Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - MARINERS POSTCAST: Cal Raleigh CLUTCH Homer gives Seattle Mariners Victory vs Tampa Bay Rays

Episode Date: August 9, 2025

Anders and Chris break down the first game of the series vs the Tampa Bay Rays.  Cal Raleigh hits a clutch go-ahead home run in the 8th, Luis Castillo goes 7 strong. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! 5-Hour ENERGYTime to fuel up and turn it up with 5-hour ENERGY®️ Transfusion! Go to https://5hourenergy.com today and use my promo code LOCKEDONGOLF to receive 20% off your order. This offer is only valid until September 30th on one order and cannot be used with other promotions. The code is not good on subscription orders.   PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONMLB to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.PrizePicks — Run Your Game.Click Link Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LO... Gameday HueLet your colors talk—because colors speak louder than words. Right now, you can get 15% off with code MLB15 at GamedayHue.com. Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONMLB at monarchmoney.com/lockedonmlb for 50% off your first year. GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. FanDuelRight now, new customers can get ONE HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. 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.

This is the Mariners Postcast. Your instant game reaction for the Seattle Mariners. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Okay, I'm doing you guys all a favor, but I want to tell you how tempted I am to just start twerking in front of the game. Because big effing dumper. Let's go. I'm going to make sure. It's a great one, Agent Michael Scarn.

great one. I'm going to make sure you guys don't see that. But my God, I had to really, really stop myself because I was feeling it. I was feeling it. What a win, man. Wow. Mariner's did not deserve going to win this game. They still won this game. That's what, five in a row now? That is correct. And that is seven of eight, I want to say. Seven of eight. Let's go. That deadline deal. Yeah. I don't know, man. I don't know. I'm just enjoying this.

Very postcats here, Anderson Hurst, Chris Crawford, right here with you. We go live right after every single Mariner baseball game. We break down the game that you just watched on the Lockdown Mariners YouTube channel. Go ahead and like the video right now because let's keep the vibes going, right? Like, just like the video for that and nothing else. We don't care about us. We care about keeping the vibes going. So we're going to talk about that big dumper home run.

We're going to talk about Luis Castillo's start and the rest of this, you know, game. But it's those two things are really the big story of this game. of course to our unsung hero slash villain chris crawford initial thoughts i i try not to get too hyperbolic even though we are just reacting to one game right just the one the one moment but like i don't i i i'm struggling to think of a homer that was more cathartic than big dumpers i'm struggling to think this season just like the season and just that that swing of the bat off of a, I'm watching it right now. It's such a solid pitch from a really good pitcher, man. This is huge. This is huge. This is, you know, we talked about the win yesterday and maybe we were a little too negative about it.

But, you know, they didn't play well in that game. And it kind of felt like, okay, you know what, today was the day that, you know, the breaks don't go their way. Yeah. Yeah. And it was like, okay, you know, you're not going to win every single baseball. You can't win every game. I was totally prepared for this to be like, Anders, we can do this video in like 10 minutes, right? Like, hey, the offense didn't show up. Castillo pitched well. Vargas did his job.

But, you know, some days you just don't have it. We could maybe talk about what's the concern here with no Josh Naler, but Donovan Solano played a pretty good game, blah, blah, blah, out, right? Thank you, game time. Thank you to thank you to our sponsors. but we could have been Audi 5,000 real quick tonight. But nope, no big dumper had something else to say, man. And I know he has particularly struggled compared to what his season has been before that.

But people have to struggle. This sport would suck if people didn't struggle. It would be 162 games of having the exact same level of play would be boring as hell, right? Big Dumber, man. That's a special baseball player. And that is, I talked about it yesterday, you know, that, you know, those are the games you win and you look back on. This is a game you will look back on.

