Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mariners Fail to Sweep Braves, But Still Feeling Good After Fifth Consecutive Series Win

Episode Date: May 2, 2024

Fresh off securing their fifth consecutive series victory, the Mariners fell short of sweeping the Braves on Wednesday. Ty and Colby discuss Mitch Haniger's rough day and last few weeks in the outfield, Emerson Hancock's weird start that showed some promise, Luis Castillo's dominant start on Tuesday night, and more.Ask us questions! Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11 Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!DoorDashGet all your Mother’s Day gifts, all in one place and get 50% off your next order, up to $15 when you spend $15+ on your next flower, convenience, grocery, or retail order now with code LOCKEDONMLB. That's LOCKEDONMLB. Order using DoorDash today. Terms apply. Monopoly GO!Get in the game and join your friends. Click HERE to Download MONOPOLY GO! now free on The App Store or Google Play. PrizePicksGo to PrizePicks.com/lockedonmlb and use code lockedonmlb for a first deposit match up to $100! eBay MotorsFrom 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.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning GUARANTEED That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – win or lose! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started. 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.

Mariner's win the series, but don't get the sweep of the Braves. We'll tell you how it went down. Coming up here on the Lockdown Marrars Postgame show, 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, May 1st, 2024.

This is Tadang Gis and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdowne Marrists postgame show, brought to you by prize picks. It's the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Go to pricepix.com slash locked on MLB and use the promo code locked on MLB that's all lowercase for a first deposit match up to $100. Thank you so much for making us your first listen after the game. Subscribe like and turn on alerts if you're watching on YouTube or subscribe and leave a five-star review on your preferred podcast platform if you like what you hear. And if you're part of the crew and rock with us every single day, let us know in the comments below. We'd love to hear from you.

And if you want to hear from us even more, please consider signing up for our Patreon. You can now get a free seven-day trial to check out the show. The link as well as our social accounts is in the description of this episode. Marries win the series but lose the finale five to two to the Braves this afternoon. We're going to get the ugly of today's loss out of the way and then we'll look on the brighter side a little later on. Talk about last night's game, of course. But let's start with Mitch Hanager. Horrific day for Hanager.

0 for 5 with three strikeouts. Cost of Marys at least a couple runs in the outfield. Colby, I know you have some thoughts. So floor is yours. It's time to end the. Mitch Hanigur everyday player experiment. It was stupid to begin with. And hey, you know what?

Mitch really helped keep this offensive flow at the first 10 days or so when everybody else was struggling. Great. His defense is a liability. And that's being generous. It's a liability right now. He's cost to the Mariners at least three or four runs in this home stand alone by not getting to balls that a good or even decent right fielder gets to.

By flat out dropping a fly ball today, a routine playing. He just flat out clanked off his gloves. So Hanager is a liability defensively. He has not turned in an acceptable performance over the last three weeks or so at the plate either. Not enough to warrant playing every single day. Right now, Luke Rayleigh gives you a better shot at an offensive performance of some kind than Mitch Hanager. And yeah, Hanager hit the grand slam on, you know, day one of the road trip or the homestand. Cool.

Awesome. What did he do after that? Meaningless single here. I actually thought yesterday he had a pretty decent game. Like he went to the opposite field twice and hit the ball hard with authority. I was like, oh, good. Maybe this is Hanager turning the corner because if he's not hitting, he is a worthless player. He doesn't help you on the bases.

He hurts you in the outfield. And if he's not hitting, he is a zero tool player. Like there's nothing about, he's not walking. He's not going to draw walks, right? He's not going to steal bases. You know, he's not even a great situational hitter. He strikes out too much when he's bad. He doesn't hit the ball hard enough with regular.

He doesn't help you defensively. He's not an everyday player. Part of this is because Canzone got hurt. But at the end of the day, you need somebody who can field a fly ball in right field. If he's not going to hit at all, you need somebody who can field a fly ball. And Hanager today didn't hit it all. He didn't play defense. He was as close to being a negative one-win player as you can possibly get in one day.

