PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - POSTGAME: Merrill Kelly Gets SHELLED By Rockies as D-backs Suffer EMBARRASSING Series Loss

Episode Date: August 13, 2026

Merrill Kelly entered Wednesday’s series finale with a 9-0 record and a 1.83 ERA over his last 14 starts against the Colorado Rockies, but the Mainstay got absolutely shelled as Arizona suffered its first home series loss to its NL West rival since July 2022. We break down Kelly’s disastrous outing, an offense that left 15 runners on base, and the D-backs managing just one run across three bases-loaded opportunities. On the bright side, Corbin Carroll launched the 100th home run of his career. We also play another round of the Blame Game, examine what this loss means for the NL Wild Card race, and check in on the latest rehab starts for Jordan Lawlar and Justin Martinez. Five debates. One ballot. Rank your G.O.A.T.s and rep your city: https://gophnx.com/the-goat-debate/ JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4 An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/ Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX15 at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order! Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visit https://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotes Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 40% 2+ pairs of off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you! When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, Merrill Kelly, who's been very good in his last 14, starts against the Rockies, gets shell today, and the D-BACs offense leaves 15 runners on base in a 6-4 loss, the first series loss at home to the Rockies since July of 2022. We're talking about all of this misery, and we're doing it right now. Hate that song. I hate that song. Welcome it to another edition of the PHNX-D-BACs podcast, live, live, live from Studio K, presented by our friends and social. Circle K. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX, and also occasionally known as a man who wants to eat his hat after he watches the Diamondbacks have bases loaded for three innings consecutively and only get one run out of it. Only one run! Ah! Welcome in to the

PHNX Diamondback show. I am your mayor. I am not alone. I got your dog, my dog. Definitely not the DeBacks dog today. It's Damon Dog, aka Damon Farrell over here running things behind the Mac. And of course, this show is brought to you by our friends at Game Time. Go download that GameTime app today. Use our code of PH&X when you do. Get yourself, of course, $20 off your first purchase there. Terms to apply. I can't recommend watching baseball games right now after what we just witnessed. But again, the Diamondbacks did lose this one in a close one that looked like it was going to be an absolute blowout early here by the Rockies. When the Diamondbacks were down six to one early in this game.

They do lose this one by a score of six to four, and they do drop to 64 and 58 on the season. But more importantly, the debacks lose their first home series to the Colorado Rockies since July 7th through 10th. It was a four-game series that they lost three of them. Back in 2002, it has been four years since those bums from Denver showed up in our house and beat us in a series, and this time they brought Jake McCarthy with them, which somehow made it feel even worse.

But the story of today's game is that Merrill Kelly absolutely got rocked by the Rockies, forgive the pun, but it's just the truth. And the D-Back's offense couldn't get the big hit when it mattered, loading the bases in three consecutive innings, only managing to play one run over those bases-loaded opportunities, and more importantly, leaving 15 runners on the game. base today. Fifteen runners on base today. Gross. And again, it started early in a game where

you honestly thought that this team looked like they were, at least I did, I can't speak for you people, but it looked like this team was going to kind of wreck the Rockies starting pitching in this one. Early on, the Diamondbacks looked good. And overall, Ryan Feltoner didn't look extremely good, didn't look extremely solid in the first inning, but things completely swapped on these two teams shortly after that. But again, with one out in the first, Corby Carroll hit his MLB leading 14th triple of the season. Was great to see that. And again, when I say MLB leading, it's not even close. There's not even really a race. There's Corbyn Carroll and then there's everybody else. And what I mean by that is the closest player to Corbyn Carroll in

triples is four other dudes tied with seven. Carol has 14. He's fast. I don't know if you've heard that. I mean, he's just so unbelievably good at hitting triples. Right. And the Diamondbacks are so unbelievably good at stranding him at times after he hits a triple. That didn't happen in the first inning, but it felt like that was the theme of today's. It felt like you should have got more runs still in the first inning, which, which, which, that's what I mean. I mean, like the first inning seemed to kind of set the tone of the day for the offense. A tone that basically was it was like this close to blowing the game open and that it never got closer than that. That's what happened in every one of these opportunities for the Diamondbacks offense today.

I couldn't even wrap my mind around what we were seeing there by the seventh inning. You know that even though I joke about it, that I don't actually believe the words, I say on Twitter impact that baseball team, even when I'm in the building writing those words. And yet, I was with you guys. After the second time of me posting the Samuel L. Jackson snakes on a plane giff about the plane being full of snakes, I was done seeing me posting. I was done. I was starting to think that it was me causing this team to fall apart in these big scenarios, right?

But again, back in the first, you had Gabriel Moreno singling on a comebacker that hit Rockies pitcher Ryan Feltoner, right in his ass, right in the butt cheek. And he couldn't find it for a second. It allowed Moreno to reach, you had. But it kept Corbyn at third just due to the nature of the play. So you had runners on the corners, one out early. Marte then delivered. Marte was very good today. Marte was very patient.

Marte got on base four times today. Ketel Marte was not the problem. and it's almost kind of another thing that drives me nuts about this game. This is a game where Pardomo, Corbyn Carroll, and Cotele all delivered for this team, all had good offensive days. And yet, here we talk about a six to four loss. It feels like they didn't really get a lot of the opportunities with the guys with bases loaded. They were the guys kind of creating those opportunities. Because again, Marte was being patient.

He walked twice today. He got two singles. He did have an RBI single there that's, scored Corbyn Carroll in the first inning that put the debacks up one and nothing. But like Damon said, like there you go. You have, I think it was Marino on second, Marte on first, two on, one out, and then Lars Neubar hit into the inning ending double play. And all of that, that's just what seemed to happen all day long.

