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00:00:10
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to another episode of Snakes Territory, part of the Foul Territory Network. Be sure to like this video, subscribe to our YouTube channel, maybe leave us a five star review wherever you get your podcasts. I am Jesse Friedman alongside Jack Summers and Jack Diamondbacks. After a big win over the Rangers on Friday, they come back and they lose back to back games to Texas. They lose the series and in particularly brutal fashion on Sunday. Diamondbacks had an opportunity to come back late. They ultimately fell a run short. And defense, which has been quite good for most of the year, Jack, was not good at all in that finale.
00:00:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, there was a really rough inning, which I'm sure we're going to outline here in a moment. And just the defense overall the last couple of games has been really disappointing. I mean, they played well above average defense all year long. So it was a really rough time for that to falter at this particular juncture.
00:01:13
Speaker 1: And of course, kind of a similar story in the game on Saturday with Brandon Fott covering first base or apparently not covering first base. We'll get into that a little bit more later.
00:01:24
Speaker 3: In the show.
00:01:26
Speaker 1: But yeah, this was this was brutal, Jack. I guess we'll start with with the way that the game ended. The Diamondbacks, even after falling behind seven to one. They found a way to get back in it. Nolan Arenado delivered his 25th home run of the season, a three-run shot in typical Nolan Arenado fashion, clanked off the left field foul pole, had an expected batting average of 140, but it was a home run all the same. Cut the deficit in half. At that point, it's a 7-4 game. And then in the ninth inning against Jacob Latz, Nolan leads it off with a double. Tim Tawa hits an RBI double. Jordan Lawler later hit an RBI double. with one out in the inning. And at that point, you've got the tying run at second base with only one out. Unfortunately, D-backs just couldn't finish the job. Tommy Troy, who had come in to pinch it for Lars Neupahr, he strikes out. And then Cattell Marte intentionally walked, probably wisely, by Skip Schumacher. Lots of managers have not done that this year with Cattell against left-handed relievers late in games. Schumacher decides to do that. leaves the game in the hands of Gabby Moreno and he gets underneath one, pops up to end it. And somehow, Jack, I know the coming back and showing some fight late in the game is a good thing, but it might have just made it hurt all the more that the Diamondbacks wound up falling short and ultimately losing this one.
00:02:55
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, they were so close to completing that comeback. I mean, Jordan Lawler's double was, you know, on the upper half of that left center field wall. I really thought that was going to go, and it just kind of died a little bit at the end and didn't quite get over the wall. I mean, I think you told me earlier that that was a home run in 13 out of 30 ballparks. So, you know, it was close, and that would have been a game-tying home run, right, you know, with only one out. So that would have made things look a little bit different. Maybe the game goes into extras. I think the D-backs would have had the bullpen to work through it. So, you know, that was a really tough way to go down. And then, you know, Gabby's swing, you know, our vantage point from our particular spot, it's, you know, looking straight down the third baseline. And with a right-handed hitter, you kind of get a really good view of the ball on the bat and all of that. And just the swing looked like it was going to produce a hit to me. Like as he moved the bat through the zone, I remember like, oh, oh, and then I realized it was a pop-up. But there was just a split second there where, to me, it looked like it was a good swing and he was going to deliver a deep fly ball into the corner and not necessarily be a home run. But I just thought that he was going to do something good there with that swing. And it just was heartbreaking to see that ball just being just a soft little, kind of a shortish pop-up as it turned out to the shortstop. So tough way to lose. They shouldn't have been down that many runs to begin with. Um, you know, that, that fifth inning of this game was, uh, I mean, I think we should actually go back to the first inning. Sure. Um, you know, E-Rod again in the first inning giving up runs. I mean, you know, I, it, Alex D'Agostino was joking with me that maybe they should use an opener for E-Rod. Gives up the two run opener, a 458 home run to Corey Seager, second batter of the game, you know, and now 22 of his, um, 59 runs allowed this year or have all come in the first inning. He came into the game with a 6-2-1 ERA in the first inning. So that went up. So I don't know what the problem is there. I don't know why it takes him through the whole first inning. Almost every start to avoid trouble. I don't know why he can't do it.
00:05:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was no cheap shot from Corey Seager. 458 feet, the longest home run by a Texas Ranger this season. And unfortunately, it felt inevitable that Corey Seager was going to hit a home run before he left Chase Fields because he's Corey Seager. And that's just kind of what he does in this ballpark. But yeah, familiar territory for Erod there. Honestly, I'm so used to it at this point that I was still kind of expecting Erod to bounce back and still give the D-back six innings of two run ball or something like that. And in a sense, he came pretty close. I mean, he really did settle in. He made a really big pitch to get out of a bases loaded jam in the fourth inning, struck out Elias Diaz on a ninety five point three mile per hour fastball, I believe tied for the second fastest four seamer we've seen from Erod this season. His velo was was up in this game. He averaged ninety three point six on that pitch. The stuff looked pretty good across the
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00:06:20
Speaker 3: But then.
