Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Houston Astros' Beat-Up Pitching Presents Seattle Mariners With GOOD CHANCE at Getting Right

Episode Date: April 10, 2026

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The Mariners can't hit. The Astros can't pitch. Something has to give this 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 Friday, April 10th, 2026. My name is Tading Azulis, and I'm joined as always by my co-cove-Colby-Patnoon.

And on today's show, we're talking about what's being billed as the stoppable force versus the movable object because you've got the worst sitting team in all of baseball. That would be the Seattle Mariners hosting the worst pitching team in all of baseball. That would be Houston Astros.

So something has to give, right? And the Mariners really can't afford to have another stinker of a series this weekend. So we're going to break down the pitching side of things. We'll talk about the opportunity this mayor's offense has to get back on track. But I actually want to start by talking a little bit about how the Mariners are not alone.

in there for lack of a better term, suckiness to start the year. I feel it's important to establish kind of an outside perspective on things like this when it kind of feels like it's just all crashing down on your team specifically. Because if you take a step back and you scour the rest of the league, you'll typically see that that's not the case. I want to point to that road trip. Then the mayor has went on at the end of last August and into September before they went nuclear when they went to Cleveland, when they went to Tampa, and when they went to Atlanta.

They lost five of the first six games, and it just felt like it was all falling apart for the Marys. But if you took a step back and you looked at the rest of the league, you would see that, hey, the Dodgers were also going through it. The Tigers were beginning their downward spiral as they lost their grip on the AL Central to the guardians who just refused to lose a game in the month of September. it wasn't just the Mariners. At the flip of a switch,

the mirrors obviously turned it around and they went nuclear, like I said. Right now, even though the Mariners are at the extreme end of the spectrum, they're also not alone in a very disappointing start to the season and what has been a very weird start to the season across Major League Baseball. Because, like, yes, they have the worst record in all of baseball right now to start the year. They're actually tied, though, for the record. worst record in all of baseball.

And the team that they're tied with would be the team that they knocked out in the ALDS last October. That would be the aforementioned Detroit Tigers who went to the playoffs, led the AL Central for most of 2025, and went into this off season and on paper did nothing but get better. But they just got swept in four games by the Minnesota Twins who are not supposed to be particularly good this year. And so now they find themselves at the bottom of the barrel along with you. The Red Sox, a team that I really liked going into the season, I still really like this season that also made the playoffs and went into this off season and did nothing but get better on paper.

They're four and eight. The Toronto Blue Jays, the defending nail champions, they've lost Alejandro Kirk, they've lost Addison Barger. They've had an illness sweep through their rotation. They've also just been kind of stagnant on offense, not to the degree that your offense has been, but still they've shown. struggled on offense a little bit as well. They're 5 and 7 to start the year. The Royals, Colby, a team that you picked to win the AL Central when we did our predictions a couple of weeks ago, they're 5 and 8 to start the year.

Even on the National League side of things, the Phillies are 6 and 6. That's not a particularly ideal start for them. The Cubs are in last place in the, you know, Central. They're 6 and 6. That's not a start that I think anyone had envisioned for them. You know, the Padres before they walked off the Rockies last night, they were 6 and 6. now seven and six so they're off to a little bit of a better start but they got off to kind of a slow start by the way the rockies they're six and seven they've actually been playing pretty good

ball to start the year they've been playing better ball than again the the the mariners the tigers the red sox etc do we think that's going to last all year long no absolutely not i mean the white socks have been playing better ball than those teams that i just listed and do we think that's going to last no it's not it's just been a weird start to the year as a whole you know Typically, we see a team kind of take off or a couple of teams take off to start the year. That hasn't really happened. I mean, the Dodgers have the best record in baseball, which is not a surprise whatsoever. They're nine and three to start the year.

