Arizona Diamondbacks Hang on vs New York Mets. Time to Shutdown Justin Martinez

Arizona Diamondbacks Hang on vs New York Mets. Time to Shutdown Justin Martinez

What are we discussing on today’s Locked on Diamondbacks podcast? How the Dbacks barely hung on against the New York Mets and why is Justin Martinez not shut down for the Arizona [Music] Diamondbacks. You are Locked on Diamondbacks, your daily Arizona Diamondbacks podcast. Part of the Locked On Network. Your team every day. podcast. All right, back here on the Locked on Dbacks podcast and now let’s talk about Dbacks versus New York Mets because this was a game where you watched it through the first six, seven innings and it felt like the Dbacks were destined to lose that game. I don’t know how the Dbacks pulled out that victory. They came alive in the last two to three innings of the ball game. Watching the game for the first two hours, I was like, this is going to be another frustrating Dbacks loss against a team that they really need to get these wins against. We had a disappointing series against the Braves. We saw last year how early season against the Braves can set you back the rest of 2024. This year is 2025. We lost that series against the Rays and we’ve lost series against the Cubs. And the common theme in a lot of those series has been squandered opportunities. I thought in this game against the New York Mets, like we saw them do in game number one, I thought it was going to be another game where the Dbacks don’t capitalize on their opportunity, on their opportunities. Meanwhile, the New York Mets just bludgeoning and capitalized on all the mistakes by the Dbacks because Corbin Burns was out there. He was struggling. He was laboring through this game. He did not look fantastic. We’ll talk about more. We’ll talk more about Corbin Burns later in the segment. The offense was lackluster. again, not getting your clutch hits. We didn’t see any sort of power today. Debbacks continue to not really create chaos or havoc on the bases, but in the end, Corbin Burns, Heraldo Purdomo, and the bullpen did just enough to eke out this win for the Arizona Diamondbacks. And it’s a it’s against an opponent in the New York Mets like the Atlanta Braves. We’re going to be vying for a playoff spot all season long against the Mets. the Braves, the Phillies, the Padres’s, the Giants. Like I I’m sure I forgot a team there. The Cubs, the Reds, like the Dbacks need to win these series. And obviously, you can’t win every series against a good team. But also, when you are watching your team against these series and you clearly see your team beating themsel up, creating errors on defense, not capitalizing in clutch situations, starting pitching struggling, bullpen not coming through in high leverage moments. Like you look at your team and you’re like it’s you guys that are the problem. The other team is not even beating you. It’s you guys who go out there and and are not grabbing the victory. You guys are going out there not playing with a sense of urgency and just kind of rolling over. And the Dbacks did not do that in this game number two against the New York Mets. They might have done it in game number one, but not in game number two. Because I do believe the identity of the Dbacks so far in 2025, despite their up and down nature, despite their inconsistency, I would still say resilience has been the identity of the Dbacks in 2025. They’re still the answer backs. They’re they’re still the comeback kids. And we saw in today’s game, Dbacks score two runs in the seventh to take the lead. And that’s been kind of the philosophy to the magic of the Dbacks all season. It doesn’t matter those first six innings, score runs in the seventh and eighth and you can still steal a game. And that’s what the Dbacks did in game two against the Mets. They stole the game because you got a classic, I guess for the Dbacks fans, a classic Corbin Burns start because it was another start where he did not have the command on his pitches. He was really laboring through six innings. the the the cutter command just wasn’t there. The feel wasn’t there. He had more walks than hits allowed. Four uh he had five walks. Corbin Burns did a lot of traffic on the bases. Like another start where Corbin Burns just did not look like he’s worth the money. And I’m still waiting to be impressed. I’m still waiting to, you know, sit back in my chair and go like, man, I could see why that guy’s been considered one of the top Sion Young candidates the last few years, why he’s been considered a tier one pitcher in baseball. We just have not seen that yet by Corbin Burns in 2025. But even with that being said, the only stats that matter, six innings pitch, one earned run. Despite the traffic, despite the command issues in the walks, Corbin Burns once again did not allow the damage. And so, great resilience by Corbin Burns. I want to see a little bit more from a guy making 35 million a year, but another quality start where I can’t complain uh with the way he did today. And like we said, if Corbin Burns has a good start against the Mets, he’s going to walk away with a pretty good erra. A three, five, eightyear now through what, six, seven starts for Corbin Burns in 2025. Like you’ll definitely take that. Um the bullpen, they did a good job outside of Justin Martinez. They had some shutdown innings. We got the return of Kevin Gle. He came in and cleaned up