Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Snake's Territory, part
Speaker 1: of the Foul Territory Network. Be sure to like this video,
Speaker 1: subscribe to our YouTube channel, maybe leave us a five
Speaker 1: star review wherever you get your podcasts. I am Jesse
Speaker 1: Friedman alongside Jack Summers and Jack talked on Friday about
Speaker 1: a pretty crushing, disappointing loss for this Diamondbacks team, and
Speaker 1: they bounce back in impressive fashion, not only winning on Saturday,
Speaker 1: but pulling off a comeback from down seven runs. On Sunday,
Speaker 1: they come back to beat the Saint Louis Cardinals and
Speaker 1: ten innings by a final score of eight to seven.
Speaker 1: This is a game that we're not gonna forget, potentially
Speaker 1: for a number of years after this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm probably gonna lead here with a little bit
Speaker 2: of a you can't beat how can you not be
Speaker 2: romantic about baseball type of sentiment. Look, unless you're winning
Speaker 2: the World championship, somebody at some point is going to
Speaker 2: go home and be disappointed right at the end of
Speaker 2: the year. But today was a really good reminder of
Speaker 2: the moments that the players play for and the moments
Speaker 2: that the fans watched for. And you know, we don't
Speaker 2: get to enjoy the sweetness that was today's comeback without
Speaker 2: some of the pain and frustration that goes along before that.
Speaker 2: So it was just a good reminder for me, you know,
Speaker 2: enjoy the ride a little bit more, even though there's
Speaker 2: going to be some tough days. Days like this do happen,
Speaker 2: and what a payoff.
Speaker 1: Eduardo Rodriguez not great in this one. He was not
Speaker 1: the central storyline of this Diamondbacks win, as he often
Speaker 1: has been. Just two and two thirds innings from e Rod.
Speaker 1: He allowed a total of five runs and one of
Speaker 1: the kind of bizarrely just pretty rough outings for him
Speaker 1: this season. But again, the Diamondbacks were able to pick
Speaker 1: him up, something that they haven't done very much of
Speaker 1: this season. They've kind of needed him to carry them
Speaker 1: in a lot of situations this year. And Diamondbacks down
Speaker 1: five to nothing going into the bottom of the sixth,
Speaker 1: the vibes are not necessarily high at that point. Jack.
Speaker 1: The Diamondbacks scored three runs in that inning. They were
Speaker 1: pretty much handed two of them with basses loaded walks
Speaker 1: that worked out very nicely. They probably should have scored
Speaker 1: more runs in that inning, given the bases loaded, nobody
Speaker 1: out situation and the two walks that came after that,
Speaker 1: in some ways kind of disappointing to only come away
Speaker 1: with three runs there, but it made it a game.
Speaker 1: It made it seven to three. And then in the
Speaker 1: bottom of the seventh where this game really got interesting. Jack,
Speaker 1: just a crazy turn of events here. Adrian del Castillo
Speaker 1: at first base with two outs and Heraldo Perdomo hits
Speaker 1: a line drive to left field. Jose for I mean,
Speaker 1: probably should have just played this ball and kept it
Speaker 1: in front of him and turned it into a single
Speaker 1: and things probably would have been fine. But it winds
Speaker 1: up going past him in left field, and Heraldo Perdomo
Speaker 1: comes away with what was eventually scored an inside the
Speaker 1: park home run and turned a seven to three deficit
Speaker 1: into seven to five.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that got the game close, and you kind
Speaker 2: of felt like, Okay, this could really happen. At that point.
Speaker 2: There was a lot of angst and disappointment of only
Speaker 2: getting to seven to three with that basis loaded nobody
Speaker 2: out situation, a lot of bemoaning of lack of execution
Speaker 2: and all that, but that break went their way all
Speaker 2: of a sudden at seven to five. You could really
Speaker 2: feel the momentum shift at that point.
Speaker 1: And then in the bottom half of the eighth inning,
Speaker 1: two outs, base is empty, not much going on, Tyler
Speaker 1: Locklear sneaks a seeing eye ground ball through the infield,
Speaker 1: reaches base a two out single, and then Nolan Arnado
Speaker 1: burns his former team with a very clutch two run
Speaker 1: home run. It was not only a huge game tying
Speaker 1: swing for the Diamondbacks, but also Arnaudo's one nine ninety
Speaker 1: ninth career hit. And it was a crazy moment Jack,
Speaker 1: I mean, in just a span of a few innings. Again,
Speaker 1: the Diamondbacks entering the bottom of the sixth trailed this
Speaker 1: game seven to nothing, and they wind up storming their
Speaker 1: way back and by the bottom of the eighth it
Speaker 1: was it was a tie game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was kind of fun listening to the Cardinals
Speaker 2: broadcast version of that after the home run talking about
Speaker 2: how Nolan Aronado is now officially a Cardinals killer.
Speaker 1: Top of the ninth inning rolls around and things got
Speaker 1: a little dicey there. Ryan Thompson was called upon in
Speaker 1: this situation, not Paul Sewald, which was notable. Of course,
Speaker 1: Tory went to Paul Sewald in the exact same situation
Speaker 1: on Friday and things did not end well. So Tory
Speaker 1: goes to Ryan Thompson, wasn't exactly a clean inning. Runners
Speaker 1: at first and second, two outs. Tory turns to Juan
Speaker 1: Mario to get the last out of that inning, and
Speaker 1: it was huge Mario able to get I believe it
Speaker 1: was JJ Weatherholt to ground into a to just ground
Speaker 1: out to end that frame. And the d Backs had
Speaker 1: it set up in the bottom of the ninth jack
Speaker 1: top of the order do up. But they went quietly,
Speaker 1: and you're like, all right, here we go. Extra innings.
