PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - The Arizona Diamondbacks can’t figure out Corbin Burnes and the Milwaukee Brewers in game two loss

Episode Date: April 12, 2023

A series of unfortunate events turned a Merrill Kelly gem into an Arizona Diamondbacks loss quickly in game two of this three game series with the Brew Crew. Corin Burnes was outstanding for Milwaukee and we may or may not have jinxed Merrill. We also discuss Zac Gallen being BAC in game one of this series and the Tampa Bay Rays being quite formidable this season.WATCH YOUR FAVORITE TEAMS HERE: www.fubotv.com/phnxSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.BetMGM: Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code PHNX (https://mediaserver.betmgmpartners.com/renderBanner.do?zoneId=1693757). Place a pre-game, moneyline wager in the amount of at least $10 on any market at standard odds price. You will receive $200 in Bonus Bets instantly regardless of the outcome of your wager! Just make sure you use bonus code PHNX when you sign up!Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (CO, DC, IL, IN, LA, MD, MS, NJ, OH, PA, TN, VA, WV, WY). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-327-5050 (MA)21+ to wager. Please Gamble Responsibly. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (KS, NV), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-270-7117 for confidential help (MI). Visit BetMGM.com for Terms & Conditions. US promotional offers not available in DC, Nevada, New York or Ontario.PHNX: Become a Diehard today! Check out https://phnxlocker.com/ to grab your membership to receive exclusive content, discounts on all events and merch, and access to our Discord chats. Circle K: Make sure you’re not missing out on all this great stuff, and be stocked all March Madness long! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Rotowire: Get your free trial and unlock all the best fantasy sports news and analysis at https://rotowire.com/phnxFour Peaks: Join us for our NFL Draft Day Live Party at Four Peaks’ 8th St. Pub. Register for free to receive drink specials: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/phnx-cardinals-nfl-draft-party-tickets-610031329127Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Roman: Go to https://ro.co/PHNX today to get 20% off your entire first order. 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

So that sucks. Welcome to another edition of the PHNX D-Vax podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, and I am not the person you're looking for. This might be the person you're looking for next to me. If you came with your pitchforks and your torches, he is. for now the mayor of this thing, because I'm not taking any responsibility for anything. It's the one and only mayor, PHNX,

Jesse Fried. Oh, you're calling me the mayor. Yeah, I'm giving you all the, you get all the responsibility. You've been the mayor every day up until now, but now that we're taking some black or something that I've become made. I tried to tell you guys, I tried to tell the entire press box and none of them would listen. But of course, welcome it to the PHNXDbacks podcast.

We are so thrilled to have you here. It's sad boy hours, of course, because the Arizona Diamondbacks lose to the Milwaukee Brewers by a score of 7 to 1 unless the Brewers scored more home runs that I don't know about late in that game. But 7 to 1 is the final score. Of course, we were very excited. We were riding on a high.

The Diamondbacks came into this game with a four-game winning streak, which now ends. But the Diamondbacks can still win the series in the finale tomorrow, which we do have some good news, not for Milwaukee, but some good news for the Diamondbacks as far as that matchup in Game 3 to discuss. But Merrill Kelly was very good tonight and I don't want to take anything away from him. Yeah. Also, the Arizona Diamondbacks apparently are the smallest team in Major League Baseball.

And tonight they did face off against the largest team in Major League Baseball. Heaviest. Heaviest. Heaviest. Heaviest. Heaviest. Heaviest team in baseball. Yeah.

I like, I like that just puts a little bit more slander on their name or whatever. but Merrill Kelly did have a no hitter going into the seventh inning tonight when things did fall apart for him. But what was that word? You just used Derek? What was that word? Merrill Kelly had a no hitter going into the seventh inning when everything fell apart. Yeah.

And so that that tweet, that that tweet that everyone seems to be up in arms about, you know what word it did not have in it? It made no mention of Merrill Kelly throwing a no hitter. Am I allowed to defend myself just for like a couple minutes before we talk about? about anything else. Jesse is clearly defensive about it. So again, no doubts here about who sent out that tweet. Please. The floor is yours before the jury.

I mean, you were never going to take the blame for that one. You didn't send out the tweet. So there's no sense to be trying to pawn it up on you. Let me set the scene here. We are in the press box. It is, I believe, the fifth inning. And all of these guys, Jake Anderson from Airs on a sports 9-8-7. Michael McDermott, Jesse Friedman.

They all start bip-bib-bip-in about the no-hitter stuff, right? And I tell them, all, shut up. I say, I say, if you want, if you don't want people to come for you tonight, do not tweet any of that stuff off. And then I left. And of course, what happens at that point is history. But what you don't understand, Derek, is this tweet did not have the word no-hitter in it.

For a very specific reason. In Justy's defense, it did not, yes. Every, like, I, I get it, right? You know, Steve Ruthium on the broadcast, he, he, he said the word no hitter a number of times. We're going to talk about that a little bit more later on. Our, our tweet did not, did not say that word at all. Our tweet simply said, it's been six innings, and Merrill Kelly has a pretty good thing going with the little eye emoji, right? It's safe.

It's fine. Everything's okay. And then suddenly we're getting people. coming for our heads on Twitter because Merrill Kelly's no-hitter, of course, ended shortly thereafter. And somehow we're the ones to blame for it, even though I strategically did not even use the word no-hitter. Apparently, that's still going too far,

which I find to be utterly ludicrous. But I digress. At no point should it ever make sense to you that the words coming out of our mouth or written on a little social media app for birds is, is ever going to actually change what happens in a baseball game. Wow, you're defending me now. I want you to listen to me. I don't, I hate defending Jesse.

You know I hate defending Jesse. Listen to me. If I could jinx this goddamn baseball team, I wouldn't even be here. I would have taken their opposition every single game. I would have bet the money line. And I would be living in Costa Rica right now. as a billionaire because if I was that certain I could jinx a team. Oh, man, I would be one of the best gamblers there is.