But there hasn't been like, you know, a couple of years ago, we saw the raise get off to, you know, an undefeated start. You know, the Mariners won 13 of their first 15 games back in 2019, which was completely inexplicable. You know, there hasn't been anything like that that's happened. You know, the twins right now are only two and a half games out from the best record in baseball. though the Marlins are a game to half out from the best record in baseball. So are the Braves. Some are the guardians.

There's just a lot of weirdness going on right now to start the year. But the point that I'm trying to make right now is like, yeah, it's bad. No one's saying otherwise. Like the Marys have played some really bad baseball to start the year. And there are obviously some things

that we can specifically point to as to why they are four and nine. Like they've absolutely earned that record. so far. But you're not the only fan base to start the year that had World Series expectations going into the season and have been met with disappointment to say the least to start the season. Yeah, it's it's been rough. Like I think we can all acknowledge that. And it thankfully the American League is pretty mediocre right now. And also thankfully, or perhaps not, depending on how you've coped with the first 13 games, there's 149 of these things left to go. So there's plenty of time to turn this around.

And, you know, I think kind of the beauty of baseball, but also the really frustrating thing, is that often we don't get that sense that things are going to turn around before they actually do. And, I mean, from a Mariners perspective, you don't have to look any further back than last September when the Mariners were, you know, just absolutely dreadful on the road in August. and it looked like they were going to go ahead and have another one of those one-and-eight road trip, East Coast road trips, and they were going to, you know, slowly descend out of the playoffs. And we were wondering, you know, here they go again and all that. And then just on a random, I don't know, Saturday night in Atlanta,

Julio Rodriguez decided to be the best player on the planet for, you know, five innings. And they snuck away with a win in Atlanta. And then the next day they blew out the Braves like 18 to 2. and they would go on to win, I think, 17 of 18, 18, whatever it was. And they never really looked back and they got all the way to the ALCS. And before Puglio hit two home runs and made a great catch against Michael Harris and all that, like we had no idea that that was going to happen. There was no reason to suspect that the team was just going to turn around at that point.

And it just did. And that's awesome. That's, you know, awesome. And it's also annoying and frustrating because, A, you would like the team to not have to. you know, win 18 out of 19, which they don't right now. But also, you just, you would like to have an idea like, oh, they're getting close. They're almost there. They're about to turn the corner.

Sometimes you don't get that. Sometimes it just happens. And you just kind of have to accept it and be happy that it happens. And, you know, sometimes you can think it's about to happen. And then it doesn't. And they lose three out of four again. And you're sitting there like, well, now this is really over. And then all of a sudden, boom, you know, it just maybe next two or next Thursday.

day against the Padres, they salvage a game and then they sweep whoever, and then, you know, they take two or three in the next series. And all of a sudden, we're right back to where, you know, you want to, or where we're talking about the World Series. So it's frustrating. It's a little aggravating for sure. But the beauty of baseball, you never know when it's going to flip. You just kind of have to trust the talent that you have on the roster.

And at some point, it's going to turn for you. It just, we can't tell you when it's going to be. And that, that's obviously. you know, very frustrating for fans. And it's frustrating for us when we talk about this team because we don't know when we're going to have fun talking about them again. But yeah, that's just the reality of sports and baseball in particular. You play so many games.

You just never know when it's going to turn for you. The Astros are another one of those teams that have gotten off to a disappointing start that, you know, a lot of people around the league thought would be a playoff team this year. And, you know, again, like still plenty of time for them to totally be a playoff team. But they've dealt with significant injuries. so far, especially in their pitching staff, most recently, Hunter Brown, and their pitching staff as a whole has suffered greatly as a result. They've been the worst pitching staff and all of baseball.

