PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - POSTGAME: Zac Gallen OUTPITCHES Blake Snell in Diamondbacks’ Win Over Dodgers in LA

Episode Date: August 30, 2025

📬 Arizona sports in your inbox! https://gophnx.com/newsletterZac Gallen shined once again, outdueling Blake Snell as the Diamondbacks took down the Dodgers in Los Angeles on Friday night. We are discussing Gallen delivering his sixth straight start allowing three runs or fewer and bringing his ERA back on track. We also have more on Blaze Alexander providing the big swing with a clutch two-run homer and Jordan Lawlar getting recalled and the nod at third base. Plus, Jesse Friedman of Snakes Territory joins the show to break down the D-backs’ win in L.A. and share his thoughts on whether MLB expansion could spell the end of the 162-game season.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.

Well, Zach Gallen once again turned into Sandy goddamn Kofax against one of the best teams in baseball, and we're turning on the cactus light. We are talking about the Diamondbacks big win. Don't you go anywhere. We're starting in 30 seconds. Procated by our friends in Circle K. This is the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast live from downtown Phoenix. My name is Derek Montia occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX.

And I'm thrilled to be talking to you all about. a Diamondbacks three to zero victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. No matter what you say, I'm not accepting any of those accusations about me being a Dodgers fan tonight because it was damn good to see the snakes beat LA. And of course, we got our guy Damon Dogg on the ones and twos tonight. He is back behind the Mac for us tonight. Damon, we missed you, but you being back to bring some more good vibe for this team. So welcome back. I mean, nothing like being back in a Dodgers, you know,

a win against the Dodgers, man. Yeah. It doesn't get any better than that. It does get a little bit better because we do have the other, the other half, the jelly to my peanut butter. It is the one, the only thunder stick Jesse Friedman to talk about this game. Jesse, we figured out the winning formula once again. We once again hid your appearance on this show until the game was over and it worked.

Here we are talking about a big win over the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Diamondbacks improving to 67 and 69. They're on a little roll here, Derek. You know, you had a, you had a week against the Brewers and the Dodgers. You're not necessarily feeling so great about how that week's going to go, given the state of this roster. And the debacks have gone out. And after a couple rough ones in Milwaukee, they've won three in a row.

And it's just the way you drew it up, Derek, you know, Jalen Beaks, Kyle Bauer, Jack Woodford. I mean, that's the 7-8-9 combo. That's the guys. Those are the guys. Day one. We knew that's who they would end up going to. We knew those would be the guys down the stretch from day one that we would be counting on here at this point. But, no, I mean,

not to go back and even revisit the losses there in Milwaukee, but they had two games where their starting pitching was awful. And to be fair, this team did not quit. This team made both of those games very competitive. And in fact, you could say they came up just

short, maybe a few, you know, maybe one hit short there in game two of actually winning that series against the team in baseball with the best record. And now here they go take on another team with another one of the best records in baseball, a division rival, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the hated Dodgers, and they handled them today. In fact, they held them to Mukie Betts looking ridiculous doing his little dance over a double that had very little impact on this game. because that's all they had going against Zach Gallin and the Diamondbacks pitching staff tonight. I think that dance looks ridiculous, 100% of the time, regardless of the context.

But doesn't it look even more ridiculous when you're doing it when it wasn't a run that it didn't even score runs? Like you're down three nothing and you're doing that dance. Like I professed in the past that I like Bucky bets. He looked like a damn fool there doing that, Jesse. And I was happy to see it. I was happy to see Zach Gow. just shoving once again against one of the best teams in baseball.

It's no surprise that Gallen just seems to step up sometimes in these big moments. However, to be fair to Gallen, he's put together some really good starts in a row. And he's just starting to look like the gallon that we have come to know. Quite frankly, since the trade deadline, he has really like stepped up, almost feeling a sense of obligation it feels like to deliver for this team. You don't want to say it's too little too late. but it kind of feels that way. There's a bit of an element of that to this for Zach Gallen,

where you wonder what this season could have looked like if he was pitching like this a couple of months ago. But all the same, it still does have, it certainly has a lot of meaning for him personally, given his contract situation. And it also has meaning for the Diamondbacks as well as they weigh whether to give him a qualifying offer or not this winter. If he continues to pitch like this,

I think you can pretty much book it, the debacks are going to give him that qualifying offer. And if he signs elsewhere, you feel pretty good about your chances of getting a top-notch draft pick in exchange for that. So even if the Diamondbacks don't miraculously find their way back into the postseason mix here, gallon pitching well is still really good news for them. Well, they, he pitched really well tonight, Jesse. I mean, he really had good control and command of his four seam.

And that's something that's kind of been inconsistent this year. It feels like when he does have good command of his four seam, it feels like when he has decent command of his foreseam and he's throwing it a decent percentage of his outing that it usually leads to success for Zach Gallant. It means he's getting ahead and counts. And quite frankly, it's just setting up his breaking stuff. It'll set up his knuckle curve as it did today and it'll set up his slider pretty well. But he just had excellent command of that four seam that he ended up throwing that 52% of his outing. It was working for him, but it was really working to set up that knuckle curve, which he was also throwing quite a bit tonight. And again, he just was setting those two pitches were just working really well in combination with each other.

He was really just pounding the zone. I mean, it was a 54% zone rate with that four seamer. A lot of first pitch strikes, which is really, really big for him as well. And yeah, I mean, it still isn't like, like he only got two whiffs with the. four-team fastball tonight. Right. We're still not seeing Gallen rack up a ton of swing and miss with that pitch like we've seen at times in the past.

But this version of that fastball can still be really effective as long as he's really dotting the zone and attacking with that pitch. I think it still can be one of the better fastballs in baseball. Obviously, as you said, his command of that pitch has been really out of whack here for quite a while. And it's been a big contributor to the issues that gallon is. has had this year. Ernesto says, if I were Otani, quote, unquote, a betting man, I'd bet Gallen takes the

qualifying offer. And I mean, it's funny, Jesse, that there was a period of time where we thought that Gallen accepting the qualifying offer would be kind of a nightmare. And then it kind of drifted into the territory that you were discussing there. Would the Diamondbacks even offer him a qualifying offer with the way he's pitching? So again, we have that pitch chart from tonight, like you said, what he was doing here with the strike zone. I mean, he threw a lot of pitches tonight. He threw a lot of different pitches.

He didn't throw some of these very many times. I mean, he only threw his sinker three times, his cutter three times. But he did throw that four seam 52% in the outing, the knuckle curve 21%, the slider 13%. And he got five whiffs on the knuckle curve working in tandem with that fastball. So again, just 10 whiffs total tonight. But eight strikeouts total for Zach Gallen. So a good strikeout night. And more importantly, he held the Dodgers scoreless.

