Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mariners Have Fun in Series Win Over Mets, Turn Attention to Talented Blue Jays

Episode Date: May 16, 2022

Hosts Ty Dane Gonzalez and Colby Patnode recap the Mariners' series victory over the Mets, discuss whether or not it will prove to be a turning point for Seattle and preview the team's upcoming series against the Blue Jays.Be sure to follow or subscribe to Locked On Mariners wherever you prefer your podcasts! For questions and other inquiries, email: [e-mail] the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11For more of Ty and Colby, check out their Patreon: patreon.com/controlthezone/BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!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. 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.

What a weekend it was for the Seattle Mariners. They take two or three against one of the best teams of baseball, but the road doesn't get any easier as they head up to Toronto for a three-game set with the Blue Jays. We're going to be talking about it all on today's episode of Lockdown Mariners. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast, part of the Locked-on podcast network, your team every day.

It is Monday, May 16, 2020, and this is the Lockdown Mariner's podcast, brought to you by Bedon. Online. Bet online has you covered all season long with more props, odds, and lines than ever before. Bet Online is where the game starts. Thank you so much for making us your first listen of the day. We are free and available on all platforms. I am your host, Taddy Gonzalez, reporter and editor over at all C-Hawks.com. Join, as always by my co-host, Colby Pat Noon. He's right over there. Be sure to follow the show on Twitter at L-O-U-U-U-N-Rerner. You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez. That's T-A-N-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-P-E-E-P-A-E-1. Be sure to check out. out the Patreon that we have.

That's 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, want more of us. And if this is your first time joining us here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast, welcome to the show. If you like what you hear, 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 and give this video a thumbs up. We greatly appreciate it. So Colby on Friday, I asked you, if the Mariners could possibly survive Max Scherzer. And guess what? That's exactly what they did. They didn't necessarily defeat him.

Well, technically speaking, they did not defeat him. He did not take the loss in this one. But they were able to survive him long enough to get into the bullpen and score the eventual game-winning run on an RBI by Thai France. And a big reason for this, why they were able to be in that position to win that game, was Marco Gonzalez, who was fantastic in this one. You know, he's had kind of a rough year, you know, up and down year.

But in a couple of these big games, Marco has stepped up with the Mariners. He goes, 10 swings and misses in this one, which starting to become a little bit of a trend for Marco this year. He's actually missing quite a few bats. This year, six and two thirds innings, one earn run, three walks, five strikeouts, five hits. What did you see out of Marco? Yeah, it was kind of a, you know, to use the cliche,

it was kind of a bulldog performance from Marco Gonzalez. He wasn't, it wasn't as though he was quite as good as he was back in late April against, I believe it was Houston, yeah, he was, he was dominant there. This time it was a little bit different, you know, he gave up five hits, he did walk three guys, gave up his fair share of hard contact as well. We were talking about, it looks like 9, 10 hard hit balls. So he kind of had to pitch around it, but he did go 6 and 2 thirds. He did strike out 5.

He was, you know, he was appropriately cautious when necessary and also aggressive when necessary. And it really, it was, it did not look like it was going to be that type of outing for Marco. He really struggled in the first, got a big strikeout and was able to get out of there with only allowing the one run. And he, along with a couple guys in the bullpen, really made it stick. So he was great. It was kind of classic Marco. You know, we talk about Marco.

Some people think he's a bust or some people think he's number five. And, you know, he literally went toe to toe with arguably the best healthy pitcher in Major League Baseball. And ultimately, even though Scherzer doesn't get the loss, Marco doesn't get the win, ultimately, he did out dual Max Scherzer, which is saying something. So Marco's a bulldog. And he kind of stepped up here, and he knew that he had to be darn near perfect with Max Scherzer on the other side. And to his credit, he more or less was without even his best stuff, I would say. So it was a really good, gritty performance. And then, you know, getting that first one is huge because now you kind of have, I mean, not necessarily house money, but you got the first one.

