Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mariners Dodge First Sweep of the Season, End Nightmare Road Trip on a Good Note
Episode Date: June 26, 2024The Mariners still haven't been swept this season, ending an otherwise terrible road trip with a 5-2 win over the Rays on Wednesday. Ty and Colby discuss Trent Thornton's clutch ninth inning, George K...irby's strong six-inning start, and more.Ask us questions!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Tax Network USA Reduce your tax debt and get help from a team of licensed tax professionals call 1-800-549-1000 or visit TNUSA.com/lockedon. Booking.com The right stay can make you a fan of any US city - even your rival’s. Book today on Booking.com on the site or in the Booking.com app! Booking.com, Booking dot YEAH! LinkedIn Right now, you can try LinkedIn Sales Navigator and get a sixty-day free trial at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDON. PrizePicks Go to https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONMLB and use code lockedonmlb for a first deposit match up to $100! SupplyHouse SupplyHouse.com is the reliable way to get parts fast. Shop for your next plumbing, h-vac, or electrical job and get fast shipping from coast to coast. eBay Motors From brakes to exhaust kits and beyond, eBay Motors has over 122 million parts to keep your ride-or-die alive. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to bring home that big win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Gametime Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. FanDuel FanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. As playoffs wind down, the sports stop sporting like we want them to. But this summer, FanDuel is hooking up ALL CUSTOMERS with a boost or a bonus, DAILY! That’s right, there’s something for everyone, every day, all summer long! Visit FANDUEL.COM/LOCKEDON and add a big win to your summer bucket list! FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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At their lowest points of this season, the Marys have at least been able to stop the bleeding before things get really out of hand.
Hopefully today was yet another example of that as they end a nightmare road trip with a win down in Tampa.
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, June 26, 2024.
This is Tadang Azores and Colby Patnode for the Lockdown Marrars Postgame show, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, Your Team, every day.
Marron's beat the raise 5 to 2 this afternoon, ending a three-game losing streak and closing out an otherwise terrible road trip with some much-needed good vibe.
Certainly makes that long flight back to Seattle a lot better than, you know, the alternative.
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I think we have to start here with Trent Thornton.
Let's give Trent Thornton his flowers, right?
because he was asked to do something pretty remarkable today.
He is not expecting to pitch in this game as it progresses,
as it becomes clear.
Like, Andres Munoz is going to get the knife.
And Munoz has obviously been nails all year long.
So you expect him to be able to get the job done, right?
And then he's not able to, right?
He looks off.
Something looks off with Andres.
What's going on with Andres, right?
So the dugout makes a quick call to the bullpillar.
and they're trying to get Thornton ready very quickly because
Scott Service decides after Munoz faces the minimum,
he hits ESOC Paredes to cap things off,
loads the bases,
I got to go get him.
And so Thornton with very little preparation
has to come in and handle a bases loaded no-out jam.
Now with a four-run lead, of course,
that makes things a little bit easier to breathe.
But just a situation,
that could really, really get off the rails there.
And Thornton handled it massively.
He gets two huge ground balls.
One of them scores a run.
Who cares about that?
You take the out in that situation.
And then the game ending double play gets out of it
for his first career save.
So props to Trent Thornton.
That was massive because that thing gets out of hand there.
You end that road trip with the way that it had gone
by blowing a four run lead.
Woof.
So what was going through your head there during that inning, Colby?
Yeah, I think obviously concern first and foremost.
Not only is, you know, Andres Munoz not even near the strike zone for most of the day.
He only threw, you know, six of his 18 pitches for strikes.
But we also saw some 93-94 on the radar gun.
That's not even within the round.
of, you know, outcomes for Munoz when he's feeling good.
And obviously, we know about the back thing.
So that makes you worried.
And so, you know, you're not feeling great about it.
Thankfully, you know, Scott was not messing around there.
I think there was, I think the real, you know,
the real scary thing he could have done is he could have gone out there and just try to.
Let's see if Andres can work through this.
Thornton's, you know, been used quite a bit on this road.
trip and so maybe it's hey he just got up like do we really want to rush him to get ready and then
you know let's see if munoz can get through this and he doesn't he goes right to him uh thankfully
paredes had kind of a long at bat he fouled off a couple pitches uh gave thornton a bit longer to get
warm but uh yeah i think watching that you're just thinking about how this whole road trip is gone
and you're just you know kind of expecting disaster to strike uh but thankfully you know
Scott had the quick hook.
