PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - The Diamondbacks unable to close out their first sweep of 2023, taking 2 out of 3 vs the Rockies

Episode Date: April 30, 2023

Did the D-backs curse the Suns? Did the Suns curse the D-backs? And who did we curse?? After winning the first two games in the series, the Arizona Diamondbacks were brought back down to earth on Sunday by the Colorado Rockies. We take a look at the numbers from this series and discuss what the D-backs are going to do after Gallen and Kelly in their starting rotation.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 Keepin It 100 Golf Scramble: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/phnx-keepin-it-100-classic-scramble-golf-tournament-tickets-617328515207 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 (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.Knockout Nights: Join our cornhole league during the 1st Friday night of every month! They’re free to enter and will include food and beverage specials, giveaways, and BetMGM prizes: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/622016186157Pins & Aces: Check out pinsandaces.com and use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping.PHNX: Join us at the BetMGM Sportsbook at State Farm Stadium for all Suns’ away playoff games. Our PHNX Suns watch parties, presented by NUTRL, will feature food and drink specials, PHNX giveaways, and BetMGM deposit matches. Join us by grabbing your free ticket: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/616706063437Circle 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: Enjoy a refreshing Four Peaks’ Red Bird Lager during the NFL Draft on April 27th. Must 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.

Well, hello and welcome in to another edition of the PHNX D-BACs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I'm your mayor of PHNX. I'm joined by my mayor of course field, the one and only thunderstick Jesse Friedman. Struggling to breathe out here, Derek. I need sea level air in my life again. Yeah, it makes even the strongest man weak. Ask most professional athletes.

But first comment coming in from motion said, Why is the ump so bad? Jesse, there were a lot of things that were bad today. And we're going to address, we're going to take responsibility and place blame where blame should be placed, of course. But home plate umpire today was very bad.

And to be honest, in a lot of key situations where Ryan Nelson and other Diamondbacks pitchers kind of gave up some big runs, they did occur after some of these atrocious calls, non-calls, just bad umpire. It wasn't great. Yeah, it wasn't great. I do think that there were missed calls both directions, but like you said, there were some key situations where calls definitely impacted this game for the debacks.

I think Charlie Blackman had a three-two count at one point, what looked like strike three was called a ball. That one was borderline. It wasn't obvious or anything. There was another pitch that Ryan Nelson really dotted on the lower inside corner against Michael. That didn't result in a walk, but it should have been a strikeout. Mike Mustakis hit an RBI ground out on the next play. So, I mean, I think honestly that was maybe the least of Ryan Nelson's problems today. It was a problem that, I mean, I'm sure it did make a difference. But he just wasn't, he just wasn't effective in this outing.

He left a lot of breaking pitches in particular right over the middle of the plate. And, you know, we've talked about this Rocky's offense, not being the best. but these are still big league hitters and they're still able to punish those kinds of mistakes. There was a comment about getting your ass kicked by the last place team. Look, sometimes, let's be honest, you're going to get your ass kicked by any team in baseball. It's baseball. Luckily, there is no aggregate scoring. So none of the runs, the Rockies scored carryover to any of the other games for the Diamondback.

So that's good for them. But Ryan Nelson, not good today. Four innings pitch, nine hit, six earn runs, one walk, two, strikeouts. He had that 32 pitch third inning that pretty much just spelled disaster for him. It's much like what we saw from Dre Jameson and his one inning outing where he had a 41 pitch first inning. Like there's just there there's no end in sight sometimes for these youngsters when they're getting in themselves into trouble. And to be honest, neither, neither of them have looked very good as of late compared to what we saw of them last season. Yeah, I mean the D-backs came

into this year really relying on, you know, not just Nelson and Jameson, but also Tommy Henry. We weren't sure at the beginning of the year exactly how, you know, how much playing time each of those guys would get and when it would come. But you kind of knew it was going to, just the nature of the season. And we've already seen that with Madison Bumgarner now no longer in the organization, as well as Zach Davies getting hurt. You're going to burn through some extra arms in your rotation. And so far for the debacks, none of these guys have really been good at all at this point. And specifically, Ryan Nelson over the last three starts, it is not looked good for him whatsoever. I think he's allowed 23 hits in 14 and two-thirds innings over his last three starts.

And over the last two in particular, he's allowed 20 hits. And those outings, of course, coming against the Royals at home and then the Rockies. And granted, it's a very hitter-friendly environment here. but he's just not really fooling anyone at this point. And, you know, you can throw 95. You can have some pretty decent stuff. And these things can still happen if you're not putting it where you want it to. We have your tweet, Jesse, about Ryan Nelson,

Trey Jameson, and Tommy Henry and what their numbers have looked like and their combined 11 starts. And things aren't great. Aren't great. They are not. Yeah, 49 in the third innings from Nelson, Jameson, and Henry. These are only starts. So this doesn't include Jameson's innings in the bullpen, which, of course, were quite good.

But yeah, 49 in the third innings over 11 starts for those three guys, a 620 ERA, a 160 whip. They're not really striking guys out either. 5.7Ks per 9, 3.8 walks per 9. That's a little high. Those three guys were X factors in some way coming into this season. You didn't need all of them to be mid-rotation starters. You didn't need all of them to even be, you know, big. big time producers in in the big leagues.

The debacks didn't necessarily, you know, they put themselves in position with enough rotation depth where they can get by if one of those guys struggled or whatnot. But so far, all three of those guys have struggled in their rotation. And it's put the debacks in a tough position where it feels like when Zach Allen or Merrill Kelly is on the mound, you're in a pretty good spot. And when anyone else is on the mound, things aren't going so well. Yeah.