So we know from last year how that sets up your bullpen really well. You can kind of ebb and blow and decide are we going to go really hard in on game two or are we going to kind of, you know, we have a game in our back pocket. Let's kind of hold back to game three. winning that first one is huge and doing it against Scherzer is massive it kind of buys you some breathing room the next night against Passett and yeah it was just

it set the whole thing up for Marco Marco set holding up for the Mariners and it was you know I still think it was probably a second best outing but this one was pretty impressive for a completely opposite reason yeah I mean they needed it

they wouldn't have won this game without that kind of start from him and it you know the the timing of it couldn't have been any better considering who the mariners were facing on the other end and obviously scoring has just been pretty difficult for the mariners for the most part aside from yesterday and even to a certain degree Saturday as well but uh they you know going up against churs or even the best lineups are going to struggle uh and so they they needed Marco to basically pitch above his weight and he did that and then some in this one uh so let's Let's cut to Saturday because George Kirby made his second career start in this one. Wasn't fantastic, but also didn't get a ton of help from his teammates in this one either. Four innings pitch. Three runs, just one of them earned, three hits. A lot of hard hit, a lot of hard contact, I believe 10 hard hits registered for him in this one.

But yeah, like I said, only goes four innings. He threw 89 pitches. what did you see out of Kirby in his second start? Yeah, it was it was a struggle, but also it, again, like you said, he really didn't get any help whatsoever. A ton of errors, a ton of misplayed balls, lots of guys left on. He just, he wasn't set up for success. Give the Mets credit.

They did work on his pitch count pretty well. Like you said, they did get quite a few hard contact. only one strikeout for Kirby. He did walk his first guy. But he went four innings in New York against a good lineup, gave up just three hits and only one earned run. That's pretty impressive for Kirby. Again, it's not that he was great,

but he was good enough. He kept him in that ball game. Seattle eventually would come back and tie that game, and Winker almost tied it again in the ninth, bow ball by about, I don't know, five, six feet. So, yeah, but he was very, aggressive with the fastball again. But unlike last time

against the raise, the Mets were able to put the fastball in play. He threw 403 fastballs. He generated 26 swings. Only three whiffs on that pitch. So really focused on the slider as a secondary pitch. Just didn't generate a tons of swing and misses. Actually, the change-up was probably his

best pitch of the night. And he started to use it a little bit more towards the end. But yeah, the basketball was the difference here. The Mets were able to foul it off. They fouled off his fastball 14 times. So that's where the whiffs went for Kirby against Tampa Bay. It's kind of like we talked about last week. The Mets are going to make – where the Mets were going to make Kirby beat them with a pitch other than his fastball.

And it was a good strategy, but Kirby almost kind of gritted his way through it. And he was fine. He was good enough to keep the Mariners in that game. and I think that's really all you can ask for for Kirby. So then finally, yesterday with Robbie Ray, Ray had 27 swings and misses in this game. 27. That's nuts.

That's like actually nuts. He had 22 in his last start, right? And we were like, wow. And then he somehow tops that. Yet the big inning got him again. in the uh in the fourth inning he gives up four runs he also gave up a home run to francisco lindore to start this game off he goes six innings though uh five runs all earned five hits three walks nine strikeouts how is he going to be able to avoid this big

inning because it's just it continues to happen for him is it is there something that you're seeing in these particular endings because i know you watched back uh yesterday's game as well knowing what happened already because you were you were on the road but in these beginnings have you seen something in particular that that's leading to that happening for him or is it just this weird thing that just continues to get him yeah um i don't notice anything mechanically that's that's not really my strong suit um but it does appear that uh it's it's becoming pretty easy to predict when it's going to happen i know in this game in particular it was the fourth inning that was the beginning, but you could kind of start to see him that that cycle

was going to start in the third inning. He gave up a double, you know, walked a guy, he was able to get out of it without giving up a run. But the next inning, he walked a couple guys. The fastball was up and away. He wasn't finishing. And that's usually a pretty bad sign for Ray is when the fastball starts to miss badly, up and away, means he's not finishing. His either shoulders flying open or he's just not finishing through the baseball. And it's, it's, It takes them usually five, six guys to get that back on track. And then it's, I don't want to say it's a problem as of yet. Because, again, aside from the fourth, aside from about a six-hitter stretch,

Robbie Ray was very, very good. But this is what, four times in a row now. So, yeah, it's one of those things where it's not a huge problem yet, but it is an area of concern and something he needs to get better at. So, yeah, we'll see if you can make that adjustment. All right. So again, the Mariners did win two of these three games, and there was some quality offensive performances,

particularly yesterday. There was some decent pitching from the Mariners as well. We're going to be talking about if this is potentially a turning point for the Mariners who have struggled leaning into the series. It was their first series victory since April 23rd. It's been a long time. All right, so we're going to be getting into that in just a moment, but real quick, want to tell you about our friends over at Bet Online. Our partner, Bet Online, continue to be the number one source for all your betting needs and sports info.

