PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Zac Gallen out-duels Jameson Tallion as Diamondbacks beat Cubs again

Episode Date: September 8, 2023

The Diamondbacks beat the Cubs again behind the first complete game shutout of Zac Gallen’s career. We talk Gallen’s historic outing, the D-backs’ standing in the wild card race and much more.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 WATCH YOUR FAVORITE TEAMS: https://www.fubotv.com/phnx WIN MONEY THROUGH SPLASH SPORTS: https://www.splashsports.com/phnx Head to https://factormeals.com/phnxdbacks50 and use code phnxdbacks50 to get 50% off.Go to https://saturdayneon.com and use code PHNX for 10% off your order today. Free shipping for orders over $200!Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Pins & Aces: Check out https://pinsandaces.com and use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping.Circle K: Text PHNX to 31310 to join the Circle K SMS subscriber club and get BOGO 32 oz Polar Pops! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: Score 25% off a bag of your favorite OGeez! Fruits of Creams. Go to https://theflowershopusa.com, add a bag of OGeez! to your cart, enter promo code “PHNX” and pickup at a local The Flower Shop dispensary.Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX D-Bax podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, officially known as a king snake of my own. Every once in a while with this guy, a little Jesse Jr. here on my shoulder. This is Jesse Sr., also known as your Thunderstick and my vice mayor. Welcome in to a big, big episode of this show. So Zach Gowan absolutely pitched his mind out today. As our man, Sean, would want me to say, complete game shutpiece. CG shut piece.

Sorry, I got to get it right here. CG shutpiece from the one and only ZG, Zach Gowan. And man, the Diamondbacks couldn't have asked for it at a better time, especially against like I've continued to say, a team that was very much on a role offensively and has run into the juggernaut that is the Arizona Diamondbacks pitching. stuff. There you go. I don't know what's going on, but I want to definitely give a shout out to the wind. That's for sure because the wind has been helping us out. But most importantly, Zach Gallen deserves

his flowers for what he did on this game. He was really damn good. And it was on the road, which as we know hasn't really been his forte this season. Yeah, I mean, it was on the road. It was an 1120 a.m. Arizona time start. Everything was against him. Everything was theoretically against him, except for the wind. The wind was arguably in his favor, although not to the extent that the wind favor the Diamondbacks yesterday, I don't think. But yeah, I mean, this was incredible, right? Zach Allen, a complete game shutout. This is obviously one of the biggest series, if not the biggest series, the Diamondbacks

have played this season. And as you said, this Cubs team was playing extremely well coming into the series. This is a good team that's been playing well lately. And this is something we haven't seen much from the Diamondbacks this year. They've had some good moments against some of the better teams in the league. Most of that happened early in the season. But generally, when those things happened, it was when those teams hadn't really hit their stride yet. When they weren't really playing particularly well, the Dodgers got off to a little bit of a slow start this season.

D-backs had their way with them a little bit early in the year. But this is different. This is a situation where the Cubs are a good team that has played extremely well. And the Diamondbacks coming into their ballpark, coming into Wrigley Field, have just dominated through two games. I mean, maybe dominated is a slight. overstatement. But Zach Gallen dominated in this game. That in itself, that is not an overstatement for sure. Both of these games, you could say that the starting pitching was just made

better by factors, right? A big part of that is the ballpark factors and the when the weather in Chicago. Ryan Nelson's start looked really damn good. But yeah, at the end of the day, it wasn't as good as, you know, his outing kind of. He should have given up more than two hits. He definitely should. There was some batted ball luck there. And it wasn't just the wind. It was just kind of, you know, some, some hard hit balls, finding, finding some gloves in the outfield. Very, very high XBA, I'm sure, on a lot of those that ended up getting caught. But Zach Gallen, he just had his stuff working today. Nine strikeouts, complete game, gives up three hits, no walks, no runs, no earn runs, no homers, none of that stuff.

And, man, I mean, it was an absolute pitcher's duel because Chicago Cubs pitcher James, Tyamson, Tyon. Jameson, sorry, I got Jameson tie on. Today he pitched like James Tyone though because he was a different, he was a different guy out there than a bitcher he's been so far. Jimmy. It's Jimmy Tyon out there. But no, he absolutely dominated. I mean, in fact, the only Diamondbacks player that was able to do anything against him seemed to be Corbyn Carroll,

who broke up a no hitter he had going on in the sixth inning up to that point. And up to that point, the only base runner the entire game had been Corbyn Carroll who walked to lead off the game. He then stole second base. There was a throwing error, which allowed him to advance to third. base that also happened after he singled in the six he also stole second base. Corby and Carroll is well on his way to 50 stolen bags this year. I don't think he will be denied when it comes to that. So this is going to end up being a very historic season for Corbyn Carroll when all of a sudden

done. And honestly, he was the entire Arizona Diamondbacks offense today. But it was much. It was weird. It was weird that with the way he was pitching that the Cubs pull tie on as early as they yeah. I was a little puzzled by that. I reached out to.

our CHGO Cubs reporter out there in Chicago, Ryan Herrera. I was curious what he thought. And he said that, you know, James and Tyone has really struggled this season. I mean, he came in with an ERA around five and a half. So I think once you get to a certain point in the game, the Cubs feel better about. Yeah, it was, you know, right around the third time through the order. He's still pitched an outstanding game. I mean, this was not a fluke for James and Tyone.