And you actually had another tweet about that exact topic essentially. Zach Gallin and Merrill Kelly and their 12 starts have been outstanding. 70 innings pitch, 2.57 ERA, 1.01 whip, three walks per nine innings, 10.4 strikeouts. Geez, per nine innings. And not only that, but you also have to factor in here that both of them had slow starts, right? So this is just, really, it's just been their starts of late, their last, you know, probably six

starts, you know, combined between them, have been the really stellar ones. Zach Gallen probably a little bit, a little bit more than that. But Merrill Kelly has really come online. He had a great start in game one of this season or of this series. But all other Diamondbacks starting pitchers, not great, not great. And again, even that number is impacted there by, you know, a good starter to there from a few of these guys. It's so, yeah, when I was compiling these numbers, my mind was kind of blown as. I went. But yeah, it occurred to me. Outside of Zach Allen and Merrill Kelly, the debacks have not

had any productive starting pitchers. Zach Davies, even in his, you know, two starts before he went down with the oblique injury. He wasn't good. I mean, he had an ERA of almost six. He had six walks and nine in the third innings or something like that. Obviously, it was a super small sample for him, but he wasn't great. Tommy Henry hasn't been great. Jay Jameson was sent down because he wasn't good in the rotation. Ryan Nelson's had three really rough starts in a row. And then, you know, some guy named Madison Bumgarner also opened the year making starts for this team. And, and yeah, it's tough. I don't want to make it sound like, oh, that, you know, anytime any of those guys have pitched, the debacks have been losing all those games. Impressively, I believe they're actually

eight and nine in those 17 games that have been started by pitchers outside of Zach Allen and Merrill Kelly. So the offense has come through, you know, they've been good in clutch situations. They've been able to win games. But I think we all know that in the long term, you can't have, you know, two of your starters doing all the heavy lifting and everyone else putting up, you know, an ERA of six or seven or whatever it may be. It's, it's not sustainable. It's something that's going to have to improve for the debacks to get to where they want to get to. But in today's game in particular, it wasn't just Ryan Nelson that struggled pitching. You know, we've talked about the bullpen being very good and entering today's game, the bullpen actually had not given up an earned run in this series.

But that's when Peter Solomon stopped in, who I imagine is going to be a candidate to be sent down once the Diamondbacks potentially make one of these moves that we might see them make here soon. But Peter Solomon today, two in the third innings pitch, seven hits, six earn runs, two walks, one strikeout. he's given up 18 earned runs now in 13 and a third innings pitched in five games. Just not good. And I mean, I know that Tori Lovelo has not used him in high leverage situations. A lot of times Peter Solomon kind of gets put into games that it seems like are out of reach or the Diamondbacks have kind of wave the white flag on a bit.

But he really doesn't show signs of improvement today being probably his worst outing, even though he just kind of had to stick it out and stay out there and eat those innings. Yeah, I mean, he hasn't really, like you said, the debacks, I don't know if they've lost even one game because of Peter Solomon directly. A lot of these games that he's entered in were clunkers by other starters or, you know, injuries or whatnot. So, yeah, I don't think Peter Solomon has really cost the Diamondbacks any games. But, yeah, even guys coming in in low-leverged situations, you still want them to be, you know, league aviagnation. or like at least keep the game, you know, keep your team in the game, at least give your team some semblance of a shot.

He hasn't really done that so far. I don't, I think he's probably the least of the Diamondback's concerns right now just because is on the pitching side. I think they're starting rotation is more what the issue has been than for sure. Than anything else. But yeah, I mean, he clearly has struggled in his time in the big leagues. And even though he's pitching in lower leverage situation, there does come a point when it's like, okay, there's still a bar that you have to reach as a long reliever pitching in those situations.

And I wouldn't be too shocked if the debacks sometime soon decide that they want to go a different direction with that spot. I'm just saying the Diamondbacks lost today 12 to 4, which I know is, you know, obviously an ass kicking. But, you know, if the bullpen holds it together a little closer, it's a six to four game. It is a game in Colorado. The Diamondbacks have been able to put up more than six runs so far in the. other two games. So it's like once, once the bullpen kind of let it get out of reach, it was officially out of reach. Solomon has a 12.15 ERA, just ineffective, right? But there were a lot of bad things. Pavin Smith, flat out terrible in right field today. Talk about missing

Corbyn Carroll. Talk about missing Jake McCarthy and some of the other talented outfielder's this team has had. Payven did not look good. I think he answered the question as to why we don't see more Paveen Smith in the outfield for this team. It's crazy to think back to a couple of years ago when Pavin Smith was actually playing a lot of centerfields for the Diamondbacks, right? Yes, crazy. They've come a long way in terms of their depth defensively in the outfield. But yeah, in these games, which the devax might have a few of them now, especially with Corbyn Carroll, not available, at least for the time being, they might have some games where you've got Gurriel and left,

and you've got Paveen Smith and right. and it's tough. I mean, it's not, it's not anywhere near the caliber of defensive outfield that we're used to seeing over the last year, year and a half. But he hasn't played there much, right? I mean, since the call-up, the debacks have only started Pavin once in right field. I believe this was his second. He's played a few innings here and there out there in other games.

But I think he'll with time, you know, I think I'll improve. And course, field is also tough. You know, the ball obviously flies farther. than you're expecting it too. And Pavin, a number of times started going up when, in fact, the ball was flying like 20 feet over his head. So I'm sure there's some, you know, some difficulties with course field in particular. But Pave and Smith has never been a terrific defensive outfielder.