And he held them to just two hits in six innings pitched. It looked there for a moment, Jesse, like he might not have made it there quite out of the sixth inning. But I really like the fact that they left him in there and, you know, and let him finish that thing up. And he got out of that inning nicely. And Diamondback's bullpen cleaned things up well tonight. There were some long fly balls that, you know, fortunately for him kind of kind of died at the warning track. Do Dodgers fans not know, Jesse, what a fly ball versus a home run is? Because they, they overreact quite a bit out there in Los Angeles to pretty much every ball that's hit in the air.

It feels like. It's the marine layer, Derek, it causes the ball that just die at the warning track, you know. What can you say? But, I mean, I think the Dodgers, they're expected. batting average tonight. I guess I'm maybe spoiling this for you probably planning to show it later, but I think it was one. You're just,

yeah, that's fine. You do on this show. You jump way ahead. Yeah, yeah, I think, yeah,

it was 113, I think is their expected batting average tonight. Yeah, the Diamondbacks was 113 and the Dodgers was 153. So there wasn't much compelling contact made on either side. I think a lot of those fly balls to the warning track. I mean, I don't think it was the Marine layer.

I think, I think guys just didn't. didn't quite get all of them. You know, there was a pitch that was maybe a little bit of a mistake to show, hey, Otani, a fastball that was kind of up in the zone, but Otani got just underneath it. And it felt like that was sort of a trend throughout the night where Dodgers, hitters just weren't able to get all of much of anything that Gallen was throwing. And again, he was really dotting the strikes.

He had a ton of called strikes in this game. You know, there weren't a lot of whiffs for him. and yeah, I mean, this has been a really, really nice month of August for him. We'll see if it continues into the final month of the season. It really does, Jesse. In fact, in six August starts, Gallen now has a 2.57 ERA. That makes six starts in a row where Gallen has allowed three runs or fewer. And Gallin's ERA, Jesse, we tweeted this out, is now at 4.94.

It is below five. It is the first time, in fact, it's been below five. five since way back on June 14th, which really wasn't that long ago, but still, over two months since Zach Gallin has been able to lower his ERA below five. And again, it's been a rough season for Gallen, but he can still finish strong and have the final numbers look not great, but a little bit more respectable, especially if he keeps pitching like this. I think back to Aaron Nola, his 2023 season, where he had a four point.

4-6 ERA, you know, made every start through almost 200 innings, but his run prevention numbers weren't great that year. And he went out and that offseason, even though it was a subpar year for him, he wound up signing a deal back with the Phillies for over $170 million. I think it just speaks to the fact that if you have a long track record of success as a starting pitcher in this league and you're not super old, then you're going to do. pretty well for yourself. And Aaron Nolus certainly did that. Now, granted, I don't know if Gallin's going to finish the year with an ERA at 446. He's still a long ways from that. And I don't know if his inning total is quite going to get up to 200. But because of just how much demand

there is for starting pitching and the track record that Gallin still has, if he rattles off another month like this, he's going to earn himself a lot more money in, in, uh, in, free agency. Does the lack of interest at Gallin at the trade deadline concern you at all? I mean, it really does sound based like what Mike Hazen told us, based on what Mike Hazen told us, that they weren't really getting offered much. And it's, it's fair. It's not to say like Gallen really deserved to, you know, to be offered, to have much offered for him in return, right? Walker Bueller was just DFAed by the Red Sox. And he had an ear. somewhere around what Gallons and Erods has been this year.

So again, that's a guy that, like you're talking about, has a track record, but has not pitched well over the last few seasons and has not really pitched well this year. You could say the same about Zach Gallen. Like he has a track record, not as long as other pitchers, but he does have a track record of pitching well. He just hasn't pitched well particularly well this last two seasons, you know, and at least now he's picking it up. but I thought at the trade deadline there was going to be more interest in him.

I thought teams were going to still see past what he's done this year, the struggles that he's had this year, and perhaps feel like a change of scenery is going to really help him to rebound and help a team to just kind of bolster their starting rotation where Gallen could go somewhere and not be the number one, but be the number three guy and just fit in well with some other organization. but again, I was kind of surprised. I was surprised to hear that Mike Kazin basically said they didn't get any compelling offers at all for Zach Gallen.

And when you think about what they did receive for some of the other guys and fans' reaction to those trades, they would have been especially angry had they traded Gallin away and not, you know, not received much for him. Quite frankly, with the way he's pitching, it would have been a huge mistake. and we probably would have seen him doing this with another team where on baseball reference, Jesse, he would have had a different line that would have showed how good he is with them versus how good he was with the Diamondbacks.

We wouldn't have looked at the combined figures at all. We would just be paying attention to the stats with another team and those stats would have been a 2.57 ERA. I would have thrown something at a TV if I was watching Zach Gallen performed the way he has over the last six starts with another team. And that, quite frankly, could have been the case had some team offered more to the Diamondbacks for them than what they did at the trade deadline.

It is fascinating to look at, you know, some of the big names that are moved at the trade deadline and then to compare their numbers since the trade deadline with the numbers of other guys who didn't get moved who maybe weren't viewed as attractive assets at all. Like if a team had traded for Lordus Gurriel Jr. at the trade deadline, they probably would have done, I know Gurriel has cooled off a little bit. here, but they, I mean, they probably would have done better. I mean, they certainly would have done better than what Gino Suarez is produced so far. I think Naler, his numbers are at least fairly close to what Gerell has done. But Gouriel, you know, in retrospect has been probably the Diamondbacks,

you know, best hitter, at least best hitter that they possibly would have considered trading. He had the most, he has the most RBI in August in franchise history. And you're right. Like, we could have been seeing him do this with another team. Had they done that trade, I think a lot of fans would have been like, bye, see ya. Like there would have been no remorse about watching Lordus Gurriel go somewhere else with the way that he performed in the first half.

And yet, again, like you say, this would have been a frustrating month to see him go do this for another team. So glad he's doing it for them and glad Zach Gallen is here doing it for them because without those guys, this team would be definitely sunk. They wouldn't be in the position that they're in now, beating some of the best teams in baseball as they did tonight. Of course, I don't think it's any secret.

Zach Gallen, by the way, eight strikeouts, fire up that Circle K strikeout meter because baby, he deserves it to be lit up tonight. We almost filled it up, Jesse. Maybe next time we will fill it up and have to add another, like a second level level to it. But don't forget, with every K you win at Circle K, tech strike to 31310 to start saving on fuel food and drinks

with every D-BAC's home game, if this were a home game, those eight strikeouts would have gotten you a free hot dog, which would literally feed families. Wow. Zach Gowan's strikeouts total would literally feed families tonight if this was a home game. Jesse, do they have Circle K's in your new neck of the woods? You know, I think there are many great things about San Diego. I will not lie, but one of the not-so great things is I don't.