Like he was awful. And at least when Julio Rodriguez struggles, he helps you defensively. and on the basis, at least when Cal Raleigh struggles, he helps you defensively in on the basis. But when you look at a guy like Mitch Hanager and you could also throw somebody like Ty France into this mix, if they don't hit, they are a bad,

bad, bad player. They shouldn't be in the lineup. Same goes for Mitch Carver. So, you know, it's unfortunate right now. Seattle's kind of trying to piece it together. They have a bunch of guys who aren't really living up to their expectations.

But Hanager is the one who hurts you the most when he's not swinging the bad because he can't give you it. At least Ty France gives you, average first base defense. Like at the very least, he gives you that. At least Mitch Garber gives you the possibility that he can catch, you know,

once or twice. Like, at least that is there. Hanager's not hitting. He's a bad player. End of sentence. Defense is going to be important for this ball club until they start to hit.

And right now, Hanager is a net negative player for you. So, yeah, it's really hard to watch. And I get it. They don't have a ton of options. But how about you meet somewhere in the middle,

you say, hey, you know what, Mitch Hanager, we have a day off on Thursday. This is a great opportunity to get Hanager two days off in a row. You know, like how often is he going to have that chance without hurting us? You already had the series in hand. Very clearly, you wanted to rest some of your guys today. Mitch Garber apparently was not available today because there were a couple opportunities against the lefty for him to go out there and get a big app bad and possibly get a big knock and get you back in this game.

They weren't going to use him today. That was very clear. So I just wonder, like, what was the thought process behind? not giving Mitch Hanager two days off in a row to kind of try and rejuvenate something. And then, hey, you know what? Why not give him Friday off too? Get them back in there over the weekend. Like you had an opportunity to sit Hanager for a couple days at least and only miss one game

of production from that. And you can live with Luke Grayley against a lot. Like you can still do that to be fair. You can do it. You know, you got the baked in off day tomorrow. And then you got a righty on the mound for the Astros on Friday and Rinell Blanco. So you could sit Hanager against him.

but you know they won't they won't and so it doesn't like I understand not wanting luke really to face chris sale sale is nasty particularly against oh yeah yeah like I understand that but at some point you just have to take one and how about this how about reboss just play short stop and dillmore plays right field and haggerty plays left you can still do those sorts of things so i don't understand to me if you're going to insist on handiger playing every day in right field Cade Marlow needs to be on this roster because I need a defensive replacement that I could stick out there and feel good about in the later

innings because if I'm not going to stick Dillamore out there, like what is what is Reevas's role on this roster right now? He doesn't have one. He's just there. He's taking up spaces as a 26 guy. They won't use him. He's gotten one start in the week he's been up. Right.

They won't, he doesn't pinch run. He doesn't, you know, play defense. Like, what is his role here? So go get a guy who can actually play the outfield for you, defensively, somebody who you, that or that or go get that or go get brian bliss you can play some shortstop and then you can use still a more in the outfit right right you just you can't you can't just keep on forcing mitch hanniger out there and then not have a viable replacement on the bench and right now they don't because they're not willing to use luke grayly against lefties so i don't know it's a weird thing and and you know look the rest of the mayor's offense wasn't good enough today either uh so they they weren't awful though today They really weren't. They were okay.

I mean, look, they struck out 12 times, which is, you know, an ongoing issue for this offense. They were only two for 11 with runners in scoring position. Corey Polanco had both of those hits. But they out hit the Braves by, what, four hits today? Yeah, 10 hits to six for Atlanta. 10 to 6. And, you know, after Chris Sale looked dominant through the first two innings of this game, his pitch count was relatively low, and he was getting.