00:06:21
Speaker 1: Then came the fifth inning, Jack. And once again, the fifth inning was a hinge point in Saturday's game. It was a hinge point in Friday's game as well, where things actually turned positive for the Diamondbacks. But the top of the fifth on Sunday was pretty rough. It started with a Danny Jansen ground out, but then Justin Foscue reaches on an unusual fielding error from Nolan Arenado. Corey Seager then took what appeared to be a call, what should have been a called third strike. One of many calls that Bill Miller missed behind home plate today. And Seager winds up singling on the next pitch. So you've got a couple of guys on base. And then it just unraveled from there. Josh Young hits a single to left field that goes through the legs of Lars Nutbar, causes a couple of runs to score. And then a couple of batters later, Jordan Lawler at least appeared to misjudge a fly ball, didn't get a great read there. Another run scores in the inning. And at that point, it's 5-1 Rangers, and they've taken control of the game. All three of those runs go in the books as unearned.
00:07:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, Nolan talked about his error. I mean, you know, if he makes that play, it's two outs, so you're just moving along on the inning. And he said he couldn't really figure out why it, it seemed like maybe it skipped a little bit, like, you know, where I hit with the dirt and the grass. It just, the ball bounced in a way that he didn't anticipate. And he didn't, he admitted also that he didn't get down low enough on it. He goes, look, you know, that's how I feel those. But he was very disappointed and very hard on himself. The postgame interviews we talked about his home run. And he also later, he also had two excellent plays in the eighth inning and both of which saved hits. But, you know, there was no solace for him. He was not having it. He was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. But I'm still really disappointed in kicking off that fifth inning. Then the new bar, you know, that was a line shot that kind of short hopped in front of him. And I think he got caught a little bit in between and didn't realize just how hard the ball was coming at him and it just skipped through his legs. Personally, I confess that I missed the jump, so I can't. speak to whether or not Lawler was late, but Torrey seemed to allude that that might've been an issue as well, but they had to go back and look at it. But I think a lot of people felt that Jordan should have caught that ball. So, you know, the other thing, Erod, like after the game, you know, he just was wanting to make a point, you know, asked me like how frustrating was that inning? And he said, Hey, this is the best defense I've ever had in my career behind me. He's had a lot of really good fortune. with the defense and the plays. So, you know, maybe this was just kind of a lot of that all catching up all at once for him. But, you know, he really went out of his way to make sure that he gave props to the defense that's been behind him for the whole season because it's usually pretty good. This was an anomaly, but it was a game-costing anomaly. I mean, they went down 5-1 at that point. Taylor Clark, they keep using him with runners on base in the middle of an inning. And he's just really struggled with inherited runners. I mean, he's given up now 10 of 18 inherited runners. 56% have come around the score. League average is 32%. And then, of course, he comes out the next inning and he retires a side in order and strikes out two batters. You know, I mean, coming in with a clean inning, Taylor, Clark is absolute nails. And when he comes in with runners on base, half the time he struggles. And so that's been that way all season. So I don't really know why they haven't been able to identify that issue a little bit earlier and kind of figure something out there. But that's how they ended up going down 7-1 was A couple– Erod walked a batter, gave up a sack punt. Clark comes in, gives up a double, and then a single in the sixth inning. And so that's how the D-backs ended up, down 7-1. And, you know, coming back from that would have been pretty miraculous. They got close, but couldn't pull it off.
00:10:39
Speaker 3: So where does this leave the Diamondbacks in the standings?
00:10:43
Speaker 1: It's not great. We're going to take a look at that on the other side of this break. So don't go anywhere.
00:10:48
Speaker 3: We'll be back. right after this on Snake's Territory.
00:10:53
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00:11:54
Speaker 1: We are back here on Snake's territory. Very much appreciate all of you being here with us. As always, if you haven't already, be sure to drop a like on this video on YouTube. Subscribe to our channel while you're at it. Hit the bell icon for notifications so that you never miss an episode of the show. And if you're
joining us on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, Many of you have already done this and we appreciate you for it. But if you haven't yet, it really helps us out if you would leave us a five star review. So thank you once again to all of you for being here. We really, really appreciate your support. Well, Jack, unfortunately, as the Diamondbacks dropped these two games to Texas over the weekend, the San Diego Padres just kept on winning. And this is the situation in the NL wildcard race at this point. The Padres have now won seven consecutive games after sweeping the San Francisco Giants. And the Diamondbacks with these back-to-back losses now sit two and a half games out in the wildcard race. The Phillies won their game on Sunday over Atlanta. The Chicago Cubs lost the finale of their series against Pittsburgh. So the Diamondbacks sit four games behind both of those two teams, and then once again, two and a half behind San Diego. Jack, this is not the end for Diamondbacks fans thinking that the season is over after a couple of rough days. I don't think that is the case. They still absolutely have a path here, but there's no getting around the fact that their chances took a significant, significant dive here in the last 48 hours.