I really thought his stuff was incredible. And he's had stretches of his career of being a preemptive. pretty darn good starting pitcher. I remember, you know, when he was coming up with the pirates. And, you know, during his time with the Yankees, he had a 391 ER8 just last year, I believe. So he's a better pitcher than I think the numbers he's put up this year. And the Diamondbacks absolutely saw that today. But yeah, as you said, Corbyn Carroll had had a pretty nice day at the plate two for three. A couple singles. He walked in this game. He had the three stolen bases. And, I mean, in that eighth inning, it couldn't have just been Corbyn Carroll, though.

He needed some help. Gabby Moreno walked in the inning. Lordus Gurriel singled. And that's what set up the diamond backs being able to score that run, as well as the existence of instant replay. Because I believe the call on the field was a catch by Sayas Suzuki. And they reviewed it. And he, in fact,

that ball did hit the ground first. And they awarded Lordus Gurriel home plate, which is certainly where appeared he would have been if it had been called correctly. It's crazy. It's crazy. That is the only run that ended up scoring in this game. That ended up being such a pivotal. moment and without instant replay this game is still going right hypothetically yeah absolutely horribly

terribly and i mean we would be furious about that because i'm sure on the diamond backs broadcast they would be showing over and over and over again how that ball hit the ground right so uh i want to give a shout out to chris bayley for his super chat 10 dollar super chat let's go Chris he says build the statue of gabby tomorrow i will supply the metal for it i i i'm an old grill and an old uh like a lawnmower I think we can melt down and at least make that some of what we can get to it. That's definitely how those statues are. I know. I mean, some stuff made by artists are pretty crafty.

But yeah, Gabby deserves his flowers too because that man has been incredible behind the plate. And once again, today, he had himself a huge throwout there. It was a strike him out, throw him out situation. Yeah. He has just kept runners in check. And I mean, you just can't, you can't run on Gabby. You can't. Yeah.

I mean, that was just a huge advantage. I mean, yesterday and today, really. I mean, the Diamondbacks have seven stolen bases in this series. I don't believe they've been caught. I think they're seven for seven. And on the flip side, the Cubs have not fared well trying to steal bases against Gabby Moreno. That's a really big advantage that the Diamondbacks are going to have against a lot of teams

down the stretch. And they've used it, you know, to the max here in these couple games in Chicago. Jordan Lawler continues to be excellent defensively. And again, I don't. I don't mean to sound surprised by that. I just think that was a big concern. We know what we saw from him offensively and obviously not thrilled that we saw him, you know,

not have a great day at the plate today. But still, there were a lot of plays today that showed how athletic he was, how strong his arm is, and how good he is out there in shortstop. Yeah, I've been impressed with what I've seen as well. And I mean,

the Diamondback still, Tori Lavello still went out and got him at the end of this game. Yeah. They still did the defensive replacement. thing where Rivera comes in to play third and Geraldo Perdomo comes into play shortstop. I think I can still understand the thinking there. Obviously, Lawler's is 21 years old. I mean, he's very, very young.

He was in high school as of like just a little over two years ago. So you can understand in a big spot in a one run game, wanting to kind of side with experience there. But what we have seen from him has been solid overall, I would say. He's clearly extremely athletic. That's the thing that stands out more than any. I wouldn't necessarily say I've seen like a cannon or anything from him at shortstop, but the arm has been adequate.

His release is incredibly fast. And he seems to be pretty rangy. He seems to be just athletic and smooth. And it looks like he moves well out there. Yeah. I don't know though. I mean, strong smooth throws, though. I like what I see from him.

Yeah. He has really been. Flows very nicely, I would say. And he hasn't made a throw where I would say like in that moment, I would feel like Ahmed or Pardoma would have made the play versus him. I think Perdomo might have a slightly stronger arm. I'm curious to see what the numbers look like at the end of the day. I just mean I haven't seen that kind of play yet where I, in the two games he's played,

where I've really felt like I regretted him being out there versus Perdomo. But obviously, Tori still feels like the experience of the other two guys there is worth, you know, making that managerial move. And I don't hate it. Just like I don't hate him leaving Zach Gallen here in a big situation, especially with Paul. It was a very un-Tory Lavello. like decision, right? It's exactly what he said he was going to do. He said he was going to ask more of these guys.

He said he was going to push them farther than he's pushed them and letting Zach Gallen go out there with a pitch count of 94, 95 pitches and start the ninth inning and complete it. That not only is exactly what he said he would do, but it is showing a lot of faith in Gallen. I don't know if it shows as much faith in the bullpen. I don't know if it shows as much faith in Seawald. But if you can give that guy a break with the ways that Gallin has been

pitching today, why not? Because Seawald has been, that has had a lot asked of him since he's come over here. Yeah, I mean, he's pretty reasonably well rested at this point. I know he pitched yesterday, but it was just a few pitches. But yeah, I mean, yeah, I suspect that what this comes down to for the Diamondbacks is, you know, who gives them the best chance to win this baseball game, right? I mean, that's ultimately what the most important thing is at this stage in the season. And, and yeah, like you said earlier, Tori Lavello seems to be more willing to push guys. a little bit further than he was willing to before. And Gallen finished this game at 107 pitches, which is a lot.

