Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - 7 BURNING QUESTIONS Ahead of the Seattle Mariners' ALCS Bout With the Toronto Blue Jays

Episode Date: October 11, 2025

Ty and Colby are joined by Mariners POSTCAST host Anders Hirst to answer seven burning questions about the ALCS. Check out our Patreon!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolbySupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!5-Hour ENERGYEnough with boring, flavorless caffeine, it’s time to give your caffeine a flavor upgrade with 5-hour ENERGY®️ shots. Get the favorites you love or be bold and try something new in-store and online at https://www.5hourENERGY.com or Amazon today. NutrafolSee thicker, stronger hair with less shedding in just 3–6 months with Nutrafol. For a limited time, get $10 off your first month’s subscription and free shipping when you go to https://Nutrafol.com and enter the promo code LOCKEDONMLB. ZippixGo to https://ZippixToothpicks.com and use promo code LOCKEDON for 10% off your first order.Zippix Toothpicks—energy and focus, anytime you need it.PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONMLB to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.PrizePicks — Run Your Game.Click Link Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONMLBMonarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONMLB at https://monarchmoney.com/lockedonmlb for 50% off your first year.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Seattle Mariners are four wins away from their first ever World Series appearance, but the team they came into the league with 48 years ago stands in their way. You are Locked-on Mariners, your daily Seattle Mariners podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Ahoy, Sailors, and is Saturday, October 11th, 2025. This is tighting Azores and Colby Patnode for the Lockdown Marys Podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel.

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Link in the description. Please be joined again by Anders Hurst. So the Mariners Postcast to help us preview the ALCS between the Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays. The show is going to go more or less the same as the last time we had Anders on. I got some burning questions for these guys heading into the series. So we're just going to go down the list and chat a little bit about this one. So to get us started here, real quick, let's put the ALDS to rest. Who's your ALDS MVP for the Baroness Anders?

Ooh, just hard hitting right off the rip. I've got to go Andres Munoz. when the rest of the bullpen was shaky at best, he's the only one who never faltered, giving just nails performance after nails performance. You could shout out Cal Raleigh, too, obviously, with how well he played at the plate, but I got to go Andres Munoz, just because he was the only guy who showed up every single time when you needed him to, absolutely. So that's mine for the ALDS for sure.

I'll go with the guy who actually had to show up all five games and was really bad in one of them, but very good in the other four. And it's kind of a guy who I claimed early this year as my breakout candidate. And I'm going to go with Bizarro. He was really good last night. And I think people kind of forget, like, you see the same guy five games in a row. It's pretty easy to pick up things on that guy that you didn't know before. So, yeah, dominating game one, game two, fine, whatever.

but for him to, you know, implode in game four and then bounce right back in game five and give you, what was it, seven outs, eight outs, you know, high leverage outs against a team that has literally seen him in every other game of the series. Pretty darn impressive. And, you know, it's really easy to go with Polanco. Polanco had some big hits, no question, obviously, you know, the big hit last night. But I think, you know, I think most people will go with Polanco. But I'm going to give some love to the bullpen guys because,

for the most part, they were really good this series, although I think all of them, except for Munoz, had a rough inning here and there. So it is what it is. But, yeah, I think I'll go Bizarro. And then, yeah, I think shout out to Polo and Munoz. And also Logan Gilbert, I think probably deserve some props here for what he did yesterday and also obviously the start in game three. Yeah, Gilbert was a guy that I heavily considered here.

George Kirby as well, even though that, you know, they lost in game one. Still, like, he was, yeah, he was fantastic in the series, fantastic, especially last night. But yeah, I'm going to go with Jorge Polanco. I mean, he was a massive reason that you beat Terrick Scoobel in game two. And obviously, he has the walk off last night. So I think that's a pretty safe call. But, yeah. So Josh Naylor, if the series is only three games long, he might have been the guy, but the first two games count.

So unfortunately. Yeah, yeah. But, yeah, Nails was Nails. After the kid came, Nails was really good. It's like the opposite of Julio, right? First two games. Yeah. Yeah.

They passed off the baton. Yeah. But you know, but like we talked about, I think it was after game two. Maybe, no, it was game three after game three. You and I talked about this, Colby. Like it felt like Josh was close. Like he had some really good swings in the series. Just had nothing to show for it.

