.

We felt very strongly that we could time that and run and create an opportunity to score, a runner from second base, put them in a scoring position. but we got to be certain when we're doing something like that you know we got to hit that jump and if we don't we got to shut it down for a base running standpoint so you know we we did our math we did our work and we felt like we were going to be able to steal that very very easily and it didn't happen is that a jump situation probably a jump a read and a tell and we just didn't hit it right yeah we're well aware of max pop time

You know, it was a fastball up out over. It was a really good pitch to throw on. You know, maybe we've got to pick a better pitch. That might be another situation. So it was a great tag by, I think it was a shortstop. And it's what happens in this game. It's the big leagues. You got to be real tight.

We've got to keep it real clean. If you're going to execute and you don't, you're going to get beat. I will say this, that obviously them trying to manufacture a run was something that we were screaming about on this podcast just 24 hours ago. Right? We were saying like, why didn't in all those instances where you had all those base runners, you just not take a shot? Why not even take a shot at like a suicide squeeze there with Corbyn Carroll on third base just to see if you can, you know, create chaos? But it didn't seem like the right moment for it in this one. Not when one swing wins the game.

And not when a double scores Lawler. I mean, Lawler is a real, I mean, Lawler is like Corbyn Caron. levels of fast. So any extra base hit there ties the game. You don't, you're playing for a single there by stealing and Kattel Marte has not built his reputation on hitting singles. Well, that was Sandy Alcantra's first save of his entire career. He was a reliever at one point with St. Louis, I believe, but Sandy Alcantra definitely isn't the reason why we lost this game. We lost this game because it was another anemic day with runners in scoring position. Another. night, another game, Alex, where the debacks squandered multiple opportunities with runners in scoring position and less than two outs, that being the key there. You can have a bad day. You can

go 0 for seven, but if every time you had a runner in scoring position, it was with two outs. It's understandable for it not to be a very productive day. But this is the way this day went. In the first inning, they loaded the bases with one out and did not score run. And that face you made right there, that spoke to my soul because that's how I probably made that face in the press box 17 times tonight but it started in the first inning

with a Marte single, a Moreno single and a Podomo walk and then Carol strikes out and Aronado flies out to shortstop Otto Lopez to end the inning. And then in the third it's the same thing. Gabby doubles with one out. He's moved to third on a Perdomo ground out. That's the furthest he gets. In the fourth

Aronado hits a lead off single. He gets moved to hit moved second on a pavement, one out single, and then Tawa flies out and Newt Bar Grounds out to end the inning. It's just, and then on top of that, we have all of these home runs. Ten hits, three home runs, O for six with runners in scoring position, and three runs on the board. It's insane. It's insane that they are able to hit those home runs, which are great, but just hit them so freely when there's no runners on lately, but not when they have those runners in scoring position. It's it's almost like a mindset where this entire team just gets, you know, like overwhelmed

and the spot the spotlight gets too bright. It feels like tunnel vision. Like I don't know what they're going. I don't know what the approach is. I'm not a hitting coach. I, you know, I don't know what, you know, Joe Mather and the hitting coaches are thinking, but it just feels like it just feels like the approach completely goes away. It feels like every player is kind of playing their own game.

And that's fine when you want to maximize each player's skill sets. But it doesn't really work when you're trying to build an inning. It doesn't really work when you're trying to do that thing. That word that Tori keeps trying to make happen, which is team ability. And I don't think that word has caught on yet. But it's just it feels like everyone is going up there with their own sort of idea of what's happening in the game. And there's just not as much situational awareness. There's not as much doing the little things to really keep the line moving, come through with,

whatever you need in that moment. And not that they're not trying. It's just, it just feels disjointed. It doesn't feel like a, it doesn't feel like a lineup of nine hitters. It feels like nine different batters all just coming up and doing their own thing. Which is wild because they always have the phrase of like handing the baton off to the next guy and that that's like a mindset and, you know, that they try to instill in their hitters, right? That you don't have to hit three home runs and one at bat. That you don't have to do it all yourself. The idea here is more about getting on base and handing it off to your teammate and letting them take care of it. I would maybe dare and speculate to say that perhaps part of it is that there's been so much

inconsistency from this offense that I'm not saying they don't believe in each other to get the job done, but in those moments when they're up at the plate and it's there at bat, they don't believe in the next guy enough to truly believe they can hand the baton off. And they're not wrong for that, considering how many runners in scoring position this team's left on base lately, how many men they've left on base, right? And again, it's just been a frustrating stretch where they truly needed to play their best baseball and they have not. They didn't get great starts out of Corbyn Burns, which was very disheartening. They still won that baseball game. But tonight, they don't get a great start out of Merrill Kelly either, even though he was also shoving. Like, he shoved and got rocked at the same time. Didn't last very long, but still at nine strikeouts, like just a very confusing outing overall from Merrill. Reminded me a lot of, um, Edwano Rodriguez the last couple of years where he'd go out there for like five innings and strike out 10 batters and you're like, that's not who Eduardo Rodriguez is,

but then he had a six ERA. It's like, that's what I felt like we were watching tonight. Like there were times where the change up was just unhittable. There were times where the fastball was cooking. It looked really good. And then there were times where he was just leaving anything and everything out over the middle of the plate. It was getting hammered.