00:13:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. I mean, look, a lot of people, it's over. This season's done, and No, it's not. Now, you can make that statement and say it's over, it's done. And there's going to be about a 75% chance as of right this minute that you're correct. You know, so you can come back to me later and say, see, I told you. But, you know, the reality is, is that it's not over yet. It's close, though. Look, I mean, we're not naive to the current reality. If you go back to that standings, there's a very important piece that Major League Baseball has now added to the standings column WCE, wildcard elimination. And the D-backs elimination number is 11. So any combination of Padres wins and Diamondbacks losses, that total 11 means the D-backs are eliminated. Now they've got 12 games left. The Padres have 13. So for example, if the Padres went six and seven, right, the D-backs would have to go, what? They couldn't lose more than five games, right? They'd have to go at least seven. They'd have to go eight and four, right?
00:14:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you're right.
00:14:47
Speaker 2: Yeah. So if the Padres went six and seven, if they played one game under 500 over their final 13, including the three games they faced the D-backs, D-backs got to go eight and four. In other words, that would give them that would put them within one game of that elimination number. So anyway, total number of Padres wins and D-backs losses from here on out cannot surpass 11, cannot reach 11.
00:15:16
Speaker 3: Right.
00:15:18
Speaker 1: And as you framed it last time, I mean, that final series against San Diego obviously is such a big part in this. I guess even if the Diamondbacks went 8-4 and the Padres went 6-7, the D-backs still wouldn't actually make it unless they won the series in San Diego because they would need the tiebreaker at that point. So yeah, that series is still a huge part of this. And as you said last time, it would be great if the D-backs were no worse than one game behind San Diego. Once we get to that point, that would mean the D-backs would make the playoffs just with a series win, winning two out of three in that series. But if they are two games out or three games out, then they need a sweep. And obviously now they're two and a half back. So if the status quo is just sort of maintained here over the next week and a half, then the D-backs would have to sweep that final series in San Diego. And there's no getting around the fact that would be a very, very difficult.
00:16:17
Speaker 3: Thing to do.
00:16:17
Speaker 1: I today, Jack, just for the heck of it, went over to Fangraphs and looked at the playoff odds graph for the Diamondbacks and for the Padres over the course of the season for joining us on video you can see it here and it was kind of shocking to me just how closely their playoff odds have tracked the whole season these two teams have basically been neck and neck or at least around the same range for for pretty much all of this 2026 season until basically the last 48 hours when The Padres now have their playoff odds have jetted up all the way to 77.1%. And the Diamondbacks with these couple of losses are now down to 26.8%. So, you know, these things change really quickly this time of year. We've we've seen that in the past few seasons. I mean, in 2024, the Diamondbacks playoff odds. People probably don't want to remember this, but we learned in 2024, the playoff odds only mean so much. You still go out there and you play the games. and these numbers can shift very, very quickly, even if you just have two or three days either go really, really well for you or go not so well for you, which has unfortunately been the case the last couple of days.
00:17:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, like you said, the takeaway here, I mean, obviously, in mid-late August, there was a bit of a gap there where the Padres got hot and the D-backs got cold, but then the D-backs got hot and the Padres got cold, so they pulled back even. But You know, pretty much these two teams have, like you said, tracked with each other almost the entire season. All that said, I mean, look, the Padres have been playing better baseball than the D-backs over the last several weeks. And, you know, their stars have been playing more like stars than the D-backs stars. That's just a sad reality. You know, if you look at what Machado and Tatis and a couple of their other key players have been doing, It's a bit more than what the D-backs have been getting out of Corbin Carroll and, you know, Geraldo Podomo and Cattell Marte. And even Marte, I mean, he recently had a nine-game hitting streak. But at the same time, I mean, you know, his numbers for the year, it's still only about, you know, 106, 107
OPS plus. I mean, it's still barely above league average for the year, you know, and it's taken a pretty decent hitting streak to even get him there.
00:18:51
Speaker 1: And I guess that takes us into maybe some final takeaways here from the series. Jack, I don't feel the need to dive into Saturday's game too, too much. The Brandon Fott moment was rough with him seemingly covering first base in New York. Apparently they didn't have enough evidence to overturn the call. And so that was just how that inning went. And Fott really struggled to get the final out. D-backs ultimately lose that game 6-2. But The trend that is really hurting this team more than anything right now is they just cannot get to a starting pitcher. And I guess they did get to Mackenzie Gore on Friday, and we should acknowledge that. But they really have struggled to get to any right-handed starter.