And then he has, what, six hits over the final two games? So what are your biggest questions heading into the series, Colby? Dan Wilson. Okay. I think you managed a pretty good game last night. I'll give him that. But, you know, it was, we talked about this last night. It was funny that like basically the same exact situation came up three times,

all of them at home. And it was, do you go to Gabe Spire at first game he didn't? Home run, boom. Next game he gets paid off, strikeout. And then the final game he goes to him and home run. So, you know, kind of had the wide range there. But this bullpen, it feels like it's. it's an arm short, like we've been saying for the last two months.

And that puts Dan in some really awkward spots. And I don't know if I trust him to pull the trigger on it. But I think in a bigger sense of things, I am worried about the bullpen and how many innings they can cover. Because, again, like, Bizarro has pitched every game this postseason after seemingly pitch every other game in the regular season. You know, Munoz has had to go a couple of innings a couple times. And he didn't do that at all this year.

And so Brash is, you know, actually been pretty solid in the play. off, which is a nice surprise. But yeah, I just, there's not a lot of guys in this bullfin I trust. And it's kind of tough to trust Gabe Spire after his last couple of outings. And in this series, there's not a ton of high quality lefties in this Blue Jays lineup. So I'm not quite sure how they're going to handle him. You know, is he going to be asked to get George Springer? Is he going to be asked to get Vladdy at some, probably at some point.

Yeah. It's definitely more so going to be Varsho, Lucas, and Barger. Right. Those are going to be the key spots. And the guys who are going to kill you in these spots are going to be Vladty, Springer, and maybe Bichette. So I'm a little worried about the pitching holding up after the grueling series they just had. But yeah, I mean, lots to be worried about, lots to be excited about. But I think the bullpen and how Dan manages it is my biggest concern.

Yeah. Anders. Yeah, for me, I'm going to go more starting pitching here because we obviously kind of see them empty the tank in game five. against the Tigers, which they had to do. I'm not saying it was the wrong thing to do whatsoever. And we see the decision to go to Bryce Miller in game one, which is a little questionable to me. Coby, I saw your tweet.

You and I have, I think, a similar thought on this. It seems like Castillo would have been a little bit more of a easier decision for me. He's thrown 14 pitches in the seven days that would lead up to the game versus 55, I believe, for Bryce Miller in the five days leading up to the game. I realize he just pitched in the most. previous game. But again, that was only 14 pitches, should be able to get back up to at least close to 100% by Sunday.

And he's just been a better pitcher for the majority, for the entirety of this year. So that's a little bit questionable. But again, then it kind of goes to the question of what's Brian Wu going to look like. If he is going to be available, is George Kirby and Logan Gilbert? I have a little less questions with them. I think they've proven that they're the guys in this part of the postseason. but the Blue Jays just destroyed the Yankees. And I realize, I think honestly, similar to how the Detroit series kind of was a tough

matchup for Seattle's pitching, I think that Toronto series was a tough matchup for the New York's pitching. And I think this, I'm not saying that Toronto's a worse offense than Detroit, but I think it matches up a little bit better to Seattle just because they have fewer lefties that really scare me. and Seattle, of course, really only has two left hand of pitchers, really only one if you really don't want to see Caleb Ferguson in a game. So it matches up well, but that doesn't mean that everything's going to go to plan.

So just the overall starting pitching is what I'm looking at, how they're going to deal with that after emptying the tanking game five. Yeah. So my biggest question really is Boba Shett's health right now. How's that knee looking? I know he's been doing some light jogging, all that. there is a thought that he could just exclusively DH in this series, which could create a little bit of a headache

there for John Schneider and putting these lineups together because that's going to have to push George Springer into an outfield spot. And that means that one of Anthony Santon Dare or Nathan Lucas or Dalton Varshot is going to have to hit the bunch. So how are they going to work around that and just how much of an impact is Bichet going to have, especially if he does get on base. So what is that all going to look like?

