PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Ryne Nelson DAZZLES But Diamondbacks Defense CRATERS In Walk Off Loss To The Rays

Starting point is 00:00:06 I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like, we haven't had to listen to that song in a while, Jesse. Of course, welcome in to another edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX, this man next to me, not next to me, but in the box next to me, is my Thunderstick and your vice mayor, the one and only Jesse Friedman.

Starting point is 00:00:29 Jesse, a lot happened late in this game and not much else happened in between the basically first inning and when everything went crazy there in the eighth and the ninth. Of course, this show, by the way, is brought to you by our friends at Bet365. Download the Bet365 app and use code PHNX365 when you sign up, choose your offer and find out why it is never ordinary at Bet365. Of course, we're going to talk once again why it is never ordinary to watch an Arizona Diamondbacks game. They had me.

Starting point is 00:01:01 They got me there late. It was once again one of those situations where I believe, Jesse, that this team, had done it again and had come back, thanks to Corbyn Carroll and his late inning heroics there. Yeah, it was wild. I mean, it was, what, three days ago that Jake McCarthy with the Diamondbacks down to their last strike, hit that two-run walk-off single. They gave them a 5-4 win over the Rockies. And yes, this wasn't quite that, but it was literally the Diamondbacks down to their final strike,

Starting point is 00:01:32 a one-two count on Corbyn Carroll with two outs and the ninth inning, D-backs down four to three. two and yes he hits a two run homer because that's just sort of what the kinds of things that happen to the diamond back slate in games at this point but the bottom of the ninth was uh was less so uh it was of all the ways to lose derrick that's about as tough as you can draw it up you've got a runner at first base johnny deluca um who you know has an oPS just over 500 this season uh for Tampa. He draws a walk. Justin Martinez after striking out the first batter, just sort of lost his command, as he tends to do at times. DeLuca's on base. And then you have a single that deflects off Blaze Alexander's glove and goes into center field. And Jake McCarthy is unable to pick it up.

Starting point is 00:02:20 And before you know it, Johnny DeLuca has gone all the way from first base to home, scoring the winning run for the Tampa Bay Rays. This is a pretty tough one to swallow. here if you're the debacks. It absolutely is because the Diamondbacks obviously pride themselves on playing fairly error-free defense. They win the margins, as Tori talks about. They didn't win the margins today. Their defense cost them in several situations,

Starting point is 00:02:47 including the eighth inning, which is where the raise really came back. They took the lead. Ryan Thompson was absolutely terrible in that inning for the Diamondbacks. And, of course, things also didn't go their way. offensively there. You had a weird play in the outfield where Lordus like tipped a ball and allowed the runners to advance a little bit further. Like there's just a weird, uh, broken play there in the outfield. But, uh, this one was a mess. And the thing that sucks the most about it is it once again

Starting point is 00:03:17 spoils a stellar start by Ryan Nelson. And I mean, we'll dig into that deeper, but this snaps their six game winning streak. And of course, you know, the diamond back still have an opportunity to potentially win the series still with two more games. But like I said, prior to this, when we were talking yesterday about, you know, a series preview with the race, it's not like this race team is terrible, despite the fact that they waived one of the biggest white flags of any team at the trade deadline. They absolutely, you know, shut it down at the trade deadline. But they've still managed to win some games here and there's still a dangerous team,

Starting point is 00:03:55 especially, you know, on a day like this where the Diamondbacks were, you know, kind of held and check offensively for most of the game. Yeah, I mean, the, the Rays are like sort of a bad team right now, but they're a bad team by like ALE standards where, you know, the bar has just been set extremely high for years. I think the Rays came in having lost seven in their last nine games. So they have scuffled a little bit since that trade deadline where they made so many moves, as you said. But yeah, I mean, really the Rays defense wasn't very good either in this game.

Starting point is 00:04:27 A whole lot of run scoring in this one happened. because of bad defense on both sides. The Diamondbacks scored only two runs in this game off Ryan Pepio, and both of them happened in the first inning. And both of them were because of a fielding air on the Tampa Bay side. The Diamondbacks would not have scored any runs theoretically without that air in the first. They wind up pushing across a pair of runs. And that's another narrative in this one is that, you know,

Starting point is 00:04:52 it wasn't just the defense. It wasn't just Ryan Thompson having a bit of a clunker in that eighth inning. It was that the Diamondbacks offense was really held at bay. throughout basically this entire game. I know they did have nine hits, but they only had one extra base hit, that being the Corbyn Carroll home run. So they also were swinging early in counts quite a bit.

Starting point is 00:05:13 They were not really used to seeing from this Diamondbacks offense. They've really built a reputation for working deep counts and really being kind of a pain for the opposing pitcher. And the debacks were a little bit more aggressive than this one, and it didn't really pay dividends for them. Yep, absolutely. RA in the comment says five errors in this game super sloppy. Absolutely three for the Tampa Bay raise, two for the Diamondbacks. And Ryan Pepio, you got to tip your cap. He was good after that first inning didn't really go his way. He settled in. Diamondbacks scored early run. Stop me if you've heard this one. But the Diamondbacks scored in the first inning again, which has been just one of those things that's allowed them to go on this run that they've gone on, getting up early, giving that starting pitcher, the confidence that they gave Ron. Ryan Nelson today, you know, and it wasn't much.

Starting point is 00:06:03 It was just the two runs early on, but Carol, Carol reaches on a throwing error. Jake McCarthy singles because he can't be stopped right now. And then Jock Peterson got the Diamondbacks on the board with an RBI single that scored Corby. McCarthy scores later on a Lordus Guriel RBI single. But after that, Diamondbacks only managed six more hits after the first inning. And, I mean, that includes their little comeback run to tie the game there in the ninth inning with Gino getting on base with a walk and then Corbyn Carroll hitting or singling to lead off that inning.