So this gives the Mariners, in theory, great opportunity to turn things around offensively. So we'll talk about that in just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the longtime errors podcast is brought to you by TurboTax. 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 what turbotax now has in-person locations nationwide

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Baseball is finally back and to celebrate, I'm giving you a full month of the Everydayer Club for free. Go to Lockdown Mariners.com and use the promo code finally. 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. So this Astros rotation, like I said, they're beat up right now. I'm not even sure if the four starters I see here that are projected on. roster resource or actually like how it's going to line up for them i know there's been a lot of confusion about how things are going to line up this weekend uh for the astros for now rosser resource

has it as tatsu y and my uh facing emerson hancock tonight then tomorrow it's going to be lancel carlors cody bolton former mariner is apparently going to start on sunday and then yeah this is a wrap around series so there's actually going to be a monday game which is very weird i can't remember the yeah i can't remember the last time the mariner's played a wrap round series, especially at home. If you do, let us know in the comments below. But nothing comes to the top of my mind. Certainly not in the time that you and I have been covering this ball club,

unless I'm just completely spacing on something. But it'll be Mike Burroughs, apparently, starting in that final game, who the Astros, rather, acquired in that three-team deal with the Pirates and the race this winter. High expectations for him, he hasn't gotten off to a particularly good start. really none of these guys outside of McCullors has gotten off to a particularly good start. Now, Amai has obviously, you know, taking like social media by storm.

Like he's been on pitching ninja a lot with the, what is it, the reverse slider, the wrong way slider, whatever they're calling it. You know, so obviously this guy has really good stuff. But again, like I said, leading into this into the segment, this seems to be on paper pretty good opportunity for this mayor's offense that has greatly struggled to start the year to get back on. track here. Yeah. We actually don't know who's going to start Sunday and Monday yet.

They have not made the official announcement. So we'll wait and see there. But obviously, you avoid Hunter Brown, who's on the I. Josh Hater, still not growing, I think.

So you're not going to see Hater in this bullpen either, so that's a big hit. So yeah, there's a decent opportunity here to score some runs, but, you know, it is T-Mobile Park. Now, I think it's going to be relatively warm.

at Team Mobile this weekend, which, you know, considering that it's early April, it's going to be in the mid-50s. I think that's nice. And, hey, you know what? The Mariners did have better offense at Team Mobile Park than their first road trip of the year now. Who's to say that's going to continue? But, yeah, you do have an opportunity here again. The Astros bullpen not what it was. You're avoiding Hunter Brown.

You're avoiding Christian Javier. In Lance McCullers, yeah, he's got a pretty good ERA. right now, but we didn't that do just struggle to throw strikes. The Mariners usually have a pretty good game plan against them. Usually get them out, especially, you know, post-surgery's, Lance McCullors. They usually get them out after four or five. And so you can attack that bullpen.

It should lead to good results on Saturday and Sunday, or sorry, Sunday and Monday, especially if they're going with some kind of bullpen game in one of these series or one of these games of the series. So we'll see how it goes. But yeah, at the end of the day, like good matchup on paper, you mean like the angels. So, yeah, it's no guarantee. When you're when you're slumping, when you're struggling to hit, it doesn't matter who the other team is throwing until you actually hit. It just feels like you're going to post, you know, two runs or less.

So we'll see how it goes. By the way, the backwards slider, if you're trying to visualize that, it's essentially a two seamer. So it just moves similar to a two seamer for Mariety. So it's a really good pitch. But again, it can be hard to visualize when you say a backwards slider. It's not like a screwball or anything. It's more like a two seam fastball essentially. But it's a pretty good one.

I think it might have a really good start and then like a really bad start. So that's kind of a middling result for him. So he's had some walk issues to start the year, even in his. scoreless start. I think he went five and two-thirds against the A's down in Sacramento. He still walked three in that game. He walked four in his first outing against the Angels where he only went two and two-thirds, give a four in that out. And so, yeah, it's been a mixed bag for him so far, and it's only two starts. So he's hard to read going into this one. And it's a guy coming over, you know, from Japan. First two starts are just,

complete opposite directions from one another. So yeah, it's always, you know, it's usually, I should say, difficult when you see a player for the first time, usually takes a bat or two to kind of. Does have a lot of strikeouts, though. 13 strikeouts on 8 and a third. So, and the merits have obviously struck out quite a bit to start the year. So yeah, so not great. But, you know, that's just the reality of the situation.

