PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - POSTGAME: Merrill Kelly Gets SHELLED By Yankees; Diamondbacks Comeback Falls Short in Finale

Episode Date: April 4, 2025

Merrill Kelly had one of his worst outings of his Diamondbacks career in the series finale against the Yankees, allowing nine hits and nine earned runs. The D-backs offense chipped away and mounted a comeback, capped off by a massive Geraldo Perdomo grand slams. But they ultimately come up short, losing to New York 9-7. We have more on the loss, Torey Lovullo’s lineup, and the recent leak of MLB City Connect jerseys that did NOT include the Diamondbacks City Connect. Join Derek and Shane for the PHNX Diamondbacks Postgame Show LIVE!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/coll... 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/ bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-... Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets! Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/ Branded Bills: Use code PHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order! Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. 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! Monarch Money: Use Monarch Money to get control of your overall finances with 50% off your first year at https://www.monarchmoney.com/phnx Waymo: Download the Waymo One App and Ride Today! https://apps.apple.com/us/app/waymo-o... https://play.google.com/store/apps/de... Carol Royse Team: To buy/sell your home, call Carol Royse at 480-776-5231 or visit carolroyseteam.com All Pro Shade Concepts: Call 623-204-1476 or visit https://allproshadeconcepts.com/ now to schedule your free estimate! 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. #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, the Diamondbacks put up a good fight offensively, but unfortunately, one of Merrill Kelly's worst starts of his Diamondbacks career, put them in too deep of a deficit to overcome. We have more on tonight's loss and also this City Connect jersey that did not include the Diamondback City Connect jersey. All this in 30 seconds, don't you go anywhere. I hate that goddamn song. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Diamondback show right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally a man that says milk, however I please, and also your mayor of PHNX. Glad to have you guys here. I'm joined on the ones and twos tonight by Shane Diefenbach, who you could.

You know that how you could also blame him for the loss because, you know, when Kevin's producing, we win baseball games. And the three hour game. And the three hour game. He called it from the beginning, and that's also his fault. But welcome in to throwback Thursday. of course. We haven't done one of these in a while. We had opening day, but that's a special day, but don't forget, every Thursday on this show is still throwback Thursday. And this show is also brought to you by our friends at Bet365 and our friends at GameTime. Of course, if you have not signed up for either of those, do so right now. Download the Bet365 app. Use our code of PHNX 365 when you sign up. Go over to Game Time. Use our code of PHNX and X and you'll get $20 off your first purchase. Welcome in, guys. Good to see you guys here. hope you are here to commiserate with us. I know this isn't under the best circumstances, and we're going to talk quite a bit about

tonight's loss, but the Arizona Diamondbacks lost by a score of 9 to 7. They dropped to 4 and 3 on the season, and they still clinch a series here against the New York Yankees, but despite the fact that they were able to kind of chip away and put together a nice little comeback offensively and still put up some big runs. scoring seven runs tonight, they cannot overcome the deficit that they were put in by one of the worst starts that we've ever seen out of Merrill Kelly. In fact, I had to do some research on this because it might, in fact, be the worst start depending on how you want to look at it. The other bad starts I could find happened in 2022. Merrill had two outings where he gave up eight earn runs back in 2022.

May 17, 2022, he got shelled early by the day. Dodgers, he gave up five hits and eight earned runs in only two innings pitch. So maybe you could say that one was probably the worst start of his career, but tonight was right up there. I don't know exactly what was going on with Merrill Kelly. I think one of the biggest things was it felt like he wasn't fooling anybody with his change up tonight. He really wasn't able to land it in the zone. I think we have the pitch chart for Merrill Kelly from tonight. And we'll get that up here in a second just to kind of illustrate that but merrill you know he he just wasn't good in several aspects of the game it wasn't just the fact that uh he was struggling at the plate he gave up some dingers

tonight uh he wasn't at one point even checking runners over at first and he allowed two stolen bases kind of consecutively there uh and one to aaron judge which was fairly egregious there didn't really seem to be a reason for uh merrill kelly to be not checking runners over there. You could tell that he was fairly flustered, did not have command of his pitches tonight. Here's a look at his pitch chart from this evening. What you'll notice there,

especially with the changeup is the majority of the change up was landing outside of the zone. And then he was serving up some four seam fastballs right, right, right down the middle there. So again, he threw 80 pitches tonight, 49 for strikes.

He allowed home runs to Aaron Judge. that one would have been a home run in 14 out of 30 ballpark so that one that one's a legitimate home run jazz chisholms mega blast there would have been a dinger in all 30 ballparks and then the trent grisham won a little bit of that short porch eight out of 30 ballparks the Yankees scored six of their nine runs tonight on two outs and i felt like that was just backbreaking for Merrill Kelly because it felt like once again he could get there but could not really finish the inning and it's something that we've honestly seen out of Tori LaVolo as a manager when it comes to going for a series sweep against an opponent tonight you could say that with his

lineup and we'll get into that here shortly but Merrill ends up going three and two thirds innings pitched nine hits nine earn runs allowed first time again in his career that I was able to to locate just as a major league baseball player nine runs allowed or nine earn runs allowed three walks two strikeouts three home runs so i think there is going to be some people that question uh in the chat and on the internet about meryl kelly and if he's washed if he's cooked if it's a wrap i think that's one of the first questions we got tonight uh i don't know we just saw zack gallon come out tonight and or come out and have one of the best outings we've ever seen of his career after struggling on opening day. I don't know if I'm concerned.