Starting point is 00:06:34 I'm sorry. And then Corby and Carroll hitting that game tying home run. But Gino is an absolute iron man because that man was robbed today. Like he's such a good person in so many ways. He's such a tough guy because that was the toughest out I've ever seen someone get. He got hit on the hand to the point where on the broadcast you could. see the discoloration and the bruising already happening when they zoomed in on him holding his hand. But they had the audacity to call it a strikeout, Jesse.

Starting point is 00:07:07 That was egregious. Agreedious. The man's bat flew out of his hand, maybe. And maybe that's the only swing that happened. But that was because he got hit there on the hand. Of course, we Diamondbacks fans know it was like another one of those, ah, shit, here we go again moments. We thought, you know, here's Gino possibly getting, you know, possibly losing Gino.

Starting point is 00:07:29 stays in the game, ends up being really good in this game. Ends up, you know, every time they showed him in the dugout, he was showing off his bruising and his hand. But the man stayed in this game. And he gave the Diamondbacks a chance to win there by, you know, stepping up there in the ninth inning along with Corbyn. Yeah, yeah. I mean, he came through with a base knock immediately once that ninth inning started.

Starting point is 00:07:52 Yeah, it's great to see. And yeah, I mean, for a second, I guess in some ways it was a relief that the Gino struck out. it appeared that he was being removed from the game and that the diamond backs just sort of bizarrely had not selected anyone to take his spot at first base yet and then it was eventually the broadcasts everyone was on the same page like oh geno zvar is just struck out because yeah as you said i guess is i guess his bat sort of broke the plane nobody jessie nobody was on the same page game day had it marked as all sorts of ridiculous like they had it as a strike and then they also had it as a hit by pitch then they took the hit by pitch away nobody was you know knew what happened there but you're right like gino was called out and that was the reason why he walked back to the dugout like he did after getting checked out there initially but that was like the most i'm hurt walk back to the dugout you ever see because a player obviously usually kind of battles to stay in or whatever and without knowing that he struck out it looked like gino's hand must

Starting point is 00:08:51 have been broken in 20 places with the way that he was just like i'm going to the dugout now like I am, you know, and instead it was because he was out. This was a weird game. And of course, the Diamondbacks did not play their best in this one. But Ryan Nelson continues to be incredible for this team. Of course, the bullpen and the defense spoiled another just absolutely incredible outing from Ryan Nelson. And this is the Tampa Bay race.

Starting point is 00:09:17 So I'm not going to, you know, act like this is the most potent offense. But you put Ryan Nelson out there. and he lately has been doing exactly what you could hope for. Best results every time. It was all about his location today. He could land his fastball. It seemed like wherever he wanted at times. It was topping out at 96.5 miles per hour.

Starting point is 00:09:38 So it wasn't even as fast as we've seen his VLO at times. But he did get six whiffs on the fastball. And again, he was just able to somehow some way control a game with how he can locate that fastball. Yeah, I mean, that continues to be the story with Ryan Nelson, right? I mean, if you're able to, if you're able to take a fastball that is a great life like his does, and you're able to put it in in good spots, if you're able to put it right on the black, it's going to do some good things for you.

Starting point is 00:10:10 And it wasn't just the fastball on this one. I know he threw that 61% of the time. He continues to throw his four seamer a whole bunch as we've seen throughout the year. But he did throw some really nice cutters in this game, I thought, as well. we saw some good changeups. We saw some good sliders as well. He's not leaning on those other pitches all that much, but it feels like he's mixing things up just enough

Starting point is 00:10:32 and the effectiveness and the consistency of those secondary pitches. It feels like that's been a little bit better for him lately so that hitters aren't just so easily able to dismiss those other pitches and just sort of wait for the inevitable fastball. He had three extra, just looking at some of the movement numbers. It looks like his changeup had a whole bunch of extra horizontal movement in this game. His cutter in particular, some of you might have noticed this just watching the game. Some of his cutters were really moving a lot horizontally.

Starting point is 00:11:01 He averaged four inches of horizontal break on his cutter in this one, whereas he normally averages just one. It usually is not a pitch that moves a whole lot laterally. So yeah, he continues to look just outstanding for this Diamondbacks team. And I guess that brings us to the inevitable conversation, Derek, of, Was this Ryan Nelson's last start for the foreseeable future? Based on what Tori Lavello, you know, told us during this past homestand, their plan was to go with six guys through the rotation this time, just to give everyone a little bit of an extra rest.

Starting point is 00:11:35 But Tori said, and I quote, that he feels very strongly about going back to a five-man rotation after this point. And I think the sort of assumption that all of us are making is that going back to a five-man, man rotation means moving Ryan Nelson to the bullpen and keeping Jordan Montgomery in this rotation. And at this point, the Diamondbacks have not had a better starting pitcher than Ryan Nelson here over the last month and a half for him to be the odd man out in this situation. I mean, that's that's pretty brutal. It's an insane conversation to be having. But our guy, Kevin Conceo, which is my favorite type of Kevin to order, thank you so much for your super chat.

Starting point is 00:12:20 says thought Tori didn't want a six-pitcher rotation L. I don't know. Is it Tori taking the L there? I don't know what the L there at the end is for. But what I will say is that Jesse just explained it. I just don't know what they do. How do you at this point with the way that Ryan Nelson is pitching and the way he has performed for this team over the course of, you know,

Starting point is 00:12:45 I mean, again, we talk about things that are keys to the success, the early scoring in the first inning, a lot of the things they've been doing. Ryan Nelson, pitching as well as he has, has been absolutely part of the success of this team. And, I mean, what, that's a tough decision to make. What do you do with him? What do you do with Ryan Nelson at this point with the way he's pitching? I mean, it's, it's not, it's not egregious. It's not insulting to say Ryan Nelson is pitching better than everybody on the starting rotation.

