PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - The Diamondbacks bullpen blows up again in series finale loss to the Phillies

Episode Date: May 24, 2023

The Arizona Diamondbacks snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory in their series finale loss to the Philadelphia Phillies. We discuss the bullpen blowing up again. D-backs being unable to hit with runners is scoring position, and why Arizona can’t complete a sweep in 2023.WATCH YOUR FAVORITE TEAMS HERE: https://www.fubotv.com/phnx SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to the Keepin’ it 100 Golf Scramble, D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Manscaped: Save 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code “PHNX” at Manscaped.com. BetMGM: Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code PHNX (betmgm.com/phnx). 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.Pins & Aces: Check out pinsandaces.com and use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping.Circle K: Text PHNX to 31310 to join the Circle K SMS subscriber club and get BOGO 32 oz Polar Pops! 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.Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. 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.

Well, hello and welcome to disappointment. My name is Derek Montaia right here on the PHNXD Back show, occasionally known as your mayor of disappointment. This is my vice mayor of disappointment, also known as Thundersad, Jesse Fried. Well, we talked yesterday about how the bullpen bent, but didn't break. Today, today it broke, David. Today it broke. And the Diamondbacks remain broken with runners in scoring positions.

And I am broken. There's also that. I am broken. I'm absolutely broken by this game. For those of you that joined us for a watch-along, Jesse and I did not pee for a very long time. And we did that in hopes of the way. I went the entire walk-along game. He didn't even move from his chair a whole time.

I did not take a bathroom break for three and a half hours. Jesse is an absolute robot when it comes to watching baseball. And we could use him out there because the Diamondbacks not so good today. We will start, though, with saying we were worried very much so that we were going to curse Zach Gallen. And Zach Gallen did not blow up. He did not have a bad day. He didn't have a great day, but Zach Gallen was still effective, even when you could tell Zach Gallen still wasn't Zach Gallen.

He wasn't. Yeah, this was another day for Zach Gallen where he was kind of fighting through things. And today the curveball seemed to be a little bit more there for him than it's been in his last few starts. But he was using it a lot. Yeah, he threw some good ones. But yeah, he didn't really have much else going for him. There were some good cutters thrown in from time to time. the change up. It just continues to not really be an effective outpitch for him as it's been over the

last few weeks. So yeah, Zach Gallen continues to be kind of fighting through some of this, this situation where he just doesn't really have his best stuff. And he hasn't for a while. And kudos to him today. The debacks did not lose this game because of Zach Gallen. Correct. He theoretically could have escaped this game without giving up any runs if Kevin Ginkle had been able to to strand those two that he left on base in the sixth inning. So yeah, overall, not a great outing from Zach Gowan, but he was the least of the D-Back's problems in this game. Five and two-thirds innings, five hits, two runs, two earned because Ginkle did come in and

couldn't get Zach Gowan out of the jam, two walks and three strikeouts. If we want to talk about things that we are concerned about is the three strikeouts for Zach Gowan, you know, obviously. It's pretty weird. Two walks. Even that's kind of uncommon. for him because we know about how long he went without giving up any walks. But that's not, that's not, you know, a concern as much as really the three strikeouts and

the fact that Zach Allen didn't have much today that he could put anybody away with. Yeah, he really didn't. That just sort of continues to be the case for him. And in this game altogether, he had nine whiffs. And like we said during the watch-along, Zach Allen is usually in about the 15 range. If Zach Allen is on his game, he's usually getting at least around. you know, 14, 15. He only had nine in this one.

Five run the cutter and then four on the knuckle curve. He did not get a single swing and miss on the fastball or the change up in this game. Exit velocities were actually fairly low against him. 85.5 was the average. We've seen him have some pretty good starts where the average exit v. He was quite high. So he was inducing some soft contact in this game. But yeah, it wasn't, it was not his sharpest outing of the season.

far from it. Here's the thing, though, is that Zach Gallen, like I said, did do enough to give the Diamondbacks a substantial opportunity to win the game. I mean, it was five to nothing when Zach Gallen walked off the mound with two outs, two on and the sixth inning. Yeah. And then the bullpen bullpen, bullpen. And they did what the Arizona Diamondbacks bullpen has done.