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taking fans through the season like no other network. It is free and available wherever you get your podcast just like us. So to me, this weekend series against the Mets really feels like a turning point for the Mariners, or at least potentially a turning point for the Mariners because you go into the series having made eight roster moves, including the demotion of Jared Kellnick. It already seems like some of your off-season decisions have blown up in your face,

particularly with Kellnick and relying on Kellynick-heavy in the outfield, and we've talked a lot about that. But the Mariners, the reason why I feel that this is such a big turning point for them is because they did something in this series that they really haven't done much of this year. And that's, they fought, they fought their way back into a couple of these games. The first game, you know, they dropped one nothing in the first inning. And it's like, okay, here we go.

But then Marco kind of levels out and turn things around. And as we talked about, gave them a really strong performance and allowed for them to, you know, get into that bullpen with the mess. and eventually win that game. Then Saturday night, you know, they go down 4-1. And it's like, okay, you know, because I don't know about you, Colby, but, you know, last year, when the Mariners fell behind even by four or five runs, even with the limited talent that they had on the roster, it was like, okay, I feel like they might be able to get back in this

thing and make things interesting. This year, though, they fall behind by two or three runs and I'm like, this is a wrap. but you know it's 4-1 on Saturday it's like all right this game's over the Mets won whatever you know we'll try to go for the series one on on Sunday but Jesse wicker hits a three-run home run to tie things up and yeah the Mariners didn't get the job done that night but that was a positive sign and then yesterday they were up 4-1 roles kind of reverse in the situation and then as we talked about Robbie Ray had the big inning bite him and it becomes 5-4 Mets.

And it's like, okay, well, now the Mets have gotten into, you know, they're probably going to get into the bullpen soon. They built all this momentum. It's just, you know, this is probably going to get out of hand here. And they had a chance to win the series, and they just let it slip through their fingers. But come the sixth inning, you know, Ray leveled out a little bit and kept things at 5-4,

and the Mariners stormed their way back. Julio Rodriguez knots things up with a 114 mile per hour exit velocity home run for a second career danger. And then Cal Raleigh, of all people. It's a go-ahead to run, home run. And then the Mariners did something again that they haven't really done for most of this year. And they played add-on with Julio Rodriguez's RBS single, his next time through the order. And they needed that because Drew's second rider fell apart in the ninth inning. And Dio Castillo, who we have to give a special shout-out to you.

here because he had been struggling mightily going into this game and they call upon him with just one out runners on second and third basically anything into the gap anything down the line is going to win this game for the Mets he comes through with two strikeouts on starly martay and pete alonzo and i mean alonzo kind of helped him out a little bit there game probably should have been tied but you know check swing all that stuff but the Mariners again clawed their way back they did not you know just kind of fall by the wayside they did not just kind of you know look it's 5-4 now it's over they they actually showed heartbeat they showed what made the 2021 team so so special and so for me with kind of doing this roster refresh that they did before Friday and having a series like this especially where they kind of you know they show their personality a little bit to the best fans as well but they showed some confidence they showed some heartbeat they showed some will and that this team has really been lacking that for the most part this year did this feel like a turning point to you as well it feels like it could be momentum only lasts as long as you make it so you know they get swept by the blue jays and we don't really care about the last series so

yeah they got to continue it but yeah it certainly could be it certainly has a feel like maybe that was the case it's also possible to maybe we just want it to be um because it's like you said it's been like what three weeks since they won a series but they did take down you know the best team in the national league at least you know statistically the best team of the national league handed them their first series loss of the entire year and did it in you know in let's say chaotic fashion because these are all one-run games. They easily could have gotten swept.

