PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - POSTGAME: Zac Gallen DEALS Against Rangers to Secure Diamondbacks’ Series Win

Episode Date: September 4, 2025

📬 Arizona sports in your inbox! https://gophnx.com/newsletterZac Gallen kept his dominant streak alive on Wednesday, leading the Diamondbacks to a series-clinching win over the Rangers despite limited run support. We break down how the Milkman has been delivering for the Snakes since the trade deadline. Plus we discuss the commemorative signing of HB2704 at Chase Field and what keeping Arizona’s baseball team in downtown Phoenix for the next 30 years means to the Valley.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsMERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-lockerALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/APS:  Find instant rebates, discounts and special offers on smart thermostats, energy-efficient appliances and more at https://marketplace.aps.com/default/heating-cooling/smart-thermostatsBranded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order!Zen Leaf: Click Here to Visit our friends at Zen Leaf for 50% off using promo code ZENPHNXSpencer’s Appliances: Visit Spencerstv.com and use code PHNX5 for 5% off appliances OR use code PHNX10 for 10% off TVs, audio and mattressesChicken N’ Pickle: Family friendly fun awaits! Visit chickennpickle.com to plan your visit today!Phoenix Raceway: Tickets, hospitality and upgrades are still available for the NASCAR Championship Series October 31st through November 2nd! Visit the link HERE to get yours now!Visit Mountain America Credit Union to learn more about their MyStyle Checking Accounts!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/Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX 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.Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% 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!Monarch Money: Use Monarch Money to get control of your overall finances with 50% off your first year at https://www.monarchmoney.com/phnxAll 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today we saw the Zach Gowan we know we love and we also saw this offense disappear. However, even with going hitless after the second inning, the D-back still gave Gallen enough run support for the win and the series victory over the Texas Rangers. Let's light that cactus light up, baby. We are talking about it in 30 seconds. Don't you go anywhere. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast live from Studio K in beautiful downtown Phoenix, Arizona. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. I got my guy, Damon Dog, on the ones and tunes. I got my guy LG3 here, healing nicely. And we have ourselves a Diamondbacks win and series win over the Texas Rangers.

Welcome in to you all. Glad to have you guys here with us. Of course, this show is brought to you by our friends at Bet365 and GameTime. Make sure to download that Bet365 app right now. Go sign up using our code of PHNX365. Get yourself $200 in bonus bets. Over game time, use our code of PHNX. Get yourself $20 off your first purchase and you can use it to go watch some of these

remaining baseball games we have down the stretch because even though the Diamondbacks might be a long shot to make the playoffs, this team's a lot of fun to watch. And today was one of those days where Zach Gallen absolutely dominated the Texas Rangers and put the Diamondbacks in a position to win this game single-handedly. And of course, we're going to talk about all of that. But first, I wanted to just let you guys know that it is Big Brother. Big Sisters Month here at PHNX. And let me tell you, as somebody that has in the past worked as a mentor, as a big, and enjoyed the opportunity immensely, we here at PHNX are very supportive of this great cause, helps young kids in the Valley and throughout the state get mentorship they need by simply hitting the donate button right there on YouTube.

Forget the super chats this month. We're putting the super chats aside. If you guys want to donate some money, we would love for it to go to Big Brothers Big Sisters. Anything helps as we push for our all-city goal of $50,000. So again, support the great work Big Brothers, Big Sisters does in our community by hitting the donate button now. And of course, yes, it's great to see Jacob Franklin here. You know the Diamondbacks are doing things either extremely well or extremely poorly when Fod shows up. And today, maybe it was a little bit of both because Zach Gowan was dominant on a very quiet day for the Dime.

Diamondbacks offense. He dominated the Rangers and gave the snakes a win pretty much all on his own in the finale with very little run support. I mean, he did get some run support. The Diamondbacks won this game by a score of two to nothing. Their record improves to 70 and 71, which you know what that means. Nope, we're not doing it yet. We're not there yet. But when we hit, when we climb Mount 500, we will bring Tiny Heraldo Perdomo back to do that. For now, the Diamondbacks sit one game under 500 at 7. and 71. The Mets did lose today, so the Diamondbacks had an opportunity today to make up some ground, and they did. And again, the Diamondbacks offense didn't do much in this one, but they did enough. Before we go on, let's hear from Tori Lovolo after the game about this win and what went right for the snakes. This had a typical Zach Gallen field to it. He was out there executing pitches. I think he's driving his fastball and some counts where he's typically soft, so the sequencing was good. you know, you could tell by some of the takes that the Ranger players had, that there was strategy to what they were going to do, and I think Zach did a really good job of counterpunching. But he's really aggressive in the zone. I know the pitch count climbed a little bit.

I had a scenario in my head where he's going to go seven strong, but we clipped him at six strong in the bullpen went out there and took over and preserved the shutout. Anytime you shut out an offensive team like that, they're very capable of scoring runs. you're doing a lot of things right. So the matchups were favorable. Everything seemed to unwind the way we wanted it to.

And we chipped away at a lighter for two early runs, which is good approaches. I think there was a miscue at first base that led to a run for us, and we took advantage of it. It's just one of those good days to win a two nothing shut up. I think that adds a lot of confidence in a lot of different areas of this team. That's much needed right now. We picked up the ball defensively.

We played fast. So a lot went into this win today. So I want them to enjoy the rest of the night off tonight. We've got a day off tomorrow. And look, like I said the other day in LA, we just got to keep our head down and keep charging. We're in this thing. I don't care what anybody says.

We've got to keep fighting for every little inch that we can get and see where that lands us. And there's a lot of fun out there. These guys are doing their job at a very high level, and it's yielding some really, very positive, really good results. Well, they did have good results today, but not offensively. You could argue today was kind of a disaster for them offensively. They just did enough early on.