That's a real big piece of this. But I mean, even without Bichet, it's a really, really dangerous lineup. And they've gotten a lot of contributions, you know, obviously from Vlad and Springer and Alejandro Kirk, but like one through nine,

there's a lot of dudes in this lineup. Ernie Clement has been really solid this year. Nathan Lucas has been a really, really good this year. Varshos had a great season. Barger's been incredible. I mean, we remember what he did to the Bears when the Blue Jets.

is we don't run on that guy yeah definitely don't do that definitely don't do that so yeah um yeah yeah bichette to me is is the the the biggest question here is at least on on the on the blue jay set of things and then uh yeah like you you mentioned and there's the the starting rotation going with miller in game one what is he going to look like going up against this lineup this is a very very different lineup than the tigers lineup they fell off a ton of pitches they put the ball and play at a time they don't really strike out like This is going to be a fascinating matchup for this starting rotation, which doesn't really line up well with this on paper. So we'll see how it goes.

All right. Got some more questions for these guys in just a moment. But first a reminder, this episode of the Locktime Marys podcast is brought to you by Fanduel. The NFL season is here. And Fandual is making sure you're ready for kickoff with a can't miss offer. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if you bet wins, you'll get $300 and bonus. bets to use across the app.

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That's fanduel.com to place your first $5 bet. And you're listening to the Locked-on Mariner's podcast for instant reactions following every Mariners playoff game. Be sure to tune into the Marriss Postcast with Anders here and Christopher Crawford available on both the lockdown mirrors,

YouTube and podcast feeds. Going through some burning questions heading into the ALCS between the Mariners and the Blue Jays. Next question here. What are your impressions of the Blue Jays, Anders? They're a really good team. I think you described it well in our last segment there.

They're going to really kind of battle in every single at bat offensively. And they have one of the best hitters in baseball in Vladimir Guerrero Jr. He's also just on a different level right now. At least he was in the Yankee series. Hopefully he got all of that out in one series. But he's just been a really good player for a long time.

I can't overlook George Springer. Either he was in the MVP conversation for a lot of this year until it kind of tailed off towards the end. So, I mean, he's been tearing the cover off the ball lately. It's just a really good offense. I don't think the pitching is they don't have a Terrick Scoobel. They don't have someone who really scares me, where it's like going into game five, it's like, oh, God, what are the Mariners going to do?

They just got to get this guy out of the game. But their bullpen has been shaky as well. So that's not necessarily a strength. It's not like they have a long bullpen to rely on. So I think this offense might have a better series in this one versus the Detroit series. But you got to slow down their bats. That's going to be the main thing. it's going to be how effective our pitchers are against that offense is going to be the huge thing for Toronto in this series.

Yeah, they make a lot of contact, which, you know, Mariners pitching hasn't been great at retiring hitters in a timely fashion this year or in the playoffs, really. So, you know, long at-bats are going to happen. You just have to deal with it. I also, you know, perhaps I'm wrong here because I don't watch every Blue Jays game, but they can also run out a defense that is better than, anybody in baseball with Varshow and Miles Straw and even Springer can still play a little bit. And I guess solid. Yeah. You know, Bichette's solid if he does play it short.

Yep. Like they can, Kirk is one of the better defensive catchers in baseball. Like they can really, you know, prevent runs with their defense, which is great for them because they don't have elite starting pitching. Yassavage has been very good as is Gossman. But those are not, as you said,

those are not scubles. And that's no disrespect to them. There's only one scubel in the, the world right now. So yeah, the pitching won't be as good. The bullpen probably about on par with Detroit. They don't have a wool vests, though. No, I mean, Hoffman's supposed to be that guy, but then he hasn't really been.

Yeah. Yeah. So like the pitching should be better. Or sorry, the pitching, Detroit's pitching should be better on paper than anything that Toronto can throw at you, but Toronto's defense is significantly better. And they're starting to hit the home run here in the postseason, and that is a terrifying combination. Team that doesn't strike out and hits home runs, like that's, that's tough. And they catch everything in the air, and they've got three center fielders out there.

It's really strong up the middle defensively. It's a tough matchup for Seattle. But, you know, it is one that didn't go their way this year, but we know that in the past, the Mariners have had pretty good success against the Blue Jays, both in Toronto and in Seattle. So we'll see how it goes from this year. But yeah, I just think of defense. And I think of a relentless lineup that is also starting to hit home runs in the postseason. And that's like that's the trio right there.

