Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Kikuchi-san Great, Bullpen Not So Much

Episode Date: May 12, 2021

Yusei Kikuchi turned in another great performance prior to tiring out in the 7th inning. Unfortunately, the bullpen couldn't hold the lead the M's had built, and Rafael Montero wound up with his 5th blown save already. D.C. talks about last night's game, Kikichi-san's performance, as well as the two relievers', and also explains why he didn't think the Mariner offense was very good despite scoring four runs. The M's have a new minor league catcher, and there are injury updates aplenty. D.C. also talks about the latest no-hitter, which was spun by former Mariner Wade Miley, and also talks about Jarred Kelenic reportedly getting the call up to the big leagues later this week. Also, there's a very interesting question in the Trivia Corner regarding former slugging first baseman Fred McGriff and the number of stadiums in which he played. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today on Locked-on Mariners, happy birthday, Jenna. Welcome to Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. Jenna's a friend of mine, former colleague at the Shoreline Children's Center. Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for looking us up today. I am, in fact, D.C. Lundberg here to present another fine edition of Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on podcast network brought to you by Rock Auto. Please remember to download rate and follow this program on whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use.

Ask your smart device to play Locked-on Mariner's podcast or any of the other great shows here on the Locked-on Podcast Network. Lots to get to today, ladies and gentlemen. I apologize that this show runs a little over time. Last night's game to recap, there's a lot to talk about in that. Some injury updates as well. There was a no hitter over the weekend, which I was remiss not to mention on Monday's show. And of course, the big news that broke on Monday. Yes, indeed.

As reported on MLB.com, Scott Service has refurnished his home in lacrosse, Wisconsin. It looks delightful, I must say. No, of course, that's not the big news. I'm sure you know what it is. Jared Kalnick is reportedly going to be called up to the big leagues later on this week. But that is a topic for C Block today, so stick around for that. But here to start things off, we'll talk about another great pitching performance. by Yusi Kikichi, which was unfortunately wasted by the bullpen.

And while the Mariners did score four runs, I don't think they looked very good. Although Walker Bueller is one of those pitchers against whom it's easy to look bad. All four Mariner runs were scored on home runs. Two by Mitch Hanager, one by Kyle Seeger. All three long balls were hit pretty much on mistake pitches. Manninger's first bomb was a ball in the upper left-hand quadrant, and he took it the other way, something Scott Serger. had emphasized prior to the Texas series to try to get the hitters out of their slumps.

He hit the ball where it was pitched and was rewarded with a home run as the second batter of the game. This was the second straight game, by the way, in which J.P. Crawford was the leadoff hitter. He had a good series in Texas, and on Sunday in the leadoff role, went two for five with a run scored. But back to last night's game. Manninger's second home run was on a hanging breaking pitch, dead central, and and he did not miss it. Seeger's home run, pardon me, was pretty much at the belt on the inside corner,

and he turned on it. Caught too much of the plate, and Seeger did what he needed to do with it. The other hit the Mariners got was a Kyle Lewis single, which was hit right before Seeger's home run. So the Kyle connection did come through there, and the game was three to nothing at that point. Max Muncie hit a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth to get the Dodgers' on the board. He had a good game. That long ball was one of the few mistakes that Kikichi San made until he got tired in the seventh. He was great. Kept the Dodgers off the bases by and large, and solo home runs are generally not going to hurt you if you don't give up too many of them. Kikigtsi San has now given up seven on the season thus far. That's a high number. But in his better

starts, he has generally kept the ball in the yard. He gave up two long balls to the Giants in his first start, and two to the Red Sox in his poor outing in Fenway. Those two games account for more than half of his season total. Also, four of the seven home runs he's allowed have been solo home runs, and the other three all came with a man on first base. He's doing a much better job this season, keeping men off the base paths. His season whip is 1.091, which actually went up slightly after last night's game. It had been 1.088, so that's basically no difference. Coming into this season, his career whip was 1.466. So he has vastly improved in that area. Last night was another start where he utilized his entire repertoire rather than leaning too heavily on his fastball. There were a

lot of ground ball outs. He was mixing his pitches well once again, and he struck out 11 in his six and a third inning. He had thrown. 92 or 93 pitches after six innings, and service stuck with him for the seventh, kind of surprised that he did, but very pleasantly surprised. But he did appear to be running out of gas in his last couple of batters. He left with one out and two on in the seventh. Anthony Masevic came in to relieve him and he struggled once again. Not accounting for a stint on the injured list, he has appeared in 61.5% of the mayor's games thus far, 16 of the 26 games in which he's been available, and he pitched twice in the three-game series in Texas.