It felt like this was going to be even more of a disaster based on the fact that they kind of squandered their first run scoring opportunity of the day. With one out in the first inning, Marte, walked and attempted to come home on a Corbyn Carroll double but was thrown out at the plate. So it feels like once again, the changes at third base are still not yielding the desired results as of as of late but still this one is still pretty uh still still still pretty good considering what the diamondbacks were able to do the next batter gabriel marina would single scoring carol and score uh that would have scored marty should have been a two nothing game at that point

but it's only one nothing after the first inning and the second inning it was a little bit more of the same alec Thomas would walk with one out uh in this case he advances to third on a tyler locklear single uh and then score on a base fielding error by jake berr on a Jake McCarthy, I believe, at bat. That would put the Diamondbacks up two to nothing. And that would literally be all the scoring in this entire game. The D-backs would not get another hit in the game after the second inning. I believe they had one walk.

Corby and Carroll walked after that, but they would not have another base runner, really, besides Corbyn Carroll after his walk for the rest of the game. Just three hits overall in this game. So the Diamondbacks, yes, did a lot right on the pitching side of things today against the Texas Rangers. But you could say that the pitching was the reason why they won this game with how little the offense did.

Defensively, this team was solid out there today. Perdomo, he had his moments. He made an incredible play to Rob Coddy Freeman of a hit in the second inning. It was a great grab and a great throw, Damon. It was just a well-executed play. Just snagging it alone, even if he wouldn't have made the throw. would have been a great defensive play. And then he makes the strong throw there to get Freeman out.

That was nice. But he would make a weird mistake in the seventh inning there on the base path. Of course, umpire Bill Miller is involved as he always is. But he would call Pardomo on obstruction based on Ezekiel Duran. It was a weird play where Ezekiel Duran didn't seem like he had a chance to make third. Like it made no sense. The out was at first. Duran made it to second.

He rounded second a little bit, but he was obviously going to be out if he advanced to third base. But something where Perdomo was positioned told Duran that he was going to get this obstruction call. You could tell that is why he advanced the third fully knowing that he was going to get the obstruction call.

Miller was right about the call. So Perdomo was charged with an error and piece of Yoshi is right about Duran for sure. I'm not going to repeat the comments. I can, but I won't. But still, he was that for doing that. And he did get to third base. And like again, like I said.

Just to be clear, you can't. You can't. I can't? That's not one of the words we can say. Okay. It's not one of the words I can't say. There's only seven of those. And I know them by heart thanks to George Carlin.

I'm pretty sure in our current position, that's one of them. I'm not going to argue with you on that. I'm just going to devoid it all together. But again, there was still some good defense being played. Solid played by Gabby on like a swinging bump by Wyatt Langford in the third inning to get him out. And the Diamondbacks defense was just solid all over. But we do have more from Killer X's favorite human being in the world, Tori Lovelo on the obstruction call and the call being right.

Perdomo was just kind of running into the lane to get a better feel for where he could address what was going to be taking place on the play and he just got in the way. And, you know, the runner initiated contact. There doesn't necessarily need to be contact. There just has to be, if it's a block that the Empire considers a hindrance for the runner to get the second, the next base and it's a full-out sprint to the base and it's a bang-bang play, he has a chance to call obstruction. So the Empire got it right.

It almost felt like he went knowing that he would get the obstruction call. Yeah. I feel like that to you? A little bit. I watched it on a high overhead for three seconds, so I haven't had a chance to look at it. But on that play, it's very tricky. If he's thrown out by 12 to 15, 18 feet, he's not protected. If it's considered a bang, bang play the way it was, he is protected. So it's a little bit of a risk because if that ball's retrieved a little bit quicker or thrown a little bit quicker, and he's out from me to the back of the room, he's going to be declared out.

But because it was so close, they had to protect him. defensively the diamondbacks were just solid today these were just a few like the perdomo was one of the outlying calls again there was an error earlier in the game but the reason why they were able to keep the rangers off the board today was not only phenomenal pitching which we will get to here shortly but their defense and their defense has been solid since the all-star break their defense has been solid July and August and again it's frustrating because you wonder where this defense was early on in the season. Tori was asked about that exact thing, what happened with the defense in April? And quite frankly, he said they stunk. This is what he had to say. Yes, we stunk. Our April defense

stunk. It migrated into May. We started to climb a little bit in May, and it's unsatisfactory. I don't like that. I like clean, fast baseball. And, you know, it put us behind in a lot of different situations. We save outs when we play that type of defense. You know, the area that Jerry was charged with, was a little bit of a tough handsy play. But he's been unbelievable. He's been outstanding. So it's everybody covering ground, using footwork. You know, the play that Jerry made yesterday that it went totally unnoticed was like a little quick hop.

He kind of dragged his feet a little bit to keep momentum going. Those are things that are just God-given. And these guys have a lot of, I have a nose for the baseball. But overall, I can't put my finger on it. I've thought a lot about how to prepare these guys. in a spring training scenario next spring. So we don't have that type of an April. I want us to play better baseball for sure.

David loved that part. Damon? Well, I'm just happy for the fans like Killer X out there hearing stuff like their favorite manager, already planning on next season, already planning on 2026 spring training, how we can make this organization better and keep moving forward.