Starting point is 00:13:15 I mean, at least over the month and a half, he's been pitching. pitching better than everybody. And at least right now, his stuff and, and his outings look much better than, you know, Erod or Jordan Montgomery. Like Jordan Montgomery gets obviously kind of drug here a little bit every time this conversation gets up, you know, gets brought up. But obviously, I mean, Ryan Nelson is pitching better than a lot of guys in the starting rotation right now. So like, I just don't, I don't know how you turn around and stick a guy that's giving you these kind of outings, these kind of starts in the bullpen or even send him down. As crazy as it is, I almost like the idea of sending him down more than I like the idea of putting

Starting point is 00:14:00 him in the bullpen just because at least he stays stretched out. At least it's an option they can go back to. Sure, they have to wait 15 days, but if things don't work out, they can go back to Ryan Nelson without having to kind of have a weird, you know, period of time for him where he's in the bullpen and then maybe has to come back to the starting rotation. Yeah, I mean, I have to wonder if Ryan going out there and having yet another excellent start if it makes the Diamondbacks reconsider. As I said, they've been pretty clear that they were not, at least from what they've said publicly,

Starting point is 00:14:34 that they were not planning on doing a six man for any more than one turn through the rotation. But, you know, we've certainly seen the Diamondbacks, you know, say one thing and then change course. obviously they're not the only team that does that from time to time. So maybe the Diamondbacks reconsider and they think about going that route. The debacks do have, I believe it's three off days here and just the next week and a half or so, which is a lot. Yeah, plenty of days off so that they don't even need a six-man rotation over the show. Yeah, I think you get to a point where a six-man rotation can be pretty undesirable. Because you're, you know, rather than guys pitched on four days of rest, they're looking at pitching.

Starting point is 00:15:15 on seven, eight days rest, which I don't know if any starter really wants to do that. So, yeah, it's a tough situation for them. I mean, we've talked about the Montgomery situation in the past as well. And this isn't to say that Montgomery hasn't looked better at the very least for the Diamondbacks lately. I mean, I know his last star came against a subpar Colorado Rockies team. And he didn't finish that outing particularly well. He wound up throwing 30 pitches in the sixth inning, had trouble kind of

Starting point is 00:15:45 closing the door at the end like he did in his previous start, but it still was a much better version of Jordan Montgomery than we've seen for most of the year. I mean, he generated 22 whiffs in that game, which matched a career high. So it's a good problem to have. I mean, I guess that's sort of what I go back to is like you'd rather, I mean, there's a whole lot of teams right now that would rather have the issue of having too many starters and trying to figure out how to narrow it down than the other issue of having

Starting point is 00:16:14 not enough guys. And you know, you think about what the Dodgers are going through now with Tyler Glass now hitting the IL. They're just sort of trying to find a way to get five guys who can, who could stay in a rotation. So, yeah, they're in an enviable position in a lot of ways. But again, the thought of taking Ryan Nelson out of the rotation at this point, I mean, it does seem a little bit crazy when you look at the numbers. It really does.

Starting point is 00:16:37 It really does. And of course, for all the obvious reasons, Ryan Nelson is our king snake in this game. he deserved better. He deserved more offensive support, and he deserved for the bullpen to not fall apart the way they did. Six in a third innings pitched, one earned run, zero walks, six strikeouts. And he puts up that zero walk number quite a bit, Jesse, and he has just been excellent. I mean, it's incredible how many outings now he's had, I think, this is like eight in his last 10, where he's allowed two earned runs or less.

Starting point is 00:17:11 I mean, it's it's just been wild how good Ryan Nelson continues to be for this team. A part of it is that the man is playing, you know, kind of, he's guys back against the wall, right? Like he knows he's the odd man out and he knows his only way out of this situation potentially is for him to just pitch like he's pitching and he's doing it. And that's, you know, again, a big reason why he's kind of pitching for his playing time, pitching, you know, kind of trying to prove to Tori Lavala in the front office that He should stay. And honestly, he probably should.

Starting point is 00:17:46 He probably should. Yeah, I think the other part of this is that Ryan Nelson could be an asset for the diamondbacks in the bullpen. I've seen some people talking about that in the chat. Like, this team doesn't really have a long man right now. And there is a bit of a void there with Bryce Jarvis going down with injury. He's out for the season. Slate Cicconi, obviously the team sent down to AAA the other day. they could bring him back up at some point, but he's not currently on this roster.

Starting point is 00:18:15 So there's something to be said for the coverage that Nelson could give you in the bullpen. And you'd feel pretty good about him coming in even in higher leverage situations, right, with how well he's pitched lately. And this Diamondbacks bullpen has been pretty good of late, Derek, but it didn't look so great in this one. Obviously, Ryan Thompson, who's been very good for the Diamondbacks throughout pretty much the entire season. And certainly last year, you know, in those final couple months, plus the postseason, it was really remarkable to watch his turnaround.

Starting point is 00:18:47 And, of course, today you return back to the to the trope pitching against his former team. But it was a part of this was like, yes, this was a part of this was it was a rough outing for Ryan Nelson or for Ryan Thompson. Part of it was that there were just some balls that weren't hit very hard that did wind up going for singles. I mean, you think about the way that that rally sort of got started. There was a runner at first base with two outs in that eighth inning. You feel like you're in a decent spot to get out of it unscathed. And then you get an infield single. I believe that was by Junior Camerro if memory serves.