I will say that it takes more than one game for me to be concerned, and that's probably the best course of action for you guys to take as well. Baseball can be just a matter of not being able to grip your pitch, grip the ball well on a certain night, and that can really cause you some problems. I think the biggest bigger problem for me was how the Diamondbacks offensively struggled early against Carosco, a guy that was basically put into the starting rotation for the New York Yankees simply for the purpose of filling a warm body in that role. And the Diamondbacks made them look like a stud tonight. That is something that I don't know if it's, I don't know if it's game planning.

I don't know if it is over or underestimating the opponent. but to be honest, it's a very frustrating thing that we've seen before, again, another trait of this Diamondbacks team at times, just making a guy that absolutely should be crushed and shouldn't be able to get out of maybe two innings, making them look like an actual good starting pitcher. Carrasco goes five and a third's innings. He only gives up five hits, three earned runs, walk two, struck out five.

And it really felt like the Diamondback should have been able to get to him earlier than they did. They were down big offensively, but they kept chipping away. But, I mean, it starts with the lineup, right? I know a lot of people are what we're not a lot of games. We're seven games into the season. We've already seen Gabby Moreno sit multiple games. I think this is his third game that he sat.

And in this case, we get no Cotel Marte. We get no Gabby Moreno in this one. We got Perdomo hitting second in the lineup, which ended up kind of working out. That one was okay. but you have a lineup that consists of Carol Domo Pavin in the third spot playing first base Naler at D.H. Gurriel, Gino, AT, and then Hampson and Herrera down at the bottom. I mean, honestly, Alec Thomas has earned his playing time. He wasn't tremendously good tonight, especially with runners in scoring position, but he did get some runners in.

Gino finally gets a hit. That's not a home run. He gets his 16. hit of the season, but it's an extra base hit. And he is the second player in Major League Baseball to have six extra base hits. Of course, the first one there being Mr. Aaron Judge who had a gavel chain on

the night, which I have to admit. That thing was fire. It's pretty sick. It's pretty sick. I get like, also, Shelby Miller had a K-chain, equally sick. Equally sick. And yes, I did equally sick. I'm sorry. Shelby Miller. Nobody Miller. Having swag is incredible.

but he was still outstanding for this team. Unfortunately, again, they were in too big of a deficit for that to matter at this point. But he did help. He held. He held the game. And he gave the Diamondbacks a chance to come back. In the fourth inning, you have, or actually they're back with Alec Thomas. He grounds out, but he brings in Naylor.

That's the first run in the fourth inning. You got Paveen walking, Naylor getting a single, an RBI double for Lord of Scuriel. That scores Pavin. then Naylor scores again on another AT groundout. Diamondbacks again down big, but then the seventh inning starts with walks by Hampson and Herrera, who get on base and are joined by Corbyn Carroll with a single loads the bases for one Jerry P.

And our risk king, of course, does what he does with runners in scoring position. He brings him home. He gets him home safely like Waymo does sometimes. Our risk king, Herald Operdomo, hit a grand slam, 345 feet, cut the lead to 9 to 7, and we were losing it in this office. I believe it's at that point that one Shane Defenbach said, this game's going to last another hour and a half, but it's going to end at the same score.

So you can maybe blame him once again for that happening. It's all on me. Yeah, it's definitely on him. But according to the broadcast, the Diamondbacks have scored 23 runs now in seven games in the seventh inning or later that's tied for most in Major League Baseball. Clutch Kings. I mean, your bullpen is not safe from us. Can we go back to your Jerry P nickname?

I think we just kind of glossed over that. Rist King? No, no, no, no, no. We know that one. The autonomous vehicle. Oh, the autonomous vehicle. He's going to get your home safe. Oh, my God.

I wish you wouldn't have done that. That's so good. There's so many Photoshop's I'm going to have to make now. Geraldo Perwamo. Yeah. Geraldo perwamo. Oh, my God. Stop it, Jane. We're going to have to have a meeting about this.

Oh, Max is going to be so mad that he's not here for this. Oh, man, but Diamondbacks, again, you got to applaud their offense. They put up seven runs against the Yankees. They did not give up despite the fact that they probably should have, despite the fact that it feels like Tori Lovalo honestly goes out there and does this entirely too often when it comes to the final game of a series where they won the first two games. It doesn't really feel like the Diamondbacks go for the jugular.

we know last year. They did not have very many sweeps. And this time around, they missed their first opportunity at one. And part of it is that fact that that lineup is, you know, consists of Hampson and Herrera in there instead of having a full game of Marte and Gabriel Moreno. As many people that scream at me online, no, I do tend to defend Tori Lobolo a bit. But you can't always be, especially when, you know, again,

here we are seven games into the season. I have reiterated time and time again. I know why he's doing it, right? Especially in April. I don't think we're going to see stretches like this when the season, you know, gets into full swing when we're in the end of May and beyond. I just think it's a matter of trying to be very careful with guys right now and not exhausting anyone and making them susceptible to injury, right?

Tori still blamed himself for, you know, several guys reaggravating their injuries last year based on the fact that he felt like he, you know, brought them back too soon, right? So, and in this case, again, Damon brought it up. He might be managing scared when it comes to the overthinking of injuries and the lineup. However, you got to give a lot of credit here to the guys for going out there. And again, making this a game. They did not let this terrible start by Merrill Kelly, you know, keep them from trying to, trying to come back and win this game against the Yankees.

and you could tell things got crazy there. Naylor, he was two for three tonight. He scored two runs. He had a double and a stolen base. He stole third. Josh Naylor, the man has wheels. The man has wheels. But, hey, I will say this.