Yeah. Known Toro Lavello's stand, KillerX, loves hearing that. but the Diamondbacks did win this series, two games to one. They have won four straight home series now. So that means they won against the Rangers, Reds, Guardians, and Rockies. They won or split five straight series, and they have won seven of their last 10 series. So, you know, a bit of the discussion after the game is still, you know, hey, where, what, what are we playing for? And I mean, I felt like it was answered a couple of different times, but, you know,

Tori makes a good point. At this point, you don't, you can't control much. All you can control is how you play down the stretch and how many games you win. We were worried about this stretch of games that the Diamondbacks have. And quite frankly, they have six games left against a very hot Giants team that has no problem fighting the Colorado Rockies of all teams. That's who you're going to fight. But again, the Diamondbacks can only control what they can control.

They do have games against the, a lot of games against the Giants left. They have games against the Dodgers and the Podger's. rates to left on their schedule. The only easy games they have left is a three-game set against the Minnesota Twins, and even that can't be overlooked. But they can put their heads down, and they can play hard, and they can finish out this season. The Diamondback, since the All-Star break, their 35 first-inning runs are second-most in the major leagues behind the Dodgers. No, I'm just joking. It's behind the pirates of all teams that has 36 first-inning runs since the All-Star break. But more importantly, the Diamondback starting pitchers have been excellent.

They got progressively better in this series and culminated today in Zach Gallen's excellent scoreless outing that he gave this team for six innings. Offensively, though, not much to write home about. Corbyn Carroll was one for two with a double. He had literally the team's only extra base hit in this game. He had a walk and run scored. Gabriel Moreno was one for three with an RBI. Tyler Locklear, one for three. And then Jake McCarthy had an RBI with no hits.

So that's the way things shook out. for this team. But at the end of the day, they were able to get the job done. And the reason why they were able to do that was some pretty good defense and some excellent pitching. So on the other side of this break, we are going to talk about that excellent pitching and what Zach Gallen was able to give this team today. Don't you go anywhere. You're watching the PH&X Diamondback show. Well, you know how I love to celebrate with pure edibles, whether it's a winner or loss. Pure Edibles is there to help me rebound from any Arizona Diamondbacks game. So make sure to check out their full line of candies. They are a full-fledged candy company offering more than just

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But what the diamondbacks needs. to today was Zach Gallen's help, especially with the offense coming up as short as they did against Leiter in this game. But Zach Gallant was dominant once again, and you just can't really say enough about what starting pitching has done for the Diamondbacks lately. I mean, you think back in the last, you had a bad stretch there of two games where Brandon fought and Erod weren't able to make it out of three innings pitched. But outside of that, some of the pitching they've gotten from Zach Gallen, Ryan Nelson, and namely Nabil Krismot, the biggest surprise. of the group has been excellent.

But Gallen's performance today in the series was the best of any starter for the Diamondbacks against Texas. He had just earned his 10th win of the season in his last outing against the Dodgers. That would make his fourth consecutive season of 10 plus wins. He joins Randy Johnson, Brandon Webb, and Zet Granky

as the only pitchers in franchise history to record four consecutive 10 plus wins seasons. And Gallin was excellent. Here's what he had to say about his performance today. Yeah, I felt like the same thing, just able to make some pitches, some big spots. Like, Command was a little bit better in L.A., but still fairly serviceable tonight. And like I said, just try to make some pitches. Gabby put down some good fingers tonight.

We would kind of get ourselves out of jam there in the 6th and a good team win. It's weird because Galen was really good today, really effective, but just not getting a ton of strikeouts and more importantly not getting a ton of swing and miss he only got two whiffs today uh both of those were on his slider which is just kind of surprising he didn't even throw his slider the majority of the time he went really heavy on the four seam fastball we have his pitch chart here that you can see uh knuckle curve and and four seam once again was his primary pitches uh that knuckle curve was doing a good job of of you know that uh vertical break and and dropping out of the zone the four seam, he just seemed like he had control over it all day long.

See that one way up there at the top. But outside of that, the majority of all of his pitches were competitive. And Zach was throwing them exactly where he wanted to put him. He was maxing out on his four seam today at 95.3 miles per hour. And again, he was just excellent for this team. It's kind of similar. And I mean, you're seeing some things develop with the starting pitching where they're not producing these huge strikeout numbers.

and they're not producing some of these flashy numbers that you would typically see from a starter that would wow you. But I'm telling you that zero earn run, that's the most important number any starting pitcher can put up for you, regardless of what the other numbers say in their outing. And I think Gallin is, you know, we talked about it a little bit yesterday with Chris Mott, but Gowan is kind of going in that direction

where he doesn't need to get those 13 strikeout games in order to be effective. And in fact, you know, what we're seeing out of him is some efficiency and again another quality start from Zach. He's gone four and one with a 2.20 ERA, 33 strikeouts, and 10 walks in his last seven outings going back to August 2nd. And again, one thing that we discussed early on in the season, even though Jack Summers kind of took the bullet for all of us, was, you know, Gallen's confidence.

And a lot of us were concerned about his confidence. It felt like he wasn't attacking the strike zone. It felt like he didn't have good command over. his four seam and you just saw him kind of you know getting ahead in counts but then letting batters get right back into it and walking guys getting behind in counts and just in general not being aggressive in the zone um and gallant said it wasn't a lack of confidence this is what he had to say about his struggles early on yeah i i uh for me confidence has never been um you know something that inner confidence I don't necessarily lack, obviously.

I know this game, it's a hard game. I feel like the longer you play, it gets a little bit harder, especially from a pitcher standpoint. Guys, you know, tend to be able to see it more times than, you know, when you first come up, there's kind of this new, like, oh, we're not really sure what he's thrown, has been attacked. So for me, just kind of, you know, taking a step back, kind of doing a self-auditive understanding

what's been working and what hasn't been working, you know, things I could do a little bit more, have a little bit less of, yeah, it's just kind of been, I don't know, the key to success right now. I think I said this in LA, just the last probably seven or set of stars. I mean, even I felt like before the trade deadline, I was able to just get in the strike zone a little bit more. Not that I wasn't to me in a year, just for whatever reason, just lack of command, showing up, getting behind the counts.