I don't think, at least not that I've seen so far. I'm still kind of new figuring out like where the grocery store is. So, you know, I wouldn't put too much stock in whether I've seen something or not. But I don't think I've come across a Circle K yet, unfortunately. Have you found a solid chicken tending spot yet? That's the key. That's what we really need to know. There's a few.

Yeah, there's a few. So we're covered. We're covered on, we're covered on that front. That's a man who's done. I like that. He scouted that. Oh, yeah. He doesn't even know where the supermarket is,

but he knows at least four chicken tending restaurants that have good chicken tending. First line of business. Oh, I mean, he doesn't let me down. He never lets me down. But Zach Gallen didn't let us down tonight. And he is definitely our King Snake for tonight's game. Gallen, once again, six innings pitched, two hits,

no earned runs, eight strikeouts. He did walk three if you're looking for any kind of area of blemish. but I think that his walks were intentional just a little bit. I think Gallin knew what he was doing tonight and he was pitching deliberately around, you know, the big parts of the Dodgers lineup and it worked well for him to not let those guys hurt him. Yeah, unfortunately, Homeplayed umpire Phil Cousy didn't.

He made one call very much in Gallin's favor against Freddie Freeman. Yeah. But Gallen eventually did wind up walking. Freeman on I think it was ball six when when all of a sudden done. But yeah, that that walk I think was fairly intentional. It felt like Gallen would would much prefer to pitch to Will Smith. And it worked out for him. It was one of those fly balls that went to the warning track.

But that was a big moment in the game third time through the order in that sixth inning. Gallen was was able to get out of trouble there. Yeah, Bert, Bert wasn't having it tonight. He had it with Cousy. Like he was just straight up giving it to him. And I'm glad I think his exact words were I think he's watching another game. Yes.

What Bert said at a certain point. Yeah, it's great. I mean, some of the misses are crazy. And again, I think that, you know, we, it's, umpires almost gaslight us, right? Because they're like, nah, it was fine. And like, no, it wasn't. And tonight was one of those nights that it especially wasn't fine. and the home plate umpire wasn't fine

and I quite frankly felt like he needed to be replaced halfway through this game. You know how sometimes a manager has a bad night he gets thrown out by the umpire? I think the two managers should be able to meet and collectively agree that they're going to kick the home plate umpire out from home plate

and then they can move the entire officiating crew around one base and he has to take the walk of shame over to first and the third base um can come in and start calling balls and strikes because quite frankly, the game in Milwaukee, you had a rookie umpire show all of you losers and chumps up because that man called a great game. And I don't know his name off the top of my head, but he deserves for me to remember his name 100%. But again, Zach Allen, King Snake obviously deserves it. Bullpen, good night for the bullpen, Jesse.

Quiet night, uneventful. Not a lot of base runners, not a lot of hits allowed. One hit, or what was it? Did it end up being, yeah, just the one hit allowed, one walk by Jake Woodford. Jake Woodford did an excellent job coming in, getting his second career save. And yeah, I mean, we have the platoon of Jalen Beaks, Kyle Backus, and Jake Woodford, as we all expected shutting games down against the Los Angeles Dodgers for a diving back's win. I did have this moment in the eighth inning when Jake Woodford was, I guess,

this would have been the ninth inning when Jake Woodford was warming up for the bottom of the ninth. And it's like, you know, it's August 29th. We're getting close to the end here. D-backs at Dodgers at Dodgers Stadium. They've got a tight three-nothing lead. And Jake Woodford is warming up in the bullpen to pitch the ninth inning. What would we have thought a few months ago if we had known that this is what life was going to be like for the Diamondbacks in late August? Yeah, it probably would have been a pretty shocking, pretty shocking revelation, but here we are anyway. I doubt you would think that they would be anywhere close to 500.

And I think that's the biggest thing. If you told me or you who would be a part of the bullpen, that alone, that alone. Or, you know, even telling us what the starting rotation would be like. If you told us that what the pitching staff was going to be on August 29th, you and I would be like, how did this happen? What kind of awful alternate timeline did we step into between opening day and now, which was cursed by the fact that they didn't start Corbyn Byrds and started Zach Gallen instead. I'm still firm on that. Is that what it was? Yeah, that was it, Jesse, that decision that was like the decision that literally cracked the times, the space time continuum

and made us go in a different direction than the path we were set on for this season. But uh, Glees that gallon, again, great tonight, bullpen, great tonight. I just, I don't know how we would have reacted honestly to, to knowing this and knowing what, you know, what, who was kind of forced to step up here for this team. That's something to be said, though. There are guys that are like, this is, this is becoming like the cast, the, the island of misfit toys, a bunch of castaways that were, you know, didn't have jobs or were DFA'd or like a guy like Nabil Khrismat who continuously kind of switched teams and kept signing minor league deals going back from one team to another.

I mean, his track record, he's pitched for some great teams. He just didn't stick with any of them. And now this year, he's given the Diamondbacks, I think, more than any of us could have expected. Jake Woodford was kind of a guy that a lot of people wanted to run out of town after his first couple appearances and relief. And now he's just consistent. Andrew Salfranc was the butt of a lot of jokes based on his suspension and his situation. and he is the best arm in the bullpen. And quite frankly, I was screaming for him to come into this game in the night.

Jesse, I really was. But credit to Jake Woodford for getting the job done and credit to the rest of these guys for stepping up. You know, they've been given opportunities. They've been given some pretty big opportunities for some of these young players. And there's quite a few guys stepping up, including that snake thief himself, Blaze Alexander. And we're going to talk about that on the other side of this break.

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And now I ride and die with Ryan Blaney. So get yourself a favorite driver and then come on out and watch Phoenix or Championship Weekend at Phoenix Raceway. Don't miss your chance to witness NASCAR Championship Weekend in person coming to Phoenix Raceway, October 31st through November 2nd. tickets for Sunday's Cup championship series race do sell out every single year. So move fast to get yours now before they're gone. And here's the kicker. This is the end of the road for Phoenix for championship weekend, basically having its residency here in Phoenix. NASCAR is taking championship weekend on the road starting in 2026.

So this is your last chance to catch it in Phoenix for a while. Tickets, hospitality, upgrades are still available. We'll get yours now at the link in our show notes. All right. Emily's already ready to move on the football season, Jesse, and we're talking about a win over the Dodgers. Emily, she does send us some super chats. I love her for that.

