Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mariners Choke Away Sweep Opportunity

Episode Date: April 22, 2022

Hosts Ty Dane Gonzalez and Colby Patnode look back on the Mariners' disappointing 8-6 loss to the Rangers and discuss whether or not it's time to panic on the struggling Julio Rodríguez. Plus, what h...appened to the games Seattle was supposed to play to start the season before the lockout changed the schedule? Afterwards, Colby and Ty preview the team's upcoming weekend series against the Royals.Be sure to follow or subscribe to Locked On Mariners wherever you prefer your podcasts! For questions and other inquiries, email: lockedonmariners@gmail.comFollow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11For more of Ty and Colby, check out their Patreon: patreon.com/controlthezone/Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.Blue NileThis Mother’s Day give mom something she’ll treasure forever with fine jewelry from Bluenile.com, and LOCKEDON SPORTS listeners get $50 off $500. Use code LOCKEDON at checkout. BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! 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.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Well, there are going to be losses like the one the Mariners suffered last night. It's just the nature of baseball. But that doesn't make it hurt any less. So let's cope together here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Colby, hit it. You are Locked on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day.
Starting point is 00:00:23 It is Friday, April 22nd, 2022. And this is Locked on Mariner's podcast. Thank you so much for making us your first list. of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. I'm your host, Taddy Gonzalez. Join, as always, by my co-host, Colby Patineau. Be sure to follow the show on Twitter at L-O- underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dane Gonzalez. It's D-A-N-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-P-A-E-P-A-E-T-E-N-Z-E.
Starting point is 00:00:45 Be sure to also check out our Patreon where we talk about the Mariners even more. And also get into some non-baseball talk twice a week. Visit patreon.com forward slash control the zone. For more information on that, if you are interested in, and if this is your first time joining us here, welcome to the show. If you like what you hear,
Starting point is 00:00:59 give us a follow or subscribe wherever you listen to this. And if you're watching us on YouTube, hit the subscribe button, turn on the notification bell. Give this video a thumbs up and tell you friends. Come check us out. Or your enemies don't really care. We greatly appreciate it either way. So last night was hashtag not good for the Seattle Mariners.
Starting point is 00:01:18 It started out great. First setting, five runs, a couple of home runs, a three run shot from J.P. Crawford, a 90 grade bat flip. But from that point forward, the Mariners' offense did not score again until the bottom of the eighth to tie things up at 6 to 6. Marco Gonzalez was cruising for a while. Changeup was looking nasty. He generated 16 whiffs in this game.
Starting point is 00:01:43 And then the fifth inning happened. A couple errors from J.P. Crawford and things just fell apart. The Rangers had been chipping away a little bit at the lead before then, but it all came to a head there. And yeah, it kind of just set the tone for what ultimately was a very frustrating end to this game for the Mariners. and they end up not being able to sweep the Rangers when really they should have been. Yeah, it's just not, it's just one of those nights. It doesn't make it any less frustrating when it's happening, knowing that it's one of those nights.
Starting point is 00:02:21 But it was just brutal because Marco was really good. He was cruising, had a little bit of a hiccup in the second inning, gave up a couple doubles. But really he was cruising. It looked like he was going to go six, seven innings, allow two, three runs and hand it over to the bullpen. exactly what we wanted him to do yesterday when we talked yesterday. The changeup was great as we said it needed to be against the right-handed heavy lineup.