There's been a lot of those recently, it seems like. A ton of them. A ton of them. And that was just an awesome moment to make sure that Luis Castillo didn't come up with an L. Yeah. Yeah. Let's get right into Castillo. We'll get into Dumpers, Homer, in a second,

but we always start with the start because, man, did this game start with a good start? Luis Castillo, The Rock, you know, gets through seven innings, two runs, both just solo homers and, you know, maybe one of them. Yeah, no comment. The Junior Camerre one, that's just a great baseball player.

Sure. Really good baseball player. Not even a bad pitch, to be honest. He just went up and got that. Yeah. So, but other than that, Castillo was fantastic tonight. And he was fantastic on what seemed like not his best stuff. Mm-mm.

He had like 93, 94 in his fastball today. It seems a couple ticks down. And he still ends up, you know, borderline dominating this lineup. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you pitch seven innings of two solo homers and it should have been one solo homer if we're being completely honest with that, I mean, that was just,

A good right fielder should make that play. Yeah. A good right, a decent right fielder should make that play, right? You know, only the nine swings and misses out of 99 pitches, but boy, his control was good tonight, right? Like he was ahead in counts, I believe, yeah, right here in front of me, 72 of 99 pitches landing for strike. That's really good. Yeah. Really good.

That is, I believe, eight of 11 pitches in the strike zone. That will absolutely be something that you take. And it's great to see the thing about Castillo is, when Gilbert doesn't have his swing and miss stuff, he's going to have some issues, right? Yes. I think that's true about George Kirby to an extent. Brian Wu, less of an extent,

but we've seen more, this guy's relying more on more strikeouts, right? Luis Castillo's that one guy that doesn't need to miss a lot of bats for you to feel like he's dominating that start. And he changes the way he pitches if he has that or not. 100%. Yeah, I think he makes adjustments better than any pitcher on the staff, right? Yeah. Like, and that's something he doesn't get nearly enough credit for, right? He doesn't get nearly enough credit for the fact that he figures out in those first few

winnings what works for him. It usually starts with a lot of fastballs. And if that's going to keep working, he's going to keep going with a lot of fastballs. But that slider starts working, you start mixing it in more. If that change, which is the pitch that, you know, frustrates some people because it was once dominant, now it's not quite that that same level and doesn't use it at that same level, but he'll still use it. He's willing to tinker.

He's willing to tinker. And sometimes you hear the word tinker and you start thinking of a 48-year-old left-hander, right, who has got a little bit of a beer belly and he's the crafty lefty, right? That's the guy you start thinking of. No, Luis Castillo tinkers and can throw 97. That's special stuff. Like that's special stuff in terms of the arsenal and it's special stuff in terms of his ability to do that because a lot of pitchers can't do that.

A lot of pitchers cannot do that, especially from start to start. He does it from batter to batter. Right. Like that's really impressive. And, you know, I'll just keep on saying it that Luis Castillo remains one of the most, one of the most underrated Seattle Mariners of all time. He doesn't get nearly enough credit for how good he has been since that trade. Right.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, well done. I think, I think you're right. I don't think that's hyperbolic whatsoever. I think people don't understand how good this guy has been and how consistent this guy has been. Just every single fifth day, he gives you a chance to win, period. End of story. And there's very rare cases where that doesn't happen. And, you know, I love the other pitchers on the staff and they all dominate in their own special ways. Absolutely. And like, he's probably not.

as good as he was in 2022. And there's an argument to be like, yeah, you know, it might be your fourth best pitcher. But I don't care. If that's your fourth best pitcher, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It's so special, man.

Yeah. And, you know, how many times have we seen Luis Castillo get into the seventh inning now, right? Yes. Like that's something that he does that, him and Brian Wu, both of them have done that a lot this year. The other two haven't, right? Yeah. That's, um, that's awesome. It's huge. It saves that bullpen on a day where the Mariners needed to save their bullpen too, right? Because I believe 19 different relievers pitched for the Seattle Mariners yesterday. So the fact that they were able to only use those two. And we'll talk about both of them for sure because they were pretty dang good. Yeah, they were. The fact that he got you into that position that he kept you in the game, right? Well, this offense scuffled.