She says, once again, Derek, still late on the DeVex jersey list. I've been promising to update that jersey list now for like six months, Jesse, and I just keep kicking that can. Try six years, buddy. I mean, that's when I first wrote it. Emily Williams also wants to know, Jesse, what is your favorite Mexican restaurant? Do you have a new one there in San Diego yet?

Or do you want to just fall back on your... Yeah, they really want to know about this. I mean, the chick attendees, I know it's important to you as like a daily nutritional thing. But when you want to splurge on good Mexican food, I know they have some good stuff out there in San Diego. Yeah, there's a couple of spots right by my day job out here that are pretty good. The place that I go most often, though, is a place called El Pueblo. not so much because the food is like the best Mexican food in San Diego, but because they have fish tacos for a $1.29.

Oh, let's go. Let's go. Let's go. For $1.29. You know I love a good deal. I'm pumped about that more than anybody. $1.29 for fresh fish tacos in San Diego. Sign me up.

I'm going to need you to text me the location of that restaurant. I might plan a trip to go watch. What is it? series, there's a W.W.E. Paperview taking place at Petco Park this November. So maybe I'll go out there, get some fish tacos, and hang out with Jesse and watch wrestling.

But the Diamondbacks Jesse did make some roster moves before the game. That sounds like a lot like a boy's trip without Damon. All of a sudden. That does. That's what it's starting to sound like all of a sudden. That did. That sounded like I was deliberately leaving you out. The way you left me out of all of those Healer River Resort and Casino's

vacations, you know? It just doesn't feel like it needs to be like that. But whatever. All right. Well, we'll all go to Survivor Series together. But Jesse, speaking of surviving the Diamondbacks optioned our new hero, Taylor Rashi to Reno following yesterday's game. I don't love the move. I understand it because again, with this Dodgers series, you want to bring up a fresh arm and you did just have Rashi pitch three innings. However, he did pitch pretty damn well in those three innings and he delivered for this team against the best team in baseball. I feel like he deserved to hang around a bit longer.

Doesn't optioning him down now prevent him from coming back until like September 12th? Or is there a different rule around this time of the year? Yeah, I think it would. I don't think the debacks would be able to bring him back for for that minimum number of days. But it's like 15 days. I don't love that. That's the only reason why I don't love this is because again, I know maybe he was just here as like a spot start. but man, you go out there and you pitch the way he did.

You can't do it any better. The guy's 29 years old. It's not like he's on the younger side of being a debuting rookie here. So I just, I don't know. I don't know what more he could have done to earn or deserve to stay up here. And I don't really love having to wait until September 12th for him to come back. It's a really unfortunate part of baseball that, And we see this happen pretty often, right, where some journeyman pitcher, really cool story

finally gets the call. And then kind of regardless of how well they pitch, they're going to get optioned immediately because the team just needs another fresh arm. It's sort of a flaw in the system. But, yeah, I mean, Taylor Rashi, 29 years old, the fact that this was his first appearance in a big league game and he did what he did against, as you said, you know, possibly the best team in all of baseball. It was really impressive.

And maybe we haven't seen the last of him. You know, 15 days still certainly gives him a window to come back to the majors later this year. So we'll see if that happens. Yeah, for sure. But meanwhile, Pave and Smith was placed on the 10-day IL with a straight and left quad. That's retroactive to yesterday's date, August 28th. And the Diamondbacks in their place recalled Jordan Lawler, who got the start today at third base, moving Blaze Alexander over to second.

moving Catele-Marté to the DH, and left-handed reliever Brandon Garcia gets recalled from AAA Reno, both of those guys on the team today. Jordan Lawler didn't have himself a great day offensively in his debut once again, Jesse, but he made some great defensive plays out there at third base. And again, he just shows you in every possible way

why he belongs at a major league level, with the exception of his bat. And we know that can come around. I know that that might be the purpose of getting him up here. They said it on the broadcast, though. He's not being evaluated as a prospect any longer. He is being evaluated now as a major league player. So I have often said that the rest of this year after the trade deadline was going to be a time to let these young guys develop.

It doesn't sound like it's really that for him. It really does sound like decisions are going to be made. on how the Diamondbacks move forward with Jordan Lawler based on how well he plays between here and the end of the season. It will be really interesting to see. I mean, it sounds like it's going to be just two or three times a week that we see him in there, which again makes me, I just don't know how to feel about that. I understand.

How do you get in a rhythm only playing that often? Yeah, yeah. I mean, Blaze Alexander, though, is obviously playing really well right now. And Catele-Marté, you can certainly put Catelle at D.H from time to time, but you probably don't want to do that all the time. And then Pardomo has possibly been the best shortstop in baseball this year. And then, you know, you're not going to play them over at first base, certainly. So the opportunity is limited. So I understand that maybe they just feel like can't commit to Loller being in there six or seven days a week.

So it'll be interesting to see what it looks like. Obviously, today was rough. It was more the same, a lot of swing and miss. Also, I felt like his approach was maybe a little too passive at times too, where he was just taking pitches that were kind of right over the middle. So you wonder if it's in his head at this point that he doesn't have a hit in the majors this season. Obviously, his career numbers, small sample size, you know, even factoring that in. He has an OPS that starts with a one right now, which is never a place you want to be.

be. Yuck. And I think it's also, like, it would be frustrating to me, just putting myself in his shoes, to go be a 300 plus hitter at a minor league level. And yes, you know, you can add all the asterix about Reno and the PCL to that that you want. But still, be able to go out there and be at least effective against pitching at a AAA level where you are considered one of the best prospects in baseball.