We can't tell the future that nobody can, whether they say they can or not. And I hate, you know I hate defending him. I also very much make sure that nobody, nobody beats him up. So that's also part of my job. But yes, no, nothing said in the press box or on Twitter actually caused Merrill Kelly to have what, I mean, honestly, it's still a great outing. And I don't want to take away from it because it really sucks for Merrill. That considering you gave up one hit in a baseball game, you get tagged with three earned because of the two walks that he had after that.

But he just had such a good game going. And if we want to accentuate the positives here, that's what we were looking for out of starting pitching. We talked about how good the bullpen has been. It was not very good tonight. but we have talked about how poor starting pitching has been and how these guys aren't getting very far, very deep in the games. And we saw in the first two games of this series, both Zach Gowan and Merrill Kelly get very deep.

And that's something, again, that's very encouraging because if the Diamondbacks are going to go on to do something special this season, it needs to have both of those guys involved. So I am not going to be smirched the good name of Merrill Kelly tonight because he had a fine outing. And I'm very encouraged. She just came up against a really, good starting pitcher in Corbyn Burns, to be honest.

Corbin Burns was incredible tonight. Corbin Burns was just outstanding. I mean, I've seen Corbyn Burns pitch a few times. I don't know if I've ever seen him quite this good. Yeah, he was really good, especially on the heels of a bad outing for his first outing of the year. Yeah, I mean, Corbyn Burns came in with an ERA over nine. And in some ways, you're like, oh, you know, he's been banged up a little bit.

Slow start to the season, right? That means the deep backs might be able to get something going here. on the other side and honestly the way I normally think of that sort of situation is shoot man like if a guy comes in with an er a over nine and he's that good there's no way you're actually going to get to him right because corbin bird is going to have an er a that high for very long right he's just way too good of a pitcher you know that if he has uh you know a bad outing or two to start the season he's going to bounce back and he did that in a huge way tonight honestly maybe could have gone the distance 89 pitches in eight innings i guess the brewer's had such a

big of a lead at that point, then maybe they just felt it wasn't worth it to push Corbyn Burns to try to get through nine innings. But he was good enough that he probably could have. I know it impacts the RA, but at the end of the day, a complete game shutout really is kind of a meaningless stat. I mean, I mean, I think it's meaningful. It's not a no-hitter, but it's meaningful, right? I guess what you're saying is if you're building a case for like a Sy Young or something like that, all of those kind of incredible outings are important. So yeah, you do want to chalk it up in that way. But I did pick Corbyn Burns to win the NL. Si Young Award. If you read our story from a couple weeks ago with all the preseason

predictions, Corbyn Burns was, yeah, apparently, yeah, just blame me for everything at this point. No, I'm not. I'm not. I'm just like I'm not going to let you guys blame him for, for the home run. The other thing with Merrill Kelly is he had 85 pitches after six innings. Yeah, he was not going to go. If we're being honest, after six innings, the no hitter's still going. There was a zero percent chance that Merrill Kelly was going to pitch a no-hitter. I mean, zero-zero percent chance even. And, yeah, I mean, unless he had three straight, like four or five pitch innings, that's

the only way. Merrill Kelly is not as stretched out as even some of the other deback starters because of what he went through with the WBC and having a short outing in the championship game and all that stuff. So he was probably dealing with a 95 to 100 pitch count limit in this game. Maybe Tori Lavella would have been willing to extend that a little bit if he was in the mix for a no-hitter. 1-0-0-5.

Yeah, maybe 105. But you're not going to throw three innings on 20 pitches with a team that is trying to intentionally knock you out of the game. That was never going to happen. And I think back to what Zach Gallen told us at one point about how meaningful a no hitter really is. And again, to each their own, just like what we were saying about a complete game shutout, right? It's not to say it's not to say it's meaningless. But should you really, should you really like potentially mess up your next start so that you can achieve? a complete game shutout, right?

And Merrill Kelly, or excuse me, Zach Gallen's thought on a no hitter was almost the same thing. Like a no hitter really isn't important enough that you should go 120 pitches and put your next start potentially in jeopardy over trying to get a no hitter because at least in his opinion, it wasn't really worth it. That's, yeah.

But he said he would go until his arm fell off for a perfect game. Exactly. Which is just, like, I mean, to us, both of those things are really incredible achievements. And I think any pitcher would be thrilled to get it. But it just goes to show how within with, within pitchers, there's a big difference between a no-hitter and a perfect game. Yeah, it's huge.

I mean, at this point, it feels like you have about, you know, two no-hitters or so every year. Whereas perfect games are still extraordinarily rare, right? I mean, there's been not that many in Major League history. You can count them on five hands, something like that. Something like that. It's a really odd way to put it. But that was the first thing that came to mind for me.

But yeah, perfect game. is exceptionally more rare than a no-hitter. I mean, we've seen some, we've seen a couple no-hitters in, in, in D-BAC's history, that were not so pretty, right? We saw the Edwin Jackson eight-walk no-hitter back in, I remember that one. 2002?

No, it wasn't that long ago. Somehow, I've, like, always known what year, I think it was 2010. I want to say it was June 25, 2010, if I'm not mistaken. And then, of course, we had the Tyler Gilbert no-hitter from a few years ago, when she had like three walks, but he gave up a whole lot of hard contact as we've talked about in the past.

We may have had a video. We may have, yeah, we may have made a video on that at some point. But anyway, the Diamondbacks really just didn't make Corbin Burns work though tonight. I mean,

that's one of the big things. Yeah. He, when you talk about Merrill Kelly, potentially going the distance and that no hitter and how unlikely it was, he was already 98 pitches

when he was pulled in the seventh inning. He wasn't going to go further. And then the bullpen just wasn't very good tonight. Castro was not very good couldn't get himself out of the jam that Kelly kind of started. And he gave up a whole bunch of runs. And also, you know, then a couple more dingers. So even if Merrill Kelly hadn't given up that home run and the two walks, chances are he would have been pulled probably after the seventh. And there's a good chance that we would be throwing up that bullpen meme, you know, for the way that they blew it.