Speaker 1: The d Backs. Extra innings has not exactly been a
Speaker 1: recipe for success for them this season or really in
Speaker 1: any recent season.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they came into it two and five in extra innings,
Speaker 2: and as all this was unfolding, I'm sitting there surmising.
Speaker 2: I think seawalld is down. I think Arcia is down.
Speaker 2: I think Kevin Ginkle's down. You know, maybe the game
Speaker 2: went eleven or twelve of our innings or something and
Speaker 2: they had no choice. They might have, you know, pulled
Speaker 2: one of those guys out to use him. But where
Speaker 2: are they going to go in extra innings with this?
Speaker 2: If they couldn't end this tent. Obviously Mario was going
Speaker 2: to come back out for the.
Speaker 1: Ten, and he did, and the Dbacks caught a major
Speaker 1: break there. There's no getting around that. Juan Mario gives
Speaker 1: up a leadoff single in the top of the tenth
Speaker 1: and it's like, all right, here we go. This is
Speaker 1: probably going to turn south quickly. First and third, nobody out,
Speaker 1: and then Jordan Walker hits a flare that is caught
Speaker 1: by Heralda Perdomo and somehow Brian Torres, a twenty nine
Speaker 1: year old rookie on the Cardinals, gets doubled off first
Speaker 1: base in the process. And admittedly, Jack like, that's not
Speaker 1: always a super easy play to make. As a base runner.
Speaker 1: You're told to freeze on a line drive. Sometimes that
Speaker 1: can be difficult if the ball has hit really hard,
Speaker 1: but this was not that. I mean, it felt like
Speaker 1: this infield flare from Jordan Walker was in the air
Speaker 1: for like two seconds, and somehow Brian Torres was just
Speaker 1: not aware of the situation and he gets doubled off
Speaker 1: first base. Juan Rio able to get Nathan Church to
Speaker 1: ground out to end the inning, and at that point
Speaker 1: you're like, Okay, the Diamondbacks have a shot in this
Speaker 1: to all they need to do is find a way
Speaker 1: to get that ghost runner home from second. And of course,
Speaker 1: the mistake that the Cardinals made in the top of
Speaker 1: the tent was it was sort of mind blowing and
Speaker 1: a big reason why the Diamondbacks ultimately won this game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I think that Jerry was heads up there.
Speaker 2: I wonder if Torres thought that maybe the ball was
Speaker 2: chopped or something, and that's why he like took off.
Speaker 2: You know, sometimes in a split second it may not
Speaker 2: be totally obvious that it was a flair. Maybe he
Speaker 2: thought it was like a Baltimore chop or something like that.
Speaker 2: That's the only thing I can think of. I mean,
Speaker 2: I don't know how we made that error.
Speaker 1: It looked to me like he wasn't even darting towards second.
Speaker 1: He was just kind of It's like he froze, but
Speaker 1: he didn't actually start going back to the base. He
Speaker 1: just kind of stood there and then the Diamondbacks easily
Speaker 1: had him done. So, just an enormous mistake there by
Speaker 1: the Cardinals. Diamondbacks still needed to push across the winning run,
Speaker 1: and they wound up in a very similar situation, pretty
Speaker 1: much the exact same situation that we discussed recently. Arguably
Speaker 1: your best hitter at the plate in Gabby Moreno. You've
Speaker 1: got the ghost runner on second base, and Moreno did
Speaker 1: not lay down a bunt jack. I imagined that is
Speaker 1: what you might have preferred he do. He did not
Speaker 1: do that. He winds up lining out, But then that
Speaker 1: decision didn't prove consequential. Max Kepler, the next hitter, drives
Speaker 1: a deep double to right field. Actually a pretty decent pitch.
Speaker 1: It was a change up below the zone, but Kepler
Speaker 1: put a really good swing on it, and that was
Speaker 1: the game, certainly deep enough to score the winning run
Speaker 1: and completing a really impressive comeback. This match the Diamondback's
Speaker 1: biggest comeback in franchise history at seven runs.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the previous time they did that, of course,
Speaker 2: was Corbyn Carroll's debut back in August of twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2: I think it was August twenty ninth. They fell behind
Speaker 2: the Phillies seven nothing and came back to win thirteen
Speaker 2: to seven. So maybe a little sweet poetry and justice there.
Speaker 2: Of course, I was ready to already and geared up
Speaker 2: to debate Jesse once again about you know whether or
Speaker 2: not Moreno should have bunted. I was on the bunt club,
Speaker 2: I you know, because the same thing would have happened anyway, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, say that ball wasn't quite a
Speaker 2: line drive that Kepler hit, but it was deep enough anyway,
Speaker 2: even if it was caught the run scores and also
Speaker 2: the debate that Jesse and I did have was was
Speaker 2: it a line drive? The box score says a line drive,
Speaker 2: but it was twenty one degrees a launch angle. I'll
Speaker 2: call that a flyner and it was only hitting eight
Speaker 2: an hour. No, I'm just kidding. But all's well. That
Speaker 2: ends well. Still, I would like to see Gabby ad
Speaker 2: the bunt tool to his toolbox. I think he needs that.
Speaker 2: I'd really like to see him added in there. I
Speaker 2: know he's been the best hitter. I know he's been
Speaker 2: hitting well, but you know you just need one run there.