You are considered one of the top, not just 100. prospects, but you are considered one of the top 30 prospects in all of Major League Baseball, and yet you still can't really hit lefties and you can't really hit a spinning baseball. You know what I mean? A breaking ball of any kind. So I don't know. I remain patient with him. I just don't love the idea of anybody losing playing time to him, which like you said,

he's not going to play regularly. So I don't love the idea of him not playing regularly, but still being a evaluated on his performances at a major league level when he's not being allowed to get into a rhythm. It just seems like a formula for disaster when it comes to him. And today it felt like it started out a little bit like a formula for disaster for this team. Jesse, the debacks were being no hit by Blake Snell. Meanwhile, to be fair, you know, Zach Gallant had his things going on. But we did our best to curse Blake Snell with this particular tweet that was very deliberate. As you can see. We went no hitter, no hitter. Blake Snow has a no hitter going. We thought, you know,

if we bring such bad luck at times to our own team, why can't we do this? And Jesse, as I hit the enter button on this tweet, Lardis Gurriel hit the first single of the game for the Arizona Diamondbacks. And I don't mean this in conjunction with the broadcast because that tends to be behind. I mean, this was in conjunction with it popping up on game day, literally almost instantaneously, like as if I hit enter and that caused game day to update. So, again, not saying we have magical powers, also not saying we don't have magical powers. But the fourth inning did turn things around for this team. Lourdes gets the first hit there and then Blaze Alexander, aka Alexander Slamilton, goes yard with his seventh home run of the year, possibly his biggest home run of the year. possibly his biggest home run of his young career was a two run home run 400 feet to left field

a 107.5 miles per hour off the bat very hard hit one of the only hard hit balls today uh for either team and again in a day where offense was not being generated it was huge for blaze to stay hot pun intended and deliver for this team today blaze has really had a nice a nice nice month or so, ever since this window of opportunity really came open for him. I mean, he is really taking advantage of it. I think his, I was looking at it earlier, his WRC plus over on fan graphs, I think was at 118 for those people, people who may not be familiar, 100 is average. So above that is above average. That's a really valuable player for a guy who's playing as good a defense right now as Blaze is. You know, I think he really has kind of,

cemented himself into the picture in 2026. I don't know exactly what the role is going to be, but it's hard to imagine Blaze not being penciled in on the opening day roster in some capacity, given what he's been for this team here in this last month. How, again, how do you not earn more playing time? That's what, again, kind of upsets me about the Jordan Lawler thing. not to say that I don't think Jordan Lawler deserves a chance to finally, you know, make a splash at a major league level, but what's your plan going forward, right? Like, what is the plan? Let's just say, let's say Jordan Lawler starts hitting and is good.

And let's say Blaze gets even better than he is and he's good. And they're both your best players on your team. Are you just going to DH Catell Marte from now on? Are you going to rotate them where one guy's always deaching? And like it's fine, but it doesn't seem like it's a great plan. And Blaze, I feel like with his arm strength and his defense has earned that spot over there at third base. Jordan Lawler was very good over there today. And I mean, defensively was fine.

So it's not like I feel like it's a step backwards defensively there so that it's a regression in every way from Blaze Alexander playing third base. But just offensively, Jordan Lawler's at bats have been abysmal. That double play there in the first inning to get Otani and Betts, Jesse, that felt good. Jordan Lawler to Blaze Alexander to Tyler Locklear, that's, you know, that would be, it would be nice to see all of those guys playing there at times and having success. But two out of those three guys aren't hitting right now and are not only not hitting, but aren't really putting together very competitive looking at bats. Yeah, I don't think you can really call these at bats competitive.

I mean, again, obviously this is one game. It's been a while since we've seen Lawler and the majors. I've been looking at some of his numbers from down in AAA, and it's even a fairly small sample size there this year. I think it's 56 games, something like that. But, you know, I've said this before, and it wasn't real popular when I said this when he was first called up. But his underlying numbers in AAA are really, they're fairly unremarkable.

You know, obviously AAA is such a hitter-friendly environment, and it's hard to tease out, you know, which 900 open. P.S. is meaningful versus which guys might just be there because their numbers are inflated. And you compare like Jordan Lawler's underlying metrics in AAA versus Blaze Alexander or Adrian Del Castillo. And those numbers are not real close. Adrian Del Castillo and Blaze Alexander, those guys, if you look at Ex-Woba, Del Castillo is at 356, Blaze at 359, and Jordan Lawler this here down at 333, which is a little bit above average, but it's not all that far above average. And obviously, you're talking about a AAA level of pitching there. So, you know, I don't want to

say that Lawler can't turn things around. I still think he's a great prospect. The fact that we don't have really any questions about him defensively or his base running, we expect him to be really, really good at those things. So the issue is the bat. And unfortunately, that's kind of the most important thing. So we'll see with some more opportunities here if Lawler's able to build some confidence and kind of take that next step forward. Well, the baseball Barbicast boys tweeted this out earlier today, Jesse,

the WRC plus rankings since the All-Star break. Blaze Alexander currently falls right in between Aaron, Judge, and Cal Rally for the 75th best WRC plus since the All-Star break. MVP MVP yeah I don't know if it says more about about

Blaise or those guys yeah yeah I'm trying to figure that out I think it might say a little more about those guys but hey it's still good company you always bring us down you're always good about bringing us back down to earth and making us realize also I don't know if we've gotten your thoughts

Blaze Alexander once again snake the kidnapper of Jesse Jr holding him ransom in exchange for me dying my beard to honor the genobet, Jesse. And he also wants a pack of Sour Patch kids, which I felt like was just salted an open wound at that point. But your thoughts on our adopted child being kidnapped by Blaze Alexander and giving him superpowers the way my purple hair gave Lordus Gurriel superpowers in 2023. I'm so fascinated by the whole story. I have so many questions. Did this happen at the, is this the old office or the new office?

I don't know. Blaise has a, he has an insider around this office, Jesse. He has a mole. He has somebody assisting him unless he just broke in. I will say that we didn't keep things the tidesst around these two offices while we were moving. There was a lot of doors left unlocked. There were a lot of things left in hallways, movers messed boxes that they were supposed to bring over.

And that's on us. That's not on the movers. That's just because we're bad about organizing our stuff. As you know, we had two suites at the old office. We had stuff scattered everywhere. And we just weren't being very good about, you know, making sure we got everything out of there. But Diamondbacks, they were good tonight.

They were very good. Corby and Carroll, though, they didn't get much offense overall. Notable performances tonight. Corby and Carol, one for four. with the double, I mean, his double and Blaz's home run, the only two extra base hits tonight. Gabby had a huge hit there in the sixth inning, obviously. That helped pad the lead. Corby Carroll hits that lead off double.

That was his 26 double of the year. And then with one out, Gabby Moreno goes right down. Gabby Lane for an RBI single that pushed the snakes lead to three to nothing. So that was your offensive contributions in this one. Corbyn Carol one for four, Gabby won for four. Blaze was one for three with a home run. He had those two RBI and he walked one time. So not a lot of offense, but it was enough tonight with the way the pitching staff worked together to shut out the Dodgers and win this game three to nothing.