To put that percentage in perspective, if that 61.5% were stretched out over a 162 game schedule, that would be 99.6 games. That's a lot. In my unprofessional opinion, he's overworked. But he's really the only left-hander in the bullpen who's reliable. Aaron Fletcher is down there, I know, but if it weren't for the huge number of injuries, To the pitching staff, he'd be in the minors. He's just not a major league pitcher yet. And I don't say that to take a rip at Mr. Fletcher. But there are some things that he needs to iron out in the minors

before he can be successful in the big leagues. I like his stuff, and I think he can be a contributor out of the bullpen in the future. But back to Miss Savage from last night. He winds up pitching only a third of an inning, allowing one hit and a walk. He damn near walked in a run, but professional. Professional bowler, Mookie Betz, took a called third strike with the bases loaded with a full count for the only out that Mosevic recorded. And honestly, gang, it was ball four. The umpire made a mistake.

Betts was literally hopping mad, but collected himself pretty quickly before he started jawing at the umpire, which I would not have blamed him for doing, quite honestly. The ball wasn't really close at all to the inside corner. And he walked back to the dugout and pissed off. but not ejected from the game. That's important because he's probably their best player. That proved to be a huge out since Corey Seeger drove in two runs on the very next pitch on a single to bring the score to four to three.

Had the umpire actually gotten the call right, it had been a tie ball game. Both of those runs, by the way, were charged to Kikigisan. Scott's service went out to not only change pitchers, but execute a double switch, something you don't see in American League games. The pitcher's spot was due up second in the next half. inning, and had Masevich been able to finish the inning, I'm sure they would have pinch hit for him at that point. Dylan Moore, who had started the game as the left fielder, was removed in favor of telegram Sam Haggurdy, who went into the number nine spot in the order,

while new reliever Raphael Montero went into the number seven spot vacated by Moore. He struck out Justin Turner to close out the inning with a tying and go-ahead runs aboard, but the eighth inning would be a different story. He did get the first two guys, but then gave up a single to former mariner Chris Taylor. Taylor stole second base, and then Montero hit, pinch hit or Matt Beattie, to bring up Gavin Lux with the go-ahead run on first base. Lux got a fastball pretty much in the middle of the zone and hit it out of the yard to give the Dodgers a 6-4 lead, which I'm sure made Jason Hernandez pretty happy.

The M's would quietly in the ninth, and that was the ball game. Montaro was tagged with the loss. three and two for this season. And this was also his fifth blown save already. He's got an ERA now of 5.51. Final line on Kikichi, which I don't think I've mentioned yet, six in the third innings, six hits, three runs, two of them scored on that single that Ms. Savage gave up, one walk and a homer and 11 strikeouts. He was really, really good once again, just got tired in the seventh, put two runners on who both scored after he was removed, and the bullpen just blow But at the same time, the Mariner offense didn't do much other than those three home runs.

They struck out 12 times and only walked once, and they only got one other hit besides the three long balls. Aside from Kikichi-San and some good defense, Mitch Hanigur made another great sliding catch. It wasn't really a very good game. There are some injury updates to talk about, pardon me, in the second half, after that we'll be talking Jared Kelnick and no hitters, of course, but first the trivia corner. Today's trivia question was in sports. fired by my housemate Shannon. She asked me this evening if there had ever been a player to hit a home run in every single ballpark.

I told her that there have been players to hit home runs in ballparks that were no longer in existence at any given time. And I told her that I thought Fred McGriff had hit home runs in 34 ballparks. I was wrong. That number is wrong. So the question is, in how many Major League stadiums did Fred McGriff hit a home run? Answer following this word from sports trade. Have you guys heard about sports trade?

