PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Ryne Nelson SHOVES, Eugenio Suarez HITS GRAND SLAM As Diamondbacks Blow Out Red Sox

Episode Date: August 24, 2024

The Diamondbacks definitley shipped their bats up to Boston, winning in a rout over the Red Sox by a score of 12-2. Ryne Nelson shoved for the D-backs on a day where manager Torey Lovullo made the announcement he would stay in the starting rotation over teammate Jordan Montgomery. We have more on that decision, Geno’s grand slam, and this team winning 18 games since July 29th, which is the most in MLB.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsALLCITY 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/bet365: https://www.bet365.com/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and choose your offer!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/Sanderson Ford: The Sanderson Ford Summer Sales Event is here and they are teaming up with the boys of summer for a final Playoff Payoff Sale. You get the payoffs like deals on 24 Ford Bronco Sport Big Bend. Lease one today for as low as $299 a month for 36 Months with only 10 percent cash down.Zbiotics: Go to https://zbiotics.com/phnxdbacks to get 15% off your first order when you use PHNXDBACKS at checkout. Pre-Alcohol is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked. Indeed: listeners of this show will get a SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR SPONSORED JOB CREDIT to get your jobs more visibility at https://indeed.com/allcity. Terms and conditions apply.  Need to hire? You need Indeed.Gila River Resorts & Casinos: YOU DO YOU at Gila River Resorts & Casinos. Visit https://playatgila.com for details.Mint Mobile: To get your new 3-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to https://mintmobile.com/diamondbacks.  $45 upfront payment required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speeds slower above 40GB on Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, & restrictions apply. See MINT MOBILE for details.Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. 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.Check out FOCO merch and collectibles and use promo code “PHNX10” for 10% off your order on all non Pre Order items.Rugged Road: Gear up for your next adventure with Rugged Road Coolers - Your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to https://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/allcity and use code PHNX for 10% off!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.

and welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Debacks podcast brought to you by Bet365. Of course, download the Bet365 app right now and use that code of PHNX Bet365. When you sign up, choose your offer and find out why it's never ordinary at Bet, 365. I botched it again. This is again why we brought Archie in.

It's Ph.NX 365. My name is Derek Monti, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. This man next to me is the one, the only, Damon Dog himself, Damon Farrell. I can say that. now that's out in the open. He's the people's producer. And more importantly, he's my best friend. I don't know if I'm his best friend. He doesn't want to take me on the boys' trips.

That was wholesome. I know. It was maybe too wholesome on a night where the Diamondbacks kicked the Red Sox ass. 12 to 2, Damon, 12 runs again at Fenway, a franchise high with the previous high for the Diamondbacks being seven runs being scored. They did that several times. But more importantly, the Diamondbacks improved to 73 and 56. This is their fourth win in a row. and Damon, they shouldn't have let the snakes get hot, but they let the snakes get hot. And they're 18 wins since July 29th, lead all of Major League Baseball. Major League Baseball is shaking in their shoes,

looking at this team. I mean, how could you not be? The thing is, Derek, and I always think about this during the game, they don't have their MVP candidate, their home run leader, who's the best fielder on the team, Their next best fielder on the team. Nope.

They don't have him either. And their two best pitchers are not pitching good currently. And they're still doing this. And they're starting catcher too, the guy that kind of like leads the team out there, leads at least the pitching situation. Yeah, it is. And I mean, of course, the Diamondbacks right now, J.A. asks in the chat how many games, I'm guessing above 500. We are now 17 games above 500, which I believe they said on the broadcast matches a high for at least Tori Lovelos. tenure back when the Diamondbacks made that run at the wild card game.

But, I mean, this offense, Damon stayed super hot, scored all over the place. They did the thing that they do. They scored the first run, first inning runs. And of course, we had Ryan Nelson on the mound. We had a big decision made today by the Arizona Diamondbacks. We're going to talk all about that here in a little bit. But, you know, this was one of those days where the offense started things off, giving Ryan Nelson that run support in the first inning.

you had singles by Corby and Jake McCarthy because, of course, and then Jack Peterson walked to load the bases. Josh Bell walks in a run, and then Lordus Gueriel brings in another run on a sack fly, but it felt a little underwhelming. Once again, the Diamondbacks had bases loaded early. They just did this in the series against the Marlins, where they had bases loaded early,

and we're only able to get, you know, a run or two in, and this is one of those situations where it feels like it's a more, maybe more troubling than it actually is. But when you score 12 runs in the game, I think you don't go back and look at the fact that you had bases loaded in the first and didn't get enough runs then because you got plenty of runs throughout the game. Yeah, I mean, this team just continues to play insane levels of offense.

I mean, since the All-Star break, I believe they're the best offense in baseball. And they just continue to do that game in and game out. It doesn't matter who's on the mound for the other team. It doesn't matter who's pitching. for us. They're just, let's throw that disgusting, stupid, race series in the trash. No one cares. It was, it was a fluke. It was Fugazi. This is this team. We've been seeing it for the better part of two months now.

