PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Will Ketel Marte’s Return DISRUPT the D-backs MORE Than His Unexpected Absence?

Episode Date: August 25, 2026

The Arizona Diamondbacks are officially going through it. Not only did the Snakes suffer an embarrassing loss to the Chicago Cubs to open the series, but things boiled over between the dugouts as the teams’ bench coaches got into a heated shouting match across the field. Now, the D-backs have even more questions to answer. With another starting pitcher heading to the injured list, how will Arizona piece together its rotation down the stretch? And with Ketel Marte’s looming return, another major mystery hangs over this team: How will his teammates and the fans react? Will Marte be welcomed back with open arms, or will he hear boos when he steps back onto the field? Plus, we react to Alek Thomas’ comments about being part of the Dodgers organization and explain why he has officially landed on “The List.” BECOME A DIEHARD: gophnx.com/join JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4 An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/ Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX15 at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order! Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visit https://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotes Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 40% 2+ pairs of off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you! When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Now that we know when Catele-Marté is returning to this team, we have to ask the question, will his return be more of a disruption than it will be a welcome site? And how will fans react to Cotel returning to this team? All this, plus we've got to talk about the dugouts screaming at each other in last night's loss. Don't you go anywhere? We are starting right now. Welcome in to a rare 12 p.m. show here on a Tuesday. This is the P.HNX Diamondback show.

Love from Studio K. presented by our friends at Circle K. I am your mayor of PHNX, occasionally known as Derek Montia. Thrilled to have all of you here except one guy and he knows who he is. And thrilled to be joined by my dog, your dog,

and they won and only Damon dog on the ones of twos. And no, Damon is not the person who I'm talking about about it. Yeah, I thought I was doing the little sass meme pointing at myself. Did I get drafted? No, no, no.

No, he knows who he is and he's a moron and he's obnoxious. But he's still one of, I guess, the people here in the live chat. That's all I'm going to refer to you as. But welcome to the rest of you. Love to see you guys here. And again, it's a rare 12 p.m. day because we are doing a takeover of Chase Field tonight. We will be present.

And we are hoping to change the vibes from, you know, last night's absolute embarrassing loss to the Chicago Cubs. Of course, this show is brought to you by our friends over at GameTime. Go download the GameTime app right now. Join us tonight. Come say hi, hang out. And of course, if you do so, and at your first time, you can use our code of PHNX. You'll get $20 off your first purchase. Just download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.

Terms do apply. A lot of sadness. Yes, Dolly Parton news this morning that Dolly Parton passed away. That just feels like more sadness on top of the sadness that many of us Diamondbacks fans are experiencing right now with our baseball team. but overall, rest in peace to one of the legends. I honestly didn't think it was possible for Dolly Parton to ever pass on. So this is a bit of a downer of a morning already. But hopefully we can pick the vibes up tonight at Chase Field because we are going to be out there at the All You Can Eat section.

And, you know, all you can eat, Lizzie's can at least make a bad day a little better. But we do have to talk about Cotel Marte's looming return because that, timeline has finally become real. Marte obviously hasn't played since August 17th and the team placed him on the restricted list. But according to reports, Cattel Marte will be returning by next Tuesday. Apparently that is going to be in time for game two, I believe, of that Philadelphia Phillies series. And again, the Diamondbacks aren't simply saying that Cotel is eligible to come back. Marte has, according to the Diamondbacks, resumed baseball activities and is taking, I believe, live batting practice, including hitting and other drills as well.

Labella said he's on track for that activation early next week. So assuming everything goes to plan here, Cattel Marte will be activated by, it sounds like, game two of that series against Philadelphia. But obviously the return of Cotel is only half the story here because this is going to be one of the most scrutinized returns of the Major League Baseball season. And it's going to be polarizing, I think. The circumstances surrounding Marte's absence are still a bit shrouded in mystery. They've never really fully been explained publicly. We've had instances where Lovolo has hinted, but he has said very little information.

and describe Marte as dealing with a personal issue still. We don't know if that personal issue is related to the team and his feelings about the team or an actual personal issue that, again, still hasn't come to light and may never come to light. Then we have the casino controversy, right? Martagate Day 5 or whatever you want to call it. Casino Gate. Casino Gate. Yeah. Martee Gate does have a good ring to it.

Yeah, it really does. About the entire situation. I mean, I think that, again, the big thing about being seen at a casino is the fact that it not only is it bad optics, but it was during a baseball game and all of that. Like, I don't need to go into all of that all over again. But, I mean, it basically felt like that information coming to light just added to this whole situation and didn't do anything to help it go away, just exasperated it and made it worse, right? And again, it's fuel to the flame. Yeah. For sure.

Right? I mean, that's it. Tori, I think, answered it in the best possible way that anybody could have answered it. Tori is the soldier taking the, you know, the darts on that meme while Catell is sleeping when it comes to the casino controversy. I'll be the first to say it. I said, like, hey, Cattel's over at Salt River Fields. What do you expect a millionaire to do when he has nothing to do that night? when you're in that area, right?

You go to the aquarium, you check out the penguins, specifically the penguins, and the otters. The otters are adorable. Maybe butterflies next door. I suggest the laser maze. That's always fun. And then obviously you find yourself over to a casino sitting out a blackjack table or a roulette table, right? I mean, it's just obvious. It's a bad look.

He can do whatever he wants with his time. No one's saying that he's not free to do whatever he wants. but I think a lot of other players in that situation would not be, you know, making a spectacle of it quite like Cattel did, because Cotel is insane if he didn't think that that was going to blow up and be a big, giant thing. He's in the middle of Scottsdale on a Friday night at a casino that a lot of people frequent in the middle of a baseball game.

I mean, Rock and I did discuss it on D-Backs after dark this weekend. And there's a question in the chat that says, would it have been better if he was helping a cat out of a tree? No, no, it wouldn't have been. because at least this time he was at least he was sitting in a chair don't hurt that knee kattel yeah don't hurt that knee you know what i would have been more mad at kattel bowling if if there was video of kattel bowling that night i would have been furious if there was video of kattel at top golf just ripping balls i would have been so mad but at least he was in a chair

uh and overall troy didn't have a problem uh with it and again i think that if tory doesn't have a problem with it nobody should have a problem with it we can all move on. But that doesn't seem to be the case. The case is that people are very upset with Catelle, and that only added to the anger, only added to the backlash, anger, you know, overall, backlash. But there is the return and what the reaction to Marte's return is going to be. And that's the most fascinating part of this story that we don't know. Obviously, welcoming Marte back to the clubhouse is far more important than how the crowd reaction is going to be to Cotel Marte when he's announced, when he takes his first at bat, all of that.