a little bit of a mess. Ryan Thompson really saved the day as we saw Justin Martinez struggle and we’ll talk more about Justin Martinez in segment number two, excuse me, but he clearly does not look right and so we really needed Ryan Thompson in this game and thankfully he was able to come in and save the day for the Dbacks. The offense though, despite it doing enough late, Purdomo came in off the bench, clutch hit to deliver the Dbacks, the lead, and eventually the victory. And of course, Purdomo did it as the number nine hitter for Arizona because he seems to just thrive out of that number nine hole for the Dbacks. But what I do want to know is why do these no-name pitchers keep dominating the Arizona Diamondbacks? Today it was I don’t even know how to pronounce his name. Brazaben like I watched the game. I still don’t know how to pronounce his name. He was a just opening starter for the Mets. Not even a real starter. Just one of those relievers starting the game. Then they had Wardell again. Wardell. I can’t even pronounce his name. He hadn’t pitched in years, right? He I don’t think he’s pitched on the major league level since 21 or 2022, they said. And he looked fantastic. The Mets pitching today was fantastic. Thankfully, we saw our old f our old friend Chris Dinsky come in because we know he’s not very good. Surprised to see that he’s still on a major league roster. I was thankful when he came in the game because I felt like the Dbacks are going to win once I saw Dinsky on the mound. But overall, this was a game where the Dback’s resilience shined. Corbin Burns resilience through six innings to labor through the command issues. the offense to uh the offense showed resilience to labor through the lackluster innings, you know, one through six and then come through late in the game. And the bullpen showed resilience because of Justin Martinez, his struggles, but we were able to work around it with Ryan Thompson. This was a complete team effort by the Dbacks. You needed every face to step up and I was very happy to see that they did. My one critique from this game, Tory Lavell is a platoon guy. Why were we sitting Herado Purdomo and Paven Smith and then stacking our lineup with righties with a righty on the mound? I don’t understand why Tory did that. Again, sitting our best players in a series of this magnitude when we just had a day off a couple days ago just does not make a lot of sense to me. But now we’ll talk about the health of Justin Martinez and AJ Puck in segment number two. year back here on the Locked on Diamondbacks podcast. So now let’s discuss the Dbacks bullpen and their health issues because we saw Justin Martinez in game number one against the Mets and I want to know why are the Dbacks pitching Jart? He’s a guy who clearly does not look right because his velocity is just way down right now. I just want to know why the Dbacks are pitching Jart. Why are they not putting him on ice until his VO returns? It’s so weird. And I’ve been the guy begging the Dbacks to play Jart more. I know this is a very hypocritical topic coming from me because I’m always begging Tori to play just Martinez more, use him as the closer, but now I’m begging the Dbacks to stop pitching Jar until he looks fully right, fully healthy. That velocity is back. Let’s put Justin Martinez on ice. For a team that talks a lot about workload and managing players health, the Dbacks sure don’t do a good job at it, right? You look at their two best relievers in Justin Martinez and AJ Puck. What’s the issue with both of them? Jar, his velocity is not there, health concerns. AJ Puck not even pitching right now. and we’ll actually talk about him more later in this segment, but you can definitely put some of the blame when it comes to the health issues of those two guys on the shoulders of Dback’s leadership. Jart is a flamethrower, averages 100 miles per hour on his fast ball, right? The VO isn’t there. So, why are we pitching Jart if he’s the guy that averages 100, can ratchet it up, can ratchet it up to 102, 103, 104, but right now he’s topping out at 97. What sense does it make to pitch him? If he clearly doesn’t look right, he’s a flamethrower pitcher who can’t throw flames right now. It’s coming out with, you know, not as much heat as we want. I don’t understand why the Dbacks are pitching him. Like the Dbacks are finally utilizing Jar the way I want him to be used, but now is not the right time, which is crazy to think about. Like you waited the whole season to finally start using Jar as the closer, but you start doing it when he’s not 100%. It’s just another situation of this Dbacks team putting their relievers in the worst possible situations. And then you look at a guy like AJ Puck. Tory Lavell has already taken some of the blame for AJ Puck’s injury this season. Thankfully, we got some good news. It doesn’t look like AJ Puck will be done for the year. He’s avoiding surgery. He’s going to be shut down for a few weeks. It’s going to be one of those situations like we saw with Jerry Jones earlier in the year. He was very, you know, much on that, uhoh, is he going to get Tommy John surgery? Then they said, you know what, we’ll just put you on the 60 a day and we’ll shut you down for a couple months. Looks like AJ Puck is going to get the same treatment. So, if Puck is able to come back later in the year fully healthy, fully healthy, not skip a beat, that’s going