Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Despite Series Split, There Was A LOT to Like From the Seattle Mariners' First Four Games

Episode Date: March 30, 2026

Ty and Colby give their biggest takeaways from the Mariners' series split with the visiting Guardians. Vote for the Championship Round of our Top 50 Mariners Moments Tournament!  Click to learn more about the Everydayer Club! Join the Ahoy, Sailors Discord server! Check out our Patreon! Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11 Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolby Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! PlayStation This episode of is brought to you by MLB The Show 26. Visit mlbtheshow.com/lockedon and use code “LOCKEDON” to unlock a pack for use in Diamond Dynasty. Pre-Order now, Available March 17th on PlayStation 5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. RATED E FOR EVERYONE. Turbo Tax Intuit TurboTax now has in-person locations nationwide. You can meet face-to-face with a real tax expert, and your documents get uploaded straight to your TurboTax app on the spot.  Visit https://TurboTax.com/local to find a store near you and book your appointment today. Robinhood You’re no longer just a spectator. Play by play. You decide. Trade Every Play with Robinhood. Now available across the U.S. Download the Robinhood app now to begin. Futures and cleared swaps trading involves significant risk and is not appropriate for everyone. Event contracts are offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC., a registered futures commission merchant and swap firm. Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONfor $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. During the tournament FanDuel is offering$300 back in Bonus Bets every day for ten days. Visit https://FANDUEL.COMto get started — Play Your Game.   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 Marers are two and two after their first four games of the season, and we're going to give you our biggest takeaways from the weekend. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners, your daily Seattle Mariners podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Ahoy, Sailors, it is Monday, March 30th, 2026. My name is Tadding Azottes, and I'm joined, as always, by my co-coast, Colby Patnode, and today we're going to try something new.

I'm sure if it'll stick this year, but we're going to try something new. And if you don't like it, blame Colby. It was his idea. But instead of Mailbag Monday, we're going to give you our biggest takeaways from the last three games that we weren't able to talk about on the show. So we'll give you our takeaways from the lineup, the pitching staff, everything else from Friday, Saturday,

and Sunday's games against the Guardians. And then tomorrow we'll open up the mailbag and answer some of your questions. So the Mariners go 2 and 1 over the last three games. They win on Friday by a score of 5 to 1. They lose an extras on Saturday by a score of 6. to five, and then last night on Sunday night baseball, they shut out the Guardians eight to nothing. We'll have a lot to talk about from that game once we get into the pitching side of things. But we're going to start with our takeaways from the Mariners lineup.

Where do you want to start here, Colby? I mean, I think we probably start with the elephant in the room, which is the production or lack thereof of your three best hitters. and, you know, whether or not that's, I mean, certainly not a good thing, but there are some positive takeaways from some of their recent at-bats and all that. So, yeah, I think we have any conversation about the Mariners' offense has to start with Julio Cal and Josh. And despite the struggles of those three guys, mostly struggles, you know, there were some moments here and there. Cal got a few walks. Julio obviously had the heroic moment on Saturday night.

But despite the overall struggles of those guys, there actually is kind of a positive takeaway from that. And that's that the mayor has scored, what, 22 combined runs, I believe, against a pretty good Guardians pitching staff in spite of those struggles. In, you know, late March in Seattle, in a cold and marine layer, you know, filled Team Mobile Park.

And honestly, yesterday, it could have been 12 runs or 13 runs or whatever, if not for that Marine layer. So, yeah, I mean, the three guys that you would expect to be in the middle of it, they were largely non-factors. And they still put up 22 against, again, I think, you know, not an elite pitching staff or anything like that, but Gavin Williams, good pitcher. Tanner Bybee's a good pitcher. You know, Cantillo had a really good run last year as a starter. And then, you know, Slate Sikone is kind of there, Emerson Hancock. It's kind of like, you know, maybe he breaks through. Maybe not.

He's kind of a number five. But whatever, you got him out of the game before the fifth. And so, yeah, I mean, they, you found a way to score a runoff of Kate Smith to force the game into extras and all that. So, I mean, yeah, I think there are a lot of positives. And, you know, I think you can acknowledge that there are positives. You can also acknowledge that Josh and Cal and Julio weren't good. without having that become a referendum on their season or if this is going to be the new thing or blah, blah, blah, because obviously it's not.

But saying those guys aren't, weren't good doesn't mean that you think they're not going to be good or that you're panicking. It's just acknowledging the simple fact. Those three guys were your three worst hitters this weekend. And you were still able to score 22 runs. And you were still able to, I mean, in all honestly, you probably should have gone four and oh to start the year. but some situational baseball and then things like that we'll probably talk about later, preventing you from doing it. And obviously again, Julio Cal, Josh, they had opportunities to help you win the two games you lost and they didn't come through.