They would get big hits, even Corbyn's home run, right? But it just, they weren't happening at the right time. They just couldn't sink up having the ducks on the pond and getting the big hit at any point in this game. And the Diamondbacks have scored one plus run in the first inning in four straight games now. That's one shy of tying their season high of five games with a run scored in the first inning. And the Diamondbacks' all-time record in that category is six games in a row with one

run or more scored in the first inning. So the offense feels like it's starting to click. But in this game, it's the clicking again. It just happened at the wrong time. After the top of the second, the Diamondbacks found themselves. down four to one thanks to Merrill Kelly's bad inning there and that's when things started to unravel for Kelly but with the offensive side of things you had Max Kepler single in the bottom of the second the dimebacks go down quietly otherwise the Peraldo Pardomo had a lead

off single in the third inning and he would advance the second on a Gabby groundout but that would be the farthest he would get and then we're down six to one in the fourth inning Max Kepler walked and again he got stranded but that's when they started breaking through a little bit. In the fifth inning with one out, Perdomo singled. He advances to second on a Corby and Carol pop-up. Gabriel Moreno delivered once again,

this time with a scorching RBI double down the third baseline, went all the way to the wall and scored Perdomo, and that made it a six to two game at the time. Marte tried to hit a 3-1 count ball to Mars. He literally, like, twisted himself around like he was the Bugs Bunny in the baseball cartoon. but he did stay patient there and would walk to add another base runner.

Neupar would also walk, and this would be where the Diamondbacks started loading the bases and not breaking through on those opportunities. They would have the bases loaded with two outs, but Nolan would swing at the very first pitch that he sees, and he would ground out to end the inning to third base, I believe. Kepler in the sixth inning would get his second hit of the day on a ball that just kind of dribbled right up the middle, a slow roller, but went right up the middle, it was a single. Tawa hits into the fielder's choice.

Kepler's out. Tau was on first. Waldschmidt walks and puts two runners on with one out. Then with two outs, Carroll walked to load the bases. Once again, bases loaded. This time two outs.

Once again, Gabby gets called out on strikes in a weird ABS challenge battleoff that Gabby had in that moment. Gabby won two ABS challenges in that at bat. But the Rockies get the last laugh because they get an ABS challenge on a ball call to cause Moreno to strike out looking. And man, what does that say about the home plate umpire? That in one single at bat, a very important at bat, mind you. Base is loaded.

Sixth inning. You're kind of getting late in the game. You got a team down by a lot, but they have an opportunity to really tear one open. And this man missed three calls on one at bat. that both teams had to use their ABS challenges to overturn. God bless the ABS challenge system, I guess is what I should say. But also, remember, if we just gave them the little earpiece and it just buzzed, we could avoid all this embarrassment.

We could make these guys look like studs, you know? Don't the umpires want to look right all the time? I don't know why they're so against the earpiece and the buzzing. But anyway, that's how the sixth inning ends, once again in heartbreak with the bases loaded and no runs coming across the plate. Another inning where that happened was in the seventh. Three innings in a row, fifth, sixth, and seventh. The Diamondbacks had bases loaded at some point,

and we're not able to bring in a run on the first two opportunities. And the seventh inning, Marte, Newbar, and Aronado all walk with no outs to load the bases to start the seventh. Kepler flies out for the first out. Vargas has a very patient, very lengthy at bat, and he walks. And I liked Vargas's at bat. This is kind of like where people were telling me that, you know, the 12 pitch at bat Aronado had wasn't a battle and he lost and he swung at stuff. So did Vargas. Vargas and this at bat. He swung at pitches outside of the zone. He did his best to try to actually deliver with a hit that would bring in multiple runs and change the game. He didn't want to just walk in a run. He wanted to get a big hit in a big moment as a pinch hitter and do the thing. And still, battled off pitches, fouled stuff off, tried to get some hits in. Ultimately, he walks and he walks. And he walks in a run with the bases loaded.

That's the only run. That is the only run. That, I want to throw something. That is the only run on Bargis walking in a run that they would get on three bases loaded opportunities over three consecutive innings. I know I'm supposed to be here to explain things to you, but I would like you guys to make it make sense to me because I just can't. I just can't.

I can't. And again, watching these other guys have like singles when there's no runners on base, but then hit into double plays. to end the inning like Walschmidt did in the 7th. He hits into the inning-ending double play. And again, the Diamondbacks loaded the bases, three consecutive innings. More importantly, I don't even know why they're swinging at anything.

They had eight walks between the point where there were two outs in the fifth inning and one out in the seventh. Eight walks in like two innings. And one run to show for it. I mean, I don't know. I don't know if I should condemn them. I don't know if I should applaud them for being at least patient. Damon told me I wasn't allowed to be positive on this episode at all.

So, you know me. I exude positivity. It comes out of my pores. That's not the truth. That's just what I pretend to do on this show. Damon knows the real me. It really is a pretty big gimmick that you're playing an audience. It's all a big lie.

I'm not positive. I want to scream right now. That's what I wanted this to be. 57 minutes of me just screaming. Or maybe the Fah sound. I don't know. That. Just that on repeat for 57 minutes.

Because that's what it feels like after watching this team squander away. Opportunity after opportunity after opportunity. But one bit of positivity that it was in the eighth inning with one out where Corbyn Carroll did hit the 100th home run of his career. and that made it a 6 to 4 game, which was very manageable. They had five more outs and they were down by two runs. And they were against a very bad Rockies bullpen that you can't help but feel like they should have done more against even after that point. But again, Corby and Carroll, 100th home run of his career.