I mean, are people going to be supportive of Marte? Are they going to cheer him? Will there be booze cascading down at Chase Field? It feels like that's likely. But there's also, you know, the idea here that when you're talking about players in the clubhouse, you know, kind of what the responses are going to be. I think it's going to be a mixed bag. I think that there's plenty of people that feel the way, you know, that Gabby Moreno felt. I think there's plenty of players that feel the way that Kevin Yinkle felt or aired that he felt. But I think the biggest thing about this is, I mean, these are all factors, you know, in regards to how his return is handled and what that first day back is like. There's a good chance that

once we get past that first day, we can all move past that and get beyond that and have Marte, hopefully back here helping this team win baseball games. But that's the big question. Will Marte's return spark this team? Will Marte's return be the thing that gets them going? Or is it just going to be a further, you know, is it going to be more noise? Is it going to be more distractions? Is it just going to be something to be another hurdle for this team to try to get past?

I mean, the Diamondbacks desperately need Marte back. That's just a fact. So when people are responding in our social media posts and saying like, get out of here, goodbye, all of that stuff, like, that's crazy. Because if you want to make the playoffs, you need Marte to be a part of that. You also can't start just throwing away a player of Catelle Marte's caliber due to this. Even if you're upset with him,

even if you think you don't want them part of this team any longer. In fact, the best thing would be is to let this all die down. If that's the case, have Marte go out there and turn things around. And then you can, you know, trade them or do whatever you want as far as, you know, once his value is back up. But anything that is in regards to Marte, even people that are like DFA, is some of the most insane takes I've ever heard, right? But, I mean, again, getting a healthy Cote back is massive.

It's a massive development for this team. 21 homers and his 67 RBIs are desperately missed. And again, it's not like he needs to come back and be perfect. He just doesn't need to be a distraction. And what he needs to do is just come back and help this team win baseball games. You know, and again, I truly hope that that's what occurs. I don't think it's necessarily fair to boo Marte as a fan when he returned. but I will say that it's understandable.

So I'm not going to, I don't think anybody should be judged for doing so. I understand a lot of people taking what Marta has done here as fans personally, especially when we are sitting here now in the middle of this playoff race that we are currently engaged in, that we have an absolutely decent chance of actually, you know, winning and making the postseason. And all for it to kind of seem like it's crumbling before our very eyes, due to this situation, just kind of impacting everything that this baseball team has going on right now, right?

I would say, Derek, that, like, I would caution people that are going to boot Kattel because he, I mean, to me, is Kattel not, like, a very emotional guy at this point? Like, I think that that's, you know, like, that's not towards our common goal. We want to make playoffs. Even if you're upset with Kattel and if you're a D-Backs fan, you should want to make playoffs. And that is, it only gets in the way. It's only a hurdle if you try to get in your own players' head and boo him.

So I'm totally against that. I don't think that we should boo Ketel at all. And again, I've been outspoken this year and last year when it came to Ketel's inexcused absences because I don't think it's acceptable. But I also know that this team can't get to the place that we want to go without Ketel Marte. Absolutely. As I've said on this show, you know, as this situation, started, Derek. I think the Diamondbacks can scrape a playoff berth without Catell,

but there is a 0% chance we can do anything in the playoffs without Cotel. That's pretty fair to say. I think that that's just the facts of the situation. So, and you know what? I'm not, I'm not interested in making the playoffs because I want to just say we went and that was cool. And then we got swept. And it was like 20, you know, what was that? 2017 against the Dodgers when you're like, oh, we beat the Rockies. And then we got our asses kicked by the Dodgers. No, like, I want, I think we should be striving for what 2023 was like. Find the right matchups.

You know, win on the, you know, the big key plays, like an Alec Thomas home run, for example. And it's just, I could tell is the guy that brings a lot of those moments, was the NLCS MVP. He is the ceiling razor of this team, in my opinion. And so I don't want to see him go at. I don't want to see him not be on this team at all because I don't know what we can even do without Cotel Marte. So we need him back. We need him back fast.

And we need them back and committed to what we got going on. And that's winning baseball games, you know? I am suspicious, Damon, that this actually happens in baseball a lot. And the only difference is how it's handled. How it's handled. The internal handling of the situation. I don't mean players ghosting their teams, right? I don't mean players not showing up to the,

the ballpark. Obviously, that became a massive story around not just the Diamondbacks, but literally around baseball. The idea that a superstar, all-star player just didn't show up and the team has no idea where he is became a story, right? Obviously communicating and having, you know, knowing exactly what was going on, even if Kutel was protesting playing and was deciding not to show up to Fenway that day would have been handled completely differently by the organization, had this been communicated, and that's, to me, the biggest problem in this situation is the distraction and story it became. And I don't entire, like, yes, Ketel shares his blame of that, and he shares a big portion

of that pie as far as the communication goes. But I would also blame Mike Hazen and Torrey just a little bit there because of the way that they handled it and were so honest to the media. I think there are times. they felt very backstabed there, to be honest with you. Especially Tori. I mean, he's always had Catel's back, so it doesn't seem fair that Catelle would just not even tell him where he is. It's real life stuff, right?

It's the human emotions tied to it and the reaction that you have in the moment when someone sticks a microphone in your face and asks you about it. I'm just saying if you could have been, if there was more like, well, we're handling this internally right now. We don't have a statement on it. Like, corporate speak. Don't get me wrong. Like, I'm not expecting Tori to be able to elaborate without.

telling more and have his players back and all of that with no information at all. But I'm just saying overall, like the way that they basically came out in the media and said, like, I have no idea what's going on with Tell Tell. Don't know where he is. Don't know if he's rejoining this team. Don't know if he'll be back this year. Don't know why. Don't know where he is if he's in this state or if he's in Arizona.

Like that, all of that, I think really, when you talk about what added fuel to the fire, that added the most fuel to the fire as well as Kattel showing up and being in a casino and everything else that. That's weird with this situation. But the biggest thing is, how does this impact our team? How does this impact winning? Because the Diamondbacks need to win. They got smoke last night.