So I think now, just kind of been in the strikes on a little more, trust in some different pitches in different counts to be able to kind of, I don't know, you know, bail me out of trouble when I'm behind. But yeah, I mean, we're still playing for something in here. So, for me, that's kind of, you know, where the confidence in the motivation comes from. Just, you know, we're not out of it just yet. So go out there and give you guys every fifth game a chance to try to win and see that. Well, I mean, it's just odd because really when it comes to Zach,

we all know that the seasoning has with at least the first half that he had, Damon, was so bad that Zach Gallen was, even garnering trade requests that were reasonable. As far as Mike Hayeson is concerned, and he didn't say this quote for quote, but teams were offering the Diamondbacks a ham sandwich for Zach Gowan. And I mean, this is a guy that has been considered an elite pitcher in Major League Baseball in his career.

He's a guy that's been considered incredibly consistent, despite, I guess, the results of the last year, dating back to 2024 even. But it's just crazy to me, that gallon kind of turned his season around based on, you know, like this feeling of guilt almost that he had about what happened at the trade deadline and the fact that not only did he pitch so poorly that it resulted in the team, putting in a being in a position to trade away his teammates, but also putting the team in a position where they couldn't trade him

away because he was so bad. And now, Zach Galen, since that point, has been incredibly good. I mean, part of that factor is the Diamondbacks bring in James McCann at the end of, or at the beginning of July, end of June, basically, right? And I still have talked about it several times, but, you know, it felt like Zach Gallen woke up when James McCann looked at him and said, I hated hitting against you. Like, you're so good. Almost like, what is wrong with you? Get your, get your crap together. And I thought you were going to say that Zach Gowan woke up when he saw James McCann's arms for the first time.

Well, that's different. That's when I woke up. That's when my soul woke up and I felt like life was more beautiful than I've ever thought it could ever be. But that's different. Gowan. You saw colors for the first time. Basically, that's a good metaphor for it.

Like it's not exactly that, but it's the way that my heart felt inside. Have you ever felt your heart sing, Damon? No, I don't think you have. Then you truly haven't lived, nor have you seen James McCann without a shirt on. So that's something unfortunate for you. But no, I mean, we've criticized Gallen a lot. Again, Jack Summers took the heat when he asked the question because he asked Gallen. He was like, we wrote about you having a lack of confidence.

And yet here we are now kind of eating our words. I don't know. I mean, Zach Gallen's struggles were there. And whether or not Zach wants to admit to that, I feel like there was a lot of pressure on him from a lot of different places. You know, and I mean, because not only is it a contract year and he was supposed to get the biggest contract, he was supposed to get a huge contract, a long-term deal, you know, we've made jokes for the last two seasons about him going to the Yankees and going to a big market team, right?

But, you know, now he's in a position, like I said, where at the trade deadline, he wasn't even considered, you know, valuable enough for someone to go add him to the staff. And look what he's done since then, right? Since then, a 2.20 ERA, 33 strikeouts, 10 walks. There's a lot of teams right now that regret not offering the Diamondbacks a bit more to trade for Zach Gallen and add him to their starting pitching rotation. We don't know what he would have been with those teams. Again, one of the reasons why Zach might be pitching so well now at this point is because the pressure is off is because there's no more further expectations because at this point there's nothing to lose and all he can really all he really has to gain is to improve his position

as quickly as he can before the end of the season so that perhaps he still gets offered you know a contract that is worth what he feels like he is worth the diamondbacks are going to undoubtedly offer him a qualifying offer and there's a good chance that teams might just not believe in Zach Gallen enough to pay him more than $21, $22 million per season to make him leave here. Perhaps Zach Gallin staying with the Diamondbacks is just written in the stars. You know, maybe that is fate. But again, it's one of those things where if Gallen pitches like this, I happily offer him a qualifying offer and welcome him back on a one-year deal for a chance

to improve his position and go for a big long-term deal in 2026. and good luck with him on that with the looming labor situation in 2027. But I will say, you know, again, there's there's just a lot of, it's frustrating, right? Damon, Damon's had some frustrations because you see him pitch this well and you just wonder, like, it really took you not having any trade value for you to wake up and start pitching like this? There wasn't a moment before that where you felt like there was a, you know, a time to start pitching better to try to save your teammates from being traded away and to try to save your season despite the injuries that you've experienced? Like, Gallin is a big reason why this season has gone so poorly for the

Diamondbacks. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. My frustration comes from, and I mentioned something similar regarding Lordus when he first started catching fire for this team when he got moved into that cleanup spot was, hey, guys, if you didn't struggle so immensely through the first half of the season, maybe Gino Suarez is still on this team. Maybe Merrill Kelly is still on this team. And And this team is like, you know, firmly in the midst of a wild card race rather than sitting at a 1.1% chance, according to fan graphs, to answer your question, Jigurtha from a whole minute's here? Oh, yeah. Jagurtha wanted to know what the actual odds of the Diamondbacks making the playoffs were. And what was it again?

1.1% chance according to fan graphs. The Giants are at 3.4. You're telling me there's a chance. That's all I heard. That's all I heard, Randy. Let's go. The Giants are at 3.4, and they're only a game in front of the debacks right now. So I don't know.