He is behind a guy named Lou Gehrig and a guy named Joe DiMaggio for fastest player to reach 100 career home runs and 50, triples. That's an impressive list. And Corbyn continues to be in the company of guys named Garig and DiMaggio. And again, you cannot say enough about what that means. I know Carol isn't having the strongest season. I know his stats aren't where we would like to see them nor where he would like them to be at. But today Corby and Carol delivered for this team and he offensively was not the problem for this team. He was, in fact, the king snake of today's game. Corby and Carroll went two for four with a home run. League leading 14th triple there and an

RBI. And again, he also had a walk and just a good day. Corby and Carroll also has a 17-game hitting streak now against the Colorado Rockies. So good on our good on Carol. And then in the there in the eighth inning, the Diamondbacks would two outs get some base runners on. Marte would get on again. Locklear, they would, Tyler Locklear would pinch hit for a single. Marte and Locklear would both get on to bring the go-ahead run to the plate. But Aronado, who was amazing defensively today, would ground out to third base to end the inning. And I think that Aronado was probably one of the more disappointing performances of the day

just because he came up in so many big spots. And after delivering that grand slam home run just on Monday in this series, you know, he failed to really bring that big hit. today. But his defense was amazing. Nolan Aronado's defense never ceases to amaze me. In the first inning with two outs, he made an incredible pickup and throw

on a slow roller from T.J. Rumfield to end the inning. And I mean, it was just the pickup was amazing. The throw was incredibly accurate and perfect, and you just can't say enough about what Aronado does over there at third base day in and day out. Also, while that was happening,

there was a fan who heckled T.J. Rumfield, and he called him T.J. Bumfield in a fairly empty stadium as loudly as he could. And I'll admit it, I laughed. I thought it was a solid heckle. That's good. I felt like we were just in such a good position. At that point, Damon, I was in such a good mood.

And then they ruined it after that. Maybe it's my fault for laughing at the guy making the Bumfield joke. I don't know. It was funny. But Arnato also did it again in the fifth inning where he initiated a double play with another great pickup where he stepped on third base to get one out and threw it across the diamond. That was on a ball hit by Hunter Goodman

and delivered just a perfect throw once again to get the out at second. Unfortunately, he just couldn't deliver that kind of performance at the plate today for the Diamondbacks. And it was a day where plenty of guys had multiple hits and plenty of base runners were on. Like I said, 15 runners left on base today. Geraldo Pardomo, two for six with a run scored.

Gabby Moreno, two for five, with a double and an RBI. Kattel Marte on base four times. He'd two for three with two walks, a run scored, and an RBI for Kattel. Max Kepler also was on base several times. He got on base three times. He was two for four with a walk. And yet still, we were talking about the Diamondbacks

only being able to plate four runs today in a six to four loss. Disappointing to say the least. And as much as I do want to sit here and blame the offense, once again, this one is going to have to go on Merrill Kelly for putting the Dinembacks in a five-run deficit very early in this game. And we were going to talk about his day.

on the other side of this break. Don't you go anywhere. You're watching the PH&X Diamond Back Show. Well, branded bills always makes me smile, even on a day like this, because they are an incredible hat company, and they make some wonderful hats, not only as part of their campus collection

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No, because it's like a community, Damon. You're not just going to see Cardinals fans there. You're going to see, well, there's a good reason for that. But you're going to see fans of all sorts of different NFL teams, all having a great time, watching on the giant screens, having flexible ways to make their bed, getting in on the delicious food, and maybe even going downstairs after, you know, heading upstairs to the bed MGM sportsbook for a while and maybe gambling some of their

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even though I don't know what that's like as a Cardinals fan, and enjoy everything Heal of Riversorts and Casinos has to offer. Heal of Riversorts and Casinos, all the ways you do you, visit play atheela.com for more details. And let's see. In the chat, we got Jason, because it is doomsday after losing to the Rocky. He says, odds D-backs make postseason is now a metariac.

I can't see that. Meteoric? Meteor. I'm sorry. I think you could see that one. I was looking in the wrong area, but you are absolutely right. I am a moron, and I can't, I can't, I can't breed, but a meteoric plunge. And I really don't give a damn about that.

Honestly, I'm going to say this before you're getting on for us right now. This has already happened to the Diamondbacks of this season. So again, odds. are stupid. Odds are expected stats. Our odds aren't real. We don't have any clue of what's going to happen. It is honestly the reason why

when people were talking about like securing the second spot and getting two games up, like they made it sound like that was important. They made it sound like that was going to like lock in the playoff spot. It is August 12th. We have so much more baseball left to play. And it's one of the reasons why I would even debate

that there's not a reason to be looking looking at the wild card standings before you hit September. There's a good reason for the purpose of the trade deadline to see where you're at and how you compare to other teams, how close to being in the race you are. But outside of that, I don't care about odds right now. And I definitely don't care about where they're at in the wild card standings, even though we're going to take a look at that here shortly. And I'm going to tell you what the odds are too, even though we don't care.

Never tell me the odds. The Diamondbacks yesterday were at a 48.3% chance of making the playoffs. the Padres were at 52.9% chance for anyone curious. And then today, after the loss today, the Diamondbacks now sit at 45.1% chance to make playoffs, and the Padres are at 55%. So I wouldn't quite say a meteoric plummet. It was about a 3% fall off there, which is significant.

I mean, it's a lot for a singular baseball game in August. but yeah, it's not quite as doomsday scenario as, I guess, that I would think. Yeah, well, I'm not there yet. I'm not there yet. Though I will say Merrill Kelly's performance today is of concern. And it's once again a day where, as Damon and I have discussed and described, this team goes how Merrill Kelly goes. If Merrill Kelly has a good day, the Diamondbacks win.

If Merrill Kelly has a bad day like he had today, they lose. and even in this case six runs isn't insurmountable they put up nine in game one of this series right that's not a it's not like they couldn't have come back with 15 base runners left on you damn right that they had the opportunity to come back so it wasn't that out of the question however again it just seems to be the case that Merrill Kelly either wins games for the diamondbacks or he loses them and the date started off strong for Kelly

in the very first inning but it quickly turned on him and this wasn't about pitch count or anything like that this was about getting out, which was the problem for Merrill Kelly. And I mean, he has not had that problem coming into this game against the Rockies. In his last 14 starts against Colorado, Merrill Kelly has 12 quality starts out of 14. He is 9 and 0 with a 1.83 ERA, an opponent batting average of 207, 21 walks, and nearly 90 strikeouts. Merrill owns the Rockies, but you didn't own them today. They owned him.