It's 2026. You're probably going to face some starters who strike guys out. most of the starters are going to have, you know, pretty good stuff. And they're going to, you're not going to get to face, well, I would say redetmers, but yeah, you're not going to get to face Jack O'Honowitz, but, you know. Yeah. So it doesn't seem to matter who they're facing right now. But yeah, it'll be an interesting test tonight for the Mariners' bats. Again, it's just one of those things where it's like, I could go pitch by pitch and say, yeah, they could do this.

They could do this. They got a hit, man. When they get a fastball in the zone, they got to hit it. It's really that simple. And right now, I mean, hitting the fastball is like the most important thing. Because if you cannot hit a fastball, you are DOA. You have no shot.

It doesn't matter what else you do. You can't do anything if you can't hit a fastball. Right. You can't play defense if you can't play catch. So, yeah, it's the fundamentals, man. You have to hit a fastball. You have to play catch. You have to not be stupid on the basis.

you have to play clean baseball. Start with that, and then the offense hopefully will follow suit. But this team, on top of not hitting, they just have not played clean baseball. It's the fundamentals that have killed them on the last road trip. And I'm not talking about getting a bunt down. I'm talking about playing catch. I'm talking about making sure you touch the base before you go to the next one. Talk about when you get a fastball down the middle of the plate, you don't swing through it.

You actually hit it hard, regardless of it's caught. At least move the ball forward. Right. Like you can't strike out on 95 right down the pipe. You have to put that off forward. Yeah. Again, missing on pitches inside the strike zone has been a huge problem for this team. It was a huge problem for them through the first 13 games of 2025 as well.

They were the only team in baseball with a sub 80% contact rate on pitches inside the strike zone. That's the case once again through the first 13 games of this season. They have five of the 30 worst qualified hitters in baseball in that category. Cal Raleigh is dead last. It's got a 71.6%. contact rate on pitches inside the strike zone. That's unacceptable. Julio Rodriguez is third.

He was third or third worst last year as well. Randy or Rosa Rana is 20th worst. Josh Naylor, 22nd worst. Cole Young, 26 worse. And all these guys as well, and I'm not saying that this is the reason, but this is just information. All these guys have seen a decrease in average bat speed from 2025.

Now, like, Cole Young is nitpicking because it's literally a 10th. whatever and there's obviously like comparing these numbers to march and april last year it's hard those numbers are really hard to apply because like able to do that well like cal and julio are actually slightly up from where they were this time last year in bad speed randy is significantly down but he's also of the five guys probably the second most productive hitter here like he's been fine um you know that is a drastic decrease for randy from from bat speed. Bat speed's one of those stats though where it's like people think they know what it means.

Yeah. And they don't. And I'm not saying that like nobody knows what bat speed is. But people, they look at bat speed and they go, oh, well, that's why this guy's struggling. It's like, well, I mean, Jorge Polanco had one of the slowest bats in all baseball and he's still super productive. Like you just have to understand your swing and how to make it work. So yeah, it's. And again, there's just a lot of variables in terms of like trying to apply like this time. last year, like the bat speed's like, because like Josh Taylor was in Arizona. Yeah. This time last year. Cole Young wasn't here with the big league club. And again, like he, it is a decrease technically, but it's literally a tenth of a mile per hour. So so it's not really.

It's negligible. Right. So I do. Naylor, Nailor last year too. Like, uh, I think he was at 71.6 mile per hour average bat speed, uh, in March and April last year. He wound up dropping to 71 on the, on the, on the whole. year. He's typically been around 73.

It's probably because of the shoulder thing as well. So he's even tougher to read because of that as well. I've seen quite a few people try and make the lead that like, oh, the Mariners biggest worry is their bat speed is declining. I just, I don't buy it because I don't think you have enough of a visualization of what matters here with bat speed and what doesn't. And by the way, you know, has Julio's bat speed ever been a problem? No.