There wasn't very much fairness there when it came to that stolen base situation was there. I was very glad to see Tori get in the umpire's ear about that. We had a situation where jazz Chisholm stole a base and Jerry Pee, It was a throw by Moreno once he came into the game after pinch hitting eventually in the game. Did a Jerry Pushdomo. He did a little pushdomo off of the bag. And then for some reason in a similar situation to what Anthony Volpe did to Cotel Marte last night to get that out at second, it would appear. Jazz Chisholm came off the bag and that Perdomo tagged him.

And the umpire does one of these saying that Prudomo pushed him off. and I say malarkey that one's like in malarkey I'm gonna malarkey that situation yeah I don't like it didn't like a load of malarkey it was a big load of malarkey another load of malarkey is how good

Luke weaver has been since becoming the bullpen guy for the Yankees he's such a Yankee though like we could have expected it makes me sick uh and he did it tonight to the diamond backs he was outstanding and uh he basically had to come in and pitch two innings, close to two innings in order to close this one out. They were without Devin Williams, who was on paternity leave.

So, of course, it's one of our own that does it to us. I really did think that the Diamondbacks were going to have, you know, good comeback there in the ninth inning. And I mean, at least that's, I guess that's the point of a good baseball team is that you don't really feel like they're out of it. And now that you see them score 23 runs here in the seventh inning or later so far in seven games, you have to start believing that they're never really out of it. But unfortunately, Merrill Kelly's bad night was too much to overcome.

I don't really know what was going on with Merrill. I hope to have some additional information here. But hopefully it's just a bad night. I don't really want there to be a cause other than just an off-night pitchers. Have off-nights. Merrill Kelly isn't perfect. However, he was very good. In fact, the first time through the rotation,

you could argue Merrill Kelly was the best. best starting pitcher. I want to overreact, but it seems like no matter which way I overreact, people get mad at me for overreacting that way. So what I'll say is I, I'm a little concerned, but that's only because it's the worst outing of his career. It's also a very good Yankees team that was jumping all over him. Felt like Merrill was flustered. Some of the signs, you know, again, not checking those runners over at first base, just not being able to hit his spots. I think that it's an off night but i'm sure he'll bounce back he's very good at doing that in fact so uh but before we do move on we do have to give our king snake to someone and i there's absolutely no one that

deserves it more than our our baby boy heraldo push domo uh one for four tonight huge grand slam from him and uh yeah i don't know man perdomo is just he's clutch he is so big in big situations it's the reason why he's our risk king Shane he yeah i mean he's he's he's he's the he's your favorite player's favorite player he really is he he's he's he's so quietly one of the the most clutch players in the MLB and and he's such a fun guy to be on an up-and-coming team like this like he's he's he's the he epitomizes this team really too what like he he he is the diamond backs and in a player yeah he is and mean again it's like his numbers aren't super flashy at times but but he gets the job done in the biggest moments.

And I think that there's something also so much fun to watch. Like he's such an incredibly fun player to watch. I love him. And I mean, again, I am now on hugging status with Jerry P. that happened on the Vegas trip. So, yeah, that's an exciting development for me personally. However, again, here, Diamondbacks can't get the job done and finish the sweep. Fall a little short, 9 to 7.

And yeah, Candace says it best. Domo is the glue. He is the glue. That's it. He's the glue. Well, we have more to talk about in this game. I know you probably don't want to. I promise we won't do it for too long. I do have some other stuff to talk about, including being a throwback Thursday. We're going to talk about as much as this felt like the longest nine inning game in Diamondbacks history. It very much was it because at one time we didn't have a pitch clock. And that's like it's like the dark ages now. It's a terrible time.

But before we move on to that, we got some numbers and talk about. We're also going to discuss these City Connect jerseys that leaked the fact that the Diamondbacks won isn't one of them concerns me. And we might rank them. We'll see what's happening. We'll doing this all on the other side of some breaks. Don't you go anywhere you're watching the Diamondbacks? PH&X Diamondback Show. It might as well just be the Diamondbacks show.

It might as well just be the Diamondback show. You guys, this is where we come to hang out. But another great way to see those Diamondbacks is in person at Chase Field. and you can do so through our friends at game time. Game time has you covered with the cheapest last minute tickets. If you are procrastinator like me, you got to check out game time. I have friends right now bothering me that when I'm done with this show, they want me to come see Weidas.

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again create an account and use that code of pH and X for $20 off. Download GameTime app right now. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Shane, what time is it? That's right. Well, again, another great place that you want to be besides Diamondbacks games is safe at home. And you can get into your home if you are a first time home buyer or even a season vet through the help of our friends at the Carol Royce team.

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They got me started on my financial journey, my home ownership journey, all of that. So I thank them. They also make sure our numbers around here are always straight. So let's take a look at buy the numbers presented by Desert Financial. Diamondbacks lose this one by a score of 9 to 7. they get out hit by the Yankees 12 to 8 runners in scoring position. The Yankees were 3 for 9 to the Diamondbacks 3 for 10. Yankees had more extra base hits there, 8 to the Diamondbacks 4. And then XBA for the Yankees once again was higher at 346.

That's expected batting average to the Diamondbacks 269. So I don't know, man. This is one of those games that the Diamondbacks lost fairly handed. and yet still found a way to claw their way back into it and, you know, make this one. Yeah, I love when you're selfish. I'm fine with that. Can you just look at these stats? What do you, what do you see when you look at these stats?