Not as often this season, obviously, as it has done it last season, but the bullpen remains a problem right now for this team. Jesse said they bent and didn't break yesterday. A lot of the same problems that we saw from yesterday's win was what went wrong for the Diamondbacks today. The bullpen, again, Kevin Ginkle cannot get out of the inning without giving up, I believe he gave up three runs before all was said and done.

Then you also had a pretty good run there for a bit of a couple of guys. I think McGuff came in and was surprisingly good, so I want to give Scott McGuff his flowers because he gets blamed, obviously, for some of his rough outings. But, you know, then you had Jose Ruiz, who came into the ninth and actually looked like a fairly viable, you know, pitcher to be in there in that position. He's able to get two outs. I believe he was, you know, down to the last out and just couldn't get the job done, gives up a single. Trey Turner, who absolutely has struggled at the plate.

If you watch the watch along, you know how much shit was talked about Trey Turner. And, of course, he made us pay. and we're blaming it at all on Sean DePaz, by the way. So shout out. Sean DeLoss. Shonda loss. Of course. That's going to stick for probably quite a while.

Well, the losses stick for quite a while sometimes. But just one out away from the sweep. Jose Ruiz can't complete that. He also blows up in the tent and ends up, they had a weird approach to the tent. I know a lot of people probably hated what Tori Lovallo did walking Kyle Schwarber intentionally out of the game. then a wild pitch moves everybody up and it was pretty much a far gone conclusion

at that point that they were going to score. Yeah, I think Kyle Schwerber, the Kyle Schwerber intention of walk makes sense because at that point in the game the Debacks didn't score in the top half of the 10th so you're in a walk-off situation. All that matters is the lead runner, right? So you can stack up base runners behind the lead runner

doesn't make a difference. And not a lot of speed there with Schwerber, obviously, because he runs like a toddler. Yeah, he would be like a guy you could get into force out pretty easily. So I think that move did make. sense. What was inexplicable in the 10th inning was really that Jose Herrera clanked a pitch. It was a passball. It was not a wild pitch. The pitch was not in the dirt. There was another

situation in the game that was similar. I think that pitch was in the dirt, but it was a play that Jose Herrera probably should have made. And there was another play where he and Emmanuel Rivera miscommunicated on an infield pop-up and foul ground and were not able to make the play there. So Jose Herrera is on the D-Backs roster because of his defense. You know, kudos to him for being better offensively this season. He did have a double. He did score a run in this game. But yeah, it was a really, really rough game for him in those last few innings defensively

when that's really supposed to be a strength of his. And at that point, Derek, the game is, I don't want to say the game is over. I don't want to say the game is decided because of that clank. But first and second, nobody out in extra innings is very different from second and third, nobody out. Once those guys get up to second and third, all right, you're basically just going to walk the next guy, you know, set up the force out again, which they did in unintentional, intentional sort of a style. Then you've got the bases loaded nobody out. And it's like, all right, somehow this went from runner at second, nobody out to bases loaded nobody out with the Phillies hitters doing absolutely nothing, right? Schwerber was intentionally walked.

Jose Herrera made that mistake. They walked the next guy. The Phillies hitters did absolutely nothing until the walkoff hit, which granted that was well hit. I think that was probably going to be over Pavin Smith's head no matter what or at the very least a sacrifice fly. So that was really the one thing that the Phillies did in the 10th inning to deserve this win. And the other side of this is the debaq's offense just went silent. It's something was absurd. It's something we've kind of seen this a few times.

right, where the debacks jump on teams early, they get a big lead, and then they just don't really do much for like four or five innings in a row. And that came back to bite the diamond backs in this one. As a matter of fact, in the summary of MLB.com, the top of the third, uh, or yeah, exactly, the top of the third after Emmanuel Rivera scores, uh, or gets a run, Evan Ligoria, uh, hits that homer. And there's nothing else for the Arizona Diamondbacks on the summary after that. Everything else is pretty much the Phillies coming back because there were no major hits. There were no key moments. There were no runs added on.

Five runs is still enough runs that can win you baseball games. But really, the Arizona Diamondbacks offense just went stagnant with runners in scoring position. And again, going back to yesterday, their runners in scoring position situation didn't bite them, but it could have. And today it ends up because it's the exact same thing. Two for 14 yesterday. Two for 15 today. for 12 on on Monday. I mean, it's, it's kind of a thing.