Elite run prevention. And you hit home runs and you don't strike out. You're going to win a lot of all games. Yeah, they looked like a wagon in that Yankee series. So yeah, this is going to be a really, really tough lineup to get through. And again, because not only because of the star power. and while Kerry Carpenter was fantastic in that series

and he was a massive, massive problem to deal with and we know about Riley Green and all those guys, that's nothing compared to Vladimir Giro Jr. And the kind of year that George Springer is having at the plate and all that and how to some bargers break out all that. So this is just a very different lineup to deal with. And on top of that, they're super, super annoying. So, yeah, I mean, this really does come down to,

like you mentioned Anders, getting into that Blue Jay's bullpen. that is a very clear defined weakness on this club. And that means that you're going to have to get through Kevin Gossman. You're going to have to get through Shane Bieber, who's been very good since returning to the mound. You've got to get through Trey Yus Savage, who's been a revelation here over the,

you know, the last couple of weeks. And, you know, there's also going to be Max Scherzer potentially or Chris Bassett. I mean, Jose Marios going to start for them? You think he's out for the year.

Yeah, he's down for the year. But, you know, Scherzer, like, he's not the, He's not Max Scherzer anymore, but that's obviously a guy that's pitching a ton of big games. And so, you know, that's something that you're going to have to deal with. So getting through those guys, getting into that Blue Jays bullpen,

that's going to be the key to the series for the Mariners. All right. Next question here. Outside of the obvious names, give me one key player for both the Mariners and the Blue Jays, Colby. For the Blue Jays outside the obvious names, I think it's, I mean, is Jeff Hoffman an obvious name? I expect these games to be close. And Hoffman has been not what they paid for. He's had moments where he's been pretty good,

but for the most part, he's not been what they paid for. And he's going to have to get some big outs in this series. And if he struggles like he has this year, it could cost Toronto everything. So, like, I think Hoffman is probably a name there. Also, I just, I really don't want to see Addison Barger throw guys out again. I just, oh, no, just know the arms, guys, know the arms. for the Mariners

Yeah, I mean, it's kind of tough to come up with a Underrated name Because everybody knows everybody I would say that I think this could potentially be a big Matt Brash series And I don't again, I don't know if that's underrated or whatever But with the number of key righties in this lineup Like Gabe Spire facing the lefties in the last series

This series it's going to come down to Matt Brash Or bizardo, but we talked about Bizarro. So I'm going with Brash. And, you know, this is pretty interesting in game two, or was it game two, Brash had the swing and miss stuff. And he gave up a couple runs, although he shouldn't have the air, blah, blah, blah. But he had swing and miss stuff. And last night, he looked really good, didn't generate many whiffs, you know. And so it really is you kind of get these two different versions of Matt Brash, one that just gets a ton of ground balls and one that gets a ton of whiffs.

You don't know which one you're going to get. But there's a pretty good chance you're going to need both of those guys to show up at some point in the series. and whether he can or can't, I think probably determines the winner of one or two of these games. And one or two games is the margin. Yeah, for me, it's Alejandro Kirk for the Blue Jays. He's kind of that connection between those big boys at the top of the lineup and then like the underrated stars at the bottom of the lineup. He has really quietly been one of the best catchers in baseball over the past, like for the entire season, both offensively and defensively.

And he's just continued to do it in the playoffs. So that's going to be one guy that I'm watching. If you kind of limit him, the lineup feels a lot shorter for Toronto and just in terms of, you know, the guys that you can feel confident in going up against, especially later in games. And then for the Mariners, it's Brian Wu. I know it's not necessarily underrated, but having that one extra guy can mean the difference in so many ways, whether it's getting a guy that's lined up to start on regular rest, whether it's having that extra guy come out of the bullpen.

That's the difference between the possibility of maybe seeing Emerson Hancock in this series versus something where everything seems to line up perfectly. One guy can be that entire difference. And having him, if he's healthy and he's who he's been for the entirety of this year, I think that's a huge step for Seattle winning this series. All right, got a few more questions. Questions for these guys in just a moment, but first a reminder, this episode of the Lockdown Airs podcast is brought to you by Ruggiat.

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That's confidence all day, all night, and even into the next day. Ready to level up your confidence in the bedroom. Head to RUG-I-E-T.com and use the promo code Locked-on MLB for 15% off your first order. That's R-U-G-I-E-T-com promo code L-O-C-E-D-O-N-M-B. Make sure to use our code so they know we sent you. And you're listening to the lockdown. Mariner's podcast. We're going over some burning questions heading into the ALCS Mariners versus Blue Jays kicking off tomorrow night at Rogers Center. Next question here. Now that you've seen this club win a playoff series, do you feel better or about the same about them as you did before the playoffs began? Colby? About the same. I think, you know, they're a really talented team. And I think they're one of the best teams in baseball, which they're in the final four. So obviously.