Scuffled. Luis Castillo kept you in the game and let that big moment happen. Let's do a quick shout out to our sponsors. Then we'll talk about the offense and obviously Cal Raleigh's big moment because I think it's mostly that. Then we'll talk about kind of what led up to that a little bit as well. But on the other side of the break, we'll get to the offensive side of the ball. Sounds great. We've all been there logging on early and waiting forever for concert tickets to go on sale,

only to lose your spot for a show you've been dying to see. Live music should be about making memories, not dealing with the stress of ticket shopping, and that's where game time comes in. Game time makes getting concert tickets faster and easier than ever. The prices actually drop as it gets closer to Showtime. And you can save up to 60% off with their killer last minute deals. Guys, you know, sometimes there are concerts where you just want to be there, right? You just want to be there.

And so you don't mind sitting in those nosebleeds. But then there are those concerts where it's like, I want something good. I want to have a nice seat to this thing. And maybe you can't afford that when the tickets first come out, right? well, that's what game time does. It gives you that chance to wait for that bucket list moment and still get the ticket for a pretty cheap price. That's what I would definitely do when Fog Hat goes back on tour. No, Fog Hat hasn't been on tour a long time.

That's what I would do. I would wait for game time to make sure that I get my dream seat, not get something that I'll regret that I'm sitting 500 rows back. But if you want to get those seats from 500 rows back too, game time can get them for you for pretty dang cheap. to take the guest work out of buying concert and show tickets with game time download the game time app create an account and use code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again create an account and redeem code L-O-C-E-D-O-N-M-LB for $20 off download the game time app today last minute tickets lowest price guarantee this episode is brought to you by prize picks the daily fantasy platform that lets you turn your football predictions into real rewards preseason is already

heating up and college football isn't far behind that. It's time. It's the perfect time right now to lock in your season long, more or less fix for the 2025 football season all before week one kicks off. Whether you've got your eye on big name quarterbacks or breakout running backs, prize picks makes it easy to get in the game. It's the simplicity. It's the fact that you can get this done super quick with prize picks. Like there are some apps where it takes a little bit of time, especially DFS where you're like searching through stuff. Where am I going to find this stuff? Who is he playing?

That's not all that information isn't always there. With prize picks, it's laid out super clean and get it done before your coffee finishes brewing. Oh, I like that. Download the prize picks app today and use code locked on MLB to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That's code locked on MLB to get $50 in lineups after your first $5 play. Prize picks run your game.

Welcome back to the Mariners Postcast Anderson Hurst here, Christopher Cropper, directly to my left. Mariners walk. No, they didn't walk off. Sorry, not a walkoff win. But they get a pretty darn close to a walkoff win with Cal Raleigh in the eighth inning. Let's just jump right to that. And then we'll talk about the rest of it. For me, it's been a little slog to watch Cal Raleigh recently.

I talked about this a little bit when I went solo a couple days ago and you took the night off. To me, it just seems like, yes, he's not hitting as many home runs. But the big thing that's not happening to me is he's not getting those singles and doubles to fall as much as he was earlier in the season. And that's the big reason why his numbers are taking a little bit of a plummet. It's a relative term compared to where they were in the first two and a half months of the season. But, you know, he's still, I feel like he's still having good A-Bs, to be honest. It doesn't look like the guys lost quote-unquote at the plate or anything like that. And today is just a perfect moment to kind of break out of a slump, I think.