And again, one, two, three first inning had you feeling like it was going to be another one of those days for Merrill. But it started in the second inning. He gave up three singles in a row without recording an out, including an RBI single to Willie Castro that tied the game up at one. He would finally get two outs in a row, but he wouldn't get three, unfortunately. Brett Sullivan hit a three-one fastball off Merrill Kelly to the right-frey. field pole and I've never watched a ball travel and mentally tried to bring it this way as much as possible. It didn't even look like it was going to be a home run. It looked like it was going foul and then it donged and then next thing you know the diamondbacks are down four to one after that three

run home run. Kelly then walked Castro to lead off the fourth and proceeded to give up a two run a home run to Zach Vien, his first of the season, and that increased the deficit to six to one, and that would be all the offense the Rockies would score. But it would be enough. Kelly gave up a pair of singles to lead off the fifth, but he got that Aronado double play that I talked about earlier to get through that inning. And overall, that's where his day would end after five innings pitched. It was a disastrous outing for Kelly. There's no other way to say it. It once again confirms what I was just saying. Let's take a look here. Damon, do we have the pitch chart for Merrill?

This is all over the place. Again, remember, we talked about, like, consistency and a nice little color rainbow where everything's kind of landing in a similar pattern in the similar location and strike zone. You can see here that this is utter nonsense and chaos. His fastball was all over the place, and the one place it wasn't was in the zone.

It wasn't where he wanted it. It wasn't up where Kelly wanted it. He didn't have that change-up complimenting it. A lot of change-ups landing low and where he would want them. But again, I don't think that the fastball played well enough today for it to help out the change-up, which he did use 28% of the outing, and he got three whiffs on the change-up. But the four-scene, the problem with Merrill's outing today was his four-seam fastball. He maxed out at 92.4 miles per hour with his fast-up.

fastball today, and he averaged 90.7 miles per hour, which is down nearly two miles per hour of his yearly average of 92.1. He got no whiffs on this fastball, and he threw it entirely too much. He threw it 40% of the outing, 39% of the outing. Curb ball, 17% got the cutter in 7, slider and sinker, 4% each. He got a whiff on the curve ball, whiff on the slider, but didn't get very many whiffs on the day. Overall, just a five, whiff day for Merrill and a two strikeout day. And you know the strikeout meter deserves better. If I'm, if I'm going to stand here and get really angry about anything, it's going to be the 15 runners left on base. But it's also going to be not properly appeasing the strikeout meter.

Two strikeouts, not enough. Not enough for the amount of electricity that we, we have to, we have to use to power that thing on. But again, Kelly gave the Diamondbacks five innings today, six hits, six earned runs, three walks, he struck out two, and he gave up two home runs. If there was any bright spot about this day for the Diamondbacks pitching-wise, it's the bullpen once again. The bullpen came in after Kelly had a disastrous day, and they held the Rocky scoreless. And Herardo Carrillo is a certified G and a bona fide stud, and you can't teach that. this man comes into the game, gives up a, I think it was a, what was it, a leadoff double to Willie Castro. Then he walked a batter and then catcher's interference put on another batter to load the bases.

And Cadillo navigated through all of that without giving up a run in the sixth inning. And then he comes back out and just blows the doors off the Rockies in the seventh inning. his day two innings pitched one hit a loud one walk 4K and I mean that might that might need to be his name 4Krio because he's gorgeous he's bright

he's vivid my eyes love to look at him like a 4K television but more importantly this guy just has suddenly become a very valuable part of this bullpen right like to the point where I wouldn't even consider even though he is kind of the rookie in this situation and he is the guy that seems like a likely candidate to possibly

be optioned back to Reno. I'm not moving. I'm not moving Cudillo anywhere. I'm not moving him anywhere. And I'm with James McCann's jockstrap. Build the statue. Build it now. Build it next to the one of the hashtag the meeting. But again, the rest of the bullpen also solid, right? Abner goes out there in what Damon and I kind of deemed like garbage time for Abner. We felt like this was waving the white flag after watching the Diamondbacks once again squander a basis-loaded opportunity. Philip Abner was great.

He gave up a hit, but in one inning pitched, that's all he gave up. And then Brandon Garcia, you already know about his certified status and his bona fide status. One inning pitched, one strikeout for Brandon Garcia. And honestly, this bullpen was incredible throughout this whole series. I think they allowed one run in the series.

And that's just that that's a series. that you should win against the Colorado Rockies. Unfortunately, the one run allowed by the bullpen was in the close three to two baseball game that gave the Rockies the win in game two. So that sucks and is ironic that that one run is the one run that essentially cost them a baseball game.

But overall here, the big story when it comes to pitching is Merrill Kelly. And Merrill Kelly's inability to essentially get, you know, give this team a chance to win today. it also starts to put things in doubt. I mean, Merrill Kelly, his numbers are bad. There's no other way to cut it. And it's getting to the point where Merrill now is kind of in Zach Gowan status.

I don't know if you're feeling comfortable having Merrill Kelly out there in big games for you. And again, it's not, it's the way things line up. It's the roster that's the way it's constructed, right? But still, Damon, I feel like this very much is, you know, going in the same direction, like I said, that Zach went. Yeah, I mean, it's certainly there's a zero confidence going on right now when Merrill Kelly takes the mound. Because as we keep talking about, you don't know what you're going to get. You can get a decent performance potentially, as we've seen recently. And, you know, I think we talked about on like two shows ago.

Like, he was having a few games here and there that were really, really not all that bad. I think there was one game mixed in that was pretty terrible in there that he gave up like five and four and something innings. It wasn't that long ago. No, but the rest of the games were like two earned, one earned, zero earned in the last six starts or so. And, I mean, tonight was just about as bad as it gets.

And you could tell from the second inning that we were probably not going to be able to win this baseball game because of how poorly he was pitching. I mean, how many balls got hit? 100 plus miles per hour in the second inning alone. It was something ridiculous. I'm sure it was. I don't have a pulled up right now, but I'll take a look at that. Yeah.

Grab it on baseball, Savon. It's just, he was just really, really bad tonight. And I think as you showed on the pitch chart, nothing was in the spot that it was supposed to be. He had zero command, which when Merrill Kelly doesn't have good command, it's usually a pretty rough outing. And yeah, I'll be honest, that, that contract, is looking worse and worse.