Even in a corner, it's still, you know, you're looking for average or more likely you're probably going to get a little bit below average defense out there. And we definitely saw that today. Gabriel Ferreira says our depth is being tested early, which is. very accurate. And that is why today we saw the very exciting debut of Dominic Fletcher being called making his debut from AAA Reno. Dominic Fletcher is one of the surplus left-handed outfielders that the Diamondbacks have that is very talented and that has been doing well in the minor leagues, but really hasn't had an opportunity to play much due to, you know, the stacked outfield that the Diamondbacks

have had. And he, of course, doubled in his first big league at bat, which is just, an incredible thing to see. Incredible confidence boost and, you know, starting things off on the right foot. He almost went two for two, smoke one up the middle, that the defense had to make a pretty exceptional play on to end the game. But very exciting to see Fletch up in the lineup and playing in today's game. He's a good prospect.

I mean, like we've said in the past on a lot of other teams, Dominic Fletcher is an everyday player, right? He might even be playing center field for some teams if he was in another organization. Debacks just have so many outfielders as it is that it's a little bit hard to get him time out there. I wasn't super surprised that he didn't start the game today. He, as I think we're going to show in a video a little bit later on, he did not get much sleep last night. This is a very quick turnaround for him. You got the call.

Let's show that right now. Damon, let's show. You got the call last night. And this was basically how his evening went, getting his call up to the major leagues. We're able to get any sleep last night at all. Maybe one hour. Pretty early wake-up call this morning. So I probably got an hour and maybe 30 minutes on the plane.

What time was your flight? 5 a.m. Yeah, so I probably, I woke up 245 after about an hour. And then it's wrapped it up. Panda Express with your celebratory meal last month? So I had just picked it up previous to getting the call. So, yeah, shout out to Panda Express. Shout out to BenExpress.

Max is going to kill us for that one, Jesse. I know that. But imagine you're standing in line and Bandexpress. And the gentleman in front of you gets the call that he's being called up to the major leagues, right in front of your eyes. What a moment to share with him should you be in the restaurant at the same time as that happening. But, yeah, everybody, Gabriel, beautiful man, beautiful hair. Yep, he fits right in as far as. as that goes.

And like, imagine playing in your first Major League baseball game after getting one hour, maybe one hour and 45 minutes of sleep, Jesse. Yeah, it would have, it would have felt just cruel

to have him start this game, right? I mean, he, when we talked with him in the clubhouse today, he literally arrived at the ballpark like 30 minutes before we were talking to him. That was at like 10.30 this morning.

So, yeah, sort of a hectic day for him. Obviously the Rocky's also at a lefty on the mound. so it wouldn't have necessarily made sense matchup-wise either. My guess, although Tori Lavello didn't say this, but my guess is you'll see Fletch start on Tuesday against the Rangers. It looks like the Rangers have Jonathan Gray lined up to make that start.

So that would make a little bit more sense than, you know, having him start against the lefty on one hour of sleep. But he is a good defensive outfielder. He is very much more, like you said, the deep backs kind of have a type, right? He sort of checked all the boxes, right? He's quick-handed, good-looking. He's short, he's fast, plays a good defense. So, yeah, and it'll be interesting.

I mean, I don't know if Fletcher is necessarily an everyday player in this league. Some people view him as more of a fourth outfielder, but he also totally could be. You know, I mean, we see prospects all the time come up and, you know, you realize pretty quickly that they're a little bit more than what you maybe expected them to be. So it'll be interesting to see how long he's here and how much playing time he gets. obviously that kind of hinges on Corbyn Carroll and what the future holds there, but it should be fun to watch him while he's here. Andrew in the comments,

ask what they'll happen to our red unies on Sunday? Did the uniform department forgot they exist? I don't know what's going. They're very chaotic with their uniforms this year. They've been all over the place, so we have no idea what they're doing at times anymore. But what we do know, we know what Emmanuel Rivera is doing at times, and that's hitting the goddamn baseball.

The man is still hitting 500, and he has been. is the pride of the island of Puerto Rico at this point. And I will forever stand him from our account, as we've been known to do. But Christian Walker, another very important piece for the Arizona Diamondbacks offensively to get back on track actually is our king snake for this series. Christian Walker went 385 with four RBI and one home run.

Toss up between him and Pardomo, because Pardomo continues to be our risk king. But great to see Walker getting things back on track. that it's big for this team. He's such a big part of their offense, and especially if he can start hitting those dingers consistently again like he was last year. Nothing helps break a tough stretch at the plate, like a trip to course field, right? That's right.

That's right. The ballpark delivered, and so did Christian Walker. I think his home run yesterday was a little bit on the edge. I don't know if that would actually. I think it was very much a course field home run, if I'm remembering correctly. I think the XBA on that was like, oh, 70 or something. But nonetheless, it was still a good swing.

And you are starting to see Christian Walker piece together, better at bats. He and Lordus Guriel, another guy that comes to mind is guys you haven't really gotten going offensively yet this season. And obviously, they're both really big parts of this offense. So hopefully it continues for Christian. Despite the results of today's game, the Arizona Diamondbacks did win the series, two games to three. They take another series.

Two games to two games to. two games to one. Two games to one. Excuse me, two out of three. Sorry, sorry, words are hard, Jesse. You know that. I've told you when you pick on me,

English is my second language and it could be considered a hate crime. I'm just trying to warn you. But purple hair, Derek, on the way. I think we're going to make that happen tomorrow. So stay tuned. Oh, are we? Are we? Is mailbag Monday being turned into dye Derek's hair?