They just as easily could have swept. So it was kind of a fun series. It was kind of weird. You know, it kind of had a little bit of everything. You know, it had the pitchers duel on Friday. Then it kind of had this, you know, kind of a late game, heroics type of feel on Saturday. And then on Sunday, the Mariners just, you know, got out the bats

and I think had 18 hits and, you know, they had to hang on at the end. And Steckin Rider really couldn't get it done, although to his credit, I mean, it's not like Second Rider was getting bashed around the park. There was, you know, there was a ground ball at the middle that kind of took a funny hop on JP. That could have been an out. There was Nimmo kind of just slapped a double down the, you know, beat the ship, slapped a double down third base line that scored a run. So it's not like he was getting, you know, way laid all over the park.

And then, yeah, Castillo comes in, throws nine sliders, strikes out Marte, who is one of those tougher guys to strike out in baseball, and also Pete Alonzo, who doesn't strike out as much as you think for a power hitter. He's about league average or slightly below league average in strikeouts, and he just throws nine sliders, forgets the fastball. You know, Blowers made an interesting point, the way the shadows were, you know, across home play or across the pitchers mound. It probably made it really difficult for hitters to recognize.

a nice spin, which is why we saw a couple of funky swings for Marte and Alonzo. And yeah, I mean, it's like it was fun because Sunday you got the bottom of the order going a little bit too. It wasn't just, you know, it wasn't just JP and Thai France and Adam Frazier. You know, we saw contributions from Abraham Toro had a couple hits. Cowell Raleigh, obviously the big home run, but Raleigh also, you know, had another ball that would hit really hard. It was a double play.

who was hit right at somebody, but that did get a run in. And he was very good behind the plate, especially in that ninth inning. And you kind of look at everybody up and down line of Mike Ford had a big hit, even. And obviously, Julio was kind of the start of the day. But yeah, you got contributions up and down. I think everybody in the starting lineup had a base hit in this game, at least one hit. So he's kind of got contributions up and down, and then your bullpen, you know, it did enough. Right. It was good enough.

You know, regardless of how it happens. Also, you know, we should probably mention Paul Sewell. I've had a pretty big series going up against his former team. I got seven outs. Didn't give up a base runner. And you let Met fans know how he felt about the organization giving up on him quite well. And it was a fun series because it does feel like the Mariners were having a lot of fun. And it does feel like the Mets fans were.

at least at the ballpark or relatively good sports about it. Yeah. I think the thing that they have with Winker is funny, and I think it's well done by both, by both player and fans. It's kind of funny. By the way, we should probably mention Jesse Winker.

He is breaking out right now. Yeah. It's not, you know, in the month of May, which is, again, only, what, 14 games at this point? Still, it's a super small sample, But the month of May is hitting 296, 333, 481. I mean, that's Winker. If you slap on another 30 points of on base percentage,

that's who Jesse Winker has been his entire career. So he's in the midst of a breakout. Julio is broken out a few weeks ago, and he's kind of continuing it. He bounced back after some rough games on Friday and Saturday. And you're kind of starting to see Toro is starting to hit a little bit as well. you're kind of starting to see these guys start to hit, which is good because Frazier's kind of been up and down.

JP has been okay since he's returned. He hasn't been awful, but he hasn't been as good as he was in April, which we all knew what's going to happen anyways, but the regression to being actually J.P. Crawford has started. But thankfully, again, Julio is really stepped up. Jesse Winker stepped up recently. Abraham Toro is driving the ball with a little bit more authority right now. he looks better and better at the plate.

And so they are starting to get contributions from other places in the lineup. And that's what's going to make this team very dangerous, is if five through nine can produce semi-regularly to complement one through four. Yeah. And you mentioned something a couple of minutes ago that, you know, they look like they were having fun. And frankly, watching this team, particularly on the road, they don't look like they're having fun for the most part. It just seems like there's some energy lacking there.

And like they've looked energetic and more so energetic at home. And I feel like they're feeding off the crowd. You know, Jesse Wanker talked about the whole electric factory thing and all that stuff. And like it just kind of feels like this team body language wise, a little bit of a tale of two stories on at home and on the road. And we kind of saw them manufacture that that energy this week. can and kind of feed off of one another and also feed off of, you know, maybe some of their personal beefs, I guess, with the Mets and with the Mets fans, you know, particularly Seawall,

particularly Winker. That was a lot of fun. Also, Chasen Streve, getting mad at Winker for, you know, looking at the ball a little too long on his three-run, home run, and then proceeds to give up a game-tying home run to Julio Rodriguez the next day. I enjoy it. it appears the Mariners have found the next Brooks Raleigh.