Only four hits. Yeah, I mean, it was a really quiet day for the debacks offensively. Seven through nine in the order went O for 12 with eight strikeouts. Eight strikeouts. It's never great. Obviously, Blake Snell, you know, know, and this is a point we should make with Lawler, too, like, yes, it is a lefty, but Blake Snell is not exactly the, the easiest first matchup, especially for a guy who's

been struggling against spin, you know, Blake Snell is going up there with one of the, one of the nastiest breaking pitches that you'll, that you'll see, even for an opposite, an opposite-handed situation. So, yeah, I was not a great day for the Diamondbacks offensively overall, but home runs are a powerful thing and blaze connected on a pretty big one there early on and he had a he had a pretty decent bat flip uh going there as well derrick i was uh i was pretty impressed it felt felt very natural very very instinctual for him which which uh would you always love to see it was hot it was hot well and blake snell's been very good since returning from the iL so this has been the first time that and and not like he got rocked this was just uh

kind of a pitching duel where Zach Gallen out pitch, Blake Snell, and both bullpens ended up being very good for both teams. So it really just came down to those three runs being scored, making the difference. We're going to talk a little bit more about the numbers and take a peek in at the drunken orgy of violence that we call the N.HEL West on the other side of this break. Don't you guys go anywhere? You're watching the pH Next Diamondback show. Well, whatever the moment, it's never ordinary in any Diamondbacks game this year. Who is this team?

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All right. Well, Jesse, of course, we got to take a look here at the numbers from tonight's game, aka the count presented by Desert Financial. Diamondbacks win this one by a score of three to nothing. Like we said, the offense was not much of a factor in this game. Four hits by the Diamondbacks, three hits by the Dodgers. Diamondbacks 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position. Diamond or Dodgers, O for 1.

I don't know which I would rather be a team that went that terrible runners in scoring position or no opportunities at all. I feel like the no opportunities is far worse, especially in a game like this. But two extra base hits for the Diamondbacks, just the one Mookie Betts hit that he over-celebrated there as the double for the Dodgers. And then some abysmal expected batting averages in this one. Usually they give us a little bit more than this, Jesse. 113 for the Diamondbacks, 153 for the Dodgers.

The computer basically says, you chumps didn't even try at the plate tonight. That's what the computer says about the Diamondbacks and the Dodgers game. There really wasn't much hard contact at all. I mean, looking at 100 miles per hour and more for the Diamondbacks, it was just a Lordus Guriel single that was kind of hit right into the, the ground the launch angle was was well into the negatives there and then corbin carroll had a double off the right field fence at one point that was up over a hundred and then of course the blazed alexander home run as well and the dodgers only had two batted balls of a hundred or higher and

both of them were ground balls i guess there was a there was a line out uh from moogie bets i'm seeing here that was a hundred point zero so a hundred on the dot but yeah i mean credit to the diamondbacks pitching for really limiting hard contact in this game. That is a very hard thing to do against the Dodgers. And again, you got to give credit to those three guys at the back end. I kind of figured things might get interesting in those final few innings given the state of this bullpen. But Jalen Beeks and Kyle Backus and Jake Woodford there to finish things off, it was,

it was really, really impressive to see. Well, Jesse, the Diamondbacks definitely got. fair share of limited offense opportunities. Sorry, we're getting lights turned on on us. I feel like your lighting just changed. Yeah, yeah, we just, we were just infiltrated. I think the, see, this is how Blaze got the snake, Jesse. It's me, it's Damon in here.

There's not a lot of security going on, and anybody can just come in here and walk away with my son. But here we do have a look here at, we'll take a look here in a moment, but I don't know. I mean, anything can happen. There's no reason for anybody to believe. We'll preface it with that. But you can't help but sit here and wonder not only where was this team all season long,

but also like is this meaningless or do we get excited about this? You know, because again, it just, it feels like what they've done, especially in the last three nights is something that is worth. getting excited about. We're celebrating and worth feeling like, you know, this, this team is on a role. But we've been there this year. We've done that this year. Every time we start to do this, they immediately smack the hope out of our hands and like, you know, everything kind of crumbles apart. I'm not saying that's inevitably what's going to happen here, but is there reason to still kind of hope here or have hope that a playoff birth could

maybe be at the end of the rainbow here for the diamond backs i think the debacks have been in in the same spot for a while now which is and they're they're getting kind of to the end of where they can exist in this space but there there's still about three or four very good days and when i say very good days i don't just mean them winning i mean the teams that they're chasing losing right there's still three or four very good days everything going their way from sudden being genuinely back in the thick of things. If the D-backs win three in a row and the Mets lose three in a row and the Reds don't win three in a row if they at least like lose one or two games in there, then the Diamondbacks would actually, you know, have a shot. If you're,

if you're a month away from the end of the season and you're about three games out, that's a, it's not easy by any stretch of the imagination, but it's at least possible to over overcome that deficit. But that stretch of three or four days just hasn't happened yet. And I guess we did get to the point of being four and a half games out. The debaX are four and a half out, not all that long ago. But they weren't able to get any closer than that. Instead, they wound up moving in the exact opposite direction. And there's six and a half right now. So still, they still need some, some magic to come together before this is really something I'm going to think seriously about. Well, let's take a look at the standings for the division now with the N-Hell West here.

Dodgers, again, 77-58 at top of the division. The Padres sit in second place at 75 and 60. They are two games back, and they are two games up in the wild card. Giants, meanwhile, they're at 67 and 68. They are 10 games back in the division, six games back in the wild card. Diamondback sit at 67 and 69. They are 10 and a half games back in the division. and six and a half back in the wild card.

They also have six games left against those giants. They have five more games left against the Dodgers and three more games left against the Padres this season. It's more of the fact that they don't have more games against teams like the twins. That's the problem, right? They have that three games set against the twins, and then everybody else has a record of 500 or better, or they're in some sort of race.

or I mean even the Giants like I've said in the past it's not like the Giants are right where the Diamondbacks kind of are as far as the wild card race is and as far as being sellers at the trade deadline but they're tough tough competition they're not somebody the Diamondbacks can just easily roll over and they have a lot of games left against them if they play well against the Giants

then it might be good that they have six games left against them but if they don't match up well with this iteration of the Giants then that might be problematic for them also. But again, we have a lot of baseball still left to play. And who knows what happens? We can, but Jesse, Jesse's leaving the door open that you can get him to buy in if a good week happens. So let's get a good week to happen.

Let's see what happens next time we get them on the show. Maybe we can convert him then. But I will let you guys know once again. We had a great time at the PHNX residency last night. and if you missed out on the PHNX residency or you just can't simply get enough of Bo and Johnny. I know I can't. Damon's had his fill of those two guys,

but I could never get enough Johnny Venerable. Here's your chance. Join us on September 12th at 4.30 p.m. for a very special live PHNX Cardinals show hosted by our friends, the rally house. We will be out in West Valley at their Glendale location, just a stone's throw away from State Farm Stadium, two days before the Cardinals first home game of the year.