Because Miguel Castro was going to give up a hit eventually. Right. I think he came into this game. I've literally allowed zero hits on the season, which is not particularly sustainable. So, yeah, I mean, Miguel Castro has been really, really good up to this point. So you kind of felt like some of these debaX relievers were maybe due for, you know, a not great outing. So yeah, Miguel Castro had had his first clunker in a debax uniform tonight. Jacobs Franklin asks, are we worried about Alec? Not particularly, but, you know, again, there's.

There's been more good, or I should say, there's been more bad than good with Alex so far this year. However, you know, I feel like we've seen at times him be very, very good. And I don't know. I mean, what are your thoughts? Because I don't blame Alec tonight considering that most guys on this team didn't have a hit. Yeah, everybody was pretty lost. This one was all on Alec Thomas. Yeah.

Even though most guys were 0 for 3 or 0 for 4. But yeah, I mean, there is some concern, I guess you could say. Yeah. I mean, we showed his baseball savant page on the show on Sunday, I think. And there's still a lot of red there, right? But, I mean, like watching Alec Thomas every day, you are still seeing a lot of the same things that we saw last year, right? It still feels like every other batted ball from him is a ground ball to the second baseman. And he's quick, but not quick enough to beat a routine ground ball to the second baseman, right?

So, yeah, I would say that I'm not overly concerned about Alec Thomas, but I also wouldn't say that I'm, sold that something is really changed. He wasn't that great of a hitter last year. He really burst onto the scene and it was good in the first couple months. And then things really faded for him down the stretch. I'm not sure we've necessarily seen Alec Thomas make the adjustments that you were hoping to see him make over the off season. He's not striking out.

He has, I think, one strikeout literally the entire season. But as far as like actually getting the ball in the air more, his ground ball rate has dropped a little bit, but you're still seeing a lot of the same. things on a day-to-day basis. So I think he's unlucky to be hitting 179, but I wouldn't say that he should be hitting 300 or 350, like maybe some of the baseball savon stuff would tell you. Or like what we saw with like Christian Walker, for instance, last season where it was just inexplicable. Yeah. Besides just bad luck. When you're so dependent on ground balls getting through, these kind of things are just going to happen, you know. He's just kind of hit a lot of them

right at guys. And it's going to be tough, even if you're fast, to beat in. of those things out. However, if you are not convinced up to this point that this is not Jesse's fault for the loss tonight, we have one more tweet to show you. And it comes from the aforementioned Jake Anderson. Jake wrote, uh, D-backs, he used, he used hashtag D-backs on top of the audacity. Hashtack D-Backs. Just so make sure you could find it in case you were just looking up the hashtag.

He wanted you to find his jinx. And he said, Merrill Kelly has a no-hitter through five. in parentheses, I do not believe in jinxes. Well, guess what, Jake? People do. Also, and I guess you could say something that's not really a jinx. The brewers have announced that Brandon Woodruff will be placed on the injured list. So the debacks do dodge a bullet in game three as far as that matchup goes.

Now what we have, according to the athletic, is a matchup between junk. And Jameson. That's incredible. That's, that's amazing. I mean, Jansen Junk. Are you kidding? That's an actual baseball player's name? That's not a made up name from a Ken Griffey Jr. video game.

That's not a, that's not a created player on MLB the show. That's an actual human being. I love it. He looks like someone you'd create in the show too. He does. That mustache is top notch. That's the top notch. Maybe their parents were big MLB the show players.

And they, and they did, what is it? called when you create your own player road to the show road to the show. They did a road to the show with a player named Jansen Junk that they just thought was hilarious. And they're like, this is it. We got to make a name of our kid back. Yep. And they changed their last name to junk in order to make it happen. I'm with it. I'm with it.

Dre Jameson, by the way, we spoke to him today. He has no idea what pitch count he will be on yet. Yeah, which is really interesting. He said that he's kind of been all over the place. So he's pitched as high as 66. Yep.

So, but that wasn't the most recent outing. So, you know, he's 26 in the most recent outing. Yeah, which is on four days rest. He's on four days. So you're like, all right, that's kind of a long time to sit out after throwing 26 pitches. So my guess is like 60-ish, something, something like that. I think he could maybe get you through four innings, maybe five if he's like super, super efficient. But, yeah, Tori Lavello and Ray Jamison himself have not really given us any concrete information on what that pitch count will be.

But the Diamondbacks can still win this season. in the finale tomorrow. We will be here with a postgame afterwards. So make sure to tune in here and keep it locked to the PHNXP YouTube channel. But before we move on, we're still not done with this whole Merrill Kelly, no-hitter situation. Jesse, it's time to throw some shade. Let's do it. Let's go some shade.

Big shout out to our friends, Shady Ray's. We have a sponsor for our throwing shade shades. And we are throwing shade at you, Steve, Matthew. That's right, because we took a lot of flak tonight. for you, pal. Our Twitter account was on fire. People just telling us to go F ourselves because of our tweet. And we all know.

We all know. You said it before we did. You said it before anybody did. You love saying it. I don't even understand it. You just have no consideration for any kind of jinks rules at all. And I kind of respect it, but I'm still throwing shade at you.

I love how we've like, we've said we do believe in jinxes, then we don't, and now we We absolutely. For this second, we do believe in it of Jesse. Ginks are very real for the next 15 seconds. We, and they're all Steve Perthume's fault. We do love Steve Ruthume around here, but let's face it. Speak for yourself. Well, we all must.

We do that here. But it has, he has made that kind of a thing, right? Oh, he loves doing it. That when there's, like, it's one thing when you're a broadcast, you have a no-hitter going. Maybe you say it once, you know, like you feel like if there are new people coming on to the broadcasts, You want them to be aware of what's happening. Maybe you slip it in every now and then. Steve or the same doesn't really do that.

