PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - POSTGAME: Michael Soroka IMPLODES Against Lefty-Heavy Brewers Lineup as D-backs Drop Series

Episode Date: April 30, 2026

Arizona Diamondbacks starter Michael Soroka had no answer for the Milwaukee Brewers’ lefty-heavy lineup, surrendering eight earned runs in just three innings as the Snakes drop game 3 and the series. We break down what went wrong for Soroka, why the offense went ice-cold after a four-homer explosion in Game 2, and how Ildemaro Vargas continues to make history with his MLB-best 26-game hitting streak and a new franchise record on the road. Plus, we preview a looming showdown with a dangerous Chicago Cubs squad and take a look at what’s ahead for the D-backs in May.   0:00 Intro 4:00 Bad loss 9:30 Soroka's outing 19:45 Vargas is cooking! 26:30 King Snake 31:00 By the Numbers 47:45 Look at the Cubs series   Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $36: https://gophnx.com/intro-offer-youtube WHILE SUNS ARE IN PLAYOFFS Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $32: https://gophnx.com/suns-playoff-offer-youtube JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4 An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/ Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order! Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visit https://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotes bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets! Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/   Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.   Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 40% 2+ pairs of off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.   Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you! When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. #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.

Michael Soroka and the Arizona Diamondbacks had no answer for the Brewer's left-handed heavy lineup today, and they got embarrassed once again in this series. We have more on the loss, what exactly went wrong for Soroka, and a look ahead at another tough series here with the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley. Don't you go anywhere? We are starting right now. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast right here in Studio A, which, you know, I'm not a fan of that music, nor am I a fan of this studio, though. I am wearing a lot of A's today, so I should be fine with it.

Welcome in to you all, thrilled to have you guys here. Again, wish it was under better circumstances, but the Diamondbacks lose today's finale to the Milwaukee Brewers 13 to 1. They lose the series, which is just their third series loss of the season, and they did so in embarrassing fashion. Of course, this show is brought to you by our friends at Bet365. Go download that app right now. Bet 365, we're winning is everything. Use our code of PHNX365 when you sign up. We're also brought to you by the fine folks at GameTime.

Make sure to download that GameTime app to save on those last minute ticket deals. Create an account and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase terms do apply. Well, welcome in. Appreciate Mark. Our guy, Mark is already trying to improve my mood with a super chat. Love you, Mark. He says nine straight games without a starter going six innings, let alone a quality start. Yikes, almost like this is the same awful rotation as last year. We had our hopes, didn't we, Mark?

We had our hopes that it wasn't going to be the same awful rotation as last year. And in fact, it's pretty much the same rotation almost entirely with the addition of Michael Soroka, who was on the mound today. Soroka could not do anything to combat this left-handed, heavy lineup that was put out there by Pat Murphy and the Brewers, and the Diamondbacks got spanked today by a score of 13 to 1. And I do know when I say spanked, there's at least one of you that thinks that means a good thing. And I will just reiterate, once again, it's not. 13 to 1, though, they lose two games in this series where they give up 13 runs, which is just embarrassing. And they drop to 16 and 14 on the sewer on the season. Sewer, sewer probably is pretty effective and

pretty appropriate for that one. Matching the brewers there on team records. Before we move on, I did want to address this little guy's hat, because even though today is a day of sorrow for the Diamondbacks, it's still a day of celebration around here. It is our guy producer Noah's birthday who is helping us out today. Happy birthday to you. Noah. There you go. Give yourself a little action there. Hopefully you have yourself a wonderful day. And again, cannot thank you enough for not only your wonderful work you do around here because I know all of you guys work hard, but Noah is one of the greatest graphics producers I've ever seen in my entire life. The man is a genius when it comes to getting us this absolute fire

that the Cardinal show puts out there. And again, did an incredible job helping the boys cover the draft. So happy birthday, Noah. Appreciate you. And thank you, sir, for helping us out today. Weird day here with this game being when it is. if you don't haven't already noticed the U of A Wildcats program stole Damon from us. But that's fine.

Noah's an upgrade as far as I'm concerned here. Thank you for the wishes, Derek. What wasn't an upgrade was Michael Soroka on the mound, which at one point has felt like an upgrade this season. It felt like Michael Soroka was a magical pickup. I know this idiot right here is probably said on more than one occasion that Soroka was proving to be one of the best values as far as free agency pickups. this past off season.

Well, he very much was not that today. He was completely ineffective against this left-handed heavy lineup that the Milwaukee Brewers put out there, giving up three runs in the first, then three more in the third, and then two more before exiting out of the game in the fourth inning without registering and out in that particular inning. It was a disastrous start today for Michael Soroka.

Offense did not do much to pick this team up, scoring just one run. It really doesn't matter. What Soroka did or the bullpen did, maybe they just give up two runs and they look like, you know, they look masterful today. And they still lose this one with the lack of production from the offense once again. It's going to be one of those where we have that debate. What really caused the loss today? It's easy to say Michael Soroka's poor performance.