00:19:40
Speaker 3: I tweeted this out yesterday.
00:19:42
Speaker 1: The Diamondbacks, if you go back to August 16th, only once have they scored more than three earned runs against a right-handed starter.
00:19:50
Speaker 3: Pitcher.
00:19:50
Speaker 1: And that was Blade Tidwell of the San Francisco Giants. Not exactly a household name at this point.
00:19:56
Speaker 3: No disrespect to him.
00:19:58
Speaker 1: But, I mean, we saw Kumar Rocker dominate the Diamondbacks for four innings. Command got a little loose in the fifth inning on Saturday. Super quick hook there from Skip Schumacher wound up paying off. Cal Quantro looked pretty unbelievable against the Diamondbacks in this game. He was through six innings on, I want to say it was 65 pitches, I think. And then he walked the first batter of the seventh. And once again, Skip Schumacher just in a insanely fast hook. I think he might've actually done the D-backs a favor by putting in all those left-handed relievers, allowed the Diamondbacks to get back in the game. But yeah, I mean, It's basically happened once in the last month where the Diamondbacks have gotten to a right-handed starting pitcher. And unfortunately, Jack, you look ahead and there's a lot more right-handed pitchers around the corner. And this is something the D-backs are just absolutely going to have to figure out and overcome in the next couple weeks if they want to find a way back in this thing.
00:21:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're not going to face a left-handed starter in any of their next six games this coming week. So, you know, the next time they'll see a lefty is when they go up to Colorado and face Kyle Freeland. I did want to mention, you know, Brandon fought. I mean, he was on such a great run and, you know, had gone four consecutive outings without allowing an earned run and had just been so fabulous since coming back. But unfortunately, that run is clearly over. Yes, he got hosed on that play and, you know, that inning should have been over, but You know, at the same time, he gave up 10 hits. He gave up another homer. You know, he didn't walk a batter and he struck out seven. But, you know, the reality is this. Over his last five starts, 31 and a third innings, he's given up 35 hits, six homers, 20 earned runs, and a 5-7-4 ERA. So all of a sudden, Brandon Fodd is, you know, really kind of struggling to put together– outings that really give his team a chance to win the ballgame again. So that's unfortunate. I think he's looked visually a little bit better than that, but the six home runs in 31 innings, that's kind of bothersome, right? You know, the home run ball has been an issue for Brandon throughout his career. It looked like he'd really kind of conquered that for a pretty decent stretch of the season, but it's back. Homeritis is back.
00:22:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's felt like Brandon has not dialed up the same number of ground balls here in his in his last few outings as we'd seen for a while. That was kind of a trend like, OK, Brandon fought is this this ground ball pitcher now. Maybe that allows him to avoid the long ball issues. But that has not really been the case here his last few times out. So, I mean, he's still had a good season overall, like he was going to come down to earth at some point. He still has a starting pitcher this season, I think, is ERA as a starter. is in the low mid three range, which it's, it's hard to be upset about that. Uh, but at a certain point, Jack, the diamondbacks offense just needs to like, they, they just need to figure this out against a, a right-handed pitcher against really lefties or not. I mean, they're part of this as well. The McKenzie Gore thing was still, you know, the first time in quite a while that they'd gotten to a left-handed starter. So this is a, this is an issue, uh, for, for this team. And I think I think it's probably worth talking about Corbin Carroll just briefly here, Jack. This was a big series for him, you know, getting the MRI results. This seemed pretty promising getting back in the lineup. But it was very apparent watching the series that even though Corbin Carroll is, you know, might look OK on an MRI right now in terms of the back discomfort, he is just not the same guy. He still looked uncomfortable at times.
00:24:01
Speaker 3: We've seen him.
00:24:02
Speaker 1: Try to kind of manage the injury as we discussed in our last show. And he just has really struggled offensively. He went two for 11 in the series, did hit the home run on Friday, but wasn't really able to do much these last couple days. And he's seven for 55 in his last 15 games. That's a 127 batting average. He is one of a number of hitters that the D-backs really need to get going, especially against right-handed pitching.