They got embarrassed last night by the Chicago Cubs. And it was their offense's fault and their bullpen's fault a little bit. Also, the Cubs were stealing signs so that seems to play in as well. And we'll get into all of that. But, you know, again, how will Cotel Marte actually impact this team when he returns? That's the biggest question we have. How will he impact what the score is on the scoreboard at the end of the day? Because, again, there's going to be a lot of questions to ask about Cattel after that, Damon.

Like, it's not going to stop just when he returns. I think if he can come back, though, and he can be good. I think Cesar said it in the chat. Winning solves a lot. So if he can come back and he can, you know, basically help this team. He says if Marte starts crushing it, crushing the ball, and give it a week before everyone starts praising him at the end of the day. That's what freely matters winning.

100%. And that's, well, that's why this is so frustrating. Because the team was kind of winning when Katel did this. Right, right. And now it's like we're in shambles. We don't know if our star's second baseman is going to be back. Oh, he is going to be back. But we have a knee injury.

We don't know if the knee injury is real or not. It sounds like it's real. That's more of my concern, I think, Derek, is that the team, the team is doing pretty well. and he still kind of did this. It's like last year when we were fighting for our life when he did this, it almost was like, is he doing this because things are not going well partially on the field as well? But right now, we were in a wildcard spot when Kattel, you know,

ultimately did not show up to Fenway Park. And now we're not in a wildcard spot. And we'll just never know what would happen if none of this would have happened, right? For sure. Maybe we still lose to Boston. Maybe we get swept by Boston with Ketel. in the lineup. I'm not saying. Like, you just never know. And again, this is, this is the time frame. This is the timeline we live in right now. We just need, we need Ketel committed. I'll say it again. Like,

he needs to, I need him to come back committed to this baseball team. Yeah. Committed to, you know, his teammates above all. Like, if you have problems with Tori and Hazen, I think that's perfectly understandable. It's fine. I'm not going to claim to know the nitty, gritty details of that type of stuff. But what I will say is that you are on a team. And as we have talked about on this show, if I simply just didn't show up for this podcast, I would be screwing my teammate Derek over. Like, Derek and I are, we are teammates in this situation here. And I would feel really damn bad about that.

And I need, I need Ketel to do it for his teammates, you know, even if he's upset with the leadership of the organization. I'll also say this. If I called out of work and didn't, you know, give a reason. But like, hey, I can't be there today. Damon, you mind getting it? Damon would totally hold it down for me. He wouldn't be happy.

That would be an unpleasant conversation between us, but it would be fine. If there was a warning, yeah. We would make it work. Let's say I did it like at 10 o'clock in the morning for a post game. Hey, Jacob Franklin, are you free for a 12 o'clock show? Right. Right. Here's the problem, though.

If you then saw me in a casino while you were doing the show, how would you feel that, Damon? I would be. How would you feel that? It would be really, really, really mad. I never gave you a reason. I didn't say it was because I was sick. I didn't say you.

I wasn't coming. I'm like, bro, I just can't make it today. Do you mind holding it down? And you were like, yeah, man, I guess. And then you saw me in a casino? I think everybody has the right to be a little upset about that. But also, like I said, if Tori's fine with it, then that's how he's allowed to spend his time.

What sucks, though, is the Diamondback starting pitching situation, Damon. What the hell do we do? I mean, what the hell? What the hell do we do? We have a three-man rotation right now? Yeah, that's all. Just Eduardo Rodriguez, Brandon Faw, and Merrill Kelly hold the down. The Mariners have a six-man rotation.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Twice as many pitchers there. I know. I can do that basic of math, I promise, without a calculator. But Mitch Bratt, option down to Reno. I get the move, right? I get the move. They just had Brat pitch.

You have days before you have to make another move to call up a starting pitcher. Obviously. They obviously, they have a plan in place. I just don't know what that plan is. Or if it is to call up another starting pitcher, right? Right now, what the Diamondbacks did, their 40-man roster is at 39. They recalled Juan Burgos, who pitched in last night's game, and he was the only reliever that didn't give up a run, and they optioned Mitch Bratt to AAA Reno.

Now, as far as the rotation is concerned, you have, you can't bring back Mitch Bratt, nor would you, because that would be absolutely silly for you to send him down, just to bring him back. Cole Drake, Jose Cabrera are options, right? But not great options. I feel like Jose Cabrera had a little bit more success at a major league level than Cole Drake did. But does this mean Zach Gallen is coming back?

I feel like that's what this means. I feel like Zach Gallen is coming back. And as Evil Michael says, the debacks are 15 and 28 in games started by Zach Gallen and Merrill Kelly this season. That's not bad, is it? 13 under 500. Is it bad? Is that bad?

That seems bad. team is what six games over 500 and they're 13 under with those two on the mound think about how good you are with soroka erod fought we're the best team in baseball with those pitchers we win we win 80% of the time what a disaster what a what a what a fall off from you know two of the greatest pitchers this organization has ever seen like both were top five debaq's potential pitchers of all time if you're truly making a list You know, Merrill and Zach for what they accomplished in the 2023 postseason and, you know, years afterwards as well, or in Zach's case, probably more so years before. I, I, it's just, it's unbelievable how not good they've, they've gotten.

And honestly, this is a little bit unfair to Merrill because Merrill didn't pitch that bad last night. No, no, as a matter of fact, we've said time and time. It's more about the body of work as a whole. Sure. We've said that this season, Merrill's starts usually dictate how the game is going to. go. If Merrill has a good day, the Diamondbacks have a good chance of winning. And you're right. Last night, Merrill's performance was not the problem. No. Overall, the problem truly was the offense. And last night's game, the bullpen, right? But that bullpen situation goes differently. I imagine if the Diamondbacks are in that game. But the bullpen definitely let things unravel quickly,

and that became a problem. This just sucks. And I don't know when Corbyn Burns is going to return. The timetable for Burns is still early September. That still feels. We need early September to roll around. Like, I need to wake up tomorrow. And it's September 7th and Corbyn Burns is on the mound. Because it's, Derek, like, that is what we'll save the season. Kattel and Corbyn Burns, getting two of our three best players back on the team.

Oh, would that, would that help? I think that would be pretty good. I think that would be pretty good. But I just, I don't know what they're going to do. And I don't know which direction they're going to go. It feels like, again, Gallin was right there kind of neck and neck with Corbin Burns as far as his return. But Gallen did not have an injury. Well, they reported one, right?