Purple day? We might. Die Derek hair. We have an off day tomorrow. We know we don't know what to do with ourselves on off days. we've covered that already. So we might just dye Derek's hair on the off day. So we'll see what's happening.

But Diamondbacks are off tomorrow. They did wear their son's gear in support of the suns. Maybe they stole the Sun's mojo in Colorado. I don't know exactly what happened. Things did not go well for our Phoenix Suns, but they did go well for the Diamondbacks. Here's some shots. Some video Jesse took of the Suns or the Diamondbacks rocking their sons gear.

Let's take a look at that. Oh, man, Jesse, that makes me so jealous. You know how hard I. had to work to get my Kevin Durant jersey and Merrill Kelly just gets given one by the by the sons. Look at that. It's beautiful. I don't like this whole meeting at the, I don't like this. I don't like this.

I don't like this sportsmanship. I'm too petty for this right here, to be honest. It was. So first of all, it should be noted that Merrill Kelly and Kyle Freeland were teammates on Team USA in the World Baseball Classic just a few months ago. So when I first saw them like meeting up and, you know, they, they looks like they clearly knew each. other pretty well. I was very confused for a second. But yes, it all makes sense when you consider that. But that Kevin Durant jersey, uh, the Diamondbacks got from, from the Sons. I'm told it's, it's an authentic, whatever that means, an authentic Kevin Durant jersey. Whatever that means,

Jesse. Well, I mean, like, does that mean, like, that doesn't necessarily mean it's game worn, right? Correct. Correct. Correct. It does not look like it would fit Kevin Durant, but I don't know. Kevin Durant's very slim. So, I mean, it might be. I think it just means authentic down. It has all the patches. It's like it is like it is the type of jersey that Kevin Durant would wear even if it's not actually actually worn it. But what I do have to make clear, we posted a picture on Twitter yesterday of Tori Lavello wearing a very similar looking Kevin Durant jersey. It was the same one. It was actually the same one. Yeah, they were just passing around that jersey from person to person. So they don't all have Kevin Durant jerseys. Good. But yeah, it was it was kind of a kind of a fun

moment before yesterday's game seeing Kyle Freeland and Merrill Kelly do their thing, even if, I don't know, things didn't go so well for the sun's there. Maybe they shouldn't have done that. Maybe they shouldn't have done that. I don't know. But do you have any updates on Kevin Durant's favorite player, Corbyn Carroll? I think you spoke to him before the game today. Yeah, we did speak to Corbyn Carol before the game.

He talked about how it hurt. That was his first comment, you know. But, yeah, he expanded on that a little bit more and said that he was trying to stay in the game, which is something we also heard from Tori Lavello last night. But he was in a decent amount of pain, and he understood where Tori was coming from and trying to get him out of the game. We actually stole your video from your short. So, Damien, let's take a look at what Corby Carroll had to say about hurting his knee.

Just hurt. You know, I thought, you know, I was kind of vouching to stay in the game. but I think, you know, Tori kind of was protecting me and got me out of there. And, you know, I'm appreciative of him for doing that. And, you know, it hurt, but I didn't feel anything pop. I didn't feel anything. I mean, just it felt like I hit a wall really hard, right? And so it doesn't feel great.

But it wasn't, you know, incredibly concerned. We've seen Tori do a good job of looking after his guys and mostly going out there and convincing his guys at times when he needs to that they need to leave the game just as a precautionary measure, right? We saw it, I think it was with Jose Herrera when there was a potential concussion situation. And again, it was just Tori doing a good job

of managing and making sure the guys, you can never trust an athlete to take themselves out of a game. They're just too competitive at times to do that. And they're not always going to make the right decision. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. I mean, that's just kind of the nature of pro athletes.

is, you know, you kind of have to convince them, like, no, don't, don't do this to yourself. Like, we should. Are you hurt? Are you injured? You know, that kind of thing, right? Yeah. And, and I mean, I also, it would have been really weird. Like, even if it, even if it would have been totally fine from what the trainers discovered

to leave Corby and Carol out there, it's a little odd to have a guy, like, on the ground for that long and have a game pause for that long. And then Corbyn Carroll just stays at the game. You know what? I'm fine. I'm just going to stay. The optics of that would have been. would have been a little weird.

But we know Corbyn Carroll is one of the toughest people in this clubhouse. I don't think there's really any question about that. So even injuries that don't necessarily, you know, aren't serious, which they still hope this is not, you know, you can still be in a considerable amount of pain. And Tori did say after the game today that Corby and Carroll will have a precautionary. I believe it would be an MRI tomorrow in Texas. So they're not sending him back to Arizona. They're just having him travel with them.

to Texas for this Ranger series, but as a precaution, he is going to have an MRI on the knee just to make sure. Well, tomorrow, as we mentioned, is an off day for the Arizona Diamondback. So if you need to go figure out something to do with your time, golf is always a great option. And our friends from Pins and Aces have you covered with all of their wonderful apparel. We also have our Keeping It 100 Golf Tournament at Dobson Ranch on May 26th coming up there. Pins and Aces will be there. There will be prizes.

There will be so much more. They have a Phoenix polo shirt that they have designed. designed specifically for us. That is incredible. And I will burn this fucking place to the ground if I do not get one. I'm just putting that out there right now because that's that good. Check out our friends at the Big Drive Energy, wherever you get your podcast. If you enjoy golf and want a golfing podcast to add your life.