And obviously the offense, you know, didn't do much to kind of muster up the energy to try to come back in this one. But Pat Murphy and the Brewers sent eight. eight left-handed or switch-hitting batters to the plate against Michael Soroka in the starting lineup. They knew exactly what they were doing, and it absolutely worked. They exhausted Soroka early. He had a 35-pitch first inning, and at that point, his day was over, pretty much. He gave up a lead-off walk to Garrett Mitchell, then a one-out double to William Contreras, who I am so sick of hearing that man's name.

Sal Freelick and William Contreras, the two of you, can go away forever as far as I'm concerned after this series, because both of those men were a menace to this team in this series. But again, William Contreras scores the first run on an RBI double that scores Mitchell in the first inning to make it one to nothing. And then Soroka walked Jake Bowers, and with two outs gave up a two run, double to Louis Rengifo, Luis Rengifo, a guy who we said a lot of negative things about this past off season when we talking about possibly adding him to our roster. And he helped Milwaukee win today.

He added onto that total to make it 3-0 after one inning. And then it was more of the same in the third. I think Soroka kind of cruised through the second, but then the third just immediately got himself into trouble again. He had a lead-off single to Bryce Terrang, followed by a two-run home run from once again, William Comtrez. And look, every time I say that, again,

I know a little piece of Jesse Friedman. dies inside. So I'll try not to say it too many more times. But at that time, that made it a five-to-nothing game. And with the way this offense was performing against this Milwaukee Brewers team that was basically forced to go to a bullpen start with starter Brandon Woodruff leaving very early due to some serious velocity issues and potentially an injury there, not sure what's going to come out of that for the Brewers overall. But he left early and the bullpen just handle the diamond backs. And we've seen this in the past, right?

The debacks can be completely ineffective sometimes against a bullpen start like this when they're just going from arm to arm inning to inning throughout the rest of the nine and not giving the diamond backs more than an inning of looking at any single reliever. But today, like I said, with Seroca, he just got singled to death finally in the fourth inning,

which ended his outing and ended it entirely too early. Meanwhile, like I said, on the other end, it was more due to injury. With Soroka, it was more due to the fact that the Brewers just single, single, single in the fourth inning. And it didn't look like basically Soroka was ever going to register an out. It was a Hamilton single, a Mitchell single, Bryce Terang, RBI single to make it seven to nothing. And then once again, Contreras, RBI single to make it eight to nothing. and the lead would just continue to get pushed up throughout the outing once the bullpen came into the game.

None of the bullpen relievers today were effective. In fact, it was the opposite outing of yesterday, right? But top G in the chat reminds us of what is important. And it is that Vargas got a hit at least, right? And yes, he did. Il-Demarro Vargas, the lone bright spot in today's absolutely embarrassing loss, did extend his hitting streak, and we'll talk about that. two hits, one that probably doesn't deserve to be a hit. But hey, who am I? I'm not a

scorer. I'm not, I'm nobody to judge over here. So we'll let him have it because today there wasn't much offense from this team. It was fairly pathetic and mostly harmless. But with Soroka, it was just, again, this perfect formula of left-handed hitting that he really couldn't do much against. I mean, this was, there wasn't, I don't. I don't, I don't know what to say here. He couldn't throw a slurve. He was catching entirely too much of the plate. I think we have his pitch chart image here. But when he was missing here with his four seam and with the cutter, they were wildly outside of the zone, including the slurve, including the change up. And then just a lot of a high concentration of pitches, as you can see, right there

in the middle of the zone that just weren't fooling anybody. He went 51% foreseem today. And he relied heavily on that four seam, which maxed out at 95.2 miles per hour, average 93.3 over the outing, which is a little down from his year average, but it's still right there. But realistically, it was his fastball usage being way up and his slurve usage being down. It felt like he did not have good command or control over his secondary pitches, over his breaking stuff. So he just went to four seam more than half of the outing, 51%. four seam usage, 24% slurve usage, which is down from, I mean, usually he kind of throws his four seam and his slurve an equal percentage. I think on the season, his four seam usage is at 35%

and his slurve usage was at 33%. Today, 51% for the four seam, 24% for the, 24% for the slurve. 13% usage of the change up, cutter he threw a few times and he threw the sinker once. but it really just felt like it's another one of those days where starting pitcher for the Diamondbacks doesn't have command over his secondary pitches, can't find the zone with them, so he has to essentially go to the fastball, right? And up to this point this season, this has not been a fastball reliant baseball team. In fact, they've been a change-up reliant baseball team and a secondary breaking pitch, Reliant baseball team.

When these guys were all having their dominant outings, all of that breaking stuff was working. And in most cases, what you saw was Erod with his change-up as his most used pitch with, you know, a soroka in a few outings. It was a slurve.

Like there is this loss of command with those secondary pitches that essentially makes you retreat to using the four seam and that felt like what it was today. He got four whiffs. That's it. That's all he had. and two strikeouts, and this is a guy that had, you know, 20 strikeouts in two games alone.