Speaker 1: That's fair. Gabby's hitting three h four, so you know,
Speaker 1: I'm still team let him swing the bat. He's been
Speaker 1: by far the most reliable hitter on this team in
Speaker 1: recent days. But agree to disagree once again, Jack, in
Speaker 1: this case, it didn't wind up proving consequential. As I said,
Speaker 1: Max Kepler with the big swing there, and it is
Speaker 1: just hard to overstate how big this win was for
Speaker 1: this team. I mean, the swing and vibes jack between
Speaker 1: the Dbacks losing this game and winning feels enormous, which
Speaker 1: I know is always the case in a rubber match,
Speaker 1: but given the opponent that this was against the Saint
Speaker 1: Louis Cardinals, the Diamondbacks clinch the season series with this
Speaker 1: win against Saint Louis, which feels really significant. And I mean,
Speaker 1: given the mistakes that they made in that game on
Speaker 1: Friday and how winnable that felt, I guess you could
Speaker 1: get greedy now and be like, Dback should have swept
Speaker 1: this series. There's certainly a case be made there, but
Speaker 1: coming away with two out of three and doing it
Speaker 1: in such heroic fashion on Sunday just a huge lift
Speaker 1: for this team as we continue the march toward the
Speaker 1: trade deadline.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's you can't justifiably say they should
Speaker 2: have had a sweep. I mean, you know, you can
Speaker 2: even say they were lucky to be in Friday night's
Speaker 2: game in the first place. So and you know, you
Speaker 2: come back from seven to nothing and win eight to seven.
Speaker 2: You know, that's the ultimate we for those who participate
Speaker 2: in Sarah Lang's fantastic tweets. So you know, I'm not
Speaker 2: going to get greedy and say they should have had
Speaker 2: a sweep. I'm just gonna take this and say thank
Speaker 2: you very much and enjoy the moment like I did,
Speaker 2: and as I opened, I mean, that's the that's the
Speaker 2: key here is you know, this is entertainment and that
Speaker 2: was fun. That was just a lot of fun to watch.
Speaker 1: We don't need to dwell on e Rod has obviously,
Speaker 1: the Dbacs won the game, and e Rod has been
Speaker 1: by far the team's best starting pitcher this season. Even
Speaker 1: after this start, he still has a two point six
Speaker 1: to two ERA. But I think you and I landed
Speaker 1: in a similar place, Jack, where the location of the
Speaker 1: pitches maybe it wasn't what he would have wanted, but
Speaker 1: it also wasn't terrible. It felt like the Cardinals. Actually,
Speaker 1: there were a couple of changeups that were below the
Speaker 1: zone in pretty good spots that somehow Saint Louis managed
Speaker 1: to hit anyway. And it wasn't like all of those
Speaker 1: hits in that disastrous third inning were necessarily hard hit.
Speaker 1: And yet somehow Saint Louis strings together six hits in
Speaker 1: a walk in that inning, and that's when this game
Speaker 1: really got out of hand.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that triple, I mean, I don't know if
Speaker 2: he could have even gotten there to cut it off.
Speaker 2: But you know, the ball that Ryan Walts would doe for,
Speaker 2: I mean he didn't even glove didn't even get there. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and I kind of felt like Kepler was a little
Speaker 2: slow getting to the spot there too of being able
Speaker 2: to cut It's hard to tell because I was watching
Speaker 2: on TV. I wasn't at the ballpark, but I watched
Speaker 2: on the replay as well, and it just seemed like
Speaker 2: the angles that both of them took were like a
Speaker 2: little too sharp. Neither one of them took the proper
Speaker 2: angle to cut off the ball, so that that probably
Speaker 2: shouldn't have been a triple. In my mind, I think
Speaker 2: if between it, if they both took the cutoff angle
Speaker 2: instead of to try to make the play angle, they
Speaker 2: might have been able to hold that to a double. So,
Speaker 2: you know, maybe would have made that big a difference.
Speaker 2: But yeah, like you said, I you know, I even
Speaker 2: texted Jesse some of the location charts from game day,
Speaker 2: and you know, one pitch was middle middle, but the
Speaker 2: rest were either below the zone or on the edge
Speaker 2: of the black you know. Of course, he did have
Speaker 2: a four pitch walk to start things off, and the
Speaker 2: daughter himself said that he was not happy with his location.
Speaker 2: He said, hey, I made location mistakes today. The one
Speaker 2: thing that did kind of bum me out was I
Speaker 2: see him seeing him get booed off the mound, and look,
Speaker 2: fans pay for their ticket, and you know, they know
Speaker 2: how important the game is, or maybe they don't. I
Speaker 2: don't know. You know, it depends on who's at the ballgame.
Speaker 2: But Edwaro has carried the pitching staff this year, and
Speaker 2: this was literally his only really bad start all year long.
Speaker 2: I mean, he had three other outings where he gave
Speaker 2: up four runs, but he went either five or six
Speaker 2: innings in all of three of those outings. And this
Speaker 2: is the only time he's given up five runs all
Speaker 2: year long. And I just felt like the guy deserved
Speaker 2: a little bit more grace than that. But I get it.
Speaker 2: If there are those out there that feel like it's
Speaker 2: their right to boo, they paid for their ticket, they
Speaker 2: can boo. I don't think it helps the players any
Speaker 2: doesn't make them feel any better, it doesn't make them
Speaker 2: perform any better. I'm sure of that. Booing a player
Speaker 2: does not make them play better, you know, but you
Speaker 2: know it does allow the paying fan to exercise their
Speaker 2: right to express displeasure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, which fans, as you said, do have the
Speaker 1: right to do. But I'm very much with you there.
Speaker 1: You rod still has a two point six two ERA,
Speaker 1: which feels like it's you know, one hundred and ten
Speaker 1: percentile of what you would have expected coming into this season.
