Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - MARINERS POSTCAST - Cal Raleigh Homers AGAIN in win over the San Diego Padres

Episode Date: May 18, 2025

Anderson Hirst and Christopher Crawford break down the Saturday night game between the San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners.  Can you make a case for Cal Raleigh to win AL MVP?  How much longer can we take Donovan Solano on this roster?  How good has Mariners pitching been against a really good Padres lineup? Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Wonderful PistachiosGet snackin' and get crackin' with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more! Supply HouseJoin the TradeMaster program today at SupplyHouse.com/TM and start ordering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical supplies with just a few clicks. Plus, use promo code S-H-5 for 5% off your first order. That’s SupplyHouse.com! Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED 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. Well, your 2025 Vetter Cup champions, your Seattle Mariners. Go into San Diego and win a second straight game. Christopher Crawford, Anderson Hurst, here with your Mariners Postcast live after every single Mariners game right after the final pitch. Munoz gets the job done once again.

Emerson Hancock, a good start. But let's talk about a little bit of offense here first. Before we get into Hancock's start and the pitching, shutting down, a very good Padres lineup. I'm going to officially start Cal Rale's MVP train. His campaign starts right here. Now, I know there's a little guy, a little guy. Yeah, it's very kind of. that, you know, lives in New York and is playing pretty good baseball right now.

But I don't care. I'm calling for it. Cal Raleigh's MVP season starts right now. Let's get it rolling. Because that dude is as valuable to any team as I've seen in a long, long time, especially for these Mariners who have an elite pitching staff. They need him to do all that stuff. What he's doing with the bat is incredible.

He almost has a one dot OPS at this point. It's just crazy. But Chris Crawford, what is your big takeaway from this game besides Cal Raleigh's awesome? It's got to be the Vetter Cup, man. Is this? Yep, I'll just go ahead and do it. I don't like Pearl Jam. I don't like Pearl Jam.

The voice drives me and saying. I don't hate it. I usually it's a good litmus test for how much I'm going to get along with a person. Not always does it work out, but. It's just not my cup of tea. And I'll just get that out of the way now. Right. 10 into the video, I've got 23 minutes or so for you guys to forget that I don't like

Pearl Jam. No, I did. Big Dumper is just a sensational baseball player. And, you know, we could probably just repeat yesterday's video and talk about all those walking points, just replace some names. But man, what a absolute clutch monster of a hitter, Big Dumper is. And yeah, I have talked to, now, you said you're starting. the MVP hype train. I will point out, I have talked about the MVP hype train. I will say that I

said he's going to win it someday. Anders is going full in and making the campaign for this year. And I love it. Yeah. And, you know, if you go by technically valuable, I think the New York Yankees are probably still in first place without Aaron Judge. I don't know that for a fact. I think there's a decent shot. Is there any way in hell the Seattle Mariners are in first place without Cal Raleigh? No chance. No chance whatsoever. And the, Dodgers would be in first place without show Hey, Othony. Now, technically, that's how valuable works, I guess. That's never how it's been voted on.

And I'm actually okay with it not. It should be the very best player. I think it should be the very best player. I don't care really about MVP, like the value adding to the postseason. I don't like awards based on geography and based on how good the players are around them. But Cowelley's right up there, man. He's clearly the best catcher in baseball now. There's zero debate about that.

so ever, and he is one of the top 15 or so players in baseball. And it's just awesome to see. And top 15 might be just being a little safe and precautionary. Like, I can't name a dozen players better than Cal Raleigh right now. I'll tell you that much. Just an absolutely sensational effort from him called a great game once again. We cannot say enough superlatives about Cal Rale. We love you, Big Dumber.

Yeah, and I think that part of his game goes really underrated, because yes, he has, he's a good framer, right? And hopefully we don't have to talk about that for very much longer because empires suck. But the way he calls the game, they talk about on the broadcast all the time, is the ability to call the right pitch, especially with pitchers like Emerson Hancock, like Logan Evans, like, you're going to see Jonathan Diaz soon as well, where you kind of have to lean on the catcher a little bit. And that ability to kind of know the hitters a little bit, to call the right thing, to know what's in the pitcher's arsenal and what's good for this specific situation is incredibly underrated.

Sure. And I think he calls a magnificent game. And you rarely see a shakeoff unless it's like I'm really confident George Kirby looking to shove it down someone's, you know what. So I totally think like we got at least start the hype train now. Sure. It's going to be tough to be number 99 in New York City, but I think if he continues this up, he's going to have one of the best catching seasons that we've seen in the last 10 years. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, it's just there's so many people that I've talked to who have, and I respect these people too. I don't talk to people. I don't respect all that much unless they're in my family.