I mean, I think, you know, obviously, the chances are not good, but it's not like the, it's not like, I mean, like Zach Allen said, the team's still playing for something, I guess. The problem is that Zach Allen, to finish this point out, was the worst qualified starting pitcher in all of baseball at the All-Star break. And then now he's playing so well, he's potentially pricing himself out of a future Diamondbacks. contract. So we're almost getting the worst of both worlds. We're getting the first half of Zach Allen that makes the season, you know, like basically, you know, is a disaster. And you say there's a ton of pressure on him, no doubt about it. But that's that's the nature of being a number one starting pitcher on a team. He was given the opening day ball over Corbyn Burns. That's the move that sent us down this path. I mean, you need to, you need to pitch well if that's

going to be the case. And he didn't do so until now. And it's probably too late. And I'm glad that he's gotten it back on track and isn't, you know, has like a 593 ERA anymore or whatever. But it's still, it's it's it still was that at one point during the season. In fact, his ERA is now 4.77. Yeah. So he's improved that ERA greatly. And like you said, maybe he did. Maybe he's done just enough to still, you know, get some team to offer him a big contract after the end of the year. I don't feel like that's the worst situation. Again, the Diamondbacks are in a position where they need Zach Gallen to come back on a one-year deal, right? But if he doesn't, and they get that additional draft pick once again, by making that qualifying offer,

it's still a really good situation where it's not like you're losing Zach for nothing. It's more like you're trading him away for a draft pick, which you can't do in major. League Baseball, right, essentially. So if Zach Gallen does end up going somewhere else, it's not the end of the world. If Zach Gallen stays here on a one-year qualifying offer deal, also not the end of the world. I think that the Diamondbacks are in a good spot with him. And what's more important is if he comes back, this is the version we need him to be, right? And again, I envision a weird world where in 2026, the Diamondbacks do in fact have Gallen and Merrill Kelly, both in their starting rotation once again,

but that's just me being hopeful. Let's hear from... How crazy would that be? How crazy would it be? I mean, Merrill. Like, bizarre a world. I saw, I don't know how to take this, but I saw Merrill looking happier than ever.

Now, mind you, I don't typically see Merrill Kelly on a day when he's not starting. You know, usually if I do, it's briefly, but usually a starting pitcher, they'll be there at the yard, but you just don't see them around as much as you would see the pitcher who's starting that day.

And when he's starting, typically don't want to bother him because he's in preparation for pitching a baseball game and you don't want to like, you know, interrupt that or throw that off in any way. But just in general, I saw Merrill Kelly looking happier than ever. And it was when he was talking to our guy, Mark, who's the clubhouse attendant for the Diamondbacks. And it just, it made me miss him that much more. And again, he looked very happy to be back here. He said some very positive things. He also said he was going to go out there and try to, you know, establish his market value and get what he's worth. And I think that he also deserves to do that.

Hopefully, the Diamondbacks will be the one to pay him. And then it works out perfectly all the way around. He gets paid and the Diamondbacks can bring him home. But Gallen did discuss those early season struggles that we were just discussing. And this is what he had to say about the way this year has gone for this team. That, you know, the ones that are the clunkers that, you know, going to happen is what it is. because game's hard. The guy's sand in the box.

You paid a lot of money to, you know, hit and do what they have to do. The frustrating ones were, you know, the good outings through five, six innings. I think there was and give up a, you know, late, extra base hit to kind of sour a line, sour a chance for us to win the game. It was probably the most frustrating. But for me, I'm intrinsically motivated than I what. And just know that, you know, when it's not going great, just part of the game, it's going to fight through it.

I do agree what he's saying, though. Every starting pitcher is going to go out there and have bad outings, and you don't really care that much about the bad outings. You just didn't have your best stuff that day. Gallen has had those games where he pitched really well up until a certain point. Early on in the season, it felt like the defensive mistakes that Tori Lavolo discussed earlier on the show are the mistakes that led Gallen to give up. Like, a mistake would happen, and he would normally have gotten out of that inning,

and now it extends the inning, and you just, you could see in his body language and you can see in his effort that he is kind of like just bummed out and disappointed that, that, you know, Geraldo or Catell didn't make that play behind him. So you could, you could almost see him not mentally getting things back on track. But it's, again, this is this is a different gallon and this is the gallon that we have come to know and love. He had five strikeouts today, one whiff. So again, even on the five strikeouts. It was a lot of looking. And, of course, the Circle K strikeout meter, as always, we'll let you guys know that with every K you win at Circle K,

tech strike to 31310 to start saving on fuel, food, and drinks after every Dback's home game. And Zach Gallen's five strikeouts today will get you a free, any-sized hot coffee out there at Circle K. I could use that. This was a sleepy. I was tired today. It was a hard turnaround from last night.

Me and Damon don't get home until, like, after midnight, We didn't, and we hang out, we play video games, and we don't, like, actually get to sleep until much later than that. Then I called Derek and we recap the show. Yeah, we just go over all the mistakes we made and how we can get better the next day, right? How we plot how we're going to get Jesse Jr. back from Blaze. I've already considered flattening his tires, but I think that that would be considered vandalism. So we're still trying to figure out some steps. but I have agreed to

in exchange with Blaze live on the pregame show on Channel 12 on Friday. So I look forward to embarrassing myself on live TV. So look forward to that. But you know who didn't embarrass themselves tonight? The bullpen. Let's go, boys.

Ryan Thompson is back. Did you know that Ryan Thompson is the leader of the bullpen? I don't know how that works. It's a very tribalistic thing out there, but I saw him leading his fellow bullpen arms out. And it was very much, I think it has to do with him being tallest. I'm not sure, but T-Tan was good today.