Really, his only move, but he made it.
And Thornton goes in there and throws 12 pitches,
nine strikes and just, you know,
goes right after these guys and gets a couple of ground balls,
which is huge because, you know,
it's bases loaded.
He leaves something in the middle of the plate.
It gets airborne.
It's really, really thin.
It's really shallow down those lines.
And it only takes one bad pitch to completely change the game.
So, you know, big credit to Thornton for,
for going out there and throwing quality strikes for the most part.
He threw a little bit of everything.
You know, he threw, he threw 12 pitches total, five different pitches in that 12, though.
So he was out there mixing and match in and just kind of trying to really pitch his way out
of that jam.
And he was able to do it.
So, you know, obviously we're going to be looking at Munoz over the next couple days.
That's going to be a bit of a worrisome issue.
but you know for the most part you're just concerned about Munoz's health and you're happy that
Thornton was able to come in and do such a good job and let that thing snowball into what would
have been a disastrous loss to cap your road trip right and it would have been their first time
getting swept this season but still you know we're we're almost in July and they haven't been
swept by a team yet this year and it goes back to what we've talked about
You know, when just kind of assessing how the mayors are in the position that they're in right now,
they've been able to stop the bleeding.
So hopefully this is another example of that because you have a massive homestown coming up.
You got two teams that are tough matchups for you.
And then you got a Blue Jays team that's trying to save its season right after that.
I know they haven't been playing particularly well, but, you know, they're aware of the rumors.
They're aware of that, you know, that whole era of baseball.
baseball in Toronto could get blown up if they don't start playing better here pretty soon.
And so they're going to be a very motivated ball club.
So that's going to be a really, really difficult homestand.
But look at the end of the day, the mayor is, you know, they go three and six on the road trip.
That's not good, right?
Four and six over your last 10.
That's not good either.
It's also not necessarily a disaster, right?
But it's like we talked about yesterday when we had Ben Renneri on the show.
it looks worse because of external factors
because well look at what the Astros are doing right now
they've essentially cut your 10 game lead in half
right
but this is what we've talked about
when it comes to the lead that the Mariners have built
it's not about you know let's
call it right now let's call the ALS for the Mariners right now
here in the middle of June
No, no, no, no.
It's not about that, right?
It's about banking wins so you can survive stretches like this.
Because look, good teams, they're going to go through this.
They're going to go through rough stretches.
I mean, hell, last year's World Series champion Rangers were painfully mediocre for the entire second half of last year.
Right.
But because they banked so many wins in the first half, they were able to survive it.
And then they got hot for a couple of weeks and won a championship.
So that's why it's so important or why it was so important to build the lead that they did because we already know what the flaws are of this team.
We know how unsustainable the roster as currently constructed is.
But banking those wins can't take those away allows you to survive that until you can fix some of the issues that your roster has.
Now, are they going to be able to fix everything?
No, like we've talked about on the show.
But can they add to the roster, make it a little bit better,
and be able to manage some of the other issues that they have?
Possibly.
And that's all you can really ask for at this point.
They're a very flawed team.
That is what it is.
They're going to be a very flawed team, no matter who they add.
Unless guys start playing a lot better, right?
Yep.
And you know who we're talking about specifically with that.
We don't need to go over that again.
But hopefully.
again, this stops the bleeding.
They're able to get back on track
and hopefully they can play some better ball
against Minnesota, Baltimore and
Toronto on this upcoming homestand. They need to.
They need to.
So let's talk about
the rest of what happened today in just a moment.
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The Mariners are off tomorrow,
but they are back at it on the weekend
against the Minnesota Twins at home,
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So a pretty decent day
for the offense, I would say.
it didn't start off well. They looked horrible against Ryan Pepio for the first half of this game.
But once Pepio left this game, offense started to figure it out.
Cal Raleigh with the big three run, home run. That gives them areas the lead. They were down one nothing for a while in this one.
That was set up by a big walk by Julio, which, you know, Julio deserves to be criticized for how he played on the course of this road trip.
but that was a nice moment from Julio.
Tough at bat for him.
Saw some,
felled off a couple of tough sinkers,
didn't really get anything in the strike zone
and was able to work a nine pitch walk
to extend the inning
and set up that home run by Cal.
And then, hey,
the Bears actually played some add-on,
which, you know,
again, made that ninth inning
a little easier for Trent Thornton to handle.
And
eliminated some of the anxiety,
that would have been there, you know, had it been just three to one.