to help out this Dbacks team so much. We were so scared that it was going to be Tommy John surgery. So, the fact that he’s just going to be shut down for a few weeks, potentially two to three months, I mean, that is actually bestcase scenario for AJ Puck. So, if the Dbacks are in the wild card race around the All-Star break with Puck coming back, that will be like adding a a piece at the trade deadline. It’ll be like adding AJ Puck at last year’s trade deadline. It’ll invoke the same kind of feeling. So, Dbacks need to be in the wild card race because I am scared. I am concerned. They like to drop a lot of winnable games. But, if they can at least stay in the mix around the deadline, they got AJ Puck coming back. That is going to be a big boost to the Dbacks in the second half. But even without AJ Puck or even with AJ Puck, I still believe the Dbacks should remain aggressive and still go all in on a guy like Ryan Hesley. Now, I would not give up Jordan Lawler in a Ryan Hessley deal. I think the Dback should pull the trigger, go out there, get the St. Louis Cardinals closer, but they should not do it if it involves Jordan Lawler. The Cardinals GM should definitely ask for Lawler. They should pick up the phone call and say, “Hey, you want Hesley? Give us your top prospect, Jordan Lawler.” That is not what Nico Harrison did with Luca Donic. That is what the Cardinal GM needs to do to the Dbacks when it comes to trading Ryan Hessley. You have to ask for the best package, the best return. Now, Mike Hazen, he should say no. You should not give up Lawler in any deal. But after Lawler, start that drop down method that you see in marketing and then let’s start the real conversations because we do need Ryan Hesley on this Dback team both for the short term with the health concerns of both AJ Puck and Justin Martinez, but also for the second half because if this bullpen comes together in this second half, they’re fully healthy and the Dbacks are in the mix. Imagine a 789 combination. You’re closing out games with AJ Puck, Justin Martinez, and Ryan Hesley as your seven eight nine, then you still have as high leverage relievers, Kevin Gle, Ryan Thompson, Jaylen Beaks, Shelby Miller, Kendall Graveman. Like that is an elite bullpen. That is a World Series bullpen if the Dbacks can get there, of course. So, I would still say go out there, poke around the market, see if you could get the Ryan Hley’s of the world if they don’t break the bank. See if you could find another AJ Puck on this year’s trade market because there’s still, you know, even though Puck is going to be shut down for a few weeks, it’s still not a guarantee that he’s going to be coming back later in the season, even though the reports seem positive right now. But the guy most importantly that we need to get right and get healthy is Justin Martinez. And so until that velocity comes back, I don’t care what he’s telling you, Tory Lavell, have a bullpen before the game, give him five pitches. If he can’t throw a 100 miles per hour, he’s not coming out the pen that day. And so until Jay Mark gets his velocity back, stop pitching him in these games, please. Arizona Diamondbacks. Now, for the Dbacks to stay in the wildard race, they’re going to need to continue to stack wins. And to do that, they’re going to need a fantastic start from Zack Allen, which will preview in segment number Back here on the Locked on Diamondbacks podcast and now let’s preview the finale and talk about the Jackal and Hyde season for Zack Gallon. Don’t really know the audience demographic in terms of age because that reference might go over your head if you’re one of the younger listeners, but Jackal and Hyde basically this character from way back in the day with a split personality. Probably the the new age comparison would be if you saw the movie Split with James Makavoy, how he has multiple personalities. Imagine if he just had two of them. That is Jack and Hyde. But the difference is one guy was a good positive person, one guy was evil and nasty. And Zack Allen this season, he’s been Jack and Hyde because there’s been some games where he’s looked nasty in a good way and then some games where he’s looked nasty in a bad way. And right now I’m at the point I never thought I’d be here, but I’m kind of at the point where I’m not super excited for Zack Allen start. Sounds insane to say. Zack Allen’s been probably my favorite pitcher on the Dbacks the last few years, but I am concerned for my guy. I do not love what I’ve seen this season and even going back to the last couple years. Ever since like the second half of his scoreless inning streak, I feel like there’s been a lot of up and downs with Zack Allen the last couple years. And in 2025, the the the contrast in his up and down between the peaks and the valleys are bigger than ever that we’ve seen throughout his career. And I’m just concerned. I’m just concerned, guys. Um, this is a guy who we know can deliver a sai young performance. We’ve seen that this year, but we’ve also seen him deliver performances where he looks like a fringe number five starter for the Dbacks. And right now, Zack Allen, I got a kind of crazy comparison. You guys could either agree or disagree with me, but Gallon right now is kind of giving me like Robbie Ray vibes. Um, and it’s not like their style play. Robbie Ray was a three true outcome guy. Zack Allen’s not that. But in terms of just seeing people