The beautiful Diamondbacks old school colors? Of course, but the actual statistics. Like a lot of mashing, a lot of hits. Yeah. Yeah. At least you're losing like this, Derek. The Mariners are hitting 170. And that's not going to change.

And the Braves, have the Braves won a game yet? Nope. I don't believe so, right? The Braves is a treasure. It's funny. An average D-backs lost, they lose like 10 to 8 and, you know, they hit a grand slam in that. And you're like, well, that's stunk, Tori can't manage. Yeah.

My games that I have to watch when this team loses, I know nobody wants to hear this, but I need to talk. Go off. We get a quality start, eight innings pitch. 11 strikeouts and it's the first time in MOB history a player has ever done that on the mound since Papa Go Wallace in the 1920 brave season. Yeah. Yeah. And the team got one hit and they didn't win. Well, I yeah, I mean, I don't know. Like I said, it kind of frustrates me that we always have these situations where there's some pitcher on the mound for the opposing team. It always feels like the Diamondbacks do really badly in these bullpen starts against opposing teams. It's always

some guy that shouldn't should make it past two or three innings and the next thing you know they're giving the them an actual you know an actual start five and a third's innings and three runs is not terrible by carosco today and it's somebody that the Yankees kind of had to scramble and put into their lineup one thing I do want to say is there is discussion here in the in the chat of it don't bring them up what's that oh no no we're not going to do that no we're not going to I do want to do that, but I won't. Everybody's talking about missing Kevin Ginkle. I miss Kevin Ginkle very much.

But one, like one bright side, one silver lining to this has been the addition of Jalen Beeks and Shelby Miller to the bullpen. Both guys have been outstanding. And as predicted, both guys got moved into high leverage situations, especially in tonight's game. I know Tori only has a select number of pitchers, you know, that he goes with each game. I know, you know, certain guys weren't available tonight. Thompson wasn't available tonight. I doubt AJ Puck would have been available, but maybe would have had the Diamondbacks taking

a lead. Maybe it should be Justin Martinez in there. That's a whole other discussion that we're probably going to have tomorrow on tomorrow's 2 PM show. But I will say that Shelby Miller and Jalen Beeks has been outstanding. And honestly, Damon tweeted it out. But I said some crazy things when I saw Shelby Miller

getting up in the bullpen. Like I fist pumped. I was excited. And honestly, Jalen Beeks, again, for a guy that has just been added to this team a few days before opening day, Tori didn't even know his name when he went to him or doesn't even spoken to him when he went to him, I think on opening day and asked him to give him an inning in two thirds. These guys have been outstanding. Jalen Beeks has a 1.69 ERA. Shelby Miller currently has a 0.00 ERA.

It's just wild. And like, decent amount of work, too. Like, I mean, again, it's still a small sample size. we're still early in the season. It's the reason why I'll give you not to overreact about the situation with Merrill Kelly after just one start being bad. But I mean, this is growing and it seems like Tori is counting more and more on Jalambiques and Shelby

Miller. The difference here than the past mop-up guys that Tori would, you know, trot out there is this isn't Miguel Castro giving up three more earned runs and making the deficit more bigger, right? This is this is guys that can go out there. they can hold a game for you when a starting pitcher has a bad night. And, you know, again, maybe you could criticize Tori LeVolo here.

There's a lot of things you could criticize Toro Lavello about tonight. But you could definitely criticize them about maybe not taking Merrill Kelly out once that game got to seven. I would think it was seven to three. So maybe you could have reserved it. And then, again, hindsight is 2020, but not giving up that home run. The jazz chisholm could have made a big difference in this one. Thunderbolt is with us tonight. That's wild.

I should have known. I should have known Thunderbolt that I would have seen you after the first loss or first loss in this series, I should say. But Thunderbolt does say no room for Aaron in the NL West. And he is absolutely right. There is no room right now in the NL West for mistakes. There's no room. I mean, again, it's early, right? Like these teams have to come down to earth, right?

Right? They have to, right? They can't all continue to make history. They can't all continue to be undefeated. The Dodgers have to lose a game eventually. The Padres have to lose a game eventually. Right? Oh, God, I hated so much.

But anyway, yeah, no, this sucks. And yeah, that's the reason why I think I'm frustrated here is that I do feel like, you know, being up and winning the series already, maybe gave Lavello the, you know, flexibility here to put in the lineup that he did. did today. They still did an excellent job at producing run, so I can't really blame the team, the lineup that he put out there. But yeah, I mean, they went quiet for quite a long time. And they were held in check by this questionable pitching lineup by the New York Yankees. But Luke Weaver, that still hurts. The Luke Weaver is, yeah, yeah, I'm yelling, Candice. And I don't

even have the voice to yell. I'm not even going to make it to reggae rise up before my voice is gone but uh anyway we do have to give out our big jack our sanderson for deep drive of the game and there is no there is no deep drive bigger than a grand slam jerry p doing the thing once again uh grand slam from haroldo perdomo uh turned a game that was looking like a route into a competitive game once again and i i'm telling you man i think right now uh you got a if you want to take some positive takeaways, which I like to do. I am definitely encouraged by the fact that this team did not give up. And that's something I would probably be telling them in the clubhouse tonight.

Like the bullpen, the, you know, a lot of this is on Merrill. That's it. That's really what it comes down to. If you want to blame the lineup, you can blame the lineup, but they still put up seven runs tonight and Tori still managed them to a fairly good comeback. It was just an uncharacteristically bad night for Merrill, and hopefully it's just a one-off and not a sense of series to come, you know, a taste of things to come. But Geraldo Perdomo, this guy can't say enough about what he does for this team, what he means to this team.