But they, a lot of people talked about like, oh, as soon as they get rid of the automatic balls and strike system, there's going to be less value. And that might be technically true, but it's not to the point where it's like all of a sudden big dumper becomes a useless backstop on the contrary. Like still has a absolute canon of an arm, still calls a great game, is an excellent athlete behind the plate,

does a great job as a receiver. And oh, by the way, he's got 80 great power too. Like that's just such a rare combination. And it's so great that people are able to appreciate players like big dump or more. Like the first that people would look at is batting average, right? We don't do that anymore.

We take a look at WRC. We take a look at OPS. We take a look at OPS Plus. We take a look at baseball savant pages to see how much people are barreling the baseball and all of that stuff. It's nice to live in an era where people appreciate Cal Raleigh and boy, oh boy, do I ever appreciate him. He is, as a prospect guy, he is probably my ultimate

victory card. I have gotten a lot of things wrong. but I was really high on Big Dumber for a long time. I didn't think he'd be this good, but I feel pretty strongly that he's probably going to end up the Mariners starting catcher anders. I feel pretty good about it. Yeah, I think that's a good safe bet to make at this point. Cal Raleigh just signed an extension before this season

is a good bet to be the Mariners catcher for the foreseeable future. Could you imagine if he was the backup? Like, if they said not $17 million, it's fine. We're going to go ahead. Now we'll start Mitch Garver instead, you know. Yeah. Great, great, great decision. All right. So let's get to the pitching a little bit.

I actually think the more impressive part of the last two nights, and when you talk about tonight specifically has been, the ability for Mariners pitching to absolutely shut down an elite Padres lineup. And like, if you just go down the numbers for all of those Padres hitters that were in the lineup today and yesterday, and the fact that they've scored a total of two runs in those past two games is a huge, huge win for marriage pitching. So what, I mean, it feels like we're going to be a broken record.

But it sounds like Emerson Hancock's start tonight was very similar to Logan Evans to start last night. It was. And, you know, it's maybe a little bit of a hot take. I thought Emerson Hancock pitched just as well as Logan Evans did today. Now, makes the one mistake to Gavin Sheets and, you know, gives up some singles as well, also a double. But, you know, four of those six hits going for singles,

one walk, three strikeouts. I thought, and here's the thing. He only goes four and two-thirds innings, and people will look at that and say, oh, I'm not a great start. I disagree. And I will say this as well, and somebody brought it up.

I thought this was probably the best managed game by Dan Wilson all year. I thought that the decisions that Dan Wilson made today were excellent, and the decision to go to Gabe Spire there, you don't think about Gabe Spire as being a guy you bring it in the fifth inning. But that was a massive point in that game. Huge point.

And Hancock was, you know, pitching pretty well. And he gets the big strike out of Machado, but the decision to pull him there was the right one. But four and two thirds innings of one run baseball from your now fifth starter, I guess he would be. Maybe your fourth starter. Maybe your third starter. It's so hard to figure out the order of these things with so many guys hurt. But I thought that Emerson, Hancock pitched excellent. And outside of the Yankees start and, you know, there were some decent moments in that Yankee start.

and of course that disastrous start against Detroit, Emerson Hancock has been fine. In fact, fine might be an understatement. Emerson Hancock is pitched like a very solid back end starter for the overwhelming majority of the year. By the way, I meant to bring this up yesterday. You know the phrase you got fired on your day off. The opposite of that happened to Logan Evans yesterday because six of his earned runs against the Texas Rangers became unearned, which lowered his ERA considerably.

So congrats to you, Logan. Evans. It's got to be nice now because that took it from like seven to two point five six or something like that. So yeah, good for you, Logan Evans. That's a massive difference. Certainly looks a lot better on your baseball card. I think anybody who watched that start would still come away and say, didn't pitch great against the Texas Rangers. But hey, it's nice for the baseball card, baby. Yeah, and everyone looks at ERA and that kind of stuff. So it's good for him. I think, all right, let's get into this. How big of a win was this? because we kind of went into last night thinking, you know,

you're happy taking one out of three away from the Padres, away from home, a really good team. Wow, we just got to go timbers in here. Yeah, I apologize for showing it, but we do appreciate. He said love you. And anybody who says love you for me is going to get their comments. I'm not going to tell people how to fan. Just don't be a fan of the timbers.