It never has been. and he's 25. Like there's no reason for him to fall off a cliff. He's not 38. You know, we see guys in their mid-30s and sometimes, yeah, they just can't get around on the fastball. There's no reason to think Julio and Cal all of a sudden can't do that. They're just not doing it right now.

I think it's a convenient answer to a much more complicated situation. I think people are looking for answers so that they can go out there and be like, this is the problem, but we don't know that it is or not. Yeah. All we can say is that it's lower. Yeah. Like I said, I'm mentioning it for information purposes. only not because I think that's actually the answer like I again because you know the bat speed increased last year from where it was in March and April for both Julio and Cal you know and this year they're actually ahead of where they were this time last year so how am I supposed to apply that like the only one that has an egregious drop is Randy and again it doesn't seem like Randy's been all that affected by it he's been fine to start the year yeah so I don't know

I just, I think people are so desperate for answers that aren't just, well, it's early. And baseball is a long game. And you have to, you know, it's a marathon. You have to play it out. Like, people don't like that answer. But that is the answer. Like, whether you like it or not, that is the objective answer. And so I think people are really searching for reasons to explain what we already know,

that it's a long season. The numbers will normalize. They'll stabilize. And these guys will get back on track. So I get it's not a fun answer. It's you have to wait. You have to be patient, which I know is like a four-letter word to Mariner fans, but that's baseball. If you can't be patient in baseball, get out.

I don't know what to tell you. Like sometimes it really is just as simple as it's early. You got to give these guys a chance and you got to give them more reps and we'll see what happens. I mean, obviously we get into July and the bat speed is still, you know, significantly lower. Yeah, and that's when all worry. Like when the weather is better consistently across the board, no matter where the mayor is, play. Like, and it's still down for some of your, you know, biggest names than sure. Like, but yeah, right now, I just, I don't, I don't feel confident in being able to point to the

bad speed as, as the specific reason why this is happening. But yeah, like, you know, can't deny the, the fact, though, that they are not making contact on pitches inside the strike zone. They have been by far the worst team in baseball in that regard. Um, and that's been kind of a constant as well. Again, And this was the same case last year. So that's where it begins and ends really for this offense. You've got to make better contact. Like you got to make contact in general. And then hopefully that leads to high quality contact.

Right. What's interesting about the Mariners is that they're striking out a lot. And that leads some people to do the whole like, oh, well, they're too, they swing so hard. They swing and miss a ton. So they must be too home run reliant. It's like you go down the lineup like Brennan Donovan. not a home run guy Josh Naylor not a home run guy Cole Young not a home run guy JP not a home run guy uh you know Julio is but Julio also typically hits for a good average like I mean

really the like the home run or bust like that's how they help you offensively guy is is Cal like even Randy yeah he can hit 30 home runs he hasn't yeah but I mean he could in theory but he still runs 340 350 on bases he still takes a ton of walks he still sees a lot of pitches like I don't think the Mariners have a roster build problem in that like, oh, they're too relying on the home run like we saw in like 2023, for example. They also struck out a ton, but they hit a lot of home runs. And that was the whole like, oh, they're too relying on the home run. First of all, most teams are relying on the home run.

That's kind of how it works. It's kind of how teams build. But also the Mariners aren't built where they have to hit home runs. They just need the guys who are supposed to get on base, the guys who are supposed to hit doubles, the guys who are supposed to hit for average, they need to do those things. And Julio and Josh, they're not doing it. And Cal certainly isn't hitting home runs or, you know, even getting on base whatsoever. So I don't really think this is a roster build problem.