Starting point is 00:02:46 And it just all kind of fell apart there on the fifth. Marco did make the one mistake. He threw a cutter that just kind of stayed in the middle of the plate. And that was the big blow, the two-run homer. But other than that, Marco was pretty good. And, you know, it's not hard to see or understand why Marco might lose his concentration when J.P. Crawford's booted two balls and he should have been out of the inning 15 pitches ago. So it's unfortunate, but I think if you're blaming Marco for this for this loss and I saw
Starting point is 00:03:15 some people were, you completely missed the point. I don't know what you were watching. Marco was was not the problem. And, you know, well, it's easy to point at JP and his two heirs and those were huge. And JP himself took, took blame for this loss saying that it's on him. the real culprit here was once again the mariner's inability to get the big hit with a guy in scoring position at least consistently they they had runners on all night and they were going up against a bad rangers bullpen and they just could not add on uh herne gave up five in the first and they score one run in the next eight innings off of taylor herne albert abrayu brett martin spencer patten and matt bush like oh and joe barlow they walked 11 times in this game
Starting point is 00:04:02 and they couldn't get the big hit after the first inning. Plenty of opportunities. But blaming Marco Gonzalez or blaming the umpire who was terrible, don't get me wrong. I think you're just missing the point entirely, though. That was not the issue was the offense going silent after a big, loud first inning. And we're kind of getting to a point now where the Mariners aren't getting home runs.
Starting point is 00:04:29 with guys on base, they're not getting anything. So it's concerning, well, concerning is not the right word. It's a pattern that's starting to repeat itself. But yeah, you know, at the end of the day, these type of games happen. You still won the game or won the series. But it is frustrating when you had the sweep and you can kind of start to build momentum.
Starting point is 00:04:51 And we know how difficult May looks on the schedule. So stacking every one you can before that moment would be huge. So it's a whole lot of frustrating things happening, but it's baseball. You know, it happens and there's not much we can do about it. You know, hand-wringing is only going to take you so far. I will say also Jesse Winker had an horrendous night out in the field. He didn't make any airs, but, you know, he came up on a medium deep fly ball and just kind of stood there flat-footed to catch it.
Starting point is 00:05:22 Didn't, you know, try to get his momentum going home. Just didn't even give him a shot to throw the guy out at the plate. he allowed Mitch Garber to score from first base on a double that didn't kick into the corner or anything like that, just because he was just kind of laxadaisical about getting the ball. It just, they picked on Winker last night. The Rangers did. And, you know, I think it's fair to ask if maybe the offensive struggles are starting to manifest themselves in the field for Winker because it was it was unacceptable effort from a guy who's supposed.
Starting point is 00:05:57 supposed to be one of your leaders. And it just, you can't carry that stuff with you out to the field, which I know is easier said than done, but you know, you got to do it. So it was, it was not a good night for Jesse Laker either. Yeah, two for 11, I believe, with runners in scoring position for the Mariners in this game. And I believe this is courtesy of Tyler Wiki, friend of the show, writer over at the Tacoma News Tribune. the Mariners are now 0 for 6 with bases loaded
Starting point is 00:06:28 and they had bases loaded again last night in the bottom of the 8th obviously two outs but Tom Murphy able to work a walk Abraham was it Abraham Toro? Toro walked right and then it was Murphy grounded out struck out struck out struck out right yeah fastball yeah okay yeah I try
Starting point is 00:06:49 just for for context here I didn't really watch the game last night I fell asleep pretty early on. I was also recording another show. I tried to catch up on it as much as I could this morning. I tried to watch little bits and pieces of the game. Yeah. It was a frustrating effort
Starting point is 00:07:08 from the bits and pieces that I saw. Just no real capitalization on a situation that should have resulted. I mean, with the way that this game started, and the basically the build of
Starting point is 00:07:24 this rangers bullpen and just everything that goes into it the mariner should have scored 10 plus runs in this game easily easily 11 walks no no team should get away with just giving up six runs when walking 11 guys just you just can't allow that to happen you have to punish the rangers in that situation you have to you absolutely have to and yeah you know there was some bad calls there was some bad miss calls. You know, there was another one to Julio. There was one to Jared Kellnick. There, you know, but also, you know, we should probably say here,
Starting point is 00:08:01 Julio was not good last night either. Like, there were, there were a couple of opportunities where he got very aggressive. He continues to let it go, 02, 1-2, and he's kind of putting himself in these positions where he's having to rely on working with just one strike to give. And that's, you know, what's kind of leading to some of these, you know, bad miscalls. I'm not defending the umpires in these situations though, but like, but Julio's got to be better earlier on in the count. He's got to be better earlier on in the count. He's got to be able to take advantage of, you know, getting 1-0, 2-0, 2-1, etc.