00:24:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, one thing that we've talked a lot about, you know, the stars, got to be stars and all of that. You know, but at the same time, I mean, the D-backs have given a lot of plate appearances to young players this year. And I created a little chart. If you can zap me up there, Jesse. This chart on the screen
shows nine players, that have been either first, second, or third-year players for the Diamondbacks. It includes four rookies. It includes guys that have played at least in parts of one of the last three seasons, one-, two-, or three-year players. And the players for the audio folks, Tyler Locklear. These are in order of OPS +. Tyler Locklear, Jordan Lawler, Tim Tower, Ryan Waldschmidt, Jose Fernandez, Tommy Troy. Jorge Barrosa, Adrian Del Castillo, and Lou James Groover. So these nine players have combined for 1,486 plate appearances. Those nine players have contributed 26% of the plate appearances. Of those, there's only two that are over 100 OPS +, 100 equals average. Tyler Locklear, in just 42 plate appearances, had a 122 OPS +. He was optioned down to Reno and then his season ended with a thumb injury. Jordan Lawler came into today with a one-on-one OPS plus that actually went up. So he had a walk, a hit by pitch and a double. Tim Tower was at 97. So just shy of league average. Uh, Tim, obviously, you know, he had a very horrible first half and then he's had a pretty productive second half since July 9th in LA. Um, Ryan Walshman, I mean, 92 OPS plus. I know he's had the two walk-off homers, but he's also got one RBI since that second walk-off homer. And he's fallen back down to about roughly 8% to 10%, lower than league average. And his strikeout rate's close to 30. Jose Fernandez had an 84 OPS plus in his 200 plus major league plate appearances. Went down to Reno, actually struggled, but he's back up. for flexibility. Tommy Troy, 79 OPS plus. Jorge Barrosa, of course, didn't hit, got DFA'd, 74. Adrian Del Castillo, left-handed bat, got almost 200 plate appearances, did not hit, 55 OPS plus. And Lou James grew over a very few PA, 54, was abysmal at 48. So my point here is, you know, not only did the D-backs not really get even one young player player to step up like this wave you know your first wave of young players was who was Corbin Carroll, Gabriel Moreno, Geraldo Podomo, Alec Thomas and and Jake McCarthy who are no longer in the organization right that was your wave of young position players that came up and you know you've got three really productive players out of that right and in Carroll and Moreno and Podomo and Now you look at this wave of first, second and third year players, you would hope that at least one of them would have stepped up to be a very productive player and they haven't gotten that. Obviously Lawler maybe could have been, but the injuries bug got him again, you know, and so it interrupted his season a couple of times. And that's really hurt. I mean, we're talking over a quarter of the plate appearances have gone to first, second, third year players and, Nobody stepped up to fill the gaps from a couple of stars having down years. And most of them are right-handed, right? Other than Del Castillo, they're all right-handed. A couple of switch hitters in there. And so we talk about right-handed hitting. I mean, we can't
hit right-handers in the first place. Mike Hazen didn't put left-handed bats on the roster. All the young players that they gave playing time to are right-handed, and they're not hitting righties at all. So it's a rough look. not only for the underperforming stars, but also for what the farm system has been able to produce at the major league level. They've gotten a lot of credit where I think some of that's exaggerated. I mean, the numbers are the numbers.
00:29:04
Speaker 3: It's a great point.
00:29:06
Speaker 1: I think I would be lying if I said I was all that surprised by it. I mean, if you compare the prospect status that the guys on this list have compared to, you know, Corbin Carroll and Gabriel Moreno and Geraldo Perdomo, probably even to, to at least a certain extent back in the day. Like I, I, I think it was maybe likely that this is the way this was going to work out. If I look at, this list here one more time, Jordan Lawler certainly had a prospect status. I mean, he was pretty close to a Corbin Carroll level prospect. Ryan Waldschmidt, you know, has shown up on top 100 list for sure. Also well regarded. But the other guys on this list, I don't think any of those guys really rose, really rose to that level. I guess Tommy Troy is a first round pick. But, you know, he was never the top 20, 30 prospect in the game or something like that. So, yeah, I think it very much underscores what you were saying earlier, which is that the Diamondbacks maybe have gotten a little too much credit here the last year or so for the way that they've developed young position players. You know, they still have a variety of guys in the organization that have proven useful to an extent. But, yeah, they're still kind of waiting to figure out who is... Who's the next Corbin Carroll? Who are the other guys who are going to step up and be a part of this core? It has been a struggle for them here in the last couple of years. We are going to look ahead to what the Diamondbacks have up around the corner. Of course, Miami and New York are awaiting. The Diamondbacks still have a whole lot more work to do, even more work to.
00:30:50
Speaker 3: Do at this point.
00:30:52
Speaker 1: So let's see what is on deck presented today. by the Fox One app. Well, Jack, the Diamondbacks now have the Miami Marlins at home for three games and then an off day. And then they have three games at home against the New York Yankees to wrap up this homestand. The Marlins come into the series a couple games below 500. They're now seven and a half games back in the wildcard race. At the same time, they did set their rotation so that Sandy Alcantara would pitch the first game of this series. And if you're a Diamondbacks fan, you probably don't appreciate that.