And it's just, it's like the funnest brand of baseball to watch when they're just mashing like this. It really is. And honestly, they do actually lead all major league baseball with, I believe it's 37 hits now with bases loaded or it might be 36 hits. But they do actually lead Major League Baseball within that category of bases loaded. They also lead Major League Baseball with another fun category that impacted this game quite a bit. Grand slams. The D-Backs, nine Grand Slams this season are the most in MLB this year. And of course, Gino added that to that tonight with his Grand Slam in the seventh inning.

The Diamondbacks did that thing where, you know, they scored early. And then we wondered if they were going to be able to score anymore. It was a close game there early on, but they really busted things wide open there in the middle innings in the sixth and the seventh. They scored three runs in the six. They score four in the seventh on that Gino Suarez grand slam. You had Peterson get on by hit by pitch, bell single, Gereal single, and then Gino hits that grand slam.

In the sixth inning, a bunch of hits. Gereal walks, ADC gets a single. Gino gets an RBI single in that inning. Giorme gets an RBI double, and then Pardomo gets an RBI single. It was just one after the other. They kind of just chipped away at this Boston Red Sox team and really did it. I mean, the Grand Slam there obviously was a big hit, but the Diamondbacks only ended up with three extra base hits tonight.

And they scored 12 runs with only three extra base hits. Yeah, that's insane. When I mean, when I was putting the cat graphics together, Derek, and we'll get into it later, but 16 hits and three extra base hits, and that's pretty insane. I mean, they were just chipping away all. game long. And that's what this team will do to you. I mean, they don't, I think that they're, they're not an overly aggressive team. We have some guys who are a bit swing and miss, like a,

like a Gino in particular. But most of, most of the players in this lineup, they'll take their singles. If you give them things, if you, they want to just get on base. That's their mentality. That's the way Tori wants to play baseball. And, uh, you know, that's, that's what they do consistently. And yeah, it was, it was taking, taking what was given to them. And they just, kind of did it. They did it to this Boston Red Sox team. I mean, especially late there, late innings, the Red Sox just kind of, I'm going to butcher his name because that's what I do on the show.

But Winkowski, I believe, they just left him in there for three innings and we're like, you're the sacrificial Lambda night, buddy. We're not blowing up our bullpen for the rest of this series, considering that right now we're already down six to two. So go give up however many runs you can. But the Diamondbacks really did do a good job. job of that. Gino is such a dog. Jay Cuddy, he says in the chat, you're absolutely right. Alonzo earlier had a apology for Gino. He said, I'm sorry Gino for being an OG

hater. We just needed to hug you like a care bear this whole time. My man is not wrong. And of course, the vibes were always there with Gino, but obviously the struggles, you know, were frustrating. And it's especially frustrating because things that the Diamondbacks try to do to improve this team at times, especially when they have a good team and they want to make it a great team, just don't tend to work out. And it felt like Gino was another one of those moves where it wasn't going to work out. It started making you feel like the only thing that did work out was Jock Peterson with the way everybody was injured and the way Jordan Montgomery was pitching early. But again, big decision being made today, Jordan Montgomery being moved to

the bullpen. And again, we're going to go into this in detail later. But Ryan Nelson got the start today and it was one of the biggest starts of his career, to be honest. I know that might be hyperbolic to say. I know that might be much to say, but it truly is because the Diamondbacks made a decision, a fairly firm decision that, I mean, they could go back on, right? Like, they could always just decide to have Montgomery back in the rotation, but they made a fairly firm decision to go with Ryan Nelson, and he absolutely delivered today. He went out there and proved that he is this guy. He's continuing to be this guy that he's been since late June, early July. And I mean, he was incredible. He started off a little shaky. He gave up two hard hit doubles. And it felt

immediately like, oh my God, is this, oh, is this going to like, is Nelson going to fall apart now that the decision has been made? Not to say like he's going to pitch any differently, but, you know, now that he's kind of won the job, we've seen this before with Ryan Nelson, all of a sudden he's not as good as he was. When he was competing, like when he was called up and he was competing with Dre Jameson for a job, both of those guys absolutely fucking killed it. And, you know, you just felt like the competition

maybe brought the best out of them. Maybe it did it again here in this six-man rotation competition. But Ryan Nelson cruised after that. After he gave up those two doubles to start off the game, he was just locked in after that. Yeah, I mean, you're totally right about Ryan Nelson. Like we've seen that where when he needs like when it feels like he's on his last legs, that's when Ryan Nelson goes out there and is just the best pitcher in this rotation.

The back is against the wall. 100%. And for him to do this in a game where he was beforehand given the rotation spot and told you're the guy moving forward. We believe in you. That, I mean, that feels massive, doesn't it? It feels like maybe we've turned a corner here with Ryan Nelson where he's just this guy. and like that fastball, that place.

Oh, my God, does it? And I mean, it was dominant again tonight. He threw it 63% of the time. He only got four whiffs on it. He really wasn't getting a lot of swing and miss. But, I mean, it really didn't matter because batterers really couldn't, you know, do much with it when they were putting, you know, the bat on the ball. They, you know, they were just kind of harmlessly flying out a lot of times or just getting out.

