Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Lazaro Montes Goes BOOM as Seattle Mariners Take 2 of 3 in Boston

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Mariners end a rough road trip on a high note, taking 203 in Boston as Lazaro Montez makes quite the first impression. Let's talk about it. 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 Wednesday, September 2nd, 2026. My name is Taddenazas.

Starting point is 00:00:30 I'm joined as always by my co-coast. Colby Patnode. Marins beat the Red Sox 8 to 3 today at Fenway. park they take two or three from the Red Sox scoring 25 combined runs in the series and they frankly should have had a sweep but a good bounce back these last two days regardless. We'll get into today's action a little later on. But I want to start by reacting to the electric major league debut of Lazaro Montas, two for four last night, gets on base three times, starts things off with the night's walk

Starting point is 00:00:59 and singles in the first RBI of his career his next time up. But it was the third plate appearance of his debut. that rightfully grabbed all the attention, gets a slider at the knees and drives it 407 feet to where not many go at Fenway Park. That would be dead center field for the first home run of his major league career, showing off that elite power he possesses. And with that home run, he became the first Mariners player to record multiple hits in his MLB debut since Ichoro Suzuki all the way back in 2001.

Starting point is 00:01:35 over 25 years ago now, which is crazy to think about considering all the debuts the marries have had in that time. He is also the youngest Mariner to Homer in his debut, surpassing Mr. Mariner, Alvin Davis. So a couple pretty good names to find yourself in the company of on your debut. Now, Montes did not play today. So we only have last night to go off of, but it was a really good debut. And one that, you know, kind of gave us the.

Starting point is 00:02:05 entire Lasra Montes experience, Colby. It did. I mean, like, his very first swing at the major league level, he swung and missed at a pitch in the strike zone. Like, you can't write that. You can't write that stuff. But yeah, you know, he had a walk, he had a home run. He had a strikeout. And that's going to kind of be what Montez is going to do, you know, at least for the time being at the major league level. I mean, he's probably not going to collect a ton of hits good on him on getting that first hit out of the way and driving in a run. But yeah, he's going to strike out a lot. He's probably going to draw a fair share of walks.

Starting point is 00:02:44 And the Mariners are certainly hoping that he runs into a decent number of home runs over the next week or two at least. And we'll see where they are at that point. Now, he only played one game in the series. So maybe the Mariners kind of revealing the plan there with the right field situation. as a lefty on the mount today, Laz did not start. Las struggled against lefties in the minors. Still something he needs to work on at 21 years old.

Starting point is 00:03:11 But yeah, the debut was excellent. It's certainly one of the best ones in Mariners history. The Mariners have had some really good players make their debut in recent years. I mean, Calnick, Julio, Kyle Lewis had a nice debut himself,

Starting point is 00:03:27 Cole Young, Colt Emerson, and nobody got two hits. That's kind of crazy that it took 25 years. for that to be the case. But yeah, Laz looked comfortable at the plate. He played hard as he always does. He hustled everything out.

Starting point is 00:03:42 A lot of energy, a lot of smiles, exactly what the team needed from him yesterday. He needed to be a spark. He needed to hit a home run. He needed to provide some energy to the dugout. And he certainly did that, all those things and more. He almost killed Carlos Cardoza on the celebration at third. Definitely wasn't shy about joining Randy and his home run celebration.

Starting point is 00:04:03 and then a couple of innings later, he got to do it himself. So it looked at Trident there. So this guy who's confident, certainly, and is not afraid to be himself. And again, he brings an energy. He brings an excitement level that that clubhouse clearly needs. And in his first game, he was able to do that. And again, it's easy to do that when you reach base three times and you hit a home run and you have an RBI single. Like, it's really easy to be upbeat and be happy and all that.

Starting point is 00:04:28 But that's just kind of who Las is regardless of the circumstance. So, yeah. Yeah. certainly was a, you know, a great debut. And if nothing else, it gave us the fans just something to watch and want to see, regardless of how the team was playing. And, you know, as it so happened, the Mariners hit again and they won a game a little bit closer than it should have been. But they won.