Steve or the view just kind of lets them fly. No fuck too. And makes everyone incredibly angry while he's doing it. Yeah. I mean, he has guts for doing that, honestly. It's not like he's not aware of the kind of flack he's going to take. He does more guts than you for hiding behind the name of Twitter account. But still, Steve, this is on you.

This is not Merrill. It's not on Willie. It's not on anybody on the brewers that hit those dingers. It's all on you. So yeah, that's what we got. So we're done throwing shade now. All right, now we like Cerethians again. These wonderful sunglasses are brought to you by our friends at Shady Rays.

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And again, in today's world where you cannot necessarily try everything on that you buy on the internet, that is such a welcome thing. Also, Shady Rays offers the most insane protection in all of Iwear. every pair of sunglasses is backed by lost and broken replacements. And we always lose our, like, that's why, that's why we don't want to spend money on good sunglasses, right?

That's why we buy our sunglasses from the gas station, why we hit them in Circle K. It's no offense to the Circle K sunglasses, but it's like we're not spending all that money on premium sunglasses because I'm going to leave them somewhere and I'm going to lose them forever. And Jesse's smiling because he knows I really do that with everything. And he does it too. That laptop. He's lost that laptop before.

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thousand people. Wow, 50% off. That's pretty good off two plus pairs too, right? So make sure you grab yourself some pairs, grab some for yourself, for your loved ones. My wife is very mad that I didn't get her a pair of these and I am kind of unapologetic about them because I love them so much. I'm not sharing mine with her. She has to go, she can go use this coupon and buy them herself. But we thank you guys for being here. Welcome in to the PHN Export YouTube channel. If you haven't done so already, make sure to subscribe, sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss whenever we go live. Leave us a thumbs up because we love that. And we know it's a loss.

We know a lot of people don't want to come here and celebrate. But we're trying to offer the same pack therapy that the coyotes offer. So, you know, if you want to be here after a loss and be sad with us. Maybe you just full on branded their show around losses. I know. I know. I get it. But we don't want to go down that route yet. No.

Don't forget tank season was a very real thing for us. But if you're listening to us on your favorite audio podcasting app, Thank you for doing so. Please subscribe to us if you haven't done so already and leave us a review. More importantly, sign up today for a diehards membership because it is the best value in all of sports. Not only do you get access to Jesse's newsletter full count and all the newsletters, all the content from go phnx.com. You also get access to our members-only Discord lounge. You get access to members-only merchandise.

You get discounts from our partners that are exclusive, including a $50 gift card upon signing up for Mountain Mike. that pretty much pays for the whole membership in itself. But if that didn't pay for it in itself, you also get a free piece of merch from the PHNXLocker.com and 20% off all future purchases. So sign up today and become a diehard. Join our family. And we got a big thing going on.

I know you guys have heard about it, but we got our D-BACs takeover season pass this year. We are offering you guys a wonderful variety of six games for you to join us. Not only do you get six PHNXDBACs, takeover tickets you also get this wonderful uh shirt from the from the phnx uh locker it's are always sunny in the valley shirt the vibes are really literally literally true it really is pretty much always sunny in the valley so hot today like i want to apologize now for every tweet i sent about the cold weather jesse about every every tweet i sent about going out uh too early or not starting the

day because it was too cold i i wish those days were back here but still had the roof open though They did. And they still have it open tomorrow, I believe, too. And it was a beautiful, like the weather was really nice inside, even though it was very hot outside. So, uh, and we are doing snake facts now in the, um, in the, in the, in the chat. And I appreciate that. It was, you said pack therapy. So they're trying to come up with.

Oh, what is a group of snakes? It's nest therapy. Are we a nest? We're a bed, a bed of snakes, a den of snakes. I like, I don't know. Viper pit. Viper pit. I don't know, something. We'll have to figure that out.

Ryan asks, how was the, I am guessing, Sonoran dog, ding, ding, ding, you hit that 100% correctly. It was delicious. And I will say this, I will go on record as saying, I'm not a fan of mustard. It's not to say I won't eat it. I'm not opposed to it. I'm just not a huge mustard fan. That thing had a ton of mustard on it, and it was great. It was delicious.

I still don't know how you eat something like that in a seat while watching a baseball game. I had a table in front of me. Jesse watched me. I got it all over my computer. I got it all over everywhere. It was everywhere. And I had a plate. I had a knife to cut it in half.

It's a mess. So good luck eating that while you're sitting in a seat. But of course, I hope that you do that while sitting with us at these takeover games because we're going to have an absolute blast. And we are very much looking forward to hanging out with all you guys at some baseball games. Get this guy out of the press box.

It's very hard to remove him from the press box. He likes it up there a lot. It's called having work to do, Gary. Yeah, well, you know, I go on. I had tweets to send. All right. Yeah. You remember those.

Game one, much better of a game than game two, obviously. Zach Gallen is in fact back gallon because he is back. His curve ball was as good as we've seen him throw it. And again, when you talk about the success of this team, much of this success is contingent on Zach Gallen being as good as we've seen him in the past, being the 8th. for this team. And man, against a very good Brewer's team that came in

very hot, Zach Gallen, sat him down. And I think he took advantage of their aggressiveness with that curve ball because, man,

he was dealing with that thing. Yeah, 10 whiffs on the curveball, 17 whiffs overall in the game, which is a very, very high number. It was really impressive. And honestly,

like, these two games, right, you had a nice high yesterday with the wind behind Zach Gallen, kind of a low, today with Merrill Kelly's what was a really dominant outing from Merrill Kelly

kind of souring there toward the end. My biggest takeaway from the last two games is that Zach Allen and Merrill Kelly are totally fine. They're going to be totally fine. I agree with that. The first two starts that both of those guys made not good. Merrill Kelly came in with a 386 CRA into the game today, but he was not pitching at that level.