He did walk one. Couldn't quite get out of the inning, but he did give the Diamondbacks two-thirds of an innings pitched. With how fine the line was for mistakes, it made sense for Tori to kind of manage this one the way he did. He brings in John Curtis. I mean, everything was lefty-righty matchup. And, you know, again, he gets out of the seventh inning there

with T-time and John Curtis stopping by. John Curtis also did the thing, Damon, that he does on this show during the HB-2704 ceremonial bill signing earlier today. He just kind of popped up from the dugout and he just stuck his head up. And I laughed because it was just that. It was just that. It was just that. He's always there. He's always peeking.

He's always just keeping an eye on everything going on. John, thank you for your service tonight. A third of an innings pitch, no hits, no nothing. Good job for you. But then Andrew Saulfran came in in the eighth inning. And that caused a bit of a discussion in the, in the press box because why not Andrew Saul Frank in the ninth you might ask? That is a question we asked each other.

It would appear that Tori wanted his best reliever to come out there to face the Rangers two through four hitters. Not only that, but it was the lefty matchup. And it worked out. He did give up a hit, but he struck out one. And he got an inning of work in without allowing a run. And then in the ninth inning, Tori once again turns to Jake Woodford, the exact way you drew it up on opening day to get the save.

He goes out there and pitches one and he walked one, struck out one. And it's a weird situation, but I almost feel like this is this situation, Damon, is the exact reason why Tori doesn't want a closer ever. We've seen in his time managing this team that he's been reluctant to name a closer, even when he has a solid closer, even when he has an available option that you're like, that is the closer. Just name him already. what are you doing? And the reason why is because in this situation, doesn't it make sense for Salt Frank to face essentially the best hitters of the lineup instead of just the guys that are going to be hitting in the ninth hole? In this situation, it lined up that those, the heart of the order was hitting there in the eighth inning. Yeah, it partially does. I also would counterback

with, he was very adamant that Paul Seawald was the closer, even when it seemed like he wasn't. So it's, it's, he almost just digs his feet in on one. side and like refuses to to even hear right the idea that maybe a j puck should be named the closer or j mart or something like that it's insane to me because i feel like we've all been conditioned by baseball to be like closer yeah most i think most managers probably name one do it right but i think it's a superstition thing at this point frankly that was what i was going to say i feel like if troy feels like if he says a j puck's the closer then that's what causes a j pucks to the Tommy John.

For his arm to fall off. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's just weird when it comes to that, right? And again, it makes sense. His, his wanting to manage it like you would just a bullpen at any point in the game, makes sense, especially with the fact that the Diamondbacks have gone into so many extra innings games lately that Tori can't even be confident that the top of the ninth is

the end of the baseball game, right? So, especially with a two nothing lead. Nobody expected them to get out of this with, with unsublished. skate like the way that they did. So kudos to the bullpen. But Tori discussed after the game why Jake Woodford made sense there in the ninth and why he's gone to Woodford for these save opportunities. Yeah. You know, I felt like it was a stack of Ritey's. It was kind of set up. I was waiting to see where to Les was going to be if he was going to be in or out of the lineup. Once I felt like there was a stack of Rydides and he handles Ritey's real good with

with an aggressive two-scene fastball slider combination. It just, it equaled that. And I like the fact that he's out there pounding the zone with three different pitches and he's fearless. He can control the running game. So there's a lot of good factors for him to pitch at the very back end with this game. But he executes. That's the main reason. One thing I do like about this current incarnation of the bullpen is how unexciting it is.

It's just so uneventful. Don't get me wrong. They let base runners on. They let stuff happen. Even in a game like this where no runs scored and you felt like the dam was in inevitably going to break and the Rangers were going to bust through and score some runs. They didn't. It didn't happen.

And they did it in, like I said, a very uneventful way that didn't feel like the roller coaster ride that we're used to getting on in the ninth inning from this team. And that's been probably not just this year, but last year and 2023 at times too. But there's no doubt about it. There is only one king snake in this game. And it is the guy that brought them to victory. It is the one the only milkman, milkman himself, whichever way. you like me to say it.

Zach Dallan, six innings pitch today, four hits allowed, zero earn runs, and 5K. And I don't know, man. I mean, you know, like sometimes they say in life, you know when you're getting older based on your likes and your desires changing. I love to see a pitcher just go out there and not put up a bunch of strikeouts, but then still have a scoreless outing like this. Like, it's just great. It's just, you know, again, it's why it was fun to watch Nabil,

Chrismont yesterday. He's sitting there doing this to these guys with an 83 mile per hour change up. That for all intents and purposes, guys should just be waiting on a little longer and smashing to the moon. But they can't because of how it's spinning and because of the directions it's going and because Chris is just done an excellent job of being effective at getting outs. That is what Zach Gallen is becoming a pitcher that is effective at getting outs and, you know, preventing the opposition from scoring. Quite frankly, we're going to take a look at the numbers in this one, but even in yesterday's game, two out of the Rangers, three runs were not really on starting pitching. They were on defensive errors that allowed base runners to advance and then score on subsequent

either sack flies or hits. And so, you know, again, if the Diamondbacks played a little bit stronger defense in game two of this series, the Rangers might have been held scoreless in that game too or at least just to one run. But again, great, great day for the pitching staff all around. Great day for Zach Gowlin and a great day from this bullpen. On the other side of this break, we're going to talk about those numbers from the series. And we're also going to take a look in at the drunken orgy of violence we call the Anheel West. Don't you go anywhere?