That'll happen. But what's not going to happen is those three guys combining to have, you know, an 091 batting average for the entire season. Yeah, yeah. That's not going to last very long. But, you know, we should acknowledge that they were not good. Like can we just agree on they were not good? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

And I mean, you know, we talked about it after opening day, you know, when Cal and Julio specifically combined for what six strikeouts and seven at bats, eight played appearances in total. Like you're probably not going to win many games when that happens. But, you know, again, for the most part over the weekend, Cal, Julio and Josh were non-factors. And despite that, you still came away from the series, but you went. So that's a pretty big deal.

And a big reason for that, of course, I mean, there's a lot of reasons for that. But I think we have to start with the right field situation. Luke Rayleigh, Dom Kanzone and Victor Robles all had very good weekends. Luke Rayleigh with three homers in the first three games, four hits or hits in all four games, rather, Dominic Canzone with the two homers on opening day. Victor Robles with a two for three night on Saturday. So the right field situation, which we had a lot of questions about off to a really nice start. it sounds like somebody's a Brennan Donovan suppress a person over there

but sure we'll start we will get to have this kind of MVP of the American League right now will it last that might be Luke Rayleigh honestly I chased a lotter perhaps he's already worth two wins that's how war works

right definitely not CGA KFIS but anyways oof yeah Maybe just live with a little bit less center field defense. So your left field defense remains elite. I just, you know, something to keep in mind.

But, yeah, I think obviously, you know, you wanted to see, especially Luke, you wanted to see him get off to a hot start because, you know, you banked a fair amount of this on Luke, you know, his problems last year being the injuries. And I think you and I both backed him up on that. We were fine with that assumption. And so far it looks like that was the case. Looks like Luke's taken maybe a step back defensively. Now it's only four games, but some rough moments that, you know, some plays that Luke makes in 2024 that he didn't make. And that's not injury related, but maybe lack of reps, I don't know.

But yeah, we'll see if that gets better. But yeah, he crushed some baseballs. He's a legitimate threat every time he comes to the plate. Is he going to strike out some? Yeah, of course he is. Is he going to drop some absolute bombs, though? Yeah, can he come up with the big hit every now and then two? Yeah, can he run?

Does he run the bases really well? Yeah, can he lay down a bunt? He should never have to, but yes, he can. So, yeah, it's Ryan Bliss can't. We'll get to that later. But anyways, yeah, Luke is kind of one of those X-factories, a swing player for this season. And for him to get off to the start that he did is really impressive.

And it's big. And, you know, unfortunately, he's probably going to find the bench for the next couple days, at least to start the game. But, yeah, it's nice to see. him get off to a nice start, especially since you remember in 2024, he was terrible for the first like month and a half to the point where there were some whispers out here. They're just going to DFAM? But anyways, nice to him get off to a hot start. And then yeah, can zone, you know, a couple of bombs on opening day. The rest of his at-bats, pretty Dom-can zone, like some really

terrible swings, some really hard-hit balls. But, you know, overall, I think Dom is is starting to settle into who he's going to be, which is, you know, streaky and probably a good week's week on stretcher. Like, this guy can't hit, like, period. He, the swings are ugly. He's chasing. Like, he's running, like, you know, he's got both legs tied together. Like, I, it's not a pretty baseball player when you watch Tom Kahn's own, but results are the

results. So we'll see how that goes. And then, yeah, even Victor Robles. Granted, it was a bloop double, but whatever. He also had a hard hitball. He did. He did. He looked good, which is great because he was terrible in the Cactus League this year.

And he's going to get a couple starts here. Well, we think, he's going to get a couple starts here against some pretty good lefties, particularly Max Fried. So we'll see how that goes for him. And speaking of him real quick, you know, a thing that we learned here is that for now, it seems like that's a true platoon, him and Luke Rayleigh out in right field. Sure.

although I would also like him to be used as a fourth outfielder in that like, hey, we're up by three. It's the eighth inning. Let's get Victor Robles in the outfield to play some defense for us for either Randy or Luke because he's better than both of those guys. But yeah, it does appear to be a pure platoon. Really the only part of that that four-headed monster for two positions that didn't really contribute was Ref Snyder and he only got two at-bats in the entire series. And there were both pretty good plate appearances, I think, right? He saw like 13 pitches combined. He just popped up a couple pitches.

So, you know, not bad at bats. Mighty stretch. Just didn't get a hit. Again, he only got two at bats. But he'll get his line share here in the next two days. This is why you pay the guy, what you did to do what, you know, to, you know, perform in these moments. And it's kind of suck when you're like, oh, you have to hit lefties. And it's like, yeah, but the lefties I'm facing are freed and crochet and scoogle and Framber.