But also, I think they're a flawed team, which means that they are totally susceptible to losing multiple games. And they've been a very streaky team all year, even after the big additions at the trade deadline. So, you know, I think I feel about the same. Like, they could sweep the Blue Jays, and I wouldn't be shocked. They could get swept by the Blue Jays, and I wouldn't be shocked. There's just not a lot of consistency here with this club and with who performs and who doesn't. So, you know, I felt that way about the Tiger series. I know a lot of people thought it was going to be a cakewalk.

I think we all kind of tried to pump the brakes on that and be like, it's going to be four or five really tough games. And I feel like it's probably going to be the same with Toronto because I just don't know how, you know, what team's going to show up on any given night or what, you know, what hitters are going to show up on any given night. But, you know, the Mariners are playing at their hundredth percentile and the Blue Jays are playing at their hundredth percentile. I think the Mariners are a better team.

But how much confidence do I have that they'll play at their hundredth percent percentile less than 100 percent. So it's one of those things where I think I feel about the same. You know, the mayors could win eight in a row and hoist the trophy. And cool, I wouldn't be shocked. I mean, shocked, but for a different reason. Or they could just, you know, lose four in a row here and be done. And we'll have a weird conversation late in the week next week.

And that'll be that. Like, nothing will surprise me with this team. So I really don't think much has changed. There were no big performances. that have like like if randy a rose arena had gone like nine for 19 or something with three home runs in the series and i'm like oh randy's hot like yeah that might change or or if uh gno had gotten red hot that might have changed things but neither those things happen and those two guys are kind of like x factors in this like if they get hot at the same time or even one of them gets hot that can change everything but they didn't in this last series so you know pitching was about what i expected bolpin was about what i expected everybody else kind of did their job. So I feel about the same. Yeah, I feel, I think I feel a little bit better, not by a huge margin, but the main reason for me is because it felt like after game four, losing in that fashion, when you're up three zero, you had multiple chances, it felt like it was there for you to win.

Detroit felt dead in the water. And then losing that one, kind of foregoing all the momentum, and facing scoble in game five, you had all the opportunity to just lay down and kind of be done. And the fact that they didn't do that tells me that these guys are just a different kind of breed than previous Mariners teams that we've experienced in the past. Both that and I almost feel like I think part of it in their heads and I don't know, players are probably different. But for me as a fan, if you had gone out in the ALDS, it still would have felt a lot like this season was a failure in many ways because of how everything lined up. I think, think you're kind of in a way playing with house money at this point if the mariners because they've

done something for the first time in 24 years if they lose the alcs they it's like okay they'd still got to this point um i think that's what most fans were at least at the very least asking for was to get to this point i'm not saying i won't be disappointed if they don't move on to the world series but it almost feels like the pressure is off a little bit where um the toronto's the number one seed. They're coming in not with home field advantage. They kind of got the Detroit monkey off their back. So it just kind of feels like at this point, the Mariners have gotten to the point in the season where they're playing with house money a little bit. So I, again, I'm not saying I'm going to be totally okay if they go out and four in this, but it feels like they've gotten

the monkey off their back and they can just go and win the whole effort thing, according to Cal. So I don't know. I feel a little bit better because they were able to come back a little bit in that Detroit series. Long story short. Yeah, I should clarify, like in terms of how I view the season, yeah, it's changed because we talked about this last year or last week like, hey, if they lose this series to Detroit, a team, they're clearly better than is it a successful season? I mean, yeah, they won the division.

Yeah. They were the number two seed, but they didn't advance any further than they did in 2022. But you get to the ALCS, like you get swept. It's still a very successful season. really no debate to be had about that. But in terms of like, do I feel better about their odds of winning on a night-to-night basis because they beat the Tigers? No. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I feel about the same. So just to clarify. Yeah. To you to your guys's points, yeah, I do feel like at the very least, like the pressure on the fan base is kind of lifted.