I think it was Bob Brenley who said it on the broadcast, but he was like, the Marlins have basically punished every single mistake pitch. It's like, man, I wish the Diamondback would punish 50% of the mistake pitches they get. Not to mention the fact that they really did empty the tank, right? They had a guy that threw over 100 pitches in game one of this very series come in to close things out because they're closer,

who was broken and was not having a good season himself, ended up on the injured list. It's like almost, it's almost like, I wish that that he would be fine. So we wouldn't have had to see Alcantra tonight because, man, I mean, even though the Diamondbacks were hitting the ball hard off of him, they just couldn't get that big hit, couldn't get the job done. And then you have the Jordan Lawler getting thrown out.

I felt bad because we got to talk to Jordan after the game. And the very first thing I thought is media was, are we really going to do this? Are we really going to pin this on a guy who wasn't even in this game and just came in as a pinch runner late. Like, that felt wrong. But as always, Jordan gave some great insight and a great answer. Here is the entirety of his press conference or media availability. Here's what Jordan had to say.

Yeah, so everything we prepared for, executed the approach. And Joe made a really good throw. You feel like the joke was good? Yeah, I feel like it was good, Joe. Keyed off of what we've been looking for. And Iran. Jordan, you guys have been resilient? All year, what's the vibe in the clubhouse now, like, knowing the position of guys were in?

I mean, we have the off-dated process that, but again, put our best foot forward to the games that we have and keep playing team baseball and get out ahead early. Great, great guy and not an unfortunate situation. Like, again, I understand his speed and everything, but it comes back to what you said. You had the guy that needed to get the hit. Like, you weren't going to have Jordan steal third as well and have him, you know, steal. home, like, Catell was going to have to get a hit. And I know that, I guess, banking completely on it being a game-winning walk-off home run, it might be a lot. However, if there's one guy that could do it in your lineup, it's probably Cotel Marte. He thrives in those kind of moments. And he is one of three guys, including Ryan Walshmet this season, and all of MLB that have multiple walk-off home-run hit. So I agree with what you said where it's you just can't take the bat out of his hand.

Yeah. And and again, like I said too, like a double, it probably scores Lawler. Maybe you call a hit and run. Maybe you call a hit and run and a single scores it, right? Like it's one of those things where, you know, it doesn't, you don't have to be playing for a tie game, which by the way, the bullpen was was shorthanded. If this goes to extra innings, there's a good chance we might have seen Z. Zach Gallin pitching extra inning. They were 100% going to go to Zach Gallant. Tori said that after the game. They were going to go to Zach if they ended up having to go to extra innings.

And so maybe maybe Zach Gallen comes through in extra innings. Maybe that's a fun story. But I kind of feel like playing for the tie there was the wrong move. I kind of feel like you should play playing for the win in hindsight, which I understand. You can't make this judgment based on hindsight, but I do feel like they played for the tie and that and that came back to bite them. I completely agree with you that that's what that steel was. That's what getting him into scoring position like that was.

It was so that you could essentially play for the tie and go into extra innings. And we just saw how that worked out for them one night ago. Did we really want to do that again? We don't. Yeah. Pave and Smith continues to infuriate people by proving them wrong, but not all the time. In the second inning, he went yard with a one-out solo home run that cut the lead at the time down the two to one.

It was his second home run of the year. It was the hardest hit ball of the entire game at 109.7 miles per hour off the bat, 424 feet to right center field. And we got to do it. We got to give it to something. And we're giving our Arizona lottery, love to play to Pavin Smith's solo home run.

First, because I know it's going to upset some people, but also because it was 109.7 miles per hour off the bat. And again, I'll say this for louder, for the people in the back, Pavin is not the reason why the Diamondbacks lost this game today. Paveen was two for four with a home run and an RBI. So love the play. And again, we appreciate Arizona Lottery, brought to you by our friends Arizona Lottery.

Love and gift today must be 21 or over to gift or play. But yes, let's just say that Pavin overall gets, I mean, his numbers are bad. And I'm not going to say, like, people's frustrations with him aren't understandable. But at the same time, too, if you would maybe take it more based on what he's done in AAA Reno and what he's done since he's come back,

there are other guys in the lineup for people to be, I think, upset and disappointed by than Pavan. I think Pavan's actually kind of doing well lately overall. But again, that's only because he's one of the few guys that has contributed to the scoreboard in some of these games. And the only thing that is making people think otherwise is his mere presence being a curse to this team, which that I can't refute.

I have no way to tell anybody if that's the case or not. But his home run still was a really good one. Made me believe again, Alex, made me believe in this team as a whole seeing Pavin hit home run. It was a good moment for him. And it's also like, he can do that. Like, he's shown that he can do that. So, you know, when they brought him back, they weren't saying, you know, they weren't looking at his batting average.

They were looking at, well, can he get really hot for like a few weeks? And the answer is always yes. The answer is always a player can get hot for a few weeks. Yes. Even Pavin. I get it. I really do get the frustration. I understand, you know, not wanting to play or wanting to see, you know, Ryan Walschman and Jordan Lawler play over him and all that.

I totally, totally get it. But, I mean, look, he might not be the solution, but he's not the problem. So at this point, you take, I mean, he's one third of the offense tonight. He's one third of the offense. So if you're, and someone asked, Paven's our best option. I mean, kind of. Like, they don't really have a good option either way.

It's the reason why his Zeus Sanchez, who just told us one day ago that he kills right-handed pitching has not been doing that. In fact, he's over against right-handed pitching. I think he's only, hit a single off a lefty. He did. I'm saying, like, it's so weird. You cannot. The baseball gods are always listening.