every freaking call, especially against Ritey's with that breaking ball. It was basically in the other batters box. That was consistently being called for a strike. It was ridiculous. But they were able to get his pitch count up, and they were able to run him out of this game after five innings. So overall, like they didn't have that bad of a day, offensively speaking. It's just, you know, when they had opportunities,

they had another opportunity in the ninth, a couple runners on, nobody out, and they just couldn't really do anything with that. So again, like, I don't want to, like, you know, applaud the Mariners offense today. Like, they didn't get the job done, ultimately. But they also, I wouldn't say that they were the problem today either. Sure. They weren't part of the solution, but no. Overall, like, this is probably the best the offenses looked in the entire series,

which, again, not a high bar to clear by any stress. O'Leo 3 for 5 today. Like you'll take that three hard hit balls. He had a double today, which is great to see him actually slug a little bit. Seby Zavala with a multi-hit game. I mean, that's ridiculous. Both of those against Chris Sale, too. Like, go figure.

But yeah, you know, again, it's just they couldn't take advantage of those opportunities when they set themselves up. I just, yeah, it was a really weird. The Mariners played this game like, oh, we already won the series. we don't really care about this one. You look at the lineup, you look at not using Garber. Like, why would you not give Cal Raleigh two days off in a row? He's not even good from the right side.

Just let Mitch Garber hit. Yeah, that was weird. So I really don't understand. It's like they wanted to get. There was also that weird sequence where it was the eighth inning. Rius, they let a Rius hit against the Ritey against Joe Jimenez. and then they pinch hit Josh Rojas for Sam Haggurty instead of pinch hitting Rojas for

Arias and then pinch hitting Rayleigh for Haggurty or vice versa. Yeah. It doesn't really matter. It just, it was like a hit or too late. Yeah, and then they and then they pinch hit Rayleigh for Zavala, which, all right, if Garver is not available under any circumstance, then fine.

but ideally there you would go Rojas for Arias, Rayleigh for Haggardie, and then Garver for Zavala. And then sacrifice the DH, I guess, and have Raleigh catch. Right. And then what this also, the way they did it, what it sets up is that Rojas has to stay in the game now and play left field because they have to lose the DH, which means Raleigh has to catch.

So yeah, like they just did everything a little bit weird today. It was a really weird lineup construction. It was a couple of guys. They had an opportunity to give full days off. Like if you want to use a day like today, getaway day where you've already clinched the series like to get a guy a full day rest, take advantage. Get a couple of guys out because the Mariners absolutely good. They could have given Cal Raleigh a full day off. They could have given Mitch Hanager a full day off. And they could have given Revis some at bats, which he hasn't gotten a ton of since his call up. And so, you know, it's just about collecting data on Revos right now, but they weren't willing to do any of that today.

But yet they didn't really manage the game late like they thought they had a chance to win. I don't understand Cal Raleigh being in the lineup today. I don't understand Hanager playing in the field today at the very least DHM. I don't understand Garber being on the bench. I don't get what they did today. Just kind of a weird, like a lot of weird decisions. It very much came off as like, hey, we won the series against one of the best teams of baseball, if not the best team in baseball.

Like we're cool with, yeah, we're cool with whatever happens in game three. If we win, great. If we don't, oh well. Yeah, it was just, it was just very oddly managed. Which I guess shouldn't be too big of a surprise because Scott went all out to win last night's game and that ended up being the right decision.

Right, and I wonder if that also kind of played a role in like the, you know, we'll just see what happens today because like Munoz is not available. Stannick's probably not available It's probably Spire and Sauce and Thornton And Thornton and Sauce pitch today It was just weird

Both had another good inning against the top of the order Struck out Acuna Acuna looks lost right now Like they smoked Acuna For the most part in the series Mostly on just fast balls too Yeah Acuna is struggling more than Julio

Yeah he's off to a pretty bad start Olson's not off to a great start either. Neither is Riley. Yeah. And yet they were the best team in baseball coming into the series by record. So it goes to show you how deep that that team is. That team is very deep. And it's pretty remarkable that the marons were able to take two or three from them.