He mixed in the changeup in the cutter. He once again just had that pimple. point accuracy though with that fastball that that fastball was wherever he wanted to put it including in big moments right like there was that one bat with rapha rafael devors up there right and he just pitched around him to load the bases and then absolutely attack the next batter and you could just tell he was doing whatever he wanted to including being very careful with a dangerous hitter endeavors and choosing in a very mature move to load the bases by walking him and not letting him hurt him and then absolutely going after the next guy and striking him out.

It was a masterful sequence as far as picking your poison, picking and choosing who you want to face and who you want to let beat you in that kind of moment. Yeah, the guy's just been unreal and he's been the best picture on this, you know, rotation in this staff since the All Star break, which is, I mean, like if you told me that at the All Star break when this team was kind of middling, not that great of a, of a, of season thus far. I would have told you that this second half of the season has been a complete and utter disaster.

Like, you know what I mean? Like if I was like, Hey, Derek, second half of the season, Ryan Nelson is going to be the best pitcher on this team. You'd sit there and you'd be like,

all right. So we missed playoffs. So everything fell apart. Yeah. It all fell apart and people got injured. No, no, no.

Ryan Nelson shoved. And a matter of fact, he most of the time gave up two earned runs or less and most of his outings and was fairly incredible. Yeah. that's how I just keep describing him that fairly incredible because it's just amazing that he's able to do this with basically his fastball, you know, and he mixes in now the change up a little tiny bit, but he throws the, you know, the cutter quite a bit. And it's just enough

to give them a different look than his fastball. But it's just amazing right now what he's able to do with essentially one pitch the majority of the time that he throws exceptionally. well. So Ryan Nelson, six innings pitched, five hits allowed, two earn runs, one walks, seven strikeouts, quality start that this diamond back is absolutely team needed and a great way to kick off this series at Fenway. You have the bullpen though, like they deserve their flowers as well, right? Three innings pitched. Why, you know, my, I'll say this. I will say this. The only criticism I have is why even go to ginkle? Sure. Why even go to mantiply with a left-hand heavy lineup tomorrow when you're going to need him and you're going to need AJ

puck. I'm just saying like this one was in the bag and I don't even know if you needed to go to these guys, but the bullpen locked it down, three innings pitched. They literally allowed one hit and one walk in the final three innings. That's it with three strikeouts. You're like I know it was like kind of our fun little joke we played last year when Scott McGuff would come in, light the candle, you know, played the saxophone. Exactly Scott McGuff time.

Yeah. Yeah. I get in a bath. But it was funny. And like, yeah, Scott McGuff had about a month where he was good. But that's actually how I feel when I watched Kevin Ginkle pitch. Yeah. That is like I'm swooning over it.

That guy is amazing. And I can't believe he's on my team. I know. I love Kevin Ginkle. Oh, he's the best. He was on both of your teams technically. The other one is you're watching on your forehead right there. But difficult decision tonight because Ryan Nelson definitely did enough in the offense without

Gino did enough. but we have to give our King's name to E Huyaneo Suarez, because this man went off. I like that. He went off tonight. Three for five with that grand salami. He had five RBI. This is the fifth career grand slam for Gino, but the second grand slam this month, this month for this man. Two of his five or this month. I don't know how many times I need to say that.

It's pretty, that's pretty unreal. And yeah, I love the celebration. Gino's vibes are just incredible. I know no one believes us, but I really do feel like me and you were like two of the only people that were like, let's not DFA, Gino. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, it's like you have guys right now on the team, right,

that are going through their own struggles and not everybody is always hitting. Not everybody's locked in. I don't know. It's hard to say that after a night, like tonight, because I think besides Jock Peterson, who walked and got hit by, a pitch pretty much everybody had a hit in this game multiple guys had multiple hits jake mccarthy

was two for six josh bell was three for four what a like what a pickup josh fucking bell was like i love this man and a great defensive play there at the end of the game man the cardinals might need him to play like defensive end for them this season he could he could be a two sport athlete he probably might have to let's just watch those knees let's keep his knees fresh all right uh lord's There's Guriel Jr. two for three tonight. And then Gino, of course, three for five with those five RBI. Perdomo, your boy, three for five with two RBI. I mean, Perdomo is just, domo is domo, right?

Big domo energy. This man is, I mean, he's getting hot. He's getting hot. You're starting to see less of Perdomo just having that big one for four game where that one hit came late in the game and got the offense going, right? Or even a walk or something. Because, like, honestly, there were a lot of nights that he had that. Pardoma was hitting 288 with a 737 OPS.

I was just about to back on his game. Yeah, I was just about to bring that up because you were saying he was getting hot. And I was like, you know what he is? Let me look at his stats right now. 288, Derek? 288. 737 OPS? This is my boy.

That's the guy. Oh, God. And this team just, it just fires on all cylinders when he's in the lineup. Like, absolutely. He's the difference between winning close games on the margins and losing it. Like, it feels like pretty consistent. Just what a player. He's one of those guys that just brings so much, even on an O for Fortnite, he brings so much beyond just what he does at the dish.

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Now we're going to take a look at the count, but I do know that there were some people earlier in our chat, perhaps, Damon, that were like, oh, I can't wait to see the hard hit percentages in this one. There was rumors. There was talk of that in the chat, perhaps. What's the hard hit percentage? We all want to know. Well, guess what? You ain't going to find out on this show tonight because we switch shit up.