What was it? What was the injury, Damon? I don't, I mean, they said it was something. What did he tear? What did he sprain? Did they say it was something? Like shoulder tightness or something like that? elbow tightness

something something like that elbow tightness means you're gone yeah true it's a wasn't it something like that though rotator cuff some sort of whatever I knew I had said it though

I had said if a real injury doesn't come back right if a real injury and don't get me wrong sometimes it might honestly be exhaustion for a starting pitcher I'm not saying it's not gallon you know

Gallin's had a very weird career here and I don't know. But overall, like it never felt like an actual injury came out. It never felt like he actually needed to rehab or miss a significant amount of time. Maybe he just needed some time off. And this is their way of giving it to him. But overall, like I said, this move feels like that is what is coming.

It feels like Gallin is returning to the starting lineup. We'll see if I'm right. But the bigger news will be when Corbyn Burns returns. The, I guess my point here, David, is, Okay. So Zach Gallin returns. It is. It did. Apparently it was elbow tightness. Was it tightness? Okay. Or elbow inflammation.

Inflammation. That's what it is. Not tightness. Yeah. So he was placed on the 60 day IL or I guess they first it was the 15 day. Then they retroactively made it the 60 day, which you know, you can factor in those 15 days as a part of it. I believe that that happened on July 12. I think I'm seeing here. So he should be When did he originally go on the IL for the Yeah, that's what I'm trying to figure out

because that's the date that he would be, 60 days past that would be the day that he would be allowed back, right? Yeah, eligible to come back for sure. Trying to figure that out here. No, it's fine. But overall, it just feels like that's the move. But my point I was getting to. Yeah, July 12.

So he wouldn't be eligible to come back until. August 5th or September 15th. Like September 12th-ish, right? Well, yeah, there's 31 days and 31 days. So, yeah, September 10th. Yeah. When he would be able to come back before Zach Gallen then.

By the sounds of it, no? Yeah. Well, yeah, but yeah, they still need two pitchers. So what's going on? They still need two pitchers. Does Mike Hazen think he can go trade for a pitcher right now? I don't know. Is that why we didn't make any pitching moves at the thing?

deadline is because we were like, oh, don't worry. They actually can't go trade for one. We'll go trade for one later. It's incredible to me. I mean, again, what are they going? Not just one guy, two guys. One guy, two guys. Two guys.

I was not expecting Mitch Bratt to be optioned as soon. So again, I mean. I don't really understand it, to be honest with you at this. Now that I know that Zach Gallen can't come back for a couple more weeks here. The only way I could see it is if they'd already made the designation or the, the, the, they were confirming the idea that they were going to have Jose Cabrera, maybe Ann Coltrake, come back and they, I don't know, man. I don't know.

I have no idea, but. That's, I don't, why did we not trade for a pitcher? What? We, ever since, at the deadline, we were pitching, we had Coltrick and Mitch Brett in our rotation. I am not starting a whole thing on that, because we'll just do the whole show without doing an ad break. Because that is a topic that makes my head exploding.

We had cold Drake and Mitch Bratt in the rotation, Derek, at the deadline. And then afterwards, we went for a couple turns through with them and then decided that they're both not good enough to be on the Major League roster. What were we thinking? I mean, I, Derek, I was pounding the table for a pitcher from like the first week of the season on. What were we thinking? think of the mailbag Monday, Damon, before the trade deadline, when someone was like, what's the worst thing they can do? And I was like, I don't know, adding a position they don't really need like an outfield. And like an outfielder, maybe, maybe a corner outfielder with a

700 OPS, probably. Oh my God. Let's go to the commercials. I don't want to talk about this anymore. I'm so sad. Dolly Parton died. My team's falling apart. I hate all of it. And I need something. I need a reset. So let's take a quick break. On the other side of this break, I'm not going to get any happier because we're just going to talk about the Diamondbacks losing 7 to nothing to the Chicago Cubs last night. Don't you go anywhere. We'll try to at least make you laugh. This is the PHNX Diamondback Show.

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giggling and saying nice every time I say their record. But it's not nice. I'm not happy about it, and the debacks, again, looked awful last night. The debacks offense was stuck in in the mud all night long. They never put anything together. That's the best way to describe it. And their pitching staff outside of Merrill Kelly gave this team very little hope of staying in this game, especially once Kelly exited. But the big story was the screaming of expletives between dugouts. And that all started in the fifth inning for those of you that may have missed it. Merrill Kelly apparently had noticed that Chicago Cubs third base coach Quentin Barry was doing something

that made him believe that Chicago had picked up on his pitch selection. He was tipping pitches or they were stealing signs, and then Kelly in the fifth inning stepped off the mound and kind of stared down the Cubs' third base coach, which I won't lie. All of this was hilarious to me. And it's one of those parts of the game of baseball that is just truly, truly fascinating.

That set off a back and forth now between dugouts, where I don't know who initiated the yelling, between dugouts, but it was like Kepler. No, I'm sorry, not Kepler. It was Jeff Bannister and Kaplan, excuse me, Brian Kaplan, squaring off with Cubs bench coach, Ryan Flaherty. And all of these grown men started telling each other

what they could do with their words and where they could shove stuff and how places they could go and how they could get there, if you know what I mean. Words that we would know. never say on this podcast because Jose's kids are watching. But again, overall, according to reports, things got very heated. There was, yeah, some screaming and telling people to back down. Yes, Brian Kepler being mad at cheating would have been ironic. Yes. So we're not going to say

it was Kepler, but it was Kaplan. Excuse me, but no one was ejected and the benches didn't fully clear, but it became a legitimate problem. And I think the Diamondbacks might be a little sensitive to this kind of stuff lately. Like, not only do they have a lot of distractions and stuff going on in life, but I mean, we put our jokes out there about it, but some people truly believe that the Boston Red Sox are somehow gaining an advantage at Fenway over their opponents with some sort of sign stealing, pitchcom stealing, something like that. Diamondbacks just went through that with their series with this.

but you can tell. You can tell that things were kind of bubbling over there a little bit. And again, this was, I think this definitely was more about frustration rather than anything else. And no, they weren't down by five runs. They were down by three runs at the time. Well, two, right? Two runs. Yeah, I believe it was two.

Yeah, Merrill hadn't given up the third run. It was two zero. And he was responsible for the runner on first base because he gave up a single. but he was chirping the third base coach right when he came back to the dugout. And also it was, I mean, like I said. And then immediately they hit a two-run bomb and that guy won the like, you know. The back and forth, if you will. Yeah, I was going to say something much more vulgar.