Starting point is 00:19:26 And then you get another single that was just hit off the end of the bat. I think it was 70 miles an hour off the bat to the outfield. And that winds up scoring a couple of runs because it was misplayed by Lord of Scurriel Jr. in left field. So neither of those singles were hit particularly hard. And, you know, if either of those isn't out, then suddenly that, that eighth inning looks a whole lot different. And unfortunately, for Thompson, he, you know, things kind of snowballed for him from there. He walked the next batter. He allowed another hit that allowed another run to come into score, turning a 3-2 game into a 4-2 game.

Starting point is 00:20:01 So it wasn't a great day for Ryan Thompson, but it's not like he went out there and got totally Sheld or anything either. Right. Right. Well, and I mean, again, like you said earlier, Justin Martinez didn't, wasn't steady today either. It was basically a disaster in kind of both innings there for this team because none, it's not like either guy was shelled. It was just these blue pits like who says right here, these Mickey Mouse blue pits. But again, no pre-inning conference meeting on the mound with J-Mart. So I don't know, maybe listen to my advice next time.

Starting point is 00:20:39 and just do it every time. Just go out there, just gas them up. You know what I mean? Just like when you fill up at Circle K and you hit the thing and your car automatically stops the gas pump. And I know they tell you not to do this, but then you just put in that little extra three cents of gas. That's what Justin Martinez needs.

Starting point is 00:20:55 He needs that little extra three cents up to round up to the next zero or five. And I know we all do that at the gas pump. Don't act like I'm the only one. But this was an exciting game and a big reason why it was an exciting game. exciting game was because of Corbyn Carroll's late inning home run. And of course, that is our Sanderson Ford deep drive of the game. Corbyn Carroll's ninth inning blast was an impressive one. It was exciting. And of course, Corbyn Carroll, shout out to the fact that the power is back for Corbyn Carroll. The confidence is back. And he might have inherited a little bit of Alec Thomas's

Starting point is 00:21:34 clutch gene, Jesse, because the man has been doing it late for this. team lately. Yeah, he really has. I mean, we've talked about it lately. Like Corbyn Carroll has turned from, you know, this leadoff hitter who gets on base a lot, you know, poking singles all over the place and also showcasing some power to what we've seen over the last month, a month and a half, is a pretty good player, but not really the same guy that we saw last year. He's not getting on base quite as much, but he's also hitting like a whole bunch of home runs. This was his 10th home run, I believe it is, going back to July 7th, which is pretty impressive. I mean, for him to hit 10 homers in the span of, what is that, about five weeks, like,

Starting point is 00:22:20 yeah, but two in three months prior to that. Right, right. Yeah, we said it a whole bunch of times. He had two homers in his first 87 games, and, you know, now he has 10 in his last 30 or somewhere in the low 30s. So he's really turned it on from a power perspective. he got one of the worst changeups that you'll see Pete Fairbanks throw, it was just sort of center cut right in the middle of the plate

Starting point is 00:22:43 in a 02 or in a 1-2 count. And Corbyn Carroll was able to go deep on that. So yeah, it was a big moment for him. It felt like it was a no way moment for me where I was like, okay, surely the Diamondbacks late game magic, like it has to run out at some point, right? And I guess it eventually did in a sense with how this one ended, but still pretty impressive for the Diamondbacks down to their final strike yet again to find a way to tie this game.

Starting point is 00:23:13 Well, of course, we have to thank our friends at Sanderson Ford, and I need to thank them for multiple reasons. One, we went out, we hung out at Sanderson Ford. Jesse may or may not have won a race by being a magic being and possibly gave our Discord chat one of the greatest gifts of all time, which is Jesse in a car saying, ha, losers. It's pretty outstanding. So shout out to the creators of that. Not the person that memed to me running out the door.

Starting point is 00:23:44 Whoever did that is a bad person. And I, of course, will never forgive you. But I got to give a shout out to Sanderson Ford. Our guy, Lauren, hooked us up over there, Jesse. Got myself, by the way, that the color is hot pepper red. it's that hot pepper red bronco sport that you jumped in and tried to take the test drive in Lauren gave that one to me and I'm driving that around town today and I don't know if I'm going to give it back I won't lie I'm not going to steal it but I might just drive to a different

Starting point is 00:24:18 country and never come back I mean that's probably stealing I don't know but I'm having a great time in this 2004 for Bronco sport big bed and let me tell you i'm i'm i'm showing it off like i did purchase it and i'm considering it because sanderson fort has some great deals going on right now not to mention uh that big bend uh for bronco sport ranked highest in quality in its segment by jd power they have zero percent financing right now for 36 months with no payments for 90 days on the ford f 150 which i know our guy saw took out uh we got an escape edge explorer and expedition and i again am loving having a new vehicle because my now based on the math I did today is over 10 years old.

Starting point is 00:25:03 And when you were born before 1999, the 2000s all just kind of run together. So it doesn't really feel like your cars is old because you're like, it's a 2014. Your car is old. It's old. It needs to be replaced. And you need to go talk to our guy, Lauren, over at Sanderson Ford. They will get you hooked up with a brand new vehicle. And right now the Sanderson Ford summer sales event is here.

Starting point is 00:25:25 And they are teaming up with the boys of summer for a final playoff payoff sale. purchase or release any new ford and get four tickets for your family to go see these arizona diamondbacks push for the playoffs this season get zero percent for 36 months always see from for credit see dealer for details and again big big thank you to sanderson ford ford for ford ford ford ford bronco over the weekend jesse but i might come pick you up and go to greeer or one of these places that you take pictures of but never actually take me to because is this thing can go off road. And I don't know if Florida would be approval,

Starting point is 00:26:01 approving of that, but it is a test drive. And in a test drive, I feel like I should take it off road as much as possible to really, you know, get the feel for it. So we'll get it washed before you bring it back. Yeah,

Starting point is 00:26:12 absolutely. We'll gas it up. We'll get it washed. It'll be fine. It'll be fine. But we might stop by Heel of River Resorts and Casinos for a boys night because it's the perfect vehicle to take over there. And it's always a great time at Hela River Resorts and Casinos.