Starting point is 00:04:52 And it was in large thanks or in large part thanks to Laz. So, yeah, it was a very good debut by Montez. And again, you did see everything there was to offer there. some swing and miss in the zone, some absolute power. He drew a walk in his major league debut, took some close pitches in his first plate appearance in the bigs. FNway Park, swung and missed at that first pitch in the strike zone because, of course, he did.

Starting point is 00:05:17 Yeah, it was just all there. It was all on display for Montes. And again, it does seem like the Mariners plan, at least for now, is that he's going to face righties, and they'll do some kind of Ward or Robles against lefties, and that's probably a smart move on the Mariners part. I did see some people frustrated he didn't play today. I get it.

Starting point is 00:05:38 I really do. Again, lefty on the mound. But also, you know, when they went to Bayo or whatever, it's, I mean, cool. You could do that. But at that point, you were up by a little bit. Defense is a factor when you're playing from ahead versus when you're playing from behind. And I don't, as much as last has worked on his defense and how much he has improved his defense. I don't know if throwing a guy in right field at Fenway Park for his first ever taste.

Starting point is 00:06:02 you know, at the major league level defensively is, is necessarily the best idea, especially when you're trying to nurse a lead that you, that you've cultivated. So I don't have any problems with that today either. But we'll see, Las, I think there, well, we don't know who two of the four starters are going to be for the A's. So we'll see how many lefties they throw at them. There will be one on Sunday.

Starting point is 00:06:23 But, yeah, it does feel like Laz is going to be in there most of the time this month, like he should be. And we'll see how long it takes the league to adjust to him. but as for, you know, opening days or debuts for Mariners, is certainly one of the best out there. And it provided everything it needed to and then some for this mariner team. Well, Colby, after last night's game, which is enough of a sample size, his end zone contact rate is 87.5%.

Starting point is 00:06:51 So boom, in your face. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like, sure, at one point it was zero percent. So like, yeah. Yeah, tough to say which way that's going to go. But I'll tell you this, if Laz is going to have an 87% end zone contact rate for the rest of the year, he might win rookie of the year. So there you go.

Starting point is 00:07:12 That's how confident I am that that's not going to maintain. But again, he hit home runs. He drew a walk. He provided energy. That's what you are hoping he brings to the table. And that's exactly what he did. So as for, you know, how this will end, like how his season will end in totality at the end of this. month. I don't know. Anybody's

Starting point is 00:07:32 guess this could be the high water mark, but he certainly brought the energy. He certainly brought a wow factor to not only the clubhouse, but also a fan base who was just looking for any reason to stick around and watch this team. And, you know, Laz, at least one game in, has given it to him.

Starting point is 00:07:48 All right. Coming up, we will talk about today's game and the mayor has won eight to three. Got a decent start out of Bryce Miller. Talk about that. The offense exploding once again. And just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Lockdown-Arens podcast is brought to you by Stance, Game Time, and Dose. It's time for the Everyday icon presented by Stance.

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Starting point is 00:11:52 Mariners. And also thank you for making the lockdown the number one sports podcast network. And 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. On there we talk Mariners, Seahawks, all that good stuff. For more information, go to patreon. dot com forward slash control the zone link in the description of this episode so the mariners beat the

Starting point is 00:12:12 red socks eight to three today at fenway park quite a wide gap there in the score despite both teams having the same amount of hits 12 hits to 12 hits in this game but the mariner's eight runs red socks just three marries put up four on the board on in the third they put up four on the board and the six that's it and that was more than enough for the end really good days for the 7, 8, 9 hitters in the Mariners lineup. Two for four day for Weston Wilson, three for three day for J.P. Crawford. And how about a two for three day for old Johnny Parada, who continues to find ways to contribute? But honestly, I thought the story in this one really, despite the great offense again for the

Starting point is 00:12:55 Marins for the third consecutive day, was Bryce Miller, who only went four and two thirds in this one, but only gives up one earn run on seven hits, strikes out three. walks one, gave up only five hard hit balls. I don't know, with the way that, you know, things have gone, obviously, for Bryce over his last eight or so starts, and then obviously the demotion, and then, you know, the quick turnaround having to go back into the rotation, the basically the same day that he was demoted to the bullpen when Emerson Hancock suffers that injury. It just kind of felt like this might have been a recipe for disaster, especially putting him out there against this lineup at this ballpark. And I thought he handled it very well.