Nevertheless. So you've got to feel pretty good about yourselves coming out of the series, despite what happened today. We're going to keep with it for today's game and talk a little bit about Emerson Hancock, and then we're going to look at last night's game and Luis Castillo's start in just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Lockdown Airs podcast is brought to you by DoorDash and Prize Picks. Want to make Mom smile? Start Mother's Day with flowers. Her surprise her with gifts from the brand she loves delivered the very same day with DoorDash.

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All you have to do is search Mariners. So let's talk about Emerson Hancock today. Weird start for him. Five runs credited to him, but only one of those earned because of some of the issues that we talked about in the first segment. The first couple of innings were pretty interesting. he walked two guys in the first inning but struck out three

was looking pretty good and then got a quick inning in the second inning but then his command kind of took a dive from that point forward and Emerson Hancock without quality command and control not going to be effective

and things started to kind of unravel he ends up finishing the day with four walks and ends up only going three and two-thirds innings give up quite a few hard hit balls in this one. What did you make of Hancock's start? Which, by the way, might be his last start.

Yeah. It was not as good as the box score would indicate, but also not as bad as the final score might indicate, if that makes sense. So Hancock, you know, he actually got quite a few whiffs today, particularly for him. The slider was actually pretty good today. It was down almost four miles an hour on the average. So it appears maybe he's made a tweak with that slider. Maybe we saw George Kirby do something similar where he kind of took Velo off of the slider to make it a little bit loopier.

Or did he throw it harder? I can't remember. But whatever. We've already seen one Mariner starter tweak his slider. And now it kind of looks like Emerson's starting to do the same. I mean, a three and a half mile per hour drop on any pitch from one start to the next. That feels intentional. Right.

Like that's not just, I mean, that feels like they're trying to do something there. Well, especially when the VLO is pretty much the same on all of his other offerings. Right. You know, and he actually got, you know, three whiffs on eight swings on the slider. 38%. That's pretty good. No hard hit balls on that pitch either. So the slider was actually really interesting. But he did manage to get, you know, four whiffs on the four seamer.

That's something. And he got two whiffs on six swings on the sinker, the changeup he got a couple wiffs on on five swings. Like he actually generated decent number of whiffs. I mean, 29%. It doesn't seem great because you look at what the marriage have done over the last week. But that's for Hancock, that's really good. Like that is about as good as you can hope for Hancock.

So I actually think his stuff was pretty decent today. His control and command were both 45 grade, maybe even 40 grade. And this is what we've talked about, right? When we've had the Wu versus Hancock discussion is that like, if Hancock, cock doesn't have 60 control and command he's susceptible to starts like this because his stuff even when it's good for him on the day isn't very good yeah so today is just kind of a perfect example of like why it's a no-brainer to put woo back in in the rotation because woo with 45 control and command is going to give you more than he can still survive the same you can survive

right and so and like again we could argue that Hancock did survive today like yeah it's just it's just Wu has a better chance to survive it. I think that's a better way of putting it. Right. Now, again, the slider is interesting. It's something that, you know, we've talked about like he needs a quality secondary pitch. And the changeup could be that, but he doesn't really throw it a ton. You know, what's what's going to pop here?

And the fastball, he's gotten some whiffs on it in his time this year. He's, you know, somehow it's not it. I don't think I've underestimated how good the fastball is. To me, that looks like a 40, 45 grade fastball. like so it's a very it's a very it's a very straight pitch right but he's getting a fair amount of whiffs on it for just a as straight as it is like there's not a lot of deception it's not 98 miles an hour i don't know if the data backs this up but it does seem like he's getting more rise out of the fastball the last couple outings yeah it's it's it's a little tough to say i don't know if that's just

like the the camera angle or what sure today the the vertical break on it was about uh his average yearly average on the vertical break on the four seamers 18 today was the average was 17 so a little bit a little bit more downward motion on it uh but yeah it's not like he throws it from a high angle like chris young and he would just throw it at that top line from six foot nine like there's nothing about the fastball that when i watch hancock i go like oh yeah that's that's a legitimate major league fastball nothing it it it doesn't move a ton but he throws it with but the last few starts he's throwing it with such good command he was splitting the corners with it yeah that even even an average fastball splitting corners is going to be an effective pitch yeah so and even today it was it was

fairly effective yeah i mean you know again 21% whiff rate not great eight foul ball seven of them put in play on 19 swings no but there were there were but there were a few plate appearances where it was working for him yeah so it was very much a um a plate appearance by played appearance basis. There wasn't a lot of consistency. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, again, the problem is control and command.