I mean, I'm not loving the $20 plus million we're paying him next season, to be honest with you. And I saw some chatter about it, but if it ends up costing you Mike Soroka in like a re-sign opportunity because he's going to command a decent contract after his really solid season and you can't pay it because Merrill Kelly's making a whole bunch of money, that's going to be pretty unfortunate. Let's see. We had in the second inning, one, two, three, four, five balls hit, that were hard hit over 95 miles per hour.

One was a line out. One was a flyout. Two were singles. One was a home run. Not good. That's hard hit baseballs. Yeah. Yeah. Not good at all. And again, if you want to talk about truly not good and you want to talk about a conversation that we already had. an unfortunate conversation that we had about Zach Gallen, this one comes from our guy, Alex D'Agostino. Merrill Kelly's 5.11 ERA is currently the third worst qualified figure for a starting pitcher in Major League Baseball behind Aaron Nola and Freddie Peralta are the only two pitchers with worst qualified ERAs. And obviously, as we all know, before Zach Gallen, you know,

got his, what was it, his elbow inflammation or whatever he's dealing with, he was the worst starting pitcher qualified ERA in baseball. Right. And since moved off that list. If you're doing the math at home, that would mean we have two of the worst qualified starting ERAs in major baseball. Well, Zach Allen no longer qualified, but when he was, he was the worst. And that was for about two thirds of the season here.

And I mean, that's. About half. That's merely essentially semantics, right? Because really, if you're not, if you're throwing the qualified thing out the door, I'm sure there's a lot of guys with bad ERAs. But. I still feel like Zach Gallen isn't like a guy that's only had a handful of starts, right? Zach Gallen just has missed some time and made him fall out of being qualified,

but he's still right there knocking on the door, and he's still been so bad this year. And it's just unfortunate. It's unfortunate. It's unfortunate for Freddie Peralta. If I'm talking for another pitcher that isn't part of this organization, Freddie Peralta has been on an extremely team-friendly contract his entire career. He has been a stud. and now here at the time where it's time for him to finally get his big payday as a free agent at the end of this year,

he has one of, if not the worst qualified ERA and all of baseball, right? That sucks for these guys, man. They work so hard to get to that point. They work so hard to be elite. And for it to fall apart for them like that is it just, it's heartbreaking. But for us, it's maddening, right? Because it's like, we want Zach. Gallin to be elite in his time with the Diamondbacks and then go off and get your money elsewhere,

but we would love to see that. Good for you, right? Like, I don't want to lose to you in the playoffs or anything, but overall, it's like, as long as you shoved here, then great, go get your money because we're not going to pay you a big contract and that's just the reality of this organization. I'm in the camp of like, I don't really feel bad for guys that are starting to fall off in real time, Unless it's like... I'm falling off in real time right now, thanks to the chair. Unless it's like, you know, maybe like one of the greatest players of all time, potentially. But I think in the case of like Zach Gallen or Merrill Kelly, like it's, I'm not like feeling bad.

I'm more feeling bad about how I have to watch these horrible performances and my team is losing and might not make the playoffs because of it. But I do feel bad when like in retrospect, when when players get moved off of or. like their time is finally up. That's, I feel like I, I can have like a good conclusion point where I'm like, and you know what? I was the most anti-Paven Smith guy in the world, but I hate to see a guy lose his job and his dream fall apart. Like that doesn't make me feel good about anything.

For Merrill Kelly and Zach Allen right now, I'm not all that sad, but there will be a point where I think I get there. Yeah. Yeah. Well, right now it's more anger. And right now they're impacting this baseball team. And more importantly, it's not just impacting this baseball team. We need those guys.

We need them. We need Merrill. We need one of them no matter what, right? There's no scenario in which a five-man pitching rotation for the Diamondbacks right now does not include one of Zach Gallen and Merrill Kelly. Right. So it sucks that. Unless there's another injury. Right.

Right. Well, and that's what I'm saying. Like overall, Mitch Brett is the guy that right now is looking like the odd man out when he's been pretty damn good in his last two outings been pretty damn good. Yeah. And I don't know if that's. That's the move, right? But it's got to be the move. It's got to be the move due to the contracts.

It's got to be to the fact that like at least Zach, you could DFA Zach. And that's fine because he's going to be, not only is he going to be, you know, a free agent after the season and no longer remember this organization. But there's also a very, very good chance that Zach Gallen is not going to see any playing time if the Diamondbacks make the postseason. Oh, yeah. I would be shocked if he did. Right. Same with Merrill. I mean, like, it's same with Merrill.

Merrill is kind of playing himself out of that spot, in my opinion. But Merrill at least is going to be here next year, so you can't do anything with Merrill. You're not BFAing Merrill at this point, right? Correct, yeah. So that's the reason why it does feel like, you know, Gallin is the obvious choice as far as if you are going to part ways with one of these starters or do something, you know, like that once Corbin Burns returns. But, again, we have to get there. We have to get to Justin Martinez and Jordan Lawler coming back. We have to get to Corbin Burns coming back.

and we got to get to these islands, these stops along the way, and then we can get to the postseason. Yeah, I mean, we need them to happen soon. We need them to happen soon because, you know, I know that you don't want to look at the playoff odds, but I think that, you know, like 45% is about probably where we should be right now. That's fair. Which is, yeah, like a little bit less than half. But you got a really good shot of making the postseason. But yeah, and every single game matters.

That's why losses like this hurt so bad. Losses like yesterday hurt so bad where you feel like you're a really. a better team than the team that you're playing. It's baseball. You're not going to win every game, but you got to find a way to win the series when you lose a heartbreaker like yesterday. And I think that, you know, this, today's loss is especially hurtful because as you outlined with that whole offensive segment one, and you could, you could say, call it

offensive or offensive. I think it would play either way. Yeah, it plays either way. But 10 hits and 10 walks and four runs is despicable. Oh, I want to throw my shit on something. And it's one of those things where it's. like the plate approach for the most part was pretty decent. You had 10 walks and 10 hits.