Speaker 1: So huge win here for this Diamondbacks team. Of course,
Speaker 1: their position in the standings improved over the weekend, and
Speaker 1: when we come back from this break, we'll take a
Speaker 1: look at that. We'll talk through some injury updates. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: there was a significant update that came out of this
Speaker 1: game that we'll get to, So don't go anywhere. We'll
Speaker 1: be right back here on Snake's territory. Well, certainly the
Speaker 1: vibes surrounding this Arizona Diamondbacks team have improved since our
Speaker 1: last episode, and that means maybe you're feeling a little
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Speaker 1: all of those things, we really really appreciate it. Before
Speaker 1: we get to some of the negatives with the injury
Speaker 1: updates and so forth, I do want to look at
Speaker 1: the standings here, Jack, because this was a big weekend
Speaker 1: for the Arizona Diamondbacks when it came to the wild
Speaker 1: card race. The Miami Marlins continue to struggle. They have
Speaker 1: now lost six consecutive games, and of course Dbacks taking
Speaker 1: two out of three against Saint Louis helps as well,
Speaker 1: and Jack, they now sit just half a game behind
Speaker 1: that third wild card spot. Granted, there are still three
Speaker 1: teams ahead of them. The Cardinals, Marlins and Pirates are
Speaker 1: all effectively tied for that third wild card spot as
Speaker 1: of right now. But we don't have our little buy
Speaker 1: sell O meter graphic for this show. But if Mike
Speaker 1: Hazen had to make this call tomorrow, I think it's
Speaker 1: pretty safe to say that Diamondbacks are buyers at the
Speaker 1: trade deadline.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it was already in the by section.
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't think we need to flat line
Speaker 2: it to be like super aggressive buy. Yeah, we're not
Speaker 2: there yet, for sure. Mike's not there yet. For sure
Speaker 2: I should say I'm not the GM.
Speaker 1: What you think is what matters most.
Speaker 2: So I mean, I guess the point is is that, yes,
Speaker 2: winning two out of three from the Cardinals was very
Speaker 2: important and moves the ball forward. Certainly doesn't push them
Speaker 2: back towards sell or not do anything. But there's still
Speaker 2: time left here to move this thing in either direction, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, Okay, you've got three against the A's, you
Speaker 2: have a certain expectation. You've got to go play the
Speaker 2: Cardinals again on Thursday, and then you know you're going
Speaker 2: to be playing the Nationals and you're going to be
Speaker 2: playing the Pirates on the road, so you know before
Speaker 2: you come back home. So I think that you know,
Speaker 2: we're not going to really really know where they're at
Speaker 2: until they actually go and play the Pirates and the
Speaker 2: Nationals and finish off those because the Nationals are only
Speaker 2: a game and a half back in the d Backs.
Speaker 2: I think, you know, they're right there and most people
Speaker 2: expect them to fall off, but they haven't. Yeah, they
Speaker 2: haven't fallen back. And of course the Pirates, I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, they're they're ahead of the d Backs by
Speaker 2: half a game, I think. Right, So, you know, at
Speaker 2: this point, I don't think you can count those chickens
Speaker 2: by any means and say, oh, he's definitely a buyer.
Speaker 2: I still need to see more before I'm convinced that
Speaker 2: that's what he's going to do. And also, there still
Speaker 2: aren't enough teams selling to be a s buyer, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, that's that's the whole thing. Part other part
Speaker 2: of this dynamic. There's still only seven teams that you
Speaker 2: can easily identify, maybe eight if you squint a little bit,
Speaker 2: that you could say, okay, those teams should be selling.
Speaker 2: And of those, some of them actually don't have good
Speaker 2: pieces to sell. It's like overpriced veterans and you know,
Speaker 2: underperforming guys on expiring contracts, et cetera, et cetera. So
Speaker 2: it's not a great buyer's market. I still think that
Speaker 2: it's just as likely that we just see teams that
Speaker 2: are both in contention trading you know, strength for strength
Speaker 2: right or filling gaps and just seeing where they match up. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it'll be fascinating to see how that materializes the
Speaker 1: next couple of weeks, whether there are enough buyers or
Speaker 1: enough sellers to actually make for an interesting trade deadline.
Speaker 1: One thing I will say about this series and the
Speaker 1: games the Diamondbacks have played against St. Louis this year,
Speaker 1: the Cardinals don't look like that grade of a team
Speaker 1: to me. And I know we're talking about six games
Speaker 1: the d Backs have played against them, and that's a
Speaker 1: very small sample size, but just getting to know this
Speaker 1: Cardinals roster a little bit, it feels like the bullpen
Speaker 1: is quite shaky. I think they would be in position
Speaker 1: to have to make substantial upgrades in that regard, and
Speaker 1: their rotation has a number of guys with dcent eras,
Speaker 1: but you look at some of the underlying stuff and
Speaker 1: it's not great. And you know, I think they have
Speaker 1: some really solid position players like JJ Weatherholtz and Jordan
Speaker 1: Walker have both been awesome. But I think just seeing
Speaker 1: the Cardinals up close these these past few weeks and
Speaker 1: in these games the d Backs have played, it's been like, Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is a team that d Backs absolutely can hang with.