But pins and aces make amazing polos, hats, golf bags, even a beer sleeve, an innovative product that allows you, meaning me, to store seven beers right inside my golf bag and keep them cold the entire round. So check them out at pins and aces.com. Use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping. That's Pins and Aces.com. They have a wonderful variety of shirts, pattern shirts, right up Derek's Alley. So make sure to check that out.

And of course, also check out our friends at BetMGM. It is the official sports betting partner of PHNX. And we have all sorts of fun planned at the BetMGM sports book out at the State Farm Stadium. We had our away watch party with the Phoenix Suns. Things didn't go well, but if you were out there, you probably still had yourself a great time. We will be having Sons Away Playoff Watch parties the entire playoffs, and hopefully for a very long time,

and they will be presented by neutral. We'll have happy hour pricing, $6 rally of the valley, the valley margaritas, and more. Wonderful food, sportsbook amenities. I don't know. I don't know if you guys are like me, but betting on the app is great. It's fun, but there's just something wonderful about getting that little piece of paper in your hand. So make sure to check out the BetMGM sportsbook.

If you haven't signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code PHNX. There's a few different offers betting on where you live. But for our Arizona audience, you will get up to $100 in bonus bets on your first wager with BetMGM. Again, make sure you use bonus code PHNX. Check out the show notes for full details. And now listen to Shane. Talk about the disclaimer. Disclaimer 21 plus to wager, visit betmGM.com for terms and conditions.

U.S. promotional offers not available in Washington, D.C., Mississippi, Nevada, New York, and Ontario. Gambling problem. gambler, Colorado, D.C., Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming. Call 8778-N-Y, or text Hope, N.Y, 467-369, New York. Call 1-800 Next Step, Arizona. 1-8-5-2-0-4-70-Kansas, Kansas, Nevada, 1-800-3-2-7-1-1-1-7 for confidential help, Michigan. We thank you guys for being here in the PHNXPorts YouTube channel. If you haven't subscribed already, make sure to do so there, and also on your favorite audio podcasting app as well. it for notifications on YouTube. That way you don't miss whenever we go live. Leave us a thumbs up. We always appreciate knowing you guys are here and you're enjoying the show. And leave us a review

wherever you get your podcast at. That way we get the feedback and can do whatever we can to make sure that Jesse does a better job, right? Because he doesn't do enough around here. He's out in Denver. He's just he's just out there gallivanting around with his reporter friends. He's got Patrick Lyons back there doing run-ins in the middle of our show. But anyway, we thank you guys again so much for being here. Also, uh, join us for our takeover events all year long. We are going to be out at Chase Field with you guys once per month until the end of the season. Uh, we have five events left. Uh, there'll be pregame meetup access as well as that pH and X. It's always sunny shirt. So make sure to check that out. Uh, in the show notes, go to Eventbrite. Here are our remaining games.

We got Giants, Braves, Cardinals, Padres, Rockies, solid lineup there left. A lot of NLS teams, uh, left on the schedule. And make sure to just, just, just come have fun with me and jesse we're clearing our schedule uh we messed up that first game we did a post game show the same night as the takeover event not a great idea uh so we want to make sure that we spend as much time with you guys uh we'll probably be doing pregame show on those nights so coming out to the ballpark hang out with us jesse is hanging out with girth i wish i was i wish i was hanging out with girth yeah you two mixing it up girl is literally like i think it's within walking distance of course field uh and yeah your you're you're staying your your facility

where you're staying is not so close. Not so close. And you know how baseball is. I wind up waltzing out of here at about midnight every night. So suffice it to say our schedules haven't really worked out so far. Yeah, I understand. But we do have some numbers from this series that have end up looking much closer than they should after today's game. Because the Rockies really put it on the Diamondbacks.

But this was a much more one-sided affair coming into today, especially with the relief pitching that, like I said, had a zero earn runs before today. But after those six earn runs given up there by Peter Solomon, the relief pitching ERA looking a bit more like Colorado's and the starting pitching ERA fairly similar as well. Just always interesting, Jesse. This is baseball right here. No matter one team having more runs, one team having more hits,

sometimes it doesn't even matter. I mean, you could look at this score and Rockies could have won two of these games with the way that games go in Colorado. Yeah, I mean, it was, what, 20 to 5? D-Backs had outscored the Rockies, I think 20 to five in those first two games in the series, and now you're looking at 24 to 17, which is still, I mean, you know, the D-Backs outplayed the Rockies.

They won two out of three, but it does feel a little bit like that Royal Series where you kind of feel like you left something on the table, not necessarily the D-backs, like, needed to sweep this series, or it's egregious that they didn't sweep the series. you'll certainly take winning two out of three. But like in total, did the debacks make it clear that they are a significantly better team than the Rockies? I don't know if they did that.

Today was just so ugly that it was hard. Even despite the first two games going the way they did, you didn't necessarily come away with that feeling. So even though they're four and two in these six games against the Royals and the Rockies, I still think they haven't really played as well in these games as you would hope they would. And when we talk about the Diamondbacks not getting the same recognition, the teams that are doing incredible things right now like the Pirates and the Rays are doing, that's kind of the reason.

It's not to say that the Diamondbacks aren't doing well. It's not to say that they aren't winning their share of series. They've pretty much avoided losing the majority of their series, which is a good thing. But they just don't have that ability at times to finish. They don't have that ability to keep their foot on the pedal for an entire three-game series, four-game series, whatever the case may be. it really did feel like this was a case where it's kind of a letdown for them because I feel like they were probably riding pretty high.