It's a pretty good plate approach. But then the played approach in situational hitting circumstances was about as bad as it could possibly be. And that's the sign of a baseball team that doesn't get it done. I know they've been playing pretty good recently. But today was like a, you know, it felt like, you know, it's hard to say that there's anything other than a little bit of a, mentality issue when you have that many guys in scoring position, that many base runners, and you're straining that many. And don't worry, we're going to play the blame game on the other side of this break, Damon,

but I know there's one light that we don't have for the blame game show. And that light is one thing, no, it's not you, it's not me. We're going to add those. But it's one thing that we should consider here because as you looked at the shortcomings of this offense today, right, it was almost like an anomaly. It was almost like there was some sort of weird spell cast over. the team or Chase Field. And I want to take a moment to direct everybody's attention to the fact that evil Michael

was at Chase Field today, once again, disobeying all rules about keeping 90 feet plus away from that stadium, that ballpark, right? And I don't love the fact that this team had all this weird stuff happened today. That was all negative with that man in the building, Damon. Evil Michael button might need to happen. It seriously might need to happen. Get this man away from my baseball team as far away as possible. Verbal meme, Derek.

We need the Jamal Adams going into the Jets facility. Yeah. Scanning the key card. That's Michael. But it's Michael with his ticket. And then they scan it and it goes, Burt. That's weird.

It's been working all season here. Scan it again. Burn. Oh, I must have got cut. What happened? And then all of a sudden, the manager is coming down from the ticket office. And he's saying, hey, I'm sorry, evil Michael. But you're not allowed inside of Chase Field anymore.

As Sean says here, he needs to be ro-kickyed out of Chase. But on that note, we're going to take a break. And then we're going to blame real people who we really fill the blame. And it's still Michael. Like, I still blame Michael. But we're going to talk about who's to blame on the other side of this break. Don't you go anywhere. You are watching the PHNX blame game. Of course, if you are ever involved in an accident or serious injury, the lawyer you hire does matter.

So that's why you should contact the husband and wife law team first. Mark and Alexis Pryor are the husband and wife law team. They are residents of this city that we live. Phoenix is their home where they raise their eight children and where their focus is always on client results and giving back to the community. And after serious injury, you want someone that is worried about your best interest, not the best interest of the firm, and how much the firm makes. That's the husband and wife law team. Their team brings hundreds of years of combined trial experience

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that you may speak to one of their lawyers as often as you choose about anything you want to discuss, including the Diamondbacks leaving 15 men on base today. And you have the right to trust that as your lawyers, they will tell you both the strengths and weaknesses of your claim so that you can make informed decisions. If you've had a serious injury, call the husband and wife law team first at 602-783-8-8-4-1 or visit their website at the link in our show notes and tell them the mayor of PHNX sent you. But make sure to say PHNN.

It can be confusing if you just say the mayor sent you. A kind man today that I met at Chase Field, he introduced me to his son as the mayor. And I think that child is going to be very confused for a little while if you ever actually looks up the mayor of Phoenix. But speaking of Phoenix, tomorrow is a day where we thrive here in Phoenix because tomorrow at Circle K, it is an inner circle fuel day, folks. Sound the alarms. get your cars get your get every container you have at your house and go fill it up with gas no that's a bad idea but do take your car over to circle k and fill it up you're going to save 40 cents off per gallon as a valued member of the inner circle and if you are not an inner circle member i don't know why

i have to keep convincing you to do this do you not love saving money it's easy sign up today you can join the inner circle by downloading the app and getting enrolled and then you just have to use your phone number to score circle deals like fuel day where you will save 40 cents off per gallon on gas at select sites of course you can also get 79 cent polar pops and 99 cent frosters as well as all sorts of other deals where you can buy two get one free on monster 16 ounce drinks featuring the circle k exclusive ultra punk punch or fill yourself up with one of their three dollar four dollar or five dollar or excuse me six dollar meal deals that six get you two slices of pizza, any 20-ounce Coca-Cola product, or a 44-ounce polar pop?

That's almost like it's free. That's how I would view that. That's free. Join the Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today. Terms and conditions do apply at participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. Well, Damon, I do want to look at the numbers for this series because they're both embarrassing and maddening. But before we do that, you know what we have to do.

You know we cannot just have a loss like this. happen without heaping shame and blame on someone. So if you wouldn't mind putting me up on that amazing billboard on the I-17, it's time once again to play the blame game. It's too much power for one man to half. But Diamondbacks lose this one by a score of six to four. And with the way Merrill Kelly pitched today, there is no doubt in my head that we're turning on that first light. Again, this is why we need to separate starting and relieving. We have to have a starter button and we need to have a bullpen button because the bullpen, I almost want to cut this in half, bullpen did nothing wrong.

In fact, they barely did anything wrong in the series besides one Kevin Ginkle blemish and pitching, again, was solid in two out of the three starts. Mitch Bratt was fine. Of course, the two-headed snake there in game one of this series of Michael Soroka and Zach Lattel, who I got to meet today for the first time. They were incredible, but not so much today from Merrill Kelly.

Merrill Kelly did not give this team a chance to win. And once again, it just kind of feels like the Diamondbacks, I don't know. They don't seem to be a team, even though they have as many comeback victories as they have this year, that responds well to being down like this. And again, that's not uncommon. Most baseball teams don't respond well to being down by five runs. However, most of their comebacks this year have occurred in closer games because, you know, this team has been able to keep a lot of games close. not only do they have the most comeback victories, but they have participated in the most one-run game.

So it does feel like, you know, pitching, even though sometimes isn't perfect, has still kept them in a lot of baseball games. It did not do so today, and that deficit was too much. Batting, offense, turn that bad boy on. Can you, I want it to be brighter. I am so mad at the offense. As mad as I am at Merrill Kelly,

I feel like this offense had more than ample opportunity, to overcome the deficit. They end up only losing this one by two runs, and they left, once again, I don't know if you remember when I said it earlier, 15 men on base, Damon. 15 men on base, and they lost by two runs, and I'm continuing to make my chair shrink.