So just a bad outing for Soroka and honestly a tip of the cap to Pat Murphy for coming at him with this left-handed heavy lineup. So he goes three innings pitch today, gave up 10 hits, eight earn runs, two walks, two strikeouts. The Diamondbacks pitching staff numbers are not going to look good. And in fact, here the bullpen, like I said, was the exact opposite of yesterday. where they did a magnificent job of holding the Brewers to just those two runs that Erod allowed and keeping that game scoreless. Today, everybody gave up a run. Everybody was allowing runs.

It didn't matter who they put out there. Abner came out. He did give them two and a third innings pitched in his 20, 26 season debut. He was just called up, and Andrew Hoffman was sent down. And for the most part, Abner did the thing. He limited them to just one hit allowed. He did give up a single and a walk before being removed. from the game. Those runs would score, but those were essentially runners that he turned over

to Loisaga, who was not very good today. He gave up, he walked Contreras when he came into the game and then gave up a ground out RBI for one run to make it nine to one, and then a Tyler Black two RBI double that made it 11 to one at the time. So Philip Abner, despite not having the flashiest best stuff, was pretty good today. And again, he didn't allow any runs to score essentially on his watch, but those runs that he turned over to Loisaga did score. Now, I do want to discuss one thing that kind of drives me nuts about today's loss, and that is Brandon Fott coming into the game there to pitch in the seventh inning. I cannot really understand it.

If you up to this point, like, I don't know, are they listening to this show? Are they finally deciding to take my advice? because this feels like, feels like the bad, bad time to take my advice when it comes to this Brandon Fought situation. You had an outing where your starter was not able to give you more than three innings pitched.

You also have a game where you essentially have had seen it slip away. You are down eight to one, and it doesn't feel like there's a very good chance of you coming back in this one and winning it. So instead of turning over to the guy that you've tried to keep at 80 pitches and stretched out as a starter, secretly in the bullpen in case anything happens, you don't do that?

Instead, you turn it over to Philip Abner, which I understand because of their left-handed heavy lineup, you might as well get a lefty in there since you have them finally in your bullpen and you want to kind of stop the bleeding. And it worked. Abner was effective against this left-handed lineup. But you've already waved the white flag. And again, you had Brandon fought.

Why does Brandon fought not just come into the game anyway? Well, yeah, and you're right. Mark's right, because LOL Brandon fought against lefties, right? I'm not going to argue with that. But I'm also going to say it was an eight to one ball game, right? So why would you continue to use multiple arms from the bullpen when you could have just turned Brandon Fott and essentially fingers crossed, let him get you through three innings? Like there's going to be some damage along the way. Fott did give up a run. He gave up a solo home run to Sal Freelik.

But I don't know. I just felt like this was the exact opportunity for you to use the exact kind of bullpen arm that Brandon fought is to come in, eat up some innings, and allow him to stay stretched out by throwing a lot of pitches. And instead, he just gets one inning of work giving up the one home run. No walks and striking out too. So, but again, piece of Yoshi says in the chat, I think you wanted one more inning. out of Abner to then use the Weisga in the seventh, but then it didn't work, and he had to use fought anyway. Right. But I guess I'm just thinking in general prior to Abner even coming into the

game, which whatever. I mean, it is what it is. And it's, yeah, and you're right, Scotty Max. Scottie Max has fought cannot help himself from giving up a bomb. He really can't. But this was a wash, most likely anyway. And obviously with the way the offense performed, that was definitely the case, it just felt like it was the perfect time for Brandon Fott, who they've tried so hard to keep in that role and to keep giving him multiple innings of relief and throwing a lot that, I don't know. I mean, I just, I don't know what this team is doing anymore at times, and I can't explain it myself. But regardless of how many runs, their offense score, they could have scored 100 runs in this game. The only thing it's going to ruin is the

Diamondbacks run differential. And maybe it's going to hurt the Diamondbacks play. players feelings a little bit. But regardless, they now have to press on and take on a very tough Chicago Cubs team at Wrigley Field, who has been playing some great baseball. They have some incredible numbers that we're going to go over later in the show, and we're going to preview that series for you. But before we do that, we're going to take a quick break. On the other side of this break, we have more from this unfortunate game and this unfortunate series to discuss, including, yes, Ildemar Vargas being my hero. the champion of everything.

And I'm just going to say it now. Damon's not here. He's the king snake. And there's no argument this time about that. So we're going to do that on the other side of this break. Don't you go anywhere. You're watching the PHNX Diamondback show. Well, things get tough for us during the summer.

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physically located in Arizona. Terms and conditions do apply in app only. Well, again, on a day where the Diamondbacks only had six hits and two defensive errors, there wasn't much to write home about, right? The Diamondbacks had one run that they scored there in the fourth inning. And that one run was aided by Ildemarro Vargas extending his hit streak now to an MLB best 26 games, career best 26 game hitting streak dates back to September 26th of last year. It is tied for the second longest streak in baseball overall since 2021, behind Trey Turner's 27 game streak back in September of 2021. Meanwhile, he's setting all sorts of franchise records and putting together all sorts of streaks that the Diamondbacks have to keep track of.