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Starting point is 00:26:53 And our guy Damon is back. and we're not in the same room, but I'd probably hug him and call him my baby boy. And I'm hoping after some time apart, maybe Damon would like to reconsider the whole boy's trip thing, maybe. I don't know. We'd make this,

Starting point is 00:27:07 you know, three things, but we'll see. I don't know. I'm thinking about it. All right. I know. I missed you.

Starting point is 00:27:13 I missed you a lot, especially we've already discussed all the reasons why I've missed you. But I missed you because of this wonderful graphic right here. Don't forget to hit the like button and also hold the line. And if you are here right now on the PHNXports YouTube channel, make sure to subscribe to the channel, sign up for notifications,

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Starting point is 00:27:43 Those reviews mean the world to us. Taking a look here at some of the chat, we have Andrew Lee asked, wide Newman get put at first, just didn't trust Bell's defense or is there more to it? Tori's actually been making that move quite often recently, where he has been going to Kevin Newman over there at first base late in games just to kind of have that extra infielder, that extra defender that he feels like maybe has a little bit more range than Josh Bell. Yeah, I agree with that.

Starting point is 00:28:15 You know, we talked about it when the Diamondbacks acquired Josh Bell. like he was so hot offensively and that has carried over to the diamond backs. He didn't have his best day offensively today, of course, going over for four. But defensively, there have been some questions about Josh Bell for a while. We went over the defensive metrics when they first acquired him. They're not too pretty. So no surprises there. Yeah, I think that was just a simple case of Tori wanting to go with the better defender there with Kevin Newman,

Starting point is 00:28:43 which I guess brings me to another interesting topic here, Derek, which is that the diamond Backs just sent Alec Thomas down to Reno and we've seen them do similar things with Alec Thomas late in games quite a bit. And obviously, you know, we can't really, we can't really say anything negative about Jake McCarthy in a sense because he's been so out of this world good in the last month, month and a half that it just doesn't really feel right. But at the same time, you can ask the question, if Alec Thomas were on this roster right now, you know would the diamond backs have maybe made a defensive sub to to get thomas's glove

Starting point is 00:29:23 and center field late in this game i'm not totally sure that they necessarily would have but it's something we've seen tory do in the past i want to say also appreciate sean's comment sean said the drop off of people in the chat chat after a loss makes me sad l-o-l you're not wrong sean it makes me sad too it also hasn't happened very often so we've had the chance to kind of build this community and kind of not only have the diamondbacks been on a role but we've been a little bit on a role and because of that we have a very exciting thing happening here that we're going to probably tease all episode log but my god let's just say at one point yesterday afternoon in a parking lot in the heat in the sun i was hugging jesse and jumping up and down let's just say that

Starting point is 00:30:10 That's the best way for me to kind of hype up this situation, just for you to visualize us standing with each other. Jesse, not really happy that I'm screaming and jumping up and down while hugging him, me losing my mind. But that's just a little taste of what's to come. Make sure you do not miss Monday's show. No matter what happens this weekend, like my guy, Sean says, win or lose over the course of the weekend, make sure to be here for Monday because it is going to be one of the biggest days in the history of this podcast. It will forever change, forever change our podcast. We will never be the same again.

Starting point is 00:30:46 That feels very, is that too much? Was that too much? All right. Well, maybe that was too much. All right. I'll dial it back a little bit, but I'm very excited. I'm also not excited to take a look at the count here presented by our friends at Desert Financial Credit Union, but let's do so anyway. Because this game kind of was what it was.

Starting point is 00:31:03 Diamondbacks get outscored by the raise five to four, which by the way, fantastic use of that correct logo from tonight's jersey there damon got to give my guy damon some props and i also got to say that's what i do derrick god i hate how much i loved looking at them in those devil race jersey that's not even their i know connect jersey that was just they're like oh we're gonna wear our throwback and it makes me sick because we don't wear our throwback and these two teams have like the sickest imagine if both teams are wearing their throwback jerseys oh i'm getting off track now anyway uh we got 10 hits here by the raise the diamondbacks nine rays were two for six with runners in scoring position Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks were three for eight.

Starting point is 00:31:44 Diamondbacks had that one extra base hit, a very big one to the raise two. I think that just illustrates how much the offense was kind of held in check here. That Corbyn Carroll home run was the Diamondbacks only extra base hit of the night. And then the hard hit percentage, once again, is a useless stat and its wash. Raise 36% hard hit percentage to the Diamondbacks, 37.9%. That's the real battle right there, Derek. D-back's 37.9% hard hit rate, raise 36%. We got it.

Starting point is 00:32:13 We get it. They won the banner. Yeah, they won the real, the real battle in this game tonight. No, yeah, I mean, I mentioned it earlier. Corbyn Carroll's Homer was the only Diamondbacks extra base hit in this game. And that just really puts a lot of pressure on you as an offense. Like if you're not, if you're not hitting the gaps, you're not getting the ball over the fence, which you've seen the diamondbacks do so well lately, you know, you're,

Starting point is 00:32:39 sort of relegated to like stringing walks and singles together as best you can. And the debacks did do a little bit of that in the first inning with the help of a fielding air, of course. But the rest of the game, it was pretty quiet from them overall offensively. And again, it's another thing where this offense has been so, so good lately that much like Jake McCarthy and his defensive miscue that proved costly there in the ninth, it's hard to get too worked up about the offense. It's hard to get too worked up about some sloppy defense.