That's all right. Thank you for tuning. in, appreciate it. So how big was this win? Because getting the series at least, and you still have Brian Lou going tomorrow, you have a chance to sweep the Padres before you go and play against one of the worst teams of baseball at the Chicago White Sox early next week. So how big was this one to get at least two or three from the Padres? Massive. I mean, you take a look at that game and nothing was supposed to be in your favor. Nick Pavetta has been a really strong option. Emerson Hancock coming off his second worst start. He'll never have a worse start. I

hope that he had against Detroit. You know, nothing really slated to go in your favor. And you go out and you were the better team for probably eight of nine innings in this one. I think it's awesome. And now you get to play with the icing on the cake game, the chance to get that sweep with the guy who is probably your race right now and Brian Will won the mound. I think it's huge to be able to get this one because no matter what happens Sunday now, series one, you've got what you came here to do. Now, they want to win this game. They want to win every game.

And getting a sweep here would be massive, but you can't get that sweep if you don't win Saturday. It's funny how that works. You need to be able to win the first two in order to win all three. And then the fact that you brought up that they get to play an absolute crap factory of a baseball team after this in the Chicago White Sox, it's a chance to go on another run. After winning just one of six at home, a chance to have a four and two, five and one road trip, I think that's massive.

And I don't think you can overstate how big of a win this was. Yeah, I'm with you. I think that timing is huge because after, you know, the sweep against Toronto last weekend and then losing two of three of the Yankees right after that, there were some questions. I think fans after kind of going through a long stretch of being confident about this team, it's, there were some questions about whether that was the real Mariners. And I think more than anything else,

injuries caught up to them. But this is basically the same team. And they go in and beat one of the better teams in all of baseball for at least two of three games at this point. So the Padres have an excellent bullpen, have an excellent starting staff and have a really good lineup. And I think having two of your not top five starters, two guys that weren't slotted in to be in your five-man rotation before the season going in these games and you won the first two, that's against one of the. better lineups in baseball. I think that says a ton about where the Mariners pitching staff is at this point. No doubt about it. And I think you have to give a ton of credit to the front office for bringing in solid options behind them and doing a good job with the player development. And also the bullpen.

Like the fact that this bullpen has been so good and I love the decision today to bring in Andres Munoz for a four out safe. Now, it was interesting. At this point, last year, Anders, how many four-out saves do you think, or four-out opportunities do you think Andres Munoz had? I would say, I guess, three. Seven. Seven? At this point in the year?

At this point in the year, he had seven. This was his very first of the year. And I admire that they have taken things slowly with him. It's time to go. It's time to use the best closer in baseball when they need to use the best closer in baseball. And Andres Munoz, I know Mason Miller's really good. I know there's some other guys. I think I will take Andres Munoz over anybody right now.

Maybe not in the long term. I think Mason Miller maybe has a higher upside than him. And that's not an insult to Andres Munoz whatsoever. That's straight up compliment to Mason Miller. But I loved that decision. And shout out to Casey Lugamina as well, who did a good job. He gives up the little bloop single. Just amazing that he's become such a high leverage option.

Shout out to Matt Brash, man. Oh, my gosh, did we need Matt Brash back in a Seattle Mariner uniform? Making those sliders and just making hitters, good hitters too, look absolutely foolish tonight. This is the most confident I've been in the Seattle Mariner Bullpen in a long time. Like, I never felt as confident in this bullpen in 2024 as I do right now in 2025. Wow. Now, I'd like still to get another arm. Don't get me wrong.

I still would like to get another arm. but the way Legamina's pitching, who's reminding me a lot, not in style and even in pitch type, but he's reminding me in results of what Justin Topa did for the Seattle Mariner in 2020, a guy who did not have high expectations, but had shown flashes and the Seattle Mariners have done an incredible job of taking guys who show flashes out of the bullpen and making them into a thing. And that is what Casey Legamina is right now. Matt Brash is just a completely different level, but it goes back to just how Dan Wilson managed this game. The fact that he went for that four-out save, knowing how big a series win would be here,

and knowing too that Munoz hadn't worked in a few days. Now, he warmed up yesterday, but that's not the same thing. This is a really, really great job by Dan Wilson, and I'm just so impressed with everything that happened tonight. Yeah, really quick, before we get into our Unsung Heroes segment, I want to break down kind of your, because you've mentioned it twice now. the managerial decisions to go to both Gabe Spire in the fifth inning and then to do the four, five out save from Andres Munoz in the eighth slash ninth inning. So breakdown, why is that such a big deal?

Why do you think that was the right move? Let's start with the Spire one. So the Spire one to me is because of the way that game was going. And I also wonder if Dan Wilson was maybe managing tonight a little bit. And this is completely hindsight and it just popped in my head. With the way the weather was going tonight, maybe not having these guys left for a situation that may not happen tonight. I think that was an important part.