So, you know, J.P. Crawford with the two-run single later on in the game.
So that was nice to see, you know, again, pretty inconsistent performance by the bats, but they scored five, right?
That's good enough to win most nights.
So what did you think about the offense today, you know, just any thoughts that you have on the rest of the game in general?
We'll talk about George Kirby here in a moment as well.
Yeah.
You know, offense still struck out 13 times today.
obviously that's not going to cut it.
Six of those were Rojas and more.
So, you know, not a great night, not a great day for the offense.
Obviously, they didn't have a ton of hard hit balls either.
They struck out a ton.
They only, well, they drew four walks, which, you know, not terrible in a nine-inning game.
But, you know, offense wasn't very good.
But they scored five.
So the end of the day, it doesn't really matter how you do it.
But as long as you score four or five, you're going to have a good chance to win that game.
If your pitching is anywhere decent, halfway decent.
JP, it's nice to see him have a better game today.
He had a rough time in Miami and in Cleveland a little bit.
So good to see him, you know, kind of bounce back with a multi-hit day.
Cowellie, the big three-run homer also walk twice.
He looks locked back in, which is huge.
And Mitch Garver, you know, one for four, just kind of continues.
I believe its first hit as a catcher today with his single.
Oh, really?
I believe so, yeah.
Yeah, just not a ton going on up and down.
The bottom third of the lineup today was one for one for 11 with seven strikeouts.
So really didn't get anything from the bottom of your order today.
Just the big three run homer and then CAP or then JP, you know,
finding a way. It was a very weird way to get to five, but they did it. So overall, it's the,
the offense did their job well enough to win this game, but it was far from, you know, a great
effort from them. No, but again, five runs that'll win you a game most nights, especially with
this pitching stuff, which I know, you know, there's been a lot of discussion about the pitching
staff and how much worse it's been on the road compared to at home, but nevertheless.
Speaking of, George Kirby, really good today.
He goes back to the, you know, the site of probably the worst moment of his young career last year.
I'm sure we all remember, you know, his postgame comments after, you know, he came back out and what was it, the eighth inning of that game and said he didn't want to be out there and seemed pretty bitter about the situation and all that.
And then he came out today and shoved six innings pitch, just the one-earned run on a run.
on a weird play, but just four hits allowed, seven strikeouts, no walks.
And I believe, I saw a stat today.
Hold on.
Let me pull this up on Twitter.
Yeah, George Kirby's last six starts, 37 innings pitched, 170 ERA, 39 strikeouts to just three walks.
That comes from at Jay Hey Kid on Twitter.
So yeah, so Kirby, really good today.
What did you make of his start?
Yeah, it was kind of a, I don't want to say old school approach from George, but it was pretty
fastball heavy today, 62% fastball, 40% four seamer, 22% two seamer.
Actually got a really good four seam fastball.
You got 35% whiff rate on that pitch, six whiffs on 17 swings.
You know, the slider was also really good.
It wasn't a big swing and miss pitch for him.
but the max exit below on that on that ball was 81.7 miles an hour so only a 25% whiff rate you want
better than that 29% called strike plus whiff not great not terrible but you know he didn't
give up any hard hits on that slider so it was a really good companion pitch today only through
six splits which is interesting but he did get two whiffs on three swings there so 67%
with rate on the splitter and threw in some knuckle curves as well.
He threw six of them, got five swings, actually, two whiffs on that pitch, one ball put
in play on that pit.
It was hard hit.
It stayed out of the zone pretty well, 53% zone percentage.
So it wasn't in the middle of the plate, but he threw enough strikes that he got Tampa
to kind of expand.
And, you know, pretty good job by Garber.
The strike zone was a little bit wide today at times.
times. He also threw out Cabriero trying to steal a base. Yep, sure did. So, you know, overall,
87 pitches, 46 swings, 13 whiffs, 11 called strikes, 28 percent called strike plus whiff.
Nothing, you know, electric. It's not like we haven't seen George do this before and been better
than this before, but still pretty darn solid. He goes, six innings gives up just the four hits,
no walks, seven strikeouts. Did it give us?
It did fall into a couple of, you know, 3-0 counts.
So, you know, with the way that the walks have gone in this entire series,
it's a little concerning that the walks, you know, that he got behind, fell behind so quickly.
But George is able to throw strikes.
We know we should feel really good that Kirby can throw strikes when he needs to.
And he did today.
Like I said, 53%, you know, zone rate.