Damon, show us the count presented by Desert Financial Credit Union. That's right. We went with XBA tonight. We went with Yoshi's suggestion, and he's not even here. We were also going to tell him how much we love Luis Guillaume, but that's also something that we don't get to do. But the Diamondbacks outscored the Red Sox by a score of 12 to 2. They out hit the Red Sox 16 to 6. They got runners in scoring position.

Six for 13, Diamondbacks hit 462 with runners in scoring position. Let's go. That feeds families to the Red Sox one for six. They're 167. They're a little batting average over there with running as a scoring position. Here's the wild stat. The Red Sox got more extra base hits than the Diamondbacks. That's right.

Four extra base hits for the Red Sox to the Diamondbacks three. The Diamondbacks only extra base hits were a double by Giorme, a double by Perdomo, and that home run by Gino. But there is your precious XBA stat. your expected batting average 242 for the red socks to the diamondbacks 318 Derek the chat is incensed that we got rid of hard hit percentage i mean you've never seen people so angry you fucking ask for it you're gonna get it see you all needed to mock hard hit percentage but now there he goes it's gone you can all blame yoshi for that but only only me Yoshi is happy. Well, I mean, he's the reason why it happened. So, uh, no surprise there. But man,

I'll tell you this diamond back's team, they are scoring some runs. And it is amazing what they've been doing lately, Damon. Uh, I mean, this game particularly, they just, they, they hit on all cylinders. Honestly, Ryan Nelson could have as easily been the Kingsnake tonight as, you know, as Gino, because he only allowed two runs. And without Gino's contributions, the diamond back still outscored them by seven to two. This team went on to pile on more runs there in the ninth inning. And I haven't seen anything like this with a Diamondbacks team. You know, I really haven't.

I mean, we saw glimpses of this early on. We thought cool. Look at the way they can outscore some of these teams. But it became very few and far between that we would see those performances. And now when you look at what the Diamondbacks have been doing lately, the Diamondbacks, I mean, 12 runs tonight, 10 runs against Miami in game three, nine runs in game one, seven games in the loss to the Tampa Bay raise, 11 runs scored in the game against the Colorado Rockies in the finale, 12 runs scored against the Phillies in the finale,

11 runs scored in game two or game three of that series. I mean, this team has just been going off lately, and it is not, it's not a fluke. I mean, they really can put the runs up. And they, you know, again, they do it on a night like tonight where they only hit one home run. Yeah, and Sean says it here in the chat. It's like remember when it felt like we would use up all of our runs? Yes.

In games, like we'd sit here and we'd be like save some of those. Yeah, damn, 20 runs against the Rockies. Can we maybe spread those out over the course of the series? Right. But now this team is just consistently like, yeah, we're going to put up seven, eight, 12 runs a night. And it's pretty special to watch. Well, it felt like that a little bit there in the ninth inning.

when they scored those three runs that felt like, all right, you guys, we could, like, we could wrap this up now. We need to save a little bit of this offense for tomorrow and the rest of the series. But I think the idea there is we've kind of always wanted to see this team keep their foot on the gas. And we've seen it before where they score some big runs early, especially in the first inning. And then the offense kind of goes quiet for the rest of the game, allowing their opponent to come back, allowing it, even if they don't end up losing the game, allowing it to be much

closer than it should have been considering the circumstances. But now again, this was one of those, this is one of those games. They scored runs in the beginning, in the middle, and in the end, they scored runs all throughout this one. Yeah. I mean, and hopefully just we see this in the next couple of games because the Red Sox don't have a great pitching staff, right? Like the next, the next two pitchers coming up here are not, I mean, Tanner Howck, is that

what we decided that how we pronounced it? Yeah. Yeah. After our, oh, yeah. We butchered all those names. I think I called him Brayen when it's really just Brian. It's just Brian Bayo, which I should know, considering I have two L's in my last name. And it also makes the same sound.

You would think I would be more understanding about that. But I just butcher the entire end-offs starting picture. Yeah, right, exactly. As a Puerto Rican, I apologize for that. But it was also more fun to just say their names all sounded like Star Wars names, which if you mispronounce them, they definitely do. Yeah, Cutter Crawford. I mean, that's a Star Wars name.

It's still crazy. They spelled his first name with a K and his last name with a C. I still can't get over that. Yeah. I think it emphasizes how Zach Allen needs to be good tomorrow because it's been, we've seen too many starts where he hasn't been good recently. And he's going up against a pitcher who, by all accounts, he is better than, you know? And it would be absolutely huge for this team, clinch the series, get Zach Allen on the right

track tomorrow. And, you know, on paper, it should work out that way. But obviously with the way that he's been struggling recently, it's, it's been weird. Hopefully, Gowan shows up. Fernando drops my favorite curse word in Spanish punietta. Raphael says, how does Sean DePaz feel about the outcome of this game? That's a very important question. Do we know how Sean feels?