I don't think this is a bat speed problem. At least I don't think we can say it is yet. I just don't see enough evidence to suggest that. So, I mean, again, it's the boring answer. It's the cliche. It sounds like an excuse, but anybody who's watched baseball for any significant amount of time knows. Sometimes it really is just as simple as it's early. So switching gears here, the Astros come to town with one of the worst pitching staffs in baseball,

but they also have one of the best offenses in all of baseball. And the Mariners have one of the best pitching staffs in all of baseball. So we're going from one extreme end of the spectrum to the other. So what's going to give on this end of things? We'll talk about that in just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the longtime Marers podcast is brought to you by Indeed. Workplace chaos. Deadlines stacking up, inbox overflowing, and the one position you have to fill still sitting open. When the pressure's on and you need the right hire, this is a job for sponsored jobs.

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And you're listening to the Locktime Mariners Podcasts, part of the Lockdown 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 Mariners, 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 the Marins can't hit. The Astros can't pitch, but the Astros can really hit, and the Marlins can really pitch. So once again, I say, something has to give here. And it all starts with Emerson Hancock tonight, Colby.

Hancock coming off of two really nice starts to begin the year. And he enters this game and the 99th percentile and fastball run value, which is crazy. but the Astros pretty good a hit in the fastball. So again, I say, something has to give. What are you going to be looking for in Hancock's third start of the year? Yeah, four seam versus two seam, up versus down. We have seen two starts from Hancock that were a little bit different. You know, it was first start in Seattle.

It was four seam almost entirely, really, at the top of the zone to get a ton of whiffs. in Anaheim, it was still more four seam than two seam, but he threw a lot more two seamers and they were down in the zone instead of up. So it's really what it comes down to. Again, I know everybody loves the sweeper and all that, and it certainly is an important

pitch, but for Hancock, it's always been about the fastball values. And in the past, he hasn't had it. And that's, you know, kept his shelf life as a major league starter. Very thin. Like, it's only good for a starter to. And then boom, it implode.

it implodes. And so, yeah, he has to continue to get fastball value. And while the Astros are very good at hitting the fastball, you can't shy away from throwing it. Like you have to get fastball value. And hey, look at that. The Astros are the best team in baseball against the fastball. They're one of the offenses in baseball. The Mariners can't hit a fastball. Where do they rank in the, in the offensive equation? You have to hit fastball. But you're a pitcher, you have to, you have to hit, you know, throw the fastball. You have to get fastball value. So it's one of those things where it's like the idea it might be like, oh, well, we'll throw more sweepers and change up since they hit the fastball so well. I mean, sure, but that also means fewer strikes in theory.

You have to throw the fastball. You have to get value out of that pitch. So I'm interested to see how he wants to attack this lineup. Does he want to go forcing him at the top of the zone? Does he want to go two seam down and try to get a bunch of ground balls? We'll see. We'll see how it goes. But for Hancock, it really is all about the fastball.

Yeah. Because as long as he has that pitch, he's a viable major league start. If he doesn't, then he's a bullpen arm, like we've been saying for the last couple of years. Because the sweeper, while it looks good, is not as effective without the four-seam fastball at the top of the zone in particular. So, yeah, I'm going to be tracking. I'm going to be looking for the four-seem at the top of the zone and make sure he can get it to the top rail because if it drops too low into the strike zone, it could be a long night or a short night for Emerson Hancock. So we'll see how he wants to attack this offense.

Again, and I know I sound like a broken record, but the Velo, the Velo, the Velo. It's going to be a huge key for Hancock and maintaining the Velo. And now we have two starts here where one says he wasn't able to maintain his Velo. The other start down in Anaheim, he actually was able to. You know, in the fourth inning, he actually had his highest average fastball velo of any inning in that start. 96.4 in the fourth inning, you know, big reason for. that is that he was able to get to 97 somehow on I think it was like his 45th pitch of the night,

which was crazy. And then it started to decline a little bit later on as that start. Fifth inning, he was averaging 94.9, sixth inning average 93.9. Then the seventh ending average 93.3. But was definitely able to sustain that velo a lot better than we've really seen ever in any of his starts. So does that continue? Or is this more like the Guardian start where it starts to take could pretty significant dive after the second or third inning. So we'll see how Hank does against the club is by far the best lineup that he's faced, though, of the three starts. So really interested to see how he tries to counter them.