Starting point is 00:13:33 And I also can't believe I'm about to do this. I also got to give a tip of the hat to Dan Wilson or pulling the plug on Bryce when he did. I thought that was, it was a risky move, but I thought it was one that the moment really called for. And the bears were able to get out of that situation where it was second and third. And, you know, they immediately put up, what, four more runs right after that. So, you know, shout out to Dan in that moment. how about that? But yeah, I thought everyone, like, had a, you know, like, kind of played a role in today's win,

Starting point is 00:14:09 and that was nice to say, except for Taylor Ward, really. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but I thought it was like a really nice team win by these guys, and especially it was nice to see Bryce kind of get back on the horse a little bit here, especially with them not expecting to make the start. Yeah, it was really an interesting decision from Dan because Bryce, pitch count-wise, totally fun. And I wouldn't say Bryce was really good in this outing, but he was grinding, right? And he was very deliberately, like, I'm not going to allow for a big inning. Like,

Starting point is 00:14:43 I'm not going to lose this game before it starts. And the first inning, he caught a little bit of a break with one of the worst sins you'll see on one of the worst efforts to keep a ball in the infield you'll ever see from West and Wilson. That ball was at like 18 miles an hour. How did you not tackle that ball? But whatever. So he caught a little bit of a break there. And there was, there was always traffic. He gave up seven hits, you know, in this game and in only four and two thirds, but he only had five whiffs. So like Bryce Miller wasn't particularly sharp, but he was battling. And at the very least, that is not something he has done over the last two months. He kind of found a way to get some outs. Again, he got a little bit of a break there early, but he really grinded through this lineup a couple of times. And then, you know, with two outs and the time and the time run still on the on deck circle, I and with the state of the bullpen over the last couple of days, it was. would have been easy, I think, for Dan to be like, look, Bryce is only at 65 pitches.

Starting point is 00:15:34 Let's see if you can get this guy out. And then we might be able to squeeze another one out of him. Instead, he goes to Ferrer. And hilariously, Ferre left on left, gives up the double. But he gets the next guy out and they don't give up a run out of that situation. And so, and then obviously they score four. And that changes the math entirely for Dan because now he can take Ferre out. And he can put Rucker in and he can put Chriswell in.

Starting point is 00:15:53 And he doesn't have to burn, thankfully, that almost got to this point. But thankfully, he didn't have to use Spire. he didn't have to use, he didn't have to use Munoz. He didn't have to use Bizarro, which, but, you know, and Dominguez only through seven pitches and Ferre only through like what, seven or eight. So like,

Starting point is 00:16:11 Bolpin actually should be in pretty good shape tomorrow, despite taking his, his starter out at 65 pitches today. And with Kate Anderson, obviously on a pitch count, I'm probably only going to go five max, maybe if you're lucky, you'll go five.

Starting point is 00:16:26 Then, yeah, you kind of need this bullpen. No off day till Monday. So it was a really risky move from Dan, but it was the correct one. And it's not because it worked because it actually didn't. Like he was supposed to get a Brayu out, a Bray who caught the double off of Ferrer, and he had to get a righty out. And he did. So, you know, it didn't work the way he wanted it to, but it was the right move. And I think that's important here.

Starting point is 00:16:46 And Dan talked about this apparently yesterday. I don't watch Dan Wilson post games for very valid reasons. What? You don't? No. That's so surprising. I know. a tough one, but you, you have been on the record as saying that you care about what all the players

Starting point is 00:17:03 and all the coaches have to say after every single game and every sport too, by the way. Yeah, I know you're the first one to pull up Mike McDonald's press conference after a Seahawks game. Absolutely. I just love to know what he thinks. But he did mention that like, hey, yeah, you know, we're in September now. We're in a hole. Like, we have to be more aggressive. We just have to be.