But that's the gig, man. So we'll see how he does. We also did learn that, or at least for. the first start that the plan is for refsnyder to be the leadoff hitter against left-handed pitching so that is something that we also learned so yeah the right field platoon slash dh platoon those four guys have to like what you saw from all four of them uh even uh even refsnyder who didn't have a hit but he still had 13 14 pitch uh i think 13 or 14 pitches and uh i think both at bats were three ball counts i might be wrong on that i know the first one was for sure yeah so

yeah the the big questions the platoons so far so good yeah so yeah we got to talk about the man with the 304 WRC plus through the first four games of the year slashman 429 556 929 call young not not that good but we will we will get to Cole in a second because he also had a really nice series but yeah Brendan Donovan in his first four games that a see howl marries uniform is already worth half a win been as good as advertised so far and then some honestly and uh you know my my uh call from about a week ago of him setting a career high and and homers looking good so far and he's also you know had a couple of stolen base attempts as well how did those successful one of them successful yeah the other one not so much he he's on pace to go 81 home runs

and 40 steals so like I mean 80 40 season My agenda is going strong so far. What you're talking about? My first two flag players carried the weekend. Flag players pick them right. Going to shine and take flight. And then finally, Cole Young.

It goes one for three last night. Also has a walk last night. Had some big hits over the course of the weekend. Obviously the Homer on Friday. So seeing some of that pop that we saw in the spring carry over into the regular season early that's nice to see. Had the double down the left field line to set up Julio's heroic moment on Saturday.

Unfortunately, that doesn't get paid off with a win, but still that was a really nice sight to see. Very J.P. Crawford-esque, that double from Cole Young, something that I feel like we've seen from JP quite a few times and some clutch moments like that. So, yeah, you know, all the guys that were really like propping up leading into the season all kind of had a moment or two over the course of the series.

Yeah, Cole also made some really nice plays defensively. The throwing still looks very unnatural almost, which is, I just don't get it. Like, even though the great play he made against Ramirez, it kind of looks like you like shot, put it at the ball over to first instead of making a good strong throw. I don't know what's going on there, but the range certainly looks better than it did last year as well.

And yeah, the home run, the double. You know, he's doing exactly what you would want, your 22-year-old, you know, basically rookie second baseman to do at the bottom of your order. Find a way to contribute every game, you know, maybe you go 0 for three, but you make a nice defensive play or you at least make the opponent throw you, you know, 18 pitches to get you out three times or whatever. You find a way to contribute. You just find a way to keep your head above water, knowing that Cole Young is fully

capable of going on these long stretches where he's, you know, an all-star caliber second baseman. And, you know, he's getting to velocity better, which last year was the problem. He couldn't really hit the fastball all that well. Well, the home run was off of a fastball. The double was off of a fastball. So, yeah, I mean, again, there's going to be ups and downs for Cole, just like there is for every player, but especially so for a 22-year-old.

But he's found a way to contribute in just about every game so far from the bottom of the order, which is great. And exactly what you need, especially when you're, you know, waiting to get JP back and kind of get your middle infield. And, you know, that will allow Cole to maybe not face some of the tough lefties that are coming up because then Rivas could play second and you kind of help them out that way. So yeah, I think Cole finding ways to contribute, finding ways to get some big hits early in the season. I think that's a good thing for him. So we're going to talk about the pitching

set of things for the Marers over the last three games in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Marys podcast is brought to you by TurboTex in the Space Needle. It's tax time. But for a lot of us, the old way of doing taxes is a lot. Trying to book an appointment that's not the most convenient, sitting in a waiting room with a stack of papers, emailing back and forth and wondering if they really get your situation. This year, you're getting a major upgrade. Into a TurboTax now has in-person locations nationwide. You can meet face-to-face with a real tax expert, and your documents get uploaded straight

to your TurboTax app on the spot. And just like that, you're done. Your TurboTax expert works to get you every dollar you deserve while you get real-time notifications as you go about your day. It's a relief of walking in and meeting a real person and walking out, knowing your taxes are being handled right. Head to turbotax.com slash local to find a store near you and book your appointment. Pined to pie at the space needle is the perfect pregame or pre-funct spot before hitting climate pledge arena. After 4 p.m., the space needles pint and a pie gives you the whole package.

Entry, a sweet or savory tip-top pie and a pint of beer, wine, or non-alcoholic drink, all for just $35 per person. minimum purchase of two required. Pie-to-pie is your launch pad to Cracken, Torrent, and Storm games as well as so many other great events at the CPA. So why not enjoy a little space and a great view while pre-gaming with your favorite cocktail rather than trying to cram into a crowded sports bar? Tost the home team, then roll into Climate Pledge with the best pre-game story in all of Seattle. Whether it's date night, friend night, or you're just here for the deal of it all. come take your place on the horizon for only $35 per person. Limited time offer, 21 plus only ID required.