Including streak spanning multiple seasons, his 20-game hit streak right now is tied for the second longest in franchise history with Paul Goldschmidt and is behind Luis Gonzalez's 30-game hit streak. His 23-game hit streak to start the season this year is now tied for Major League Baseball's second longest streak since now. since 1940. Ron LaFlears, 30-game streak, still sits ahead of him, but he has tied that Edgar Renteria streak from 2006 at 23 games to start the season. And then his single-season 23-game hitting streak is the third longest in franchise history behind Tony Womack

and Luis Gonzalez. A lot of things there. Most importantly, though, he did set a franchise record. Now, his 19-game road hitting streak since September 8th, 2025 is the longest in franchise history, passing Stephen Drew and junior spivey. Let's see.

It was asked why anybody would care about his empty stats. What else do you want to talk about on a day like this? I'm sure you want to talk about firing Tori LeVolo, and that's a conversation that, of course, you want to have on every episode. But there were a missed opportunity in the fourth inning. However, with the way this game ended, it felt like a moot point at the time. It just felt like that fourth inning when Vargas got his first single of the game

was the Diamondback's best opportunity to start putting things together and break through to get some runs on the board. The game was not necessarily out of control at that point, so it very much felt like this could have been that moment where the Diamondbacks at least cut into that six-run lead that the Brewers had at the time. Vargas would extend his hit streak with that single, in the inning. And of course, Corbyn Carroll, I think, had the lead-off double. The D-Backs

had runners on the corners at that point with one out. Lourdes-Guriel Jr. would bring home Corbyn Caryl for the D-BAC's first run with an RBI single that scored Corbin and made it a six-to-one game at the time. Then Aronado grounded out, and Alec Thomas struck out to end the inning, and it was it. It was it. That was pretty much it. It truly felt like that was their one chance to break through and cut into that significant deficit. However, when the end score is 13 to 1, it's hard to say that, you know, that inning was going to be the key. The Diamondbacks just could not put together multiple hits in an inning. They just did not have anything cooking.

And this offense continues to look lifeless the next day after we start to believe that they're putting something together. I think that's the most frustrating part. The Diamondbacks have a four-home run game last night. They put up six runs, which still isn't a ton of runs, but it felt like they are moving in the direction of this offense starting to get going. Then one day later, it's this. It's a six hit, one run outing. And it just feels like we go right back to having a lot of questions about this offense, having a lot of questions about the top of the lineup.

You had Perdomo going O for three with a walk, Hattel going over three with a walk, and two strikeouts. Corbin at least was two for three with a double and a single. He also scored the team's only run. But then, you know, again, outside of Ildemarovar, Vargas, you just had a whole bunch of Ophors. Del Castillo O for four, Arnado O for three, Thomas O for three, McCann over three.

And, you know, McCann didn't do anything at all to come into the game and help with his arm either. Late, though he did let one run score, but it wasn't earned. So he does lower his ERA this season down to 11.25 in his one-inning pitch with that one hit. He did walk two, and he threw 41 mile per hour, Ephis pitches for the entire outing. I'm starting to grow concerned about how many innings pitched James McCann has this season. I think we all should be.

I think if you told me that James McCann was going to have more innings pitch than Andrew Hoffman, I would be very worried. And maybe we should be, because the way things are trending right now, it feels like the pitching is unraveling, and it feels like the offense is spiraling. And like I said, we also have an upcoming series

with a very, very hot Cubs team, and I have no idea how that's going to go, but the forecast looks like pain. The forecast looks like sadness, and hopefully that's not the case. The offense just disappeared again and this one, like I said, one night removed from the four home run performance last night. They just couldn't do anything against the Brewer's bullpen,

which essentially is what this game turned into. Brewer's starter, Brandon Woodruff, exited this start for Milwaukee in the second inning. His fastball did not reach 87 miles per hour after he sat at 92.5 all year long. His Vila was way down. It was extremely concerning to the Brewers, and they removed him from the game. And it might be one of those situations where either they have to put him on the IL to kind of give him a break there on his arm or it might be something more serious that requires surgery. But again, I don't know if that's what truly stifled the debacks today coming in with a game plan for Woodruff and then instead getting a bullpen start. But regardless, there was very little action from the plate for the Diamondbacks and they lose this one like I said earlier.

a laugher in embarrassing fashion. So we do have to give Kingsnake to somebody, and you know who I'm giving it to now that Damon can't argue and fight with me about it. It's Ildemar Vargas, two for four tonight, 26 game hit streak, 19 game road hitting streak, which is the best in franchise history.

And he's just a dog. He's a dog. He's a dude and he's a guy, and he's a G, and he's a stud. And you can't teach that. So Ildomarovar Vargis, again, inexplicably, having a superstar level season so far in 26. And let's just hope overall that they can add to that.

They need somebody else to step up and produce. We got a really good stretch here out of Aronado, but he really looked frustrated at the plate today. And, you know, again, this is one of those days where I don't know. What do you want to be mad at? What do you feel like being mad at? obviously, like I said, Soroka giving up six runs in the first three innings is going to put you in a bad place offensively and probably make you give up as a badder. But they didn't do much to fight back. They didn't do much to muster up offense and try to cut into this lead at any point.