Starting point is 00:33:09 late in the game, given that the Diamondbacks have been one of the best defensive teams all season, really. It feels like sort of an aberration, Derek, where, you know, even a team that is playing really, really well in all facets, you're still going to have off nights every now and then. And outside of Ryan Nelson, who did not really have an off night at all, he was, he remained very, very good tonight. But for a lot of other facets of this team, it was just just sort of one of those days. Don't lump him in with this. That's, what I have to say. Right.

Starting point is 00:33:40 We have a super chat from Benjamin Hundley. I don't know. I don't think we address this one. He said after watching this sloppy game, I don't want the debacks to get that by week in the playoffs. Is this like connected to the fact that they had an off day yesterday? And so we're. I would love to know what their record is after off days.

Starting point is 00:34:05 That's just I would just love to know what their record is after off days. Well, that, yeah. I mean, that was a storyline early in the season, right? Like, whether you wanted to call it, uh, the first game of a series or the day after an off day, their record in both of those situations was pretty abysmal for, you know, the first couple months of the year. And then they went on a run where they just won the first game of every single series that they played for a while. And suddenly it was like, oh, maybe this was just sort of a weird fluke and not like there maybe there wasn't anything to this at all. Um, so yeah, I, I don't know. I, I don't know. I, as I said yesterday and we'll continue to say if I'm, this is going to die on this hill. If I'm an MLB team, I want the buy. I want to play three series instead of four series, regardless of how favorable you feel the matchup is in the wild card around.

Starting point is 00:34:55 Anything can happen in a three game series, whether it's at home or on the road. Just asked the Milwaukee Brewers last year, who probably felt pretty good about phasing the diamond backs. You know, Corbyn Burns against Brandon fought like, For them, they probably felt pretty good going into that game. And yeah, obviously the Diamondbacks were able to do what they did.

Starting point is 00:35:16 So yeah, give me the buy, Derek. If I'm an MLB team buying for the playoffs, give me the buy 100 times out of 100. Well, we know Jesse doesn't lie. We know I lie habitually, but we definitely know the numbers never lie. So, Jesse, what do you have for your number that does not lie tonight? tonight's number is 2.73.

Starting point is 00:35:40 I tweeted this one out earlier. This is Ryan Nelson's ERA since the start of July. That covers nine games. And yeah, it just goes back to what we were saying earlier, where Ryan Nelson has been so incredibly good. I mean, this is sort of what you expect at this point. Like, I'm at the point where Ryan Nelson going out there and putting up six in a third innings with one run allowed,

Starting point is 00:36:05 it just sort of feels like another day for him, right? Whereas before and, you know, early in the season and outing like this would have felt really like a breakthrough. He just continues to command the baseball at a really, really high level. And as I said earlier, maybe getting a little more movement on some of the secondary stuff, keeping guys off balance just enough, and then throwing the fastball in all quadrants of the zone,

Starting point is 00:36:30 and it just continues to be really effective for him. our guy yoshi in the chat says guys should i not watch tomorrow the razor like six and two or some shit when i watch them well as i've told you before nothing you do impacts the baseball game being played on the field uh it's not like me dying my hair or cutting my beard don't be ridiculous but just to be safe i say yeah don't watch that's what i say uh yeah you're forbidden from watching. That's what I say. But again, uh, stop by Circle K to get yourself gassed up the way that Justin Martinez needs to be gassed up

Starting point is 00:37:07 before his outings. It's also America's third stop. I need myself a 79 cent polar pop right now. I'm, I'm, I'm sad and I want to overcome this sadness. And sometimes the best way to do that is to go and just put a little bit of every soda in your cup, you know, like you did when you were 10 years old visiting a Burger King, right? Like just a little bit of, of each. I don't know if it's a punishment. I don't know if it's a treat. I don't know what it's going to taste like, and it's different every single time. So you can know what you want to with your polwar pop.

Starting point is 00:37:38 But I think there, I don't know about all the sodas, but a good mix is like you get like Gatorade, Sprite, Fanta, and you really just get all the like lemon limey flavors together and just make a just make a concoction that is just unbelievable. It could be. That's pretty reasonable. Or it could be terrible. But.

Starting point is 00:37:58 I was always a. I mean, I think it's kind of a classic to mix like Sprite and lemonade. Like I always felt like that work. That works pretty well. Highly recommend. Yeah, I like anytime, like sometimes I'll actually like get like a Coke or a Pepsi. And if they have like the syrup for coffee, I'll just get a little dab of like the like cherry syrup, which is way more real than like cherry Coke. It's different.

Starting point is 00:38:23 It's great. I'll tell you that. But anyway, this is all the fun stuff you could do at Circle. Okay. If you're an inner circle member, you'll save all sorts of money. as well, by the way. Join the Inner Circle for free by downloading the CircleK app today. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. But when you do, you'll save yourself 25 cents off per gallon on your first five fill-up.

Starting point is 00:38:44 So, of course, there's a way to gash yourself up. And also, Circle K is America's third stop. So make sure to get yourself a drink while you're there. Also, if it's hot and, you know, I know it's nighttime right now, but again, you just need a good pair of sunglasses. day or night when you live in the state of Arizona and probably anywhere in this country, especially if you want to be cool, right? So plan accordingly with a good pair of sunglasses, and you can get those sunglasses from our friends at Shady Ray's. Shady Ray's is an independent sunglasses company while offering a world-class product with durable frames, crystal clear optics, and hundreds of styles to choose from. So make sure to check out Shady

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Starting point is 00:39:56 by over 300,000 people. Well, it's the weekend, Jesse. There was a weird debate because we were looking at the spring training schedule for the Arizona. The Diamondbacks dropped. And they were talking about weekend games and how many weekend games were being played at Salt River Fields. But apparently they count Friday in the weekend. When, since when, do we count Friday in the weekends now? I think Friday, I think Friday, the latter portion of Friday is when the weekend begins in my