Get tickets at space needle.com minimum 2 required. And you're listening to the Lockdown Marrars podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Thank you so much for making us your first listen for all things. Mariners. And also thank you for making Lockdown the number one sports podcast network. Baseball is finally back. And to celebrate, I'm giving you a full month of the Everydayer Club

for free. Go to lockdownmeriners. That's right, me personally. I'm giving it to you. You gotta use the promo code finally. F-I-N-A-L-L-Y. You'll unlock every episode, add-free, and get access

to our private listener group chat. Tap the link in the description and use the promo code finally to claim your free month. Took you long enough, Ty. We're also finally at the championship round of our top 50

Mariners Moments tournament, Colby. So who's moving on? Did we have to do anything about the ballot stuffing and all that stuff from last week? No, we didn't. Despite the best efforts of one individual, it ended up not mattering. It skewed the results enough to give us a couple blowouts, but one of them was already going to be a blowout. The double beats Gino's Grand Slam about if you removed the 70 ballots, which

which I mean, we wouldn't remove all of them because blah, blah, blah. But we didn't remove any of them just for the record. Because it didn't end up mattering. Again, the numbers are just a little bit off. But the final tally is the double 1-67.6 to 32.4. But if you remove the ballot stuffing, then it's closer to 75, 25, which honestly still pretty decent showing for Genes' Grand Slam against the double. So, and then the second matchup here, Cal versus Felix.

This one went the opposite direction in terms of the ballot stuffing. But as it turns out with the 70 votes, 67.3% picked the drought ender over Felix's. Perfect game. If you removed the 70 or whatever, the ballot stuffing, then this one is 6040, give or take. So still a cow win, but much, much closer. But at the end of the day, both of the rightful, you know, winners, so to speak, advance. And so we get our classic one versus two matchup. We get the double versus Cal's drought ender.

And you guys can vote on that using the description now below. But also we're putting the pull out on Twitter as well. So, yep, it'll you just, you know, click, you can vote on the Twitter. So you can vote twice. You can vote in this one and the Twitter. Twitter poll and we will combine them up and see what happens. I have a hunch we won't have to combine them because the double will win because people can't get enough at the 1995 Seattle Mariners like get a life.

But I don't, I don't know. I don't know because again. Our demographic excuse younger, but yeah. So we got so we got the quintessential mariner moment for OG mariner fans versus the quintessential mariner moment for the new wave of mariner fans. And I feel like more so our demographic here at Lockdown. is the new wave of Mariner fans. So we'll see.

You have the moment that, you have the two moments that ended two, you know, droughts. One, the first one 19 years, the second one. Well, the doubled it in the drought,

but you know what I mean. You know, and then Cal Raleigh's drought ender of 20, well, it was a 21 years. So yeah, we have a couple of really huge hits here from a couple of,

you know, the most important players in the franchise's history. So, see how it goes. I just think the double ultimately is going to run away because of the nostalgia and it's just all that blah blah blah but whatever 95 hype 95 propaganda still live strong so we'll just roll with that and hey it's Edgar like I'm not going to complain too much that Edgar wins because Edgar is the most important mariner at least to Mariners fans in the franchise of history so I mean

that's that's why you're at is C-Pat 11 specifically So it's why I wore number 11 from the day I started playing baseball until the day I Was retired by you know people who actually I couldn't pay to play baseball for anymore. So there you go. Taylor Williams probably yeah, although he didn't pitch against us. We just got our you know what the old-fashioned way but yeah and then he got you uh, then he got you Matt brush so it was worth it. Yeah, I mean I'd probably rather have played for a state title at safe. field but you know whatever sure fine map rash it's good consolation prize I suppose shout out to

T Willie all right didn't think we would talk about Taylor Williams on the show but you know you never know what you're going to get here at the lockdown Marriss podcast speaking of Marrish pitching but current Marrish pitching that is let's talk about the

the Mara's starting rotation because I don't really want to talk about the bullpen personally I know we have to last segment of takeaways for sure yeah yeah i know i know we have to to some degree but i don't really want to talk about them i want to talk about the rotation though uh we'll start just in order of how these guys started uh george kirby six strong innings on friday night uh just one arm run on two hits six strikeouts two walks for him uh just five hard hit balls really nice start after uh you know

logan was only able to go five and a third on on opening day uh and that ultimately led to the who's winning 5 to 1 on Friday. So what did you think about Kirby's first start? You know, we talked about him avoiding the, you know, the blow-up start out of the gate, which has happened to him the last couple years. Yeah. Really good start from George.

He, you know, kind of, it could have been a lot worse. It could have been better. He really struggled in the fifth inning. Just lost command and control. Thankfully, we saw the worst sin or the worst base, whatever, in the history of baseball. Did you see that it went viral? Did he say that it went viral?

To the plate. Oh, good. It should have. Yeah. Because Reese Hoskins is either the biggest idiot in the history of the world or the Guardian's third base coach is because I'm not too convinced that Randy couldn't have run down Hoskins from shallow left field to throw him out there with, you know, Chase DeLotter, who's apparently all world on deck with the base is loaded.