If he's walking four guys in a game, he's in trouble. He is not going to be able to pitch around that that often. Right. And, you know, today, again, the Hanager air and then the kind of the triple that, you know, Luke Rayleigh, for example, probably makes that catch. We're not talking about like having to have an elite right fielder to make that play. You just have to have a decent of, you know, just a solid. it average one and he's probably out of that inning yeah but he still walked four guys he still

gave up a lot of hard contact so it was a very kind of mix and match type of start for hancock where at times he looked really solid like he had been the last three or four times out at times he looked really bad he fell behind he piped a couple pitches that he got away with like hancock again it was it was 40 command 40 control I think like four walks and three and two third that's that's got that's 40 control like you can't go higher than that so uh Yeah, it just it doesn't work. Hancock has to be at least 50 to survive. And we've talked about how Hancock can kind of like work his way through a lineup.

And you can kind of grit it out and tough it out and grind it out against good lineups. And that's his best tool right now. It's just kind of the mental side of pitching. Well, if he can't put the ball where he wants it to, his margin for error is zero. Like it's literally zero. So he's going to get roughed up. And so again, tonight it's really easy to point to Hanigur and be like, well,

he was better than that blah blah blah took him 77 pitches to get through three and two thirds he walked four guys he fell behind uh you know he's gotten to a lot of three ball counts today so it's kind of weird obviously the the braves are incredibly talented lineup they were going to get theirs at some point in this series like it was going to happen like i don't care who you are what team you are like the braves at some point one way or the other they're going to get theirs so i feel like some of that is just part of that right Yeah, I'd say so. So, I mean, like, again, Hancock, we'll see.

I think sending him down is actually going to be really good. I'm interested to see the slider because that jumps out the page right now. Not only was the slider significantly slower, he got significantly more value out of that pitch today. So maybe that's something to watch. And that's been the interesting thing about the last few of his starts. There's been these like little discoveries in each of these starts. It's like, oh, the command and the control is taking a job. oh, the V-Lo's a bit more consistent.

Oh, the slider looks a bit different and it's effective. So, you know, again, Logan Gilbert said to Ryan Rowland-Smith a week or two ago, like Emerson Hancock reminds him a lot of himself and the way that he views the game, approaches the game. And we know Logan. Logan's a tinkerer. And Logan is deep into analytics. And if Gilbert thinks,

that Hancock's a lot like him, then, you know, one would assume that Hancock's also a tinkerer. He's also deep into the analytics, and he's constantly trying to refine himself. So that to me is interesting, and that has shown up so far over the last, you know, a few starts. So I'm interested to see once he goes back down to Tacoma and is in an environment where he can experiment more and work on things more, what he can do. So I'm actually This is probably the most excited I've been about Emerson Hancock

in the last couple of years So speaking of the starting pitching Let's talk about La Piedra Luis Castillo He looked really good last night Go over his start in just a moment But first a reminder This episode of the Lockdown Marries postgame show

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in the game and join your friends download Monopoly Go now free on the app store or Google Play and you're listening to the Locked-on Marries postgame show thank you again for making us your first listen after the game once again Mariners will get back after it on Friday

down in Houston you can catch all the action between the M's and the Astros on the Mara's hometown broadcast with SiriusXM on the SXM app all you have to do is search mariners so we've talked about today's loss now let's talk about last night's series clenching

when and a big part of that was Luis Castillo who went seven inning strong just three hits allowed one walk seven strikeouts on 103 pitches it looks like he's back right like he never left

so return of the rock but Yeah, he was really good. And it was just kind of classic Luis. It was fastball slider. Although the changeup shouldn't be slept on. He threw nine of them.