Well, apparently he was present at Fenway to see this ass kick and go down. I'm sure he's going to allege that he was on the Diamondback side. Did you see, did you see his fit to the game that he tweeted at me? No. He was wearing a Serpienti's jersey and a Red Sox hat. Oh, get out of here. Pick a goddamn side.

Just coward? Pick a side. Just yuck. I mean, that is just gross. Just have some self-respect. No wonder they beat the shit out of the Red Sox tonight. They deserved it. And it's Sean's fault, frankly.

it is Sean's fault. So I guess maybe we should thank him. To be fair, Sean said he wasn't actually going to the game like that. He only put that on Twitter to be inflammatory. But it was a funny little picture and reaction that we had there. I think he was rooting for the snakes. Could be wrong. Pretty sure.

I don't know. Charles Woodall Pikes says Sean to traitor. That's a good one. It's a good point. I will say this in regards to what you said about Zach Gallen. I'm very concerned about Gallen and Merrill Kelly. I would like to see them get back on track, you know, and I think that, again, as much as we, we're going to talk about Jordan Montgomery. We're going to talk about, you know, this starting rotation here in a moment. You know, he isn't the only one struggling as of late.

And we've seen Zach and Merrill both have some pretty bad outings lately. Again, Merrill, he just came back from a lengthy time off due to injury. So I think that's a little different. I'll give Merrill some more time. But Zach, there's still some concerns there. I was asked yesterday, like, what do I think, you know, is going on with him? And deep down inside, if I'm being honest, just speculating, I think that there's still something wrong with him that that he's hurt. He's injured.

He doesn't feel right, you know. And I think, like, of course, we know based on the way that players talk that that's constant. That is nothing new. I'm not even suggesting that it is. But it almost feels like there's something that's still keeping Zach a little off, a little, you know, know, maybe throwing his mechanics off slightly or something, especially considering that he's not. El Gaios says fast ball command. That's the key.

Especially getting ahead in the count, according to the article by Mr. Jesse Friedman. Yeah. And I think with Gowan, right, like it's, it's, there's a, you're right. Like, this is professional sports. Almost everybody's hurt. It's about, you know, hurt versus injured. That's like the age old debate. But I think that if the diamond backs were truly concerned about his, his, his.

you know, injury for lack of a better term or, or if there even is one, I feel like that they feel obviously pretty confident that he's going to be able to work himself out of that. Because otherwise, they would just shut him down. They don't mess with players' health. Like, they're not the type of organization to be just throwing people out there like that. So I think he's clearly healthy enough to be playing decent baseball. Otherwise, they wouldn't be playing him at all. We saw that.

I completely agree. Yeah. I completely agree. It's not that, but it's like what Catelle said, right? When Cotel, I brought this up, I keep bringing this up and apologize for doing so. But when Cotel got nominated to, you know, the All-Star game and was selected as a starter, he said that this was the first time he had played pain free in two years, right? And it's like, that's just one of those things.

We know Cattel's had a lot of little injuries in those two years. Yeah. But to hear him say that, like, to hear him say, like, it's the first time he's played pain free in two years. that's something significant. And that just goes to show how with the grueling season that these baseball players have to play, how much they have to play while they have little agonizing things that hurt them, right? I mean, I'm 43 years old.

I have agonizing things that hurt me every single day. Sitting in this chair that I'm sitting in right now for too long will hurt me, Damon. Doing this show causes me physical pain. Just go on a walk with Derek. The guy can, I mean, he'll say his ankle will start hurting eventually. I'll never quit though, right? You see me? I'll complain about how hot it is.

I'll hobble the whole way, but I will not stop. I'm not getting pulled out of the game. I'm not getting taken out of the game, right? And that's the thing is that sometimes, you know, you kind of need somebody to step in and say, maybe you should, like, actually do something about your ankle instead of just trying to, you know, live with it.

And, like, that's where I need a medical team, I guess, to interject between me and my playing time. But, alas, can't afford that. To your point earlier about Merrill Kelly, I think he, you're right. Like looking at his game log,

he obviously struggled against the raise. Six earned runs in five innings, not a good outing. No question about it. Yeah. But before that, he pitched against the Phillies and gave up two earned runs in five innings.

It's been two starts. So maybe it just feels like because of the way Zach's been pitching, it's making it us feel like, you know, with recent memory that Merrill has been worse than he has. Merrill Kelly still could be in a position where he is, you know, ready to go.

He had one bad game. So, you know, he deserves that benefit of the doubt. And, and. I completely agree. I'm just, I'm just saying it. It's, I, I'm excited. I'm, I guess I have some anxiety. But I, I want to see, you know, Zach and, and Merrill come out.

And, I mean, seeing those guys come out and have some good outings the next two days would be, uh, I guess kind of icing on the cake. of how good this team has been lately, right? And I mean, with the way this offense has been performing, these guys don't even need to be great. They don't go out, they don't need to go out there and, you know, just allow only one run run. They can make mistakes and they can still get away with it

with how good this offense has been. And of course, players obviously lie about their injuries, but I would never do so because I like to complain. But, of course, we know no matter how much players might lie, the numbers, they never lie. and I have tonight's number that doesn't lie that might just be a good interpretation of what the Diamondbacks have been doing in this month of August. That number that does not lie for tonight is 132. Damon, do you have any idea what this number is by chance?