Starting point is 00:08:39 And getting to more favorable counts that will lead to more favorable pitches and more mistakes from pitchers that he can ultimately take advantage of because when he is making contact. He is hitting the absolute crap out of the ball. It's just he's not getting bat to the ball that often. But I mean, like we saw it last night, right? In the
Starting point is 00:09:00 ninth, he hit a ball on a rope. And unfortunately Adelaise Garcia made a great dive and play to rob him of that hip. But it was another ball over 100 miles per hour off the bat. Like he is going to hit the absolute living hell out of the ball but it's just
Starting point is 00:09:16 you know, he's not getting those opportunities. as much because he is swinging early. He's getting way too aggressive early on in the count. He's not working these at bats consistently. And, you know, the good thing, though, is, like, with the pitches that he is taking that are getting called strike three when they shouldn't be, good thing is, he is taking those pitches. He's taking close pitches.
Starting point is 00:09:40 He has a good eye for the strike zone. It's just he's getting too aggressive early on in the count. It's putting them in these unfavorable situations. and it's just, it's leading to some of these issues. I'm still not of the belief. I saw last night a lot of people, well, looking back through my feed today, I saw a lot of people saying, like,
Starting point is 00:09:59 Julio's not ready. It's just, he's not ready. You should send him down once Mitch Hanigur's back, et cetera. I don't think that that's the case. I don't think we know that yet. You know, he has looked bad, but I think, but it's only been 13 games. And if he can just be a little more patient early on in the count,
Starting point is 00:10:18 I think that would change a lot of stuff for him. I think he'd be in a much better position than he is right now. And I think that's just something that he's got to learn. And I think that the only way that he can really learn that right now is being up here. And then if it continues for another few weeks, then yeah, you send him down. But right now, I just – because, like, who are you bringing up for him right now? Stephen Susan? No.
Starting point is 00:10:40 Billy Hamilton? Like, what are they going to do for you offensively? I tell you, Billy Hamilton probably would have saved the Mariners and run over Dillon more last night, but that's not, we're not going to dive into that again, although I could. But yeah, it's just, it's one of those things where it's like, where's the better option? He doesn't exist. And this goes back to one of my biggest gripes of the off season is that they didn't add that veteran outfield, just kind of filler guy. You know what I mean? Like, where is Mark Kana, Tommy Pham?
Starting point is 00:11:12 I'm like, where is that guy? Because relying, right now the mayors are relying far too often on Julio and Kelnick to come up in these big spots. And they're just not going to produce in that opportunity right now, not very often at least. So they needed a safety net there. And we talked about how vulnerable they were because, well, Hanager is not exactly the healthiest guy. And if Hanager goes down and you're relying on two of those three every single night, you're going to have games where it's going to be bad. it's going to cost you. And obviously we didn't foresee COVID for Hanager,
Starting point is 00:11:46 but it's still, you know, they didn't prepare themselves for this. And even if like you send Julio down, like who's, what's the option? Taylor Tremel is hurt. Kyle Lewis hasn't started playing yet.
Starting point is 00:11:59 And even if those were two viable options at this stage, even if they were both healthy, you feel better about either of them than Julio? I mean, Lewis may be, but Lewis isn't healthy. So yeah, you're just,
Starting point is 00:12:11 you're just going to kind of roll with this, at least for a little while. And we'll see. And, you know, obviously, again, not having Luis Turenz and Mitch Hanigar hurts. So maybe those are the guys who are coming up with those game situations late in the game instead of Kelnick pinch hitting or instead of Julio. So, yeah. We'll see how it goes. But, yeah, I mean, last night, there's just a lot of things to be frustrated about. But it's, you know, it's time to move on.
Starting point is 00:12:40 Yeah, it's time to talk about today. It's game 13, right? Like, we got 140, we have 149 more of these. The Mariners are still 7 and 6. They are one game off of the best record in the American League right now. Like a lot of teams are hovering around 500. There's, it's April. Like, I don't know what else you want me to say here.