And again, the pitching staff maybe could have held the Brewers to three runs total. And it still feels like today would have been a loss. So it is what it is. But again, Vargas, our king snake. and our hero and a legend. We're not building the statue like we are of Jose Fernandez quite yet, but we'll see how far you can take this hit streak. We're going to take a quick break on the other side of this break. We are going to take a look at the stats from this series

and some really, really ugly ERAs for the pitching staff. We're going to do that here in a few minutes. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the PHNX Diamondback show. Of course, game time does want to help you get access to tickets easier. They want it to be a more user-friendly experience. with constant innovation and they want you to unlock amazing tickets and experiences in just a few taps. It's dead simple to use and the game time guarantee means you will get 100% authentic tickets on time at the best price.

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The window depot more than just the window store. right well this was an ugly series and to prove that we're going to take a look at the numbers from this series and noah let's i don't know how we can bring this in gently um maybe maybe can you hit us with like a glockenspiel or something else some sort of noise that just makes it a little bit more whimsical as we look at these ugly numbers from the series yeah see oh you know what that didn't help that didn't help no that did not help does that say 28 to 9 does that say that the diamondbacks got outscored 28 to 9? Holy crap. Out hit 35 to 20.

Home runs. Hey, we won something. Diamondbacks hit more home runs in the series, and all four of those home runs were hit in game two. That's four home runs to three hit by the Brewers. And then starting pitching ERA, 10.66 thanks to seven earned runs here. or eight earn runs here today and five earned runs in game one to the Brewer's 5.06 ERA which also very gross, very gross, but not nearly as gross as 10.66.

Relief pitching area 8.76 for the Diamondbacks to the Brewers 1.65. They didn't even have one of the best bullpins in baseball coming into this one, but boy, did they look like it against the Debex. Yeah, starting ERA of 10 plus is wild, Jason. You're not wrong about that. But, yeah, this was one of those situations where, once again,

the starting pitching has not done the job for the Diamondbacks, five earned runs, two earn runs, but still four and two-thirds innings, and eight earn runs. Nobody made it past the fifth inning in this series, so the bullpen had a lot of work. Five innings, again, pitched in game one, four and two thirds by Erod in the winning game two and then just three today. It doesn't just feel like the starting pitching is starting to get slightly worse.

It feels like the starting pitching is literally falling off a cliff. I dug into it a little bit and like I said, there was some increased secondary pitch usage that seemed to be generating some success for the debacks early on and now they've kind of abandoned that. I'm not sure if abandoning it is part of changing the game plan or if abandoning it has been more due to the fact that they have no command at times over those secondary pitches. I don't understand how the entire pitching staff all falls apart at the same time. Bullpen did the best that they could do in this series, you know,

and obviously they were not perfect putting up an 8.760RA. You also had James McCann pitching today, so it doesn't really feel once again like this was truly an effort to keep runs off the board as much as it was an effort to try to keep arms fresh for the Cubs series, which again brings me back to why doesn't fought pitch the rest of this game? That's neither here nor there. Again, this is one of those series that makes you not believe any longer. And understandably so. It would be one thing if they were competitive in today's game or competitive in game one. That wasn't the case.

They lose game 1, 13 to 2. They lose game 3, 13 to 1. They get out scored just in those two games alone 26 to 3. Not great. Not great. And again, there's a lot of things we could suggest to fix. You know, I'm merely saying that the offense didn't do much today because they didn't do anything, right? So even if this game was closer and wasn't such a laffer that it became,

still doesn't feel like the debacks come out with a win today. because their offense seems to, especially on day games at the end of a three-game stretch, seems to just vanish on this team this season. So still so many questions about the top of the lineup guys producing and such. But again, the definite big biggest concern right now is how quickly this starting pitching went from having like the sixth best ERA in the first few weeks in Major League Baseball to being this, to being what this starting pitching staff has become. We were looking forward to Erod and Michael Soroka,

both pitching in this series, and this is now where we're at. This is the result. So not great, and hopefully things look better in Chicago. I'm doubtful of that. I'm cautiously pessimistic when it comes to what their chances are of having a good showing in Chicago are, but because of that, of course,

they will step up and probably surprise us all. And once again, having me and Damon resisting the masculine urge to once again say, we're back. But speaking of being back, we are back with our PH&X takeovers of Chase Field there. So, of course, if you have not had a chance to come out, enjoy a takeover,

let me tell you, you're missing out. It's good times. It's fun times. We're going to have some more fun times because now our takeovers are occurring in the All You Can Eat section there at Chase Field, which is good for two very obvious reasons. The first being how much weight we're all going to gain and how much we're going to stuff our faces with hot dogs during the course of that game.