I have no idea. This is the number of runs the Arizona Diamondbacks have scored in the month of August, which leads major league baseball. Do you know what the next closest is? I don't right now off the top of my head, Judah just like what's, I was only able to do theirs with the, with tonight's numbers,

but I can pull that for you. But let me tell you. That'd be pretty, I bet it's a pretty wide discrepancy. Or you know what? I bet you it's the Padres and then right after that, it's a pretty wide discrepancy. And then the Dodgers or something.

Yeah. Oh, man. But this team is. been so good. They've been so good and they continue to stay hot. Of course, the offense is something that I think we never expected it to be this good. Like we knew it would be better, but we also knew, you know, that they kind of got by last year. We were like, hey, maybe Jock can come and hit some home runs. We had no idea that Jock was going to be such a well-rounded hitter and be so good that he literally is like his, how good he is is rubbing off on Jake McCarthy in the locker

next to them. Yeah. Yeah, I don't really have much else on that. Sorry. Yeah, you got Gino. I also Gino. Gino is incredible. But of course, we will talk here in a little bit about that whole situation with Jordan Montgomery and Ryan Nelson in the starting rotation. But first, of course, we do want to let you guys know to check out the PHNX diehard membership. If you haven't done so already, make sure to get that membership that go PHNX.com. Get all sorts of wonderful benefits, including a free shirt from the PHNX locker. You get all of all of our content. You get access to all of Jesse's written content,

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So make sure to check that out. Also, stop by a Circle K right now. I know you're thirsty. I know this game left you parched. So make sure to grab yourself a polar pop or a foster for just 79 cents between now and September 3rd. We own a lot of time. I don't know what the price is going to do.

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On Circle K's already cheap gas. So go fill up your car with some gas. fill yourself up with a froster. Make sure you cool yourself down because, like I said earlier, it's still very hot outside. And acknowledge the fact that Circle K is America's thirst up. Also, speaking of it, still being very hot outside, it's very bright outside still. And, of course, if you live in Arizona, you still need yourself a solid pair of sunglasses. So make sure to check out Shady Rays and their wide variety of sunglasses.

They have hundreds of styles to choose from. They have blue light sunglasses. Look at Damon. I can't even pull those off. by the way. No, those, those don't look nearly as good on me as they do on Damon. And that's what happens with sunglasses, right? Sometimes you've got to find your style. I have my style right here. This is, this is more of my speed, right? And this is, see, these are two cool guys right here. Of course, these guys are made cooler by our Shady Ray sunglasses. And then that's the beautiful part about it.

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So make sure to get yourself. some shady rays. And exclusively for our listeners, Shady Raise is giving out the best deal of the season. Head to ShadyRase.com and use code PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the Shades rated five stars by over 300,000 people. And Damon, I'm ready to throw some shade. I am ready to throw some shade right now.

Actually, I'm not. I'm not mad at all. The Diamondbacks made the right call. I'm going to take these back off because there's no shade drawing. Please don't put the newspaper that I got mad. Yeah, please don't. Don't put in the newspaper I was mad because I'm not mad that the Diamondbacks are moving Jordan Montgomery to the bullpen. Ryan Nelson will stay in the starting rotation while Montgomery will be moved to the pen.

That announcement was made today. The news was broke by Steve Gilbert from MLB.com and of course our guy over at AZ Central, Nick Picoro. But Tori called it one of the hardest conversations he's ever had to have. And it's understandable, especially considering someone of Jordan Montgomery's staff. someone of his pedigree as a starting pitcher. And honestly, I think the thing that surprises all of us about this move is someone of his contract, right? Like, we know that the right move was to put Ryan Nelson in the starting rotation. I don't think there was any doubt about that.

But we knew that based on the obligation they've made, they kind of were in a position where they kind of had to do it. apparently tory wanted jordan to kind of process it today and then start working on how he can contribute out of the bullpen tomorrow but this is like a real thing where jordan montgomery who hasn't been a relief pitcher is going to have to kind of figure it out now figure out how to get loose with a significant less amount significantly less amount of time and how to still contribute to this team considering that he is being moved out of starting rotation yeah and i i love tory and I don't I'm not going to say that he's not being genuine when he says that because I think that this is the truth.

But I feel like every time Tori has like a difficult conversation, he comes to the media and he's like, that was the toughest conversation I've ever had in my entire life. Because because in the moment, it actually is like the guy, the guy really cares about the mental well-being, I think, of his players. And so whatever is the current situation is, is whatever is at the forefront of his mind. but it was the right decision. And, you know, I think the Diamondbacks have shown the last couple of seasons that they can be cutthroat with these kind of moves. They did it with Bumgarner, who wasn't necessarily, you know, like the easiest guy to get along with.