who we know are super talented, can put together flashes of brilliance, but you’re just like frustrated. You’re just like, why can’t you put it together consistently? like what is wrong with you? That’s how I felt about Robbie Ray the last couple years where he would go like five innings, have all these strikeouts, but then also a lot of walks and give up a home run. Zack Allen doesn’t put up a statline like Robbie Ray, but the feeling’s the same where he has a few innings, maybe a couple are good, a couple are shaky, but you’re just not getting that version of Zack Allen that we know is there. And that’s the most frustrating thing. We know this guy can be elite. We know this guy has, you know, sigh young talent within him, but for some reason 2025, he has not been able to display it consistently enough. And if you’re continuing that Robbie Ray, Zack Allen comparison, one thing I do not want to see is Zack Allen to leave in free agency and then immediately become a Sai Young award winner or just look like a Sai Young candidate once again for another team. Because if that happened, that would be a huge referendum on this Dback’s coaching staff and the pitching staff if Zack Allen just continues to struggle the longer he stays in Arizona. That was kind of the issue with Robbie Ray, you know, he has that 289 year and then every single after that he struggles. Zack Allen has that scoreless streak in 2023 and then kind of every single every single season since he started to go in the wrong direction. And that’s a problem. Why do the pitchers who reach the mountaintop, reach their ceiling with the Dbacks have it for like a year or two and then start to decline? That’s a real problem that the Dback’s development from their coaches need to look at internally because Zack Allen this season, he just been so up and down. And when you look at his game log, it’s the definition of Jackal and Hyde because literally every other start, it’s good or it’s bad. It’s either three earned runs or less or it’s between four and six earned runs allowed. And it’s so funny, you can actually just go through his game log. four earned runs, zero earned runs, five earned runs, two earned runs, six earned runs, three earned runs was his most recent outing. And so if you keep up with the trends, Zack Allen’s next appearance should be a blowup start for Gallon. So you could go on FanDuel and you could take the unders if you believe in trends for Zack Allen. But for me, I’m I guess I’m getting religious because I’m praying Zack Allen has another New York start like we saw earlier this year because in 2025, we already saw Zack Allen dominate a team in New York this season when he went up to the Bronx and dominated the Yankees. It was another time where he was facing off against a red-hot New York team and he shut down the Yankees. 6.2 2 innings pitch, 13 strikeouts, one of the best starts of his career. But Zack Allen really hasn’t produced anywhere close to that level again this season. I would say that’s the best start the Dback starter has had from any member of the rotation so far in 2025. And if Gallen could produce anywhere close to that in the finale, I think the Dbacks is going to win. But I’m not sure if he can because he’s been so inconsistent this year. But if you do want a silver lining, Gallon has been solid against the Mets throughout his career. 31 innings pitched against the Mets for a 377year array. He actually has solid numbers against the Mets lineup. Pete Alonzo 4 for 14. Lindor is 3 for 10. Then Juan Sodto 4 for 22. So Zack Allen does a pretty good job against this New York Mets lineup. Meanwhile, the Dback’s lineup has not done a good job against Kodi Sanga, who has been dominated by him so far in his career. 14 innings pitch, one earn run over two starts against the Dbacks. This lineup only has three career hits against Sanga and so not a lot of success. That fork ball that SA throws has been unhitable in 2025. He has only allowed three hits in 35 at bats. He has allowed a 0.086 slug on that fork ball. So it is a nasty dominant pitch. The pitch you want to wait for is that four seamer by Sanga because a 324 average 588 slug allowed this season. That’s the pitch you want to hit if you’re the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Dbacks, they use a lot of their best relievers in the game today. So you’re going to need Zack Allen to give you length and look like prime Zack Allen. Let’s not sit our best players in the finale. Let’s go out there with a sense of urgency and actually try to win, try to win the series. And let’s see if the Dbacks can score enough runs to give Zack Allen some run support and shut down the New York Mets. Now, that’s it for this edition of the Locked on Diamondbacks podcast. Come back tomorrow for more Diamondbacks news coverage and insight. And as always, stay safe, stay healthy. Do

The Arizona Diamondbacks got their revenge in game 2 against the New York Mets with a late game rally. Millard Thomas discusses what went right, why the Dbacks need to shutdown Justin Martinez, and if we’re going to get good or bad Zac Gallen in the finale.

Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…
🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-diamondbacks/

Locked On MLB League-Wide: Every Team, Prospects & More
🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/leagues/mlb/

#ArizonaDiamondbacks #diamondbacks #MLB