And I want to make sure that I emphasize this isn't as much about not getting hits with runners and scoring position. It's about not having productive outs with runners and scoring position. Right, not moving runners up, not moving guys, sack buns, size, anything that actually helps manufacture a run, which the Diamondbacks right now are not doing well. But we feel like they're very capable of with the speed they have and just their ability of what they used to do, right? The create chaos moniker that they had early on in April.

Really, they're not creating chaos anymore. Today's runs were doubles and guys on base and like, you know, Lengoria's home run. But for the most part, they didn't do much to manufactured runs. It felt like they went into coast once we got to that 5-0 lead and then just couldn't get it back going again. Baseball really is one of those sports as corny as it sounds where you have to stay in a groove. It's the reason why, if you want to question something about Tori LeVolo,

one of the biggest things that I've always had a problem with is him giving guys days off when they're in the middle of a hit streak, like Lordus Gouriel is, who is on a 16-hit streak currently, and they give them the day off when they have a day off tomorrow. The Diamondbacks could have used Gouriel's bat in the lineup today, and I feel like it was one of those overestimated things. The lineup today probably wasn't enough to win a game against the Phillies when we looked at it early on.

Tori chose to sit a number of guys, but they still were able to put forth a solid effort and get a substantial lead that they just weren't able to hold on to. And when I say they, I mean the bullpen. Like the bullpen really just dropped, just blew up today like we've seen them do unfortunately in the past and just not be able to do what their job is.

Keep the game. Try not to let this thing get out of control. I mean, there's a lot of situations where they could still have given up one wrong, and the game would have been fine. The Diamondbacks still would have won. But the bullpen just gave up just critical runs at really bad times late in the game. Diamondbacks had no answer offensively.

No, no, they didn't. And yeah, a couple things. So first of all, the hitting with runners and scoring position stuff, that that's going to be streaky over the course of a season. So honestly, the debacks have kind of, I think someone said it in the comments. They've sort of just had, Connor said, very sudden and hard regression to the mean. Yeah, yeah, that's basically what's happened. And honestly, their numbers with runners in scoring position for the season, I don't think are bad.

I'd have to look at them, but I have to look at them again. But with how good they were in April, this has just been kind of a regression to the mean. It's not like the debacks have some massive runners and scoring position problem. That's going to be streaky. But that's no excuse for having bases loaded nobody out in the sixth inning and not being able to score a run. You don't need a basis clearing double. In order to score a run, you just need a sacrifice fly. or some of these things that we're talking about,

you can manufacture runs in other ways. The other thing regarding the bullpen, no secret, Andrew Chafin and Miguel Castro were not available for the debacks in this game. And that's big for them, right? They needed both of those guys each of the last two days. Both of those guys had pitched in three of the last four. You have to respect Toray Lavello's decision

not to go to either one of them. And we talked about it on the watchalong in the sixth or seventh inning. It was like, all right, You don't really want to see this game get too close because the debacks might have a hard time nailing down a close lead late in the game. And sure enough, you've got Jose Ruiz coming in the ninth inning who is pitched quite well for the debacks since coming over from Chicago. But Jose Ruiz is not a closer, right? Jose Ruiz should probably not be your ninth inning man.

Your high leverage situation. It's just not an ideal situation. They almost were able to sneak out of this one getting away with it. But at the end of the day, you know, not having, if the debacks have Castro and Chafin, they probably win this game. But you can't have those guys pitch every single day. You need a little bit more depth back there. And I'm sure as we approach the trade deadline, that is something we'll be talking a lot about in the next couple months. Absolutely.

And I don't know what to say other than this one was just a terrible loss, really, when it comes down to it. There's few things to say. The Diamondbacks bullpen shouldn't have been put in that situation. maybe Tori Lavello should have gone to Austin Adams. We were excited to see him at some point. They never utilized him out of the bullpen. Maybe thinking this game might go longer. Baseball games don't go long very much.

They don't go past the 12th inning these days with the ghost. They did have Luis Frius back there too. They didn't. Could have given them some length. So yeah, maybe for the 10th inning you could make a case. DeBak's kind of gone to Austin Adams. But yeah, I mean, Jose Ruiz didn't necessarily make all that many mistakes in the 10th inning. It was just there are runners at second and third, nobody out.