Yeah, absolutely. And I'm going to be completely honest with you. I missed how the first two batters got on. And I was getting ready to come sit back down. And I saw Randy or Rosarina just missed that Homer. Just missed that Homer. And then pretty meek pop up. And you're thinking, oh, boy, oh, boy. JP had a line drive. And then I believe it was Cole Young that also had a kind of pulled the ground ball base hit just past the second basement. So you had first and, this is. second one out for Randy yes for Randy and he just misses on that Homer and then pops out on a pitch that was hitable as well but you know it happens yeah but you know Cal had not played a very good game today he was not having that type of stuff and it's funny because that game you went solo dolo yeah I thought he actually played a really good game yeah he did yeah that's what he pulled the double to kind of break it open pulls the double he draws the walk he steals the base that's a pretty nice little day yeah I think the thing with Cal Raleigh has just been regression and results, even though the process has been pretty good, man.

Like how many full counts have we seen Cal Raleigh strikeout in? Right. Like a lot. Now, he's missed pitches. There's no question about that. And in the month of August, coming into today, he had 23 at bats. How many times do you think he struck out in those 23 at bats? 12. I'll go half. 14. Oh, that's bad. That's really bad. And, you know, we can talk about how strikeouts are just outs, but not a lot of good luck can happen when you strike out, right? And you can't get those infield singles, those sweet, sweet speed of big dumpers. It just can't happen. But tonight was just a reminder of shut up.

You know what I mean? Talent is upper echelon, upper echelon. And sure, it's a bad three weeks, maybe closer to a month, right? Results, fat. Yeah, by the results, but the process has been there. The process has been there. And tonight was just a star moment, a star moment. The type of thing that if you somehow are watching this and you're an MVP voter, stuff like this matters.

Moments. Moments. This matters a lot. The Mariners do not win this game without Cal Rale. And, you know, technically by wins above replacement, I guarantee he did not gain a win tonight, right? No, no. But he gave the Mariners a win tonight. Yes.

So that's important. That WPA is going up big time. Oh, it's so big. It's so big. And, man, it's great to see those guys get on to, you know, because the whole lineup tonight stunk. It was a bad effort against, and I already forgot who pitched for Tampa Bay tonight. It was Rasmussen. That's right.

Drew Rattle, Local boy, Drew Rathminson. And, you know, Drew Rasminson's not. a, he's been pretty good. Yeah, a bad pitcher at all. You know, Tampa Bay's got some talented players.

Junior Kevin Arrow's got a chance to be a super star. He's, um, fire. But man, just the difference in mood that you have from that win. The difference in mood you have from one swing of the bat. You just,

it's incomparable to any other sport. It just really is, right? Like, even in basketball, like if you have the, the pull-up three-pointer or something like that, right? that only happens at everything's close in between right right the the last second touchdown pass that only happens if things are close i know the mariners were technically only down two runs it felt like

they were down by like an infinity stone right the only reason you weren't is because of louis castillo exactly and they were thoroughly outplayed but one person i'll do respect to the guys who gets heads at front of him one person is the reason why you win this base ball game yeah yeah uh it's a great way to put it but not have said it any better uh great call by aran goldsmith by the way quick shout out to him because he he could tell as soon as it was off as bad and it was it was i was screaming in my seat here i was like oh unfortunately i was scrambling a little bit because i had the stream basically all ready to go a little peek behind the curtain i have to set everything up beforehand kind of predicting what's going to happen be like all right mariner's

lost da da da da da da da then that happens and i have to quickly change everything so that's why we're a a couple minutes late to go on live today. But I will gladly sacrifice my time a little bit to make sure the Mariners win. So I'll take the I'll take the all in that one to make sure we get the debt tonight. But let's talk about the offense leading up to that point. I was felt ready to come in and be like, did anything good happen today? Donovan Solano, you know, that's the one thing that I thought. Randy gets two hits.

Yeah, you know, those two guys looked fine. Julio had a bad day. Palanco had a bad day. Suarez, bad day. Canzon a bad day. And then again, that ball, I'm so glad that they win this game. Because if we're talking about this being a one run loss or the game still tied, we're talking about that play from Canzon. But it was not good. It was not good. And, you know, I will say like, this lineup doesn't look as good without Josh Naylor. It just doesn't. And of course, it doesn't. right but like i think it may be more substantial than everyone thinks yeah you know what i mean like

there's just there's something about the way he's playing right now you know and it lankens that lineup so much but i'll just give you my unsung hero right now i'll go with salano because a guy who hadn't started since february 4th of 1984 had a pretty good game right like it was nice to see him do do a nice job at the play i'll be honest i was that at bat that he had yet yesterday was dreadful. Yeah. Dreadful.