But I, I, it was, yeah, we got embarrassed last night. That was one of those ones where, you know, all of a sudden that bomb goes over the fence, like just no doubter from Conforto and you're, and you're Merrill Kelly. and you're like, ugh, I was just talking crap to this guy about five seconds ago. I mean, it's, it's remarkable. And obviously, Kelly admitted Chicago may have been on to something of his. Like, Kelly didn't completely skirt blame, but he was not happy. And after the game, he also used some colorful language to describe what he felt like this situation was.

he called it Bush League. I don't think that's what he called it, but he did believe Barry had picked up something in his delivery and his signs. He called it BS. He did call it BS. And he put some responsibility on himself saying if the Cubs figured out his tail,

he needs to fix the tell. And he's right. That's not the problem. Stealing signs in baseball is not the problem. The problem here was that what Kelly thought was BS was the coach, the third base coach being the one to do it.

And that's basically it. Rather, it's the kind of information that typically stays between players and is accepted between players. Sign stealing is weird because in baseball it's one of those things where you're supposed to be mad if you find out they're doing it, but you're also supposed to be understanding that it's part of the game and there's nothing illegal about sign stealing. There's nothing illegal about the third base coach stealing signs.

Like, this is baseball. I mean, literally, they made these signs on all this stuff because they wanted to relay in information without the other team being able to steal it. So obviously, that's a big part of the game, and it's understandable when it comes from the players, like when you got a guy stealing signs on second base and relaying them to the batter and such, right?

Maybe you have a trash can in the dugout that you're beating like a drum. Hey, maybe. Maybe you're wearing a buzzer, some sort of buzzer device under your shirt, I don't know, but the Cubs response basically was that this is it. That's it. That happens in baseball. Tough. That was Craig Counsel essentially shrugging it off as game-smanship. Even the screaming at each other in the dugout. Careful, Craig Counsel. I will turn. I can turn on a Diamondbacks legend. I mean,

I have been known. We're not above that. No. As a matter of fact, we might. Looking at you, David Pearl. We got, we got some guys added to our list already, and we might add. one more to the list before today is over. But I just think that like, yeah, there's clearly like kind of, you know, I guess an unwritten rule for lack of a better term that coaches should not be involved with that kind of behavior. Right. Right.

We know the Diamondbacks coaches are like, they are like the most like, we want to be best friends with everybody, you know, including the Dodgers. We want to, we want to chop it up with the Dodgers. It's like they are never going to do anything that is. like quote unquote shady like that in my opinion. So they're probably going to take issue with it when another team does it to them. But yeah, I don't know. I mean, it comes down to.

Got to figure out a better way to hide it, I guess, at the end of the day. Yeah, it comes down to the debacks feeling like they crossed an unwritten line. And the Cubs basically said if you're tipping pitches, that's your problem. That's basically what it comes down to. And there's a fairness aspect to that as well. You know, I guess I would need to know, like, are truthfully, are no other team. teams, like their coaches are never trying to steal signs, or is this really a one-off situation where it's this Cubs third base coach that is involved in it?

And usually it's not the case. I don't know. I would need, like, more, I guess, body of work here. But it seems like the Diamondbacks in particular, you know, Bannister, Kaplan, Merrill, not happy with the way that they were stealing signs. Obviously. Which to me that tells me that it maybe was unconventional. It wasn't like in a way that is necessarily considered clean, I guess.

Well, I guess like it was, I didn't see it. They tried to replay it on the broadcast a little bit. It sounded like Barry was like leaning in at one point, kind of doing a little bit of like, or walking out of the box that third base coaches have to stand, you know, stay in in order to see the signs, right? But you know what? I'll say this. Signs, they weren't stealing signs from the offense. And the offense was the problem yesterday. the offense was absolutely owned by the Cubs.

They couldn't do anything. Yeah, I mean, you could have been winning the game if you were having a decent game by the time Merrill comes out of it. Yeah, yeah. And if the bullpen blows it, then, again, we know where we're placing blame for this loss. You don't even need a good game. You could have had three runs with a very average game and giving yourself a chance. We'll place blame.

We'll place blame. But what we do want to... Blame game. We'll play, we'll do it. We'll do it before we get out of here. But Corby and Carroll, Corby and Carroll reached Damon on a walk in the fourth inning with out. He then would steal second and then steal third for his 19th and 20th stolen bases of the year. Four straight 20 steel seasons. It's, it's amazing. And it's his 13th career occurrence of

stealing two stolen bases in an inning. His 13 occurrences are the most in Diamondbacks franchise history. I'll tell you what's even crazier than that, Derek. 16 triples and 20 steals. There's that too. When the next closest guy has seven. He almost has as many triples as he does stolen bases before yesterday he had what 16 and 18 yeah 16 and 18 Derek that's ridiculous to be well he hasn't been stealing a lot either no but that's what I'm saying to be fast enough to stretch that many doubles into triples because that's truly what Corbyn that that's why he gets as many triples as he does is when he hits it in the gap he you know obviously can get that extra 90 to be that fast to stretch that many doubles into triples but also not be stealing as much as like

conventionally someone that is that fast would steal. And part of it also is that he has so many extra base hits because he's such a good hitter. Whereas a lot of guys that are of that ilk, they're more singles guys. They're not big power hitters. Yeah, that's a good point. He's such a unique player.

And I always like every time I hit a triple, I start like thinking all of these thoughts in my head. He's genuinely just a generational player. Especially playing here because he knows where to hit it to get the triple. He knows exactly. Yeah. Like once a ball starts heading into that right field corner, Corbin's gone. He knows. He doesn't even have to look back.

He knows that he is going to get to third without a problem. But you just, we've really never seen a guy, especially not here, but I just don't think in general that is so fast, so powerful, you know, in, in like with such a, you know, compact frame. Like he's five foot nine. Yeah. He's built like me. And I mean, he's obviously a lot more ripped than I am. But he's, you know, he's going out there and he's, it's just unbelievable that he's not steal, he's stealing a lot of of bases, but not as many as you would think for Corbyn Carroll. Like, you would think he'd be up there with the league leaders. But part of that is because he's too good of a hitter that he takes himself out of those

steel type situations very, very often. Well, because he's hitting triples. He's too big in triples in triples in, he can't steal home all the time. He can't do that. He's stretching, you know, like when he hits it kind of in the gap, but it's shallow and he gets a double every time. It's a single for most guys, but a double every time. So then he's not on first base to steal second base.