And that's a pretty tough situation to work your way out of as a pitcher. We could dwell on the negatives and all we want. But we want to give some positive. And of course, the man that deserves our King Snake is the guy that didn't even play today. Lordus Gurriel with a 556 batting average, again, extends his career high, hit streak to 16 games. And again, did not play in this game. We were actually a little worried that he might get thrown in as a pinch hitter. Maybe the Diamondbacks could have used his bat, but it would have kind of suck to see his hitting streak.

And due to just one pinch hit at bat, which is possibly what could happen there. Yeah, it would, but also like, you're still going to, you want to win the game. You want to win the game more than you want to turn. Ordis Gurriel Jr.'s hit streak into 17. So, yeah, and I don't know if the debacks, though, to be fair, I don't know if the debacks had any, like, ideal clear-cut spots to go to their bench. We would have given him an advantage by bringing him in. Yeah, you could make a case like Nick Ahmed probably once the lefty was taken out of the

game. I know he has these weird reverse splits, but that's probably not going to hold in long run. You probably could have put in Geraldo Perdomo to play shortstop the rest of this game. And yeah, I mean, there's Jose Herrera coming up against, you know, I think Gabby Moreno is obviously the better guy offensively there too. So the debacks very much went with the so-called B lineup in this game. And you kind of have to do that on some level. Maybe there maybe there's a way to stagger it a little bit more. So you don't have, you know, Moreno and Guerriel and Perdomo out of the lineup in the same day. There's there's a lot of guys struggling right now. Nick Ahmed is

obviously struggling. Josh Rojas is struggling. Christian Walker is struggling. I mean yeah. And a couple of these guys, you're not going to take out of the lineup, but it feels like Ahmed is one of those guys that, you know, really at this point should back up Pardomo with the way Pardomo is playing. It's not to say Nick Ahmed isn't going to get any playing time. And right now the Diamondbacks, I don't really think have any prospects with Blaze Alexander being injured that they could potentially call up as a shortstop for the time being. So it feels like Ahmed's going to at least need to stick around in a backup role. But I feel like that might be a little bit better of a situation for the Diamondbacks because The Pardomo's splits aren't that dramatic either for himself.

And Perdomo's just been a very productive at bat. They talked on the broadcast yesterday about how he's also been a very vocal cheerleader for this team and a leader out there at shortstop. And, you know, Perdomo's very young to be showing that level of maturity. So I personally, much like many of you would like to see him get more playing time. Maybe Tori throw a little bit of these, you know, starting pitcher splits kind of out the window and maybe go a little bit with the hot hand. that remains to be seen because that's never actually going to happen. But it remains to be seen because we know it's not going to happen. We know it's not going to happen.

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You need polarized glasses for driving in Arizona. But speaking of driving, don't miss out on the Keeping It 100 golf tournament at Dobson Ranch on May 26. It's right around the corner. It's this Friday. Pins and Aces will be out there with prizes and all sorts of fun stuff. And you got to check out Pins and Aces as well. It's our official Gulf Apparel partner, a PHNX in All City. We have an absolutely incredible Phoenix Polo that Pins and Aces designed and put out.

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That's Pins and Aces.com. Chris Melton says, I just want to come to heckle the golfers. Do it. Yeah, that's totally a lot. That's what we're all going to. I'm not there to golf. Or you could be like Susan and just come out and encourage them like she used to do for the players. I haven't seen her out in a while.

But when she came out and, hey, let's go. Let's go, Christian Walker. Anyway, that's always fun to do. We thank you guys for being here right now, the PHN Export's YouTube channel. If you haven't subscribed to the channel, please do so already. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss when we go live. And leave us a thumbs up just so that Jesse knows how much you love him.

If you're listening on your favorite audio podcasting app, please subscribe to us there. Leave us a review. We always appreciate. your feedback, even though we don't really want to. We don't want to talk about this series anymore because we are so disgusted by this game that we saw today. The DVX won two out of three on the road against the team that was in the World Series last year, right? They do this to me so much. Like again, this goes back to what you were saying. This is a team that if you would have told me they were going to be in this spot earlier on, I wouldn't have really believed you, right? It's

definitely one of those things that would have made me say, I, I, no, no, that's not possible. The Diamondbacks will not be 29 and 21 midway through May. Still fantastic. But it's like there are so many of these series where it just feels like they dominated the opposing team. This one maybe not so much, but it felt like they should have gotten a sweep in this one. And for them to essentially snatch a loss out of the jaws of victory is kind of maddening. But let's take a look at the numbers on this series. We got 15 runs to 12 runs in the long run, which does.