And I imagine it's kind of hard to have too much confidence after you got Smackdown like this in the final game of the series despite winning two out of three. But I don't want to be super negative about it. I do want to say that the Diamondbacks have been getting, they've been doing things better. Obviously hitting with runners in scoring position, they're doing a better job there. they out they had more walks than the Rockies which again is a big reason a big part of their success another reason why they were able to take two out of three here but Merrill Kelly was just absolutely outstanding again in game one of this series six innings pitch six hits one earn run one walk five strikeouts and I know we said that this team can't necessarily be a playoff team if it's

just Merrill Kelly and Zach Gallen towing towing the line but it's very very good to see that their number one and number two guys locked in the way they are right now. Even if it's, even if you want to add the caveat that it was a bad team because this bad team hung up 12 runs today on the debacks. Yeah, what's funny is that every, I mean, Zach Allen and Merrill Kelly are both really on a role right now,

especially Zach Allen, but Merrill Kelly is also pitched pretty well of late. Those two guys consistently after every start, no matter how good it is, are saying that they didn't feel very good. And that was true of Merrill Kelly on Fridays. six innings, one run, only one walk and five strikeouts, like you said. After the game, we're talking to Merrill.

And he's like, I didn't really feel good at all out there. Like, the stuff doesn't feel good. You know, I don't feel like I've really hit my stride. And yeah, I guess that's encouraging in some ways. I do think there's another level that the Merrill can reach. He also talked with us on Friday as well as Tori Lavello about a conversation that those two had together about some of Merrill's recent. starts and the fact that he's been walking a lot of guys late in starts.

And that's been a consistent issue for him, even though the ERA has stayed pretty nice the entire season. He's had some starts end in pretty ugly fashion multiple times because the walks just kind of pile up. He leaves some guys on base, relievers come in, you know, with a lot of pressure on them. And then, you know, some of those things haven't ended so well. So, yeah, they had a conversation about Merrill's tendency to walk guys later at outings. and Tori basically told him like, hey, this is where we're at.

We recognize that this is a problem and we want to make it clear that this is a problem. And Tori said it was something he was going to be watching in starts. I think if Merrill had, you know, walked a guy in that sixth inning or, you know, maybe walk two out of three or something like that. I think Tori Lavello might have a little bit of a faster hook in some of those situations with him moving forward. But fortunately, that didn't happen on Friday. And Merrill had one of his best starts of the year. The Arizona Diamondbacks, Jesse, are three games above 500.

And of course, before we go on, you know what that means. Damon, can we do the thing? It means purple-haired Derek. You know that's my favorite thing in the world. That kind of looked like the rock. I thought you were talking about, it does. It does kind of look like the rock. I thought you were talking about purple hair, Derek.

But yes. We all know purple-haired Eric's coming. You don't have to keep talking about it, rubbing my face in the stupid decisions that I make in the past. Diamondbacks do end the month, though, three games above 500, which, Jesse, let's be honest, three games above 500 at the end of April. If you would have told Jesse and Derek that in September, or not September, excuse me, February, how much would we have laughed at ourselves?

Very much? Yeah, it's just weird, though, because like, on one hand, if you had told me 16 and 13, I would have been like, wow, that is, that is impressive considering the schedule that they have in April. Like, everything must be going right if they're 16 and 13. But that is not at all the case, Derek. Like this has problems, right? A lot of problems. The stat that we pulled earlier, starters not named Zach Gallen and Merrill Kelly have an ERA over 7 in 17 starts this year.

That's a pretty big problem. But yeah, the team has found ways to win games that maybe they didn't have any. business winning. We especially saw that early in the season and they've hit with runners in scoring position. They've done enough things right to be able to make up for some of those flaws. And again, this is kind of the discussion we've been having about the way that they find ways to still win despite the fact that they're not perfect, that they're not running on all cylinders right now. But are they solvable problems? Are these things that the Diamondbacks could figure out and even find more success than going 16 and 13 in a difficult, you know, month?

Are they solvable problems? I would think hopefully, right? Well, I mean, like starting pitching is pretty big, right? And it's not like they need, it's not like they need five Zack gallons, even though everybody knows we're trying to grow five Zack gallons in a laboratory. Everybody knows that we're attempting that. But of course, you know, we talked about Zach Davies might be just a big boost to this team. And here in a couple of minutes, we are going to talk about Brandon Fott some more.

because we can't get enough of him. And Tori said some very cryptic things today that leads us to believe that his debut might be eminent. So it's not to say that these aren't solvable problems because it feels like the Diamondbacks still have assets, they still have pieces. They still have guys that can potentially perform. And then, even then at that point,

it feels like some of their other options that they've tried might work out in another way, like we've talked about with Dre Jameson, potentially returning to the bullpen. Right, yeah. That's absolutely a great point. You don't necessarily need that we don't need three. We don't need Tommy Henry,

Dre Jameson, and Ryan Nelson all shoving in the starting rotation. I mean, that would be great. We kind of need one of them. Yeah, exactly. You kind of need one of them. It's just that you can't have all of them really struggle. And that's exactly what's happened so far. You mentioned Zach Davies earlier.

Suddenly having Zach Davies seems like a pretty big asset for this team, right? A guy that we were happy to let walk during the off season. And now it's like, my God, Zach Davies, please come back and be what you were in like your first start of the season, you know? He's just steady, right? He's a veteran. And I know his couple starts at the beginning of the year weren't great, but you kind of know what you're going to get over the course of a full season with Zach Davies. Whereas with Drey Jamison with Ryan Nelson, you might get a number two starter. And you also might get a guy who's not even a major league caliber starting pitcher, right?