He got three whiffs on five swings on that pitch. So it was definitely a valiant third pitch. But last night it was just fastball slider. Bet you can't hit it. Told you so. Go sit down. Like it was just filth. And it was particular the slider.

It was absolutely filthy last night. 29 sliders, 13 swings, six weeks. whiffs, 46% whiff rate on that pitch. Four called strikes as well. It wasn't just a pitch that he got guys to chase. He threw it for strikes. So that is a really good rate. I mean, 29 sliders, 17 of them for strikes, six of them for whiffs.

Like that is a great ratio. But yeah, the fastball was just electric. 36 swings on that pitch. 10 whiffs, 28% pretty good for a four seamer. Also, six called strikes, 15 fouls, 11 balls put in play. average exevalo of those 89.3. So Castillo was really good. Even when he felt he fell behind 30 or 3-1,

took a couple hitters, he battled back and he put guys away. He dominated Ronald Acuna Jr. Like most Mariners, pitchers did this series, which is, you know, not something I would have expected, but, you know, he's slumping a little bit right now, and the Mariners are pitching really well right now,

so probably should have seen it coming. You played against them at the right time. Yeah, you saw this team at that. the right time although again they were still the best record in baseball when they came in at the start of the series so even though you know acunia and riley and olson are really kind of you know trying to feel themselves out right now albys and in a ozuna and harris and darno like they're all playing out really well right now so yeah look at the end of the day you you took series from the defending world series champs the defending nL champs and are you

the best team in all of baseball. Yeah. Pretty good. It's pretty darn good. You went six and three combined against those three teams. That's really, really good. Yeah. Now, things don't really get a ton easier coming up on the road

trip. The Astros are playing a little bit better lately, and they got Fromber back. Christian Javier might also be back. We're going to see Fromber in the second game. It might be Javier in the third game. That's TBD right now for the Astros. And then, after that you go to Minnesota and the twins

just won their 10th in a row. So they're playing really good baseball. The only team hotter than you. Yeah. So yeah. So the tests keep coming for the Mariners. This is basically what I'm trying to say. Yeah, I mean the schedule for the next, you know, well,

we're about halfway through a really difficult stretch of the schedule and the Mariners are not only surviving, they're thriving right now. And that's thanks to the elite pitching performance. Even today, they give up five runs. One earned. Yeah. Like, and this again, they threw out their worst starter.

They threw out their worst guys in their bullpen against a really good team. And they gave up one earn run. Like, you know, the pitching's on a roll right now, but at some point that's going to stop. You're going to have to score runs. So, you know, yes, they're not only surviving the stretch right now. They're thriving in it. But if that's going to continue, they have, the offense has to pick up the slack because at some point, the pitching staff's back will break from carrying the team as far as they can.

And at that point, the offense has to step up a little bit and win a few games for their pitchers until the pitchers can get back on track. So for now, pitching's looking great. It's hard not to feel really good going into any series against any team. You feel like you have the pitching advantage every single night. But at some point, the offense has got to step up. And Houston's a pretty good place to do it. It's a good part to hit in.

So we'll see what they do. You were six and one down there last year. Yeah. I mean, you kind of got that demon. you kind of exercise that demon and now you get a chance to go down and not really bury the Astros it's still so early but if you go down there

and you sweep them like they're at that point what seven eight games back of you at that point like you know and that would feel like a real statement too right it's like exactly times of change so again I'm not expecting to sweep I never do but go down there

find a way to win the series I expect them to all be close games. They're not going to roll over for you. Like you said, they're actually playing really good. Well, not really good. They've started to play better baseball. Their bullpen is still a problem right now. Right.

And, you know, they beat up on the Rockies a couple games in an extreme hitters environment. So whatever. But their offense has been fantastic, though, for the most part. Right. Tucker is crushing the ball right now. Altova is still really good. Pena is off to a really good start. Yeah.