Starting point is 00:17:25 And he's right. Now, unfortunately, you could have been a little more. throughout the season, picked your spots a little bit, maybe you wouldn't be in such a big hole. But whatever, today he did the right thing. He pulled the trigger at the right time. And I'm glad it worked out for him because there's nothing worse than, you know, you have a manager who's not good at this.

Starting point is 00:17:42 And then he actually does something smart. And you're like, oh, okay. And then it blows up in his face. You're like, well, probably never going to do that again. But today it worked out the way it needed to. So, you know, again, kudos to Dan for being aggressive as he needed to be for not trusting Bryce Miller, which you have no reason to. based off of how the last eight starts have gone.

Starting point is 00:18:00 And he actually looked like he was watching the game today. And was like, you know, statistically, Bryce is fine. The pitch count is fine. He's only giving up one run. There's two outs. Like, I could have him face a Brayu. And even if he has a home run, we're still up by one. But no, like, no, we need to maintain this lead.

Starting point is 00:18:17 We don't want Boston to get back into this game. So we have to be aggressive here. We're not going to have Bryce Miller face four, five, and six for the third time. Let's go to a Ferrer and let's get out of this. and it worked out, and again, not perfectly, but it worked out well enough. And it was a turning point in this game. Yeah, well, and for the credit that I was given, you know,

Starting point is 00:18:37 Bryce, despite that, you know, he was walking the tightrope quite a bit in this game. You know, a lot of traffic on the base pass, especially early on. You mentioned the lack of whiffs that he was getting all that. So, yeah, I felt in that moment like this feels like this is going sideways. So you should probably go out and get him. And, you know, there have been a lot of times this year where I'm like, yeah, you should probably go get that guy and Dan hasn't and that it's blown up in their face

Starting point is 00:19:01 more often than not. I was very surprised and very glad to see Dan actually step out of that dug out and go get Bryce. Yeah. Yeah. So got to give him credit. Also you have to give the bullpen credit today. They had to cover four and a third. Yeah, Michael Rucker.

Starting point is 00:19:19 I mean, that's why he's only pitching when it's 8 to 1. You know, like that that's why. Yeah. But Ferreira was fine today. Dominguez very good and so was Chriswell. Yeah. Dominguez. It's been,

Starting point is 00:19:34 it's been storming here all day. We've literally had tornado warnings and thunderstorm warnings. And I was like, I don't know if we're going to be able to record the show. I don't know if I'm going to lose my power. You know, and this game was just going on forever. So salute to Sir Anthony Dominguez and Cooper Criswell

Starting point is 00:19:48 for having, for throwing 16 combined pitches. And there are two innings of work today in this game. Oh, you guys are my guys are my goats since the the blow-up debut of dominez where he gave what five runs in an or in a third of an inning or something like that yeah yeah since then he's been good i think the the xerra or the fifths below three the era in general is i think he's only allowed to run in two outings since that one uh and kind of hilariously he's done without

Starting point is 00:20:20 striking out many guys his his k for nine is like seven and a half yeah it really is kind of weird uh, but didn't he have kind of a rough one in the first Toronto games. He gave up a couple runs and yeah. Look, I was, I was a, I was a few beverages in at that point on, on Friday, but, uh, I,

Starting point is 00:20:39 I, I think he gave up a home run to George Springer. Yeah. Like he's had the really, really bad outing and then he had a, a disappointing outing in Toronto. But other than that, I think he's only giving up a run in one other outing.

Starting point is 00:20:52 And that goes back to August 7. So it's only like 10 outings, but still, you know, he's, he's been solid and he's helped, you know, kind of stabilize. He gives you another guy that can pitch in the Bizarro situations and based on how Bizarro's been for the last, you know, month and a half, two months. Like, yeah, that that's actually kind of important. And Bizarro might be more in the, uh, Rucker stack now at this point.