Then it's going to be Luis tomorrow, Logan, on Sunday, hoping to see him build on a really nice start in Texas. And then Kirby wraps things up on Monday. Anything you want to talk about with those three guys? I mean, you know, just that Luis has to have fastball value, the Astros at the fastball. So this will be a pretty interesting matchup for him. We'll see how he goes.

And then, yeah, I mean, both George and Logan coming off of really good starts in Texas, just a couple of mistakes apiece from them. And unfortunately, the offense right now is built to cover up pitchers mistakes or, in fact, hit pitcher's mistakes. but yeah so you just want to kind of see them continue to do what they've been doing like if you get the same pitching against the astros that you got against you know the the rangers which obviously got different lineup quality but if you get that same quality starting pitching that you got down in texas you have a good you're probably going to have a good shot to win all four of these games how many games will they actually win that i don't know how many runs will they actually score uh so yeah i i i Not to worry about the pitching the bullpen. You kind of built around your bullpen specifically to beat the Astros. You went out and got Ferrear because of, you know, guys like Yordon in particular.

And to have Gabe Spire be able to pitch the sixth because Yordon is coming up or Ferrer, whoever, right? And then when he comes up again in the eighth, oh, I saw another lefty that I can go to. Which is kind of funny, by the way, because like Yordon destroys left-handed pitching. So, I mean. He kind of destroys everyone, you know. I know, but I know, but just it's kind of funny to be like, oh, well, we got lefties to face Yordon. It's like, like, what, Yordon's like the best left on left bat in baseball. So you should probably just, you know, worry about throwing your best pitcher rather than hand in this at him.

But whatever, anyway, you want to slice it. It should be an interesting matchup. And we'll see how playing their division rivals and all that, two teams that are struggling over the last couple days in particular for completely different reasons. It should be a fun series And I think, you know, if one of these teams can take three out of four Or maybe even sweep, it puts the other one really far back on their heels

With a lot of ground to catch up on. But yeah, I think, you know, it would just be nice to see the Mariners score some runs Have quality at bats. And if they can, the way they're playing right now, if they took, you know, they split this series, I'd actually consider that a win Just because they're playing so poorly.

Right. That, you know, finding a way not. to just avoid disaster right and again you know like we said like I said at the beginning you never know when these things can turn maybe they take three or four from the astros or maybe they sweep the astros and all of a sudden we're talking about the world series again yeah baseball it's just weird and this team is particular but yeah yeah it's just avoid getting out of the series five and 12 or four and 13 and at that point the things are looking pretty gnarly it's a long way back

once you start getting, you know, eight, nine games under 500 this early in the year. It's not over because of how early it is, but it's a long trip back. That's quite the hole that you've dug yourself into, though. Yeah, I mean, you got to go like 12 and four the rest of the month to finish the month of 500. You know, that's good luck. Good luck doing that. So, yeah, again, you just one of those things, say, you're not playing well, find a way to win a couple of ball games. and then maybe maybe something clicks for Cal or Julio and they have a nice series and you can actually take three out of four.

But yeah, avoid the disaster. And we'll see how the pitching holds up. This will be their toughest test. The Yankees pretty tough tests and they did okay there. So, yeah, we'll see how it goes. But not a great time to play the Astros from your perspective because you're playing really bad. But also, they're not playing all that great. So maybe a good time to see the Astros.

I don't know. We'll see how it works out, but it should be a fun weekend regardless. Well, it should be a close weekend regardless. I don't know how fun it'll be. Well, that is going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the lockdown airs podcast. Part of the lockdown podcast network, your team every day. And once again, if you never miss an episode, it's time to make it official.

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