I mean, that's probably about close to the max of what the debacks would be comfortable with for him. But 107 is pretty dang reasonable. It's not like he went out there and threw 131 pitches. Right. You know, like Alex Cobb did, I think the other day for the Giants, the debacks, I don't think would do that under really any circumstances. So, yeah, I mean, this was the first complete game, nine inning shut out by. any Diamondbacks pitcher since Tyler Gilbert in 2021, which I don't know if that one really counts because it was a no hitter.

I mean, that one's kind of in a class of its own, right? I mean, it's sort of a step above what Gallants did today. But, I mean, prior to that, I believe you have to go back to 2018. This is Patrick Corbyn who threw a complete game shutout for the Diamondbacks back

in 2018. I know Madison Bumgoner had technically a complete game shutout in 2021, but that was a seven-inning shutout. So it's not. Well, it is no hitter, right? That whole deal. But that, yeah, that doesn't, that we can have that. We've had that conversation before.

We don't need to have it anymore. That's for sure. This is nine innings. So we don't have to talk about the seven-inning, no-hitter thing again. It's different. Well, and for all the reasons that we listed and for, you know, giving them absolutely everything they needed today, our King, the one and only. Here, King, you dropped, you dropped this. You dropped your crown.

It's that gallon. Zach Allen is our king snake. We have eight innings pitched in there. Oh, no. It's the wrong one. See, I'm going to, you know, just like our tweet that we sent out, you know, we got a little ahead of ourselves at times because we thought with 95 pitches and what world does that Gallagher come back out? There is no world where he does. Well, there is a world.

He was at 94 pitches going into the ninth inning. And I think in your defense, Derek, they put like the Paul Seawald graphic on the, on the, on. the TV broadcast. They did. I think they were also sort of fooled into thinking Paul Seawall was entering this game, which would have been a reasonable decision. I mean, I don't think Tori Lavelle doesn't trust Paul Seawald or he's trying to avoid him at all costs or anything.

But Gallen was pitching a heck of a baseball game. And, you know, you want to give your ace a chance to go out there and do ace like things, right? Do big ace things. Galen, the last couple times out, has not been himself, right? It was back-to-back starts where he did not look good against the Dodgers and the Orioles. You couldn't have drawn up a better bounce-back outing for Sack Gallen than what he gave the diamondbacks here today. Yep.

Well, we thank you guys for being here right now in the PHN Sports YouTube channel. And you know what? James Hughes is absolutely right. 108 watching and only 23 likes. Let's go. We can get more than that, right? Well, come on, people. This is for our self-esteem.

Yeah, that's what it's always for. Yeah. It's for myself. It's for Jesse's self-esteem. But of course, we thank you guys for being here right now. If you haven't subscribed to the channel, make sure to do so now. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss when any of our shows go live.

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We're all one. We're all one. We're all one family here. And of course, you guys are part of the family. So we thank you, as always, for being here. It's tomorrow, two years, two year anniversary of me and you putting up with each other. Look at us. Who would have thought?

Yeah, not me. I barely made it through like the first two months. Honestly, I don't know how I'm still here. I really don't either. I mean, you've you've put up with a lot of antics from me. And I've put up with you not knowing a lot of things about life outside of baseball. Yeah, I can't really deny that. Yeah. In fact, Jesse, we've had a lot of great moments on this show. But I do know of one moment that I very much feel like we need to revisit right now. Are we actually doing this?

This is Jesse. This is in the two years of us doing this show. This is probably the best thing. But Laandro Cedino is not in the Diamondbacks organization anymore. It's time to just take a look back at one of our zanier moments that we've had on this show. And my personal favorite, Damon, if you would. Honestly, just continuing this conga line that we've talked about of Diamondbacks prospects that are ready to come up and ready to do big things in the major leagues. What word did you just use?

Congoline. I have no idea what that means. even know what a conga line is, Jesse? No, I'm no. Oh my God. Jesse Friedman. I don't know why I say these things on the show. Because instantly, the moment I start a statement with I don't know blank, I'm basically just asking for it and this is the reaction.

But go ahead. Tell me. What is it? It's a dance formation where people get in a line and they dance. Oh. Yeah, I don't like line dancing. I don't like it. I don't even know how to explain it because there's no, I've never had to explain anything like this before.

Anytime I say conga line. people know what I mean. Jesus Christ. So it's like a line dance like formation thing. No, it's no. And you move around the floor, you kind of like go around the dance floor, maybe around the room. It's done it like weddings and parties. Oh, oh, okay. Yeah, no, I know I know what you mean. I just didn't know what it was called. I just I didn't know what it was. I'm going to leave. There's some serious emotion going. Look at it. They're doing it. All right. Jesse. Hey, I get it. I know what it is. Please. Please. See, this is a fucking. This is a I understand now.

I actually get it. You know what? This is absolutely crazy to me. This is the best possible explanation I ever could have possibly hoped. Yeah, yeah, you go. You go. Yeah. That was, that was incredible.

It really was incredible. Now I know what a congline is. Yeah, you know. See, we're educating people even Jesse all the time on everything. To be fair, I understood what you were saying. I didn't actually need. the physical demonstration that it interrupted our show. I don't know.

I feel like it was required. I feel like it was very much required. Your initial explanation didn't really make any sense. It did leave a bit to be desired. You just described it as like a line dance of some kind. I was like, okay. I've been wrong lots on this show. And I will continue to be wrong, folks.