He had as many walks as strikeouts coming in to this game. And he still had four walks when this game. was all set and done as well. But you saw Merrill just really deep in his bag in this one. The curve ball was really good. He threw a number of really good changeups as well. And Zach Gallen yesterday was, I want to say like vintage Zach Gallen, but I mean, he's not that old. And it feels weird to use that word with him.

Totally. But yeah, he was really good. The curve ball was outstanding. He threw a lot of good changeups in that game as well, which is a pitch that's kind of come and gone. for him over the last couple of years. Those two guys are going to be just fine. And that's huge. That's huge.

In the first 10 games, you had that six and four start. You felt really good. But in the back of your head, there was this question, like, in order for the debacks to actually be a good team, they need Zach Allen and Merrill Kelly to be the kind of pitchers they were last year. And these last two games, I think were there. I think those guys are going to be just fine this season. I think somebody in the chat asked, Tyler, said, take over a game when I'm sorry,

I didn't get to you guys, get you guys this information. They might need to know when. April 25th is going to be the first game. It's Tuesday, April 25th, against Kansas City Royals at 640. We also have a game against the Giants on May 11th, June 3rd against the Braves, July 25th against the St. Louis Cardinals, August 12th against the Padres, and the final game on September 5th against the Colorado Rockies. So if you go to our Twitter account, you can click on the link for that.

will take you to an event, event bright page that has all the information for the event, and you can purchase your tickets there as well. So make sure to join us. There are some good seats, some good games. We kind of like shift around, if I'm not mistaken. There's a few different sections that you can sit in, but all of them are pretty darn good seats. So you're getting your money's worth. And you also get that T-shirt as well as part of that package.

And I think we're planning some festivities pregame for some of those takeovers. So make sure to join us for that. going to have a blast out there for that. But back back to everything you were saying. And honestly, when it comes to the Arizona Diamondbacks and their pitching staff, like there, there are a lot of encouraging things here. And so far, like we've said, prior, prior to these two games, we had said, if we could get Merrill Kelly back on track, if we could get Zach Gallen with this team finding a way to win, they're, they're going to look really good. Tonight wasn't the best example of that, obviously. But tonight, the Diamondbacks just went up against one of the best pitchers in baseball. Yeah.

on one of his best nights that he's had so far this season, right? So, like, you just, you're going to run into that. Not every single night is going to be a win. However, you know, I think that the tonight showed that even in a pitcher's duel, all of a sudden, things can fall apart because this game is not near, was not nearly as far, you know, of a, of a win. It's a lot closer than seven to one. It really was. It really was.

I mean, it looks bad now, but it was a pitcher's duel. for most of the game and it was pretty exciting to watch. Now, yeah, Merrill was going toe to toe with Corbyn Perns for six itings. Like that in itself is pretty dang impressive despite how this game ended. And I don't want to be too reactionary about the bullpen

because we were just singing their praises 24 hours ago. This team or this bullpen was incredible. The way that they came into that game after Zach Gallen left and just kind of effortlessly closed it out without any drama, without any excitement. They just did their thing and the game was over. And it was a three nothing. win and I was kind of shocked that that's how it ended right because again this this this you know this

brewer's team is pretty good I was expecting maybe a little bit more of a fight there at the end but I also think I'm just kind of predisposed to thinking the bullpen is going to blow it so when when things kind of just ended you know kind of just routinely I didn't really know what to think about that I mean it just goes to show that this bullpen is much different than last years it's still going to have its bad nights like tonight. Like again, we've, we've, we've, we've blamed everybody tonight so far it feels like. But to be honest, had Merrill Kelly gotten through the seventh, Miguel Castro wasn't very good, uh, you know, you, you had a couple of runs given up here and there. And considering how good Corbyn Burns was tonight, it didn't really matter. One, one single run was

going to be the difference maker in tonight's game with the Diamondbacks offense, not being able to really do much. I'm not super concerned about it either, to be honest, because it was just, just Corbyn Burns, I think, having a good night. I don't think this is like now something new to panic about. One thing I am a little concerned about that I'm sure we'll resolve over time to some degree, but this is a pretty mind-blowing stat. Entering today, and I'm pretty sure it's still the same way after this game, the Diamondbacks had the lowest walk rate in baseball as an offense.

And also entering today, Diamondbacks pitchers had the highest walk rate in baseball. And today, the debacks walked five guys, and they only drew one walk. So I'm pretty sure these stats are going to hold after this game, maybe even get worse than they already were. That's a problem. Debacks hitters have not been patient whatsoever this season. I know there was one game. I think it was against the Padres where they drew seven walks. Outside of that, the debacks have walked like zero or one times.

It's felt like in pretty much every single game that they've played. Corbyn Burns only had three innings tonight where he had to pitch, throw more than 10 pitches. That's a problem. That's a big problem. I mean, he was pounding the strike zone. Like, part of that is just Corbyn Burns is just outstanding today. But the season as a whole, the debacks have a walk rate of 5.2%.