But the other thing is the freedom to roam around and mingle and talk with your fellow diehards, your fellow DeBax fans, maybe get to meet some of the people in the chat. I will ensure that Killer Rex is banned once again. No concerns about having to meet him, but hope to meet the rest of you out there. So it would be great to see you guys for that. Those games are occurring on Thursday, June 4th versus the Dodgers. And Tuesday, August 25th versus the Cubs. It includes your ticket includes a pH and X piece of merch, DBAX hat or shirt of your choice.

It also gets you in to the bar S all you can eat section for these games. and of course all of the power of friendship together. So diehards, you get 20% off. Get your tickets now over at go phnx.com slash events. Noah, I know you might not have been extended the invite, but since it's your birthday, you're officially invited. Hey, thank you. I don't know what we're going to tell the Cardinals guys.

They're going to be upset about that, I'm sure, especially considering that I'm not inviting them, but I am inviting you. Yay. But yeah, that's what I'm giving you for your birthday. Ashton says, I definitely think this team is probably 17 and 17 after the Cubs series. I have a bad feeling about May, even though the opponents aren't that great, they tend to underperform. This is, again, something that I've kind of addressed and I feel hasn't really been said enough.

I don't think I'm saying anything smart that other people haven't already noticed or shouldn't have noticed. But, you know, really, when it comes to that schedule, there were a lot of teams that we thought were going to be. much better than they are. Looking back now that we have finished the month of April, now that we're past March and April, you can look back at the results, look back at what, you know, where those teams stand that we thought were going to give the Diamondbacks trouble, teams that we thought were going to be much better than they are, right? And that's where we're at right now is that we have, for instance, a series against the Philadelphia of Phillies, who are currently elected.

11 and 19. We had a series that we won against the New York Mets, who are 10 and 12. We won a series against the Detroit Tigers. No offense to you, Noah, that is a 500 ball club at 16 and 16. Tied for first place in their division, but a 500 ball club nonetheless. And then you also have the Baltimore Orioles who are also a 500 ball club at 15 and 15. I'm not saying the debacks didn't take care of business, especially on a road trip there against some teams that they probably should have lost more games to. But what I am saying is that overall, those teams were thought to be much better than their record indicates, and then they have been performing in series that they didn't play against the Diamondback. So for the most part, yeah, we shouldn't be surprised now that they're

struggling against a Milwaukee Brewer's team, who is above 500, a pretty good White Sox team that's kind of still finding themselves, but had no trouble putting up a bunch of runs against this team and obviously getting waxed there in the opening series against the Dodgers. So I don't know what the identity of this team is. And I think the reason why is because as the season progresses, the identity of this team continues to change. The bullpen continues to change. Starting pitching somehow continues to change. And the offense still hasn't figured out what the hell they are. Right. You still have the six through nine bottom of the lineup guys outperforming the top of the lineup guys. you have Ildamaro Vargas inexplicably being the greatest baseball player on the on the planet

and you have a lot of guys that are not hitting right now and a lot of injuries still to deal with. So there's just so much for this team. There's so much that they have to deal with. And it's so exhausting at times to have to try to figure out whether they are hashtag good or not. Are they hashtag good? I don't know. I'm starting to doubt that. but Zach brings up a great point with his comment just now in the chat.

He says, what's more inconsistent starting pitching or offense? Brother, as of late, it's been starting pitching, right? I mean, I will agree with the sentiment that it's hard mentally for the offense to get going when starting pitching has been giving up multiple runs in the first inning entirely too often, and you're just down right away before you've even had a bat in your hand. That part sucks. but at the same time, I will say that, you know, offense needs to pick,

offense needs to pick itself up. Like, just because the starters have been giving up a bunch of runs at times doesn't mean that the offense should still see Catelle Marte hitting what he's hitting and, you know, Perdomo and all these guys hitting where they're currently at. You got Pardomo hitting 236. You got Cotel Marte hitting 233. Del Castillo's hitting 207.

Lordes Gurriel Jr., 194. Orrano, he's really put stuff together. He's got his batting average up to 276, but then you still have Thomas and McCann hitting 188, 191. Just entirely too many guys hitting below 250 on this lineup. And again, the bigger problem being that those guys are Pardomo and Marte, and, you know, outside of that, not a lot of help there, right? Vargas, 378 batting average with a 1087 OPS, Jose Fernandez,

325 average with 819 OPS. Why wasn't he in the lineup today? Remember, when Jose Fernandez is in the lineup, we win baseball games. So that's a whole other question. But again, here when it comes to this team, this damn team is so weird. It's so weird.

And this team is going to be different now versus June 1st and July 1st and beyond. So I don't know. But hopefully the, you know, the arms returning, more most importantly, Corbyn Burns returning in July can be the thing that perhaps

makes us feel completely different about this pitching staff, but they got to get their shit together between now and then. They have a lot to figure out, and they cannot continue to go out there and expect this offense to have to put up six runs or more every single night to win a baseball game.