Yeah. Because of winning the playoff series. Because again, like, you got the 60 Homer season out of Cal. You won the division for the first time in 24 years. You made the playoffs for just the second time in 24 years. You know, all these, you went out, you made the biggest, boldest trades at the deadline, all that stuff, right? And if you went out and you lost in the first round, that'd be a very tough pill to swallow.

You'd be the Phillies. Yeah. Yeah, and that's just, that's a tough pill to swallow, especially because there were so many questions that are going to have to be answered going into the soft season, right? Yep.

So, yeah, so I do feel like, at the very least getting to the ALCS, being one of the final four teams. Also getting past the Tigers team that just you were straight up better then. Yes. Like on paper. Like yeah, they had a great series and like shout out to those guys. Like they were they gave you everything that they had to offer. But, you know, it would have sucked, frankly, losing to them.

Whereas losing to the Blue Jays, that's a really, really good team. Right. Losing to, you know, if you make it to the World Series, if you lose the Dodgers or the brewers or whoever, like those are very, very, very good teams. If that happens, you know,

it just is what it is. Like at that point, it's just best on best, right? And so, you know, we'll see how it goes. But like I do feel like that aspect of,

of all of this has kind of gone away. And ultimately, no matter what happens here, like, obviously we're all going to be disappointed if they get eliminated in this round or if they don't win the World Series. But like, I feel like at the end of it,

like we're still going to look on, look back on this season fondly. and look toward 2026 with really nothing but hope. Obviously, a lot of questions, but really, you know, mostly hope after this year. Yeah, and I want to clarify, like, again, if they end up losing this series, if they get swept and look terrible, it's not that I'm, A, not expecting them to win. It's not that I am okay if they lose or anything like that. It's more just like once you look back, I think you put it perfectly their time.

Once you look back on this season, I think no matter what happens now, you will find it a success. Yeah, yeah, because I think if you just lost in the ALDS, there just would have been a lot of like, coulda, woulda shoulda. Yeah. And then, you know, we would have spent like the whole offseason talking about blowing the 3-0 lead in game four and not winning game one.

15 innings. Yeah, yeah. And all, yeah, and all that, right? So like opportunities. Yeah, yeah. And then just, you know, talking about, like, the conversation would be about wasting Cal season and, you know, all.

And I feel like some of that, I'm sure there will still be a little bit of that involved in the conversation here if they do lose in the ALCS just because you know that's just how things are but but in general I think for the most part like we can just kind of appreciate the season when I think winning just that playoff series having that moment last night I think that that goes a long way for how we talk about the the season no matter what happens from here on out all right next question here I'm not asking you to predict a winner I never would but how many games will this series go, Anders? I think it at least goes six, to be completely honest.

I think Detroit's a – I'm sorry, Toronto's a better team than Detroit, but I still think it's going to be – there are going to be a ton of close games. Yeah. And the way Toronto plays is, in a way, another bad matchup for Seattle. But I still think the pitching is going to get the job done. I think they're going to quiet Toronto's bats a little bit more, at least more than the Yankees did. My God.

So I still have faith in these guys. There's going to be a couple moments. There's going to be a couple bullpen decisions that make us pull our hair out. It's just the way it goes. But I still, I think it at least goes six games. Mariners and four. Wow. Ems and four.

Because it's the Mariners, I don't really think it matters who they're playing. I think this is going to a game seven. Like I just, I don't. Game seven. 16 innings. They could be playing like the Marlins, and I would still predict they would go seven. Like it's just how the Mariners do business, you know?

Yeah. But yeah, I think this will be a long series. You know, I think if Seattle can steal one of these first two games in Toronto, I think that would be huge. You get three in a row at home, you know, hopefully you sweep and you clinch at home and go to the World Series on your home field. But like, whatever, if you can find a way to win two or three at home,

home, then you're in the driver's seat and all that. So I think winning one of these first two games is huge for Seattle. If that does happen, then, yeah, I anticipate the series to go at least six. If Seattle loses these first two games, at that point, it's kind of like, yeah, I hope it goes five. Like, let's at least get to a game five. But yeah, yeah, so I think these first two games are pretty big. And obviously Toronto's got a huge advantage because they got to sit down and do nothing for the last two days there. But I think that's why, you know, you can steal one.