I might just fall off of this billboard here with the fact my chair keeps dying on me here, but... I don't know if you noticed, I did make it bigger. It should be. It should be. Make it so bright you can't even see the sign anymore with how bad this offense performed today. And that was still on a day where Corbyn Carroll

had home run number 100 and this team plated four runs. Not only did they plate four runs, Damon, my God, they had 11 hits today. The Diamondbacks had more hits in today's loss than they did in the 9-0 victory on Monday. And not just hits, but the walks as well. They had so many walks, 10 walks.

11 hits Ugh Defense escapes this one We're not gonna You're fine defense You didn't do anything wrong But let's talk about manager I mean

People were already coming for us And saying like Oh why didn't the manager of the year Fix this right Is it on the manager When your starter That you should be able to rely on Goes out there and gives up six runs

I mean What did Tori do to cause this loss? I mean, I feel like we'll be waiting for a long time. Every answer that you'll get there, and maybe I'm wrong, Derek, because I did miss a portion of this game. But, like, as far as I'm, you know, aware of what went down, it was runners and scoring position, and it was your starter having a bad performance.

Yeah. And it feels like sometimes, you know, like, I'm fine with saying that Tori needs to get the team ready to play more for a game that's very vital to their playoff chances. So I'm fine lighting it up. But if we're doing a ranking, he's not even close to the starting pitching and the situational hitting. Yeah. No, 100%.

And I also think that if anything, you could say maybe he could have managed some of those bases loaded situations better. Two of them were with two outs. So again, you're not being able to like, bun to run in or suicide, you know, suicide squeeze or anything like that. Not to mention those don't usually have very high conversion rates on those types of plays. Realistically, what Tori tried to do is let his players play and give them a big opportunity in a big moment.

And it just seemed like, you know, you got a big at-bat from Vargas, who came in as a pinch hitter. Pinch hitting is one of the hardest things to do in baseball, coming in cold and having it at bat like that. I think it was 11 pitches, 10-10. pitches something close to that. And Vargas, again, he worked the count. He got himself a walk eventually. He did walk in a run, gave himself an opportunity to also try to get a hit. He didn't just get up there and play for the walk. He got up there and actively, even though this pitcher

couldn't hit the strike zone, actively tried his best to, you know, do something more with that moment. And he's still delivered by walking. I don't, I didn't really see other guys putting together at bats like that, especially Aronado when he grounded out on the very first pitch he saw with a basis-loaded opportunity. So, I know people always want to blame the manager.

I know that, but we're not doing that today. I'm not putting this one on Tori. Maybe, you know what I might put him on before, Damon, here's what I will say, because someone else brought it up. Tori was talking about today before the game, like, that the one thing that this team has and that's spreading and becoming more common in sports is love.

for each other. I don't know if I was just in a bad mood today or I was not in the mood to hear that. And that was pregame. I just wasn't in the mood for that. I'm like, I've been hanging out with Damon too much. Damon, there's no love when Damon talks about sport. This is war for Damon. This is kill or be killed.

I think, Derek, I think, you know what? I defend myself about this a lot. But like, I do hear that sentiment because I do feel that way. but I do think that like I am a lover at the end of the day I'm an emotional guy I my highs are high my lows are low I want you know I want to scream and yell when we lose a game like this and then when the team you know wins the pennant no one's happier than Damon those guys you know those guys are etched into my heart forever you know so it's it's it's kind of a combo but yeah it's fine I'm a hater I know it's still like I admit it I know the sentiment is still that their family and that they're connected and a connected team is dangerous and all of that. But I think I pair what he said with, you know, the performance day. And I'm like, no, it's not all you need is love. No, what you need sometimes is to scream at people in the dugout. That's all you need sometimes. To yell at people. Be angry. Throw something. Kick over a gatoried bottle every once in a while. I don't know. Anyway,

we're going to take a break. On the other side of this break, we are going to talk a little bit about some updates on guys who had their rehab starts yesterday. So, some encouraging news on reinforcements that can hopefully help losses like this, keep losses like this from happening. We're going to do that on the other side of this break. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching P.H.N.X. Diamondback show. Well, shout out to Sanderson Ford because if you've been thinking about upgrading your ride this summer,

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$59.99 dealer dock fee and dealer ads must finance through Ford Mortar Credit on approved credit C dealer for qualifying vehicles and complete offers. The offer does expire on August 31st, 2026. And Damon, I know I know you're sad about your vacation time being over, but we got one more boys trip left in us. And that is to Circa at the end of this month. That is right. The Wildcat show, the Ph.NX Diamondback. show, we're going to be coming to you live from Circa Resorts, and it is the place that you should go. It is the place I go every time I go to Las Vegas, and I can't get enough of Circa.

Plus, right now... Nothing beats Stadium Swim. Oh, literally nothing beats Stadium Swim. It's the greatest sports book in the world. And I don't even think that it's really particularly even close to it. I go to a lot of events, and you know something about me in events. I tend to enjoy myself, but I think I have a better time watching events. at stadium swim than going to the events themselves.

I get to sit in a pool with a giant screen while I watch WrestleMania. Get out of here. Plus right now they have $30 million. Servers, betting on games. I mean, there's literally nothing like it in the entire world. It's the best. And they got $30 million in guaranteed prizes. You can cash in this football season in Las Vegas with three Circa Sports Contest.

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Enter in Nevada. Play from anywhere in the world. $30 million in guaranteed prizes. Visit Circusports.com for all the details. And rank week is also right. around the corner and we want to hear from you diehards i guess today is the last day to participate so if you have not done so already today is the last day to get in on the goat vote for a number of different categories and help us determine our rank week that's coming on august 17th we got best

hoops player of all time best athlete of all time best qb of all time biggest phoenix and arizona villains and yes you can vote for damon and best uniform in arizona history can only vote once though so make sure you get your voice heard before voting closes on August 12th. Today, you get an I-voted sticker that you can share on social media that let us know you're participated. And of course, if you are not a diehard, now is the best time to do so. Join today at go p.hynx.com slash join to get your voice heard. The link will be in our show notes. Well, we do have a game that's ongoing right now and it is an extra innings between those frauds, the brewers who can't seem to beat the Padres in any games. I believe it's over, dear.