Speaker 1: I might take their roster over Saint Louis's. And you
Speaker 1: think about the Marlins and them kind of falling back
Speaker 1: down to earth, and you know, the Nationals playoff odds
Speaker 1: are actually very low because you know, fan grafts, projection
Speaker 1: systems don't view them favorably moving forward. So you know,
Speaker 1: I just observing the landscape right now, it feels like
Speaker 1: the Diamondbacks as flawed as they are. And I don't
Speaker 1: want to make it sound like they're not flawed in
Speaker 1: some of the same ways that the Gardinals are, but
Speaker 1: they're right in this thing. I don't think this is
Speaker 1: a situation where in the National League the level of
Speaker 1: competition is so high that it's like, yeah, no, the
Speaker 1: d Backs that they don't belong in the same category
Speaker 1: as these teams. I think they absolutely do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, their playoff odds went up to twenty seven point
Speaker 2: four percent on fangrass today. There's another website, Deserve to Win,
Speaker 2: has an an interesting way to put together. Their odds
Speaker 2: are at twenty five percent, and I gather that Baseball
Speaker 2: Reference is going to be in that range tomorrow as well,
Speaker 2: So I mean that's kind of where they're at, twenty
Speaker 2: five twenty seven percent chance. You know, the Pirates are
Speaker 2: an interesting team. I mean, you know, whether or not
Speaker 2: they play up to and win as many games as
Speaker 2: they should be winning on paper is another big question
Speaker 2: mark there, ironically with the Pirates is you know, their
Speaker 2: offense has been the strength of their team and their
Speaker 2: pitching hasn't been as good as expected. So well, that's
Speaker 2: an interesting development too, and you know, we'll see how
Speaker 2: it goes when we play them head to head.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, as great as these past couple of days have
Speaker 1: been for the Diamondbacks, there also have been quite a
Speaker 1: few injury updates that we've gotten in the process. Some
Speaker 1: of them are positive, but one that is certainly not positive, Jack,
Speaker 1: is that Corbyn Carroll left Sunday's game early with what
Speaker 1: has been called a hyper extended right elbow. He looked
Speaker 1: very uncomfortable on a swing in the bottom of the
Speaker 1: seventh inning and his next at bat he was replaced
Speaker 1: by Jorge Barossa. As of right now, he's being called
Speaker 1: day to day. It sounds like there's a chance he
Speaker 1: could be in the lineup tomorrow against the A's. I
Speaker 1: don't know if that's super likely, but they haven't ruled
Speaker 1: that out. So not a full on disaster here, Jack,
Speaker 1: but not good news either, especially as Corbyn has had
Speaker 1: some better swings here in recent days.
Speaker 2: Well. He also said though that he felt this before,
Speaker 2: but it didn't it went away right away, and this
Speaker 2: time it lingered. Yeah, so you know that doesn't sound
Speaker 2: right to me. I mean, I don't know why they
Speaker 2: wouldn't err on the side of caution here. Look, the
Speaker 2: guy's phenomenal athlete, he's you know, very tough. He's played
Speaker 2: through so much. They're not planning on getting him any imaging.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I for my money, I just give
Speaker 2: him the day off, Just get him in the tunnel
Speaker 2: and double check it, make sure it's okay, make sure
Speaker 2: there's no damage done there, give him, give him a
Speaker 2: game off, and then come back on Tuesday. That's the
Speaker 2: way I would play it. But I don't run things.
Speaker 1: We'll see what they do. We know that Corbyn is
Speaker 1: the type of guy who wants to be in there
Speaker 1: as much as he can, and he is not unwilling
Speaker 1: to play through discomfort. It feels like he's been doing
Speaker 1: that for pretty much the entire season at this point,
Speaker 1: so be interesting to see how the Diamondbacks handle that.
Speaker 2: We also got working out very well lately, is it No?
Speaker 2: I mean yes, he hit the home run off the
Speaker 2: foul pole in Game two of the series, and he
Speaker 2: hit a double off the center field ball today and
Speaker 2: I get it, like, you know, he's still Corbyn Carrol,
Speaker 2: but you know, he's had a really rough time and
Speaker 2: certainly injury and discomfort has probably been an issue all
Speaker 2: along underlying and they just don't like to talk about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that is very fair. Other injury updates,
Speaker 1: we got Jordan Lawler, who has been dealing with that
Speaker 1: hamstring injury, the forty seventh hamstring injury he's had over
Speaker 1: the past few years. At least that's kind of what
Speaker 1: it feels like. But Lawler is still in the process
Speaker 1: of working his way back. A recent MRI showed that
Speaker 1: there's still some signs of that injury, a signal in
Speaker 1: theres with Tory Leavello. How Tory Levello described it, he
Speaker 1: did take live batting practice against Justin Martinez actually, so
Speaker 1: that was good to see. He's taking steps in the
Speaker 1: right direction, but still not fully cleared for base running,
Speaker 1: and I don't know, Jack, We'll see how long it
Speaker 1: takes for that to happen. It's kind of unpredictable.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, he's probably in a situation where he's
Speaker 2: not allowed to do full running. So I think that
Speaker 2: it's at least two to three weeks that we're still
Speaker 2: looking at with him. I mean, it's definitely you know,
Speaker 2: Tory said, we're looking at the calendar flipping, So I mean, figure,
Speaker 2: you know, first week of August is your best case
Speaker 2: scenario for Jordan Lawler to return. So anybody wondering about
Speaker 2: the outfield and what to do with this guy or
Speaker 2: that guy, you don't really need to consider Jordan for
Speaker 2: at least two weeks.
Speaker 1: Good injury update on Ryan Nelson. He is going to
Speaker 1: start a throwing program in the coming days. He had
Speaker 1: a good MRI on Friday, and so yeah, he is
Speaker 1: starting the road back to the big leagues. There's sort
Speaker 1: of this lingering question over his role when he returns.