You just can't go out there and say something like that, egregious, and have the baseball gods not smite you for it. But, yeah, I mean, adding a guy that's not even postseason eligible, even though he could be an asset for this team, I'm not taking anything away from him. I definitely like, I like his energy. I like his attitude. I liked watching him hit BP because he was hitting the hell out of the baseball.

But it just didn't translate over to seeing him do it on the field just yet for this team. But, you know, again, yes, having people, Haven Smith here, going out and picking up a guy like that, that, that shows the desperation that they have right now to try to find options to make this lineup better one through nine and give them a chance to win down the stretch. It's just, it's not happening. It's not happening right now. But Gabby Moreno, again, another reason why, not the reason why this team is losing baseball games. Gabby Moreno cannot be stopped. He is the best hitter on this team. And with one out, he added his 15th, uh, went out in the fifth inning. He added his 15th home run the year to make it a four to two

game at the time. Moreno now is homered in back-to-back home games and is homered in three of his last four games. He set career highs in almost every major offensive category, including hits, doubles, home runs, RBI, walks, runs, total bases and extra base hits. He's been by far the biggest reason why this offense has stayed on any kind of consistent role. And again, he's not been the greatest catcher at times behind the plates, both with the ABS challenges or with throwing out runners. However, his bat has been outstanding. And he is probably one of, if not the best offensive catcher in, you know, the National League, if not Major League Baseball. Yeah, I mean, sustaining hitting over 300 for this long in this era of baseball is crazy.

It is. And especially for a catcher. I mean, I know he does a lot of, he splits a lot of time with James McCann and DHS sometimes, but you don't really have that option very much anymore now, considering they're all facing Ritees and they're trying to get Sanchez or or Pavin, those D.H. looks or Newt Bar. Gabby, it's a for the for the Diamondbacks team MVP, it's a two-man race between Gabby and Eduardo Rodriguez. Yeah. And I think Gabby's catching out.

I agree with that. I agree with that. I agree with that just. And Gabby, yeah, Gabby would pull it out, I think, based on the frequency in which he plays, right? that that simply that but um nolon arnato he added a home run in uh what was it the eighth inning that that also felt like it was going to start a rally and this game felt just like last night's game where it it wasn't for a lack of hits the ninevaks had 10 hits tonight they had three home runs like it felt every time you kind of counted them out in this game they would get a run

and it was just enough to make you think all right oh like right maybe this is the start or something and it wasn't. And again, in the eighth inning, the ninth inning, obviously, we discussed how that went. When we saw Catelle Marte coming up to the plate with one guy on, it was like, let's go. This is it. This is the moment. And it very much was not the moment. But Aronado, again, 26 home runs for him this year. You can't say enough about how good of a pickup he was considering how much of his contract, the Cardinals eight, and just everything he's given this team. however it's like perdomo with challenges in a way it's almost like if aronado walks up to the plate with runners in scoring position it's like i don't even watch the at bat i just go back to work and wait for the out to be recorded i'm not saying that first pitch half the time yeah yeah and i'm not

even saying that to be like i know i know it is very disrespectful to say what i just said but it just it is it's what it feels like in fact when i looked up perdomo's challenges i was shocked to find out that he is challenged at a 50% success rate this year. And 32 challenges after losing the one in tonight's game, he was 16 wins, 16 losses. That blew me away because I was like, I was certain it was going to be 0 for 32 when I looked it up, you know, so, you know, it's like Nolan. I'm sure his numbers with runners in scoring position are far better than I'm giving him credit for, right?

But in reality, it just feels like that. And it feels like that about this entire team because that's, been the last month of our life of watching them play baseball. But Pavin and Nolan are top performers for this game, obviously, for their home runs and having the exact same stat line, essentially, two for four with a home run and an RBI. But of course, our King Snake tonight is the one the only, yo Gabby Gabby, Gabrielle Moreno, three for four, one home run, one double, one RBI, and just essentially a triple short of the cycle. So Moreno again continues to be the guy that tries to put this team on his back and carry him across the finish line.

And he also let his emotions show last night when Ildemar Vargas was tagged out in extra innings. I probably watched that clip of his reaction 500 times. And it still doesn't feel like I've watched it enough. It just, it was such an example of personification or whatever you. want to call it. I don't know. You're better with words than I am, but it was just, it was all of us. It encapsulated the way we all felt watching Vargas get tagged

out in that moment and the Diamondbacks not win that game in the bottom of the 10th. Yeah. Yeah, that was, that was me when New York made that call. Oh, yeah. Which was apparently a very legal play and it's just, I'm still

can't believe it was a legal play. Well, and seeing the official rule, by the way, for that blocking play, You're 100% right. What a garbage-ass rule that is. It's like, oh, if it doesn't go in the thing or it's picked up by the pitcher, it's like they tried to cover every situation where it's a bunt. Like that's almost what the rule tries to like accomplish is like,

if you bunt, then then it's on. He can block the plate. And it's like, okay, but why? Wasn't the point to get away from these collisions at the plate? And wouldn't that still give, way for a collision. You mean to tell me if Corbyn Carroll runs at full speed down to third baseline right into their catcher, something terrible isn't going to happen to one of, if not both of those guys? Yeah. Let's take an element of strategy out of the game in the name

of safety and then reintroduce that in a very specific situation where there's a higher likelihood of a more intense collision. Like what are we even doing here? Anyway, not the point. They lost that game because they went 0 for 15 with runners in scoring position. Hell yeah. You're damn right. But still. At the same time. It's those moments though. We get stuck in those moments and we're so mad about that one thing when in reality, we shouldn't even been there. It was like last night I didn't want to blame the pitchers because I'm not blaming Taylor Clark. I'm not doing it. And people were like, you should. He sucked in that inning. And I'm like, guess what?