It doesn't feel once again like a dominant Diamondback series win, but hey, they scored more. Hits are very close, errors close. But yeah, the relief pitching ERA really tells the story. And of course, also like we said, the runners in scoring position, they were just bad in this series, flat out bad. Yeah. I mean, this is kind of the story of the debacks right now, right? It's the starting pitching has been pretty good recently. The bullpen has been this just sort of okayish, and the hitting with runners in scoring position has been awful, right?

and that's kind of what happened in this series. Debacks still, you know, I think there's a world in which maybe the debacks aren't able to win yesterday's game, but they do win today and everyone's happy because they took two out of three from the Phillies. On the whole, this is still a good outcome for them. But yeah, the debacks have, like we said earlier, the debacks have left some games on the table this season. I think back to that A's game last week that we talked about earlier, That was a meltdown of horrific proportions. And there was a similar one against the Washington Nationals in that series finale.

The Diamondbacks lost that game 9 to 8. The series finale against the Miami Marlins on Wednesday, May 10th. That was two weeks ago today. Dabacks lost that game by a run. It wasn't quite the blow up that this one was or that some of those other games have been. But it's this weird thing where the DVACs are winning so many games. and yet it feels like there are these games that they really should have won that they just weren't able to come away with.

The bullpen, when it has blown up, it has sort of done so in dramatic fashion. And the debacks haven't necessarily had those kinds of wins themselves. They haven't necessarily had games where they were trailing by four or five runs going into the seventh inning or the sixth inning and they're able to come away and find a way to win. Right. Most of the games that this team is winning, they're kind of winning from the beginning and they're able to just kind of hold on all the way through, which is a credit to their position players and how good a lot of those guys have been. But yeah, for being a 29 and 21 baseball team at this point in the season, I think they've caused a little bit more anxiety and frustration than teams that are this successful probably normally would have. Well, the Diamondbacks move on. But in the meantime, you can check out our friends at Circle K. Their road trip ends, but your road trip doesn't need to end.

We're excited to partner with our friends at Circle K. You can check them out for your best coffee, beer and snack selection, premium gas, and don't forget, in gas entertainment, this guy right here. Stock up at Circle K, America's third stop with polar pops because they're enjoyable. And of course, get their ice coffee for $1.89. You can get Red Bulls, three for $8, monsters, three for six. Make sure you're not missing out on all this great stuff. Right now you can text PHNX to 31310 to join their SMS subscriber club and get a buy one, get one free offer on 32 ounce polar pops.

Head to CircleK.com slash store dash locator to find CircleKs near you. Cheapest gas too, by the way. The one across the street from us on Roosevelt and Seventh is like the gas price goes down every day recently. I love that. The one by my house, the gas station, unnamed gas station by my house is not. doing that same thing. So check out Circle K to fill up as well. And of course, don't forget to check out Mini Derek, Tiny Derek, on the little television screen here as well. Also, you can grab four peaks at Circle K or you can grab Four Peaks wherever you get your beers. You can get four peaks.

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The link is in the bio. You can check out at Four Peaks Brewer or at Four Peaks Pub to keep up with the latest Arizona's hometown brewery. Must be 21 or older to drink Four Peaks and please drink responsibly. Let's take a look at the probabilities for the Diamondbacks coming back here to Chase Field. And let's take a look at what they have lined up. Yeah, well, we don't really know for sure if Brandon Fott is actually going to pitch in this game. So these, your probables are fraudulent here, Damon. They're just, I'm kidding.

Brandon Fott is the guy who lines up for the Friday game. So we'll see if he makes that start. There's a chance that Zach Davies ultimately comes back for the Diamondbacks and starts that Friday game instead of Brandon Fott. fought gets sent down, but he is the guy who currently lines up. I did notice earlier today that the Reno Aces had probables lined up for Friday and Saturday. I wouldn't necessarily think that would be much to read into. The debacks could just make some maneuvers there and slide fought in if that's the decision

that they make in the long run. But yeah, we get Chris Sale at Chase Field on Friday. He's not quite the, not quite the pitcher that he used to be. but the Red Sox are kind of a similar team to the Diamondbacks in a lot of ways. Their position players have been quite good. They don't strike out a lot. They put the ball in play. And their starting pitching has been a little shaky, as you can see here.