And again, that extension looks pretty good after a night like this. So shout out to Jerry P for being the wonderful baseball player that he is. And yeah, shout out to Sanderson Ford for always keeping us hooked up with amazing. vehicles and you know especially don't miss out on that whole in one contest that they have at our upcoming golf tournament that's going to be a whole lot of fun well i am done with this game i'm going to flush it we're going to flush it and move on is what we're going to do but on the other side of this break it's throwback thursday and tonight was a long night but we're going to talk about a much much longer night that happened uh on this date tomorrow in diamondbacks history don't go anywhere

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Get that off by screen. No, that's not accurate, is it? He's not really three batters away from right now, right? Do I have to stay in this game or is someone getting warmed up in the bullpen? My God. You're in this game. Get that off by screen. I don't like it.

I don't like it. Oh. We were pretty late to the meme, but I thought he had to make our way on the P. Oh, my God. Shane. Anytime that happens, I feel like there's something terrible in my future. I don't know what to expect next. Oh, yeah, get him out of here.

Well, that's not a great way to start our throwback Thursday segment, but it is segment three. And that means it's throwback Thursday time on tomorrow's date, which, is April 4th back in 2016. The Diamondbacks played one of the longest, most disappointing nine-innings games in the history of this team. In fact, it was the longest. That game against the Colorado Rockies in nine-innings, Shane, took four hours and 11 minutes to complete. four hours and 11 minutes to complete a nine inning game. Are you glad the pitch clock is here now, folks?

Oh my God. Are you happy for the pitch clock? What do you think about the pitch clock now? Because a three hour game seems ridiculous, doesn't it, Jane? Was this game here or was it in Colorado? This was here. Oh, my God. I attended this game.

Were you? I was at this game. I know because the minute I found out that this was the game that grumpy cat attended, I knew that I was at this game. Dude. Now there was a time. He threw out the first pitch? Yeah, he did throw out the first pitch.

Which I think is ridiculous because obviously he didn't. He's a cat. That's your problem with this? That's your problem with this? I'm going to put that he didn't really throw out the first pitch. I'm telling you, well, like it was it was actually. quite nice to meet Grumpy Cat. I remember before the game, Paul Goldschmidt received his Rawlings Gold Glove Award for the 2015 season.

Spirits were high. Patrick Corbyn was on the mound. And this game, inexplicably made me lose four hours and 11 minutes of my life. The Diamondbacks lost this game by a score of four to three. please explain to me how a four to three game took four hours and 11 minutes what was the date of this game April 4th, 2016 Nick Ahmed hit a home run in this game

he was actually on fire during this stretch I remember he had like a 1500 OPS to start the season he was he was hitting dingers left and right it was wild i just don't ever i don't ever want to attend a baseball game again in in my life that costs four hours takes four hours and 11 minutes and we have a chris milton appearance uh in the in the chat and i think she was also at that game i'm sure she remembers a four hour and 11 minute game uh but yeah no that's that's that That's kind of it.

This was... Yeah. Not good. Not... I wasn't excited about this, but... You said April 4th, 2016? Is that what I said? Oh, you know what?

I... Yes. I got the dates wrong. I'm sitting here talking about a completely different game. I do remember all the other factors from that game. But no, yeah, no. This one actually still was a loss. but here's a funny thing about this one.

No, I remember now, Shelby Miller was on the mound for the Arizona Diamondbacks in this one. Wow. Or Justin Miller, I'm sorry. No, I'm just getting a lot of things wrong. Zach Granky was on the mound for this one. I have too many things screwed up here. But the other factors of this game are right.

These factors I gave are not. This makes way more sense. Look how many pinch hitters were in this game. Yeah, it's wild. They all use their entire roster. There was one, two, three, four pinch hitters in this game. So here's why it took so long.

Granky only threw 82 pitches. But then you have guys like Randall Delgado who come in and throw 42, 46 pitches. Yeah. And then Silvino Brocco comes in and throws 46. Yep. Yep.

Or 40? Yep. Oh, God. Just a lot of pitches. A Jake Lamb home run? I'm glad I screwed that up by the. way, to be honest, because at least a 10 to 5 loss to the Rockies makes sense of being a 4-hour and 11-minute game, way more than a 4-2-3 game.

Worst part about this? Opening day. That's horrible. 27 hits in this game. Yeah. Yeah. That's the reason why I remember it far more than I should, right? Grumpy Cat was at this game, though.

That's not a lie. I didn't get that part wrong. And also, Paul Goldschmidt very much did. get his first, get his gold glove on this day as well. But yeah, no, I definitely take a look at this and say, okay, thank God this makes more sense. In this one, Jake Lamb got a home run. And yeah, for the most part, this is not, this, this is this, this is not a game that needed to go that long either. But yeah, no, you're right. That was, that was opening day back in 2016. Gross. Shane. That's disgusting.

Diamondbacks don't have a lot of luck on opening day, but yeah, I'm glad I screwed that up because, like I said, Zach Granke, pitching makes a lot of sense on a four-hour and 11-minute game. Yeah. Yes, I clicked on the wrong one. I had the right information besides that. Oh, God. I just don't ever, I don't care if it's a 20 to 15 game. I don't want a four-hour and 11-minute game baseball game within the confines of nine innings. to ever exist.

But I can't believe they did it for a hundred. Alan's right. Trevor's story wasn't that Trevor story's debut game? I think that was. And he did, he did hit two fairly certain he did hit two runs in that go. Two dingers. Yep.