There is not going to be a time where I am a flawless individual. And I've accepted that at this point in my life. But one thing I've also accepted is I've had a lot of fun with this guy doing. the show and I'm a lot of fun doing the show because of you guys so we I'm wearing the same shirt oh no Jesse no that's taking it off that's that's incredible yeah that's on that's on brand meanwhile I've never worn this shirt before ever on an episode because it's a brand new one but I will say that all of us have closets with 600 shirts are down I just have 82 of these let's let's like stop acting ridiculous we are very excited for the future for this Arizona

We're a team this season. So obviously we know a lot about the wild card, but let's take a look at where they're currently at. No other games really were played today, but I don't care. I want to look at the wild card standings anyway. So if we can take a look, you will see that the Arizona Diamondbacks continue, at least for the time being, to improve their position when it comes to this. Diamondbacks have now a full game lead on the next team. And they make that little gap between them and the Chicago Cubs even smaller. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, two games at this point, right? You've got two games left in the series. And we all know what Tori Lavello's message is to this team right now, right? Like, yes, you've won the first two games of the series, but the series is only halfway over. You know, enjoy it now and be ready to get after it tomorrow. Those are the kinds of things that Tori seems to talk about after games, as you would expect. And yeah, I think that's big for the Diamondbacks. There's still two really important games left in this series.

But yes, that said, I mean, it's a lot. only a few days ago where the diamondbacks were, were out of this, right? Yeah. Now they're back in this. They're back in the playoff race as of right now. They have that one game lead over both the Marlins and the Reds. The Giants have slipped to three games back at this point.

Their playoff chances look relatively low, honestly. Being three games out with just a few weeks ago in the season, obviously it's not insurmountable, but they're in a pretty, pretty tough spot right now. So, yeah, I mean, if you're the diamond. This is exactly how you drew up these first two games. And honestly, you know, again, this is, this, this couldn't be better at this point because you do have Merrill Kelly going tomorrow. And that's very advantageous for this team.

But I mean, overall, it feels like the Cubs, in my opinion, were the team that scared me the most as far as these teams around the Diamondbacks. I haven't really shied away from saying that. I feel like I've been talking about it for two. two weeks because we've been watching the Cubs beat up on other teams. I've been watching the Cubs score like eight runs every single day. Right. And then you know what we're doing, even on a good night. And up until that final game of the Rocky series when they finally, you know, bust

through, I wasn't expecting it to go the other way. I wasn't expecting for the Diamondbacks to drag the Cubs down into these two hours, scoreless affairs, you know, or these close games like they kind of have. I was expecting, you know, something different. I wasn't expecting the offensive output that they had in game one against the Cubs. I mean, there was a lot of things going their way. But, you know, one thing that we would be failed to do here is if we were just to give our Kingsnake Award only to Zach Gowan when it comes to the first two games of this series. Because to be honest, our King Snake, Windy City, the wind, just whoosh, blowing balls, keeping balls in play all the time, Jesse.

This has been an incredible series of watching home run balls all die at the warning. track and fall into Lordus Gurriel Jr.'s' glove, and I'm with it. Yeah, I'm not totally sure how, like, Statcast deals with this, because all of these, all of these balls that Cub's hitters have hit, like, to the warning track or whatever. The ones that look like, the ones where they scan to the crowd real fast, like, you're going to see it go on the upper deck and then for some reason. There was all, yeah, there was one of those early in this game where the camera crew, I think, was pretty badly fooled.

The camera went, like, straight to the, to the stands, and then it, like, panned down and the Lord of Scuriel making like a pretty routine catch near the warning track. But yeah, according to Stackcast, like these are all, like none of these would be home runs in other ballparks. But I don't know exactly how it deals with the wind and whether it's like not taking that fully into account when it compares with other ballparks. But yeah, there definitely have been some hits by Cubs hitters were right off the bat. You thought it might be going over the fence and that was not actually the case. Let's see in the chat I saw a piece of Yoshi

Ask a really good question He said why doesn't the humidor ever get this king snake It's a good point It's a good point I mean the humidor is for both teams right For all intents and purposes The humidor does not exist Remember that Jesse

It's officially off the record As far as the human or theoretically Is like perfectly neutral Whereas the wind can favor one team or another Favored the Diamondback so far in this series It sort of felt like that I don't really have any like actual evidence No data back it up.

Yeah, that's a pretty hard thing to measure. But theoretically, the wind can decide who wins a baseball game because it can blow out for some hitters on one team and not for other. Can just stop for a half an inning and then kick back up for the other half. Anyone who's been to Chicago knows that that changes pretty dang quick over there. Welcome to the chaos. It says Elizabeth to Spencer Strand. Spencer Strand makes his first live chat. Welcome in, buddy.

Thank you for being here. No, peace of Yoshi. This is not humidor erasure. This is simply not acknowledging that the humidor exists at all. It's not a thing. We can't acknowledge it. But I think it was Mo asked if we would rather face, who would we rather face, if the Diamondbacks would rather take the Cubs spot and then end up facing the Phillies

or if they stay where they're at and end up essentially they would play the brewers right now with the way things are structured. Right. Right. So we actually have this MLB has a postseason picture. It's official. We're getting close. So this is where we're at. This is if the postseason started today.