There's just so much volatility there. Whereas with a guy like Zach Davies, you just plug. him in and he's not going to be great. You know, he's, you know, maybe going to get outperformed by the opposing starter more often than not, but he's going to keep you in games in a way that a lot of the Dback starters have not been able to do so far. If you need to watch the Arizona Diamondbacks,

and if you didn't have an opportunity to watch them, you'll have to check out Fubo TV. Fubo TV right now has 140 live channels of sports, shows, movies, and news. You can stream live TV from any device. It basically figures out a lot of the problems. for you to watch TV from wherever you want to watch it. You can start watching immediately with a seven-day free trial, no contract, no cable,

no hassle, no nothing, just a thousand hours of cloud DVR included at no extra charge and watching whatever events you want to watch that you can't currently get if you've cut the cord. You can watch the Sun's playoff run on ABC or ESPN. You can watch the NFL draft. Of course, still going on probably, rounds 9, 10, 11. I think the NFL draft goes on for two and a half months. I'm not sure. Not a big NFL draft.

They don't have 11 rounds. Isn't it seven? They have seven rounds? It's a joke, Jesse. But anyway, you can also get to the NHL draft, which are guys from the Coyotes podcast, will be at live in Nashville, and you can catch that on ESPN.

But most importantly, watch your first place, Arizona Diamondbacks on Valley Sports with Fubo TV. Use the link in the description to sign up for 15% off your first month of Fubo Pro. You can also go to the games. join us at the next Arizona Diamondbacks game. Procrastinate. Wait till the last minute and get your tickets over at Game Time.

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were trying to pull up our tickets on the website and there was absolutely no internet connection so sometimes that will happen to you don't wait until the last minute to get the app get the app now but wait until the last minute to get your tickets and of course procrastinating is the best thing to do always at all times

and the diamondbacks are doing some procrastinating when it comes to call calling up our guy, Brandon fought, Jesse. Per Tori Lavallo, per Toy LaVolo. Well, hold on. Hold on. Let's take a look at the probabilities for this upcoming. It starts on Tuesday.

Damon, let's throw the probabilities up there. Jesse, is it this? Or is it this, Jesse? Is it this? Is it this? Jesse, is it this? We don't know because Tori Lavolo said something very cryptic to you, and I can't stop thinking about it.

And I'm probably only going to get one hour of sleep tonight like Dominic Fletcher did because of what he said to you. Yeah, before the game, Toro Lavello said, I asked him, do you have any starters for that Ranger's series? He was not able to tell us anything before the game on Friday. He said to wait until, you know, the end of the series to the last day of the series. So, so we did. He said, Zach Allen is starting on Tuesday. And he said Wednesday is TBA. TBA.

TBA. TBA. Yep. Tom. Tom, B. Anderson. No, no, that's to be announced, Jesse. That's what they mean when they say that. Why would it be to be TBA? Wasn't that be Merrill? Put the probabilities back up there. Wouldn't that be Merrill Kelly start?

According to the probabilities, it would look like this. This is what it's supposed to look like. Merrill Kelly starts after Zach Gallen. That's the way it works. That's the way the rotation works. What does TBA mean, Jesse? Yeah. So with a four-man rotation, yes, Merrill Kelly would line up for that start. But I think the writing's on the wall, Derek. I think Brandon Fodd making his big league debut on Wednesday. There is no reason for Tori Lavello to come out and be willing to give his starter on Tuesday. He could have maybe said, we have a start.

We have, we have, we have Gallen on Tuesday, but we don't have anything later in the week, or he could have just said, you know, we don't have anything at all at this point. There were other answers he could have given that would have made it less obvious. Did he go wink? There was no winking that happened that I, that I remember. But yeah, if it was Merrill Kelly, which is the way it lines up with their former rotation. You got to feel like Tori would have come out and been able to say that. Why wouldn't you've said it? Yeah. Like I don't feel like TVA is something you do when,

unless there's some decision. Maybe it ends up being Merrill Kelly, but it doesn't mean that a decision isn't being mold over. Now, I have to ask, did you do your math like you've been doing and see if that start would in fact line up with a branded fought start? It does. Yeah, it's two extra days of rest. So it's six days rest total, which is why it's not like, maybe so obvious. Like you said, it is TBA. They could still go to Merrill Kelly. I don't want to say it's official or anything.

But yeah, it would be six days rest, which, you know, down in AAA, you have one off day every single week. So pitchers are pretty used to going on five days. And, you know, adding one extra day in there, I don't think is a huge obstacle. You wouldn't want to go on seven days rest, but I think six is fine. So I do expect Brandon fought to make his big league debut on Wednesday, although nothing is official right now, but I think it's, I think it's pretty clear that's where things are headed. I have the bat ready, Jesse. So if you, if you say the word, when you say the word,

this chair is going to get it. You're going to hate me so much. If that's, so many people are going to hate me so much. You better not be wrong about this one, Big Brain. There are things, there are things that I will, that I will say on the show that I will not tweet. Because I know if you, if you put something like that out of the world in writing, you know, even if it would be said in kind of a speculative manner, which of course is how I would have to word it. It's just not worth it, Derek, because you're putting yourself in position for everyone,

absolutely everyone to hate you. Here I feel like I can get away with a little bit more. But I think it's pretty clear. We talked about a sweep before today's game and because they lost, people wanted to come for us, Jesse. You know that that happened. So we curse the team.