And I was like, oh, boy, we may have to talk about, like, a lead-up here where he might be that Donovan Solano that we saw in the early portion. But, yeah, he did a really nice job tonight. So that's my unsung hero. Yeah, I think it's good shout. I'm going to go with Matt Brash, because. Feltzy. In a spot that he has never been.

He only has eight saves in his career. That's weird to me. I feel like he would have had a lot more, but I get it. You've been behind Munoz for most of your career. I saw a few people at the top of the show saying closer controversy. No, guys, Munoz was down tonight. You realize he had bipsed the two previous nights and looked pretty dang good last night. Sure.

It's just a way it worked. Like, honestly, I am usually in favor of those teams that don't even have a specific closer. Specific closer. Matchups or who has more rest. Like, you just having more higher leverage guys is good. Period. End of story. I don't care if they're all closers or whatever.

And one of them has to drop. back and like whatever but for someone who has not been in that situation very many times Matt Brash looked awesome tonight he does get to a three ball count against was all three three had three ball counts right because he throws 10 of 19 pitches for strikes and what what was big there though was that putting anybody on base there was going to be massive right because those are those are big boy hitters that he was facing too those are guys all capable of taking the ball out of the park. And all three, I believe it was all three full counts.

Yep. He threw something absolutely disgusting to finish off the hitters. He was terrific. He's, his stuff's as good as any pitcher in baseball, not starter, not reliever, not anything, any pitcher. Matt Brash has as good of stuff as any pitcher in baseball. And what has encouraged me is these last two games, the strikeouts have been there. The strikeouts have been there.

It's great that he's initiated a lot of weak contact along the way, too. But I want Matt Brash striking mother people out. I want Matt Brash, yeah, I can edit myself a little bit. I want him striking those fools out because there's just a difference. And it's nice not to have to rely on the defense. It's nice to know that Dominic Canzon can't catch fly balls if you don't put the ball into play, right? Like that is. Let's talk about that real quick.

Oh, my God. Well, Victor Robles, man. And it's not because we talked about it yesterday, right? Don has the walk off yesterday. He gets to walk off it. It's nothing against him offensively. He is a bad defensive player. He's a bad defensive player.

And because you have the guy in center field that you do, you can get away with some of it. But I, if Josh Naler was to miss significant amount of time, my move would be to move Dom-Kanzone to first base. And hopefully, it sounds like we're going to give Victor Roblo's back, which is kind of crazy. Yeah, that's weird, right? Because we didn't think that was going to happen.

Luke Rayleigh's also at AAA today. Right, that's right. And Luke Riley's not a good defensive player either. So he's not as bad at Tom-Kan. He's not as bad at Dom-Kanzone. here's hoping this is all nothing and it's just speculative because but Domkin's own is somebody

Domkenzone played first base for in Ohio State and was actually pretty darn good there he was a guy that the Diamondbacks thought they could play in the outfield and I get it that's what but it is very difficult is it a lack of athleticism for him in right field is it just you can't relax it's a lack of athleticism and it's a lack of range it's a lack of just like Or, you know what else it is?

Lack of instincts. You know what I mean? That's not going to say. There's just things that you can't really teach there. I think that Dom Kanzone is helping the Mariners a lot more than hurting them. Absolutely. Huge hit yesterday, right? But, like, boy, we need Josh Nailer to be back.

Yeah, I agree. I completely agree. And for those who didn't see, it was recorded that earlier today, Naylor said himself that his shoulder feels fine and he should be okay. So I don't know if that's him just saying it or, you know, they asked Dan Wilson if he would have been available for a pinch hit situation. He says probably was his exact words for today. So to me, that sounds like they're just kind of holding him off a couple extra days.