Yes. Cole Irvin, maybe also like Cole Irvin, light. Yeah, unfortunately, I don't think we see the Mets again this year. It could be wrong. No. No. I don't think they come to Seattle, so. Yeah. Gotta tell you, though, this would be a fun,

like, this is completely awkward. This would be a fun, world series matchup, though, considering some of the year. Yeah. Yeah. It would never happen. like it would be a lot of fun considering the the um i mean because we didn't even see derrick kellnick in this series right so if if kelnick was involved in this as well i mean just think about the storylines Taiwan walker on the other side like yeah yeah yeah there's been a lot of

turnover between these two teams um i think this could be a fun little like seahawks versus panthers rivalry where it's like they shouldn't be rivals they're on opposite sides of the country but starting next year you know they're going to play everybody at least once. And so with Winker and Seawald and I mean, I don't know, man. Maybe there's so much turnover in baseball, it's really difficult to have, you know, if you're not natural rivals, Yankees, Red Sox, whatever. Right. It's tough to generate the bad blood required. But this seems like it could be a fun rivalry, cross-country rivalry, because I thought the Mets fans were great at the ballpark. It seemed like they were having a lot of fun with it more so than being angry. And I'm sure there

was plenty of angry people there. But for the most part, it seemed like it was a fun kind of ribbing as opposed to a, you know, hate-filled. Sure. Like, you know, and so, yeah, it was, wasn't quite that, didn't get that vibe on Twitter, but from watching the games, it sure felt like that was, that was kind of the vibe of, you know, of the Mets fans this weekend was just kind of like, okay, we'll see, we'll see. And then kind of laughing it off.

It was, it was a cool, fun series. Yeah, very much in the spirit of the game. So the Mariners seem to have built some momentum here, but you said momentum is only as good as long as you maintain it. So hopefully they can maintain it going into a pretty tough series coming up with the Toronto Blue Jays starting tonight. We're going to be getting into that and getting into the night's matchup between Chris Flexen and you say Kikuchi in just a moment. But real quick, a reminder of this episode of Lockdown Mariners is brought to you by Bill Barr. Imagine dipping your finger into that plastic tub of birthday cake frosting and then opening your eyes and realizing that was only 150 calories and 16 grams of protein. That's what it's like to eat a birthday cake puff from Bilt.

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Use promo code Locked 15. That's LOCKED 1.5 for 15% off your order. Again, that's LOCKED 1 5 for 15% off your order. at built.com. So, some of you who've been around probably know that I don't live in the state of Washington. I live in Toronto. And the last time I saw the Mariners in person was August 25th, I believe, 2019. And in that game, you say Kikuchi through a complete game shutout for the Seattle Maritors.

Well, fast forward three years. A lot of stuff has happened in between those three years. We won't get into all that. But I'm going to be seeing you say Kikuchi again in person for my first time seeing the Mariners in person in three years, except this time he's pitching for the Blue Jays. And hopefully this one will go a lot worse for him than the last time I saw him. Opposing him, Chris Flexen for the Mariners. Flexon has been solid here and there.

We'll get into that in just a second. But this Blue Jays team is incredibly talented. They're probably a World Series contender, maybe not as currently constructed, but they certainly have a path to get in there. obviously you guys like Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Boba Chet and Teasca Hernandez, who's just returned from injury. The pitching staff is pretty strong, especially with the addition of Kevin Gossman, despite losing Robbie Ray, and despite losing Marcus Simeon,

this offense really in general hasn't skipped a beat for the most part. Boba Chet has kind of struggled a little bit. I did mention him earlier, but they've gotten some surprising contributions out of guys like Santiago Espinal. And the catching's been been pretty good for them as well. So there's a lot to dive into here with this team. This is obviously one of the more important

head-to-head matchups for the Mariners because tiebreakers are now in effect for a determining playoff seating. And, you know, there's no more game 163s. There's no more, you know, anything like that. It's just straight up head-to-head tiebreakers that matter. So this is a very, very important series for the Mariners who are pretty much in line with where the Blue Jays might end up in the standings this year, at least as we project. They were one game apart last year.