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Don't sit on the sidelines any longer. Get in the game at sportstrade.com. Answer to the trivia question, the criminally underrated Fred McGriff hit a home run in 43 different Major League stadiums. That is mind-boggling to me. Although he played in an era in the 1990s where a lot of teams replaced their ballparks,

many of those were built in the 70s, and as a result he homered in 43 different ballparks, For example, he hit six home runs in Safeco Field, but previously hit 14 at the Kingdom. There are 14 such instances where he's hit home runs in two different stadiums belonging to the same team. He played for Toronto when they moved from Exhibition Stadium to Skydome and also played for the Braves when they moved from Fulton County Stadium to Turner Field.

There are only two stadiums in which he's played where he failed to hit a home run. Bank One Ballpark in Arizona and Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati. He did Homer 21 times in Cincinnati's old ballpark, Riverfront Stadium. In fact, Riverfront is the stadium in which he hit the most home runs where he was never a home player. Second on that list, the Kingdom. Coming up, what is the latest news on the injuries to the pitching staff? I begin my in-depth 14-part investigative series on the other side. side of this commercial massage from Bilt Bar, the greatest protein bars in the history of

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And if at checkout, if you try to use promo code Earth, Blurfs, Slurf, begloggle, nothing happens. So just use promo code Locked15 instead. That actually works, and you'll get 15% off of your order that way. Builtbar.com promo code Locked 15 for 15% off your order of the greatest protein bars that sponsor this program. Built Bar, the quality goes in before the name goes on. Welcome back to Locked-on Mariners.

Here once again is your host, D.C. Lundberg. That was Locked-on Mariners announcer, Joey Martin. Doesn't he do a fine job on this program, ladies and gentlemen? Some roster new is in some injury updates. First of all, the Mariners signed free agent catcher Caleb Joseph to a minor league contract. He is a seven-year Major League veteran who last played for the Toronto Blue Jays last year, three games worth. He spent his first five seasons in Baltimore as a part. part-time catcher playing in 100 games once.

He's really not much of an offensive threat, but he's a veteran presence behind the plate who can provide some depth at a very thin position for the Mariners. Both Tom Murphy and Luis Torrens still aren't doing very much offensively, and behind them, there's really no one at the AAA level who can step in should one of them land on the injured list. It's always a huge plus to have a veteran catcher in AAA with Major League experience who can be called upon to fill in at the Major League level, should the need arise.

Pat Borders filled this role for the Mariners for a few seasons about 20 years ago when he was in his 40s. Joseph is 34 and he'll be 35 in June. Again, he's not much to write home about offensively, although he did hit 256 and 89 games for the Orioles in 2017, and he has a little sting in his bat. He hit 11 home runs and 320 at bats in 2015. and eight home runs in 254 at bats in 2017.

Overall, he has a major league slash line of 22, 270, 351. He can also play first base and even third base in a pinch. He was released out of the METs organization on April 24th, and again signed to a minor league deal with the M's organization yesterday. Now to the injury updates, all of which involved the pitching staff. I'll start with the one that's really not good news, and that is in regards to L.J. Newsom. He was placed on the injured list on Sunday after leaving Saturday's game with elbow inflammation.

The Mariners are not expecting him back anytime soon. He was evaluated prior to last night's game in Los Angeles, and there will be more of an update later on in the week once the team gets back to Seattle. Quoth, Skipper Scott Scurvis. He is going to have to make a decision. Doesn't quite know which way it's going to go yet. I think that the doctor was going to present all the things in front of him, but he has an elbow issue.

I'm not sure if it's going to be surgery or some other things where that's headed, so I don't want to speculate, end quote. Just the fact that he mentioned the word surgery is alarming. Whether or not surgery is required, if the injury is bad enough to have that even be on the table, it's really not good news. Newsom was the one bullpen arm who could really eat up the most innings and was more than likely going to be used in the majority of the bullpen games the Ms have had to utilize while the starting rotation is thinned out because of other injuries.

Which brings us to Marco Gonzalez, the pitcher whose injury necessitated the plethora of bullpen gains. He's not throwing off of a mound quite yet, but he is progressing in his rehab and may be able to start doing that pretty soon. He's currently, quote, throwing from 75 to 100 feet, end quote, according to an article on MLB.com written by Megan Garcia. And service indicated that Gonzo was feeling okay. So that sounds encouraging to me, as does the news about Kenan Middleton. He is slated to return in the near future. He played catch prior to last night's game and reported that he felt fine.