League average is usually around 8 or 9%. So that's roughly half of the league average walk rate that the Diamondbacks have had this season. And they have some guys who haven't drawn a walk all season. Gabby Moreno, I don't believe, has walked yet, although he did have a good game. He will never walk. I swear to God. He is a swing first.

guy. He swings it every day. For sure. Corbyn Carroll has also not drawn a walk at this point in the season. I think Kattel has one walk. So there's some guys who, you know, you don't want to go to the plate trying to walk. I'm not saying anyone should be doing that. But a little bit more of a disciplined patient approach would help. And would maybe it's help today to try to drive up Corbyn's pitch counter. That's the bigger thing. The Diamondbacks have already seen the success they can have if they get against a team's bullpen. The Brewers have a very good bullpen. So they're not. they're not exactly the Dodgers with the way the Diamondbacks were able to to kind of exploit that weakness from the Dodgers. But it was the same thing with the Dodgers. The Dodgers outwalk them, I think, like 20 to 1 or something crazy in that first four-game series. Like the Diamondbacks just have not been patient. And what it's translated over to is every single starting pitcher with the exception

of maybe two looking like studs against this team. Like they're allowing opposing starting pitchers to go deep. deep in the games with low pitch counts and allowing them to hang around and just not not putting that pressure back on on the start on the starting pitcher right and I don't know I don't know what the answer is I think it's ironic because last year when the diamondbacks weren't doing very many things well drawing walks was the one thing they were incredible at they led the league for a considerable amount of the start of last season it did walks and they were walking way too much they were walking too much they were being too patient because they were we criticized the fact that they were just

standing there with the bat on their shoulders, you know, far too often, right? But the Diamondbacks did have some visitors, and that was something that might get them pumped up. Some guys that are headed to the playoffs themselves that might encourage the Diamondbacks to maybe try to do something similar. Phoenix Suns were in the house,

and of course the big story was that Kevin Durant was not only there, present, wearing a bucket hat that looked extraordinary, but he was also wearing a Corbyn Carroll jersey, which got everybody, everybody geeked up. I think there wasn't a single person that wasn't excited about this within the organization, fans, teammates, everybody was excited about it. But nobody as excited about it as Corbyn himself.

When did you first realize he was over there wearing that? Someone said it in maybe like the third inning. So I gave him a peek. What was your reaction when you realized? Yeah, he really is wearing my jersey. It's pretty cool. Have you ever talked to him? Did you talk to him tonight? No, no, yeah.

A little surreal to see somebody like that wearing your jersey? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, literally, you know, seven-year-old Corbyn, right? Going and watching him and for, you know, him to be there, like, watching us. That was pretty cool. It's cool to see just a team here in the Valley kind of coming out and supporting you guys as well as a whole. Yeah, absolutely. I think campaign was kind of the first one there, right? And he's been awesome to us.

And, you know, I think we just, we always appreciate that support and, you know, try and reciprocate because they've got a very fun team as well. Tori loved this, by the way. And obviously Corbyn loved it. By the way, doing the math back on it based on Corbyn's age and going back to when he was seven would have been the year that Kevin Durant was in fact drafted by the Seattle Sonics before they moved to Oklahoma City. So to think about young Corbyn Carroll watching Kevin Durant and Noah, it's kind of like

McHale. It's kind of like McHale Bridges getting traded for Kevin Durant than being asked who his favorite player growing up was. The other incredible part of this story that you might have noticed in that video that Corbyn Carroll is wearing a like a long sleeve son's shirt. And he didn't just put that on after the game was over because Kevin Durant was there. He literally wore that to the game. Yes, which is wild.

I mean, we've seen Corbyn Carroll in the clubhouse a lot. I've never once seen him wearing a Phoenix Sun's shirt. So pretty insane how the stars just kind of aligned yesterday with Kevin Durant in the house. And then Tori Lavello had some things to say about the sun showing up and the support that they had for this team. Yeah, yeah. It was awesome. I didn't know they were there until about the seventh inning. And then I got a little starstruck myself.

I went over there and sent a load of them before the game, before I came back in after the game. And Campaign is a big fan. It looks like Katie's turning into a big Corp McCarroll fan. But I don't think there's anything cooler than that than you have one of the greatest basketball players of all time putting on your jersey. Yeah. That never.

He finished that. off was saying that never gets old. Tori also said he tried to make his way over to KD, and he kind of got into a conversation with Cam, and then he watched Katie walk away. And like, you almost like, like, no, come back. Well, it's because he was recruiting campaign. He was recruiting campaign.

Clearly, the D-backs have a plan behind the scenes to use campaign as a pinch runner of sorts late in games. I don't know. It obviously worked out for Michael Jordan, right? Yeah, right, Jordan switching for basketball to baseball, so why not for campaign? I also love the fact that Tori Lavallo made it very clear in today's press conference that he is looking for an invite to come shoot around at the Suns.

They asked him because the Diamondbacks tend to have a lot of guys come out from different teams, right? We've seen Cardinals players. We've seen Sun's players. Coyotes players. They've all come out, take some BP. But, you know, like they were asking Tori, you know, like what would he like to come out and shoot some jumpers? and he made it more than clear that they have not been invited, but he would love an invite.

And then I think he said that his jumper was sick, which is pretty incredible. But anyway, it's just, it's a lot of love going on. And I think right now it's a special time for sports here. The diamondbacks are building on something. So it's, it's a bit encouraging.

It's a bit nice to have the guys that are, you know, are being looked at as the actual, you know, championship contenders here in the valley coming over and giving their support to another team that you know honestly nobody really knows how good this diamond backs team can be that's the one thing exciting about i have i have so many questions about the situation honestly that i i can't really get answered myself uh maybe maybe we can get gerald borgay our son's beatwriter to to go ask

some questions about this i want to know like did kevin durant know like how much does kevin durant know about the Diamondbacks. And does Kevin Durant know a lot about Corbyn Carroll in particular? Or was it a situation where he was going to the game, he wanted to wear something, and he just kind of asked someone, like, all right, which jersey, like, whose jersey should I wear? And someone else, like, hey, you should wear a Corbyn Carroll jersey. I'm curious, like, how dialed in to the Arizona Diamondbacks is Kevin Durant?

He literally was traded here like a month ago. I don't know how big of a baseball fan Kevin Durant even is. Put on your tinfoil hat. There we go get Espo's tin pole hat because this is related to Espo. Espo showed up in the office the same day with a Corbin Carroll Serpientish jersey. Interesting. Now, I know it's not the same jersey that he was wearing because if I'm not mistaken. Are we sure?

No, Durant was wearing a black. Yeah, he was. It was black. Yeah, it was in the Serpientis one. I'm going to say Espo had something to do with this. I don't know what. I don't know what role he played in it, but it can't be coincident. It can't be coincidence, Jesse.