We know what Yordon can do. Yep. Yeah. Like, again, we know the Astros have a. good roster. So it's going to be a dog fight. You know, you get the day off, you go down there, find a way to win two or three and head off to Minnesota and try to do the same.

That's kind of the game plan, the mantra, right? Just win series, knowing that eventually you're going to lose a series, but let's not get swept. You know, let's just find a way even when we play poorly to win one of the three games and just move on to the next one and try and reverse that trend. So Mariners playing some pretty good ball right now. And they'll have to continue to play that if they want to, you know, not maintain their first place position in the American League West. Like that's an actual thing on May 1st.

But if they want to maintain kind of this relative hot start, you know, put more dirt in the hole so that they, you know, when they start to fall, they don't fall all the way down. Like it's nice to just kind of stack wins right now, particularly when your offense isn't performing like it needs to. So hopefully they can continue to do it. But yeah, it should be a fun series down in Houston. So real quick, before we get out of. here. There was some organizational

news today that I just want to quickly address before we get a bunch of questions about it. I know you don't want to even talk about it. Because at the end of the day, it's pretty much a big nothing burger. But the mayors did announce that Brad Smith and Kathy Suris Smith

have joined the ownership group. But that, according to Ryan Divish, is a pretty small steak for both Bradding. Kathy as Colby properly changes his lighting to red. So yeah, so, you know, for as intriguing as it might be to hear that, you know, hey, new

people are joining the ownership group and one of them is currently the sitting president of Microsoft. It's a pretty small stake for the both of them. So I highly, highly doubt that this is going to have any sort of impact on the Mariners and how they operate moving forward. forward. It's just rich people buying into a cash cow the safest investment they'll ever make because there's a zero percent chance they'll ever lose money on their investment. Yeah. So yeah, that's pretty much all it was at the end of the day. So nothing, nothing earth

shattering, nothing really significant to talk about on that front. But did want to address it because I was sure we were going to get questions about it. I'm sure you guys would want us to talk about it at least a little bit. But yeah, pretty much, again, just a giant. nothing burger on that front. All right. Anything else before we get out of here? No. All right.

Cool. You don't want to wish me a happy birthday? Colby wanted me to let you guys know. Yeah, Colby wanted me to let you guys know that he did wish me a happy birthday earlier today via text in a very Colby way. But he did technically wish me a happy birthday. No, here, actually, I'll show it for the people. No. You got to be careful, though, because we have other text in between there.

And we'll get to monetize if you throw up your swearing. That's what he sent me. It is indeed a statement of fact. People listening on audio, head on over to YouTube if you want to find out what Colby sent me for my birthday. It's interesting. We have to cut like 10 minutes out of this episode, but Ty had to make time to show that picture. So that's right. That's something. Just wait until he gets his birthday gift from me, guys.

Right now it's kind of stuck at customs since we live in different countries. But then you'll see how happy of a birthday I wish tie with monetary value to prove it. I had to send the receipt too. That's right. Colby is trying to buy my love is what he's saying. First of all, I don't need to buy your love. I know you already love me. Like this is an undisputed fact, even though you won't come visit me ever.

Right. You know, everybody loves me, but especially you. And especially the comments section. I'm sure they really loved you after your rant about Mitch Hanager today. All right. That's going to do it for our show. Before we get out of here, it's true.

It's true. Go check the quotes, folks. You got a problem with what Colby said. Mitch owned up to it as well. Mitch was very critical of himself after this game, as you would expect from a leader like Mitch. Anywho, before we get out of here, a reminder that Lockdown has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming

channel on YouTube. now it's also available on Amazon Fire TV and the free Fire TV channels app. Locked On Sports Today is here for you 24-7 covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of Locked-on, plus our national shows covering every league. Find Locked-on Sports Today now available

on the Free Fire TV channels app. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Mariner's podcast. For Colby Pat Node, I'm Tad and Gazzal. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L-O- underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Ty Dan Gonzalez and Colby at C-Pat-11.

You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. So thank you again for making us your first listen. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time. Peace.