So I think that one might have been a little bit easier. But they've done it with sending, you know, Blaze and Alec down and Jake last year. And I mean, they're, they're they don't mess around with this stuff. Carson Kelly DFA, Nick Ahmed. So like there, it's, it's a it's a. As a fan, it's proof that they care first and foremost about winning baseball games. And it's hard to, you know, like really like it's, it's nice, it's a nice feeling as a fan because typically a small market franchise like the Diamondbacks, they wouldn't be the money

decisions. A lot of times outweigh those on-field decisions. But the Diamondbacks are proving that they don't care about that. They're willing to do what it takes. Michael in the chat says it's because Tori's job is on the line if he doesn't make those decisions. I mean, yes, but Tori's job is not on the line. Don't get it twisted. That's what I was going to say.

That's just what crazy fans think when they lose a baseball game and they think Tori should be fired. Like, Tori led this team that was way ahead of schedule to the World Series last year. And despite the fact that there's three dudes on Twitter that want to constantly tweet us and tell us how they got to the World Series in spite of Tori, not because of him. you're wrong. And it's because Tori's an excellent manager. And he does a great job with young talent. It's such a crazy take, right? He like,

no Tori's job. Every button right, the entire playoffs to get us there. Like, I mean, it was a managing master class in the postseason last year. And he's not perfect. He doesn't always make the right decisions.

We called them out today. We were like, hey, why is Kevin Ginkle pitching? Kind of seems like a weird move. Right. And people in the chat actually had good reasons. We didn't get a chance to like go to some of them,

but I think they said because Ginkle was already warming up when all of that, like when the sixth and seventh inning happened and everything kind of blew up. So yeah, it's understandable. Like you didn't know it was going to be a blowout at that point. You still wanted your high leverage guy in there to kind of hold a close game close. But, you know, that's it. Right.

In hindsight, a jackass like me and you can get on this show and be like, why didn't you use ginkle? Right. I mean, that's the way it is. Much easier to do that. Go try playing MLB the show, right? If you get one of those guys warming up, what you're supposed to sit him down now and bring another guy up? Do you have enough time for that?

Is your one guy's little meter going to run out before then? Like that's the way it kind of works in real life too. But I will say this is that in regards to the situation, I'm sure the front office was involved as well. I'm sure this decision wasn't entirely on Tory, especially considering the fact that they are spending $25 million a year on Jordan Montgomery and the fact that he has a player option for next year. There's things,

there's decisions that go beyond the manager. And in this case, this was the right decision, period, right? And honestly, Jordan Montgomery today spoke to the media, and he had a quote that if you kind of take a look at it, I mean, I don't know. It kind of sums up maybe how Jordan Montgomery feels about being here in Arizona altogether. Jordan Montgomery spoke to Mack. I believe it's Sorillo. It could be Sirrio, but Maxarillo of the Boston Herald.

And Jordan Montgomery said this in regards to his free agency. Obviously, Boris kind of butchered it. So I'm trying to move on from the offseason and try to forget it. Yeah, I mean, it's pretty, pretty frank and to the point, isn't it? Like, he's not. He's not. Right. He went, I mean, this directly addresses the reason why he moved on from Scott Boris as his agent.

And again, this is one of those situations where all things considered, you know, like this obviously is not something he's over. Right? I mean, you could also get a sense. Yeah, he's thinking about it a lot. You also get the sense that Jordan Montgomery seems to make a lot of excuses at times for things and doesn't really seem to be the kind of person. Really? That can just kind of put things behind them and move on, right? I haven't noticed that.

Chase Field's so hot and humid, Damon. I mean, it actually is. I'm going to back them up on that. The place is not great sometimes. And I work there. And it's baseball. It's hot and humid in a lot of places. A lot of places that don't have a roof and don't have air conditioning because they're in open park stadium, right?

Yeah. Like, yes, I don't want to get stuck on the humidity thing. I do want to get stuck on this, though. I want to get stuck on the fact that he is obviously like upset, right? And this is not, you know, an ideal situation for him. I don't even know what's going to, what the future is going to hold. The other day we were talking about this situation and I discussed moving him to the bullpen in a way that would upset him and maybe cause him to opt out of his player deal.

next year. And maybe that's the best for everybody, right? Maybe, maybe even though he might not make $25 million somewhere else, he might make $20 million a year for like three years somewhere else. I don't know. I don't know what his value is going to be. I'm sure there's going to be people believe in him. You take a look at his stats for his career and this is the worst of his career, right? Jordan Montgomery is a better pitcher than this period. He's just not pitching like that now. And the idea here is that the Diamondbacks cannot let the fact that they are paying him $25 million stand in the way of them winning baseball games now and possibly winning a championship now. And that money is spent regardless. That money is spent if he's fucking out there shoving or if he's not.

But luckily, they do have a guy that's shoving. They don't need Jordan Montgomery in the starting rotation because someone is pitching much better than him. And that is Ryan Nelson. When you talk about Ryan Nelson's numbers for this season, They may not be that great, but they're still better than Jordan Montgomery. As you're talking about, 95 innings pitched, a 6.44 ERA, a 4.57 FIP, a 315 opponent batting average, and 67 strikeouts for Jordan Montgomery. To Ryan Nelson's 124 innings pitched, a 435 ERA, a 3.62 FIP, a 271 opponent batting average, and 101 strikeouts, right? That's their season numbers.