And obviously the big storyline going into this is COVID restrictions. Obviously, players have to be fully vaccinated to be eligible to play in Toronto. And we have a roster move from the Mariners. The Mariners had said leading up to today that they were expecting a couple guys. to land on the restricted list. But right now we only know of one. Not sure if there is more to come. But right now we know of one.

That's Drew Steckin Rider, right-hand reliever, who obviously struggled in yesterday's matchup with the Mets. He's been placed on the restricted list. And Rowena Salyas is back with Major League Ball Club after pitching pretty well down in Tacoma coming off of Tommy John surgery. He hasn't pitched in the last couple of years. last time,

Elias pitched with the Mariners. He was traded to the Nationals. I want to ring with them, even though he was unable to pitch in the postseason for the Nats. Obviously signed back with the Mariners. And last year got hurt, et cetera, missed all the last year. But he's back.

He's looking good. And now he's with the team. What are you hoping to see out of the Lias? Do you think he might be able to stick, despite this being kind of a temporary call-up as it currently stands? Yeah. Yeah. So it's important to note that Alias right now doesn't count against the 40-man roster because he is essentially a temporary call-up.

So he's not on the 40-man long-term. They can send him back down. My understanding is they can send them back down after they leave Toronto and not have to put them through waivers or anything like that. It might be different for a veteran. I'm not 100% sure. The COVID rules are at least to the public. They are hard to find and hard to get an official breakdown of, which is exactly what you want in this type of situation.

A lot of ambiguity. But for Elias, you know, he's pitched okay in Tacoma. It's been a long road back from his Tommy John. He's been okay. You know, he's gotten hit hard some. He's had some really good outings. He's had some really bad outings. But, you know, he's the same guy.

It's fastball, curveball. a change up every once in a while. It's nice because he can give you multiple innings. He actually did that a few times. In Tacoma, he went more than three, which should help. It's unfortunate that you're not going to have Steck and Rider, but he just pitched through the last three days. Now he gets kind of three days off to kind of, you know, reset, let's say.

let's say reset after his rough outing on on Sunday. But yeah, I mean, Aalice has gone two innings, three innings, one in a third, two innings this year. So you can kind of, you know, you can give you multiple innings. You can go out there and be the guy to get the last out in the fifth when he's going up against one of the few lefties in the, in the Blue Jays lineup. But he's also okay enough against Ritey.

It'll be interesting to see how it goes. It's actually most of his struggles have come in the most of the most of the month of May. So we'll see what happens with that. And really, it's been one outing on May 30. He got touched up for four earned in two-thirds of an inning. So for the most part, he's been okay. He is a little bit, he is struggling a little bit right now. But yeah, you expect some length. You expect some relatively high floor out of Aalius. And, you know, we'll see if he even gets into a game. But with Swanson on the shelf now and Steckenrider, not available. And, you know, Seawalt's pitched two the last three days. Castillo, he was good on Sunday, but

it needs a few more of those addings before you kind of start to trust him again. I would say there's a pretty good chance of Leos gets into this series. So like you said, you know, Blue Jays lineup very right-handed heavy. George Springer, been fantastic this season, 269, 328, 504 with a 140 WRC plus. Vlad Jr., 280, 352, 480, 140 WRC plus as well. he's Vlad Jr. doing Vlad Jr. stuff. Espinall, who I mentioned earlier, 282, 347, 445 with 129 WRC Plus. So they've been able to basically replace Marcus Simeon, who's struggled this year,

obviously not getting the same exact production that Simeon gave him last year. But, you know, comparing those two, it's like night and day right now as they currently stand. Zach Collins, who they brought over in a trade with the White Sox earlier this year. He's been a decent 99 WRC plus, I mean Ali, Hondra. Kirk present some problems out of that the catcher's spot. But like I mentioned, you know, there's also been some struggles from, from some

guys like Boba Bouchette, 80 WRC plus. Teasasca Hernandez, who's coming off of an injury, just an 87 WRC plus. Matt Chapman, who they brought over in a trade with the A77 WRC plus. That is shocking. Yes. Yes. Anyone who

listen to any of our fan fiction Fridays which included Chapman's name will be very familiar with how we and particularly this guy to my left or my right, however you're watching this feels as well. I'm shocked that Matt Chapman

has continued to decline for the third straight year. Who could have seen this coming? So how are you feeling about Chris flexing? Because it's not been great. So are we going lead off home run for George Springer

per usual? Um, no, actually, I think he's going to retire. Actually, what I think he's going to strike out Springer on like 95 up. We're going to be like, oh, darn, Chris came to pitch. He, you know, he got skipped kind of the last time through. He's well rested. And then, you know, he'll give up like a, you know, three run bomb before he gets out of the first. Now, it's just, it's not a great matchup for Chris.