Like he's, it's just crazy. It's crazy how he is the rare player where his speed and power combination impacts his ability to steal bases. Well, I thank you for that, Damon, because you were able to stretch out the offensive conversation about Corbyn Carroll longer than any threats the Diamondbacks had in last night's game. I'm here all week, Derek. That's it.

That's all the offense we have to talk about. I'm in Vegas the end of the week. Corby and Carroll getting those two stolen bases is the, the only thing that brings us joy offensively in this game. The Diamondbacks had five hits total. They were all singles. And the only time they occurred in the same inning was in the ninth inning when Fernandez and Pardomo both had singles in the ninth inning.

But guess what? As you can tell based on the score, nobody scored. Nobody came home. Nobody reached base twice in this game. Nobody had an extra base hit. That's neat. O for two with runners in scoring position. O for two with runners in scoring position.

And those O for two was Corbyn Carroll stealing second and stealing third. That's it. That's it. That's all the offense we got to talk about. And obviously we know whose light is going to get lit up when we get to the blame game. But we do have to name a Kingsnake. Why? I don't know.

I didn't contractually agree to this. But we're naming one anyway. and it's Jeff Bannister. Jeff Bannister will fight the entire Chicago Cubs dugout right now. And any fans at Chase Field that want a piece of this? Yeah, any Cubs fans maybe that are here in the Valley that, you don't want to show up, try to take over our stadium, you can get some as well from Jeff Bannister. Yeah, you want some?

Huh? You got something to say? What about you over there, Mr. Big Guy? Mr. Big Shot, Mr. Tough guy. This was a picture from last night, by the way, Derek. This was him in the dugout when he was mid shit talk sesh with the Cubs and this was the face he was given. Is that not the face of a man that will kill you and everybody you love? Oh, man.

Yeah. Yeah, pretty much. I wouldn't want to fight that guy. No. No. Jeff Bannister's definitely taking off his shirt to fight you. And that's the kind of like insider hockey fight knowledge that not every person has. Not every person knows to just ditch the hoodie because you're not letting your opponent pull it over your head and start giving you the business like a hockey player would, right?

He's just like, let's get this bad boy off right now. We're slapping skin. It's big, meaty men slapping meat is what's happening. And if you want any of that, Bannister is your guy. If you want to fight someone, we got a guy for you. But we're going to take a quick break. On the other side of this break, we are going to talk a little bit more about Merrill Kelly's night, the bullpen, and place some blame. So don't you go anywhere?

You are watching the PH and X Diamondback Show. Well, of course, you know where we are stopping on our road trip. We've talked about it. You know it. We know it. Circle K is the place. If you are heading out anywhere, even if you're just here in town, starting your day, Circle K is the place to start your day.

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and tell them, PH and X sent you. Oh, Damon Merrill was not the reason this team lost last night. He has been the reason in the past, and he has struggled this season. But he did a decent job of limiting the damage for most of the night, especially considering how badly Chicago's offense has been rolling lately. That's something that you can't say enough. I mean, they just came into this game, just putting up runs. And Merrill did hold them to two runs while he was,

in and like Damon said, one run that scored after he exited the game. But his biggest problem was traffic. Three walks, five hits. He was constantly pitching around trouble, pitching out of the stretch and pitching with runners on base. You gave a one out, one out single in the second inning to Ian Hap that scored the first run. He would score on a two-out triple by Pedro Ramirez that put the Cubs up one to nothing. However, he would go on to Strand Ramirez at third, and that involved, I think, a flyout as the final out from PCA, who was held in check most of the night by Merrill Kelly and this time in back's pitching staff. But he had a one, two, three, third inning, a one, two, three, fourth inning. Like, Merrill was rolling at one point. But then in the fifth, he gave up

a lead off double to Conforto, and then another double with two outs to Sayas Suzuki that put the Cubs up two to nothing. He left with two outs in the sixth inning after giving up a single to Ramirez, and then Taylor Clark surrendered back-to-back-home runs that turned a two-nothing game into a five-nothing game like that, right? It was the blink of an eye, and next thing you know, the Diamondbacks were down by a significant margin. But Merrill was not the reason why.

I will say, though, that, you know, that distraction there in the fifth inning and everything that happened, that probably didn't help, you know, but I will say that even though it wasn't a huge impact on this game, even though it wasn't like Merrill was the one that gave up five runs, I do almost feel like Kelly was doing it to try, to wake up his team.

Is that fair to say, Damon, like, he's mad, but he also knows that, like, the guys in the dugout right now need something. I'm not saying he did it because of that, but I do feel like. I would, if it was maybe anyone other than Merrill Kelly, he's such an old man yells at cloud guy that I think that he just, that's just who he is. That's fair. That's fair to say. You're right about that.

He would do that if he was winning the game and, you know, there was a guy stealing his third base coach stealing his signs right next to him. He'd be chirping him the same way. You're probably right about that now that I think about it. I guess that was just more hopeful, you know, thinking, right? But maybe I do maybe think that maybe, just maybe part of the frustration there is because you're sitting there locked into this battle with the Cubs and your offense isn't doing anything. And meanwhile, you know, you also look over and see the third base coach stealing your signs.

Yeah, it doesn't help. Like, is everybody against me right now? Can anybody help me try to win this baseball game? It feels like it's one on 52 or 51, I guess. Yeah, I mean, Kelly goes out there. He gives five and two-thirds innings pitch, five hits, three earned runs, three walks, four strikeouts, Circle K strikeout meter. That gets four strikeouts.

And, you know, it's not a terrible night. It's that poor guys had worse. That strikeout meter has had worse. But still, a lot of power, a lot of energy to power that guy up. Still, we need more strikeouts than just four. But again, like I said, Merrill Kelly was not the problem. The bullpen was probably more of the problem. The offense, biggest problem.

We're going to figure this out. We're going to stack this. We're going to stack the blame. Clark goes in there. He gets one out, but in the process gives up two hits, two earn runs, two home runs, and fine, the Diamondbacks down five to nothing. Drey Jameson at that point. He was awful, Derek.

No, Taylor Clark. Clark was awful. Yeah, I agree. Like, it can't be understated. He needed to come in. Merrill Kelly goes out for the, what was it, the sixth inning? Or was the fifth inning? It was the sixth inning when he left.