And now it's over. The brewer's lost. Correct. Yeah, gross. Well, Damon, I guess now's the time to just, I mean, normally I try to pick us up before the end of the episode, but let's bring us down a little bit more by taking a look at the National League wildcard standings that I said earlier in this episode. In this very episode, with this very mouth, I said I didn't want to look at. Let's take a look at them, shall we? Oh, Diamondbacks now in the third spot overall after losing two games in a row. the Padres have now won four and they jump past us and the Phillies to take the number two spot in the wild card race and the Phillies.

I was at the Padres last loss, by the way. You were and maybe you need to be there more. Maybe that's what happened. Derek does. Maybe they felt like they beat you by you leaving. Do you guys, do we need to start a fund and send Damon to go to every game at Petco Park? I think we just might have to do that as a community to save this season. You're not going to go fund this, are you?

It's up to you guys. I mean, do you guys want to make playoffs or not? Everybody, let's find out if we got to find rent for me. We got to move me out to San Diego, obviously. It's going to take some money, but I think we can make it happen, guys. I was asked on Monday during a Mailbag Monday question, who did I think was going to make the playoffs and who was going to miss? And I said I thought it was going to be the Phillies, and I still think it's going to be the Phillies.

I know it's just this point right now, but so far, so good. Right. But Damon, get this, make this go away. I don't want to look at the same. You don't want to look at this anymore? No, this is bothering me. This is upsetting me. I mean, it's really scary how close everybody is here.

That's the truth. That actually is the truth. Like, you could go down all the way to the pirates, and they're only five and a half games out. I mean, it's not likely they make playoffs, but you've seen a crazier comeback happen before. I mean, we just started talking about the Diamondbacks being in the National League West race again, and that occurred when. And we were seven and a half back from the Dodgers.

So, yeah, no, I mean, sometimes you say crazy things, but realistically, five games or more back is probably a little hard to make up that ground, especially considering the difficulty of schedule the Diamondbacks have. But, hey, right now, we just got to worry about winning as many baseball games, and it doesn't matter who it's against. I know that people want to,

I know this is doom and gloom more than a normal series loss because it's the Rockies. Correct. That's totally understandable. And I'm not going to say it's not, especially considering what I said earlier in this episode where this is the first time they've lost at home to the Rockies in a series since 2002, over four years ago.

But we got two studs coming back. And I feel like this team, again, is going to continue to get better as we roll down this stretch. And hopefully we can win enough games that we are screaming and yelling about making the offs. But Justin Martinez, made his rehab start with the AAA Reno Aases yesterday. How did he do?

Okay, I guess. He pitched a one, two, three inning with two strikeouts. If that's okay. If that's good. His four seam also maxed out at 102 miles per hour in his first rehab appearance. Seen enough, get him up here. I've seen enough.

Get him back on my team. Get him back in my clubhouse. Speaking of seeing enough, Jordan Lawler went two for four with a home run in the eighth inning of yesterday's game. He had two RBIs, a run scored, and one strike out. Seen enough. Get him up here.

Get him back. Bring my guy back. Let's go. Let's get these guys back. Again, you feel like the Diamondbacks, they're going to get a nice little boost, hopefully, from those returns and every return that they have on their schedule. Somebody said it.

It's like, we discuss certain guys because of the impact that we feel like these guys can have, but that's not even discussing. The other eight names that are all injured and that all are in the process of returning. Tommy Troy, Lordus Guriel Jr., Ryan Nelson, Zach Gallen, like the list goes on. Corbin Burns, Zach Allen, both of them are, they sound like they're almost at the same spot as far as returning goes. They both threw bullpens yesterday and both went really well from our understanding. So everything's trending in the right direction, even though today's game makes it hard to feel that way. One last update is the Toronto Blue Jays claimed Paul Seawald off waivers.

So Paul Seawald is a Toronto Blue Jay and he is now Leah's problem and not ours anymore. But honestly, all jokes aside, and I know there's a lot of people here that aren't going to want to hear this, but best wishes to Paul. Again, he did a lot for this team in his time as a member of the Diamondbacks and he, again, even though he's had a lot of ups and downs was a big reason why they were able to. reach the World Series in 2023. I love you guys. Appreciate you guys. Do we have any super chats, Damon? Can we get to those before we go here?

Yeah, we got a couple quick super chats here. Of course, from Coolbro, who says, I blame Larson Smith. I don't know who that is. All right. Michael says blessings to you both. Thank you, Michael. I appreciate that. Appreciate you very much.

And, of course, we appreciate all of you guys. Love you guys. See you back here. Tomorrow. We'll be back with another 12 p.m. show, the Diamondbacks are off tomorrow. It's their first off day. And after losing this series, they need it.

They need it. So, but again, thank you guys again. Oh, he was referencing Lars New Bar. Yeah, Lars didn't have a great today. Oh, it's about Pavin Smith. Ah, got it, got it. Yeah, no, I don't like that. I don't like that.

But I get it now and I don't love it. And like, let's just push on on that. But again, I love you guys and I appreciate you guys for stopping by. Thank you for sharing your time with us. As we tell you all the time, It's your most valuable commodity, so we can't tell you how much we appreciate you sharing some of it with us. We'll be back tomorrow at 12 p.m. Until then, you can follow us on social.

I am at cap underscore caveman with a K. Damon is at Damon Dog with a DAWG, and we're all still Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. Our shows at PHNX underscore Dbacks, but all roads do lead to at pH and X underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Thank you guys again for your time. We'll see you back here tomorrow. Until then, have a wonderful evening. Behave yourself, cool, bro.

And remember kids, baseball is fun. but it's so much more fun when you don't lose at home to the Rockies.