They shouldn't have even gotten to that inning. That's why I don't blame him because he shouldn't have even been pitching in the 11th inning. The man is nearly at 70 innings. They're going have to shut them down even if they made the postseason they might not be able to use taylor clark or kevin ginkle because of the usage in the regular season and they had to bring him in because we couldn't be bothered to walk that game off in the number of opportunities we had uh or at least just score one more run but all right you're getting me all worked up again i was yes right got us way out on a tangent now i'm angry again thank you for angering me more importantly thank you so much uh for joining us man i appreciate your time uh you can follow him

him on Twitter. He is at Alex Dags. D-A-G-A-Z. Alex D-A-Z. That's right. That's at the end. But I should know that. And I, you know what? Look, I'm not even going to like pretend. I don't care about anything right now, Alex. I'm, I don't care about anything. I don't care about anything. Why should we even like, let's wrap it up. I know we have commercial breaks and stuff we're supposed to read. Why? I don't care. I don't care about anything. But I do appreciate you. Love you. Thank you so much for stopping by. And we'll talk more for sure. Sounds good, man. Thanks for having me. Thank you.

All right, we're going to take one of those quick breaks I was talking about. And me, I don't care. I don't care if we do or not. Erriton, if you want to, we can. If not, I'll just get up and walk out of the studio right now with the mood that I am in. But let's take a break. And on the other side of this break, we are going to talk about Merrill Kelly's night and hear from him as well as definitely play the blame game in this particular game. Don't you go anywhere.

You're watching the PHA next time and that show. Well, October 16th through the 18th, the chase returns to Phoenix Raceway. And even though I might not have baseball playoffs, I do have NASCAR playoffs. The postseason for NASCAR is here. It's called the Chase. And the Chase returns to Phoenix Raceway, October 16th through the 18th, where you can watch NASCAR's championship contenders battle at the freeway insurance 500 and one of the most critical races on the road to the championship at our iconic track, PIR.

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That's phoenixraceway.com. And man, let me tell you, even though we might be kind of fizzling out here, I was thrilled to see that there is a inner circle fuel day coming at Circle K tomorrow. That is right, Inner Circle members. If you are already part of the Inner Circle 2.0, then you probably got notified of this, but tomorrow you can get 40 cents off per gallon at Circle K's around the Valley. And you can do this simply by signing up for the Inner Circle Rewards program. Right now, it's a free membership program. It's easy to download the app and get enrolled. And then use your phone number to score Circle K deals like 40 cents off per gallon tomorrow.

And man, I need it. I need it. I was driving all around the valley in this terrible rain today. I wasted a lot of gas. And I also endangered my life because you know how it is in these streets in Phoenix. But if you join the inner circle for free right now, every visit counts. You can trade in visits for rewards like more money off of gas. You can get low gas discounts.

You can get free food, drinks, and other in-store merchandise. And all you got to do is enter your phone number at checkout or at the pump to ensure each visit. is counted. New enrollees will still save 25 cents off per gallon on your first five fillups. So do not miss out on that. Plus coming up in October, we have like an entire week of inner circle fuel days from October 8th through the 15th. Inner Circle fuel days for the entire week. We need it in this economy. So join the Inner Circle 2.0 for free by downloading the Circle KF today. Terms and conditions apply participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. Nate wants me to come to Colorado for the games.

I would very much like to do that, Nate. I would enjoy myself. I'd stop by the DNBR bar, drink on their dime. I think they owe it to me at this point for at least, for at least all of the wacky videos I've done. But more importantly, I would love to go to that ballpark. That's a beautiful place. But I don't know how good of a time the Diamondbacks are going to have there.

That team has been a tough team to face. especially for the debacks, and I don't see them rolling over and dying for us at the end of the season. But who knows? We are going to talk about the schedule here shortly, but first we still have to, as much as none of you want to talk about it. We got to talk about this game a little more.

You got to. We got to. We got to talk about Merrill Kelly, because even though he was racking up the strikeouts tonight, there's no other way to say it. He was also terrible. He was like great and terrible. I couldn't even figure it out.

He, in the very first inning, he gets himself into a jam right away, gives up a lead-off single to Stowers, and then another single to Harry Berto Hernandez, who I'm fairly sure we got a Harry Berto's around Valley somewhere. We got every type of Berto, so there's got to be Harry Berto's. But Harry Berto Hernandez, what he did tonight was he made hits. He didn't make food. He made hits, and he got a lot of hits against the Diamondbacks tonight.

Then he started there in the first inning, put up, two on with no outs, but then Merrill gets three straight strikeouts in a row to end the first inning. And I was once again, like after the Paven Smith home run, I was back. We were back. I tightened my tie and said like, all right, Merrill just needed to work through the opening of this, but he's dialed in. And then it was more of the same in the second, except this time he gave up runs. He gave up a lead-off double to Jacob Marcy, and then he walked Xavier Edwards with no outs. Marcy's stole third and Edward stole second separately

and that's on Gabby who is not once again like I said earlier not been great at throwing out runners both runners would end up scoring so again Gabby giving up those two stolen bases without much of an effort there in the second inning was not great and you know probably is the one thing I would mark against Gabby

on a night where he was three for four at the plate but again this time you get Merrill looking like he was once again going to get out of it. He strikes out Joe Mack. He gets Ruiz to pop up. But then he walks stowers to load the bases, and then he gives up a two-run single to Harry Berto there. That included a throwing error by Nolan Aronado.