Starting point is 00:21:14 He might be. He might be. Especially if they can get Brash back anytime soon. But, uh, yeah, it's the bullpen, I think did a nice job today. And, and, you know, uh, aside from home. Billner they actually did a nice job yesterday as well yeah he'll be milder we had we had a record setting debut and and we got to see lad's play also on on mond or tuesday night so yeah the hoby miller game didn't go well didn't go well uh but munoz was able to comment and he only needed

Starting point is 00:21:43 four pitches to get the last two out uh but hey you know what hidden benefit of today's game didn't need munoz at all yeah which he had pitched the previous two nights uh and he only threw four pitches yesterday. So I'm sure if they needed him, he would have been available today. But now he should definitely be available tomorrow. Whereas if you needed to use him today, probably not. So that really is nice. So the bullpen was very good. It's a good series win. Should have been better. The Mariners almost certainly should have gone four and two on this road trip instead of two and four. And if they had done that, we're having a completely different conversation for the rest of this month. But you know what? They got through the gauntlet of August.

Starting point is 00:22:23 now they have this 22-game stretch that we've talked about all year. We'll see how many games they'll need to make up. Go White Sox. The Mariners could be within, what, three and a half by the time they play tomorrow if the White Sox won these next two games against the Astros. Oh, it's a four-gamer? It's a four-gamerer, yeah. So they play tomorrow at like 11.

Starting point is 00:22:44 So the Maris could be three and a half back, which hilarious would be hilarious because that would actually be like, what, half game better than they were before they went two and four on this road trip. Texas lost today also. I think there were three back when they went on the road trip. So they might have lost a half a game. But we'll see. Obviously,

Starting point is 00:23:01 the White Sox need to help you out here. But you're to that 22 game point of the season that we talked about where it's like, hey, man, if you can stay in this race, those 22 games, you'll have a chance. If they had gone four and two, I think we might be talking about this team being like a world or like, we'd be talking about this team being like, this team's going to win the division. I feel really good about it. if they had gone four and two on this road trip instead of two and four. As it is, we'll see what happens.

Starting point is 00:23:26 Go White Sox. But hey, you know what? The Mariners' offense was really good in Boston. They're getting ready to play one of the worst teams in baseball for four straight at home. So we'll see. There's still a little bit of time left, but it's an uphill battle that they've created for themselves. But at the very least, this is a team that is playing a little bit.

Starting point is 00:23:49 they've won three of their last four series believe it or not tie three of their last four against three playoff teams good three good playoff teams yeah three teams with world series aspirations unfortunately sandwich between those three playoff or those three series wins was a five game losing streak in which you got swept by a bad blue jays team yeah so it's kind of like yeah my my my wallet is where yes we've lost three out of four or we've won three out of four series against you know really good playoff teams. And there was a five game losing streak sandwiched in there that really killed us, especially since we should have won two of those five.

Starting point is 00:24:26 So it hasn't been the case for the 2026 Mariners missed opportunities. Yeah. So we'll see what happens with the Astros and White Sox game tonight as well as tomorrow, but especially tonight because, you know, when we talked about where do they need to wind up, you know, after this road trip, I said like they need to be. to four games back by the end of the road trip. Well, if the White Sox win tonight, they beat the Astros and the Mariners are four back. That's obviously, you know, the back half or the back end of what I was hoping to see here, you know, at the end of this road trip.

Starting point is 00:25:00 But, you know, they would be in striking distance, considering that they still have two against the Astros. They still have three against the Rangers. And they have this incredibly light schedule in general. so maybe. But if they're five back, you know, five and a half back going into tomorrow night's game, that's just a lot.

Starting point is 00:25:25 They really needed to win today. Yeah. Yeah. And they did. All right. That is going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Marroner's podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network,

Starting point is 00:25:36 your team every day for Colby Patnode. I'm Tadangazales. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L.O. underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Tadding Gonzalez and Colby at C-Pat 11. CPAT 1-1. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB Colby, and the show at Lockdown Mariners. You can also find us on Instagram and TikTok at Lockdown Mariners. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time. Peace.

Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Lazaro Montes Goes BOOM as Seattle Mariners Take 2 of 3 in Boston

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