But Damon, the last eight starts, the last eight starts are pretty damning. In the last eight starts, Jordan Montgomery has a 7.1-1 ERA. In the last eight starts, Ryan Nelson has a 2.73 ERA. Montgomery has 28 strikeouts to Nelson's 55. And when you talk about opponent batting average, 209 opponent batting average for Ryan Nelson to Jordan Montgomery's 325 opponent batting. average. Like, these two things are not the same. They're not the same. And there's no reason why when we are coming down the stretch, we are here on August 23rd. They, I believe they said

they have 32 games left to play. You can't fuck around and find out about Jordan Montgomery anymore. You have to go with the hot hand. You have to go with Ryan Nelson, right? The Diamondbacks have been very lucky about so many other things. But they have not been very lucky when it comes to acquiring starting pitchers through free agency. Lefties. That's probably the thing that they are snake-bitten the most about, right? So it sucks. And I think that the one thing that this team continues to do well

is to cut their losses on guys, no matter how important that guy is to them, either in the front office, they think that this is a key member of the franchise moving forward, or the fact they're spending $25 million on him this year, right? they are not letting anybody get in the way of them winning over the last two seasons. And that already got them to the World Series last year. And right now it got them another win tonight with Ryan Nelson on the mound.

And I feel like that was the best decision. It's just shocking that it was made because all of us thought at the end of the day that money was going to control this situation more than common sense. Yeah. I think with so I'm the type of guy where when it comes to, players answering questions i appreciate their honesty like i try not to go after an athlete who says something that that really like you know bothers the the the the masses when they's me and it's an answer that they don't like just because they were trying to be honest when they when they

answered that question sure yeah but in this circumstance to me this screams i'm not over it and i'm thinking about it all the time and and i think that there's something that to be said that maybe that's impacting his performance this season because I like he's going back to Boston he almost signed with the Red Sox on a longer term deal and Boris kind of you know blew it right but there's as an athlete in that situation I think it's a lot easier to just be like yeah it is what it is and you know I'm focused on trying to win baseball games with the current team that I'm on because we're contending to win a world series this year that's our aspiration and you know, he, he chose the other route of being like, yeah, my agent really screwed it up.

And I think it's just, it's obvious to me that this is where his mind is at. And it's, I get it. It's like, it's a lot of money. And it's, it's generational wealth. And he has a family and he wants to support them. So it's understandable. It's, he's a human. But it's at the same time, it's like, it's, it's, I think it, I'd be, I'd be lying to myself if I was saying that I didn't think it was.

impacting his performance at all. I'll say this, man. Really at the end of the day, I know there's probably a lot of teams that passed on giving him what Scott Boris was asking for. And we don't live in that reality to know what he would have pitched like had he got

that deal. We live in this reality, but there's probably a lot of teams that are like going when it comes to the thought that they were going to give him maybe five, six years and a whole shit ton of money to come to play for their team. And again, We don't know what he would have pitched like had that deal happen.

We don't know what his mental state would have been like. Maybe if he was happy, maybe if he was pitching in a place with less humidity and a better air conditioning system, maybe he would be, you know, absolutely killing it right now. But we live in this reality where Jordan Montgomery is now the highest paid reliever in Major League Baseball, surpassing Edwin Diaz's contract of $19.7 million with his $25 million deal. That's where we're at. But you know what, like I said, the money's been spent. You're invested either way.

So why not go for the player that's going to bring you the wins, no matter what their paycheck is rather than the guy that right now is just been struggling? And that's, you know, a 7.11 ERA in his last eight starts that does not play, as Jesse Friedman would probably say. No, it doesn't at all. It does not. But I got to give a shout out to Johnny Walker. Once again, one of my best friends since high school. Not entirely wrong.

Thank you for your super chat. Johnny says money ball 2.0. There are three statistical categories in baseball offense, pitching and defense. Debacks lead MLB and two. Defense not as sexy, perhaps, but look at the results. Lovolo Hayes in 2024.

Yeah. This team just values defense more than a lot of other organizations. And I think it's why, I mean, Blaze wasn't hitting, but I think it's why Blaze is, they're like they're just like they can't trust him on it from a defensive aspect and they like they they don't they don't want these guys in their lineup who are going to hurt them negatively in a defensive way but also i just need to say that drink responsibly people yeah he's not wrong he's not wrong did i say since high school that was probably pulling the curtain back

too much you did i that's the age of cogs don't listen to me don't let you age is 21 We are, I lived in a different age. Yeah, I did. Anyway, all right. Well, that's all I got. Johnny Walker again, thank you so much for your other super chat. He says, go debacks. I think we can all say go debacks on a night like this,

where they beat the Red Sox 12 to 2. Again, the most runs in franchise history that they've ever scored at Fenway. And we're not done. We got two more this weekend. So, of course, we will be back on Monday. I think there might be a certain guy with a beard that might return on Monday as well. might be Damon. It's definitely not Jesse.

That's for sure. It ain't Jesse. Jesse couldn't grow a beard. Jesse has the gin music. He's got the gin music. He's got that sweet, sweet gin music. But hit that like button

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We thank you guys so much for your time. We appreciate you stopping by. We will see you on Monday at 1 p.m. And until then, hope you have a great weekend. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's more fun when you make the right decisions to help your team win games. Let's go.