Merrill goes out for the sixth inning. He's pitching pretty decent at that point. He had a really rough second inning, obviously, but that's kind of in the rear view. Yeah. He had retired seven batterers at one point. And then he lets up one single with two outs. And Tori clearly told him,

you get a free clean inning here. But if you allow a base runner, I'm going to come get you. And so he allows the base runner. We bring in Taylor Clark, who's been really good this season, but I feel like it's been struggling a bit recently. Am I off on that? I feel like most of his worst performances have been in the last few weeks here. And he gets in there,

and he just gives up an absolute moonshot to Conforto. And then Merrill and the third base hoax are still chirping, and then there's another moonshot right afterwards back to back. That was the one that shut Merrill up. That was the one that made Merrill just go down in the d'clock. Merrill stood up on the dugout for the entire rest of the game. He wasn't saying anything, but he was literally standing on like the most clear portion of the dugout, like staring at the third base coach like this, Derek. He was like, what's up, bro?

Like, just in his grill. And it was, it was a, that was a disaster from, from Taylor Clark. Drey obviously wasn't good, but it already fell over by the time it was 5-0. Like, I didn't, I didn't think there was any coming back from that with the way the offense was. playing obviously. On July 8th, Taylor Clark gave up three earned runs. He had not given up an earned run again for nearly a month until August 7th. Then he gave up an earn run in that game, one on August 16th, one on August 18th,

and then two yesterday on August 24th. So he's four times this month he's given up runs. Yeah, and then like again, you look back over the course of June where this whole team struggled. And yeah, he had three games in that month that he gave up earned runs. runs, but a completely clean May, a completely clean, one earned run allowed in the month of April, and then, you know, the four earn runs allowed in the opening day loss there on March 26 to the Dodgers. So overall, not a good night for the bullpen. Drey Jamison also didn't have a

great night. He gave up two earn runs in two innings of work. He gave up three hits, one walk, no strikeouts. Burgos, one clean inning there to wrap things up in the eighth or in the ninth inning. But, yeah, the bullpen did not help. So, Damon, you know what time it is. Throw me up on a billboard. Make me feel like a god. And let me start shaming people for blowing last night's baseball game.

They're already all lit up. Just leave them on. Just leave them on. You know what? Turn off defense. You're not. Defense is the only one not getting it. Pitching?

We can start out. Staff, the whole staff, and not Merrill Kelly. This is, again, why we need separate lights for the bullpen and starting pitching. For sure. I'm not giving it to Merrill, but this one definitely is on the bullpen. And I know this bullpen has been incredibly reliable, but, man, the Diamondbacks needed them to, they needed them to hold this one last night in order to give this offense at least a feeling that they could get back into it.

Being down five to nothing is demoralizing and feels bad. Being down seven to nothing is a game over, right? And both of these teams come back a lot, right? They are number one and number two as far as comeback victories this year. So can't come back unless you're down first, but you can't be down by seven runs. And that brings us to the offense. You are all to blame. It's all your fault.

It is 100% your fault. It's 97%. And then we'll sprinkle the other 3% around to the rest of this team. But you are to blame. This offense was terrible. They couldn't put together multiple hits. They didn't have any guys getting on base multiple times. they didn't like they had one inning in the ninth when they were already down seven to

nothing where they put together two singles in an inning it was pathetic and i don't know again who exactly is to blame but i'm going to blame everybody uh mather gets to blame uh everybody everybody in the starting lineup i don't even care if corbin has two stolen bases he gets some blame too uh this has been a pathetic performance this season by this offense and last night was definitely that especially against the guy that has really struggled in his last two starts, or I think every start, except his first start, with the Cups. So no reason why this offense should not have been able to muster up more than they did.

And again, it's, I don't know if one leads to the other or if the frustration boiled over, but you can't help but be, see that that offense is being a big problem. Defensively, whatever. I didn't see any big mistakes made by this team, but it really doesn't matter because if the offense can't score one single run, you can't. win a baseball game. And then managing. I mean, in this case, it's manager, managing, coaching staff.

I don't know if I should shame them or what. I don't think that we needed to get into a shouting match, though I will not question Jeff Bannister's decisions ever in my life. So. You can get some too, Derek. I don't want any, Damon. You want to put your Wrigleyville hoodie on and go fight Jeff Bannister? I do not want to do any of those things.

I mean, Cap' And I can scrap. I mean, he's not a very big guy. I'm not picking a fight with Jeff Bannister. Are you kidding me? Or Tori Lobolo. Those guys would body me. But yeah, I am blaming coaching staff, managers, everybody.

This team was not prepared tonight. And again, I really think this, it's hard not to feel like this all still stems from the Catele, you know, situation. but we're so far past that this team needs to have their head in the right in the right spot. And again, this is just, this was a pathetic performance. And you can't not blame the manager when your offense collectively is as bad as they were last night. So, and I'm not tipping my cap to the Cubs. I'm not doing that. I refuse to.

And now we hate the C.HGO Cubs podcast. We're fighting with them. If I see those guys out here, it's a brawl between us. So, you know, now we're mortal enemies. And that's how that's going to work. Take me down, Damon. I'm sick of being up here. Getting a little scared of heights up here. Yeah, you're afraid of heights?

Oh, I just, oh, it's how far the ground is away. We'll take a quick break. On the other side of this break, I'm not done being angry. We're just going to change our direction of who we're angry at to former Diamondbacks instead of current Diamondbacks. Don't you go anywhere. You are watching the P.HNX Angry Diamondback Show. Well, of course, pure edibles is the reason why I'm not on point today. It's the reason why I'm not 100%.

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across Arizona, now including True Leave. And of course, game time is the place to go to games like we are going to tonight. Cannot wait to head out to Chase Field, have ourselves a good time, and watch the boys hopefully turn things around against the Chicago Cubs. And if you want to join us, now is the best time to do so. You can save up to 60% off by being a good time. a procrastinator and buying your tickets last minute. And the GameTime app, of course, always gives fans the advantage of constant innovation.

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It's always game time around here. All right, speaking of game time, speaking of being angry and all of that, I was trying to just move past this. I was trying to not let these comments bother me. I didn't want to go back. I didn't want to acknowledge something that was set, Damon. But, of course, you guys that are diehards, you know how much you mean to me. I would never say things like this about my diehards. I would never say things about like this about the company I work for.