Starting point is 00:13:04 There is nothing to really get up in arms about right now. This seems in a decent enough spot and there's still a lot of room to grow and there's still a lot of stuff that, you know, you can feel pretty confident is going to change in the right direction for the Mariners as well. Jesse Winker, Julio Rodriguez, a couple guys that we talked about today. I think those guys are going to get back on track, particularly Winker. And as far as Julio goes, you know, I would be more concerned if he wasn't making hard contact consistently. and if he was just chasing bad pitch after bad pitch. And yeah, he's chased a little bit, you know, but that's going to happen. A lot of guys are going to do that.
Starting point is 00:13:44 But he's shown good enough discipline that, you know, for a rookie, I feel pretty confident that with some tweaks, he's going to figure some stuff out here. So it's not time to jump off the Julio train here for now. we'll see in about a few more weeks. I would say I would give it a few more weeks, a couple more weeks at least. All right, so up next, we are going to be talking about some of those games that got postponed that the Mariners were supposed to play before the lockout happened and MLB canceled those games, wink, wink.
Starting point is 00:14:24 But what happened to those games? Where are they now? When are the Mariners going to play those? We're going to be talking about that in just a moment. But real quick, a reminder of this episode of Lockdown Mariners, it's brought to you by Bilt Bar. This is the time of year that I've pretty much given up on all of my New Year's resolutions, but not this year.
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Starting point is 00:16:31 Recaps of MLB games with analysis from our local experts, including myself, taking fans through the season like no other network. It is free and available wherever you get your podcast just like us. So remember, the Mariners were actually supposed to open the season at home, T-Mobile Park. They were supposed to open it up against the Tigers, and then they had a two-game set with the Angels, but those games ultimately got canceled,
Starting point is 00:16:56 according to Rob Manfred. and then eventually postponed, which is what they were always going to be. They were always going to be postponed. We're still having a 162 game season. But what happened to those games? Well, the Tiger series, because the Mariners don't really have an opening to play four additional games in the midseason, have been pushed all the way to the end of the season. The Mariners were supposed to end their season on October 2nd against the Oakland A's.
Starting point is 00:17:26 that's now going to end on October 5th. They're going to play four games from October 3rd through the 5th against the Tigers with a double header on October 4th. That is a Tuesday, which, yeah, double header with the playoffs coming up. That's not great. Then as for the two-game series with the Angels, Saturday, June 18th, there's going to be a double header versus the Angels at T-Mobile Park,
Starting point is 00:17:54 which is actually going to be a part of a what is technically going to be a five game series between the Angels that weekend. And then they are going to play the second of those postponed games on Saturday, August 5th. That is another double header between the Angels. But Colby, it's a lot of double headers. That's a lot of games against the Angels in June at home.
Starting point is 00:18:21 I mean, they're trying to cram all these games in, and this kind of shows the impact of trying to cram all these games and all at once and not giving teams many off days and the Mariners are ultimately going to have to play a lot of games with very little rest. Yeah, it's stupid. Let's just say, let's just call it like it is. These games don't need to be made up,
Starting point is 00:18:49 but they're going to be forced to be made up, simply so owners can recoup quote unquote some revenue. they lost, even though they didn't actually lose any. So, yeah, it's dumb because, again, now you go into a situation where, you know, the Mariners are playing a division rival, and granted, it's Oakland, who's probably not going to be competitive at the end of this thing. They go from playing that, you know, to playing a random series against Detroit. And having, if the Mariners are so lucky to make the playoffs, they have to have a double header.
Starting point is 00:19:23 And the odds are is that the mirrors probably don't know that they've made the playoffs by the time that series starts, just reading the T leaves here. So it's not like they can just say, oh, well, you know, we'll just, we'll throw a Nick Mark Havages in game two. And it doesn't really matter. We want to lose it because we're in the playoffs. That's probably not the case. Probably not going to be the case for the Mariners this year.
Starting point is 00:19:44 Maybe it is. That would be great. But it's probably not going to be. And now you've thrown a double header in the last week, all because you don't want to push, just push the season. the World Series back one week basically is what it is. That's beyond stupid. And so now we're seeing guys, you know,
Starting point is 00:20:01 pull hammies and burn their obliques and just like, of course we're seeing all these kind of soft tissue injury type of things. Of course we are. You didn't give them adequate time to get ready. So it's just, it's beyond stupid that Major League Baseball is trying to cram these games in. Just cancel them like you said. You're not losing all that much revenue.
Starting point is 00:20:19 And for some teams, you're not losing any revenue at all. the Mariners still had their opening day. They still got that attendance number. You know, maybe lose out on 50,000 tickets over the course of those games. It's not a big deal. So they should have just canceled the games, gone with 154 game season or 156, whatever it was, and just kind of kept the off days the way they were.
Starting point is 00:20:47 It's just scheduled doubleheaders are fine, but there needs to be off days built into a accommodate those and just because of Major League Baseball's own, let's just say stupidity. Yeah, sure. Now, teams like the Mariners and every team has to suffer through these pointless doubleheaders on just on the principle that owners don't want to sacrifice any of the gate for these games. It's just stupid. Yeah, and I believe it's the series in June with the Angels. yeah, the five-game series where they're not going to have an off-day
Starting point is 00:21:27 so their first off-day in June is June 9th. Then they play three games against the Red Sox three against the Twins, then they play the five games against the Angels before they get another off-day on June the 20th. So they play one, two, three, four, five, six, 11 games before another off-day. That's a lot.
Starting point is 00:21:50 In 10 days. In 10 days. that's that's yeah that's too much that's too much that's uh you're putting players at risk there and um yeah i'm just i'm i'm not really sure how the uh the mariners are going to be able to to navigate that i'm not sure you know because obviously this is not a situation that's exclusive to the mariners either right like all every team has to make up all of their their series from um you know the start of the year um but just talking about it from a Mariners perspective. It's just
Starting point is 00:22:23 you know, you're entering the summer. That's going to be the start of the summer right there. Getting into the summer stretch, you're really starting to get into the swing of things and you've got to play all these games and you already have two months of games under your belt. It's just a lot. It's just overkill. It's just way too much. It doesn't, like, I get
Starting point is 00:22:40 that, you know, there really wasn't another opportunity to do this. But I mean, the Mariners have off days, you know, throughout the season where maybe the Angels, if they're around the Pacific Northwest, could come up for one game on those off days. But I don't know. But then, you know, at that point as well, you know, the counter argument to that is, well,
Starting point is 00:23:03 you're taking another off day off the board for the Mariners as well. So I don't know. There isn't really a perfect answer to this other than they probably should have just canceled the games. Yeah. You know, or they should have, they should have moved the World Series back, you know, like you said. You know, but, yeah, just, you know, how. Like with 162 games and with the World Series being when it is and everything
Starting point is 00:23:26 There just really isn't a perfect answer for it. You know, it's just a really Unfortunate thing for the players and unfortunate thing for the teams and you know, it's going to be really interesting to see how they They try to maneuver that because you know and try to stay healthy through it all because that's really the biggest thing here again like you said 11 games in 10 days That's just a lot of baseball So yeah, we'll see how it goes. But up next, we're going to be previewing tonight's game and the series with the Kansas City Royals. Real quick, though, a reminder of this episode of Lockdown Mariners. It's brought to you by BetOnline.
Starting point is 00:24:08 Betonline.net is your number one source for all your betting stats and sports info. Find all the latest sports developments, league reviews and news, including this year's basketball playoffs, and the start of the Major League Baseball season. Bet Online is your continued source for all your sporting wagering information from live betting to playoffs E-sports and more Head to the website today or use your mobile device to learn more about the trends and action Bet online where the game starts So Mariners Royals start tonight at T-Mobile Park you're going to the game tonight You're actually we're recording earlier on in the day than we usually do so you can start heading over to Seattle
Starting point is 00:24:42 You're gonna be seeing Chris Flex and again Fifth time I believe in your life that you've watched Chris Flex and Pitch and pitch and and not on purpose, not on purpose, to be clear. We got Flexen versus Brad Keller, who's been pretty good to start the year. 13-90s pitch, 3-21 FIPP, 13-8 ERA, just striking out a little under seven batters per nine. So not a big strikeout guy, but not walking a lot of guys either, just 2.08 walks per nine this far. And, you know, obviously the Mariners, best walking team in baseball. something's got to give there, if you will.
Starting point is 00:25:21 But what are you hoping to see from Flexen, who hasn't gotten off to a great start to the year? And what are you hoping to see from the offense coming off of a brutal loss? Do you think they're going to be able to bounce back? Yeah, from Flexen, you know, one of the things I saw last week when I was there is the passball velocity was down quite a bit.
Starting point is 00:25:44 He's throwing a lot of 90s, and it's usually 92, 93. Again, it's tough to know about off-speed stuff when you're there, and I didn't re-watch the game. But my understanding is that Flexen just really wasn't that sharp. He wasn't awful, but he wasn't that sharp. Kansas City's got a pretty good lineup. It's not nearly as scary as Houston's, but, I mean,
Starting point is 00:26:05 Nikki Lopez is a really good player. Penitenti is a really good player. Salvador Perez. Whitmerfield slumping right now, but we know he's a very good player. So, yeah, it's certainly not a lineup that you can just kind of sleepwalk your way through. So it'll be interesting to see how he attacks it. Hopefully the velocity is back up. And then, you know, like part of me is waiting for that little surprise.
Starting point is 00:26:28 I'm going to get on the way to the ballpark that somebody has been placed on COVID aisle. Nobody was placed on it yesterday, which could be a good sign. But we'll wait and see how it goes. Against Keller, Keller's a little tougher than you think when you look at a savant page. He's a solid. He's a, you know, number four-ish type of guy. he actually gets a good amount of chase out of the zone, 88 percentile and chase rate this year. Fastball spin, it's not an overpowering fastball.
Starting point is 00:26:56 It's 94 miles an hour, but it has pretty good spin rates as well, 66 percentile. He's been good this year. His underlying numbers suggest he's been a little bit lucky, but he's still been very good. And honestly, when I look at Brad Keller and I kind of look at, he looks to me kind of like a poor man. Hans Hermann Marquez. Now, I don't know what that says about Brad Keller or Hermann Marquez, but you can interpret that however you want. Maybe one of them is overrated.
Starting point is 00:27:27 I don't know. But yeah, he's going to be in the strike zone. He's going to work the edges. The Mariners, you know, they walk quite a bit. He's not going to walk you. So you're going to have to be pretty aggressive in the zone. The stuff again, it's not overpowering stuff, but it does play up. because he gets pretty good movement on it.
Starting point is 00:27:48 The slider and the fastball are kind of his two weapons of choice. And they've both been very, very good this year. So you have to get after him and he's not going to give you anything. So you kind of have to force the issue here. And we'll see if the Mariners can do that. Yeah, hopefully. And hopefully Chris Flexson can go pretty deep in this game because this bullpen could use some rest. It got quite a bit of uses last night.
Starting point is 00:28:13 I would assume that DiO Castillo is available again after going three straight games, the last three games, you know, before last night. But yeah, they, you know, they took on quite a bit of workload last night through second writer pitch. Everyone basically pitched aside from Andreas Munoz and Diego Castillo. But yeah, you know, they could use, they could use a little bit of a relief here. And, you know, because they got Seawald hurt, or not hurt, on the COVID list, and Sergio Romo is hurt and obviously Sadler's out right now. Giles is out right now and yeah so the bullpen's done in a great shape. The Royals right now offensively have four guys over a WRC plus of a hundred.
Starting point is 00:28:58 That's Andrew Benetini, who's slashing 359, 419, 487, Nikki Lopez slashing 324, 361, 412, Salvador Perez, slashing 220, 256, 537. So a lot of that is just power. He's not really contributing elsewhere in terms of average. or on base. Kim Gallagher, who is Perez's backup, is slashing 250, 3333, 375. Michael Taylor is at a 94 WRC plus.
Starting point is 00:29:28 He's 226, 314, 323. The thing about the Royals, though, they're going to steal a lot, or they're going to try at least, and they already have eight stolen bases. A big part of that is Alberto Mondesi and with Merrifield, but Nikki Lopez can also steal some bags as well.
Starting point is 00:29:44 Michael Taylor, of course, is going to steal some bags. And here we are again. Another great defensive center fielder. Lovely. Amazing. Yeah. And don't sleep on Ben Attendee, who's also a great defensive left fielder and can steal some bags too. So, yeah.
Starting point is 00:30:05 Kansas City is kind of a difficult matchup for Seattle because Mariners' pitchers don't seem to care whatsoever about controlling the run game or even trying to. So this is a tougher matchup than just, you know, maybe the numbers would suggest. And I think Kansas City is a little bit better than people think. But I also think that the way that they built their team is a particular issue for a team like Seattle. Yeah, yeah. And the Mariners, of course, don't really care about the run game whatsoever. Their pitchers do not really care at all to check on the run game. And the catchers are not really capable of making up for that either.
Starting point is 00:30:42 It's been, you know, a couple of good plays here and there. Luis Trens made a, you know, caught a guy stealing. Cal Raleigh fired a seed over a second a couple nights ago. But yeah, overall, this group is not great at controlling the run game. They control the zone, but they do not control the run game whatsoever. So, yeah, so that could cause some problems. The good thing is, like you mentioned, Whitmerfield right now, is slumping. So try to keep him off base as much as,
Starting point is 00:31:12 possible because right now he is slashing just 136, 174, 159 for a WRC plus of wait for it, negative seven. This is the guy the Kansas City Royals wanted Jared Kellnaker, Julio Rodriguez, for reportedly, reportedly. That's, yeah, that's something. At Alberto Mondesie, who also, you know, is going to be one of the biggest base Steelers on this team, only slashing 135, 175, 179, 135 with a WRC plus. of negative 10. So hopefully,
Starting point is 00:31:46 hopefully those guys do not get on base a ton in this series. Because if they do, that'll create some problems. But if they don't, you should be in pretty good shape. Yeah, make sure you guys watch Ado Bertolti this weekend.
Starting point is 00:32:00 He is the eventual Dillan Moore replacement in July. So keep that in mind. He's better than Dillan Moore, who had a terrible night last night. Shocking, I know. But there we go. Just have to have that guy on the
Starting point is 00:32:12 roster so much more valuable than Billy Hamilton so much more anyways just had to get it in there just had to get you a little digger's nothing there's nothing wrong with Dylan more that changing his swing entirely cannot fix hey it's been over a week since you lost took a shot at DMO so you know it was it was coming it was coming the pitching matchups next two days we got Matt Brash versus Chris Bubbit tomorrow night and then Robbie Ray against Carlos Hernandez before the Mariners hit the road and go to Florida to play the Rays and the Marlins next week. It's going to be a fun road trip. Looking forward to it. So that is going to do it for our show today.
Starting point is 00:32:59 Thank you so much for making us your first listen of the day. We really appreciate the support. For Colby Patnode, I'm Tiding Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L.O. underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dane Gonzalez. It's D-A-N-E, G-N-Z-L-Z, and Colby at C-P-E-P-E-E-N-E-L-E. That's C-P-A-T-1-1.
Starting point is 00:33:19 You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. And thank you again, like I said, for making us your first listen to the day, just like you do here every day. Now make your second list of the day, locked on MLB. That's where Paul Francis Sullivan,
Starting point is 00:33:32 and please call him Sully brings you his unique perspective on the major league's president pass. It's free wherever you get your podcast just like us. So have yourself a beautiful baseball weekend, and we will see you on Monday. Peace. Thank you.

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