But it's just Jackson Merrill has been as good as any hitter in baseball this year. Like he has been one of the very best. And as good as Emerson Hancock was tonight. Good. As fine as Emerson Hancock was tonight, I'd much prefer Gabe Spire going against any lefty. I will trust Gabe Spire against any South Paw and baseball. And then look, you want Andres Munoz, you want David taking on the Goliath. And he's not David.

He's the other Goliath. You want your very best going against the very best. And that's the game right there. It's a two one game. All due respect to Casey Legamina, have Andres Munoz get that out, start the clean ninth. It's nice that they gave them a little bit of insurance there as well, but I'll feel confident with a 0.01 lead with Andres Munoz right now. It was a terrific job by Dan Wilson, who I've been critical of.

I think there have been some real mistakes in the year of our Lord 2025, but I don't think he made any tonight. Real quick, a lot of people talking about Donovan Solano. And look, we have talked a lot about Solano. Okay. His bat in the ninth inning was massive, a massive at bat to draw that walk before Dylan Moore gets that two-run single. He has had some really good at bats. The results aren't good enough.

There's no question about it. Again, I would not have on, excuse me, I almost said, Andres Munoz. I would not have Donovan Solano on my roster if it was my choice, but I will give him credit that he has had a couple of fantastic at bats in a last couple of games. So I do want to give a little bit of a shout out to him. Yeah, and it's crazy how much we, how much different we feel about the bullpen going back to that conversation with one guy difference. And that's Matt Brash coming back.

but it just slots everyone down into the role they're kind of supposed to be. I think it just gives every pitcher a little bit more confidence. It gives Dan one more guy that he can go to that he doesn't have to keep going back to the same guy every now and again. So having Matt Brash back is so huge. So I'm totally with you on that. And I agree with you on the managerial decisions going forward, especially considering Munoz had the off day yesterday and the off day on Thursday as well. So he had two days off leading up to it.

he hadn't enough rest. Hopefully that means he's able to go tomorrow or for in a similar situation. Okay, before we get into unsung heroes, I want you guys to comment who your unsung hero is of the night, maybe play of the night, maybe your, you know, player who doesn't necessarily get enough love that you think needs to be shouted out a little bit. Because once again, there's a lot of options today. I'm going to, we'll get to those here in just a second. But first, Chris, let's talk about game time because I don't know if you've ever

decided last minute to head to a ballgame with friends or family, maybe it's game day, and you suddenly realize you want to be in the stance. That's exactly where game time comes in. It's the easiest way to grab last minute tickets without the stress. With the money you save on tickets, you can splurge on food, drinks, merch, or even, you know, bring more people to the game. And game time makes it possible. Game time makes buying tickets fast and simple. Prices on the app actually drop the closer you get to first pitch. And they've got incredible last minute deals. clear seat views and a lower price, lowest price, excuse me, guarantee that takes the worry out of buying.

Today is a perfect day for game time. If you were in San Diego, you got that rain going on. You're kind of wondering if the game's going to get played. If you really feel like you're sure you want to go to a baseball game at a little bit of monsoonish weather. Well, guess what? You wait until the last minute on game time. Those prices went down until the very last moment. And he got to watch a Seattle Mariner when if you're living in San Diego.

That's pretty fun. Yeah, I think that's pretty fun as well. Even if it is a little rainy, you get a nice deal off. And, you know, with GameTime, you can take the guest work out of buying tickets. Download the GameTime app. Create an account and use 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-L-B for 20 bucks off.

Download the GameTime app today. Last-minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. And, you know, along with baseball games, the game time app can be used for basketball games as well. And I don't know if you knew, Chris, but Fandul is the official betting partner of the NBA. And the NBA playoffs are in full swing and every night delivers highlight worthy performances, major momentum shifts, and can't miss moments, whether it's a game winning shot or a breakout player. There's never been a better time to get in on the action. Fan duel makes it easy to stay in the game before tip-off and live. With player props, performance trends, and same game parlays, fans have more ways than ever to play smart and win big.

So tomorrow, Anders, you know, it's the NBA playoffs. There's no NBA. Oh, there's game seven tomorrow. I will be definitely betting on some Denver Nuggets. I will definitely be betting on Yokic to score. Are you a hedge guy? Like, if you obviously, you want the Nuggets to win. Are you betting on the nuggets so you get all or nothing?

Or are you going to bet on the thunder in that either way you win? How dare you? I don't know. Some people operate different ways. I'd rather sit on a hedgehog than have hedge bets with the Oklahoma City. Okay. I get where you're coming from. The other person I'd be betting on is Christian Braun.