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And all you got to do is visit once, and you will save 10 cents per gallon. One visit equals a minimum of a $5 purchase, that or a five gallon fill up and then you can earn that once per week that you will get 10 cents off per gallon that stacks that stacks with your easy paid deals and all the other discounts you get over there in circle k so do not miss out on all of the savings you can get join the inner circle for free by downloading the circle k app today terms and conditions apply at participating locations visit circlek.com for details and damon let's take a look at the count presented by our friends at desert financial credit union this is the count for this three game series win over the Texas Rangers by the Arizona Diamondbacks. They outscore the Rangers in this series, 12 runs to 10. They had four home runs to the Rangers two.

Not a lot of offense, as you can tell in this one. The relief pitching, starting pitching ERAs are very good. Runner in scoring position, batting average, very bad for the Texas Rangers. They were only two for 23, and those two opportunities came in their game one victory. They were two for eight in that game. 0 for 9 yesterday, 0 for 5 today with runners in scoring position for that 087 batting average. Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks did not have a ton of opportunities in this series, but they did convert.

They were 5 for 16 for 313 batting average. More impressive here has been the starting pitching ERA and the relief pitching ERA, and quite frankly, for both teams. Like I said, that 12 to 10 score is in fact not just one game. That is a three-game series, ladies and gentlemen, and that would explain why the Diamondbacks had a 2.45 starting pitching ERA and the Texas Rangers had a 3.18 starting pitching ERA. Relief pitching for the Diamondbacks 3.72. Three runs allowed total by the Rangers Bullpen and nine innings pitched and that based on my math is a 3ERA.

That's how that works, nine times three and then divided by three. I didn't even have to do the math on that one. That one I just did in my head. But again, the pitching very good for both teams in this in this game. The Diamondbacks, actually all of Major League Baseball, has a lot of off days in the month of September. In fact, the Diamondbacks are off every Thursday until the final Thursday of the month and they have plenty of opportunities to not only rest their pitching but rest their bullpen. I believe MLB designed this on purpose, Damon, in order to kind of let this race be a little bit more fun and give teams an opportunity to get that off day and rest their guys to, you know, stay at 100%. But also, it feels, I don't know, a little weird that you need to make teams

play 27 games in a row straight without an off day during one point of the season. And then you're just giving them every Thursday off once again when September rolls around. So I don't know if it's the best strategy. Next year's schedule is even worse, to be honest. So we got to do something about it. On tomorrow's episode, I got a little Minnesota in there for a second. On tomorrow's episode, don't you know? Don't you know, eh? On tomorrow's episode, we're going to break down the best plan for MLB realignment. And it is courtesy of John Boy, because of course, those guys are geniuses over there. And they figured out a way for MLB realignment and the schedule. to work, including what I wanted, which is the abolishment of four-game series, the

abolishment of two-game series. Every game, every series should be a three-game series. Every series in Major League Baseball during the regular season should be a three-game series, and I will die on that hill. But we have the N-Hell West to take a look at. Let's take a look at where the Diamondbacks currently sit in this dog fight that we are trying to figure out do we tank? Do we root for this? Do we get excited? I don't know. But now I can't make the 69 joke anymore for the rest of the season about the Diamondbacks record. So that's a little upsetting. They are 70 at 71. They sit in fourth place right now, nine and a half games back in the division, five and a half games back in the wildcard. You could say the Diamondbacks are in last place

in the division right now because we don't really consider the Rockies to be an active baseball club. San Francisco Giants, they've been very good lately. They beat up on the Rockies both physically and in the scorebox. They are 70 and 69. Nice. They are eight and a half games back in the division and four and a half games back in the wild card. Meanwhile, atop of the division, we have the Dodgers, we have the Padres, both of which

the Diamondbacks play. They have one more series against each of those teams before the end of the year. The Padres are 76 and 63. They are two and a half back in the division. One and a half up in the wild card. And the Dodgers sit at top of the division at 78 and

60. And that's where things shake out. It's interesting that the debacks now are so close to being 500. And there was a point of the year when Jesse was on the show that we discussed, what would success look like to you? I said that being over 500 at this point would be, you know, I think I would consider that as success. They have lots of games against tough opponents still to play. So the fact that they're just one game back right now is meaningless. It's all where they sit at the end of the year. But now that we're here, now that they're so close to 500, Damon, I don't know if when all is said and done, if I'm going to consider like one or two games above 500 to be a big success

for this team, considering what they've gone through, though, you have to consider that a win. You have to consider ending the year with a winning record to be a pretty valiant effort by this team that was decimated by injuries the entire. year. Yeah, I hear you. I hear you there. The injuries component does, you know, throw a wrinkle into this argument. For me, success this season was always making the playoffs. Playoffs. Yeah. And in wild cards specifically, right? Because I was never, when you have the Dodgers in your division, frankly, you can't really even bank on even ever winning your division. You have to be like, I'm getting one of the three wild cards. But they're not even undefeatable this year. No, they're not. They're still just so

consistently good, especially offensively, that it's hard. I assume they're going to win it. They're winning at like a 90% clip in the last decade or so. But it's more like for me, I think you just got to get in the dance. That's always the name of the game in baseball. It doesn't matter. You can be the best team in the sport all season long and lose to the worst wild card team. That's all I need out of the Diamondbacks to feel like the season was successful.

And they're not going to do that this season. There's been a lot of extenuating circumstances. is there's also been a lot of meat they've left on the bone, Derek. A ton. A ton. You could envision a scenario where they're like eight games over 500 right now. And that's the reason why people like Killer Rex, like Scott in our chat, have turned on Tori in the way that they have. Because like you said, even with all of the injuries and everything they've experienced, they sit right here at one game below 500.

And I think we could all go out there and find 10 games collectively that we, that we've, feel like this team lost based on poor management, poor, you know, like Tori impacting the game in some way, or quite frankly, guys not doing their job. I mean, bad third base coaching. Bad third base coaching, right? Yeah. I mean, so there is a lot of factors there where you could find 10 games that would completely change where the Diamondback season is at.