That Espo shows up here with a Corbyn-Carroll jersey. The same day Kevin Durant does, the same day that my Kevin Durant jersey shows up in the mail to me, feels like a conspiracy. There's a lot of things. There's a lot of things going on there. There's definitely a lot of loose ends to take care of there. But I'll tell you, one thing, I'll take care of one loose end for you.

And that is getting tickets to an Arizona Diamondbacks game. Yes, we have the takeover. And yes, we want you to come party with us. but we also know sometimes you can't make those kind of commitments. Sometimes you don't know where you're going to be, but maybe you find out on the day of the takeover game that you can go. And you want to get tickets last minute. And of course, the best place to do that is with our friends at game time.

It is the the place for last minute ticket deals and is the fastest growing ticket app in the country for a reason. Snag the tickets without stress with game time. Download the game time app. Create an account. Use code P.HNX. And you will get $20 off. your first purchase. In some cases, that might pay for the entire damn ticket.

Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code PHNX for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. And also, if you want to have some fun fun with your family this summer, which it's heating up, it's getting here fast. I know my daughter doesn't have a lot of days left in school. Head out to Octane Raceway and Mavericks.

There's so much fun to be had out there. You can, if you went to watch the Super Mario Bros. movie and you want to do the Mario Kart thing in real life, Octane Raceway is a place to do it. They have carts. Jacob for being as tall as he is, I still don't understand why he was so good at that. But Jacob was very good at racing go-carts. I'm just surprised when Jacob is good at anything, you know? Do you want, hold on.

Do you want to say that again wearing these? No, okay. I love you, Jacob. That just felt right. Let's go. Jacob, take him to Octane Raceway and beat him in car racing. They also have bowling and all sorts of other stuff. Great stuff to be had at Mavericks. All sorts of daily specials as well.

Tomorrow, winning Wednesday, half-price arcade games all day. So it's a great day to go out there. They also have big bucket Thursday, $20 beer buckets. Trivia night on Friday and then Saturday and Sunday, 50% off signature bowling before noon. He still won't acknowledge my bowling win, but I did beat him. books and fun this spring at Octane Raceway and Mavericks. Cart racing, virtual reality, laser tag, ax throwing bowling, arcade games, great food

and drink, so much more. You can watch all of the sports this summer at Mavericks. Don't miss the NBA playoffs over at Mavericks in the Trophy Room and patio. You can get a free $10 game card when you purchase an entree in the trophy room. Check out Octane Raceway.com and Mavericks.com to learn more. We did have some updates from around the league before we go. I know we talk about the Arizona Diamondbacks quite a bit on this show, kind of a thing we have to do.

But as I like to call them, our sister team over there in Tampa Bay, they're doing some good things, Jesse. Yeah. They remain undefeated this season. Talk about excitement. I can only imagine the team being undefeated. They have tied the 2,000 St. Louis Cardinals for the most home runs through the first 11 games played outscoring their opponents, 83 to 20.

so far. My God. Not bad. Not bad. Yeah, they're plus 63. That's their run differential right now. And no other team in baseball is higher than plus 27. My God.

So they've doubled up the next, more than doubled up the next highest run differential in baseball. I don't know if it fully counts when the teams you've played so far are the A's, the Detroit Tigers, the Washington Nationals. Wow. And I think today it was the Boston Red Sox. Yeah, it's definitely no, uh, not, not the best. It's definitely eight games against the Dodgers and two games against the Padres.

Debacks have had. Dbacks have had, I believe the hardest schedule in baseball up to this point. So big difference there. But yeah, at the same time, I hate it when people are like, oh, like we brush it off completely. It means nothing. Sure. They're playing such bad teams. Like anytime a team goes 11 and 0 and outscores their team by 63 to start the season,

that that's, that's pretty. compelling. I don't care which team you're playing. Those are major league baseball teams. And the way this sport works, we've talked about it a lot, right? Like if you're way better than the team you're playing, that doesn't mean you're going to sweep them every time, right? That's not really how baseball works. So any, any kind of 11 and 0 stretch is is incredibly impressive. And not just that, but I mean, the rays are doing it with a lot of home runs. They hit a lot of home runs and they don't allow a lot of runs on their end. And I mean, we were watching, you know, MLB network who kind of cuts in anytime a home run is hit in an active game. And it, it felt like every time

they were cutting away was back to the race game for another raise home run. It's just kind of wild to me. Uh, 11, uh, they, they have 11 straight wins to start the year with 10 of those by four plus runs. Yeah. MLB record 29 home runs in the first 11 games and a 32 inning scoreless streak with four shutouts. Now, yes, it is against teams that aren't, you know, aren't the best teams in baseball, but I am not going to for a second, like, undercut that achievement because that is incredible. We talk about the Diamondbacks wanting to get on some sort of like role, you know, that's a role. That's a thing that makes you believe not only now, but potentially for the rest of the season, that you guys are really that good, even if it is against lesser opponents, right?

But the Diamondbacks still have had, you know, like we've said, they've had their fair share of pretty good opposition, including these Milwaukee brewers. Yeah, yeah, they absolutely have. I think according to baseball reference, they have like a little strength of schedule calculator thing. And they had the debacks, at least entering today, is having the most difficult schedule by far in baseball. So I know this game was a bit of a downer, but seven and five to open the year is still incredible. through 12 games. And tomorrow you've got Dre Jameson on the mound

against Jansen Junk coming up from from AAA for the Brewer. So that game also became quite a bit more winnable than, you know, with 0.79 ERA Brandon Woodruff out there

on the mound for Milwaukee. So yeah, I think you still got to be feeling pretty good if you're the debacks. There are some teams in the National League that maybe aren't feeling so good though, Derek. New York Mets come to mind. I'm not going to, I don't think six and six is alarming.