But we're going to take a quick break. On the other side of this break, we are going to preview the aforementioned upcoming series with the Chicago Cubs and talk a little bit here about, of course, what to expect here from a dangerous Cubs lineup. Thank you guys for being here. Of course, you are watching the PHA next Diamondback show. Don't you go anywhere? Well, hopefully you will never need Alexis and Mark Breyer to assist you. They are the husband and wife law team. And of course, they are experts when it comes to

accident and serious injury. But if you do ever experience an accident and serious injury, the lawyer you hire does matter. Make sure you hire an attorney that has your best interest in mine, not how much. money the firm makes, that's the husband and wife law team. This team brings hundreds of years of combined trial experience and they have multiple certified specialists in personal injury and wrongful death. That is important because in the state of Arizona, the state bar is only certified less than 1% of all lawyers as specialists in injury and wrongful death litigation, making them experts in the field. They also actually go to trial and know what needs to be done to prevail in a

courtroom in front of a jury for their clients. As their client, they cannot guarantee the outcome of your case, but they can't make promises to you, including that you can cancel your fee agreement with them at any point for any reason at all. You will receive at least as much in your pocket as they do for their attorney fees, even if they have to reduce their attorney fees to do so. And you may speak with one of their lawyers as often as you choose about anything you want to discuss, including if Ildamara Bargis having a 25, 26 game hitting streak is empty stats. But if you've had a serious injury, call the husband and wife law team first at 602-78. 384-1 or visit their website at the link in our show notes and tell them PHNX sent you.

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call Kim Caballero today at 480, 4895012. That's 480, 489-5012. Noah, it's your birthday. Yes, sir. You can cry if you want to. I think there's a song about that. I would want to cry if I was a Diamondbacks fan watching this game on my birthday, but I'm glad that you don't have to suffer through that.

Do you have any fun plans for the weekend? I know you said that your dad's coming in town, right? Yeah, yep. He's coming into town for the first time. Never been here before? I think maybe when he was like six, but that was like 50. Yeah, no, that doesn't count. It was like 50 years ago.

We didn't get to go to any bars or restaurants at six that matter at that time. Right. You got anything, any plans? I'll probably take them up to Sedona on Saturday. I'm thinking of showing them around just like Scottsdale, Phoenix tomorrow. Nice. And I think I'm going to bring them in the office, show them the office and everything. Oh, you got to.

Yeah, you got, come on. I mean, we don't pay for this space to just work in. We pay for this space to bring our friends and family to impress them with the stupid job that we do. Exactly. That's amazing. I will say this about Noah. Noah puts together the most incredible weekends for people that come into town. And Noah is not from here.

He is a mission, what do we call you, a Michigander? Yep. All right. And he still out does being in Arizona and then better. He does it better than most of us. Like he'll have people come into town and he's like, oh, we went white water rafting in the Grand Canyon. And then, you know, we went to Flagstaff had ice cream at this magical shop. And then we went to Tucson and watched a, you know, University of Arizona football game.

It's insane how, how well you fill a weekend. And you just, you just cover the state so well. So I do, I do. I try to get out. There's so much to do here. It's just, it's awesome. You know what's funny about that is I almost feel like that's the perspective from somebody that doesn't live here. When you live here, you're just like, nah.

Yeah. Old Arizona, whatever. That makes sense. So I'm in the same way kind of a little bit with Michigan. Right. Summertime in Michigan, even winter, there's a lot to do. But not quite like Arizona. Yeah, Mark says Phoenician stay inside where the AC is.

That's a good point. I haven't turned my AC on yet. Oh, my God. You're an anomaly. You just blow my mind when it comes to everything about you. But again, we got a big series coming up here with the Chicago Cubs. Hopefully the Diamondbacks can figure out a way on that plane ride from Wisconsin to Illinois, how to get their offense working and warm up their bats.

let's take a look at this Chicago Cubs team at a glance because they are very good and they've been putting together a good season despite having some injuries that they've dealt with. Everything that they've gone through, they still have been beaten some good teams and they have themselves a good record sitting at 19 and 12 right now with a plus 35 run differential. They are 7 and 3 in their last 10 games. They have a 780 team OPS which is tied for third place, third best OPS and all of Major League Base. baseball. They have a 3.77 starting pitching ERA, which is ninth there in baseball. And then, oh, actually, those two are reversed. My bad. The starting pitching area is 16th. And the relief pitching ERA is swap. So their starting pitching area, there is 4.18. That is 16th. Their relief pitching ERA is 3.77, which is nice. Ninth. And then they have 12 outs above average, which is first in

Major League Baseball by quite a margin. In fact, Pete Crow Armstrong himself has more outs above average than most teams in Major League Baseball. So there is what that team has been doing. I don't know if we're catching them at a good time or not. Being 7.3 in their last 10 makes me feel like we are not catching them at the right time. But who knows? Who knows?