That's why I say you can try and steal one from, from Toronto here. If you can do that, then I feel like you're in pretty good shape to get the series to, you know, six or seven games. But if you lose these first two, then I think it might be a four or five game series,

which not great, but, you know, take what you can get and take your chances. So I guess I'll, I'll split the difference and I'll say six games like Anders. So what do we think, this wasn't on my,

on my show sheet here, but what do we think the, the crowd is going to look like at T-Mobile Park. Because a lot is being made of that. And I don't, I don't think it's going to be like how these series typically look with all the Blue Jays fans that invade T-Mobile Park. Because, I mean, one, like, these tickets were sold in advance.

And two, again, like, there's just so much interest, you know, in the Seattle area in this team right now and into going to these games. So I don't think it will be like heavy Blue Jays. I think there will be some Blue Jays fans and probably more Blue Jays fans. and probably more Blue Jays fans than more Tigers fans, but I don't think it's going to be, I don't think we're going to see, you know, like we're going to hear super loud,

let's go Blue Jays chance and stuff like that. Like, I don't think we're going to get that, but. I'm skeptical. Sorry, Colby. I'm skeptical of that. Originally I had the same feeling, Ty, but then I kind of thought of it, like you could basically pay for most of your posts.

If you were one of those fans, lucky fans, who gets to buy the, entire postseason. You could pay for your whole postseason package by selling one game worth of tickets because on the secondary market. So I think there's a lot of people that are going to think that way, to be completely honest. I don't think it's going to be anything where close to 50% Blue Jays fans or anything like that, but there will be a large contingent. I think that's just the way it is. And there's a lot of Blue Jays fans that are thinking the same thing. This is basically their home game. It's going to be similar to how it is for.

during the regular season where, you know, all the people from Vancouver are going to be coming down. And they won't get to go to games at Toronto, but they can go to games here. So I hope it's not. I really, really hope that what you're saying is true, that like the Mariners are the story in town, that there's going to be such a demand for Mariners fans to go to these games, that it will kind of overwhelm the demand for Toronto fans. But I just don't know if that's going to necessarily be the case. really hope I'm wrong.

I think it'll be a noticeable but not overwhelming presence. I'm thinking like, I don't know. They sell out at like 47, 5, but for just easy math, we'll call it 50. There's 50,000 people there. I think 40,000 to 42,000 are Mariner fans and everybody else is, you know, Blue Jay fan. That'd be my guess. So 15, 20% at most. But that's, you know, that's obviously notice.

and that's sizable. So, yeah, I don't think it'll be anywhere close to like, plus, you know, when the Blue Jays come to town, those tickets in the regular season, those tickets are like 40 bucks. Yeah, 60 bucks, 70 bucks, 350, 400 bucks to get in. And climbing, by the way. So it's one of those things like, it's not the easiest ticket to get. It's also very expensive. There's also the travel involved in all that.

But I do think it'll be a noticeable number of Blue Jay fans, but it won't be anything close to what we see in the regular season. All right. So last question here. We've talked about key players. We've talked about your biggest questions, all that. What do you think will ultimately determine how this series goes, though? Colby.

Starting pitching versus Springer, Vlad, Bichette, and starting pitching versus Randy, Julio, and Cal. Stars have to be stars, you know. And at the end of the day, that's what it comes to. down to. And it's fun when the Leo Rivas has come off the bench and they deliver. And it's, it's hilarious when, you know, you score your runoff of scoble with a check swing double and the slowest guy in baseball stealing third base. And the guy who can't hit with two strikes gets a screaming liner into center field to, like, that's awesome and fun and all that. But you can't have your top three guys go one for 19 with, you know, 12 strikeouts and expect to win playoff games.

And so I think it's going to be the, whoever stars, play better. And it's a boring answer. I know that I get that. But like, this is when you got, you need those guys to step up. And Cal had a good series overall. He did not have a very good game at the plate last night. But overall, he had a very good series. So I'm not too worried about Cal, especially at that Paul Park. But, you know, Julio was great in the first two games. Terrible the next three. Randy never really got it going. Gino, he had the one moment in Detroit. And then he was just nothing. He was worse than nothing. He hurt you. And so it's just one of those things. I think whoever stars play better, they're going to win this game or they're going to win this series.