Speaker 1: Would the Diamondbacks use him as a reliever instead of
Speaker 1: a starter in order to get him back a little
Speaker 1: bit sooner. Certainly the build up would be a longer
Speaker 1: process if he's trying to get out to five innings,
Speaker 1: eighty five pitches or whatever. So we don't have any
Speaker 1: answers on that right now, but that'll be interesting to
Speaker 1: monitor their what their plan is there. Aj Puck some
Speaker 1: not great injury news with him. He is getting a
Speaker 1: second opinion on his shoulder injury from doctor Neil Latrash,
Speaker 1: and of course Zach Gallon also going to visit doctor
Speaker 1: Ela Trash on Monday. So the dbacs are keeping him
Speaker 1: busy right now, which is never a position you want
Speaker 1: to be in. Just sticking on Puck for a second, Jack,
Speaker 1: I think it's fair to say his Diamondbacks career has
Speaker 1: probably run its course at this point.
Speaker 2: I would say that's most likely the case. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: don't see him, you know, getting cleared to throw and
Speaker 2: be able to come back and do anything and help
Speaker 2: the team this year.
Speaker 1: Last one we have here is Lordus Guriel Junior. He
Speaker 1: was actually placed on the injure list since our last episode.
Speaker 1: This happened on Saturday. It is a strained right adductor.
Speaker 1: The Diamondbacks recalled Adrian delca Stio from Triple A Reno
Speaker 1: in a corresponding move. Delca Steo went on to actually
Speaker 1: have a really productive game on Sunday. He was a
Speaker 1: big part of the Diamondbacks making this comeback. So you
Speaker 1: and I had talked about Lordis for a while, Jack
Speaker 1: and him just really needing to turn things around. I
Speaker 1: guess this injury maybe contributed to that in some ways.
Speaker 1: But it doesn't sound like Lordis is going to be
Speaker 1: down for too long either.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he heard it on a I think on a
Speaker 2: swing he felt something tweak, something that's actually kind of
Speaker 2: like in his thigh, in his inner thigh there. So
Speaker 2: you know, the the reason he was struggling was not
Speaker 2: this particular injury, but Tory felt very confident that it
Speaker 2: was going to be the shortest and possible wherever we
Speaker 2: heard that before. But take your time, Lordis.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's fair, And I mean, regardless of Lordis's Lordis's
Speaker 1: performance on the field, which obviously hasn't been great. The
Speaker 1: d Backs have so we've discussed, they've they've rushed some
Speaker 1: guys back, or at least that's what it's felt like
Speaker 1: at times, and definitely seems like that wouldn't be a
Speaker 1: situation where you'd want to do that. So lots of
Speaker 1: injury updates there. Again, not all of them terrible, there's
Speaker 1: some good news in there. We'll be sure to keep
Speaker 1: you updated on all of those. As always, we've got
Speaker 1: more to get to in this episode. A few final notes.
Speaker 1: We're going to look ahead at this A's series that
Speaker 1: the Diamondbacks have coming up, but first it is time
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Speaker 2: Yeah, well we're going to talk about that in a
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Speaker 1: We are back here on Snake's territory. One quick note
Speaker 1: before we continue. As we said in our last show,
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty six All Star Collection is available now
Speaker 1: over at foul Territoryshop dot com. They have these really
Speaker 1: sweet t shirts, one with Eduardo Rodriguez and another with
Speaker 1: Corbyn Carrol for Diamondbacks fans. And I'll throw this back
Speaker 1: up on the screen. If you scan this QR code,
Speaker 1: it'll take you right there and you can get your
Speaker 1: hands on those some great new fines over at foul
Speaker 1: Territoryshop dot com. And more more stuff on the way
Speaker 1: as well, so be sure to check that out. Jack.
Speaker 1: Diamondbacks have, of course, another very big series coming up here.
Speaker 1: Every game is big, even if it isn't against one
Speaker 1: of these direct wildcard opponents. The A's are coming to town.
Speaker 1: The A's come in forty two and fifty seven. They
Speaker 1: are not a good baseball team. We'll start here with
Speaker 1: the pitching matchups for this series. As you mentioned, couple
Speaker 1: of lefty here. Jeffrey Springs will go on Monday against
Speaker 1: Mitch Bratt for the Diamondbacks. Tuesday is going to be
Speaker 1: right hander Jack Perkins, for the A's against a pitcher
Speaker 1: that we do not know TBD for the d Backs.
Speaker 1: Our best guest there is Cole Drake being called up
Speaker 1: from Triple A. Jose Cabrera not an option there, it
Speaker 1: would be too early to recall him back from the miners.
Speaker 1: And then the finale of the series is gauge Jump
Speaker 1: for the A's another lefty against right hand ram Mary
Speaker 1: Kelly for the Diamondbacks. So Jack, what stands out to
Speaker 1: you heading into this series?
Speaker 2: Well, remember that the A's playing in Sacramento, I mean
Speaker 2: basically are the Colorado Rockies of the American League. The
Speaker 2: park factor in Sacramento this year single U park factor
Speaker 2: is one hundred and twenty, meaning it's that park is
Speaker 2: their home park is inflating offense by a whopping twenty
Speaker 2: percent in twenty twenty six. And what that's translated into
Speaker 2: who is tremendous home and road splits. For example, their
Speaker 2: offense hits eight ten ops at home and six forty
Speaker 2: four and on the road likewise, their era is six
Speaker 2: point five seven at home four point seven on the
Speaker 2: road I mean two and a half runs difference better
Speaker 2: on the road and like so, for example, if you
Speaker 2: go back to the matchups chart. If you look at
Speaker 2: Jeffrey Springs, it's six point oh a d r A,
Speaker 2: but on the road it's a little bit more respectable.