That's not too bad.
That's about where you want them.
But, yeah, he was able to throw quality strikes.
when he needed to, and then he was able to expand the zone a little bit in this game.
And he was able to throw a nice little ballgame for Seattle and give them some innings,
which they need.
They absolutely needed innings.
And that's what made Luis Castillo's outing so disappointing last night because of the,
you know, what happened in game one with Ryan Wu having to exit early and them having to use
so much of their bullpen in that game.
Really, really nice outing from George Kirby today as he continues to stay hot over his last.
six starts.
So let's talk some injury news.
We'll talk about Luke Rayleigh and we'll talk about our concerns with Andreas
Munoz. A little bit more here in just a moment.
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So real quick on Luke Rayleigh, who was scratched from the last.
lineup shortly before the game.
He has a sore shoulder, according to Scott's service.
Thank you to Ryan DeVis and Shannon Dreher for sharing that information on Twitter.
He tried it out, tested it out during batting practice, and it just didn't loosen up.
Scott's hoping that the day off tomorrow will help him recover from that, and hopefully he's
able to get back into the lineup on Friday or Saturday.
So it doesn't seem like too huge of a deal there on Rayleigh, who, of course,
has been one of the merr's more consistent hitters this year.
That would obviously be a pretty big loss if he had to miss any sort of extended period of time.
But let's talk about Andreas Munoz.
So I don't think, you know, we're recording this as like Scott's doing his postgame appearance with media and all that.
So I don't think he mentioned anything about Munoz in terms of an injury or anything.
But we know that he's been dealing with this back issue for a while.
and obviously he comes out today
has no feel
for any of his pitches. His armside
fastballs are missing a ton, his
sliders are in the dirt,
his velocity is all over
the place, and he obviously
walks to guys, hits a batter,
it wasn't good,
and he was even talking to
the trainer in the dugout
after he was pulled. So,
clearly he didn't feel right.
Do they just need to bite the bullet
and put him on the IL? I know,
you can't really afford it with the state of this bullpen right now, but
you know, for the long term sake of
this team, this bullpen and Andreas Munoz himself,
do you think that's the right decision?
Yeah, you know, it's tough to say because, I mean,
so much of this, he was really good, you know, in his
previous out, since he's come back, he's was really good until today.
So, you know, it's, it's,
kind of a difficult,
uh,
kind of a difficult thing to maneuver right now.
Uh,
you are going to have some off days coming up.
So that's good.
Uh,
you have a Thursday.
You have tomorrow off and you have the Monday off.
Uh,
and then you have the Monday after that off.
And so,
you know,
you do have some off days built in a little bit to kind of help you with that.
But it's,
it's tough to say.
It really is tough to say because, you know,
again,
he was really good until today.
And so I don't know if it was injury related,
but the fact that he's only throwing 93.
tells me that there was at least something
either his back tightened up
on him or whatever
so I don't know if it's necessarily
you need to put him on the IL or
you need him to sit for a couple days
I don't know either way it's not great
and I also don't know that if you put him on the
IL for two weeks that that's going to fix anything
like is that going to make it more likely
that he's going to be able to pitch all year without pain
probably not well and that's probably
what they've determined here
because they've been so
cautious with their players this year for the most part that you'd think even with the state of the
bullpen that they would just do it especially this early on in the season if they felt that that time
on the aisle would help him recover but you know we don't know we're not we're not there we're not in
the training room we're not in the clubhouse we don't really know and we don't really know what the
extent of munoz's injury is and we don't know what goes into those uh conversations and
those decisions ultimately, but from the outside looking in, it's just if this is going to continue
to be a problem, I just, I do wonder if, if maybe putting him on the IL would help because you need
him. You need him. Yeah. You absolutely need him. Like he is, I think you can make a pretty strong
argument and it's very rare to do this with any reliever, but I think you can make a pretty strong
argument for how much he's meant to this bullpen with the current state that it's in and with how
how many close games this team plays.
He's the MVP of the team right now.
Right.
You know,
the bullpen right now is barely surviving with him.
So,
yeah,
it's a little tough now.
Again,
we'll say that
Ryan Stanick has been
pretty good recently.
I had another good outing today.
So obviously Stanix stepped up
and Thornton,
for the most part,
has been really solid.
So is both.
So,
you know,
you want to give those guys the appropriate credit.
But right now those guys are already pitching in roles.
They have no business pitching in because they're kind of being forced to by circumstance.