And also, you know, it's honestly not a great matchup for Logan Gilbert either. The Blue Jays love to hit the fastball. And Gilbert loves to throw the fast. basketball. So not a great matchup here for the Mariners currently, but they have some momentum. And, you know, Chris Flexon, he continues to be, I think he's got three of the five best starts this year for the Mariners. And so it's one of those things where you never really know what to get, what you're going to get with Chris Flexen. Sometimes he looks like a, you know, a high in three or even a low in two. And then other times he is batting practice to be.

to be generous. I mean, remember the Padres start he had last year. It's, it's tough to know. And it kind of seems to have it flow, and it doesn't seem to matter how good the lineup is. It just, it's for Chris, it's all going to come down to. Can he command the cutter, it's going to be important for him to be able to run that off the outside corner. And then he's going to have to have one other pitch, at least one other that is average to above average today. Basketball is pretty much going to be what it is. So if the curveball or changeup are working, then he has a shot to get three six, maybe seven, and keep the team in the game where they try to score off.

You say who, as we know, is definitely susceptible to bad outings. Yeah. But he is on a little bit of a role right now. So we'll see what happens. But yeah, Chris has got to, you know, just find a way to get this game into the fifth six inning with giving the Mariners a chance and he'll have done his job. Two names to look at for this series under the radar names. We could play a big role.

Sergio Romo and Penn Murphy. A lot of Rides in this lineup. They're probably going to have to face the Bichettes and the and the Blatties and the sixth and the seventh inning. And they may be nursing a one-run lead at that point or they may be trying to keep it a one-run game. But those two are going to play a big role if the Mariners are going to win this series.

Cucucci right now, 26th innings pitched, 415 ERA, 569 XERA, 499-5. A lot of blue right now on his baseball savant page. Fifth percentile on average exit velocity, 6 percentile on hard hit rate, 12 percentile in ex-wobe, 12 percentile in XERA, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, just there's a lot of blue. You get the point. It's walking a lot of guys right now, 5.8, 8 free passes per nine.

So there's definitely an opportunity here, and it's certainly a much more favorable matchup for the Mariners. match up for the Mariners then maybe the next two but we will get to those tomorrow you know I'm kind of upset because like you some of you may know that I'm not a huge fan of the Rogers Center but when the roof is open it's a little bit better I you know I can buy it as a baseball stadium when the roof is closed though aesthetically it's just lame um but um you know the this past weekend the weather finally turned the corner here in in Toronto it was like 80 something degrees yesterday sunny it was beautiful today it's 56 and raining so the roof is absolutely going to be closed and

yeah just just loving life right now hopefully the the weather gets its stuff together the next two days so I can enjoy watching the mariners in the sunshine and not in a crappy dome that's going to be torn down in a couple years apparently It would truly be awful if it rained all week when Ty was going to the Mariners games. It would just break my heart. Yeah, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it? All right.

Well, that's going to do it for our show. Hopefully I can provide the Mariners with some good luck. They usually do pretty well when I'm there. You know, last couple times I've been there. Like I said, Yusay Kikuchi, complete game shout out for the Mariners. Hopefully that does not happen for the Blue Jays tonight. James Paxson threw his no-hitter when I was in attendance as well. So, I mean, you know, I mean, I'm just saying.

Just watch out Chris Flex and throw in a perfect game tonight. So that's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast for Colby Patnode. I'm Taday 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-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-P-E-E-E-T-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode.

And thank you again for making us your first listen of the day, just like you do here every day. Now make your second listen to the day, the Lockdown MLB podcast. That's where Paul Francis Sullivan, 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 day, and we will see you tomorrow. Peace.