So that's also encouraging. Less encouraging is the news regarding Casey Sadler. He landed on the injured list on May 2nd with an inflamed shoulder, and his rehab is behind schedule. Quote service once again. He is switching up a few things in his rehab and in what he's doing there. So hopefully that gets him going a little bit quicker, but he's a little behind, end quote. The bullpen had been a strength of this club early on, but they faltered as of late,

partially due to having to rely on arms that shouldn't be the majors, and also partially from having to absorb a lot of innings in Marco Gonzalez's absence. In April, the M's pitching staff gave up 4.1 runs per game. So far in May, 5.8 runs per game. That's a big. difference. The M's run differential in April was plus one, and in May so far, it's minus 18. Getting the pitching staff healthy is going to be a huge boost for this team, but the offense still needs to get it going by and large. They showed some signs of awakening from its slumber in Arlington, but reinforcements are on the way, which we will talk about in a little bit. But first, if you have a question or a comment that you would like to have addressed on the air,

write it down on a piece of paper and then burn it. No, no, no, send it to Lockedown Mariners at gmail.com, and I will address it in a future mailbag episode, one is coming up hopefully pretty soon. Questions and comments on any subject are welcome and encouraged, does not have to do with baseball, does not have to do with sports? I will read anything. Well, almost anything. Coming up with Jared Kelnick reportedly on the way to the Mariners, how many no-hitters are we going to have this year? I'll talk about the latest no-no following a couple of brief words of importance, the first one for Bet Online, the fast, this an easiest way to bet on all your sports action. Baseball season is in full swing and you can track the action at BetOnline.

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Banking services provided by MVB Bank Incorporated member FDIC. Maximum balance and transfer limits apply. Now back to Locked-on Mariners and your host, D.C. Lundberg. This key lime sparkling water is delicious. Two more topics before we call it today, ladies and gentlemen. The first one I should have mentioned on Monday's show. But I was exhausted while writing it and also while recording it. There was a PBA telecast and two important curling matches on Sunday

in addition to the Mariners game, so it was a very full day. I'm glad the M's didn't have a game on Monday so I could take the day off and not have to think about sports at all. Spent some time with my mother, my roommate was out of town visiting her parents in Boise, so I got to have a nice quiet afternoon to myself, got some chores done. Why am I talking about this? There have already been four no-hitters this season, gang. The latest was tossed by former Mariner Wade Miley last Friday, May 7th.

He no-hit the Cleveland Indians in Jacobs Field, or what used to be known as Jacobs Field. I don't actually know what it's called now, and I don't care. This was the second time Cleveland had been no-hit this season, already. The last team to get no hit twice in a season? The Mariners. In 2019, with the Angels and Astros, both no-hit Seattle on July 12th and August 3rd, respectively. This latest no-hitter by Miley was also the second interleague no-hitter of the year. Miley walked one in his game, and his Reds committed two errors behind him. He faced two batters over the minimum and struck out

8. The four no-hitters this season have all been complete game efforts. Both of last season's no-hitters were also spun by a lone pitcher. In 2019, there were four no-hitters all season, two of them against the Mariners. Two of them were combined no-hitters. In fact, those two combined no-hitters were the two games in which the Mariners were no-hit that season. We're a little less than six weeks into this season, and we've already had four. We're on pace for 19, which would shepherds. Absolutely shatter the record.

The modern day record is seven, which has been done in three different seasons. The modern era is 1885 to present day for those scoring home. The all-time record isn't far off the modern day record. There were eight no-hitters in 1884. There were seven no-hitters in 1990, 1991, and 2015. One of those 1990 no-hitters was a combined no-hitter. In fact, the Mariners were the team no hit in that game, and two of the 1991 no-hitters were combined efforts. While in 2015, all seven were complete games by the starting pitcher.

That includes Hasashi Iwakama's no-hitter against Baltimore in Safeco Field that August. Two of the 1990 no-hitters occurred on the same day with Dave Stewart and Fernando Valenzuela, both tossing no-nows on June 29th. We've already got four this year, and it's May 12th. Are we going to break the record? I sure hope so, gang. I love to see great pitching. I think anybody who's listened to the show for any length of time knows that.