Yeah, I think that was his first game. Oh, God. Anyway. Yeah. See, he jogs your memory after a while for sure. But yeah, no, I, I, no, don't want any more. don't want any more four-hour games.

I don't want any more three-hour games for sure going forward. And I don't. This will be my last show then. Yeah. It was a good run. Yeah, it was. It was a good run. It was fine.

Shane, we do have some amazing new shirts, by the way. Over at them, why are you to know? He's three batters away again. Yeah. God. We do have some amazing new shirts. We do. Over at the shop.

I obviously the our favorite one is JJ making it onto a shirt um that one's a must buy I think everybody needs to own that shirt uh but yes here is our opening day collection for 2025 we're we're going hard with the ghost snakes this year uh got some purple got some classic teal and red there got the old school s but most importantly got jj on a shirt what happened what happened to him He looks he looks worse in this picture like something like is this from his is his trouble the years Well when he was being more rascal. Yeah, I mean JJ's younger years were definitely like when you look back on a picture from college. You're like oh, I was hung over as hell in the picture. Yeah. I think that's what's going on with JJ and this. He's a partier. And I'll tell you he he's a big reason why the Diamondbacks made it to the World Series. Let's not forget that. He had he was an integral part. in that lineup in 2023

here in the office wrapped around Damon's neck, wrapped around my neck, he was big. We should have a shirt with the picture of you with no shirt on. No, we shouldn't. With JJ or under your neck.

No, that's probably a bad idea. I think we should. No. But it's like one of those shirts that like it looks like that your chest is the person's chest so somebody can just be Derek. Ooh, this idea is getting worse.

Oh yeah you didn't save it there Started off it's just a black shirt With a picture of me Started off bad, it got really bad It's horrible No I'll tell you right now You can don't miss out on all the merch We have over there

We got our year of the snake merch And more Use code Derek in all caps in the chat If you'd buy that shirt Code Derek D-E-R-E-K You know they're gonna They're gonna do it Head over to go phnx.com

And hit that merch tab to gears today And don't forget all die-heart's get 20% off. So it's a great reason for you to do that. But speaking of shirts, speaking of jerseys, speaking of things that we still need to talk about, Shane,

we have a city connect leak. And a pretty gross one in some cases. I don't know. You know, I first... I don't have a lot of hate that I don't really understand. Like, there's so many, there's so many, like, jerseys in the last 10 years in all sports that have just been so conservative and just

keep it whatever like i'm fine if you go a little crazy and it looks bad like especially if it's a one year two year thing yeah that's that's very true it's whatever yeah like i'm i'm do you think the original serpientis jersey is too bland like they didn't go enough for a swing on it no i think i think it's perfect how much of a swing i think they swung for the they swung for a double and they hit it they hit it yeah well and and and with me i think the thing is is that and And this is something that kind of inspired that JJ shirt and some of the other designs that I wanted to put out is that the diamondbacks don't have the benefit that some other teams have of having like a cool long term history. Right. Some of these baseball teams have been around literally for, you know, a century, right?

So they have a wide array of years of, you know, logos and colors and designs to kind of throw back to. You know, it's something that I thought was very cool over at Globe Life Field that they brought over from the ballpark at Arlington to the new field for the Texas Rangers considering the history that they have. And again, not every team taps into that, but like I do like the fact that, you know, that they tried with the Serpientis jersey to kind of make like what looks kind of like a little bit more of a classic, you know, throwback design for a team that didn't exist in the classic throwback era, right? but that's a great point you know that is a really good point i i i do think that when i started seeing really bright cool colors being put out by teams like the marlins with their city connect jersey and uh the padres right like they they they got called you know the sherbert jerseys quite a bit but they still were very cool and a lot of podres fans love those you had uh the tampa raise which were the one of the best yeah city connectors right but but back to what I was saying like

like I don't get offended when a team does that I get offended when a team like Utah jazz is it when it's just like oh yeah we're gonna we have this really cool awesome idea with these awesome beautiful white mountain tops and these amazing iconic jersey that everybody loves you know what our main jersey is going to be black and boring yeah and it looks like it looks like something you could get at a yMCA like rec league it's it's that's when I get offended I'm like we are in the year of our Lord 2025. We have creative minds everywhere. And you choose to whitewash your jerseys.

Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, that's totally true. That's what I get offended. Well, when I first saw these jerseys, I didn't believe it was real because the first one I saw was the Chicago jersey. And it's basically the old bull's wordmark and design in the middle with black sleeves. Do we have a picture of that? Yeah.

So do we want to rank these? Yes, I totally want to rank these. We're 100% going to rank these. Here's what we'll do. I'll pull up the rankings and we can show them all one by one. Okay. So here, we'll do the White Sox first. Okay.

Yeah, that's the White Sox one again. It looks like the classic Chicago Bulls jersey from like the late 90s, right? With the end of the Rodman run there and things like that, right? Like I didn't think this was real because it looks so much like that, like a Bulls jersey. It's cool that they did that. Like I like the crossover there between those teams. You know, I wouldn't mind something between the Diamondbacks and the Suns to exist like that.

But definitely was it didn't look real to me. That's what I'll say is it didn't look like it was the actual city connect. It looked like it was just some sort of design, you know, like a mockup by someone. Then we had the other three jerseys that I saw. The next one is the Miami Marlins one. This one pretty cool. And again, once I saw the four of them together, they were much more not believable. I don't know if is the word, but I was like, okay, yeah, this is probably an actual city connect drop.