Diamondbacks right now would be in that spot. So like, yeah, if the Diamondbacks swapped spots with the Cubs, it does swap everything there, right? Not only. It's honestly an enormous change. It is because at this point with the way things are structured, I know the Dodgers just beat the hell out of us, but I feel like we'd rather play the Dodgers than the Braves in the postseason,

don't you think? I mean, the Diamondbacks have actually played the Braves pretty tough this year. I think they're three and three against the Braves this season. And a couple of those games were some pretty tough losses. Like they've actually played the Braves pretty well. But yeah, if I'm the Diamondbacks, I mean, I'm not saying this is actually the way that they would think. They probably just want to win as many games as they can. But with the way that things line up, I think I would prefer to have the spot that they're in right now if I were them, right?

The Brewers in round one is Mike Ferran said on the show a week or two ago. Teams that don't hit to this degree just don't make the playoffs very often, right? Like the brewers have William Concheris and Christian Yelich, and there's just not a whole lot of other hitters on that team that you're really all that afraid of. The Phillies are not like that. The Phillies have a number of players who have longstanding reputations in this league as being pretty darn good offensively. And I know Kyle Schwerber is getting all sorts of hatred right now because he has, he's like a replacement level player, which is fair. I'm a believer in wins above replacement. I don't think that Kyle Schwerber is as good as, you know,

know, the 41 homers or whatever he has would suggest. But in a playoff series, those homers can really matter a lot. And you don't really know how much his defense if he were playing in the outfield would actually hurt. Over a short series, Kyle Schwerber can really impact a game significantly, even if he hasn't provided a whole lot of overall value this season. So if I'm the debacks, I would rather have the Brewers and then a Dodgers team that is, that they're, as we talked about yesterday, their pitching staff is,

just kind of in shambles right now. They announced officially today that Walker Bueller is not going to pitch in the majors the rest of the year. That's another big development. It sounds like Julio Urius is most likely done as well. Yeah, Willie O'Urius, I wouldn't expect to see him back either. So, yeah, I mean, that

second round is set pretty much in my mind. I think the Braves are going to get the one seed, the Dodgers are going to get the two seeds. So if you're the debacks and you're choosing between Phillies and then Braves or Brewers and then Dodgers, I feel like that answer is pretty easy to figure out. Jesse, I've been saying to you all year

that I thought the playoff format is like set up in a weird way. Yeah. Like you, I think in most years, if you get that third wildcard spot, you're playing a worse team than if you get the second wildcard spot and have to play the best wildcard team. Yeah.

Because a lot of times that best wildcard team would win a different division. That's very true. And then you get to play the two seats instead of the one seed. Yeah, they're the best team that couldn't win their division. And in some cases, that might be a team that won 20.

winning more games than you like or look at how like the al central is where if like the the they're they're closer to the actual division leader than they are even in the neighborhood of being to a wild card spot so yeah no you're absolutely right about that and uh i don't know is there a wildcard team that worries you right now i said mine would be still the cubs but i mean i think that was mostly because they still have a lot of games to play against them and i mean the cubs could be really the team that determines the diamond back season one way or another. Yeah. If you're the diamond backs and you're kind of, you know,

taking the landscape of the NL wild card race right now, I think the team that you're probably the most concerned about is the Cincinnati Reds. They, if you look at the Reds schedule the rest of the way, man, there are not a lot of very good baseball teams in that schedule. And they're not necessarily, it's not like they play the, you know, the tigers over and over again or something, although they do, oddly enough, just I say that. They do actually play the tigers.

But they have three against the Cardinals at home. They have the Tigers on the road. They have the Mets on the road. Twins at home, pirates at home, guardians on the road, Cardinals on the road. That's the rest of their schedule. There's honestly not one team in that mix. It is really all that good. The twins are clearly the best team out of that group.

But we know a thing or two about the AL Central and how that's not really the most competitive division this year. And the twins don't have that great of a record to begin with. So yeah, just given the Reds, you know, the talent. on that team and the fact that their schedule is the way it is, I think that's got to be the team you would worry about the most. The Marlins are obviously right there too. They're tied with the Reds and the standings right now. But the Marlins, if you look at their schedule, it's very much the opposite.

The Marlins have the most difficult schedule out of all these teams, the rest of the way. And you have to believe that's probably going to make a difference when it's all said and done. Are the debacks getting hot? I mean, are they heating up? Are they warming? Are they preheating? They've won three games in a row. They're still five and five in their last 10.

I mean, last week, they lost five out of six games. So I would, I don't, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know about that, Derek. If there was a time to get hot, though, now would be the time, right? I mean, now would be the time that you absolutely dreamed of it, not only for what it could mean potentially rolling into the postseason, but just because of how important these games are down the stretch, it would have been nice for them to have a bigger lead

so that they wouldn't have to worry about needing to win games. in order for them to secure their position. But that wasn't going to happen based on the fact that they do have so many games against teams that are in this wildcard hunt still left on the schedule rolling into the end of the season. Yeah, I mean, it's right. It's it's Cubs through the weekend and then you get a four game series with the Mets. That's not really a team you're indirect competition with. But then you get the Cubs again and then you get the Giants coming to town after that. So yeah, I mean, every every game is huge right now for this baseball team.

And it's kind of felt throughout this season that at least maybe over the last few months, you know, when the debacks reached a low point where people were kind of starting to count them out, they kind of found it again, right? And I think after last week what happened against the Orioles and the Dodgers, especially after losing that second game to the Rockies, that was a pretty tough game to lose. The offense just couldn't get anything going. I think, you know, some fans were maybe back at that point of like,

I don't know if this is going to happen. Like, we're out of the wild card race. and I don't know if we're going to see that wild card spot again the rest of the year. Just when this team gets to that point, they figure things out. They get a huge comeback win in that series finale against the Rockies. And they carry that momentum here into Chicago and so far so good. I think the thing that was a letdown in the series against the Dodgers and the Baltimore Orioles was just seeing that the Diamondbacks were at times so outclassed by those teams.

And knowing that those teams are the best teams in baseball on both. the NL and AL side. It was just kind of that moment of no matter how much, how positive you thought about their chances in the future and their chances of maybe making a run in the playoffs. It was kind of just, we were put back in our place a bit by realizing that the elite teams in the baseball are still quite a distant,

you know, leap ahead, right? But, you know. Getting outscored 23 to 5 by the Dodgers and that. Yeah, yeah, I didn't need that. I recognize that. I recognize that that happened. happened last week and I just said that if you were the Diamondbacks, you would rather play

the Dodgers in round two than the Atlanta Braves. But that's kind of with the state of the Dodgers rotation and just like this, this Braves team is insane. Like the Atlanta Braves are an insane baseball team. Yeah, it's the consistency. It's the depth that the Braves have versus the Dodgers who honestly look at, look at the moves they made. Look at Lansland.

Look at everything that they've done. They're still trying to piece things together to get themselves to where to, to, to, to, to this postseason and then figure things out from that point. But what's happened recently with their starting pitching is a kind of a disaster for them, especially considering that they weren't very deep when it came to their pitching right now as it stands. So I don't know. I mean, I would probably prefer to play a Dodgers team that was in disarray and had some time off rather than a well-rested Braves team that is already at 100% and is just going to get a chance to rest before playing us.

That's my opinion. But also. The Braves are just outrageous, man. Now that they have Max Friedback, I mean, you've got Strider, you've got freed, you've got Charlie Morton, Kyle Wright, I think might be able to pitch for them down the stretch as well. It's an absolute nightmare. It's in a playoff series. I mean, that offense, like, there's not a better lineup in this game, and I'm not even sure it's close.

I don't know where it stands right now, but as of like a few days ago, the Braves had a team slugging percentage of 500. They were slugging 500 as an entire team, which is absolutely outreact. outrageous, right? Like the Diamondbacks have an above average offense this year. How many guys on this team are slugging over 500 right now? No. I think it's Corbin Carroll and Christian Walker.

I think Cattell is a little bit short right now. Yeah. The Braves have basically an entire team of guys who are playing on that level. So you don't want any part of that, that offense, that pitching staff, that anything in the postseason, I wouldn't think. By the way, the San Diego Padres are pretty much guaranteed not to make the playoffs. just want to remind you that they have a total payroll, uh, payroll,

including the luxury tax of nearly 300 million dollars. 283 million 231, 396 to not make the playoffs. They have. I think I saw a stat the other day. I think they have like the best ERA in the national league. Might even, because of Blake's now. Yeah.

I mean, he's definitely part of it. Their bullpen is pretty decent too. Yeah. They're, they're a bizarre baseball team because you can pick out a lot of individual performers on that team that are having pretty darn good years. I mean, Josh Hader's been like incredible for them this season. Juan Soto, at least on the surface, his numbers look pretty

similar to what he's generally done. Tatis hasn't quite been the Tatis that we've seen in past years, but he's been, uh, you know, still pretty good. Machado's had a bit of a down year, but then like Hassan Kim is out here having like a six war season or something like that. So they continue to puzzle me, Derek. I don't really know. I don't understand what happened in San Diego. This year to be frank. Nobody really does. Yeah, it just doesn't really make any sense to me. Well, the Diamondbacks will be back here and they will face the Chicago Cubs. And if you want to check that game out, make sure to check out game time. It's the best place to buy last minute tickets. So you have plenty of time to think about it because they're going to be on a road trip for a while.

So when they come back, you know, last minute tickets, you want to get them from game time. It is the website for sports loving procrastinators. And it's not just sports. You can get them for concerts, events, all sorts of shows. Like I said, I'm going to Metallica, which I was supposed to go to on Sunday and that got postponed to tomorrow. So if you want to get tickets to that, that might be a good website for that as well. There might be plenty of tickets with the amount of out of town

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that you have yourself a good, solid pair of sunglasses. And you can get those premium polarized shades from our friends at Shady Rays. It's an independent sunglasses company with a world-class product who honestly offers the most insane protection plan in all of our eyewear. Their lost and broken replacement plan says, says, allegedly, that if you lose or break your pair, even on day one, they tell us they will send you out a brand new pair. Does it work? Yes, it absolutely does because I lost my sunglasses. I contacted them.

They say, Derek, fam, say less. We got you. You would have thought you were going to lose yours before I lost mine. Well, because you don't wear yours, Jesse. I mean, you actually just leave it scattered around the aisle. I'm surprised you haven't lost yours yet. How do you know how often I wear them? You see me in this building.

I have found your sunglasses in here more often than I'm seeing them on your face, leg on the table when you weren't here. So, Jesse almost lost his too. Don't make him out. Like, he's free of blame here. I think it was only like one time. I'm honestly kind of impressed at how well I've kept track of them. I'm proud of you.

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Go to ShadyRase.com and use code PHNX for 50% off two or more pairs of polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the Shades rated five stars by over 250,000 people. Reform Skid in the chat says, so do you think Corbyn Carroll has solidified himself as rookie of the year? I mean, this could be a whole topic for us, but you can't help but notice the distance that he's made between him and his people. peers. Obviously there were a couple of guys that have come and gone. We've kind of joked about that. The James Outmans, the Ellie De La Cruz's, the Matt McLean's. But one thing we said early on was that Corbyn Carroll was going to remain consistently at the top of that list. And we were going to see this throughout the year where the other rookies do kind of have a good month or do have a good

couple of months. I mean, even James Outman had a good April. Then things kind of went south for him with the strikeout rate. And then he kind of came back up as being one of the best players post all-star break with as far as like I think on-base percentage was concerned. So, you know, again, this is what's going to happen. But Corbyn Carroll's consistency, I think, is the key here to him really having, you know, still the lead on the rookie of the year race. And, you know, in this series, he's already had a ton of stolen bases. And I think what we're going to see at the end of the year is a historic stats put up by

Corbyn Carroll, which it's going to be hard to not, you know, vote him as rookie of the year when he's played well all season long, except for that little slump that he was in there for a little bit. And, you know, it's done things that not a lot of guys have done in the last 100 years in baseball. I mean, Corbyn Carroll's probably going to steal 50 bases, right? I mean, five away. Three today, is it 45?

Yeah, I mean, five stolen bases with about 20 games to go or whatever it is. He's probably going to get to 50 steals. He has a chance to get to 30 homers. I don't know about that. But, yeah, it is currently. not all that close. I don't think. I think someone mentioned Kodi Senga in the chat.

I honestly think Kodai Sanga is probably the top competition at this point. Matt McLean is out injured. Nolan Jones, who we just saw from the Rockies, he's having a nice year and certainly deserving of some respect, but he just doesn't have, he didn't play his first game with the Rockies until late May. I think,

L.A. Dela Cruz is honestly not at all in the mix at this point. His numbers have really tanked quite a bit. The Reds, in fact, have two players that are, better rookies right now as far as stats go than Ellie so that's what Matt McLean out yeah um so you know it's not till it's over till it's over but at this point it's it's not it's not all that close i would be pretty surprised if corbin carroll didn't didn't come away with this when it's all said done

what did zach do for his case for sa young today because i know obviously he's kind of been wavering i feel like uh he went from being a front runner to having a couple of bad starts that kind of maybe moved him out to maybe like third. I know that Blake Snell has kind of come on and become like a favorite in the NL. Sigh Young race. So what is a complete game shutout against a tough Cubs team at this point of the season? Do do first chances with that award. You have to believe it does a pretty good amount, right?

I'm looking at fan graphs. They have this little Sanyung predictor tool on their website that apparently has been pretty accurate in recent years. Currently entering the start, they had gallon fifth in the National League. So they had Justin Steele number one, Strider, two, Blake Snell 3, Zach Wheeler, who's pitched well of late. Wow. They had him number four. Wow. And then they had Zach Gowan behind him.

So they had him fifth coming into this start, which I don't think is really all that misguided, honestly. No, you're right. I don't know if Strider has a 383 ERA. You can't win a Sigh Young Award with an ERA that high, frankly. I mean, unless like everyone has an ERA that high, that's just not going to happen. So I don't know if, I don't think Strider. would be ahead of Gallen at this point. I think Justin Steele probably still is.

He has a 2.55 VRA on the season. Even after this outing, I think Gallen is about 3.3. So there's still a pretty decent difference there. Blake Snell is a 2.5 ERA. So he still has a pretty significant advantage in that regard as well. What Gallin really has going form over everyone else at this point is innings. Zach Gallin's set, I believe. Yeah, he's set a career high in innings pitch today.

he is at 187.2 for the season. If you map it out the rest of the way, he still has four more starts. So if he averages six innings per start for four starts, that gets you another 24 innings. And at that point, you're talking about a guy who's in position to approach 215 on the season. I don't think Justin Steele is even going to hit 200. So Gallen does have volume on his side. If he's able to close the ERA gap a little bit more, I think he really has a shot at this.

And obviously the debacks face Justin Steele tomorrow. So they have a chance to help his case. That's right. Not that, not that far forward. I have an update on the betting odds for the Cy Young. So they have Gallin third. Okay.

He's at plus 800 currently. Behind who? Blake Snell and Justin Steele. Yeah. He's minus 200. So they have him as a pretty heavy favorite to win it at this point. Interesting. Zach Gowan,

I don't think that's updated post game today. Probably not. Probably could skyrocket up a little bit. Maybe now's a great time to go throw some money on Zach Gowlin. Who knows if you want to back your guy. Maybe the Diamondbacks can go out there and rough up Justin Steele tomorrow and help those odds even more. So let's take a look at the probable remaining for the series. We still have that big marquee matchup tomorrow between Justin Steele and Merrill Kelly.

And then we have the finale there between Hendricks and fought. So the Diamondbacks, I think, would have happily taken a split in this four game series going into Chicago. And that has been secured. Now at this point, it's time to not be happy for splits. It's not, it's time to not be happy. happy to take two out of three or two out of four. It's time to go for the jugular and really try to not only secure your spot, but steal the Cubs spot.