You can see Bo and Johnny in person, plus get your chance to win with on-site giveaways. So that's going to be a whole lot of fun. The best duo in sports? Well, that's me and Jesse. But it's PHNX Cardinals at the Rally House. So make sure to go out and have a good time. Check that out.

Jesse, you know something. Speaking of us doing this podcast together that I have been complaining about for very, very long time. And that is the 162 game baseball. season. Now, next year's schedule, as many people have pointed out, is an absolute mess. I didn't even start to dive into it for other teams, but I didn't know other teams were as messy as the Diamondback schedule is. I'm still curious if that two-game Padre set is in Mexico City, but then I looked at other team's schedules and realized they also have a bunch of stupid two-game sets all around

the league. And it's just dumb. Next year's schedule is so dumb. But in this whole, whole discussion about expansion and realignment and the scheduling. There was an interesting report that came out from Jason Stark at the Athletic that basically suggested that MLB expansion could mean the demise of the 162 game schedule. Let's go. In the article, an unnamed club official referred to the 162 game season as an endangered species. Sign me up.

Inject it directly into my veins. Another source said that expansion means the end of 162. Get Nashville and Portland in here tomorrow, Jesse. If it means the end of 162 game season, let's get rid of it now. But this basically is because the addition of two expansion teams means that more revenue would be generated, more games overall would be played. So it would allow them to reduce the size of the 162 game season. just not nearly as much as I want it to. They're going to reduce it by like 10 games.

They're going to reduce it by like eight games. They're not going to reduce it by more than that. That part makes me sad. But overall thoughts on, you know, the impact that expansion could have on baseball. And again, once we start changing that 162 game season, now the Pandora's box is open to eventually get down to like 81 games. and then we're talking.

Now we're talking. Yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't start counting up all my extra free hours just yet, Derek. Money is going to be the most important factor in any conversation relating to this. So I think it makes sense that the schedule could drop off a few games. If you added a couple of teams, it makes sense you'd have the ability to do that if you wanted to. but I'd be surprised if it was a significant change, maybe just a few. And certainly we're not going to any kind of a round number.

Like you can rule out 150 right now because we just, I mean, we've been playing 162 games. Like we don't, yeah, we don't do round numbers. So, so yeah, it'll be interesting to see, see what direction this could take us. I just, I mean, again, make it, make it a some sort of multiplication of three

Jesse right let's make every series three games and let's not start it on my birthday because March 25th is way too early to be starting baseball when you're not it's not an international game or anything like that we're just starting baseball now on March 25th I don't like when is when is spring training

going to be in spring like isn't spring start March 22nd. Now spring training is just in three days of spring. I like to go drinking out at Salt River Fields on my birthday and sit on on the grass. Now I have to not. I'm going to be at Chase Field watching the game. I don't want to do that. I have to be there all season long, Jesse. Stop stopping Pete. Just like I told football to stop rolling over on my baseball season. Stop rolling over on my spring training season. I like it too much. But no, I joke about the 81 game season. I know that's not going to ever happen.

I know that baseball is never going to get down. that low. I just think that there are ways to make this make far more sense than the way it does. And like next year's schedule really feels like they truly don't care. Like I don't even know what they were doing with the schedule. I don't know what factors are really determining them scheduling the season the way they did for next year. But I definitely think that some changes need to be made after the lack of consideration for travel distances and, you know, road trips making sense and being in the, like a road trip used to be a road trip because you would go in a team bus and you would drive to a city and then you would play all those teams that are close together on a road trip.

And now it's like, now your road trip is you traversing across the United States from one end to the next back to the other end just to play three teams on the road. It's crazy. That, I mean, it appears that that would be one of the major goals of expansion is to try to reduce travel as much as, as much as possible. For sure. And certainly, realigning the divisions would be part of that process you would think. You know, can you rearrange things in a way that allows some teams, especially those teams on the coast,

to not have to do as much travel? So that's at least something Rob Manfred has said, whether, whether or not that really winds up being a major component of expansion when all is said and done, we'll see. I still think the money components are going to be bigger than than trying to save a few miles here there. Well, Jacob's going to scream at me, so I got to make sure to let all you guys know, and I'm sure the time has already passed, but we are going in overtime. We got some super chats to read, I think. And again, we're not going to just get out of here in a rush it's Friday night. We're hanging out, having a good time. Diamondbacks win. And, of course,

we need to celebrate that a little more, a little bit more, Jesse. But again, this is one of those things where some of the teams that are part of this alignment make all the sense in the world based on what you're saying there. It's the reason why Portland is not only a city that I want to go to and visit as a fan, but also a city that makes a whole lot of sense along the West Coast to align with Seattle to align with the teams in California and just make that geography easier. What doesn't make sense is giving a team back to Oakland after you stole a team from them that has so much history, has won so many championships, has been such a huge part of Major League Baseball, and you're just going to move them and you're going to treat them like you did the Browns. You're going to move

them to a different town and then give them what, this fake Oakland A's team back that isn't the actual franchise. But hey, you guys can call them the athletics because we're going to call the Las Vegas team something different. Like that seems insane. Putting a team in Mexico City seems insane. If you talk about travel, that seems awful. Like that's not convenient for anybody except maybe the Texas teams. And even then, that's a decent, that's not a short flight from anywhere in Texas to Mexico

City. So a lot of the teams or areas that have been proposed don't make a ton of sense. And again, baseball is already very clustered. So it would make sense to have a few less. games, when those teams get added, and it also makes sense to make those teams be, you know, choose cities that kind of go with where Major League Baseball is. It's not like you're giving them to bad cities. You're just keeping them out of Utah, which doesn't deserve baseball. They don't deserve hockey. They don't deserve happiness. They don't deserve anything as far as I'm concerned,

Jesse. So I would say take the jazz away from them because those people have never listened to jazz a day in their life. And I think, quite frankly, give us back our Coyote's team. That's just me. That's just me speaking from the heart. What I do want to do, though, speaking of the heart is take a look at some super chats, Damon, if you don't mind. I'm sure we have a lot of inappropriate things that are going to make Jesse Blush from BCSC. Well, first, I'm going to read his first one because I want to get this one in because I get to read this one.