And that is regardless of the injuries. But again, baseball is a mental sport. And sometimes the bad times, it's hard to mentally get over them. And that's the reason why teams that, you know, struggle, like, there are factors that kind of pile up on them, right? In this case, I don't feel like, especially in April, a lot of those losses where we were kind of scratching our head and they were getting that slow start were on injuries. However, you still have, you still had the bad news of guys being injured, even though it wasn't Corbyn Burns at the time. And it wasn't the main stars of this team. You still had the idea here that you've lost several of your teammates due to injury.

Not to mention the Diamondbacks would probably have won 10 more games if they just started Corbyn Burns on opening day instead of Zach Allen. But I'm done with that alternate reality. Well, Derek, it's making me sad. The real crux of the issue here, and when I was looking up those playoff odds, I meant to mention this as well, the Diamondbacks have the hardest strength of schedule in the entire sport. Correct. And that is really the issue.

shoe. If they could have played a schedule where they were not playing, you know, teams at a winning percentage of 530 and rather were playing teams at a winning percentage of 490, I mean, that's the difference probably between making playoffs and not. And unfortunately right now, the Diamondbacks are in a position where it looks like the schedule is not really going to get lighter. Like, that's just the schedule every season. And you got to work around playing difficult opponents if you want to make playoffs. Peace of Yoshi is making some great points. He says the Reds are second for strength of schedule difficulty.

Mets are fourth. So the Diamondbacks aren't in a great position, but neither are they. They also have very difficult schedules ahead of them. What will also say, right, is that the Diamondbacks play well against tough opponents. In fact, some of our frustrations with these games that they lost that we're talking about are to opponents that aren't above or anywhere close to 500 right now at this point of the season. Right? So like that pirate series comes to mind where they just blew it.

The nationals? Yeah. Losing to the Rockies. We made a new friend in that national series, though. That's true. God, God bless my nips hurt. But sometimes it's about the friends you made along the way.

That's really what it's about. We're going to take a quick break. Speaking of friends, we're going to talk about our friends at all pro-shade concepts and Shady Race. And then we're going to talk about why today's commemorative signing of HB-2704 just hurt people's feelings that still miss the coyotes. So don't you go anywhere. We're going to be right back

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That's, yeah, that's what a child that looks like I dress would say. So there you go on that. Today we had a big commemorative signing of HB2704 at Chase Field. It was a lovely ceremony featuring Governor Katie Hobbs, Derek Hall, and others who wanted to give their thanks for those that work so hard to get this bill done. And I will say this, Damon, I would like to give my thanks. as a person that covers the Arizona Diamondbacks for the job security that they locked in for me

for the next 30 years. I'm not going to see the end of that period of time. You know what I mean? Like either I will be dead in 30 years or there's no chance that you'll still be putting up with me sitting in front of this camera dye my stupid gray beard blue, right? So that feels a little good.

Yeah, it's huge for us. It's huge for us. Our guy, Patrick Brown, was in the building today. And I feel like Damon, it was maybe a little too soon for some of our coyote's friends to be hearing about this stuff. Now, one thing Pat and I talked about was that it was obvious that in the negotiations for this to get this deal done, the Diamondbacks, without saying it, heavily leaned on the fact that we lost another sports franchise in this town. 100%. 100%. It was like the unspoken thing that. was constantly just there hovering over all of our heads.

They were like, well, we could leave. Would you like that? Did you guys know that Salt Lake City wants a baseball team? I'm just saying. I'm just saying. They may as well have come out and said that explicitly. Right. But I mean, overall, I will say that this deal, you know, we were, we're all glad as fans of this team that it got done.

We're all excited to see that the Diamondbacks are going to be able to finally make improvements to their HVAC system. and so many things. I mean, Derek Hall today said that it is going to be a state-of-the-art facility. So I'm very much looking forward to the Diamondbacks making it a state-of-the-art facility. But let's be real here. I mean, the threats weren't just threats. This was a real possibility. And I think we should be all thankful that Arizona's baseball team is not going anywhere.

And again, this has been long past the period of time for them to actually sign the bill and get the done. I know we've talked about it, but I just wanted to say, Damon, it felt good, but it felt like good in a just, it's unrelieved kind of way, you know, to see the actual ceremony, to see the pictures being taken, to see Governor Katie Hobbs sign the fake document that wasn't the real document and hold it up. It was all lovely and quite frankly. Officially official. You know, again, I know this team didn't live up to our expectations this year, but we have 30 more years to get it right, at least, maybe beyond that. see. But again, very thankful to be there for that and to see that get done. I won't lie. I got, I felt a little emotion in my heart, but that's because, again, the idea of us losing a team, of us losing the wonderful people that we had here at PHNX covering that team, right? I mean,

we just had our guy Petey out at our PHNX draft party and it was just so great to see him. And again, I wish I saw PD every single day in this office. So thankful though that the Diamondbacks aren't going everywhere anywhere. I'm thankful for all of you guys for being here through the good times and the bad times to discuss this team and be fans of this team. So we appreciate you for your time. We will be back here tomorrow with a 12 p.m.

show. We're going to talk about a lot of stuff including the farm system, another throwback Thursday, and how to fix MLB realignment. So make sure to join us for that. In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K. Damon is at Damon Dog with a DAWG. We're all Damon's dogs, bark, bark.

Our show is at PHNX underscore D-Backs, but as always all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We love you guys. We appreciate you stopping by. Go Diamondbacks. We'll see you tomorrow for another 12 p.m. show. Until then, behave yourselves.

And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when Zach Gowlin is one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball.