PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Zac Gallen rocked by Bryce Harper and Phillies offense in Game 1 loss

Episode Date: October 17, 2023

Diamondbacks starter Zac Gallen wasn’t his best as Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper, and Nick Castellanos all took him long for home runs and put the Phillies up early for good to secure Game 1 of the NLCS. We discuss Gallen’s outing, trying not to overreact, the D-backs offense showing up late, and 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 Join Team PHNX for the Out of the Darkness Community Walk: https://supporting.afsp.org/team/32459Get 10% off your first order of Hero Bread at https://www.hero.co/ by using code PHNXWIN MONEY THROUGH SPLASH SPORTS: https://www.splashsports.com/phnx Go to https://saturdayneon.com and use code PHNX for 10% off your order today. Free shipping for orders over $200!Download the DROPS by SoleSavy app by visiting https://links.solesavy.com/phnxGametime: 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.

That was less than ideal. Welcome in to a sad post game edition of the PHNXD Backs podcast during the postseason. I don't, we haven't had to do one of these yet. This is, this is the first. Of course, I'm your mayor of the postseason, occasionally known as Derek Montia. This is the hot tag on this show, aka Patrick Lines. And we will be hearing from the thunder stick, the thunder stick, Patrick. The thunder stick.

Yeah. Thunderset. Jesse Friedman, also my vice mayor. But yeah, you calling him the boomstick isn't the only mistake that made. But it was Barry, you were prognosticating what we perhaps were going to see tonight because the Phillies absolutely busted out the boomstick against Zach Gallen and the Arizona Diamondbacks. It didn't seem to take much.

This Diamondbacks offense was fairly stagnant, but Zach Gallen absolutely was not his best tonight. No, it was all about Zach Wheeler tonight. He was dealing. Zach Allen was dealing up a couple home run balls, gives up the three, five runs total by the time he ends up coming out. I think there are some positive takeaways

from the dimebacks, obviously negative. Anytime you lose five, zero, excuse me, five, three, but I think that is the positive, right? They got punched in the face, and they were able to come back just a little bit there. They didn't give up, they didn't give in, but I think Citizens Bank Park might have just been a little bit too big for them in that moment,

or at least, really for Zach Allen. At least a start, at least a start. at least to start the National League Championship Series. And obviously, you know, like you said, and when I say start, I mean literally from the start. The very first pitch that Gallen through Kyle Schwabber hits for a dinger. And you got to imagine that it's not really easy to rebound from that particular thing happening. Your first pitch. I mean, Gallen actually, all things considered, I felt like did his best to get things back on track.

And he still gave the Diamond Bound. some length. It wasn't a case where, you know, like Clayton Kershaw, who he oddly got some advice from, and maybe that's why this went the way it did. But he, you know, Zach Gallard just managed to at least be somewhat effective. But early on, it was those two massive home runs by Schwarber. And then the birthday boy himself, Bryce Harper, gave the Phillies a two-oh lead after one. And it felt like they were up by a million at that point. It felt like they might as well have a bit. The way the crowd was reacting, it felt like every hit from that point on was going to be a home run.

Like they really did a lot, I feel like, in that first inning to demoralize the Diamondbacks throughout, you know, that kind of lasted quite a bit. You know, Zach Wheeler, I absolutely dealt against the Diamondbacks offense that couldn't do much. It was five pitches, right? First pitch home run to Schwerber, center cut, forcing fastball. Three pitches to Trey Turner, okay, kept him quiet there. and then the first pitch to Bryce Homer. That's right. Bryce Homer.

Might as well call him. Why not? And again, center cut fastball, the four seamer. And you're right. It was two nothing. It felt like the whole world was against the Diamondbacks. They were going uphill. Yeah.

They get another run in the second. They get another run in the third. It's four nothing at that point. And again, eventually becomes five nothing. But after that, you know, Diamondbacks are able to get three runs. There's some positive to take away. But yet, it feels like the game was over. and then he kept looking and you go, oh, they're still playing.

It's, I mean, it's honestly, it's one of those. It's one of those situations where if it would have happened in a different way, right? Maybe he walks a guy, some guy singles, and then you got Harper hits the home run. They're up three nothing. It was, it was the, you know, again, the, oh shit, here we go again from Kyle Schwarber because of hitting that home run just right first pitch. And then Nick Castiano's hits the home run in the second. And at that point, that's really where it felt like, even though it was three nothing, like, like the lead was much bigger than that.

And I imagine something terrible happened in the world at that exact same moment, right? So I was checking Twitter to see if any celebrities had died or if any wars had been started or anything like that. But it's Nick Castiano. So, but the Phillies, honestly, this is insane because they just, it felt like that lead, even though it wasn't that big was insurmountable. And the Diamondbacks did a good job, but it took them a long time for them to get their offense going. in between Corbyn Carroll hitting a lead-off single and Evan Longoria hitting a lead-off single in the sixth inning. There were 15 batters sat down in a row by Zach Wheeler. 15 in a row.

Yeah, I mean, they just weren't putting the ball in play. And I really thought that that was going to be the difference today. And throughout this series, they have to just put the ball in play to get something to happen. The Phillies defense is a little bit suspect at times. Again, they've got an outfielder playing first base. We know that Castiano's isn't great. The analytics team has done a great job for the Phillies, kind of playing him back and a little bit more towards the gap

so he can come in and to his left. That's been a strength for him. They were able to figure that out last offseason. But in general, just put the ball in play, make something happen. We ended up seeing it in a play where Trey Turner had a little dribbler. Now, nothing ended up coming of it later on in the game. Gabby Moreno couldn't really get a hold of it. Through it wide.

Next to you know, Trey Turner is on second base just from a little swinging bun. essentially, right? And so I think the Phillies just have to do a better, excuse me, the dimebacks need to do a better job of that. And the eight strikeouts from Zach Wheeler tonight really just kind of kept them on their heels. And it really did feel like, man, we can't get anything going. And you also can't hit that, hit a four-run, home run with nobody on base or a five-run home run, even when there is someone on base. And I don't know, I didn't get the sense that the diamondbacks were doing that and swinging out of their heels, but they were really just kind of kept at bay for the first

half this game. Your precious Dr. Nighthawk that tries to be unbiased amongst all city, dropped a comment that said if she, if the Phillies win the World Series, she wins $10 instead of $70. So clearly we know where her allegiance lies when it comes to All City. I am going to tell PHLI. I'm just telling you, I just became friends with them today. They're harassing me already on our mailbag Monday questions. So I don't know. I mean, they're not, they're not you, you know. They're not, they're not the place. playful banter. I don't know if I can make the wrestling references with them. But Zach Gallen, yeah, speaking of wrestling references,

the Phillies put him in a bit of a chokehold, right? And they absolutely, I mean, like I said, he was able to stay out there. He got some key outs. The defense behind them was very good at times. They came up big to at least keep the game close, right? It did feel like at times that Zach Gallen was going to not just bend but break. And somehow, you know, they got a big double play to end the end of the inning at one point, with bases loaded. That was huge. Christian Walker came up with a came home with a ground ball in the bottom of the fourth. They got Marsh out at home plate and that was great to save a run.

But I mean, Zach Gallen goes five innings pitch, gives up eight hits, five runs, five earned, two walks, four K. It seemed evident he didn't have it early on. And I know the Diamondbacks didn't want to spend their bullpen, right? But did they maybe leaving him in too long? Did Tori do the opposite of what he's done so far in the playoffs, which has kind of been like immediately jumping to the bullpen when they started doesn't seem to have it? I think if it was anybody else, you could say, yeah, you could kind of question it.

It's also harder when you're just throwing a single pitch and then there's a run on the board. It's a little bit different. And those pitches are hit by, you know, all-time great postseason players right now, some of the best in the game. So it's a little bit different. Really looking forward to catching up with Jesse here

later on the show to hear what Toyo Lavello had to say. I sort of had this thought that when it was for nothing after the third, that maybe, and I don't know how this would even go down, Maybe this is part of Tori's game planning with the coaches. You know, he talked a little bit about this, you know, before they left for Philadelphia that, hey, there's a best case scenario and a worst case scenario. I sort of thought that, you know, maybe this wasn't a worst case scenario, but this was a bad scenario.

At that point, after the fourth inning, I want to say maybe Gallum was around 50 pitches, maybe less than that. Maybe you almost punt this game and go to the bullpen and say, hey, Zach, you're coming back in game four. And now all of a sudden you go, all right, you know, maybe we can come back in this game. even if we can't, we have you back in game four. I don't know if you have him back in game seven. You know, you can kind of feel that out later on,

but maybe it allows you to have your cake and eat it too or head your bet, so to speak. But this one, five earned runs, looked it up. It's happened, I believe, about 12 times in his career where he's given up five earned runs in a start. Seven of those times come this year, and it's 34 starts. 20% one out of every five starts. That's almost once a month.

He has a start like this before 20, 23, only 6% of his starts had he given up five earned runs or more. And I'm fairly certain that every single one of those starts were on the road, which his road splits versus his home splits this season have been quite the difference because at home he has been very, very good. And again, if the diamond, if he does get another start, it will be at home. If he does, whether it is in game four hypothetically or game five should the diamondbacks be able to extend it that far.

Five of seven, we're on the road. five of seven were on the road where Zach Gallin gave up five earned runs or more in most of those starts in five of the seven he went at least five innings uh nearly got to to five innings in another one of those starts so he was able to do that he was able to give them you know a little bit of length and you go and look and we'll get to talk about the bullpen a little bit yeah there's something to be happy about not not that happy because again you did lose the game but there's something you could you could build upon and not go oh they were embarrassed they were they were laughed out of the building.

It was a 5-3 game and maybe the score isn't as indicative of how close it was. Like you said, it just felt like they were just out of it. They had like no chance. But you look at the score, 5-3, okay, it was a little bit closer. There were a couple of moments there in the, I want to say even the seventh is when it started, 7th, 8th and 9th, where the tying run was at the plate. Now, again, didn't seem like the debacks had that much momentum, even though they had scored three unanswered runs there at that point.

But they did have the opportunity with the tying run at the plate and the go-ahead run on deck. So there is that to say for the Diamondbacks as a whole over these nine innings. Yeah. And I mean, you talked about the bullpen. We could absolutely talk about the bullpen. I mean, I did want to say that, you know, the Diamondbacks offense finally woke up there in the sixth inning. Evan Langeoria, like you said, hit that single lead off the sixth. Heraldo Pardomo then puts the offense once again on his back and tries to carry the team across the finish line.

He hits a two run bomb that put the Diamondbacks on the board five to two. they continue to find ways to get on base against Philly's bullpen, even though it wasn't through hits. They were able to add a sack fly that made it a 5-3 game. And it was very close. I mean, again, the idea here especially was that the bullpen came in after Zach struggled and really helped keep this team once again in the game. They helped keep this team, make this a game that this team could come back and potentially win, right? and that's you know hats off to Kyle Nelson specifically because he seemed like he was getting thrown out there because maybe he won't see any time in high leverage situations and he looked like night and day compared to Zach Allen as far as him going out there on the mound everybody in this bullpen came out and contributed and kept the Phillies that had really looked like an out of control monster there for a moment in check for the remainder of the game and again gave this team a chance to win I don't know if that was that the Phillies you know took their their foot off the game and or was that the bullpen, you know, was just kind of able to use that to their advantage.

But yeah, you get three scoreless innings from Kyle Nelson, Miguel Castro, and Luis Friess. And so, like, that's, that's nothing to just shake a stick out. Like, I think that that could have value going forward. Whereas, like, on the flip side, you know, the Phillies did have to use Jose Alvarado and Craig Kimball for two and a third's innings. And so, you know, that's not all of their bullpen, but you were able to get those guys. and I think that has a lot of value. You know, there was an opportunity there where I think it might have been Trey Turner on second base and Miguel Castro on the hill when they made the switch from

Kyle Nelson to Miguel Castro. And Castro, runners are eight for eight stolen bases and stolen base opportunities against Miguel Castro, but yet doesn't end up taking third base there. So, again, that could have been an opportunity. Ball in the dirt gets by Moreno. You score another run, but that didn't happen. Zach Allen, two wild pitches tonight. night in the same inning. I know he had eight over the course of of this year. That was the most

in any season. But, you know, again, just one of those things, just being a little bit off, just being a little bit off. And, you know, if this series is going to be about Zach Allen and Merrill Kelly winning, you know, all four of their starts, maybe you can get a win out of somebody else. And now you probably are going to have to. I mean, you are going to have to. I don't know. I don't think that we're going to see Zach Allen in game four. I think it's going to be game five. Unless the Phillies take the first three games, I don't think that's going to happen.

But nevertheless, they're going to have to win a game with Brandon Fott. And they very well could at home. And then that game four is we talked about it in the pregame. Make sure you're listening to that on the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast feed or even watch it live on the PHNX sports channel on YouTube. But we talked about the fact that Taiwan Walker's going. going in game four. So that's, yeah, that might be a bullpen game for the Diamondbacks, but that's kind of a crash suit regardless. Yeah, it's revenge against Simon Walker.

Revenge for blowing the 2017 postseason. That's right. We never forget. Also, I, look, I know that the Rockies lost 100 games, but I don't like you coming for my job. So I, like, I appreciate the plugs. I appreciate your excellent work. But let's just relax a little bit. All right. You're pressing Saul's here. You can hear you. There's a lot going on. Do you have anything that I might take to relax, you know, before I go to bed? I would on certain nights, but on a night like this, we celebrate even the losses. I mean, we get over the losses, at least, with our friends from Four Peaks. I mean, it's a great way to do that.

Of course, it's perfect tailgate for over 25 years here in the Valley. It is the official craft beer of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Make sure to check out all the wonderful beers they have. I get asked often if I really, like, this is really my beer. And like that's the part that doesn't help this thing that one of my friends, my friend feels like I won the lottery and that pH and X is like this facade. Like I just hired a bunch of people just to like as like some sort of tax break or shelter like. Shell corporation. Yeah, shell corporation to protect myself from people knowing that I won the lottery.

And he says that the evidence is the fact that like all of the sponsors are things that I actually use in real life. So this, it doesn't help that my favorite beer, of course, is the official beer of this show and the official beer. of the Arizona Diamondbacks. But it's because they have all sorts of wonderful beers, and you can check out Four Peaks location. Their 8th Street pub is a great place to go have chicken tennies and enjoy beers and watch sports. And now is the time of year to do that.

Also, they will have Pumpkin Porter in their draft lines over there at the 8th Street pub. So do not miss out on pumpkin porter season. Of course, you can visit 4Peaks.com slash locator to find all your favorite brewery tours and events that they have going on. Steinholding, October Fest, haunted brewery tours, all that stuff. It's all right around the corner.

Check out at Four Peaks Brew or Four Peaks Pub to keep up with the latest Arizona's hometown brewery Must be 21 or older to drink Four Peaks and please drink responsibly and also remember that Golden Logger is the official beer of the sport of baseball. It's the official beer of the sport of baseball No other beer in a cup looks as perfect as golden as clear as just as as like a beer commercial for baseball As the golden logger also no go ahead. No, I was just going to say you know for for for for for trademark purposes. Baseball is probably spelled as two words. Again, just in case for legal purposes. There's two A's as well, but you, that's all the first part. Okay, okay. That's good. You're good. Base, ma' that's right. It's actually four A's. Also, I'm hungry. I know you're hungry. We would love to have some

spaghetti shack right now because spaghetti shack is the official food of hungry college kids in Tempe, because it is an ASU alumn and operated restaurant that serves a menu starring spaghetti, meatballs, garlic bread, and a few other fan favorites. It is wholesome. It is quality. It is affordable food. And it's just like home. So, of course, it's a great place for those.

Anybody, honestly, you don't even have to be a college student in order to check out their delicious food. But they are a community-focused restaurant. It's a to-go concept. So make sure you go get yours to go and bring it home. Of course, they had their brand-new location, ASU. You just open up. They have all sorts of great specials.

So do not miss out on any of their valley locations. But specifically, check out the one in Tempe and Queen Creek. So do not miss out on Spaghetti Shack. We thank you guys for being here right now. Happy, happy, Meatball Monday, too, for everybody. Happy, Meatball Monday.

Yes, it is Meatball Monday. It's also another kind of Monday, by the way. But before we get there, PHNX Sports YouTube channel, we thank you guys for being here. Those of you that showed up after the lost, you're the real MVP's of this show. Real ones.

You're the real king snakes. But of course, make sure to subscribe to that channel. Do as Gabby says, drop a like. We always appreciate that. Make sure you sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss one. Any of our wonderful shows on our network, go live. If you're listening on the audio podcasting side, make sure to subscribe there as well.

Leave us a review. We always appreciate that feedback. And of course, before we go on, I know the times we don't give out our king snake. But tonight, our guy, Jerry P. put the offense on his back. He tried to bring it home for us. He went one for three with that home run and two RBI. Not exactly the guy that you would expect to be showing the power that he has so far in the postseason. But absolutely key to getting the offense started at times and he tried to do it tonight again.

Yeah, it looked great. His home were 345 feet to right field. Donged in would have donned in 20 out of 30 ballparks. Chase Field. Not one of them. Not one of them. Oh, Chase Field. That was grinding some years on the East Coast.

Like, wait a minute. That wouldn't have been a homer in his home. in his home ballpark. Too bad. So sad. That's just how it goes. Perdomo origato. Yeah.

Geraldo Robato. You're going to continue to do that. And I will appreciate it. But as long as I can't get him and Max by each other because him and Max together, they're absolute trouble. But back to back games with home runs for Perdomo. That's right. First time in his career.

I went back, looked at his regular season record. Nope. Never done it before. He's not a power guy. That's what I'm saying. He's getting it done. Postseason power. Yeah.

Post season power. Well, the Diamondbacks dropped this game. And, of course, course, not plenty of baseball left to play, not in a position to panic at all, not in a position to worry. And again, the big win here is if the Diamondbacks can somehow figure out to take game two. And with Merrill Kelly on the mound, you kind of like their chances in doing that. But let's take a look at the updated postseason bracket because the Rangers are, they're already putting it to the Houston Astros. So again, here, we got to do something to make sure that we get these two 100 loss

teams from two seasons ago to play each other in the world series that's the ultimate god here no one wants to see a cole hamill's world series of phillies and rangers like not even a little is that is that is that a little bit that's absolutely correct is that the immaculate grid that you think about rangers and phillies like like those two guys probably yeah probably the idea here i'll faro yeah i like the way that those two teams did it because the diamondbacks somehow did it just through their farm system yeah and trades And savvy trades. And meanwhile, the Rangers did it through half a billion dollars that they spent just a few seasons ago.

But I'm not going to dwell on that, nor am I ready to really talk about the Rangers because we have our hands full right now with these Philadelphia Phillies. So, of course, you know, we're sad about the loss. But a good way to get over a loss is by doing what we do on Monday. Of course, every year is our year. Every month on this show, Hispanic Heritage Month. Oh, nice. Yeah, every month. And we don't start it on the 15th.

We start on the first and we go through the end of the month. Every month on this show is Black History Month. Every month on this show is Women's History Month. Every month on this show, of course, Black Women's History Month. It's also every week on this show is Shark Week. Every day is Earth Day. And every Monday, we go to the mailbag. Megaran hit it.

Always something interesting in my mailbox. I told you I wasn't going to forget about Mailbag Monday. I don't care. season, free games, post game, we're going to do mailbag Monday. We've not missed one in the existence of Mailbag Monday, and we're not going to start today. We're not letting a loss bring us down. But we do we don't have a lot of mailbag Monday questions. We do have to get out of here as soon as Jesse arrives. But let's take a look at some of these because I know some of these is how some of you are feeling. Our pal Mujin, uh, Mujin underscore AZ on Twitter said, do we even belong here

LMAO. Now this question was set very early in the game, but I will say that's loser talk. And I don't mean to attack you, Mugent, but we are absolutely, we absolutely belong here. The Arizona Diamondbacks swept the Brewers. They swept the Dodgers. This wasn't a fluke. They didn't get here by the skin of their teeth. They got here through excellent team play. And let's be honest, as we move on and advance in the postseason, you're going to face tougher and tougher opponents.

Did the Diamondbacks have any business with the way they played at times this season being this good in the postseason? No, they don't. But they've been playing excellent baseball. And that's the way that they got here. And that's what's fun about the postseason. If you can find a way after 162 games to have won enough to be in the postseason, anything can happen. As soon as the third wildcard was introduced, you knew there was going to be those Cinderella teams. It's like with March Madness.

Like there's going to be years in which, you know, I think it was even projected that like, yeah, there's going to be a couple seasons where there's like an 84 win team. And you go, were the dynamacks that good? Well, they actually really were in the first half of the season. They absolutely were. And you go, there are those pieces that are there, and that's kind of the point is to say, you know what, you might not have been able to really string it together for 162,

but there are enough of those positive elements. And again, baseball wants to have more games, you know, a longer postseason, more postseason games, you know, obviously, then that's going to open up.

So look, they're playing by the rules. That's what it is. They're going out there and playing the game, and I know that might not be as traditional as I think maybe some baseball fans like to think of it. I know there's not too many people that were, they were alive in 1968,

like before there was, you know, the league championship series, but it's 1968 and before it was just, if you won the National League, you're going to the World Series. If you won the American League, you're going to the World Series.

The playoffs have evolved over time where, okay, now we got a league championship series. Now we have a division series. Now we have a whole wild card round. And so the Diamondbacks are here, yeah, they've earned it. And I know people will say, hey, you know, it's about money.

It's about having more games. Yeah, that's part of it. But don't you like your team being in there? I know right now there's certain fans of certain teams that are not in the playoffs any longer that don't like the way the format is set up. Like the effing bravos. Oh, you know what? Fucking bravos.

I'm going to say it. Also the fucking Dodgers. Neither of those teams, both of those teams. They would love, I'm going to, I'll get my wallet out. It's in here somewhere. You get the jar ready. But yeah, no, I mean, I'm just going to say it, damn it. this is something that this team should be proud of even if this series doesn't go our way

I'm just gonna I got a five there's a five I got more I got some more curses in me but that's good for now but we're gonna we're gonna leave the lid off it's probably for the best yeah I got 20s in my mom if you're only listening to as a podcast you're really missing out on the visuals here yeah we got our jars for swears up here all of that money is going to charity after I don't know we fill it up because it won't take long for me we we we we we I you still all be $4 from some text messages early today. Yeah, I'm absolutely counting them. All curse words.

Aim to my direction now count. But I mean, again, I'm just like the good doctor night hawk says, I'm jealous my team isn't in it. And I'm sure a lot of people feel that way. So really when it comes down to it, you know, there's a lot of baseball left to play. I know tonight it was a terrible start, right? It was as bad as you could as it could be. But that was just the start.

The way they fought back was admirable. The way they made this an actual game was admirable. and hopefully that I know I'm not a big moral victory guy, but hopefully at least it makes them believe that they can they can win. They kept this game close. It was it within two runs. I mean, if you looked at this outcome, you know, after the game, you would say, hey, that's not a terrible loss by any stretch of the imagination, right?

So, but at the same time, I don't want to, again, I feel like it's loser talk when you start saying like, hey, this wasn't that bad of a loss. We should be happy about it. We shouldn't be happy about it. People should be upset. This team was playing well. and now here they are, you know, a game back. But again, the positives are is that there's a lot of baseball left

and that winning game two completely changes how the outcome of the series could look. If the Phillies kept piling on there, right, in the first, second, third, you know, gown's not able to get out with that inning-ending double play, which was so critical there in the bottom of the third where they were already down three-nothing. And it's like if they would have lost seven-nothing,

you go, oh, man, like we, That was really bad. Wait, we got to flush it. That's baseball. Even five nothing, right? Even five nothing. Is it great? You know, like the fact that the offense was able to muster something up and come back and,

again, make it make it a game where it felt like there in the ninth inning, they had a chance of winning it with one on or at least tying it with one on. It makes you, it builds that confidence towards the next game. You lost the game because Philly scored five. Timex only scored three. And then you go, okay, obviously, being literal. And then beyond that, you go, well, we also just lost.

Like they were better than us. But again, but by how much, and you feel good going into Tomorrow's Star, I don't know how much we need to make of the fact that Corby Carroll gets the lead off hit. He's on first base and he stays there. And the broadcast is really talking about the fact that he's just there. Why isn't he stealing?

Why isn't he going? That was weird. Did you get a couple good secondary jumps? The only thing I kept coming back to, and perhaps Tori was asked that we'll find out here soon, We'll get the feedback from Jesse. Cotel Marte, Tommy Fan, and Christian Walker all had an OPS north of 1,300 against Zach Wheeler. You don't want to take the bat out of their hands.

J.T. Romuto, very good behind the plate defensively. So, you know, and those guys put the ball in play. Marte, you know, two strikeouts in 12-plated appearances, fam, two strikeouts and 15-plated appearances. Walker a little bit more so, 4Ks in 17-plated appearances. He's the one guy that didn't actually strike out. So you kind of understand that and say, hey, you know what, hold on. Let's see if we can get a little bit of action going on there. Put a little pressure, make wheeler have to, you know, throw some pitches or throw some,

some balls over to first base, you know, kind of get in his head. It didn't work. I don't know that it backfired, but I'm curious if that's kind of what, you know, Tori's thinking was in not giving Corby and Carroll the green light to go. Here's the thing. I think Diamondback should hold their head high. I think that they still have a lot, a lot of, you know, baseball left to play. And again, even if, even if they don't win game two, technically, that's how home field advantage is supposed to go.

You know, and it really is more about, you know, if they can't find a way to win game two and they come back and can't figure it out. But again, I think, I'm sure these Philly fans are in here saying that if loser talk, and it might be. But honestly, the Diamondbacks do have a lot to be proud of regardless of how this series goes. and I think the fans do. So I don't think that fans should start questioning if they belong here. What else we got? Going to that mailbag. Next question comes from Gabriel.

Gabriel said, will the pain ever end? Is that just rhetorical? I mean, I don't know. And I don't see a question mark. So maybe it's actually more of a statement. Yeah. Could it be? The pain, I don't know.

I don't know if it will ever end. When was the last time there was any pain? I was thinking how it would be nice to say like, oh, hey, it's the first time they lost in October, but they lost in the regular season, so that's not exactly true, but it's the first time in two weeks. Yeah. You know, like, that's pretty darn good.

You definitely can't win them all. I think there's only like five instances. Actually, no, I don't even think so. I think it might have only been like the Reds in the 70s that won all seven games back when it was best of five in the NLCS and then the World Series obviously best of seven. So they ran

the table, but otherwise you don't really run the table that much when you get to the postseason. Benjamin with a great point. He says D-backs will have pitching disadvantages in games three and four. They will need game two to have a chance. And yeah, I mean, I agree with that. I honestly think that, you know, they do need game two in order to have a chance in this series just as far as not letting the, you know, kind of Phillies in the series do what they did in this game, right?

Build up a lead that seems so insurmountable that the Diamondbacks can't come back. And honestly, that's what the Diamondbacks have been doing so far to their opponents in the playoffs. So, you know, it's a bit of a taste of their own medicine as far as going up early and being able to just hold on to that lead throughout the game. But, you know, again, the Diamondbacks need to figure out a way to get their offense going. And it definitely can't start in the sixth inning for sure. What else we got here? Next question comes from Peace of Yoshi, most valuable fam stand. He says, is it acceptable to sing Stott's walk-up song or is that a no-go?

I would say it's definitely not a okay. No. It's not a okay. It's not a okay. Just to use a couple of letters. It's not a okay. Well, you got one of those situations with Charlie Blackman and for the Rockies, right, with his song. And it's like, trust me, I want to. I want to join in on that. But I can't. I can't. No. You don't want to lose your love tonight. See, look at you're making me want to do it right now. That's not fair. You know, Josie's on a vacation far away.

Okay. That's enough. Did you know that? Look, I've had it with the rest of all city. That was okay. No, I have really. Who dislikes Charlie Blackman, though? This guy right here. Oh, God, it's had to watch my team play him in the NL West. Really?

He's a least favorite player in baseball. He's an American sweetheart. He really, he really is. Beard, fly fishing, mullet. Yeah, that's, yeah. Speaking of being done with All-City, we got some questions from P.HLY Phillies, I think. They sent us a question. Is that right?

Uh-oh. Are you worried at the rain? the Phillies are murdering baseballs. Okay, we can do, does Elon still let us block on X or was that taken away from us? Can we block them? Oh, we got Tyler, their producer also here he is.

Zach Gallen considered not throwing flat fastballs over the heart of the plate. No, I don't think he considered that, Tyler. I don't think at any point during his outing tonight, did he consider that? Not one bit. L.C. Goon Squad, I know where you're from. So he says, Galen was shell shocked. He really was.

I mean, this is, the one, the one concerning part about this again if you're talking about like team morale or you know confidence is that at Zach Gallant right? You you you sure it's your ace you want to see him go out there and dominate I think a big part of

you know the Diamondbacks chances are going to have a lot to do with how Merrill Kelly can bounce back and Merrill Kelly has been very good for this team in in you know as far as bouncing back from losses and stuff like that but you know of course they need them they need a big one. There are some guys that are really good at that, right?

And your team just lost a couple in a row and you go, nah, that's not going to happen. Whatever that thing is, you don't necessarily even have to go out there and have a no hit type performance. You don't have to be Zach Gown. You just beat the other guy starting pitcher. And then again, you've got that hoodspa that just inspires your entire team. And they go on win.

Doesn't even have to be by a blowout. It just you win that ballgame. You snap that streak and you go back home to Phoenix and Chase Field, Sedona Red, everywhere in the ballpark. It's 1-1. Now you've got home field advantage. That's what Merrill Kelly is going to try to do tomorrow night. I love it.

Nate Cleveland in the chat asked, do we have a song? Of course, it's sexy red, ski. We've established that, right? Ski-E-D-U tonight. Some people on the set, maybe even two people on the set, may even be trying to work on a kind of a spoof version, a D-BACs version of Sexy Red Skiy. Sedona E-Reds.

It may be your next favorite song next to the Walker, Walker, Walker, song, but the Diamondbacks got a whole. hold up their end of the bargain and they got to they got to take care of business in order for us to in order for us to do that for them but we'll see what happens um i do know that we have some videos coming in from jesse do we have those ready yet damon no we do not we'll get those ready for you guys here in in a little bit good tease yeah just just let you know yeah jessies jesse's videos are coming jesse will be joining us soon but i mean overall again this this particular uh game i i i guess my question is and and i i like to ask you because jesse is always very reasonable right but he still has an

attachment to this team he has he has a he has a vested interest if you will he has uh much like myself he has ulterior motives when it comes to this team's success impacting us personally now what are your thoughts as an outsider like do you think that this looks very bad for the diamond backs do you think that this is just chapter one in this uh in this little story of the nLCS what what are your thoughts on this? I don't think this looks that dire. I mean, yeah, obviously it's a letdown. It's a disappointment because of how it happens.

And you're able to scratch back, but it's not very sexy. It's just, all right, it's 5.3. You only lost by two runs. It seems like it was a close game. Again, tying run was at the plate numerous times. But first pitch, gone. Whoa. Four pitches later, another one for the birthday boy, Bryce Harper.

Now, now just one of four players to Homer in the postseason on their birthday. Evan Longoria actually did it, believe or not, when he was with the raise back in 2013. Correct. Colton Long, the most recent one to do it with the Cardinals in 2015, and the first one, Willie Aiken's, back in October 14th, 1984 for the Kansas City Royal. So you go, wow, okay, so this is a continuation of everything

Philadelphia was able to do in games three and four against Atlanta. Wow, there's just no way to win at this ballpark that we talked about pregame. Everyone's talked about, you know, 26 and 11, not 27 and 11 at Citizens Bank Ballpark that the Phillies have been. been 11 and 2 at since the beginning of last postseason. This is just a place that's just unsurmountable. And yet the Diamondbacks, you know, after that, that sixth inning, it's three nothing. They were able to do that.

And so I think that has a lot of value. So I don't think this is, wow, okay, you know, they got punched in the face and we know who they really are. We don't know. Yeah. It could continue to go bad. Game two could be a loss. And you kind of go from there and so be it.

But until that happens, it's just, all right, you lost 5'3, your best pitcher was on the mound, I think Zach Wheeler is the Philly's best pitcher. Aaron Nola's had, you know, some more struggles in the postseason and even during this year in general. And Merrill Kelly, not to cut you up, but Merrill Kelly arguably has been

the Diamondback's best pitcher this season. I mean, I know Zach Gallen had all of the Sy Young talk, but Merrill Kelly was more consistent. He just had some injuries and some cramping issues and things like that that limited, you know, his innings pitched and such. But for the most part,

I do feel like, you know, it's a little different having Merrill Kelly go out there for the Diamondbacks. Yeah, and you don't. And so you say, hey, all the money's on Zach Allen to do it. Oh, no, he failed. The Diamondbacks are screwed. Well, there's a lot of money on Ranger Suarez to go out there and do it in game three. Phillies are going to be favorites, I think even on the road with Brandon fought on the hill. And what if Suarez just doesn't have a great game?

You could have a good game, but if fought's a little bit better and you're able to get to that bullpen, who will have a day off on Wednesday, you know, no matter how much you're going to need them in game two with Merrill. Kelly on the bump, you go, okay, you can take one there in game three where maybe you're not supposed to. And then game four, I think, is going to be a crapshoot. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of DeBacks fans filling up Chase Field, you know, with some not so nice things to say about Taiwan Walker for the Phillies. So, you know, anything can really happen. And even if you say, oh, man, the Phillies got to Zach Gallen. Gallon will pitch again. It will be at Chase Field at home. As you said, Trouble's on the road. Just a quick look at his other starts this year where he gave

up five earned runs, he immediately turned around and pitched really well. Now, an opening day gave up five runs and four, two-thirds innings pitched. Next start, six innings gave up four. That was at San Diego. And then he reeled off four consecutive starts where he didn't give up a single run to finish out the rest of the month of April. He just kind of continues to do that. When he gives up five runs, he immediately turns around and he shoves. And so again, that is something positive to say. If you can at least get to game five, you're going to win that one as well. That's at least two wins, and that might even be just a worst case scenario. My favorite cartoon dog Brian Griffin said Phillies left a ton.

Can you get that comment back? It went away of me. Phillies left a ton of runners stranded. This game could have easily been a giant blowout, but somehow the debacks were right there. It was a nail-bought-out-year. And yeah, I think, again, the biggest thing here is that there's a lot of baseball left to play. And really, the Diamondbacks don't need to go out there. I mean, obviously, it's hard.

It's a Phillies team that has been a... a very good team. They just beat the best team in baseball. The Diamondbacks somehow beat the second best team in baseball. It's just weird that these two teams are here, but both are good, both deserve to be here. And I think tonight, the big problem for the Diamondbacks, obviously, was that Gowan. And the Diamondback, or the Phillies should be applauded for their approach against Zach Gowan. And here we have some video from the clubhouse on Zach Gown, from Zagown, on how the Phillies attacked him tonight. Yeah, I mean, I think it seemed like they're playing. must be super aggressive.

They got some fastballs in locations where they could handle them. You know, I can't really, you know, be too mad at their approach. Just got to execute the pitch just a little bit better. You got to get that after that second home run was that you got to talk about this? Yeah, we're just like, I mean, we're just like they're ambushing. You know, I kind of had a feeling sure we was going to swing first pitch of the game. You know, pitch wasn't. I pulled it, cut it a little bit, and pulled it in the middle of play,

which was trying to be away. so you know who knows maybe if that pitch to execute maybe it's a fly out or whatever um yeah he just kind of came out he just kind of slowed things down you know i wasn't wasn't really shocked like i said their approach just got to execute a little better so i mean you know again he didn't wasn't wasn't doing what didn't have his best stuff tonight yeah he looked disappointed but he didn't look distraught of like i've lost this series for us we are down in such a huge hole he's just he's disappointed but not distraught and so i mean again that can be one of the positives to take away.

You know, that's the great thing with baseball. A little less so in the postseason because they're off days. But they're going to have a chance to go out and play another game. And in less than 24 hours, you know, we could be sitting here. It's one-one. Homefield advantage because you got three more in a row in Phoenix. And it's like totally changed. So you just have to sit with it a little bit, flush it, and go forward.

So, yeah, don't, don't be too upset with the result tonight. There's still a lot more baseball left. Absolutely. And Gallen had some more on his pitch selection, and I'm not exactly sure. He said he thought the pitch location with the Castiano home run was just fine. He just said that they were looking at his metrics and they knew what he was going to throw. Yeah. I mean, even the Castianas, you know, I think the location was fine. I think just, you know, we were looking at some metrics.

I think it's a pitch that kind of came out on my hand with a little less, you know, I guess or you know whatever on it so you know maybe just give them a chance to kind of stay through it but yeah I mean I would say the shorebird and the Harper one I would I would take back location you know but I mean is what it is is that just the type of thing where they might hit fastballs really well but you can never just not through your fastball at all yeah I mean that's the thing you can you know you can try and pitch around it but you know I think maybe just being a little bit more cognizant of you know getting on the edges as opposed of maybe the thirds or halves or what whatever.

So yeah. Tori was asked during the postgame presser, did you see anything different from Zach in his response to getting jumped on early today compared to the start in Milwaukee? Tori said they kind of overlapped. I thought when he gave up two runs earlier that he was going to find some rhythm. That's what I kept looking for. At times I was seeing that,

but I think they overlapped a little bit and I know what Zach is capable of doing. Yeah. And so end quote. And you just kind of didn't get that. And it was like, up, up, Castiano's home run. That kind of adds to the. that a little bit and it was again five innings, five earned runs.

You know, uh, should you have done something earlier? But again, we're talking about Zach Allen. And there's other guys out there that when they give up five run runs, it's after two innings. It's after three innings and you go, take them out because if you leave them in for five, it's going to be seven runs, ten runs, 12 runs, whatever, you're during the regular season.

That's kind of how it goes. But Zach Allen, kind of a different breed, you're able to get a length out of them. And so again, that can be a positive takeaway. You'd rather have taken away a win, but that is a positive takeaway. Yeah, I'll say also that, you know, Tori commented after the game also on Philly's approach. And, you know, one thing that was evident was that they were ready to jump all over the fastball. And Zach Gallen's fastball was absolutely not located, right?

So he was throwing them right down the middle. It's like our question from our guy, Tyler, for PHLY said he really was throwing flat fastballs right down the middle. He corrected it. And I think that's why he was able to at least get some out some. provide them with with something competitive over a few innings but I mean it also felt like for for a period of time there like he'd given up so much early on that the diamond backs were just kind of letting him you know go out there regardless of of the results and and try to save their bullpen to not you know to not go out there and have to have a bullpen game after two innings yeah tori said

they really got into a rhythm talking about the fillies offense I feel like there were points in time that he was making pitches referring to second and it was going to start like a Zach Allen outing, but that never really happened. It was just a big grind for him the whole day. So, like, yeah, he's grinding away, but he wasn't atrocious. He just, it was kind of bad. Yeah. Right?

And that happens, but not awful because you weren't going to necessarily get much better from the bullpen if you were going to go ahead and use them and use up some of those bullets. So it's kind of a balance, you know, and sure, maybe you could be a little bit critical of that. But if he had gone to the bullpen, you say, you know, But those early guys coming out of the pen could have gotten tagged or those guys coming out late. Maybe you need more than just three outs from Luis Friaz. And now all of a sudden they're getting a run there. And then it's it's a seven three loss because the bullpen maybe gave up more than Zach Gallen did in the fourth and fifth.

Ultimately it doesn't like, I mean, especially talking about pulling Gallin out earlier. I mean, once he gave up the four runs, the offense, I mean, who knows what would have happened if it was closer. But the offense wasn't able to score more than three. So you could say he left him in there too long, but at the end of the day, the offense not showing up tonight. Zach Wheeler being able to absolutely hold them in check was really what, you know, set this game apart. I mean, the bullpen and everybody did a nice job. Even Gallen did a, did an okay job of like bouncing back and like I said, being effective at times. But like Tori said, he just, he wasn't able to get in that groove.

And here's what Tori had to say about the Phillies, uh, jumping all over him and ambushing Zach Gallen. no you don't have that one yet all right tell me tell me this tell me this let's let's pick up the vibe here a little bit how happy are you that when you saw the kelsey brothers today you didn't see any significant others with the kelsey brothers um bro you're barking up the wrong tree when it comes to that i'm a huge Taylor swift fan so you're not going to get me to bite on that's what you thought about uh no no no but i did i i knew i had a feeling there's certain things that when they were happening i was like

oh it's price harper's birthday oh i know and you're like oh both kelsey brothers are going to be in the house and they're going to have beers i'm at yeah they have beers yep of course looks like a goddamn beer commercial up there so yeah no there's a lot of things that didn't feel like this game was going in the diamond backs direction and then we had the start we had you know it's it's weird and again it probably is loser talk to say like it's it's weird that this game still got as close as it did because early on it felt like it was going to be a 15 run blowout by the Phillies. So, I mean, again, I think that would have absolutely ruined the Diamondbacks confidence for this series. So the fact that they're able to keep it close and again, have a chance to tie it up there late is at least, you know, what it does feel like a little bit of a victory.

Right. A victory, yeah. And as a fan, it's at least you can be a little bit happier than, you know, getting blown out. Oh, totally, totally. Yeah, there was a good line from Ron Darling during the game where he said that Citizens Bank Park, quote, the only ballpark that doesn't need a seat. Okay, that's a good line. That actually could be on a P-H-L-Y shirt, Eric, if you're listening to this, D-Line Co. I mean, that's pretty good.

I definitely like that. You know, the other thing with not stealing early on there with Corby and Carole, you say, you don't want to take the bats out of those guys' hands, Zach Wheeler, I'd only give up three stolen bases all season long. Seven attempts, which means four were caught stealing. when Zach Wheeler was on the hill. Third fewest of all of the 44 qualified pitchers in baseball this year, no one had less stolen bases against him. Cowbraddish of the Baltimore Orioles only had three.

Zach Wheeler only had three. And then third in MLB, Zach Allen with only five stolen bases a lot, which ultimately, and maybe this is really the big bummer, it's ultimately why we didn't get a taco because no one stole a base today. That's really,

that's kind of the big takeaway. Maybe that's what the announcers were so impatient about they just wanted to get that out of the way early they wanted to free taco they were like tired of seeing the Pete Davidson commercials so they're just like we're all tired of seeing the Pete Davidson commercial let's be honest Saturday live I was like he was just on the show what are we doing

here? He actually did a pretty good job at least in the intro. I don't want to go into him I want to go into Tori on the Phillies approach and again how they ambushed Zach Gallen I think they just ambushed them I think they came out ready to jump on his fastball there's no mystery that's

Jack fills up the zone. He's got aggressive fastball and aggressive mindset, and they just counterpunched them. I think, I don't think he was trying to throw the pitches where they landed. I haven't had a chance to look at him, but I know when Zach gets squared up, she was a couple inch mistake. He's at good at hitting lines when he's trying to throw pitches in certain spots. I think they just ambushed a couple of mistakes. And they really got into a rhythm. I felt like there were points in time that he was making pitch. and it was going to start to take a Zach Gowan type of start to look like a Zach Gowan outing, but it never really happened. And it was just a big grind for him the whole day. I think Dr. Nighthawk is going back and forth between us and the PHLY chat.

I think she just exposed herself. She said PHNX feeling confident, which just was over there. They said they played poorly and have confidence when they play their game. They have hit. Do you know what? You're a traitor. You're a traitor. We see how this works.

Was that supposed to be for them? I think that was supposed to be for them. I think we got her. I think we caught her. I think we caught you. Wow. So also, yes,

to our new friends from Philadelphia, Anthony and Tom. Elise is a known baseball GM. We don't know which baseball GM she is, but she's definitely using one of her burner accounts to participate in the chat. I'm worrying about Tori drinking that Gatorade that's in front of him, too. Is that the reason why they all look so yellow in these videos? I mean, it might be.

I don't know if it was radioactive. I know on the east. How far is Philadelphia from Three Mile Island? I mean, I know it's, I was in Pennsylvania. So is that, I don't want to say anything litigious about the makers of said bottle and what actually goes in it. But I wouldn't drink that, Torrey. No, not at all. Don't do that.

Definitely not. But Tori had more on Zach Wheeler, who deserves all the credit, because this man was incredible tonight for the Philadelphia Phillies. And he absolutely kept the diamondbacks. check as a matter of fact it felt like the only time when they really could do anything there was once he left the game and here's what tory had to say about wheeler his stuff he came out crisp it came out hot um and he he had a big moving in a really positive direction I just felt like we were going to weather the storm we were going to find ourselves in this ball game at some point the deficit

just became too large and five um they got a very strong bullpen we know that but I think he was it was power stuff it's just like get up and go here it comes whether it was two or four scene it was just really really aggressive stuff this fastball didn't really get too much secondary stuff from what i can remember he just beat us with his best pitch you were okay with the quality in the past at times when it was i thought we had a couple balls hard but yeah going on today we got we got we got to find a way to to to get in that a little bit i think um good teams can be really good pitching on a day where a starting pitcher and postseason feels it.

But he just had to, he had to go into that. He really did. He really did. I mean, I think the, the way that the Diamondbacks approached attacking their bullpen just showed that Wheeler deserves the credit for that because as much as you want to blame the Diamondbacks offense for not being able to get things going, it's because Wheeler was very, very good on the mound. Yes, Elizabeth, the Gatorade does look radioactive. What did you say?

It also could be what? Oh, a lava lamp, perhaps? Yeah. Yeah. Here's something, too. We talked about, you know, Gallen coming back on short rest. I don't think that's going to happen now. Had they done something a little bit earlier in the game, perhaps something like that could have gone down.

Wheeler only through 81 pitches. Is he coming back for game four? Would they possibly do something like that? Maybe if they were up 3-0? I don't know. I don't think they have the same pitching issues that we do, though. I mean, really, realistically, you need four starters. That's true.

You don't need to do that, especially. If they have a lead in the series like they do, that like they most likely will by that point. Who knows they might not have to go there. I think that both teams are keeping it open because, again, this is it, right? Right. Guys have to dig down deep. They have to pitch on short rest.

They have to do things to give the team the best chance to win. And if Tori or Rob Thompson believe that that is the best chance to win, then I could see them going to either one of those guys early or on short rest. It's definitely not the game plan. And again, now with Philly winning this game, I mean, they don't have to. They won't have their back against the wall by game four. So they won't have to necessarily do that. But the Diamondbacks might.

And I mean, again, the way Gowlin pitched tonight, I don't know if that's necessarily the answer either. Right. But Geraldo Pardomo has some more on the team energy. And hopefully the vibes are still good for this team. Yeah, like, no, we've been having the same energy. We just, I mean, it doesn't matter like if we're down by far, you know. We've proven the six. Like, we come back, we score two, we score one in the seven.

You know, we have a chance to take it again. And like I say, it's what it is. It happens sometime, you know? Do you think the runs you guys forward towards the end will help you're going into tomorrow? I think yes. I think yes. Tomorrow it will be a new day. Like I say, if we get our plan early, just get on bay early, something can happen.

Today, I mean, like I said, we didn't, you know. we just get on bay the first, the lead of Bada Corbyn and we get on base again the 6th. So, you know, it was tough. But I think tomorrow would be a great game for us. That's our King Snake, baby. That's our King Snake.

That's a response. He just proved he earned the King Snake with that response because that got me fired up, man. That was a beat of like, hey, we lost that game. Cool, we feel really good about tomorrow. We feel really good about tomorrow. It's not, I will say this. The one thing about this team is,

that they have experienced a lot of ups and downs this season. And I think that the one thing that has kept them successful has been being able to kind of ride those waves and know that they can still, there's still a chance. There's still an opportunity to pull it out. I still feel like they take, you know, they've taken every game they've had to play for two plus months now. I mean, we're going on three months now of having to play every single game. Like it is your final game of the season.

And you are playing for the playoffs. You are playing for everything. you know you got to you you got to treat it as that but they also know that this is still a long series and of course you can't can't go into a place like philadelphia one of the most difficult environments to win a playoff game in and expect to go there and just run over a team like the Phillies they're just too good for that mike maddox through his daughter on on twitter i saw basically said that you know he's he's pitching coach here the texasasas rangers that he thinks teams like the diamond backs those wildcard teams are so dangerous in the postseason because of the exact thing that you just said they've been grinding away which again can take a toll but you know how to tap into that thing and if you've been doing it you know for for two months straight you're going to you know be more than likely be able to to literally tap into that kind of thing dodgers couldn't they were off there's something to that so uh the diamondbacks have that advantage and man perdomo a beat that was that was interesting to see uh kind of his response to it all i mean

He had a home run, so maybe he's just feeling good about himself, ultimately. I'm feeling a little good about myself because my pregame show Parley, I believe hit. I need to go back and check the tape on that. We got eight runs. The Diamondbacks lost. You need to have one. We got the strikeouts. We got the strikeouts from Wheeler.

I think so. Let's take a look. Oh, Gallin. Did Gallen get four or did he just got three? He just got three, didn't he? I think he got four. Did he get four? Oh, I have it in my notes.

What am I doing? Yes, you got four. Yeah, so that hit, that hit. So again, if you listen to me, there you go. You won yourself a plus 825 bet on that one. You're welcome. You're welcome. Perdomo Arigato.

Yeah, that's a good one. Castiano's his home run. That's his fifth of this postseason, five in the last three games. All of them, all of them before tonight were to left field, obviously on the pole side, got that pole pop. This one was an apo taco, only the second player in postseason history with five home runs. in three consecutive games. The other, of course, Reggie Jackson in the 1977 World Series

where he hit three home runs in a single game. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Yeah. Well, again, get down on the BetMGM Sportsbook app. Make some money with us.

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Gambling problem, call 1-800, Colorado, D.C., Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming. Call 8778-Hope-N-Y or text Hope and Y. 4-6-7-50-N-N-Rexu-N-Sachusetts. 21-1-1-1-Masurgeon. Call 1-800-N-X-EFASP, AGO, AGO,

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Jesse is going to be joining us right now, and I will be sure to make sure he's drinking enough water. Our pal Nicholas said, no Jesse yet. More worried about him surviving Philly than drinking water. I am not going to sleep tonight, Nicholas. Look, I've checked the hotel that he's staying at. I know how many stars it has. I've checked the surrounding areas.

I'm making sure that he takes lifts or Ubers directly from the stadium back and forth to his hotel room. He's not to talk to any strangers, and he's definitely not to talk to any Phillies fans. But I do want to give a shout out to our guys at Foco, by the way, for decorating our set, giving our guy JJ, not only a wonderful hat, but also all sorts of company on our, on our table here. They are a leading manufacturer of sports and entertainment merchandise. And of course, they have your back as an Arizona sports fan when all of those other companies don't. You know the ones I'm talking about.

The ones you go to where they have eight teams. They have that, they have that, they have that, you know, championship. belt in certain teams, but they don't have your team? Yeah. So have the tigers and you go, what? Yeah, the tigers. And one of them is the tigers. You will not say that. Yeah, that's exactly what I said the other day. That's the exact

team I said. That was? It's the exact team I was trying to come up with a different team. No, that's the damn tigers. It's always the damn tigers. But it does make Foco does make the best officially licensed gear for all sports and fandoms. It's baseball season. It's playoff season. So of course make sure you're set. These little works

of our number, they're limited edition. they're incredible. So make sure to check them out, of course. Again, Foco always has our back for Arizona sports. They have yours too. Show them some love, get the best gear around by visiting Foco.com, and using code PHNX for all non-pre-sale items, use that code PHNX and you will get 10% off.

All right. Well, it's time. Got to check in with our guy. It is time to hear from the one and only Thunderstick, Patrick, Thundersick, Jesse Friedman. Jesse, I was furious with him for screwing up your nickname. I don't go around giving nicknames like this just for people to screw them up when promoting their shows. Look, my social media intern has already received hell for that.

We don't make them feel even worse. We fired so many social media interns. It's crazy. Don't make them feel bad. Jesse, wait, I'm unclear on this. What did Patrick think the nickname was?

Someone, someone who manages one of the, my team said boomstick, I think, perhaps when you joined me earlier on the DNVR Rockies podcast. The boomstick, Jesse Friedman. That sounds like that. That sounds like a crossover.

And I wasn't intending to do that. You know, you just can't happen. Right. It cannot happen. Yeah, I'm furious. Jesse, I'm also terribly worried about you in Philadelphia. I'm glad the Phillies won just because I know that they will be kinder to you. And I don't have to worry about you being identified as a D-Bax beat rider on your way home to the hotel.

But what's, uh, we, we saw Geraldo Perdomo say that the team energy was very high. He made us want to run through a brick wall over here. So what is the mood like in the clubhouse? Yeah. I mean, as you'd expect, Diamondbacks very much dismissed any notion of not coming out with energy or being intimidated by the crowd or, you know, if anything, Christian Walker said maybe they were trying to do a little bit too much out of the gate in this game. Although, ultimately, they really just credited Zach Wheeler for just pitching a really, really good game. Geraldo Perdomo, I think, did the Diamondbacks an enormous favor. Obviously, the two-run home run was big as far as the score goes.

But I also think that two-run Homer is what knocked Zach Wheeler out of this game. You know, maybe he returns back for the seventh inning and the debacks aren't able to put a dent into the Phillies lead, you know, if Wheeler is still in the game. So, yeah, I thought he was outstanding. Pardomo. You guys might have seen this. Prudomo talked about how it seemed like Wheeler attacked with his fastball a little bit more than the Diamondbacks have seen in the past. Specifically, his sinker was really, really effective in this game as a pitch that he would use, you know, generally, low and into right-handed hitters got a number of different whiffs in this game on that specific

pitch. But yeah, I mean, you know, Wheeler was fantastic and Bryce Harper was fantastic. You know, a lot of the star players that have made this Phillies team so good this season really showed up in this game. And, you know, that's why the Diamondbacks ultimately lost. Meanwhile, on the other side of the ball, it seemed like the Phillies jumped all over Zach Gallen and his fastball. we showed the tory talking about how they kind of ambushed him but uh i mean was it was it what

in your opinion i know zack said you know talked about pitch selection versus like location but it really looked like he wasn't locating his fastball well tonight which is what ultimately led to the the all of that power being shown against him yeah he talked about that that first pitch to schwarber was i mean it was terrible right i mean it was kind of middle in it was exactly where you don't want to throw a fastball to, you know, arguably the best home run hitter, at least one of the best home run hitters in baseball and in Schwerber. So, yeah, Zach said, you know, he kind of had a feeling that Schwerber would be looking to swing on the first pitch.

And, you know, maybe if that pitch had been on the outside corner of the plate where he was hoping it would be, then, you know, potentially there's a different outcome there. He also talked about on the Nick Castiano's home run. That was a fastball on the outer part of the plate, maybe not quite, you know, to the outer edge is quite as far to the outer edge as he would have liked. But he talked about the shape of the pitch not being quite as sharp as it's generally been. And I noticed that too.

If you go back and look at, you know, the fastball shape, specifically looking at the ride through the strike zone, it wasn't quite there with some of Zach Gallen's four seamers early in this game. And, you know, I think that was also a factor in some of the loud contact in this one against him. Yeah, did you think at any point there early in the going that, you know, there would be more of a quick hook for gallon or was it just a matter of as story said you know he's just kind of grinding away and that you know maybe that would be better than depleting the bullpen a little bit even if

it meant depleting some of those lesser used guys because hey maybe free as castro and nelson don't put up you know a bunch of goose eggs that you know they could just as easily uh squeeze a couple runs out of them as well yeah i mean you know like just about everything else that tory has done in the postseason so far, the decisions he made in this game worked pretty well. Gallen, you know, Phillies had a couple of opportunities to really blow this game open.

They had bases loaded one out at one point, grounded into an inning, any double play. They had second and third one out the next inning, didn't score in that in that one either. So, you know, Gallen really kind of rode the high wire and was able to get out of some difficult spots. But, yeah, it was interesting. You know, we've heard a lot from Tori Lavello about how

you know, in the postseason. It's different. It's about stopping momentum. It's about, you know, being pretty aggressive. We've seen a very aggressive Tori Lavello so far. And he wasn't really like that in this game. He let Zach Gallen try to work out of some of those situations. DeBacks, I don't think really lost the game because of that.

You know, I mean, most of that damage was done earlier in this one. And, you know, the offense just wasn't able to do enough late to make a comeback. There was a little chess move there in the seventh inning, of course. Peyton Smith, right? Brought in for Longoria. Okay, Thompson counters with Jose Alvarado, then Tori calls on Emmanuel Rivera. So just get a 6-3 ground out. That didn't work.

Was there any discussion about that first inning where Corbyn Carroll's on first base? And he kind of stays put, you know, the guys that were coming up right after him. First inning, you're trying to get into a groove there. They had really good number against Wheeler. Wheeler doesn't allow a lot of walks. Any issues there of, hey, you know, maybe you should have sent him and then a base it, you know, gets the job done at some point. The broadcast crew was furious that he wasn't going, by the way. Yeah, I heard that.

There was a river going around the press box. Yeah, after one on base appearance, they were like, what is this guy? Who is this Corby? I thought this Corby Carroll guy stole all the bases. What did he do? Like, it was weird. Yeah, I mean, if you're a national broadcaster and you haven't seen a whole lot of the Diamondbacks this season, you know, with what you've heard about Corbyn Carroll's

on base ability, your assumption is just anytime he touches first base, like, he better be going within a pitcher to you or something's gone seriously wrong. He's just going to disappear and reappear on second base and like a magic trick. Wow. Look at. He's there. You know, yeah. Yeah.

I kind of wondered as well if the diamondbacks would send him there in that spot. But I mean, I don't think it really made a difference. You know, I mean, the next three hitters were all retired in a row to have struck out. Next 15. Yeah, 15. 15 in a row, to be precise, we're set down by Zach Wheeler in this game. He just pitched with his fastball, as we talked about earlier. Like his four seamer and sinker just really had the diamond backs off balance.

And he didn't really even need his breaking stuff at certain points in this game. The debacks were just having a really hard time catching up. And, you know, he was able to ride that to six innings and two runs and eat strikeouts here tonight. So, Jesse, we've had some Phillies fans in our chat tonight. They've been as nice as you probably imagine that they could be after a game like this. but our guy Tom wanted to know where does the bank rank in your favorite ballparks? Oh, man. I feel like I haven't been to enough at this point to really like do justice to that question.

We've sent you to a lot. Okay. We've sent you to a number this season, but I've been to, I've been to a number this season, but I believe I've just been to write all of the division stadiums plus Milwaukee plus now Philadelphia. I think that's the complete list. And to be fair, the NOS. at least in my opinion. Again, I've been to some of the other stadiums around the league,

but I think the NL West has about as good of a crop of baseball stadiums you're going to find in any division. I mean, course, field is outstanding, right? Petco is outstanding. Dodger Stadium. You know, there's a lot of history there, even if it's maybe not quite as, quite as new and shiny as some of the others.

Oracle Park blew my mind when I was there for the first time. So it's tough because I feel like, you know, I haven't been to all that many. I think I've probably been to 11 or 12 at this point in my. life. But the ones that I've been to are like disproportionately like all of the best ones. I've been to Wrigley Field. Haven't been to Fenway yet. Haven't been to PNC. I guess those would be the two kind of headliner ones that I haven't been to yet. But yeah, this one is up there for sure. I think it's probably behind. It's tough. It's probably behind cores. I think it's got to be behind

Petco. It's behind Oracle. I'm not sure if there's anything else that I would say would be in front of it. So maybe it's fourth right now out of the stadiums that I've that I've been to. You've been to a lot of good ones. NL Central is actually kind of sneaky. Yeah, yeah. Park. That's fair. You know, P&C's huge.

You got ridgily like that one's kind of sneaky good. That makes a lot of sense. We got Dr. Knighthawk, by the way, is that too much wine? And she said, too much wine thought. They called themselves Phillies fam, but the debacks have fam, mind blown. That's true. She also said she's been to 24 and it's underwhelming. And then she says, tell P.HLY said that.

I don't care. She's been causing all sorts of trouble in our chat. We are so glad she's here, Jesse. But we did have one more video from you on Christian Walker and what you were describing earlier about the team's approach in regards to offensively against Zach Wheeler. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, our intention is to win this series and go to the World Series.

It's not a content or complacent. Like you said, just a happy to be here situation. It's, you know, we're hungry. We're real hungry. What's the feeling on in Merrill tomorrow? Yeah, same thing, a lot of confidence. You know, tomorrow's a new day. They had, they were hot tonight.

Their guys threw well. But turn the page, flush it. And we're going to get Merrill some runs tomorrow. The Diamondbacks have some incredible hats in the clubhouse, by the way. We got to address that for a moment. It almost looked like Zach Allen was wearing an Eagles wool cap. Yeah, yeah. Very close.

Very close. Very close. Yeah. What are your thoughts here, Jesse, overall? I mean, obviously, we were discussing not panicking. You know, it felt like this might have been a panic situation early on. And we even had some, you know, reply, some mailbag Monday questions that reflected that. But it really felt like the end result here is that it is a difficult environment to play.

And the Diamondbacks did a pretty decent job of bouncing back from what looked like a disaster early on to make this at least a competitive game and build towards the rest of the series, which there's plenty of baseball still left to play. Yeah, I mean, this is, you know, the debacks have played a three game series and a five game. series is a seven game series is really freaking long you know i mean the phillies have to win three more baseball games in order to close this out the debacks have to win four you know before the phillies win three in order to win this series so yeah i mean this is just one game out of seven you know if the debacks come out and win tomorrow then you know suddenly have a pretty favorable outlook on on what happened here in philadelphia in these first couple games i do think tomorrow is is really important though uh i do want to stress that i mean you've got meryl kelly on the mound

you know, he's, he's your guy, he's your number two starter on, on your number one B starter really on this team. D-backs would be in a pretty precarious position if they were coming back to Chase Field down to O, you know, with Brandon Fott and then, you know, maybe looking at a bullpen game of some sort in game four. That would be a really hard position for them to be in. So, yeah, I think, I think tomorrow is really, really important. But, you know, ultimately the D-backs played a really competitive game.

I mean, you know, they had the tying run of the plate multiple. times toward the end they you know they they they really fought in this one and you know a lot of guys talked about the positive momentum that they can carry into tomorrow so you know we'll have to see how it turns out for them i'm curious about late in the ball game there were a couple opportunities down the backs came to the plate tying run came to the plate did you get any sense that maybe there was some momentum shift that you could feel a little you know anxiety exuding from the pores amongst other things from the faithful there at Citizens Bank Park that hey maybe something can happen

maybe Gurriel can run into one late in the game did it did it seem like maybe at least there was that chance yeah I mean this this bullpen is really really good right I mean for as great as Zach Wheeler you know was in the regular season and has been in the playoffs like this Philly's bullpen has been lights out and you know even though the debacks didn't do a ton of damage didn't wind up doing enough damage to ultimately turn this one in their favor they very much made, you know, these elite back-end Phillies relievers looked very human, you know,

like I don't think Alvarado totally dominated the Diamondbacks. There was some hard contact there. I think of Tommy Fam. I think his line drive that ended that final inning that Alvarado pitch. I think that was like 108 miles an hour off the bat or something like that. And even Craig Kimbril in the ninth inning, you know, I mean, we've seen the Diamondbacks get to Craig Kimbril before. He's obviously been in the league for a really, really long time. So, yeah, you know, I mean, it was it was kind of a hard hit, hard hit ball there for Gurriel.

Unfortunately, for the debacks, it turned into a double play. But I think I think the debacks, you know, show that they can hold their own against some of these really tough Phillies relievers. I want to appreciate the fact that the chat has completely turned to cheese steak talk. It was ballpark talk for like five minutes. It was ballpark talk. And now we've just gone completely to cheese steak talk. I will say there's questions. Spiral out.

Obviously a Phillies fan. He knows this stuff. He says don't go to Pats or Gino's. No. Tourist traps. John's roast pork, Angelo's, or Ishka Bibles have some of the best cheese steaks. I went to Max's steaks on Germantown Avenue in Philadelphia.

And that was incredible. And that was where somebody took me. Megaran, you know, of course, Philadelphia native, who I'm not talking to you right now. We are not friends during this series. Just like I'm not friends with most people from Philadelphia. But, Jesse, I am still friends with you. I'm still worried about you all the time. So we look forward to you once again being the voice of reason around here.

Even with Patrick, Patrick gets me all riled up. He's like a little bit. Yeah, he's he's like the kid that gets the dog all riled up before, you know, before bed or whatever. Or the guy that talks too loud when like, I don't know, your brother's trying to sleep upstairs. You go, can you guys keep it down a little bit? Just to use a random example. That's a guest at his house reference. I'm guessing right there.

No, all right. Everybody wants to know. So, so, so give the people what they want. Have you had a cheese steak yet in Philadelphia? Yes. I have had a cheese steak in Philadelphia. Yes. Yes.

That a boy. I was, I feel like I should have a picture ready to go here. Yeah, you know, like I think it was good. But at this like, I don't know, I've had, I feel like I've had some decent cheese steaks in my life in various places. And, you know, this is definitely one of the better ones. I wouldn't say honestly that it's like, oh my gosh, like my life has changed forever. This cheese steak is, you know, better than anything I've ever had. It was.

Yeah, it was just the diner across the street from my hotel. That's where you're going to find the best ones in Philadelphia. Yeah, I mean, the airport shuttle driver told me that that was like a pretty famous diner, like a pretty solid spot to go to. So yeah, it was good. I mean, I did it like Grubhubhub style. I was pickup. It wasn't delivery.

but it maybe wasn't quite a bit was pickup you walked over there oh no no no no go outside of the hotel no everything I j I j walked going across the street there you would have been terrified look at you you're just the native now if the only way you could top that is if you got a nice hot pretzel inside of a shopping cart this is also a big thing yeah that's a big silly that's a big silly thing don't don't listen to him I don't want you doing any of these things yeah I don't want you doing shopping carts they heat up real nice and their pretzels are on point. Jesse, we will see you tomorrow,

but we appreciate you once again, and hopefully, like Predomo said, they come out and have a great day tomorrow. All right, guys. I'll see you. All right, well, that was absolutely worth it, just to know that Jesse had a cheesecake, yeah, and that he's okay. But we don't know if he's drinking enough water.

We know he's eating enough cheesecake. He's definitely not. He's definitely not. But what we do know is no matter win or lose tonight, the debacks are still a goddamn dangerous team we're a fucking dangerous team get the fucking dangerous shirt right now over at the p hnx locker dot com of course if you are a diehard uh you will get 20% off all those purchases at the p hnx locker dot com if you are not a die hard you can get your membership today over at go p hnx dot com

you will get a free shirt from the p hnx locker dot com you can grab this brand new release uh or this wagon shirt i'm wearing tonight uh or any shirt from the p hnx locker and you get all sorts of those wonderful benefits too that comes with being a diehard member so of course we thank you guys so much for joining us all of you all of the phillies fans all the debacks fans we love you guys we appreciate you guys for love and baseball and we are excited uh for this series uh someone had to win tonight and at the end of the day i know it didn't look great to start out but the diamondbacks babbled back and at least uh we'll see we'll see how game two goes but i think it's going to be very important for the diamondbacks to win uh also uh make sure to join us if you can on

saturday october 21st for the out of darkness walk we are joining uh thousands of teams across the country uh for a community walk it's an event coach by one of our very own pH and X diehards that raises money for suicide prevention programs, unites those that have been affected by suicide, and helps create communities that are smart about mental health. I know we have all been affected at some point in our lives. And if you haven't, consider yourself lucky. But I've talked about my cousin who I've lost, and I know a lot of us have lost loved ones,

and we want to make sure that that doesn't help happen anymore. So you can join us for the Out of Darkness Walk in person at Salt River Fields, a talking stick at 9-8. am on the 21st or show your support virtually join team eight team phnx by hitting the link in our description and help us hit our fundraising goal if you are able to so we appreciate that support and again also if you can't if you can't even donate anything you can at least join the team we would love the support of of getting as many of our diehards and as many of our friends on that team as we possibly can but again we thank you guys so much for joining us on behalf of everyone here we appreciate your time you can follow me on twitter i'm at cap underscore caveman

with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. This maniac next to me is at Patrick D. Lyons. Of course, the people's producer, Damon, he is a Damon dog. That's D-A-W-G. We are Damon's dogs. I want to, I want a bigger. Okay, thank you. But he's an ar-farf guy. He already said he's an ar-f-arf guy.

I know. I'm supposed to respect that, but I can't. I just, I miss Sean sometimes. All people are beautiful, Derek. All people come in different shapes, sizes. That's fine. You're right. Speak different languages. Yes. All right. But of course, our shows at PHNX underscore Dabacks and all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys again for your time. And remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's way more fun when you're not playing the Phillies.