Like, secure your spot even more. Move up and don't just be in the third, you know, in the third wild card spot. Take that second spot from the Cubs. Make them rue the day that they played the Arizona Diamondbacks. Make them terrified the fact that they still have three more games after this four

game series with the Diamondbacks. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, they have a chance to sort of strike, fear in the Cubs, right, ahead of that series, just one weekend from now. I'm looking at the weather for tomorrow's game because that, of course, is relevant with Merrill Kelly. It's going on with the wind. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Is it hot? Is it windy? What do we need? We need all that. Weather is going

a weather is going. Weather is going about 70 degrees in Chicago, winds like around 10 miles an hour, which isn't too crazy. So yeah, but you have to feel like, you know, with temperatures in the 70s and a nice breeze going, Merrill Kelly shouldn't have any issues with, you know, the economy. And excessive sweating and the cramps and all that stuff, which to date is still only happened in home games. So, uh, he theoretically should be set up pretty well. Chris Melton says, does Jesse have a video of Derek to exploit for your second anniversary? No, this is not that mean.

No, this doesn't. Well, it's because nobody tells me. Like, did you just come up with this idea out of nowhere? Maybe. Wow. Maybe me and Damon plotted against you. Who knows? Brandon Stevens says we play for sweeps in the desert.

Hell yeah, we do. We also play for rings in the desert. Mo's making jokes about Julio Urius that nobody wants to hear and of course we also have one very important division to worry about. Forget forget doing the sweep

just for the purpose of the sweep. Do it for us. Do it for the Arizona Diamondbacks but do it for the PHNXDbacks podcast crew. We are two games back folks from the Chicago Cubs and by the time this series ends we could be tied with the CHGO Cubs podcast

for our all city division and of course like you know that's the only division that matters to me right now wild card spot that also very much matters to me but i need this i need this for bragging rights and it has to happen jesse i'm like trying to do the math on like if if the white socks or rockies could still catch the debaxxer cubs i don't think so i guess i guess the white socks could catch the diamond backs right if the white socks went out they'd be 76 and 86 and then the D-Besx is 74-88.

At some point, we have to put, like, little E's by the White Sox and the Rockies. But we're not quite there yet, at least not with the White Sox. The Rockies would be right on the edge. I think the D-Backs would win the tiebreaker. So technically, we could put an E on the Rockies right now. That's right. That's right. We're going to have to update that.

But, yeah, two more big games here, Derek. And the Diamondbacks are two games behind the Cubs and the standings, not only in the NL Wildcard standings, but also in this all-city thing that we love to look at. So there you go. I said it's the most important division. It's all that matters. But of course, another thing that matters is Jesse drinking enough water. I know someone else said they would give us a thumbs up if you drank your water.

I have a glass of water. I just want to make sure that you're staying hydrated. I frequently have a glass of water. You and Mara Kelly are the two people that I personally feel accountable for making sure you guys are hydrated. But of course, Circle K is America's thirst stop. So if you need to hydrate yourself, make sure to stop there. Best prices on coffee, beer, they have the best snack selection. And they have a brand new membership program, which will get you 25 cents off per gallon for your first five Phillips.

They'll also get you by five, get your sixth one free on selection of CircleK products, including pizza, coffee, and ice cold fountain drinks. So make sure to stop in at Circle K, join their Inner Circle membership program for free right now by downloading the Circle K app today. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations. Visit circle k.com for details. Of course, while you're there, pick up some wonderful Four Peaks beer or get it wherever you get your beer. It is the official craft beer of the Arizona Diamondbacks. And it is pumpkin porter season. So as my friend Rock would say, it's his time of the year because he loves everything pumpkin flavored.

But you can get in the fall state of mind with notes of nutmeg, all spice, and toasted pie crust. So it is back on the shelves now. And in giraffe lines throughout the valley, make sure to get it wherever you get your Four Peaks beer. You can also visit 4Peaks.com slash locator to find all of your favorite brewery tours and events. Steinholding, Octoberfest, and haunted brewery tours are back. So make sure to check them out. Remember, the ghosts make the beer at Four Peaks. That is correct.

A little known fact. It's a little known fact. They definitely exploit ghost labor, I believe, in order to make their beers out there. But you can check out Four Peaks brew at Four Peaks Pub on social media. To keep up with the latest Arizona's hometown brewery. It must be 21 years or older to drink Four Peaks. and please drink responsibly. Well, we appreciate you guys for being here today,

and not only just today, but we appreciate you guys being here for the last two years. Some of you have literally been here since the first show. Chris, I'm talking to you. And we love you and we appreciate it. Probably one of you. That's probably one of you. Maybe three of you.

I don't know. Maybe four. Maybe four people have been watching this show since the beginning. But we appreciate you guys so much for stopping by now, then, and forever. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore Cape Man. with a k jesse is at jesse n friedman the maniac behind the mac that is damon we are damon's dogs and damon is at damon dog that's da wg of course our show is at p h and x underscore debacks but all

roads do lead to at p h nx underscore sports on twitter instagram and facebook again we appreciate your guys uh so much so much for being here uh we thank you for your time and remember kids baseball is fun but it's so much more fun when zack gallin throws a complete game shut out