And so how the right-handed heavy Mariners starting pitching and the right-handed heavy Toronto Blue Jays starting pitching attacks these star right-handed hitters plus Cal Raleigh. And whoever has the most success against each other, they're going to win this series. So it's Cal and it's Cal versus Springer. It's, you know, or it's Cal versus Blad. It's Julio versus Springer. It's, you know, Randy versus Kirk. like that is going to determine who wins this series. Whoever stars play better, they're going to win.

Yeah, I think in general, I would say the starting pitching for the Marriers, but since you kind of already touched on that, I'll be different. And I'll go the bullpens because we cannot have bad Gabe Spire like we've got in the last two games. We cannot have a blowout from Vizarro. And the usage is going to be another thing that I'm looking at. And that's the part where, you know, we talked about it earlier. I think if there's one area, maybe starting.

pitching as well. But one area where the Mariners have the distinct advantage. It is in either the starting pitching or the bullpen. So once you get to the bullpen parts of these games, they're going to be close. Like there's not going to be very many blowouts. You have to take advantage of those. So on both sides, whether it's the Blue Jays playing above what we expect them to be or the Mariners, you know, playing below, there's going to be ways where this game's

become closer than they need to be. So I think if the Mariners do what they need to do in the bullpen, whether it, like I said, Gabe Spire, I think Matt Brash is a great Paul Colby in terms of a big guy in this series. He's actually had better, you know, splits versus lefties than righties this year, which is a weird thing. So I'm interested to see how that looks. Bizarro, I think, looked so good last night that I almost forget his blow up earlier in

the series. Munoz has been absolutely nails all season and the last. last series as well. The big one's going to be Gabe Spire for me. And then anyone else, do you have to use at that point? Whether it's a starter coming out of the bullpen or anything like that, it's going to be massive. So I'm going to go of bullpen usage and effectiveness as, you know, what's going to tell

me or, you know, how we're going to evaluate this series coming down to the last couple games. I'd just say this as well. I said it kind of as a joke in the last one of these we did. assuming he makes the roster, you might need Emerson Hancock in the series. I know. With the righties that come up and with Hancock's new arm slot and the big sweeper

and then going like very kind of, I mean, kind of Colin Snyder-esque from last year, maybe a little Paul Seawald loopier slider though, sweeper, whatever we're calling it. You might not have a choice. This is real character development, folks. this is Emmy award-winning character development. I mean,

we are at the point in the year that Colby's like, we might need Emerson Hancock. I don't like that we're here, but this is what happens when you don't give up the extra prospect to go get Duran. So yeah, you need somebody to step up and call me crazy, but I kind of trust Hancock right now more than I trust Caleb Ferguson

and more than I trust Luke Jackson. So, I mean, I mean, I want to go too crazy, but perhaps. I mean, yeah, Vargas is sketchy, but like, I mean, we'll see how many of those guys even make the roster. I don't know there's going to be substantial changes there, but makes me want to take a look at Michael Fuller a little bit, you know? But anyways, yeah, so we'll see how it goes, but it does feel like you're going to need somebody not in your core for open arms.

They need to step up. So whether that's Hancock, whether it's Vargas, whether it's somebody not on the roster right now, or maybe it's Brian Wu pitching exclusively out of the bullpen. I don't know. But it feels like you're going to need somebody besides one of those four guys to step up because you've ridden those guys hard all year. You've rode them hard in the last playoff series and those things stack up on top of each other. So you're going to need a fifth guy to emerge. You were hoping it was going to be Caleb Ferguson. I think that ship has sailed quite a while ago. And so is it Vargas? It has been at times, but he's still super sketchy. So who is that fifth guy going to be? I don't know. But I can't

imagine you're going to win the series if the only four guys you're willing to use out of your bullpen are the four guys you've used all year. One, you need to get rowdy back somehow. Two, I think you should let the Blue Jays get a big lead. I don't know, something like maybe eight to one, just random score that, you know, just popped into my head. I think at that point, you might have them right where you want them. Sounds about right.

All right. That is going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Marries podcast. For Colby Patnode and Anders, I'm Tiding Gonzalez. Be sure give us a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Mirrors. You can follow me at Tading Gonzalez, Colby at C-Pat 11, that's C-PAT-1-1, and Anders at Anders at Anders at Anders-Hirce. We're also in Blue Sky.

You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB-Colby, Anders at Anderson-Hurse and the show at Locked-on mirrors. You can also find us on Instagram at Locked-on Marrars. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next time. Peace.