At the time, I believe that was a three, three nothing game too. So it might have been three to one at that point. But anyways, yeah, you know, George able to escape unscathed. But if he didn't have the bouts with control issues there, then he might have been able to give you a seventh inning. You know, this early in the year, that would have been incredible. But as it is, you know, six innings, really strong ball. Just again, just really the one inning where he wasn't in control. But the other five, he was just dominating in the cruise control, which, you know, kind of a common theme for this weekend.

mostly dominating starting pitching from the Mariners plus or minus one or two hitters here and there but yeah George looked great fastball looked great saw some knuckle curves out of him it'll be interesting to see like what

kind of the primary secondary is is it the slider is the curve we know that he's not necessarily shelled the split but he's going to the change up now instead of the split so yeah it was a really nice return now we should point out with all of these pitchers

Cleveland's lineup is not exactly a juggernaut, right? Like it's not the best lineup in the world. It's not super scary, but there's still, you know, some dudes in it, including future Hall of Famer, Jose Ramirez,

MVP candidate. And obviously, DeLotter was red hot and Manzardo hit, what, 25 home runs last year, Reese Hoskins can hit 20. So there's some power. There's some dangerous spots,

but it's not like an elite lineup or anything. It's not like the lineup we're about to see coming to town. But it's fine, but it's not scary. or anything like that. So we should, you know, caveat all these starts with that simple fact. But George looked really good. And Cleveland's a team that, you know, we talked about can be a bit of a good or bad

matchup for him, kind of depending on how sharp George is because they can drive up pitch counts. And George did a really nice job again. Just that fifth inning just kind of, you know, marred his outing just a little bit. But aside from that, he was very, very good. The plan against the Scardians lineup was pretty clear. from the Sparmer's pitching staff, a lot of four seamers. A lot of four seamers from George. Tons of four samers from Brian Wu as well on Saturday.

He threw 59 four samers, only 10 sinkers, and that was his or two samers, however you want to classify it. And that was his second most use pitch. Usually we see a better mix of four samers and two seamers from Brian. But this was strictly just, here's my four seamer, try and hit it. And for the most part, the guardians didn't. Unfortunately, though, towards the end of Brian's start, which was going incredibly well.

You know, he gives up a couple of hits with two outs, and the Guardians are able to not things up at two apiece, and the game kind of flips on its head from that point forward. Stop walking the nine hitter. Yeah. Why is Brian Rokio the only, like the only guy,

the only team that that guy can hit is the Seattle Mariners. Yeah, even last night, even last night, like Emerson was able to get him out, but I think at least one of the at-bats, like Rokkeo saw like eight pitches or something. Like that dude cannot hit, but for some reason you can't get him out.

It is insane, but hardly a new thing for the Mariners. So I guess he's just the new David Fletcher, Martine Maldonado, whatever. Sure. Whatever. Insert Eric Ibar. Insert player name here. But yeah, anyways, yeah, Wu was great. He was cruising.

And then just that walk, you know, that walk to the nine hitter. And he was able to get the next couple of guys out. But you just can't give up free passes to bad hitters. you know and and that's that's what brian did and it's unfortunate that it really unraveled on him and then ramirez got him the mariners actually did a really nice job handling jose ramirez in this series it's just the few times you actually got a hit they were kind of backbreaking hit so just you know i think he only had two hits this entire series it just both of them happen to be massive rbi you know extra base hits so and then obviously minzardo ties it on like

the blooper like darn like what are you going to do but don't walk guys just don't walk guys especially soft hitting number nine short stops. Like I don't understand that, but whatever. Brian was great. Again, just one inning kind of marred his overall start, but still great. And he was able to go six as well. So again, back-to-back guys going six innings really helped the bullpen a little bit, unfortunately.

You know, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah. I also not necessarily put in the best. position to succeed, but we'll talk about that in just a minute. Don't think you're off the hook, Danny Boy, but yeah, anyways.

Yeah. Woo was very good. And like you said, there's really not much to break down from a start because it was just, here's my fastball hit it. And it turns out for the most part they couldn't. Which, you know, it was hardly new from Wu. But yeah, it was, it wasn't a 50-50 split with the fastballs like it normally is. It was just four-seemers, four-seamer, four-seamer. And, you know, it wasn't even his best four-seamer. He's only 95. He wasn't 97, 98, like, you know, it can't be. So, yeah, I mean, very clearly there was a game plan here to pitch at the top of the zone to this lineup with fastball. Whatever the game plan was against the lottery was not a good one. Stop throwing that dude's sliders in the middle of the plate.

But other than that, yeah, Brian was great. And honestly, probably had the best start of the weekend until, you know, somebody body snatched Emerson Hancock and replaced him with Prime Felix or something. I don't know. so yeah we've saved the the best for last as we've long said here on the long time air in his podcast emerson hancock just needed an opportunity and he would just run with it right always said that you especially colby go read my writings on emerson hancock from 2020 when i said he would be like better than logan gilbert and better than george kirby like it's out there man

like I said those things and I've never wavered so there is a a lot to unpack here from Emerson Hancock's start so he goes six innings so yeah yeah so we'll try and speed it up but uh Emerson Hancock goes six innings

no runs no hits also very fastball heavy and that was that wasn't necessarily the star of the show, though it did lead to most of his strikeouts. The sweeper was disgusting, though, last night. But the fastball still ate, even as the velo dip. So he comes out, he's 95 plus.