I'll take the over there. And from a baseball one, I think I'd bet on a Julio Rodriguez Homer tomorrow. Ooh. He's due. I'm kind of with you on that. If you're new to Fandul, it's the perfect time to sign up. head to fandual.com and place your first $5 bet. If it wins, you'll get $200 in bonus bets.

Make every moment more with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. All right, guys. Let's get to some, on some heroes from this game two win against the San Diego Padres. Huge, huge, huge, huge win for the Mariners. I could say Rowdy again. You could go with Casey Legamina again.

It's feel like we're going through the same kind of guy. But Chris, who's your unsung hero of the evening? Boy, this is tough because there's a few guys. I'm really tempted to go with Dan Wilson just because I was so happy with the way that he managed tonight. I'll do it. I think that Dan Wilson managed an absolutely perfect game tonight. I realized some people were upset with the Solano Pinch hit decision,

but I don't mind it. I don't mind using a righty-lefty type situation, in part because I don't trust Ronnie to Les all that much either. So I get trying to play the platoon, maybe get Solano going. I get it. I'm just as frustrated there too. But I thought all of the decisions he made tonight were excellent ones,

in particular the way that he managed this bullpen, making sure that you do get this series win and that you make tomorrow an icing on the cake game instead of a game that you have to win in order to get that series win. Yeah, I'm going to go with Gabe Spire. You know, we talked about it a little bit, but I still think it was a huge, you know, moment in the game. is loaded in the fifth inning could have easily gotten away for the Mariners a little bit

keeping in a tie game at that point was so so so so important uh so i think him being able to get out of that and i think did he start the top of the fifth or sixth as well uh even if not it was just that moment in the game for me was it was huge huge being able to strike out jackson mary like he said one of the best uh hitters in baseball at this point and he did something similar if you guys remember in the Yankee series as well during the win in the Brian Wu start because they brought him Brian Wu for the seventh and he couldn't get through it and they brought in fire to kind of finish it off. So he seems like Dan Wilson's guy, especially against left, he's no question, to like if you need to just get one out to get out of an inning, he's your guy at that point.

Good ground ball pitcher can get the strikeout if you absolutely need it. So I'm going to go with Gabe Spire. But there's a lot of shouts. Another rowdy Tellez one, I think that solo homer is huge. getting us back in the game after the Gavin Sheets Homer in the fourth inning. Sure. I mean, Cal Raleigh not necessarily underrated or unsung hero because he has been sung. We are singing his praises right now. It's time. We're starting the Cal Raleigh for MVP hype train right now.

I'm officially starting it. Chris has been on it for a while. So we're on the train at this point. Anything else from this game before we try and go for the series sweep tomorrow? I think mainly, though, the one question I do have for tomorrow is, is I one who all is going to be available in that bullpen tomorrow. I think you really do need Brian Wu to give you at least six tomorrow because Dave Spire getting four outs, 18 pitches,

probably not going to be available. I believe Legamine has worked in three straight games now, so maybe he's not going to be available. With an off day in between, so yeah. Yep, yeah, fair. And then Munoz with the 21 pitches, there's a chance he could be available, but I'm sure they would prefer not to have to use them

after his first one-in-one-third inning. I would guess that if I could make a bet on Fandu that your Mon Verzado is going to pitch tomorrow, I would be all over it because it sure seems likely that he's going to get in this game. But no, this was a great win. These last two games are, you know, they've played well this year. There's no question about it. But these are the two games that have made me the most confident that they are legitimate American League contenders. The way they played in these last two games made them look like legitimate American

and link contenders. And the crazy part about that is they did that while starting their sixth and seventh starters. Right. That's what's so impressive to me is like you haven't even started one of the two guys that's left in your rotation at this point. So yeah, I think that gives me a lot of confidence. And maybe we'll hear from Ty and Colby on once these guys are back, what you do with these pitchers that have been pitching while the Logan Evans, the Emerson Hancock's. Hard decision. Yeah, that's a tough one. So I'm curious what those guys have. have to say uh we'll be with you guys once again tomorrow one 10 uh brian woo versus michael king great pitching matchup once again the podres i'm sure would like to salvage the series and get

one but uh it's going to be tough against brian woo he's been one of your better pitchers lately probably the ace of the staff for this specific year so uh yeah thanks so much guys for tuning in really appreciate it once again my name's aerson hurst that's christopher crawford we're live after every single mariner's game uh be sure to uh comment who you're on sun Hero was or anything we missed, please let us know because we love hearing from you guys. So I really appreciate you guys tuning in and we'll talk to you guys tomorrow. All right. Chris, thanks so much.

Peace. Good stuff.