I wouldn't read too much into Brandon Fawtzei at this point with how many starts he's had and how bad, of course, the first couple of those weeks. Yeah. Yeah, very true. And again, like Jesse said, we don't even know if Brandon Fott is actually going to start in this spot. it makes the most sense. And at least for now, I don't know. Things could happen very quickly. But the Boston Red Sox come to town for the first time since 2019.

So a long time since we've seen them. Yeah, we'll see them more frequently now. Part of this new balanced schedule thing that we got going on now. I love it. What are your thoughts, though, about seeing more teams like the Red Sox? I mean, obviously, that's a great thing because, you know, we talked about the schedule that the Diamondbacks have. We talked about May being an easy month. I know we want to get very mad about this particular game.

And you know what? I'm going to let you go ahead. Be mad. Go ahead and fire us all of your fire everybody tweets and all that. We'll be fine with it. But keep things into perspective. The Diamondbacks have won so far the last three series. They won all three series on the road, which isn't easy to do when you're talking about a nine game road trip like this.

They took care of business, even though they didn't get the job done in some of those games that they should. should have won. Like some of you said, maybe they'll learn from this going forward. Maybe this will be a great, you know, opportunity. Like, it's always good not to, I guess, win too much because at times you need a reminder how easy it is for things to go south. The Diamondbacks still have to figure out their bullpen, right? And of course, today, the biggest thing was they're just, they didn't have all hands on deck, right? I think that they probably would have gone to different guys in the bullpen. like Jesse said, if Chafin and Castro were available, but they weren't. So now we're in a position where the Diamondbacks really, you know,

are going to have games like this where they don't have a choice but to kind of go out there with their B lineup and do everything they can't win. It's good for some of those guys to still, you know, get that experience. You know, I mean, even the bullpen arms that aren't going to be used normally in high leverage situations being used in situations like this. it's good experience for them and hopefully they rebound from it kind of like what we've seen from Scott McGuff

since he had his couple of shaky starts. I think though that again for the month of May the Boston Red Sox come to town they're still a very good team but the downbacks again they still have a few games left in this month against teams that they can win against and this is another winnable series

especially with the starting pitching for Boston being kind of as bad as it is. Yeah, it's a little bit more of a difficult homestand. You've got the Red Sox for three, the Rockies for three. It's a little bit of a break. And then you've got the Atlanta Braves next weekend. Of course, one of the best teams in the league, if not, I mean, the best team in the league, or at least in the National League. So, yeah, I think this will be a fun series.

I personally am looking forward to it. I've never seen the Red Sox play in person in my life. So, I mean, they don't really make their way to this part of the country very often. I don't really. I've never been to Boston in my life either. So, yeah, it should be fun to watch. I, for one, I'm a huge fan of the balanced schedule. And, you know, I think this is going to be a big weekend, potentially, for the Diamondbacks attendance-wise.

It'll be interesting to see how these Red Sox games draw. It'll also be interesting to see how many Red Sox fans there are in attendance at Chase Field because you figure them being here for the first time in four years. There might be quite a few. But yeah, it should be a fun series all the way around. And Chris Sale, like I said, is not the pitcher that he used to be, but he is still, I think, pretty good. He's a lot better than his ERA will tell you. We'll see if Zach Davies is making that start Friday or whether it will be Brandon Fought as scheduled. And then the rest of the series, you've got Tanner Halk pitching for the Red Sox as well as Garrett Whitlock,

both pitchers who have been just okay this year. So on the whole, things line up reasonably well for the debacks. Let's take a moment, though, to look beyond that. Because like you said, they do have the Rockies for four games after that. So they can really finish the month out strong with that four game series against the team like the Rockies. And end May on that high note. And looking back on it, like I said, with the exception of that series lost to the Marlins, the Diamondbacks took care of business in the month of May,

even if they weren't able to complete a sweep in April or May. But they start June off hot with that series against the Braves, and then they end it pretty hot with a series against the raise. But in between there, again, June has a lot of winnable series. When we talk about Beyond the Braves, we have the Nationals, the Tigers, the Phillies. It's really not bad. Guardians, Brewers are a bit of tougher team, but then they have the Giants right before they go head-to-head with the raise. So, like, again, the Diamondbacks need to take care of business in a similar fashion in the month of June.