Again, the Diamondbacks did not play a very good defense early in this game, and that put the debacks down two to nothing. That would have scored probably one run without Arnottos throwing error, but who knows, probably still would have given up two. and then after the Diamondbacks give one back to Kelly and the third, he gives up a one out single to Sanhoa and then a two-run homer to Marcy that went 420 feet. And I want to laugh about that, but I can't, I can't because of this loss

and how big this loss is. But 420 feet and that one put Marlins up 4 to 1. Then Kelly gets two more strikeouts and then. Merrill Kelly getting strikeouts in this game after he gave up runs was similar to like almost the way the Diamondbacks would, hit a home run without anybody on base, but when there was someone on base in scoring position, they absolutely crumbled.

Right. So it's like he would give up these runs and then all of a sudden out nowhere, just get multiple strikeouts. Merrill would start the fifth inning, but he wouldn't finish it. You gave up a leadoff single to Otto Lopez, known terrorizer of this baseball team. But then he struck out Griffin-Conine and Sanoa, got Sanoa to line out to left,

moving Lopez over to second and that would end Merrill's day. It felt like his pitch count kind of got up there on him overall. But it also felt like Tori did it in a way to not allow Merrill to have another inning where he gave up a few more runs. I think that was more of the reason why Merrill only goes out there and gives up, goes four and two-thirds innings. But the strikeouts contributed to it. He was throwing a lot of pitches and you got a lot of whiffs tonight.

You got a lot of strikeouts. But it's weird. That's almost the opposite of the approach that this pitching staff has had all season long that has led them to success. It's been more about pitching the contact. It's been more about length, having shorter innings, and not really worrying about the strikeout numbers. They, as we've talked about, the circle case strikeout meter does not get fed regularly and properly as it should, right? But tonight was one of those cases. However, it comes with Merrill only going four and two-thirds and giving up four runs, three of which were earned.

Let's take a look here at his pitch chart and see what exactly was going on with Merrill's night. I mean, it was decent grouping, obviously. You could see a lot of four seam fastballs that were kind of way out of the zone. The change-up, which are the green. I mean, he threw basically the four-seam and the change-up the majority of this outing. 31-per-seam fastballs, 31-per-change-ups. He got four whiffs on the change-up. He got five whiffs on the fastball, which maxed out at 93.6 miles per hour.

an average 92.2. But he also gave up some home runs on those pitches as well. He kind of, it was a minimal amount of the other pitches thrown a cutter, 12%. He got one whiff on that, curbaal, 12%, 3 whiffs through the slider 9% of the outings, sinker 8%. And he got one with on the sinker. 14 whiffs total the night for Merrill, which would normally just be an outstanding night, you know, but what the debacks needed with this bull, bullpen being as taxed as they have been lately. And with this game being so important, they needed Merrill to go out there and keep runs off the board.

And he just didn't do that, unfortunately, for this team. The bullpen did when they came in, but Merrill just gave up too many. He goes four and two thirds, gives up seven hits, four runs, three of which are earned. He walked two and struck out nine. So circle K strikeout meter. That's that's, that's,

beautiful. That's a beautiful site and that is something that the circle K strikeout meter doesn't get very often. Like on a night like this, the circle K strikeout meter would say like, gather around children. I'm going to tell you about the days when I used to light myself up for Randy Johnson because it was glorious. It was like every night, all 10 of my circle K logos were bright as could be. And I just knew I was going to eat all the time. Now there's a reason why I'm so skinning. There's a reason why I've lost so much weight. But the bullpen, like I said, they held things down for this team overall. And Ryan Nelson returned. The return wasn't exactly smooth, but it was great to see Nelly back on the mound. He did walk his first batter faced.

He did get the second one to ground out to end the fifth inning. Then he came back out for the sixth inning. So it's encouraging to see him get an up down in there. He gave up a one-out walk to Ruiz and a two-out single to Hernandez, but did not give up any runs and limited the damage to just that. And one and one third innings gave up the two walks and the one hit. So three base runners total. Not terrible by any stretch of the imagination. However, you know, it's, it would be nice to see Nellie getting some strikeouts like he used to do back in the day. I know Merrill got plenty of those tonight, but I would have liked to see a couple there from Nellie. Meanwhile, Dennis Santana continues to be outstanding. By the way, Ryan Nelson was added back to the

roster and a corresponding move was that Derek Law guy with known great name, just the best name on this team, he was designated for assignment. And honestly, Law didn't really deserve it. It was just a matter of righty lefties and how many they had and where they were at. But overall, I thought law did an outstanding job for this team. And I think he'll continue to go on and hopefully shove for either the Diamondbacks once again, if they can bring them back or, you know, another team. But Derek Law, again, deserves better because of how great his name is. Dennis Santana, meanwhile, he deserves to stick around. He was incredible. He has been incredible. And he was great once again tonight. He had a, he pitched two innings, gave up zero hits, zero runs, zero walks,

zero strikeouts, zero's across the board. And then Johnny Lausagna, aka Jonathan Loisigga, came in, got one inning of work, gave up two hits, but he made an impressive defensive play, fielding a hit that was hit right back at him for a double play. Got a great turnaround and a throw on that one. He also got a strikeout in his one inning of work. And I want to say I want to look this up real fast, but Dennis Santana since joining the Diamondbacks has been like consistently, I feel like one of their best relievers,