00:31:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, that wasn't very nice of them. Well, when they did that, I think they still felt like they had a shot. And they took two or three of the Dodgers, but it still doesn't get them really any closer to where they need to be. They're done. I think, would you say they're seven and a half back out of the wild card? Yeah. I mean, there's virtually no shot at all for them, even if they came in and swept the Diamondbacks. They're still not getting anywhere near the Padres, probably. You know, and when you look at the pitching matchups, I mean, Sandy Alcantara is a pretty darn good pitcher. He struggled his last outing, but, you know, he's a tough right-hander. Jansen Junk, Ryan Gusto, another couple of right-handers, as we just talked about, like Diamondbacks have just been struggling against righties all along. Meanwhile, Diamondbacks are running out Corbin Burns, who's going to be on a 65 to 70 pitch limit. Michael Soroka is going to be around 75 to 80. So the bullpen is going to get a pretty hefty workout Monday and Tuesday, most likely. And then you got Merrill Kelly going on the 16th. So, you know, we'll see how that rolls. But I mean, when we talk about the wild card, the Diamondbacks are going into it. what I think is a tough Miami series. I mean, they got swept by the Marlins earlier in the year. They just took two or three from the Dodgers. I don't think this is by any means an easy series for them to win. And, you know, they're kind of almost half, it's a must win series. Let's just put it that way. Especially when you look at who the Padres are playing and, you know, if you fail you to sweep means you probably going to lose ground.
00:33:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is a look at the upcoming slate for both the Diamondbacks and the Padres. While the D-backs are playing Miami the next three days, yes, the Padres are heading out to Colorado. They've got a four-game set with the Rockies that will go through Thursday. And then over the weekend, it's the Diamondbacks against the Yankees, and then the Padres taking on the Marlins right after the Diamondbacks play them. And then that sets the table for the last week of the season where the D-backs head to Colorado. Padres are in LA playing the Dodgers. And then the two teams face off against each other, uh, to finish things out. So you can still look ahead, Jack at next week, uh, Monday through, through Wednesday and say, Hey, the D backs are in Colorado. The, the Padres are out at Dodger stadium. Maybe you could pick up a game or two or somehow maybe three. Uh, but you'd like to not have to rely on that. Uh, the D backs very much need to, uh, keep the deficit where it is, if not find a way to pick up a game or two over the course of the week?
00:34:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, they better start playing like a playoff team, right? And sharpen up their defense, start scoring some runs early against a starter, against a right-handed starter. Failure to do that, it means failure to make the postseason. That's it. I mean, you know, we've been waiting and waiting and waiting. And, you know, we haven't seen the consistency come about that we would need to see from a team that we believe is a playoff team. So they're on
the brink. The Diamondbacks season is on the brink. I mean, they are really close to falling four or five games behind the Padres this week if they're not careful. And at that point, you go back into the last week of the season trying to make up four or five games for the wild card. You're not going to make it.
00:34:59
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00:35:25
Speaker 3: Never miss a moment. Stream now.
00:35:27
Speaker 1: Start your Fox One three-day free trial today at foxone.com. Well, Jack, to finish things out, we do have a few news and notes items to get to. I guess we'll start with the news that came out prior to Sunday's game. The Diamondbacks designated outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
00:35:47
Speaker 3: For assignment.
00:35:48
Speaker 1: They recalled Jose Fernandez from AAA Reno as a corresponding move. And this was a move it kind of felt like the Diamondbacks had to make at some point, especially with so many right-handed starting pitchers lined up ahead. It didn't seem like Gurriel was going to play that much anyway. Gurriel winds up hitting 210 with a 544 OPS this season in 201 plate appearances. Certainly coming back from a torn ACL is one of the harder things to do as a pro athlete. Gurriel, by all accounts, got after it over the offseason, was way ahead of schedule, deserves, I think, a lot of credit for the way he handled that. But unfortunately, it never translated to results.
00:36:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, even Torrey admitted today, just, you know, his legs never were right. And you could see it in his swing. And we could see that all year long. I mean, I even questioned again, as I've questioned it before, whether or not, you know, they brought him back too soon, whether or not he should have played, you know, another handful of games at least instead of just two prior to his first return on April 18th. He played two games in Amarillo. Um, and I always felt pretty strongly that he should have, um, when I presented that to Tori today again and asked if there were any regrets, um, you know, he pushed back a little bit and said he felt like they already allowed him to be pushed back because he was trying to target opening day. So, you know, going from March 26th back to April 18th was already slower than, you know, Gurriel himself was pushing for, um, And, you know, he said the only thing he regrets is that a good player had a bad injury and wasn't able to come back from it. And, you know, it was a raw moment. And I certainly empathize. I mean, Lourdes Gurriel, good human being and, you know, very affable, always with a big smile, good teammate, all of that. And he provided a lot of great moments for this team. Huge part of the 23 team that went to the World Series. And even in 24 and 25, you know, he had some, some nice runs at the plate. He was very streaky, but you know, it just didn't happen for him this year. You know, hopefully he'll be able to get a full spring training next year and maybe have a bounce back season. I'd love to see it. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy if it did.