But then I saw this one. And I'm a staunch hater of the Boston Red Sox. I was raised that way. It's in my blood. I love this jersey. I thought this was great. It didn't take me more than two seconds for me to know that this was the best. big green monster they have the again the the font the wordmark there uh and uh i just think it's

really clean real classic just a cool city connect design and something that again i don't i think a lot of people in sports a lot of people that are baseball fans will see that and kind of know instantly that that represents the big green monster and i thought that was cool last but not least we have this one from the colorado ruckies that i'm honestly conflicted on i've never been more conflicted on a design than I am on this. So you know why I'm so conflicted on this one, Derek? It's because it's the, it's the, it's the, it's the human element or not human element. It's the, it's the typical response you get when, I don't know what the word I'm looking for is.

When when you like something and not everyone else likes it and you're like, wait, hold on, should I hate this? Like, I'm not usually like that, but there's such an outroar specifically in Denver of their fans. that hate this jersey and when i saw it i was like i like this yeah i think well you know what you know what i don't like is the purple carrying over to the sleeves at the same point where it is at the chest i'm i'm not opposed to having like the two striped sleeve on there if they wanted to have like the purple and what is that is that like a orange color yeah it's like it's well oh oh the the look yeah like the trim the trim um it looks like yeah it looks like yeah It looks like a pink.

Okay. But it's like a sunset pink almost. I don't know, dude. Like it's, again, it's something different. Do this. Don't give me like, like, don't give me the green thing they were in the other. Was that a city connect? Yeah, it was their license plate.

It was the Colorado license plate. That's horrible. Yeah, it was the Colorado license. It was horrible. Yeah. And again, I don't. I like what they were going with here, but I don't feel like they did a great job with it. Like, again, though, it's like really close to being.

cool. I like the colors. I like the sunset highlighted Rockies logo and things like that in there. I even like the way they wrote Rockies. I'm just not a big fan of the purple running into the bottom purple the way they did and the purple sleeves and stuff like that. Yes, Yoshi, peer pressure. Just my thoughts. I had a brain fart. Pure pressure is what I was looking for. Okay. Um, but my, my, my, my first takeaway was absolute frustration that the Diamondbacks were not included in this leak. Yeah. Like, I'm starting to question if these jerseys even exist. Okay. Jane.

I disagree because the one thing I hate about this is you look at all of them and you try to determine what you think of them immediately without one seeing them on players, which is huge. That's huge. Seeing them on the field under lights or under the sun. Yeah. But two, which I think is the most important thing, you don't see the pants. The pants are huge. As a Mariners fan, I know this. I saw that when their jerseys leaked, I was like,

Oh my God, the, you know, the beautiful dark blue with the gold trident is back. Yeah. This is amazing. Yeah. And then the actual black pants. Video came out and they were wearing black pants. Mm-hmm. Which made it horrible to me. And I've warmed up to them since.

But that's so big. Like going back to these jerseys, like if you look at them, we have no idea what the combos are going to be. The Rockies' jerseys could be horrible because the pants could be orange or something. or something just not it wouldn't be orange imagine if they were purple yeah imagine if the pants were purple that just went all the way down I bet they're going to be gray

obviously and I bet a lot of these are going to have tame pants but yeah well I think the bull the bulls one the white socks one could pull off black pants with that look really easily yeah and the white sock or the red socks one could pull off some white pants with that one I think it would look pretty sharp yeah right but yeah no I mean again the color combination is important you're absolutely right like seeing them on a player

definitely changes my opinion about it. I also hate seeing the little flat designs that they have of the jerseys before they're actually, you know, because I remember seeing the Serpientis one as that before it actually, I saw the actual jersey in existence. And I remember thinking that they looked pretty sharp on the guys, but versus, you know, I'm just, I like, like many fans, I know that the information was put out there that the Diamondbacks were going to reveal these jerseys before the spring training was over, right? And now we're getting told that it's going to be sometime soon.

We had ESPN publish the date as to the first date as to when the Diamondbacks will be wearing them. So we know, especially at this point, that we're on about a month, about a month until the Diamondbacks are scheduled to wear theirs. So they should, they should debut them sometime soon. I just don't really know what the holdup is. So these are every two years, three years? No, four years. Four years. Yeah, it's a four year commitment.

So how many teams are up for new City Connects this year? Only a few, right? Yeah, there's only a few, right? We have the ones that have already come out. I believe it's, I want to say it's eight total. Gotcha. Is what it is. Gotcha.

All right, you want to rank these? Let's absolutely do that. We're going to do this as a team. As a team. Are we just doing them individually? Okay, well, no, no, no, no. Let's collaborate. Okay.

I think it would be like I think the Red Sox one is pretty perfect. Okay. Because City Connect like well look we don't know. No one really knows what it means. Is it a throwback? Is it supposed to connect to your city? Like so but if I were to think of what City Connect would mean, it would be something like this where you're you're using you're using an element of your city that's iconic. And what's more iconic in Boston for the Red Sox than the Green Monster?

than the green monster yeah i agree um i like it i think it's i just think it's a good looking jersey and it's mostly because maybe i'm old maybe i just like uh old school designs in baseball but it's it's it gets me easily um what are you putting two here um honestly i really like the miami marlins one yeah yeah i like the miami marlins one i like uh i think again they didn't straight too far but they nailed it and i kind of like the the pattern on the jersey itself. I like the colors. And I think that they have, like,

they're, they're one of the only teams where their city connect jerseys seem to sometimes be better than, like, their actual jersey. So, yeah, that's true. They do a good job with that. That's true. I miss the orange, if I'm going to be honest.