But there's obviously no telling what can happen the rest of the way out. There have been seasons without a no-hitter. The most recent is 2005. Now, you may be asking yourself, when is this idiot going to start talking about Jared Kelnick? Well, time's up, so we'll have to wait to tomorrow to talk about No, no, no, I'm just kidding. The Jared Kellnick era is set to commence the day after tomorrow.

It's been reported that the Ms are going to call him up from AAA Tacoma, where he just got off to a red hot start. On Thursday, ahead of the four-game series against the Cleveland Indians in Seattle, he's going to join an offense that we've talked about on the show for weeks now. They've had moments of competence, but by and large, it's been pretty awful. Going into yesterday's game, they were slashing as a team. 2-10, 288, 370. That ranks 14th, 13th, and 13th, respectively in average on base and slugging in the American League.

They struck out 331 times, which ranks 12th in the junior circuit, but they've drawn the fifth-most walks. So it's not all terrible. They've scored a total of 142 runs, which ranks 10th. And remember, those numbers are as of the beginning of play yesterday. Those are not updated to include yesterday's games. As to who is going to be sent out, the easy call would be Taylor Tremel. He needs regular mass to continue developing, and he's not going to get them at the big league level. And he hasn't been getting them at the big league level.

His struggles have been well documented on this program, so we're not going to bother going over them again. But it gets tricky in that Kelnick is not on the 40-man roster. So the Ms are going to have to make a move to remove someone from the 40-man roster to make room for Kelnick. It sounded like L.J. Newsom's injury may require him to be out for a really long time. And if surgery is required, I would guess that that would put an end to his season. So they could move him to the 60-day injured list, which would open up a spot on the 40-man roster. If Newsom is not moved to the 60-day I-L, they would have to designate someone for assignment.

I doubt it would be Tramel, and I also don't see them DFAing a pitcher. So in my estimation, that leaves me. two options, Jose Marmalahejos and Braden Bishop. Marmo hit pretty well last year in his second sit with the team after being recalled, but this season he hasn't done much. He's hit a few home runs, but other than that, he's done next to nothing. He can hit. He proved that last year, but he still tries to pull everything, and pitchers are almost exclusively pitching him on the outside corner or slightly off the outside corner, and he hasn't made the adjustment. He tries to pull those pitches and grounds out to the first baseman or into the shift.

Like Tremel, he is also no longer getting regular at bats. Aside from power at the dish, another thing Marmo has over Bishop is versatility. Marmo is a first baseman by trade, but he can also play either corner outfield spot. On the other hand, Bishop is an excellent defensive outfielder, has speed to burn, and is a very good base runner. But he's offensively anemic. and his bat really hasn't developed at all to a level which is acceptable at the big league level. I thought he would sort of be like Rich Amarol with a little more pop,

but he's turned out to be more like Charles Gibson, with even worse bat to ball skills and way more strikeouts. So either one of those gentlemen could be designated for assignment to make room for Kelnick on the 40-man roster if Newsom doesn't have to be transferred to the 60-day disabled list. Either way, Kelnick's red-hot bat will be welcome, and will be joining a mariner offense that is basically comatose. A listener emailed me after the M's got no hit last week and basically said this exact same thing,

though at that time no one knew when Kelnik would be called up, and the listener did not speculate as to when Kelnik would be caught up, but he was obviously onto something, as he is set to make his debut on Thursday. That is all for today, gang, and checking the time, slightly over time, not too. bad. Tomorrow we will be recapping the final game of the brief two game series in Chavez Ravine. Here with me to talk about the game will be Arvid Engen, Bambi, and a rotisserie.

You know, if you combine those last two items, never mind. Please remember to download rate and follow Locked on Maritors so you never miss an episode. Look for us at any podcasting app that you can think of. Leave a rating and review of your podcasting app of choice. So allows. Thank you once again for listening to today's show, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you enjoyed tonight's ballgame, and I hope you enjoy tomorrow's show where I talk about said ballgame.

Have a great day. Get all the sports news you need in under 20 minutes with the Locked On Today podcast. Host Peter Bukowski will keep you updated on the latest news in every major sport with Locked On's team of local experts. Follow the Locked On Today podcast on the Odyssey app or wherever else you get your podcasts.

This is Joey Martin, speaking for Locked On Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.