And then it goes down to about 94 to 96 in the second inning. And then the third inning, it's more like 92, 93. And that's kind of where he mostly sat. And then he was able to pull 94 out of thin air a couple of times for a couple of strikeout pitches as well, which was surprising. because again it was like we saw even a couple of 91s later on into the start and then boom all of a sudden 94 would show up when he needed a strikeout so it was a really weird start from the fastball perspective i think really the most underrated element of his start last night though was the the command was awesome like he was hitting really all of his spots and it felt like when he missed he wasn't putting the ball in danger i can't think of many high danger pitches if at all they through the command was plus with the four C where it's a slider sweeper whatever yeah didn't quite have that backdoor uh yeah the back yeah the back door yeah didn't dial that he missed on a couple of them but but at least when he missed

he missed off the plate he missed off the plate right so yeah he just didn't he didn't hit the corner so that's overall i mean listen to this only this is from merrin's PR last night only two pitch only two pitchers of Maris history have recorded outings of six plus innings pitch, zero hits and nine plus strikeouts. And obviously the nine plus strikeouts for Emerson Hancock last night or the nine strikeouts for Emerson Hancock last night,

a career high for him. So it was Hancock last night and the Felix's perfect game. That's it. That's the end of the list. None of the balls that were put in play against Hancock left the infield last night. Everything was a strikeout, a pop up, or ground out.

We've seen him do this before. We've seen do it in Boston. We've seen him do it against the Padres. He's not against Cleveland a couple of times. The strikeouts are new, though. We haven't seen nine before. And the sweeper is new, very new, as is the arm angle. So I'm very interested to watch and pitch now.

Like I think these are legitimate changes that could. Again, it's not just like, oh, I added a sweeper. And he said that last year. I was like, yeah, but it sucked. But now he's dropped the arm angle significantly. He's refined the sweeper. And he's getting fastball value. Of the nine strikeouts, seven of them came on.

on the fastball yesterday. All right. We will talk about some of the other things that we learned that we haven't gotten to just yet over the course of the weekend. And just a moment, but first a reminder of this episode of the lockdown Marys podcast is brought to you by Robin Hood. What have sports were traded like markets? Now you can put your sports IQ to work in real time with Robin Hood prediction markets.

It's not you against the house. It's you participating in a live market. You can buy or sell your positions live all game long. Use your sports knowledge in the moments that matter. Robin Hood prediction markets changes the game. It's people moving the action, so when momentum shifts, you can move with it. I always do the game, but never had a dynamic way to apply that knowledge. Now I can actually take part, live, and a market powered by people.

You're no longer just a spectator. Play-by-play, you decide. Trade every play with Robin Hood, now available across the U.S. Download the Robin Hood app now to begin. Futures and cleared swaps trading involves significant risks and is not appropriate for everyone. Event contracts are offered by Robin Hood derivatives LLC, a registered futures

commission merchant and swap firm. And you're listening to the Locktime Marys podcast per the Locktime Podcast Network, your team every day. As always, if you want to hear from me and Colby, even more and help support the show. We have a Patreon. It's called Control the Zone.

And on there we talk, Merritt, Seahawks, all that good stuff. For more information, go to patreon.com, forward slash control the zone. Link in the description of this episode. So what else? we need to talk about today, Colby? I mean,

he kind of can't not talk about Dan Wilson, unfortunately. I'd love to not talk about him ever. But he seems, what's the word, determined to make himself the biggest story every time the Mariners lose. But,

you know, let's just say there were several questionable decisions. And not all of them were even Bolfin related. How about that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So the mayors have lost twice this season, as you know. And in both of those losses,

Dan Wilson's bullpen management has been a topic of discussion. Yeah, we'll say that. Now, as we said, after opening day, I wouldn't say that it was the biggest issue coming out of opening day and Saturday's games. but it was certainly did not it certainly did not help we'll put it that way yeah certainly did not help

um so yeah so there's the the not going to spire thing which that to me is way more ridiculous than anything that happened on opening day yeah um yeah um

leaving bizardo in to face Stephen Kwan after he's just walked two guys and he's thrown at that point what 22 pitches. Including losing Rochio on an O2 count and then throwing four straight balls. Again,

this is him throwing 22 pitches after pitching on Friday. So this is his first back to back of the year. And then Stephen and then Stephen Kwan splits. I posted them right after that that happened. Let me see if I can quickly bring them up.

But like his, yeah, his splits against lefties and varieties in 2025. So versus lefties in 2025, Stephen Kwan hit 246, 300, 281 against Arite's. He hit 284, 345, 419. And you got maybe the best healthy left-hand of reliever and baseball warming up. Certainly at least not for left on left at bats. He's one of the very best.

So yeah. Yeah. And then, of course, he doesn't go to him. And Bizarro, you know, Kwan does what he does. He puts something in play softly. you know, works out. Yeah, it's not like, it's not like Bizarro

like really like biffed that in the moment, you know. It was the two walks that. Quam was just able, Quam was just able to find grass in that situation and maybe the same thing, you know, happens against Spire. The odds are significantly lower of that.