which seems crazy to say. But so far in his time with the Diamondbacks, He has a 0.90 ERA, and that is in 10 innings of work. And I think that, because it's on baseball reference, that does not take into account his performance tonight. So his 0.90 ERA with the Diamondbacks would be even lower than that factoring in tonight's one inning of work with no runs allowed. But good stuff here overall from him and this bullpen. They gave this team a chance to come back and win. and they got within one run, but unfortunately, they really mishandled that situation there in the ninth inning

with going for the stolen base instead of just letting Cattell swing away. I will, let's hear from Merrill Kelly. Merrill Kelly after today's game was upset. I mean, there's no other way to put it. Merrill was not okay. He's upset about his performance, and I think he's obviously more upset about the position the diamond backs find themselves in after losing tonight's game here is merrill's media availability maril how'd you feel out there today um not great not terrible

how was how was the profile of like swing and miss versus the command that you were looking for i mean i had a nice strikeout so i guess i'm a decent advice man that's just kind of like a whole frustration right now it's not low and kind of see where you guys sit right now. About the same places you guys see it. The players are very well aware of the position they're in and they're not happy about it, right? So I know there's weird claims from an idiot in the live chat

that continues to be here, even though he always questions why we're talking about stuff on this baseball podcast about this baseball team. But Merrill very much cares, and in fact, he's infuriated, right? Like this is not the position to be in and it's frustrating to be here at this at this point. You know, and it's also probably a little personal blame because Merrill knows that he has not had a great season and that this situation that they're in is partially his, you know, partially on him as well based on his performance this year. But we also heard from Tori on Merrill's night. Here's what Merrill, Tori had to say about Merrill once again having the weird, you know, nine.

strikeout night that seems good but the four and two-thirds and four runs allowed. Here's what Tori had to say. Yeah, he, I know that he had to really work hard a couple of those innings to get out of some jams and he did. I think there were some punchouts early in the game and he kind of, you know, pushed us forward and kept us in the ball game. But I, there was just some, some slug at the wrong times and created some, created that two run, that home run, a two-run was clearly a big blow. But yeah, I thought overall he had good stuff, but the pitch count climbed, and I just needed to maneuver into the bullpen and make sure they didn't score any more runs. That's the feeling I had. Offensively, we've been grinding.

She didn't want to get into a situation where we fell too far behind, and they did their job. But Merrill had some swing and miss. I thought the change-up was really good today. Maybe a couple of mistakes, built innings. He got that couple big outs, and then the ground ball at the third base line was just well-placed ball. a little bit of frustration there. Top G in the comment says going to games on cloudy, rainy days

are elite. You're so right. That's why this bummed me out. This bummed me out. I got to walk out in the pouring rain with a bunch of people who didn't have umbrellas. And you know who had an umbrella?

This guy. This guy. Which I proudly popped out right in front of all of those soaked individuals put over my head and pranced myself. through the parking lot, even though I was really deep down inside, screaming internally and dying. I was dying inside because of what we witnessed at Chase Field.

But we're going to take a quick break. On the other side of this break, we're going to play the blame game. But what's the point, right, Killer X? What's the point of any of this? We're also going to do some numbers from tonight's game, but I'm going to only have Ayrton put them up on screen for as much time as he feels like he deserves for putting the work into making that graphic. and then we're going to get it off screen and burn it and never show it again.

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Choose Sanderson Ford. And Ayrton, I know that the conversion process is always a little. a bit complicated. There's a special formula to make me grow in size and to make me two-dimensional on a billboard. But I think it's time for us to once again play the blame game. So if you wouldn't mind, I need to feel powerful because this loss makes me feel small and defeated. We're not have Blame game music? I mean, it's upsetting already enough. There we go. That's part of the growing process. I'm a kajun. I'm one of those hello. Kitty, Godzilla figures, and the happy meals that all of the people are

literally adults driving into McDonald's. It's like, what number do you have? It's insanity. And no free ads, by the way. But when I'm on a billboard, I have to do ads. That's the kind of way of billboards work. Let's light up some of these lights. Pitching, yes, starting pitching, not the bullpen.

You guys are great. I love you, bullpen. You've been great all year. You have been the bright spot. You have warmed my heart. and made me feel alive at times, which is something that this offense has tried to steal from me. But tonight, Merrill Kelly was not very good,

even though he did have nine strikeouts. So that pitching light gets on. Obviously, the batting light gets on. This offense is terrible. Terrible. With three home runs and 10 hits, you should have eight runs on the board. Three home runs and 10 hits,

and you were 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position, and you literally only scored three runs off of those three solo home runs. That's atrocious. it's atrocious. I just can't believe it. They left seven men on base tonight and they were 0 for six of runners in scoring position. Defense, light up too.

You're not getting away. You were bad. Nolan Aronado, of all people, makes a throwing error? Come on. You know things are bad when Nolan Aronado is making throwing errors. Everything is against us at that point.