And they're not really hitting the ball. They have 46 runs over 12 games. That's under four runs per game. If you look at their lineup, honestly, it's not as formidable as kind of what I had in my head. I guess I had Carlos Correa sort of penciled in there at one point. And him not being there is like, oh, yeah, that did happen. Right.

Carlos Corre does a play for the Mets. So, so yeah, it's not, it's not as good of a team as maybe you would think it is based on how much money they spent over the offseason. Another team that spent some money this off season, the Phillies have not been very good. They've been actually quite bad. Four and seven with a minus 14 run differential. But if you want to talk about good things for the Diamondbacks coming up,

the Miami Marlins have been one of the worst teams in baseball. They're five and seven, but their run differential is terrible. They've scored 38 runs and they've allowed 65 through 12 games. So things haven't been great for the Miami Marlins. jazz on the cover of MLB the show. There you go. That's what I'm saying. I'm not at all petty and bitter about that. But the Diamondbacks definitely have some, you know,

winnable games. Like things have changed. Imagine that. Things have changed, right? Because the St. Louis Cardinals, not very good this year right now, at least. Their pitching has been quite bad in the Marlins. So, like, some of the teams that the Diamondbacks kind of had on the schedule coming up that were going to be a bit, you know, of a headache for them,

maybe not so much anymore, right? They still have the Padres before the end of this month, but once they kind of get out of the month of April, then things actually... Yeah, pretty dang easy. Yeah, get easy for a while there. But who knows how this month plays out? Jesse's already trying to figure out what the magic number is for me to dye my hair.

Don't like that. I don't like that. He was doing way too much work into it. He was trying to calculate days and games and how close we are now. but the other thing, cat with the Arizona Diamondbacks. She's one of their PR people. And I adore her.

But she just suggested that I dye my beard. And I don't know if I adore her so much now after that. I feel like that was direct shots being fired at the whiteness of my beard. I know how gray my beard is. I know how gray my hair is. Have you looked at your mirror? I looked at the mirror. I look every single day and it just grows more disappointing every day.

You might want to think about dying at any color at this point. That's the problem here. That's the problem. I was a young, healthy man before I started this job, before I started covering this team for PHNX. And now look at me. Look at what's happened to me working with Jesse Friedman. I'm withering away.

I am going to look 80 years old by midpoint of next season. And I don't even know how to stop it. You did tweet this morning for the record about how happy you were and you weren't sure why. This is not connected to my aging process that has sped up significantly ever since I started working with all of these young people here. They all make me feel so old and I think they're all making me older every single day. Oh, man, but I love them. And I still stop at Circle K and buy Jesse drinks and things when he needs. I make sure I take care of him.

Circle K takes care of us. They make sure we have all that we need. But you can stock up not only for baseball season, but for a big summer. ahead at Circle K. They got their polar pops, which stay cold longer. They have iced coffee for just $1.89. Forget paying $5 for your ice coffee. Go get it for $1.89 at Circle K. Red Bulls and monsters on sale, cheaper than you can get in most places. He also got 12 packs of beer for just $9.99. So make sure you're not missing out on all of this great stuff, including the snacks and the candy. Head to circlek.com slash store locator. That's circlek.com slash store dash locator.

to find Circle K's near you, and you know where they are. They're all over the valley. Of course, also while you're at Circle K, grab our friends from Fort Peaks Beer, Four Peaks Brewing Company, local Arizona Brewing Company, great beer. Make sure that you get some wherever. They have a wide variety, but wherever you get your beer, make sure to grab some.

Try their 8th Street Pub. They have the best chicken tendees everywhere, of anywhere. And like we told you, they give you entirely too many chicken tenders. But you can follow Four Peaks at Four Peaks Brew on social media. You can also join us for the NFL draft on April 27th. They will have NFL draft beer specials, including $3 red beer loggers,

pints, $5 red beer logger pitchers, and of course, our usual PHNX specials of our $3 kilt lifters and wow pints. The best place to take in the NFL draft on April 27th is at the Four Peaks 8th Street Pub with your favorite degenerates from PHNX. Register for free in the link in our show notes to take advantage of those beer specials

Must be 21 years or older to enjoy and enjoy responsibly. Well, we got one more game in the series, so we will be back tomorrow with a post-series wrap-up and looking ahead at that next series with the Marlins who have not been very good. But you can follow us on Twitter in the meantime, mostly just to yell at Jesse for jinxing Merrill Kelly. I'm at cap underscore K-man with a K remember I was not the one that tweeted that out. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. You're really waffling back and forward between. defending me and attacking me.

Look, I'm defending you, but I'm also making sure blame is placed with the right person on this set. It's not Damon. It's not me. So it only leaves one of us. But you can follow that account at PHNX underscore Dbacks that gets us into all sorts of trouble. Of course, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Our producer, Damon, by the way, is at Damon Dog, D.AWG. Make sure to follow him as well.

We thank you guys so much for being here even after a loss. We love you guys. Jesse has his figure up. I have one thing to say. I did the math. Let's go. The debacks have 17 games remaining in the month. They have to go eight and nine in order to finish above 500 in the month of April.

So we are eight Diamondbacks wins in April away from Derek Montia dying not only his hair purple, but potentially. Jesse wants to be done my beard teal. No, that's not happening. That's like a part's not happening. I'm going to try my best to just back out of the purple as much as possible. But what if instead of one game over 500, they're three games over 500. Would you do it then? I will see your three games over 500 and I will raise you five games over 500.

Okay. Or the teal beard. All right. That's a little far-fetched. But all right, all right. I won't make them work for it. You make them work for it. You make you guys work for it.

No, no, you got to make the debacks work for it. Give them bulletin board material. Whatever, I don't care. But of course, we thank you guys for being here on behalf of Jesse, Damon, and myself. We appreciate your time. We appreciate your love of the Arizona Diamondbacks. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when I have to dye my hair purple.