Yeah. Yeah. So, so yeah, so that decision sucks. You know, they were able to overcome that and send things to extras and then you know, the, the bullpen, like the bullpen has been an issue to a degree through the first four games. Though I feel like it's getting a little bit overblown because like the, the Andres Munoz of it all, specifically what happened on Saturday. I mean, like Donovan air mills that throw into right field and, well, not necessarily air mill, but he, you know, he threw it into right field. would have been better if he did airmail it it was

weirder than that even but yeah and then you know Munoz doesn't make a bad pitch I mean it's a basketball outside of the strike zone you know on the outside corner of the strike zone and chase the water just makes an insane swing you know to put it into aggers so

it's like it's been a little bit of a problem but also it's all it's been kind of overblown and then you know there's the Dan of it all and he hasn't really put these guys on the best position to succeed either and so that's been fresh I would just say the whole like bullpen aspect of this club so far through the first four games that includes Dan's hand and all of it has been frustrating to say the least. Yeah, he's not putting his guys in a position where they're most likely to succeed.

As is always the case whenever you put your closer in in a tie game, there's always the moron who's like, oh, they should never pitch in a tie game. Well, just remember what you're saying by that is when the Mariners do not have the lead after the bottom of the eighth inning, at home, you would never use your closer. Like that's what you're saying when you say never use a closer in a tie game. Because that's the only time the closer could pitch. There's no save. No save can be had. So just nip that in the bud of the many transgressions of Dan Wilson as bullpen management,

going to Munoz and the 10th is not one of them, not even remotely close. So that's the correct call. But, you know, having Legamina pitching one run games twice now, sounds like they probably would have gone with Vargas if he was healthy in both of those situations. Yeah, so we got more, so we got more contacts on that. So that kind of diminished my issues with that. My bigger issue, though, if you remember on opening day was letting Spire face Ramirez more so than it was. Yeah.

You know, having like I mean. And again, a situation where you have another guy seemingly warmed up for that particular situation and then you don't go to him in the end. Both times they were ready to go. You're standing there, waiting, looking into the field, am I getting a call, am I not? And Dan, you know, trying to squeeze that extra out out of his bullpen. This is one of the few things that, you know, was really bugging me about Scott's service.

And then his last year or two, as he managed, was always trying to get that one extra out of the guy who was clearly cooked. Yeah. Yeah. Dan's done it a couple times. He's not played the matchups well. And, of course, the whole thing on Friday or Saturday gets magnified when they do go to Gabe Spire to face a little lefty after the game. is essentially over and he gets him out on three pitches like yep of course he did of course and

then that's it three pitches gave's done like for a game that you hope is going to actress and by the way and this is to get to my biggest transgression of the week how he handled brian bliss was a travesty and just the the leadoff spot in general like I'm fine with him going to can zone over ref Snyder in the fourth yeah you're going for the kill shot Yeah, like that's, that's, that's fine. Like, to me, that was a no-brainer. But to be fair, I wouldn't have had a huge problem if they had just left Ruff Snyder in, but Canzone, go to Canzone there, totally makes sense.

No problem with that. But then, but then you go to Bliss after Canzone has won at bat, after his turn through the order comes back around and the Guardians put a lefty in there. And look, Canzone, I know historically not good against lofties, but last year was actually pretty good against lofties. And at the very least, I, more willing to take that shot on him and keep him in the game for when he eventually might face a righty maybe his next turn through the order then then for the then for the sake of you know having brian bliss in the game for his first two at bats since you know his six games or whatever and in triple a right and then yeah and then a year ago in the majors right like so my issue as a whole like i thought there was an opportunity there with the lefty on the mound and Cantillo to start the game for Bliss to play on Saturday.

And I was a little, um, I just found that curious. Because again, like I said, like if you're going to put Ryan, you know, when,

when we talked about the opening day roster, like if you're going to put Ryan Bliss on this roster, given how little he played last year, you should probably play him a fair amount. Like it just, it doesn't, it feels like a disservice to him and to yourself as a club. to bring this guy up and let him essentially waste away on the bench after he hardly played last year when he needs reps

when you have guys like will wilson and you know patrick wisdom and connor joe who you don't care you don't care about yeah you don't care and so i i do wonder and we we did speculate about this when we had that discussion maybe the mayor also just don't care about ryan bliss saying for maybe but it's still a massive disservice to the guy First of all, you should let Canzone try and hit against the lefty because you know the odds that he gets another at bat in that game are very good. And you know if he's getting another at bat in that game, it's probably going to be against Kate Smith. So I wanted to see Ryan Bliss play how he wound up playing on Saturday. That was not at all what I was talking about. No.