Again, because this team is an anomaly. They don't make any sense. So none of us should be shocked to see somehow the Diamondbacks have a good showing here in Chicago. But I still have my doubts about that. And again, that's based on the way that they played in this Brewer series, giving up so many hits, so many singles, and two games where they give up 13 runs and are outscored by over 10. So not great, but hopefully this humiliating experience in Wisconsin helps them get their stuff together.

or Wisco, according to those stupid city connect jerseys that I hate. But we got probable pitchers for this series, and we got Zach Gallen leading the way here in game one against Colin Ray. Gallen has a 3.14 ERA this season, 17 strikeouts, and he is currently one and one going up against Colin Ray with a 4.61 ERA, 24 strikeouts. Game two, Nelly on the mound. We got Nellie and his unfortunate 7.71,

ERA going up against Mike, got Shoda Imanaga pitching there for the Chicago Cubs. He has two and two with a 3.15 ERA. He has a lot of strikeouts this season. He has 38 of them so far, which is, I believe, one of the best in the league. Ryan Nelson, 24 strikeouts and a 7.71 ERA, 1 and 2 record for Nellie. And then in the finale, we got Merrill Kelly matching up with Matthew Boyd, Merrill 9.20. ERA for Merrill currently with nine strikeouts going up against Matthew Boyd and his 7.00 ERA and 26 strikeouts. And yeah, yeah, Mark, Jason says, oh my God, two pitchers over seven ERA.

You're damn right. You're damn right we do. And that's who we're sending to the mound in this Chicago Cubs series. I think that's going to work out. I think that's going to work out for him. No? No. Well, I'll tell you this much.

I don't love what's going on with this team. And again, this has been the most, we're done and we're back team that I think we've ever covered in our time here at the Diamondbacks, at PH&X Diamondbacks. Maybe that's because of Damon. I don't know exactly his influence on this whole situation. But Mark is right. I think what the Diamondbacks need more than anything out of any of these guys, and maybe hopefully all three is a quality start. We need a quality start right now more than we need air.

So it would be great to see somebody here step up for the Diamondbacks, whether it's Zach Gowan, who does have an ability to step up for them in big East Coast games, though this is a 110 start in Chicago. So I'm unsure, 120 start in Chicago, 120 Club. I forgot about our guys over there at the CHGO. That was, by the way, a great time. And here is another reason why I'm glad Noah is on the ones and twos today and not Damon. When Jesse, Jacob and I had the pleasure of going to Chicago to cover that series in 2024 against the Cubs right after the All-Star break, we had a blast with the 120 club of our friends out there at CHGO.

Greg Braggs is a beast. He's a beast. He's a certified G and a bona fide stud, and you can't teach that. But more than anything, just shout out to them including us in that and us being able to broadcast this very show from right across the street of Wrigley Field with the statue of Harry Carey behind us there. So that was one of my greatest memories so far of doing this show. And yep, there's Mark saying known Cubs fan, Derek Montia. There it is. That's it.

That's the best you got. I mean, I will, I could wear my Cubs hoodie. that I bought in Chicago tomorrow. Maybe I will. I probably shouldn't do that. I might not be allowed back on this show forever, but we do have a post-game show tomorrow. So after that whole game one of that Chicago Cubs series takes place,

which they're all day games, by the way, all day games, which I don't even know how to deal with that. Kind of like it. So we're going to at least be able to have things wrapped up by a decent hour. But we will definitely be back with a post-game show tomorrow night. So make sure to join us 15 minutes after the final out of that game. Or perhaps if it goes as bad as two of these games did, maybe we'll start earlier. I don't know.

We've been flirting with the idea of starting in the eighth inning. So anything is possible when this team is giving up this many runs. I don't foresee the Diamondbacks ever having a positive run differential either after losing two of these games by 13 runs. Me and Damon were just talking about that last night. but that whole run differential, that might be a dream we don't attain. But regardless, we thank you guys so much for stopping by. We appreciate your time.

Your time is your most valuable commodity, so we can't thank you enough for sharing some of it with us today. We will be back, like I said, tomorrow with another post-game show. Before we get out of here, once again, the little birthday hat is for Noah. So big, happy birthday, to our guy, Noah. it feels weird that you're doing that for yourself, but it's still good.

It's still good. Never seen somebody celebrate their own birthday as a producer that much, but hey, do your thing, have a great day. And again, we appreciate all of your hard work. As for the rest of you, I appreciate some of you, the ones who I don't appreciate know exactly who they are. But regardless of appreciation levels,

I thank you guys all for your time. Hope you guys grab those tickets for that D-BACs takeover. We're going to have ourselves a fun time doing that. that and of course I hope you guys come back here for the post game show tomorrow night and I hope that those are under uh under better pretences no killer X gets no refunds on his time at all this is a non refundable show so you decided I mean give us your time at your own risk is basically what I'm saying Katie says happy birthday Noah thanks for sharing it with us yeah man appreciate you sharing with us first you can follow us on Twitter I am at cap underscore caveman with a

even though it's his birthday, Noah still doesn't want you to follow him on social media. And in fact, if you follow Noah, the present that he wants for his birthday is for you to unfollow him. We're going to get him to zero here before the end of 2026, and I can't wait for that. But of course, our show is at PHNX underscore DBAX. But as always, all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for your time. Like I said, we'll see you back here tomorrow. And hopefully it's a much less embarrassing.

outcome than this one. But again, behave yourselves, Rex, appreciate your time, everybody else. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when your starting pitcher can actually give you a decent outing.