And of course, this is fairly egregious. But Damon, before I do that, I do want to remind everybody, speaking of diehards, that we have are diehard levels now. And again, just like everything at pH and X, there are levels to this. And in this case, the diehard officially has levels. You can become a diehard now starting for just $36 for the entire year and get premium written coverage and access to the diehard lounge and more. Or you can go pro for $80 and you will get a free annual t-shirt. the NFL draft guide, partner perks, and so much more. So head on over to go phnx.com slash join and choose your level today.

And I bring that up because, again, you diehards are the most important people to me. And I would never go, let's say, to a different network, maybe a big one that starts with an E, and then show up on like a show for a guy, like, named, like, I don't know, just a Patrick, you know, just spitballing here, NACAFE, let's say. And I would never go on that show and then say how great it feels to be over here and how good it feels to be playing for the big team and all of that. Matt Packafee. Matt McAughey.

Thank you. Thank you. Well, you go, you went hackafee? Hackafee's good. I went, I just did a spoonerism. I changed his name around. That's all right. You went hackafee.

Hackafee is pretty good. Hacophie is crazy. The reason why I bring this up, Damon, is because it is time for us to once again spy on our exes. And this particular ex that we are talking about is none other than Alec Thomas. And look, I'm not going to act like Alec Thomas left us voluntarily. We all know what happened with AT. We all know what happened with Jake McCarthy. And we have to live with it.

We have to live with both of those decisions now going forward. But Alec Thomas, our nightmare came true. He was called up by the Dodgers because Andy Paa has. went down with a fractured hand and in his debut Alec Thomas went one for three with an RBI good for him

right? I'm not gonna wish bad things upon him until he says things like he said in the post game interview. After his debut Damon Alec Thomas said the following. Derek, I'm gonna stop you first. Why?

Does this quote include the word best multiple times? No Okay No Because there's a fake quote going around Where they've changed around The

Like a lot of his descriptions there Where he says The fans are the best The organization's the best And that Dodgers Muse posted it And I was like I was I was crushed

I was really hurt by it And then I You know Got a lot of people Responding to me being like He didn't even say that Yeah My brother

And I was like Oh I got rage baited really, really bad. So I just wanted to get out ahead of it and see if it was the proper quote. But go ahead. Sorry. Well, no, no, it's fine. It's fine.

Let's see if this rage baits you. After the game, he was asked about being a Dodger. And he said, Kike, you know who, asked me, how's it feel being on this side? And I said, honestly, bro, it feels amazing. It feels really good. We've got a great team. great crowds, and I feel blessed to be a part of this team. I don't love it, but it's, I don't know what I necessarily expect him to say, you know.

I mean, it's what baseball players say when they join another team. I guess maybe the part where Kike asked him the question of what does it feel like leaving the Diamondbacks and being on the Dodgers. Yeah. That, I mean, that's the implication by what being on this side. Being on this side. Yeah. And I, you know, I'm clearly scarred from people like David Peralta and, and A.J. Pollock.

They're on the list. Specifically calling out the fan base, the organization, going out of their way to be disrespectful. Alec Thomas didn't say anything disrespectful about the debacks there. As much as it hurts to hear and I don't like it. And it's gross and it's icky and I want him in the American League as far away from the NL West as possible. Yeah, yeah. He has two for seven in two games with two RBI.

So at least he's not seven for seven with three home runs. He's been all right so far. Yeah, but you're right. You're right. The point of bringing this up was, does Alec Thomas get added to the list? And I think the answer to that is no. Even though some fans are hurt, some fans are sad, I don't think anything he said was egregious.

And just to remind you, the list does get updated every single year. Though A.J. Pollock and David Peralta do have permanent spots on that list, and they don't get removed. So, so far this year, the list has consisted of Jeremiah Jackson, Mason Win. J.J. Bladay got added to the list the other list the other day when he hit for the cycle. Obviously, Mickey Gasper is on that list. Loser. Otto Lopez is definitely on that list. Zach Nato is on that list. And home play umpire Willie Trainer is on that list. Not sure why Willie Traynor is still on there, but he must have done something egregious at some point.

But that's where we're at right now. Roll of Faddy wants to know if Russell Ortiz is on that list. Let me update it. Russell Ortiz does get, you're right, that's egregious of me. He is added to the list and he's on there permanently like A.J. Pollock and David Peralta. So I appreciate you. Cesar, shut up. We don't talk about that.

No, no. We're not going to do that. We don't talk about that. We don't talk about that. But we do appreciate you guys so much for being here today. Love you guys. Thank you so much for being, obviously, fans of this team and putting up with us and them. So we'll see you back here tomorrow, which will be a postgame show, and we'll also be bringing you postgame shows from Las Vegas on Thursday and Friday of this week, along with the Wildcat show, being live from Las Vegas as well.

And then what we do... The people thought I was taking another vacation break. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I mean... Nasty, nasty slander going on on this show. Nasty slander going on on this show. No, you're right. But I will tell you what we do... We're taking the show to Vegas, fellas.

What we do with our time is our time, right? So what we do in Vegas with our time when we're not doing the show is our time. So if I take Damon to go watch micro wrestling, that's on our time. Or if we gamble at the tables, that's also on our time. But anyway, we thank you guys so much. Appreciate you guys. Can't wait to see so many of you guys at Chase Field tonight for the takeover event. Of course, pump for that.

You can follow us on social media in the meantime. We will not be back with a postgame show tonight unless there's reason to keep hope alive maybe we do maybe have a walk off and then damon and i come back over here and jump on the mics but of course people are wondering if kattel's going to be joining us in Vegas you think we could get him in on that he's got to sit back seat though no we we make him drive he's got a bad knee can't drive that's a good point let me drive his car that's fair now we're he's definitely got like some sort of escalate situation oh absolutely he's got multiple cars But I'm saying like a big-ass car that would be really helpful for this type of road trip.

100%. 100%. But again, you can follow us on social. I'm at Cap underscore Cave Man with a K. Damon is at Damon Dog with a D-A-W-G. And as always, we're all Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. Our shows at P-H-N-X underscore D-Backs.

But as always, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Love you guys so much. Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate you sharing some of your most valuable commodity with us. We will be back, like I said, with a post-game show, tomorrow and maybe just maybe one tonight. Until then, hope you guys all have a wonderful rest of your Tuesday. Hope to see so many of you guys out at Chase Field tonight. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it is so much more fun when you just let things slide so that hopefully

we can win some baseball games.