Starting point is 00:40:29 mind but that's granted when we're talking spring training friday games are generally played on friday afternoon so i i understand your gripe if you don't want those counting is weekend games we have weekdays and we have weekends there's weekdays and weekends friday is a week day this is insane this is insane conversation to be having you ever seen the freeway on a friday after like noon in this city no one works these days fucking nobody it's insane we're we're here it's 730 at night and I have to miss a concert with my friend Tim so I could talk about the Diamondbacks getting walked off by the Tampa Bay raised. I don't sleep. I love this job. I just go straight from Indianapolis into a plane. Yeah. Let's talk about it. Let's talk about Damon being made to get on a

Starting point is 00:41:15 plane at four o'clock in the morning and fly here and then still work a day of work. That's crazy, right? I'm sorry, David. We love you, though. Love this squad. Love this team. I love you more than I I love Players Weekend, that's for sure, because Player Weekend is lame. It's lame, Jesse. There's no more nicknames on the back of Jersey. We've already talked about this before when they announced when Players Weekend was going to be. But now that it's here, I love everything about it except the concept that it needs to be

Starting point is 00:41:45 confined to one weekend, right? We saw Jock Peterson out there with a goddamn yellow crayon tonight. I want to see Jock Peterson with an entire box of crayons as his baseball bats. I want to see all the guys have all the stuff. Bryce Harper had like his bats designed by his daughters or children. You know, you just had a lot of creativity, a lot of fun out there. And to be honest, as I start watching it, I just come to the realization that there is zero reason why allowing players to exhibit this much of themselves, this much of their personality,

Starting point is 00:42:18 this much of their character is, needs to be confined to one weekend per baseball season. Like it's fine. Have players weekend do something else. Like I like the idea that they're going to have for the next two days where they're going to feature charities that all of these guys sponsor and involved with as well as like their family and coaches and the people that got them to this level. Like I like highlighting that and I like making that maybe, you know, part of the broadcast that they don't typically do.

Starting point is 00:42:45 But the idea of them wearing cool shoes and having cool custom bats should just be every goddamn game or at least like one person on Twitter told me like have it on every weekend, right? Like have every weekend be a weekend where players can show out with their custom bats and their custom shoes and have a good time because this is fun. This grows the game. This makes baseball more fun. I see zero reason why you need to just keep it confined to this weekend. Yeah, I maybe don't feel like quite so strongly on my hatred of players weekend as you do. But I fully agree with what you're saying where it's like it feels like major league baseball's.

Starting point is 00:43:24 it feels like they're trying maybe a little bit too hard to like make they're trying to make baseball fun right they're trying to grow the audience and whatnot and in their minds weekends like this help with that and i don't disagree with that but it's also like yeah nothing that you're doing this weekend it feels like it has to be confined to a single weekend you you want your players to be encouraged to show their personalities and you know have the the patches on their hats or whatever it is at as much as possible right there's nothing wrong with any of this stuff so i want their charities i want their charities on their cleats all the time right like i want all of that like there was some great ideas being floated in by people like and just overall i know like

Starting point is 00:44:09 baseball's weird because it has a lot of like small rules and things that are about like you know the batter's eye and having things you know like what we talked about when ryan thompson had the glove that was the wrong color and he had to go swap it out right like there are certain things that in baseball are deemed like necessary to not mess with you know the the game or mess with the bad or playing or whatever and i get that right like uh i i don't know like somebody suggested that the catchers have more goalie style hockey masks where they can like paint them and have you know like stuff about them on the on the helmet just cool stuff that again is interesting And I know we've seen that in the past.

Starting point is 00:44:51 Like that's nothing exactly new, but this, you know, somebody pointing it out made me realize like, yeah, they have kind of gone away from some of that stuff. I also know, based on the Diamondbacks Clubhouse, that these guys wear some incredibly fashionable shoes and stuff all the time. So it's not like the personalities being zapped out by MLB and making them all conform. Sure. The Diamondbacks are one of the swaggiest teams in baseball. They do not let, like, they're out there wearing colors that aren't even part of the team. like everybody wear yellow why just because like that's part of the diamond backs right like so i love that about them i also love what we saw today and i would love to see more of it i think

Starting point is 00:45:30 baseball can be one of those games where they have an advantage over other sports that baseball players are more recognizable they're out there more just because they're not you know they're not wearing helmets and stuff there there's a lot of time of like just showing shot like baseball players in my opinion tend to be more recognizable than other sports just a little bit Maybe basketball is also up there as well, especially when you're seven feet tall. It's hard not to notice you. Baseball just has a chance, though, to build their stars better. And part of building their stars is stuff like people going crazy for Bobby Witt Jr.

Starting point is 00:46:03 having Pablo Sanchez on his bat tonight. That was awesome. That's awesome. That makes me love Bobby Witt Jr. It really does. Yeah. I don't want to love Bobby Watt Jr. I guess we're advocating for Bobby Witt Jr.

Starting point is 00:46:16 to use the Pablo Sanchez bat year round. Like, I mean, I'm on board. I'm cool with that. I don't know. I don't see any issues. Yeah, it's just, I mean, and again, you're right. I mean, I don't hate players weekend. I just think that it's been watered down and is kind of lame.