I like the orange that they used to have. Yeah. It's one of the primaries. I don't like the red socks. I don't really like the white socks one. I won't be, I won't lie. Like, I don't like that myself. So that's going four?

I think the Rockies one is better for all the reasons you listed. I don't have the same design flaws with it. Like I feel like the Rockies one could have been perfect with a few changes. And again, like you said, maybe once seeing them on the players, it's different. I like the baby blue and that purple together. I think it looks great. I really do. It's just little things about it.

If it was merch, it would be fine with me. Like it's the fact that it's the actual jersey. I can't believe they did the thing with the purple on there. But again, I, I, I, I do agree with what you said about it. Like I like the idea of, you know, the going out there and doing something different. I think that's why I like the Red Sox thing is almost like a joke, right? Because all it does is says Red Sox really big across it on a green jersey.

That's kind of hilarious to me. So that that also is something I like about it. Yeah, that is funny. But the Rockies one, I mean like Purple Mountains majesty and all that with the Rockies, I think they did a good job with doing something that's bright and colorful and cool. And like I feel like the Rockies merch for their City Connect stuff with those colors and that logo are going to be outstanding. Yeah. The hat's going to be freaking cool.

There's going to be a lot of cool stuff to that. Yeah. No, yeah, sure. I know they still have the orange and the logo, but they used to have those all orange jerseys that they would wear as like a regular jersey. Oh, yeah, yeah. Those were fun. Yeah. They were kind of ugly, but they were fun.

Okay. I'm going to piss the chat off, ready? Okay. I think the Marlon's juice are the worst. Wow I also just like like the pattern I'm just not a fan of it yeah the lines on it like it's it's it's Miami it kind of looks like a like a DJ soundboard

yeah yeah I don't know looking at a close up actually or like cars like like but anything Miami Vice is gonna hit I know like and I know and so that's why I'm like you know what it's something different because how often do we see these like bowls ones that are like if you know if here's a jersey that I designed if blank switch colors is blank. Yeah. Like you're like, oh,

that's cool. Yeah. Like, it's cool to actually see a team. Yeah. That's a really good point. Yeah. We see tons of those from all of those like uniform,

Twitter accounts and stuff like that that will do a palette swap between two local teams. And you're like, yeah, that actually kind of hits. You know what's going to make the chat even more about? I don't think any of these are that bad. No. Like,

I don't know. Like, I actually kind of like all of them. I'm going to go as that far to say that. I mean, again, I think that. the I think they're fun and I like I just don't know what the diamond backs are going to do Jordan VM adding some really good insight here he goes I'm honestly not surprised but objectively this talk about it's it doesn't matter it sucks a cheek the the diamondbacks have been

now here's one thing that I find interesting they've been advertising their giveaway jersey and their giveaway jersey usually looks something like the Serpientis jersey. It's just usually like reverse, right? We've seen them including teal a lot in this. So I'm just wondering if what we're going to get is like that one where it's the black jersey with the teal sleeves, maybe a teal jersey with black sleeves or a purple jersey with black sleeves, something similar to that because they've been advertising that diamondbacks won and says diamondbacks across the front everything I've heard says that they're still

going to call themselves the Serpientis do you want Serpientis to change or are you okay with that? I like the Serpientis because again city connect with your city connect with the Hispanic community in the city it's absolutely a great idea I just want to see them Shane I'm getting so impatient what's your what's your like

if it's not here by this time you're worried May 1st okay yeah I think if we haven't seen anything and what's weird is like espo found at like just sports a very interesting serpientis you know shirt that was purple with uh the i mean it's all it's everything we want it was a teal serpientis with a gold like copper outlining and a purple shirt as long as the primary is purple i will be happy yeah i think that's key you know that's clutch you know look at my shoes tonight you know you know it needs more love though what copper

god damn it you're so right does the copper trim is like Like I still, and I hate to bring this up to you because you know that you are going to get upset on bringing up the Mariners, but it's in a good way. I still remember sitting very close to Julio during a spring training game, like right behind him, taking pictures and admiring how pretty their glittery silver letters were in their jersey with all the little, with all the glitter. And like I remember a time when the Diamondbacks used copper in that same way and they even had copper glittery letters. and I see guys in the ballpark walking around with those old jerseys. And that's just what I want. I want this logo. I want this on a black with lots of copper.

Maybe not black. Someone pointed out like, you know, we already have a black jersey as one of the Diamondbacks kits. So again, purple, purple, old school. Give me all that again. And give me them soon because I'm getting impatient. Well, of course, the Diamondbacks lose tonight. That's not great. But who cares?

Who cares? We've moved on. but we will be back tomorrow. We're going to preview the upcoming series with the Nationals. Maybe we'll take a look back at this series that they did win against the New York Yankees and maybe they poke the Yankees a little too hard with the way that Zach Allen struck out 13 of them last night. But we'll be back tomorrow with all of that, some more fun as well. So I hope you guys join us at 2 p.m. tomorrow.

Until then, hope you guys have a wonderful evening. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kapp underscore K-Ban with a K. Between that and the milk thing, I'm washed. I'm cooked. It's over. I blew the segment about the wrong game and the throwback Thursday segment. It's over for me.

And now it's remember kids. Remember kids. Shame deep. Follow him there on that pH and X underscore debacks. But of course, all roads lead to at pH and X underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow. Until then.

Have a good evening. Behave yourselves. And remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when Merrill Kelly doesn't have one of the worst starts of his career.