Again, the whole thing is just disjointed. My biggest problem with going to Ryan Bliss instead of Mitch Garber, who was your primary D.H. against lefties last year. If you're going to pinch it for Canzone, do it with Garber, a guy who's actually taking Major League at Bats in the last calendar year, a guy who might actually run into one, a guy who's probably going to give you a higher

quality at bat than Ryan Bliss in his first major league at bat over a year. And to make matters even worse though, is you say you have a short bullpen, you've already burned the few leverage guys that you have available that day. And in the ninth inning, when Cole Young hits a double,

to lead off the inning, you ask Ryan Bliss to lay down a sacrifice bunt against one of the best strikeout pitchers in baseball to try and force Cal Raleigh, who hasn't touched a baseball yet this year. 0 for 7 was seven strikeouts at that point. To put the ball in play against Kate Smith, that was your master plan. You were playing for extra innings when your bullpen was in tatters, apparently, and you were still playing for extras instead of playing for the win. So not only did you

When you took Canzon out of the game Knowing that he was probably going to get another at bat Later in the game against the righty more than likely Because it was going to be the eighth or the ninth inning He was going to get another at bat He could have won you that game So you're already And then you just decide you're going to give up

One of your valuable last three outs By asking Ryan Bliss To Bunt Hey we don't know if Bliss is good at it Based on what we saw he's not stabbing at the ball, like, did not look comfortable trying to punt at all, which again, it's also Kate Smith. Yeah.

But like that's the point, though. Like it's Kate Smith. You're asking Ryan Bliss to get a bunt down against one of the five best closers in baseball in his second at bat in the calendar year because you took out your left-handed hitting platoon guy who actually hit lefties totally fine last year, three innings before because you didn't want to give him one single at bat against a left-handed pitcher. it doesn't make sense. He butchered that thing

from the moment he took Canzone out of that game. If you're going to pinch hit for Canzone against the lefty, it should be for Mitch Garber. It absolutely should, not Ryan Bliss. Like you very clearly don't trust Ryan Bliss

because you didn't start him in the game against the lefty. Obviously, that's the case. So why are you giving him an app bat against the lefty in high leverage situations? Right? Or Dominic Canzone could have gotten three at bats in high leverage situations on Saturday.

Instead, he got one because Dan Wilson just overmanaged. And Stephen Bowled him into making a poor substitution. And that is a problem. And that's not the last time we'll have this problem. And on top of all that, he doubled down by asking Ryan Bliss to bunt instead of letting him swing away. And that to me is way worse than anything he did with the bullpen. Because with the bullpen, we just don't know. Maybe Brash wasn't available yesterday or whatever.

Maybe Ferreira wasn't available. Like, we don't know. Obviously, we learned that on Thursday. wasn't even available because he was hurt. With the bunting stuff and the pinch hitting opportunities, we know. We know. And when you look at those things, forget hindsight. Ryan Bliss gets the bunt down. It's still a stupid decision. So it's just the same thing over and over and over again. He's not getting better at it. And Dan Wilson has now managed well over 200 games in the big leagues, including 12 playoff games and he's still making the same mistake over and over and over again.

And that is terrifying for a team that has everything it needs. Maybe some middle relief would be nice, but in theory has everything they need to go to the World Series and maybe win it this year. Your manager is still making rookie mistakes again and again and again. And he's still getting bullied by smarter managers to make these stupid decisions late in the game. It's a problem. So wrapping things up.

on a more positive note, JP rejoined the club a couple days ago and he's set to go out on a rehab assignment soon in Tacoma. So starting to be too, I believe. Yeah, it shouldn't be too much longer before we see JP back with the club, which is nice.

And, you know, Leo Rivas has done a really nice job holding it down in the meantime. He's had a lot of competitive, you know, at bats, played appearances as we expected from him. He drove in the first run of the night last night for the mayors. So, yeah, been really impressed with Rebos,

who just, you know, continues to come through when the mayor has seen them to. And I'll throw this in there at the end because we just went an entire episode without talking about them. You know, what else had a really nice series? Who? Randy or Rosarena. So there you go. So, yeah, we went in an entire offensive segment, never mentioned Randy's name. He's like the second best hitter on the team right now.

So there you go. But yeah, mostly overall four games, frustrating four games, certainly at times. Some minor things to kind of be like, eh, didn't love that, the bullpen mostly. Yeah, sure. But overall, I think just almost entirely positive for what is kind of a mediocre result. I think what we saw in how they got there, I think should be mostly encouraging for Mariner fans. And it's only four games. Oh, one last thing that I would throw out, Cole, Well, Con.

made his mariner's debut and he looked good he's got some stuff man he's got some stuff that's for sure all right well that's going to do it for our show thank you so much for joining us here on the lockdown marries podcast part of the locked on podcast network your team every day once again if you never miss an episode it's time to make it official join the locked on every day or club and get ad free audio access to our members only discord and more all built for our most of loyal fans for colby bat note i'm tiding azales be sure to give us a follow on twitter at l o underscore merrers You can follow me at Tadangazolus and Colby at C-P-Ead-11, the C-PAT-11. We're also on Blue Sky.

You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB Colby in the show at Lockdown Mariners. You can also find us on Instagram and TikTok at Lockdown Mariners. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day. We'll see you next time. Peace.