Starting point is 00:46:33 And the stuff that they are doing on it isn't special enough to like make it that weekend. What was special was when Brad Boxberger used emojis on the back of his jersey and somehow got himself to the Hall of Fame. It's amazing when Zach Granke has a chance. to give himself any nickname and he goes with Granky, right? Like, but you know, you also had all of the personality being shown, you know, uh, Corey Seeger's brother and things like that, right? Like all of those fun things that we saw players do over the course of that weekend, uh, really is so memorable that to this day, even though they haven't done it in years,

Starting point is 00:47:11 when you bring up players weekend, that's what people think about. They immediately go, oh, are they bringing back the nicknames on the back of their jerseys? Yeah. And again, it's not, It's nothing to get hung up on. It's just if you're going to go out and make it like all of this, like just go out. Just go out and let all the players do all that fun stuff. Make it a big deal and make it actually special.

Starting point is 00:47:30 You know, don't make it something that basically is you doing stuff you should do all the time to grow your support. Right. But we have Diamondbacks business to handle with the loss tonight. Obviously things aren't great, but things aren't great for the Los Angeles Dodgers right now, as they have lost another big piece of their starting rotation. Yeah, Tyler Glass now going on the injured list with right elbow tendonitis. It is maybe the last thing. The Dodgers fans wanted to hear at this point.

Starting point is 00:48:02 River Ryan, who would come up and was doing a nice job for them out of the rotation. He just had Tommy John surgery. He's going to have Tommy John surgery. It's certainly missed the rest of the year. So, yeah, the Dodgers rotation depth, Derek, is in a very precarious. spot right now. I think they're expected to get Bobby Miller back. Maybe at some point, but obviously Bobby Miller was not really very effective for them

Starting point is 00:48:27 earlier in the season. We just saw Walker Bueller return from injury and he was not really very good in that game at all. Clayton Kershaw is still back. He's been all right. I think he has a 350 ERA. Jack Flaherty has a 378 ERA since coming over in that trade. That trade now seems enormous for them, Derek.

Starting point is 00:48:45 I can't imagine where the Dodgers would be. without having Jack Flaherty in their art agent. It feels like a very necessary thing. But yeah, I mean, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, I think Dave Roberts gave an update there and I believe he just threw a sim game and is expected to throw a couple more at least before going out on a rehab assignment potentially.

Starting point is 00:49:06 So you're still looking at being probably at least two, three weeks away from getting Yamamoto back. So the Dodgers are in an increasingly difficult position and the Diamondbacks losing one game, while it certainly doesn't help their cause as they try to catch the Dodgers in the N.L.S., Tyler Glass now going down, I mean, that's a pretty big blow for this Dodgers team down the stretch.

Starting point is 00:49:30 Yeah, for sure. And right now, the Dodgers did, are winning. They're in the top of the ninth right now against St. Louis Cardinals and are winning by a score of 7 to 6. Meanwhile, of course, because the Diamondbacks lose, the Padres are also losing right now.

Starting point is 00:49:45 They are losing to the Rockies by a start. score seven to three in the top of the seventh. It's inevitable that. Still ways to go in that one, Derek. I was going to say it's inevitable that the Padres will come back in that game and win it. So don't be surprised. Jackson Merrill is about to hit a game time grand slam, right? That's what feels like it's inevitable here.

Starting point is 00:50:04 Yeah, you make me sick and so do they. I just can't believe it. But it would be very, it would be very fitting that with how hot these two teams have been. And the fact that the Diamondbacks could never really get one up on the Padres throughout this stretch that they both lose on the same night and that the Dodgers win. Yeah, it would be, I mean, it'd be a big sort of morale boost for the Dodgers to at least gain a game in the NOS on both the debacks and Padres on, you know, on the same day that they get some bad Tyler Glass now news.

Starting point is 00:50:33 I don't know what the timeline is on Tyler Glass now. Like, I don't think he's necessarily out for the season. I haven't seen too much information about that injury at this point. But anytime you have a pitcher dealing with. you know this is basically elbow inflammation right i mean tendinitis means that that means inflammation you're talking about his elbow so uh that's a that's a bit of a scary injury and obviously tyler glass now has a bit of a history um of arm injuries in the past so uh this is a this is a pretty pretty big blow for them well monday jesse like i said is a huge day for us is there

Starting point is 00:51:13 do you want to tease this in any way do you want to say anything about what's happening on monday or Do you want to just keep your mouth shut? Have I already said enough? I mean, I think you, I think you probably already said plenty. Have I overhyped it? Is there any way it can live up to the amount of hype that I've given it now? I think I don't really think you have overhyped it, I guess is all I will say, because it is a pretty. That's crazy.

Starting point is 00:51:37 That just sent an insane message to the chat, the people viewing right now. Because, yeah, I mean, it is a really big deal. and we are very excited to share with you guys. I guess a new, a little change around here, maybe a new addition. So make sure to join us on Monday. And of course, make sure to get us your best Mailbag Monday questions. Don't embarrass us, okay? So get us your best mailbag Monday questions.

Starting point is 00:52:04 In the meantime, let's all enjoy the weekend. And hopefully let's enjoy some more Diamondbacks wins in that Godforsaken building known as Tropicana Field. You can follow us on Twitter. I am at Kapp underscore K-Map-W-M-W-A-K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Of course, the guy you all need to follow is the people's producer himself, the hardest working man at P-H-N-X. It's Damon Dog himself.

Starting point is 00:52:27 That's at Damon, D-A-W-G. We are Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. Our show is at P-H-N-X underscore D-Bax, but of course all roads lead to at P-H-N-X underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. again, very excited for Monday. So make sure to come back then.

Starting point is 00:52:46 In the meantime, we hope you guys have a wonderful weekend. And again, we hope we enjoy the Diamondbacks continuing this streak of not losing series. So hopefully they can keep that going. Until Monday, we will see you guys then. Have a great weekend. And remember, kids, baseball is fun. But it's more fun when you properly hype up a big surprise like this.

PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Ryne Nelson DAZZLES But Diamondbacks Defense CRATERS In Walk Off Loss To The Rays

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