You don't want to ask them to do, you know, step up even more than you have to.
So is a trip to the IL?
Is that going to, you know, just reset Munoz's back and he'll be good to go for the rest of the year?
Then if it, if they felt that, they probably do it.
But this feels like something that's going to be chronic.
It feels like it's something that's going to be a day-to-day thing.
you're just going to have to manage it.
And maybe there's a time where he has to get another,
was it a cortisone shot or whatever in his back.
And he has to sit for a couple days while that does its thing.
Maybe that just has to be part of it right now.
But I think if the Mariners thought that a two-week trip to the IL
was just going to reset everything for him,
I think they would do it.
And it doesn't mean that they don't think they might have to do it at some point anyways.
But if you're not at that point, why force it?
Like, you're just kind of in a tough spot with him.
But this is why.
you know, hopefully Gregory Santos is on the road to recovery and he's going to throw a simulated game
tomorrow or Friday. And then if that goes well, he'll go out on his rehab assignment. So maybe he
joined you, you know, before the All Star break in Los Angeles or in San Diego. That would help a ton.
And it would also, you know, like a situation like today, you're not even thinking about using
Munoz because you're up by four. Who cares? We'll use somebody else. So. Yeah. Yeah. It's, they're in a real
tough spot with Andres.
They have to be careful and cautious, but they, they also have to think about the team.
They also have to think about, you know, is this actually going to help him?
Or are we just going to be without a guy for two weeks?
And it's, he's going to have the same problem once it comes back.
Right.
It's kind of a juggling act you have to do.
Right.
Yeah.
Because if it's, if it's just something that he's going to have to deal with for the whole year,
then, yeah, I understand why they haven't put him on the IL.
But again, from the outside looking in, you need Andres Munoz and you need to
whatever you can to make sure that you have Andres Munoz for the most important parts of the
season. So, you know, he's just, he's been that critical to this team success this year,
which again is, it's rare to say about one singular reliever who's going to impact, you know,
60, 70 innings of an entire 162 game season. But that's how good he's been and that's at least
partly due to just injuries and you know Santos and Brash and now Spire you know Salsato for a little bit
but they need they need on this they they absolutely need him yeah uh because spire is not back
before the all-star break uh it probably Santos isn't going to be back before the all-star break maybe
they can get him into that last road trip before the all-star break but he's not going to be
you know, ready to impact your bullpen until the second half.
And same goes for Spire.
And we don't even know if Spire's going to be ready right after the All-Star break.
So bullfins in a little bit of rough shape.
Obviously, they get to carry an extra arm for a week or so because Wu's on the IL,
unfortunately.
I guess the good news there, it's not arm related.
So I guess that's the good news there.
But yeah, because of the off days coming up, I assume Castillo will just start on Sunday and
Brian Wu's spot.
And so we'll see.
We'll see how it goes,
but they are going to get to carry an extra bullpen man if they want to.
They could also just call up Hancock and have Hancock start on Sunday
and give Castillo the extra days rest and all that.
So we'll see how they manage their pitching staff for the next couple weeks,
but they do have a couple off days.
They have one on third, one tomorrow, one on Monday,
and then the next one's the Monday after that.
So they can kind of maneuver this.
They can go one turn through the rotation.
without relying on, you know, a number,
a true number five starter like Hancock.
But they might just want to pull that trigger and,
you know, give everybody else the extra days rest too.
Right.
That spot in the rotation is set up for the last game of the twin series.
So we'll see how they handle that.
But at least that spot doesn't come up in the Baltimore series,
which is going to be huge.
That also might play a role into how they want to deploy things there.
Maybe they want Cassio to face Baltimore.
Right.
And that would entail start.
in that third game.
Right.
You want Castillo on normal rest against Minnesota,
or do you want Castillo on an extra day's rest against Baltimore?
Right.
Yeah.
So we'll see what they decide.
But again, big homestand.
And they're going to have to play better ball than they did on, you know,
this road trip, of course.
But at least this road trip is over.
It's finally done.
Adios.
And they won't be going on.
the road again until, you know, San Diego and Anaheim before the All-Star break.
So, uh, going to be a nice, lengthy homestan where obviously they played significantly better.
And hopefully they're able to, uh, stack up some wins against some pretty tough opponents.
But, uh, we'll talk about that in a future episode.
But, uh, for now, that is going to do it for our show.
Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdowneer's postgame show.
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have yourself a beautiful baseball day
and we'll see you next time.
Peace.