Speaker 2: Five point nine Perkins is about a run lower, almost
Speaker 2: a run lower at six point eight on the road.
Speaker 2: Engage jump is zero point seventy five ERA in four
Speaker 2: starts on the road, So a little bit better pitching
Speaker 2: on the road from those guys. Not quite as bad
Speaker 2: as those surface numbers look. But on the other hand,
Speaker 2: the A's are without their best player, Nick Kurtz, so
Speaker 2: that's going to help the Diamondbacks pitching staff perhaps control
Speaker 2: the A's offense a little bit. Mitch Bratt is probably
Speaker 2: speaking to him on a seventy pitch limit, maybe he
Speaker 2: could go up to eighty, he said, so I wouldn't
Speaker 2: really count much length there. And that's gonna be a
Speaker 2: tough situation because the Tbecs had to use their bullpen
Speaker 2: a lot this weekend, and as a matter of fact,
Speaker 2: they're making a roster move. Wam Burgos is coming up,
Speaker 2: Philip Abner's going down. It's just to kind of fill
Speaker 2: a gap there and give them another arm. But you
Speaker 2: know they're going to need at least five innings from
Speaker 2: Bratt in this game, I think to be able to
Speaker 2: reasonably manage their bullpen. They're in this. You know, they're
Speaker 2: three games into a thirteen straight game stretch without any
Speaker 2: days off. Cole Drake is, like we said, is likely
Speaker 2: to start. He hasn't pitched since July ninth, I believe, yeah,
Speaker 2: So you know, maybe he threw some kind of you know,
Speaker 2: sim game or something in tween to get keep stretched out.
Speaker 2: And then of course you know you have Merrill come
Speaker 2: bringing up the rear there on Wednesday, going against Gage Jump,
Speaker 2: who's a very good pitcher, you know, so that Meryl's
Speaker 2: gonna have to be on this game that day, day game,
Speaker 2: getaway game against a good pitcher. I really would like
Speaker 2: to see Meryll have one of his better games.
Speaker 1: The A's have been in that kind of scary territory
Speaker 1: in recent days where they've lost so many games that
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, man, like this this is the trap series,
Speaker 1: right The people always talk about the A's. In July,
Speaker 1: they won their first game of the month against the Dodgers.
Speaker 1: They beat the Dodgers seven to one, and then they
Speaker 1: proceeded to lose their next ten games. I guess nine
Speaker 1: games going into the All Star Break, and then they
Speaker 1: lost their first game out of the break twenty three
Speaker 1: to four to the Nationals, and then the next day
Speaker 1: they beat the Nationals fifteen to one. Very very bizarre
Speaker 1: series there against against Washington. I guess that goes back
Speaker 1: to what we were saying earlier about that outrageous ballpark
Speaker 1: that they're playing games in right now, and then they
Speaker 1: lost the finale of that Nats series. They lose two
Speaker 1: out of three there, They've only they've only won two
Speaker 1: games in the month of July, and looking at the roster,
Speaker 1: I don't think it's a good team, but I do
Speaker 1: think there's a little bit more talent there than those
Speaker 1: results would indicate. So the Diamondbacks certainly in a difficult
Speaker 1: position pitching wise. As you said, e Rod only given
Speaker 1: them two and two thirds on Sunday was kind of
Speaker 1: a disaster from a bullpen management standpoint. So you know,
Speaker 1: you hope Mitch Bratton, Cole Drake, or whoever it is
Speaker 1: on Tuesday can give the give the d back some
Speaker 1: length there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, some people might be wondering about Herodo Carreo Carrio.
Speaker 2: It looks like his addition to the forty man roster
Speaker 2: was a upward mobility move where there was a clause
Speaker 2: in his contract where he needed to be added to
Speaker 2: the forty man roster by a certain date, so he
Speaker 2: was added to the forty man roster, was added to
Speaker 2: the roster, and then optioned to Triple A Reno. So,
Speaker 2: I mean, I can't say for sure that it won't
Speaker 2: be him that gets to start, but I don't think so.
Speaker 2: I think it's going to be Drake, but we'll see.
Speaker 2: We just don't have any indication.
Speaker 1: Before we get out of here, Jack, I do want
Speaker 1: to touch on one Diamondbacks player who made a big
Speaker 1: contribution in this Cardinal series, and that is Brandon Fought.
Speaker 1: We don't need to dwell on the Saturday game here.
Speaker 1: I know it's sort of old news, but the Diamondbacks
Speaker 1: won this game five to three and fought very much
Speaker 1: set the tone for this one five in the third innings,
Speaker 1: six hits, two runs, no walks, three strikeouts. He got
Speaker 1: his pitch count up to eighty seven, which is the
Speaker 1: first time we've seen him touch the eighties since returning
Speaker 1: from Triple A Reno. So the pitch count is getting
Speaker 1: built back up to a more normal place, and his
Speaker 1: numbers since coming back from Reno stellar across the board,
Speaker 1: four to oh. D Backs have won all four of
Speaker 1: his starts twenty one innings, a two to one four ERA,
Speaker 1: a point nine to five whip. He's not missing a
Speaker 1: ton of bats jack with thirteen strikeouts, but he's also
Speaker 1: only walked one guy. And that's Brandon Fought at his best,
Speaker 1: where he just his command is excellent and he just
Speaker 1: kind of attacks hitters and doesn't walk anyone. And that's
Speaker 1: the version of him that we've seen since him coming
Speaker 1: back up.