But Gabby can't throw out runners and, you know, again, it was one of those situations where those mistakes that they made did end up leading to run scoring, multiple run scoring, and being the difference because we only lost this game by one run. Another night where we participate in another one run game. It's shocking. Again, this goes to answer why the Diamondbacks have so many comebacks this year. It's because of the bullpen. It's because the bullpen holds these games close, even if the, you know, starter has a bad

day like Merrill had. And it wasn't like an egregious outing, but it was bad enough to lose them the game. and more importantly their offense was bad enough to lose them the game but the defense also didn't help at all and last but not least tory manager how can we not light that light up you sent jordan lawler this wasn't a jordan lawler decision this wasn't in him making a mistake you you said it in your post game press conference you strategically had the numbers and the data and computers and science and and numbers and numbers the numbers the numbers didn't tell you to just let Catele-Marté try to smash a baseball over the left field wall? That's what my numbers told me,

but my numbers are just a dumb guy that's never really played baseball at a professional level thinking he knows stuff, right? Though that's my numbers. But I still think that Tori deserves blame for that particular instance. And again, it was a weird time for them to start trying to manufacture runs when they had failed to do that throughout this entire series. Didn't really feel like there were a lot of, stolen base attempts by this team,

bunts to move guys over. I mean, they had a couple of them, right? I'm not saying they don't bunt and don't, whatever, but it's like it comes, it's like it's too little too late. It has to come when the game is on the line. Instead, you need to recognize that your offense is kind of like struggling, and you need to kind of get those moments going,

you know, like where we thought that the Corbyn Carroll walkoff was going to kickstart, you know, something special for this team. And instead, it was just a facade about what, what was going to happen in the series because it really did feel like in that game that we were taking all of the momentum and we were just going to roll over the Marlins after that walkoff win.

And instead, we're now talking about series loss and two games where they lost four to two and four to three. So, yeah, Tori's to blame for this one, for sure. All right, get me down off of here. I don't like heights. And I also probably shouldn't be that big due to the caloric consumption required.

But let's take a look at the numbers from tonight's loss, or actually this is from the series, and you guys aren't going to like this at all. Diamondbacks lose this series, obviously, two games to one. The Marlins outscore the Diamondbacks 15 to 13. The D-backs, meanwhile, they have 30 hits in this series to the 27 by the Marlins. They also had seven home runs to the Marlins four.

Meanwhile, five for 25 for the Marlins with runners-and-ins. scoring position and six for 31 for the Diamondbacks. It was a mid-off, it felt like, between these two teams. That's truly what this, looking at these numbers, reminds me of. That's a 194 batting average with one-runners in

scoring position there for the Diamondbacks and a 125 batting average there for or excuse me, not 120, about 200, 200 batting average for the Marlins. They both sucked. They were both but somehow the Marlins were less bad. Starting pitching ERA is also bad. 6.28 for the Diamondbacks, including Merrill Kelly giving up 4.2,

four runs in four point two innings pitched, and Corbin Burns giving up five runs in the same amount of innings pitched. And then the relief ERA, 2.45 for the debacks, 2.8 one for the Marlins. Whatever. Get this off my screen. I want to look at this. Burn it. Delete it.

delete it and then delete the computer that you deleted it on. Throw it in the trash. That's what the season has become trash. This has gone down the drain. And it's just heartbreaking that is once again for the third season in a row, the Diamondbacks missing the playoffs, most likely by just a handful of games. Maybe it's a lot more than that by the time the season wraps up.

Who knows? maybe they don't even finish this season above 500 at this point. They have tough series ahead. And we're going to talk about that real briefly on the other side of this break. So don't you go anywhere? You're watching the PH&X Diamondback show. And I'm still here. Well, something I definitely need for a night like this is pure edibles.

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first order and look i need to maybe forget a little bit about the baseball season so i might be joining the good guys over at the p hnx sun devils crew this saturday at glen rosa bar and restaurant glass clippings rolling hills boy that's a mouth full of a name uh to watch the sun devils take on kansas in london presented by kona big wave that's right we sent anthony tottree and shane defenbach to london will they make it back it's a fun game that we're all kind of betting on around here but uh you can definitely join the rest of the crew this is going to be sbo bow and cole all holding it down on site we got a 9 am kickoff it's free to rsvp there'll be drink samples they'll be drink specials. You can get yourself a $7.00 bucket of Kona and ultra cans. And again,

catch the live broadcast as well. So the link is in our show notes, but you can head over to our events page at go phnx.com to check out the event details and to RSVP for absolutely free. Well, is it over? Is it a wrap? I think I should have probably kept Alex around for this portion of the show because I'm not really ready to decide this on my own. I am emotional. I'm not well. So it's hard for me to look at the current standings for the wildcard race and not be completely disheartened by where we're at, right? We have the Diamondbacks here. They're now three and a half games out of a wildcard spot. More importantly, they're four games back in the lost column to the San Diego Padres. They are four and a half games back from the Phillies.

and they are five games back from the Cubs. Now, that's not a, you know, those teams are all very close, but the Diamondbacks do not play the Cubs or the Phillies. At this point, the Phillies have a three-game series coming up with the Mets and the Cubs have a three-game series with the Cincinnati Reds. I'm not even looking at the Cubs schedule anymore, and I am not even going to bring up the Chicago Cubs as far as this race is concerned.

What I will say is that the Phillies have three games with the Mets, then three games with the Brewers, and then they finish up their season with three games against the race. And excuse me, they have four games against the Mets. None of those are easy for the Phillies. I've already said the Phillies are guaranteed to make it in just because the other thing I said was dumb, and it made them go on like an eight-game, nine-game winning streak.

So I'm not going to say any of those things anymore, but I will say that mathematically we're not eliminated because these other teams have a tough road ahead of them. It's just honestly the way it is. Diamondbacks don't have an easy road ahead either, right? But what the Padres have is they have another game here with the Rockies, and then they have a three-game set with this exact same Marlins team that just took two out of three from us.