He says, BCSC, thank you for your super chats. He says, who is Blake Snell? Lame odd dude. Thank you for not making me curse in that super chat. I appreciate you. then he says Blaze big clapers Alexander is he single

that I don't know I can find out for you he also says oh my God Rodriguez is on the mound today good luck yes good luck to the Diamondbacks tomorrow we're going to need that bullpen he also goes back circles back to Blaze to say if Blaze needs a boyfriend I'm him

that me look I have nothing to say of that he's also I'm not doing that I'm not doing that I'm not doing any kind of Ohio chant. Oh, H-I-O-O-O-H-O-H-O-O-H-O-O-H-O-O-H-Satian Rocking today. The reigning, defending, national champions,

the Ohio State, Buckeyes. Go do that in a game-in-in-shall. What the F is a longhorn overrated clowns? All right, well, the longhorns are. I'm betting on the Buckeyes. The overrated clouds, yeah, that part is right about the longhorns. But all right, Jesse, this team don't know what to expect out of them, but winning game one against the Dodgers certainly makes the rest of this series a little

easier, right? It makes it takes the pressure off that you're not going in the Los Angeles and going to get embarrassed. Quite frankly, you did a little bit of the embarrassing tonight with the way that you held them scoreless. So it would be great to see them have a good showing tomorrow. However, if they don't or if Erod doesn't, it's not the end of the world because they could still win the series with Brandon fought on the mound on game three. I just, I'm concerned and I would love to see both of those guys bounce back after their really bad outings the last, you know, last time out. And quite frankly, this team kind of made it easier to forget about those outings with the way that their offense performed against the brewers in both of those games.

But we need Erod. We need Brandon Fott. And especially if we're going to try to make any kind of, you know, run at being above 500 here down the stretch and try to be a team that makes a play for a playoff position, those guys need to pitch well. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, if somehow we're witnessing the beginning of a great turnaround and, you know, one of the, what would certainly be one of the best stories in Diamondbacks history, it has to start with Eduardo, at least one of Eduardo Rodriguez or Brandon fought going on a really nice run to finish out the season. And unfortunately for the Diamondbacks, yeah, none of these pitching matchups looked all that favorable for them on paper. Even today is with Z. Zach Allen against Blake Snell, the, you know, Gallen's numbers this year, certainly not great. But you look at tomorrow with Erod against Tyler Glass now, and then on Sunday with Brandon fought against Yoshinobu Yamamoto. You know, this is the Dodgers rotation, their rotation for

the ages that we talked about going into the season. Some of those pieces have come back now. And it's not quite the group that I think some people thought it would be still, but it is still a pretty, pretty tough group. And the Diamondbacks are getting really the brunt of it this weekend in these three pitchers. They really are. And I mean, this is a Dodgers team that hasn't put up the best numbers overall this year, Jesse. I mean, they came into this series with the 13th best starting pitching ERA tied hilariously enough with the Padres for 13th at 4.04. and then the 20th best relief pitching ERA at 4.13. Oddly enough, those were kind of reversed a little bit in this game

where the Diamondbacks got to the starting pitching, but the bullpen did a good job. OPS still remains very good, which is what's the most impressive part about what the Diamondbacks did today. They have a team OPS of 771, which is second in Major League Baseball. So holding them scoreless just really deserves a tip of the cap to Zach Gallen. I think piece of Yoshi said it in the chat. but what is he guys the seventh worst

ERA in qualified starters in major league baseball so we are not the worst anymore let's go Zach Gowan proud of you for digging yourself out of the hole meanwhile I'm guessing Erod's still very much down there probably the worst ERA for qualified starters if he's even a qualified starterer but Jesse we thank you again so much for your time appreciate you stopping by make sure to catch Jesse

and our guy Jack Summers on snakes territory you can get that podcast wherever you get this podcast on YouTube and all of those podcast services and make sure also to check out Jack's work over at Sports Illustrated as well. Those guys do an excellent job over there. So Jesse, thank you for your time. Thank you again to you guys for stopping by. We appreciate you being here late after a big win here over the Dodgers. As always, you can follow us all on Twitter. Jesse is at Jesse N. Friedman. I am at Kapp underscore caveman with a K. Damon is at Damon dog with a DAWG

at the end. And as always, we are all Damon's dogs. Bark Park. Our show is at PH&X underscore D-Backs, but as always, all roads do lead to at pH and X underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you all for being here tonight.

We appreciate you guys. Love you guys. We will see you not on Monday because it is Labor Day. So we were actually getting that day off. So we will be back on Tuesday with another post game show. I get to go see Weird Al Yankovic this weekend, and I couldn't be more excited about that. I've never got a chance to see Weird Al in person,

and this is a big one on my bucket list. So very much looking forward to that, and then taking Monday, I got to now fix a leaky main water line in my house, and it's the worst thing that's ever happened to me. So that's how my weekend stacks up. I hope yours is much better than mine. Thank you all for your time.

What's up? Real quick, Derek, I did just want to say, I don't do this often, but if you're an Arizona fan and, you know, you're going to watch the Arizona football game tomorrow, please tune into our pregame show and our post game show that we're going to have for Azy Wildcats podcast. Me and Kevin are going to, you know, provide, of course, the best coverage, Arizona Wildcats coverage all year long. So please tune into that if you're a Wildcats fan. If you're not, you don't have to watch it. I get it.

You know, different strokes are different folks, but maybe click on the video, maybe like it. I don't know. We could use the support from the viewers. back's fan so uh you know i i expect to see some of you in the chat tomorrow but bear down well let's see i you know that i hate that school down south but i love kevin and i love damon and these guys do an outstanding job did you got you so you guys found kevin so kevin is recovered he's uh you didn't leave him at the old office like okay you should have seen the amount of panic and work that they did define kevin but meanwhile jessey nobody's

lifted a figure to find JJ. There wasn't a single call to the police. There wasn't a search put on. No one went back to check the old office. Nothing. Nobody did anything. And then Blaze at least let us stop going crazy wondering where he was and at least took accountability for kidnapping him. So I appreciate him for that. But I do not appreciate him taking my damn stake. And that is something that I feel like I want like, like how I can't impact how good he's playing right now. Like I can't do anything about that. I just have to let it play out. So this is where we're at.

This is what we're doing. And it's unfortunate. But anyway, Sean says more of this is pH and X videos. Yeah, it's funny because, yeah, those are funny. But we really did lose Kevin. So that part, not so funny. But yeah, those guys, they do a great job. Kevin, very lovable.

Damon, extremely passionate. If you join the show tomorrow, there's a 75% chance he's going to scream at you. We have a postgame segment called Damon's Doghouse, where I'm going to rip into somebody in and around the game, doesn't have to be a player, could be like the ref or maybe a fan or something. Someone's getting their head taken off, that's for sure. One of those wildcats for sure. But hey, we thank you guys so much for your time. We appreciate you stopping by.

We'll see you on Tuesday. Until then, like we said, have a wonderful Labor Day weekend. Hope you guys enjoy yourselves, behave yourselves, and remember kids. Baseball is fun, but man, it's so much more fun when Zach Gallen is pitching at this level.