Speaker 2: And just as importantly, he's limiting the damage against left
Speaker 2: handed batters something pristine. You know, some of the damage
Speaker 2: that he has given up basically has all been to lefties.
Speaker 2: But the ops against is only six eighty three, you know,
Speaker 2: and if you look at some of his numbers and
Speaker 2: previous portions of his career, so you know, a couple
Speaker 2: hundred points higher than that. Frequently against left handed pitching,
Speaker 2: he's given up one double, one triple, one homer amongst
Speaker 2: twelve hits. He's faced forty six batters forty six tam batters.
Speaker 2: So you know, he's doing that with some changes in
Speaker 2: his sequencing and also in which pitches he's using a
Speaker 2: little you know, more of the four seam fastball. The
Speaker 2: curve ball has been working for him pretty well as
Speaker 2: well as changeup. He's limiting the sweeper against lefties and
Speaker 2: that approach has really worked. And meanwhile, righties aren't touching him.
Speaker 2: They're hitting one ninety four with a four to ten. Ops.
Speaker 2: It's only four starts, but you know, this is really
Speaker 2: encouraging to see. I mean, Brandon thought able to you know,
Speaker 2: contain the damage against lefties, throw strikes, pitch to contact,
Speaker 2: and be efficient. Yeah, that's that's the random thought that
Speaker 2: we we know and love.
Speaker 1: The last Fought note that I'll bring up here is
Speaker 1: that he's generating a lot more ground balls than he
Speaker 1: has in the past. He has a fifty percent ground
Speaker 1: ball rate over that span of four starts, which is excellent.
Speaker 1: I mean, that would be indicative of, like, you know,
Speaker 1: what we would call a ground ball pitcher. And if
Speaker 1: you think back to Brandon Fought when he first came up,
Speaker 1: he was very much not a ground ball pitcher. And
Speaker 1: that was kind of the concern was like, all right,
Speaker 1: this guy's gonna rack up some strikeouts. He's not gonna
Speaker 1: really walk guys, but he's probably gonna be very home
Speaker 1: run prone because you know, he's throwing a bunch of
Speaker 1: high four seam fastballs and there's a pretty good chance
Speaker 1: that some of those are going to go over the fence.
Speaker 1: Even the sweeper is you know, can be a good
Speaker 1: swing and mispitch, but actually tends to generate quite a
Speaker 1: few fly balls. And it's not just the span of
Speaker 1: four starts. He His ground ball rate for the season
Speaker 1: is fifty point five percent, far and away his highest
Speaker 1: ground ball rate of any season in the big leagues.
Speaker 1: And I think, even though you would love to see
Speaker 1: fots start missing more bats, you know, get back to
Speaker 1: having a strikeout rate that's right around league average, maybe
Speaker 1: even a little north of that. We've seen glimpses of
Speaker 1: that version of him, but I think this can kind
Speaker 1: of work. Like, Okay, maybe his strikeout rate is quite
Speaker 1: a bit below the league average, but as long as
Speaker 1: he's not walking anyone and he's generating this much contact
Speaker 1: on the ground, I think this can be sustainable for him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and major shout out to Doug Dreibek and Jeff Badgenaro,
Speaker 2: the pitching coaches in Triple A. I mean, clearly, those
Speaker 2: guys did great work with Brandon, working with him together,
Speaker 2: helping him figure a few things out while he was
Speaker 2: down there. That certainly was a very productive, fruitful time
Speaker 2: for him.
Speaker 1: Really cannot imagine where the Diamondbacks would be if Brandon
Speaker 1: Fought had come back up from the majors or come
Speaker 1: back up from the miners and kind of look like
Speaker 1: the same guy he was earlier in the season. I mean,
Speaker 1: this has come at a perfect time for this team,
Speaker 1: battling lots of rotation depth issues, and Fought has very
Speaker 1: much answered the call up to this point. Well, we are,
Speaker 1: as always, so thankful that all of you have stuck
Speaker 1: around this long and been here with us on this episode.
Speaker 1: As always, you can find us on social media. I
Speaker 1: am Jesse N. Friedman on Twitter. Jack is at sho
Speaker 1: Wizard fifty nine, and our show is at Snake's Territory.
Speaker 1: You can find all of Jack's written work over at
Speaker 1: Arizona Diamondbacks on SI Jack. Any final thoughts here as
Speaker 1: we head into a new week.
Speaker 2: Well, I just think that the Diamondbacks need to keep
Speaker 2: rolling here. You can't let up. They've got to keep
Speaker 2: the intensity. I hope that there's no letdown. Sometimes there
Speaker 2: is after a game, like like we just saw, they
Speaker 2: got to come out firing first thing Monday. They can't
Speaker 2: put themselves in a hole in this series.
Speaker 1: It's a trap series, right, That's what That's what we
Speaker 1: say about. You know, your facing the team that's lost
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of games recently. We'll see if the
Speaker 1: d Backs can continue this nice run, and we are
Speaker 1: excited to join you along the way. Our next show
Speaker 1: will be on Wednesday. Am I remembering that right, Jack? Yes?
Speaker 1: I think so.
Speaker 2: I believe that is the case.
Speaker 1: Okay, so we will we will theoretically, we think we
Speaker 1: will be back with you on Wednesday. You can, as
Speaker 1: always check out our Twitter account. We try to post
Speaker 1: our schedule there in the early part of the week,
Speaker 1: so be on the lookout for that. But once again,
Speaker 1: thank you to all of you for being here with
Speaker 1: us on this episode. We really appreciate your time and
Speaker 1: we'll be back with another edition of Snakes Territory very
Speaker 1: very soon.