Then they take on the Dodgers for three games, and then the Diamondbacks. in the final series of the year. The only team that really the Diamondbacks can do anything about is the Padres. And I know that, you know, we're all going to be scoreboard watching and we're going to be living and dying with the losses of these other teams and the wins and losses of the Diamondbacks. But the Diamondbacks have a three-game set with the Yankees here at home.

If tonight is not the end of their season, losing two out of the three to the Yankees will be. It's almost hard to think of a world mathematically in which they are not completely out of it. I know they're not with the E against their name, and I know they're not mathematically eliminated. But then at that point, it would be close to needing to sweep the Rockies

and the Padres to have any chance of being in. And even then at that point, that might not still be enough. And Coolbro's right. D-BACs losing on Mexican Independence Day doesn't sit right with me. Doesn't sit right with me either, cool, bro. But yeah, for the most part, this is a great situation the debacks find themselves in. And there'll be a time and place when, if they don't make the playoffs, which seems likely now, where we can go back and split hairs

about some of these losses and where things went wrong. But if the Diamondbacks don't make the postseason, and even if they do, I don't know what you know, what would bring Tori back if that's something that you want and if it's something you don't want, I don't necessarily 100% know that the Diamondback's not making the postseason would ensure that Tori Lovela is not asked to come back and given a new contract for at least a short period of time. Right. But what I will say that is if they don't make the playoffs this year, it's hard to envision a world. in which a change is not needed because this will be the third consecutive season. And again, it's almost like there's almost a part of me,

and I know this is probably not a good way to think, but there's almost a part of me that would rather just see them lose and not get close and then lose by just a few games, right? If you're going to be bad and you're not going to put up a fight here at the end, then just roll over and die. And don't make us, don't continue to give us hope. and I know a lot of you have already lost hope. I understand why so many of you have lost hope.

More importantly, I almost feel like these last three seasons, if this does end in the way we hope it doesn't, I feel like these last three seasons are enough to cause people to no longer be fans of this organization and this franchise and not want this terrible feeling that we're all starting to feel right now after this loss and as we get closer to the end of the season. So I don't fault you for that either. I don't. I understand. I myself try to protect my peace. So I tend to not invest my time into

things that make me sad. And this baseball team at times very much makes me sad and I can understand how they make all of you sad. Hopefully though, they can get their shit together here, get it all together. I don't know where, but put it in a bag or something and take it with you where, I don't know, to the shit museum maybe. Get your shit together. It's a Rick and Morty joke. It's one of my favorites. But I will say this, this team needs to figure it out. And if they don't, then, yeah, there's probably going to be a lot of changes throughout this organization and a lot changing with this team. But I thank you guys. I thank you for at least investing your time in us and the show. Cannot thank you guys enough. We'll be back. What is it? Wednesday? Oh, my God.

Tomorrow's a Thursday, 12 p.m. show. No baseball tomorrow. So at least we know this team can't hurt us on Thursday. But don't you worry. They'll be back on Friday to hurt us all again. And we'll be here to cover it with another post-game show on Friday. So, of course, come back here for all of that. In the meantime, you can follow us on social media. I am at cap underscore caveman with a K. My apologies to Alex, our guy, Alex Dagostino. I did not mean to run over his Twitter handle like that. It's at Alex Dagg A-Z. I just meant it when I said I don't care about anything right now. I truly don't. In fact, I don't even care that Ayrton here, who's been doing so much work, still has the coolest Twitter handle in all this company. He's at

Freckled Mamba. So it's so cool. It makes me sick. But we got some super chats to get to you here. Our shows at PHNX underscore D-Bax, but all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Sorry about the super chats, guys. I know, like I said earlier, I don't care. I think I addressed that. I don't care about anything, anything at all anymore. The pain is too overwhelming. But I love to see B. Com see clearly BCSC is here. And he says, thank you so much for your super chat. I hear the saxophones. They are loud. Trash. Not wrong. Let's see. He said, who's the fine man? Snack attack? Noah Snatch. And yeah, this team doesn't cake. It's horrible. Like it's a flat service. I don't like it. More snatch. No ass to this team right now.

No ass is what BCSC is trying to say. And he's not wrong. I can't argue with that. Top G. Thank you so much for your super che says our big three aronado morano and mccan that's that actually is our big three right now thank you top g uh az catch g always good to see you my guy uh says i nominate paving for print snake tonight uh it kind of deserves prince snake and i know that a z catch g likes to upset people as well so i'm sure that's part of it uh he also says i'm sure that there's a harry burthos in merrivale I'm telling you. I'm going to search the Valley for one. I'm going to find one.

And then I'm going to ask them why they sent this man to torment our baseball team. Cool, bro. Thank you for your super chat. He says, I don't care that Pave and hit home run. He ruined the vibes. I've heard that a few times. You're not the only one that feels that way. And Cool bro also says,

Mike Hazen saying Gino made zero sense through Gambo. Yeah, yeah. I mean, nobody makes zero sense for this team. But then at the same time, you're saying he makes zero sense. and then you go out and pick up a guy like Hizu Sanchez or bring back, bring up Pave and Smith. That's, I don't know. It is what it is, but unfortunately,

what it is right now is the Diamondbacks being three and a half games out of the NL wild card spot. And if they slip any more, again, it's hard to imagine that they can make up that ground here over the next nine games that they have left to their 2026 season. We will still be here throughout the rest of it, though. So again, we thank you guys so much for your time. We'll see you back here tomorrow.

until then try, try to have a good rest of your night. Behave yourself and remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun. When you let Catelle just swing away and you don't try to steal second base, what are you doing?