00:38:14
Speaker 1: This of course closes the book on the three year, $ 42 billion deal that Lord has signed with the Diamondbacks after that 2023 season. He did give the Diamondbacks some production in 2024, certainly. And, And last year, he got on a run for at least a little while there. It wasn't quite the season you might have hoped for. Lourdes did have a $ 14 million club option in his deal for 2027. Carries a $ 5 million buyout that I believe the Diamondbacks are still going to be responsible for. But yes, Pena power, the purple hair, the whole thing. There were lots of fun moments with Lourdes Gurriel. as a Diamondback over the years. And it's a shame that this is the way his Diamondbacks tenure had to end when all was said and done. Another roster move that we got here in the last 24 hours or so, Jack, the Diamondbacks brought Pavin Smith back to the big leagues. They optioned Adrian Del Castillo down to AAA Reno after Friday's game in order to create the 40-man roster spot. They recalled Tyler Locklear and then placed him On the 60-day IL. He unfortunately has a fractured right thumb and is now out for the rest of the season. Of course, Jack, predictably, Diamondbacks fans had a pretty big reaction to this. I was not surprised at all. But this team has been just desperately looking for production from a left-handed bat for a Essentially the entire season. Alec Thomas for a while early in the season. Adrian Del Castillo has had several stints at this point. Pavin Smith, of course, earlier in the season. You know, more recently, Max Kepler was sort of in that role. Even after acquiring Lars Neutbar at the deadline, the D-backs have still had room for another left-handed batter in the roster, in the lineup. They've been a batter short against righties the entire season. And Pavin Smith did have an RBI single in his in his first at bat. I don't think he's going to get like two too many reps down the stretch here. But the D-backs are looking at a whole bunch of right handed pitchers the next the next week or so, Jack. So we probably will see Pavin Smith get at least a couple of starts.
00:40:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I with six straight righties, I would be surprised if he didn't get at least two or three, if not more. I'm looking up this one left-handed batter in 253 at-bats has hit 289. It's got a 357 OBP, a 502 slug, 859 OPS, 14 home runs and 54 RBIs. One Ryan O'Hearn. Sorry, had to do it.
00:41:06
Speaker 1: For a second, I was like, wait, is this the Jake McCarthy thing? Or is this the, okay. But yes, all roads lead
back to Jack saying emphatically that the Diamondbacks needed another left-handed batter of the offseason and putting Ryan O'Hard's name out there and the team not doing that. And as is often the case, Jack, you proved to be right here once again. The Diamondbacks did not get enough left-handed thump over the offseason. That has been painfully clear here, especially over the last couple of weeks.
00:41:36
Speaker 2: Gambo told me that they tried to sign him, but they couldn't get it done. But, you know, he signed for $ 229 million, $ 14. 5 million for this year and next year. And, you know, they could have paid that. I mean, because they ended up giving $ 22 million for one year, deferred $ 8 million to Zach Gallin just as spring training was starting. So they did have that money to give to O'Hearn. They just chose to allocate the resources elsewhere.
00:42:09
Speaker 3: Well, we'll see.
00:42:10
Speaker 1: Maybe Pavin Smith can find a way to contribute. The RBI single on Saturday was encouraging. It was just one hit. But again, the Diamondbacks have struggled so much against righties that the threshold is very, very low. And that's why I think even though Pavin really struggled earlier in the season, I personally didn't think this was a terrible move or anything. Pavin has a career 751 OPS against righties. Is he going to be able to recapture that? Very possible that he is not. He was not able to early in the season. But at this point, you might as well try just about anything, trying to get some more production against righties. The other piece of news we got here prior to Sunday's game actually was starting rotation situation. Zach Gallin is going to move to the bullpen and Michael Soroka will stay in the rotation. He is going to start on Tuesday against the Marlins. As we said earlier, uh, we talked about this on our last show, Jack, no surprises here. I think this was pretty clearly the move that Diamondbacks had to make kind of interesting to hear Torrey talk about this. Uh, he said that gallon took the news well and was a good teammate. Uh, but it also sounded like they had a long followup discussion, uh, after, uh, after that decision was made.