It's all our fault. We did it. It's because of us. And it's not because of Ryan Nelson's terrible pitching. Anyway, where are we going to be the rest of this week? Well, Jesse comes back very soon. He needs to get back very quickly. And this is where you can find us, of course.

We are going to be back on our normal mailbag Monday episode. You have that schedule, Damon. We put the schedule up. Get us on Monday for our normal mailbag Monday episode. We got two post game episodes back to back. On Thursday, we will be back with another off-day episode. Again, no idea what to do with our hard. hands. And then Sunday, we will have our post series, Washington versus the D-Back. So we will be

there at that series. If you're going to go watch the Nationals come to town, make sure to tweet to us, say hi, say what's up. We will be happy to do so. I will make sure that we get Jesse out of the press box once again. But in the meantime, we have a very, very exciting debut to look forward to. Hopefully we have some more concrete news on that by tomorrow at 1 p.m. But make sure that you send us your mailbag Monday questions as always and we will get you your answers. You can follow us on Twitter. But in the meantime, first thing you got to do is go to our friends Circle K. Fuel up for that game. Fuel up on your way to that game. Make sure you check out your local Circle K for the best coffee, beer, snack selection and premium gas. And let me, I just need to speak in defense of Circle K

snacks. Circle K branded snacks might be the best snacks in their entire store. Now, you can argue with me on this. You might be able to refute, find a one-off here, there. But I will say after eating their snacks quite a bit because they've sent them to our office, I want to say that Circle K snacks are elite, Circle K branded snacks. And of course, because you're at a Circle K, you see their branded snacks, you just walk past them and you think, nah, I'm going to go for, I'm going to go for the more expensive name brand stuff. No need.

Buy the Circle K snack. They're incredible. They're hot chips, hotter than any hot chips that you can probably find on their same rack. So make sure to give them a try. Of course,

they also have 12 packs of beer for just $9.99. They have the energy drinks that fuel me. Red Bulls $3 for $8. Monsters, $3 for $6. And of course,

make sure you're not missing out on all this great stuff. Head to circlek.com slash store dash locator to find CircleKs near you. Also, while you're there, grab some Four Peaks beer. That's a great place

to get Four Peaks Beer. Four Peaks Brewing Company, one of the best local beer. Wait, did I say one of? Forget that. The best local craft brewery here in the Valley. You can follow them on social. They're at Four Peaks Brew to get all the latest on Arizona's premier craft brewery. They make a wide variety of delicious beers that you can grab wherever you get your beers,

wherever grocery store you shop at, or of course, at Circle K, make sure to pick them up. And check out their A's Street Pub. We just had our NFL draft party there. It was an absolute blast. people were very much enjoying the chicken tendees. And of course they were because we wouldn't lie to you about this stuff. Their chicken attendees, absolutely elite. First round, first round draft pick, the four-peaks chicken tendies.

You can check out their 8th Street brewery, get their brewery tours. Ask about the ghosts. Do us a favor. Find out if the ghosts are D-Backs fans because we still don't know that. And of course, check out my favorite beer, which is the wow wheat. You get all wonderful variety of beers, anything you enjoy to sip on over at the 8th Street pub. And they'll let you try all of them. So go there sample.

Maybe find your new favorite beer and then pick it up wherever you get your beers at close to your home. But in the meantime, Jesse, did you drink enough water? I know we're talking about beers here, but I just want to make sure you, did you eat? Did you take care of yourself? I did. I'm going to scream at Patrick Lyons if he did not take care of you while you were there. Yeah, I feel like my diet was pretty decent while I was here. I have heard apparently the elevation really, really affects.

certain people. I don't want to throw anyone under the bus by name. There was a particular member of the DeBax broadcast crew. And not Susie. She, Susie's used to it, right? Susie, Susie's okay with the elevation at this point. Susie's immune to all outside elements. She's just a mutant

at this point, but there were, there were some members of the DeBax broadcast crew here in Colorado who sounded as if they were at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. I mean, they said they couldn't sleep, they couldn't, you know they basically were non-functional human beings for the carers you know all days it's i'm not mentioning any names but yeah apparently the elevation really does affect some people got me a little

concern i was like man maybe i'm not drinking enough water but so far so far so good i'm i'm well your time's done get the hell off the road come back home we got shows to do all right there's work to be done there's donuts to be made you can follow us on twitter you can follow jesse make sure make sure he gets home safe he's at jesse and friedman i'm at cap underscore caveman with a k for a very good reason uh our show is at p h nx underscore dbacks i mean i don't mean to leave him out but since i don't see him because we're not in studio i forget him but dam and dog our producer is at dam and dog that's da wg at the end and you have to when you follow him you got give a little woof uh but of course all roads lead to at p h nx underscore sports uh on

Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. I might have a problem with the altitude right now because I keep forgetting words to say. But who knows, whatever. Jesse, hurry up and get back here. I can't do this show alone without you anymore. I'm just locked up in my house waiting for you to come back. So get your ass back here.

We thank you guys for being here. We love you. We always appreciate you. Whether the Diamondbacks win by 10 or lose by 10, we will be here to talk about it with you. None of these games are remotely close. All of these were like, they were good games. They were also kind of boring, you know?

Yeah. Like the sixth inning, it was pretty clear. I guess the Friday's game still one to one after six innings. That one only tipped in the devax favor late. But outside of that, these were three complete blowout baseball games. Well, we appreciate you. Good time here. You guys again, thank you so much for joining us.

And remember, kids, baseball is fun. But it's so much more fun when the games are actually close.