Beyond that, things get fairly more difficult in July and August. So this is the time for the Diamondbacks to stack those wins before they have to take on the Mets and then the Blue Jays and the Braves all in very close series in the month of July. So it's that time. The Diamondbacks, that's why games like this hurt so much and that's why the loss to Oakland hurt so much. Both of these losses were very similar, where the Diamondbacks were up by five runs or more in both games, five runs in both games, actually. and then they just couldn't end up closing the door. These are the kind of games that if they end up missing out on the playoffs when September comes around,

that these are the games that are going to hurt that they didn't win. Yeah, yeah. And hopefully we don't get to that point. We talked the other day about how the D-BACs playoff chances, according to fan graphs, it tipped in the above 50% range. So they're in a really good spot. And that's the big takeaway, I think, overall,

is that the diamond back still took care of business in Philadelphia. They took two out of three against a team that is struggling, but still has some pretty good hitters in there. I don't believe for a second that Trey Turner is going to have a 650 OPS for the entire season. Unfortunately, he sort of started his breakout against the diamondbacks. Do we want to talk about what Sean said? He may be, I mean, we kind of already sort of alluded to it. Did we specifically say the thing?

Did we feel people in that we're watching our watch along as to what Sean DePaz did? Yeah, we have not done that. Would you like to do the honors? Damon, can you jump in and recap it for us? So before Trey Turner walks up, there's two outs and one runner on after a single one runner on. And Sean, Sean makes sure to say, hey, Trey Turner sucks. And we're all like, whoa, let's not do that right now. And he immediately hits just a monstrous home run. Classic Sean, just mushing the whole organization. Disgusting. Classic, classic Sean DeLoss. Sean DeLoss. Anyway, well, we thank you guys for being here. We thank you. Those of you that stuck around for both the watchalong and the show, God bless you.

We know it's been a long afternoon. It has been for us and Jesse's been almost five hours. Yeah, just five hours straight, looking at our dumb faces, but we appreciate you for it. If you need something else to do besides this, make sure to check out Octane Raceway and Mavericks. It's an absolute blast. And you know what? You don't even need to have kids to go check it out. It's a great place for adults to go have adult fun. And kids, yeah, kids can go to.

But Mavericks has free bowling for veterans on Memorial Day. So all veterans and active duty personnel to show their military ID from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. will get free bowling. In addition, the venue will open early at 10 a.m. and feature some door buster deals, including buy one, get one free $20 game cards and buy one get one free laser tag from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Octane is also offering free axe throwing to all active and retired military personnel. You just need your military IDs to show up on Memorial Day and have yourself a fun time.

They're also going to have kids bowl free programs this summer and so much more. You can book some fun this summer over Octane Raceway and Mavericks. Cart racing, virtual reality, laser tag, axe throwing, bowling, arcade, great food and drinks. Tons of different events throughout the summer. Check out Octane Raceway.com and Mavericks.com to learn more. But the thing we want to do is we want to go watch baseball. And like we said, the Boston Red Sox are coming to town. The best place to grab your tickets for that is last minute over at game time.

Because game time not only has a beautiful app that's easy to use, but also has you covered for concerts, shows, and sporting events. It's the place for last minute ticket deals, and it is the fastest growing ticket app in the country for a reason. You can snag the tickets without the stress with game time. And procrastinators, this one's, this one. for us. We can get them last minute. We can avoid the FOMO and just go to the event. Download the GameTime app now. Create an account

and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code PHNX for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. AZ Sports Girl wants to attack Sean. I understand.

So the rest of us. Coggs says this is Espo territory. I also agree with that. Cogs just wants to be blamed of any free of blame himself. And remember, you abandoned us and the offense. So we don't forget that either, Coggs. But we thank you guys for being here. We will be back tomorrow at 1 p.m.

Even though there is no baseball game, we will be here for you to provide you with the baseball entertainment that you so richly desire. It's Power Rankings Day. Power Rankings Day. Come on through. Talk about some other national narratives. Maybe, I don't know, maybe some trade deadline targets in May. We go in there. We're ready for that?

It's never too early to talk, trade, Dead Lolly Targets. Jesse, you know that with me. But in the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. I am at cap underscore caveman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman.

Damon is at Damon Dog with a DAWG and a roar at the end. Our show is at PHNX underscore DBEX, but of course all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for your time. We thank you so much

for sticking with us. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but God damn it, so much more fun when you can hit with runners in scoring position.