00:43:34
Speaker 2: Yeah. We were supposed to meet with Torrey at 11 AM and, uh, it's not unusual for him to be a few minutes late, five minutes late. But we got multiple updates. Oh, it'll be a few more minutes, a few more minutes. And he didn't come in until about 11.25. So it was about 25 minutes late. And most of that time, as it turns out, was spent talking with Zach Gallin and explaining the move to him. And then Torrey said, well, of course, he didn't like it, but he didn't protest it either, like in a manner that would create problems for the team. The gist of it is what we've all seen, which is Soroka's stuff looked better. There is more swing and miss. He feels like Soroka's probably been a little healthier. You know, he wasn't out for quite so long as Gallum was. You know, you could tack
on 10 other reasons. It's obvious why it should have been Soroka. And they made the right choice there. Now the question becomes Ryan Nelson, who had a successful, I think he gave up a couple of reds, but I mean, you know, stuff-wise, He had a successful rehab outing again, and he got his one plus in. I think he got four outs, if I'm not mistaken. So, you know, he's close to returning, right? I mean, he pitched Saturday night. So you got Sunday, Monday. Maybe he's activated Tuesday, which would be the same day that Soroka's pitching. And then we still have that question of when Nelson is activated, whether that's Tuesday or Wednesday. It's going to be one of those two days probably. unless they decide he needs to pitch again, then who gets DFA? Because that's it. There's nobody to option. And it's either Gallin or Law or Santana. And we still don't know who that's going to be.
00:45:24
Speaker 1: It seems unlikely that it would be Zach Gallin at this point. I mean, wouldn't it be a little bit strange to keep him on the roster up until when he would actually be have enough rest to pitch again. And then at that point, move on from him. Especially the conversation that Torrey had with Zach today. It seems like if the D-backs were doing that, they would have pulled the trigger on that by now.
00:45:51
Speaker 2: Couldn't he pitch Monday if he needed to?
00:45:56
Speaker 3: I guess he could. That's true. That's true.
00:45:58
Speaker 2: Right. So if Corbin Burns has a very short outing, Zach Gallin pitched September 9th. Yeah, no, you're right.
00:46:04
Speaker 3: You're right.
00:46:05
Speaker 2: So 10, 11, 12, 13, he could pitch on a 14. So I think that he's being, he's around for length in case Corbin Burns has a short outing.
00:46:14
Speaker 4: Sure.
00:46:14
Speaker 2: Corbin Burns is 65, 70 pitches. If he's not efficient with it and doesn't get to the fourth inning, you know, and they need two or three innings, they need, you know, six or nine outs or whatever. They could turn around and go to Zach and let him piggyback Burns. So don't be surprised if you see that.
00:46:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, that's a great point. That, that, seems almost likely.
00:46:36
Speaker 1: Uh, I mean, I guess it depends on what the score is and how deep Corbin Burns is able to get into the game, but I don't think Corbin Burns is pitching into the sixth inning or anything, anything like that after going three and 57 is his last time out. Uh, so yeah, we'll, we'll see what, what happens there. I guess the important clarification is Zach Allen is not like Michael Soroka's piggyback partner. It's not a predetermined, like Gallin is going to pitch after Soroka or anything on Tuesday. As you said, maybe it happens tomorrow. Maybe it doesn't happen either of those days and Gallin just continues to be on the roster or maybe the D-backs do decide to move on from him after all. So we'll continue to monitor that and see what the Diamondbacks' plans are like there. Our next show will come after Wednesday's game. once this Miami Marlins series is complete. I'm getting that right, right, Jack? I'm not making this up. I think Wednesday is the plan. I'm not going crazy here.
00:47:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess we're not doing a show Monday night because we have some other conflicting things going on.
00:47:46
Speaker 1: Yes, unfortunately, we were not able to do the show on Monday after Corbin Burns' next outing.
00:47:52
Speaker 3: But yes, we are planning.
00:47:53
Speaker 1: to be back on Wednesday after the conclusion of this Marlins series. And then potentially we might have a couple of postgame shows for all of you over the weekend with that big series against the New York Yankees. Stay tuned, as always, to our social media channels for the updates there.
00:48:11
Speaker 3: You can find us at Snakes Territory. That's our show.
00:48:14
Speaker 1: You can find me personally at JesseNFriedman. And you can find Jack at ShoeWizard59. And of course, you can find Jack's written work covering the Diamondbacks. He was out at the ballpark on Sunday and wrote some stuff. You can find that over at Arizona Diamondbacks on SI. Jack, any final thoughts here as we say goodbye and head into, I guess, the penultimate week of at least the regular season of this 2026 campaign?
00:48:46
Speaker 2: They're on the brink. Things are bad. There's no sugarcoating that, but it's not over.
00:48:54
Speaker 3: There you go. Not over until it is over.
00:48:57
Speaker 1: And we will see what happens here over the final couple weeks for this Diamondbacks team. Thank you, as always, to all of you for being here with us. We really appreciate your time. And we'll be back once again on Wednesday with another edition of Snake's Territory.