If he plays this series, I'm not worried at all. They have a day off Monday. He could take the full series off if they really wanted to be careful and then just come back on Tuesday. That's probably what I see happening, but we'll see what ends up playing out. Here's hoping, man. He's just such a big part of their offense. He's such a, and I've just been so impressed with what he's done. But, and again, I don't want to go too crazy about Dom stuff. Like, but. Yeah, no, it's, it's, it's, it almost really hurts you. It almost really hurts you, but Cal, big booty dumper did what we needed him to do, man. That is. Yes, he did. That's a

story tonight. Cal and Luis, those are the guys. Sometimes only need is two guys playing well, and you can win a baseball game, right? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That's the thing. Like, baseball is a team sport, and then sometimes it's not.

And here's the thing, too, about baseball, just real quick. Baseball is the most team sport, and then in some ways it's the most not team sport at all, because it comes down to individual moments and individual pitcher versus hitter. Yeah. Fielder versus whatever, you know. The fielder has to make that play.

It all becomes individual. It's not a case of the offensive line having to gel together, right? It's not about the center. I'm doing a lot of multi-sport comparisons today. Sure, why not? Let's go. It's not about center coming up to set a pick for the point guard, right? It is all individual moments.

It's a one-on-one matchups. It's one-on-one constantly. And today, Cal Raleigh made one of the... By the way, does anyone else notice that Cal Raleck kind of looks like Luca Dantzich? there's the shout especially with Luca Donch it's a little pudgy you know well he's lost a lot of weight i don't know if you've seen Luca i have seen that is anyone else in the chat does check out locked on NBA for more updates on uh lucca donch it's wait i got it he does that's all i need that's all i mean he does that it's um it's just fun to win

games like this it's fun you're 11 games over 500 now right like that's you're on pace to have a pretty dang good season quick fun. Yeah, a quick little rundown throughout what happened elsewhere. The Astros beat the Yankees in extra innings. Taylor Tremel, that's a home run, of course. Against Devin Williams, the Yankees free fall continues. I think they might lose that on a wild card spot. That's just crazy. Texas also loses. So now the Mariners are firmly in Wild Card 2, two games up on the Yankees for the last wildcard spot and still remain, was it, game and a half back of Houston? I want to say?

Yes. It's two games. It's a game and a half. Game and a half. So you don't lose any ground on Houston and you do gain ground on New York. I actually think that's, if you're talking all scenarios, I think that's probably the best case right there because your bottom half, you gain some ground there and you're not losing anything up here.

I don't know. I always used to the asteros to lose, too. So I would have been happy either way. But anyways. Do you want to hear something irresponsible? Go ahead. It's 49. Seattle Meritor's magic number to win the AOS.

Don't, don't, don't. Don't do that. Don't do that. That's very... You know what? Thanks. I'm going to give it after every game now. You're grounded.

You are absolutely grounded. That is very... 49, folks. 49 wins. It's all you need. Is that your last word? Oh, quick. Quickly, before we leave.

Ty and Colby had an excellent conversation with Gary Hill Jr. on today's Lock on Mariner's episode. If you're looking for more Mariners content, please go check that out. It was great stuff. I think I love Gary Hill. is probably one of my favorite Mariners broadcast people.

I have a great relationship with him personally, and he's great on the air, too. So they had an awesome conversation with him. Please go check that out if you get a chance. You can find that anywhere you get your podcast, or of course, the YouTube channel as well. Just go back to the page, and you'll see it. Like the video if you haven't already.

It really helps us out. If you haven't, if you missed any part of today's episode, you can find it on the podcast later tonight, or just rewatch the video. we like seeing you guys here. So really appreciate everyone hanging out with us, Chris. Last words, do not say 40. 50 minus 1.