Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - MARINERS POSTCAST: Cal Raleigh WALKS NEW YORK YANKEES OFF with single

Starting point is 00:00:01 I'm Anderson Hurst. First walkoff of the year. Boy, did Cal Raleigh need that one. I'm Chris Crawford. We can only have a few more of these until I perish. This is the Mariners Postcast. Your instant game reaction for the Seattle Mariners. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:33 Welcome to the Mariners Postcast. My name is Anderson Hurst. I got Chris Crawford with me. Mariners take the first game of the Yankee series and they win two to one on a Cal Raleigh walkoff single. Cole Young has a three-hit day. Luis Castillo was awesome. Just a pitcher's duel through and through.

Starting point is 00:00:54 Those of you who stayed at the game the entire time, my goodness, you guys are true baseball fans because, yeah, that looked cold. There are lots of times where I, because I have to watch the game from home more often than not when I do this postgame show. There are times where I'm like, dang, that looked like it was fun to be in the stadium. It was at the end. It did at the end.

Starting point is 00:01:18 But for the most of that day, I was not envying those. But good for you guys. It looked like it was a good time, especially now you get to watch a walkoff. So Chris Crawford, initial thoughts on the first game of the Yankee series. You know, I joked about this on Maliwatt Monday, about how small the sample size. is and how basically the Mariners had played a if you were doing it by football a quarter and a half I actually gave what the play. More minutes still have time.

Starting point is 00:01:45 Yeah, yeah, there was there was just a little bit to go in that one. So imagine having judgments, but I'm not going to lie to you. Not all wins are equal. And these are the type of wins that you can kind of look back on. There are wins I look back on in 2025 that I say, boy, if you hadn't have won that one or there were losses that made me go, boy, if only you would have won that one, one in particular um there are uh just those types of games and this feels like one of them and prisoner of the moment maybe a little bit but this feels big and this would have been a

Starting point is 00:02:17 heartbreaking loss to talk about because if you would have wasted that castillo starred i would have been really upset because boy oh boy was he impressive i thought the bullpen actually pitched really well some really shaky defensive moments some really shaky offensive moments some really shaky offensive moments, but ultimately you get the win and it gives you a great chance to get the series win here and end this homestand with a winning record, which should have been the ultimate goal. Yeah. Let's start with the start. I was debating if we should do the walkoff situation first. But no, it's, Luis Castillo deserves to be talked about first in this game. He was excellent. Not only was he, you know, I think a lot of people kind of forget, he was your second best

Starting point is 00:03:04 pitcher last year after Brian Wu for if you look at the totality of the entire season and he kind of gets forgotten because you think about that top four so much and that's again we've talked about it with Emerson Hancock as well that's more of how good they are versus how bad the others have been but I think Castillo almost gets it too much he should be kind of maybe in that same conversation because man oh man was he working a very good Yankees lineup to tonight. A Yankees lineup that teed off against the Giants in their opening series. So gets 14 whiffs. That's that'll play, as they say. And he just looked in command for the entire game. So Chris, let's start with the start. What made Castillo so affected tonight?

Starting point is 00:03:57 As good as I've seen his forcing fastball in a very long time. And you don't want to have to give him tons of credit for. And it's not surprising. There's a reason why. that guy's called La Piedra. He is the rock. It would have been real easy for some other pitchers on the Seattle Mariners, and I'll name two in particular, if Brian Wu and George Kirby would have had challenge Paloza going on the way that Luis Castillo did, oh, they would have been frustrated. And they would have, I don't know if it would have affected them or not, but you would have seen that frustration. Luis Castillo, I don't think can be flustered. I truly believe that man is, for those who watched Parks and Rec, he was the politician that was hired to just sit in his office and read speeches. And that's all he does.

Starting point is 00:04:41 All Luis Castillo does is go out and pitch and usually pitch pretty dang well. Really impressive. The fastball command was so good today. He actually undersold him a little bit. He ended up actually getting 17 swings. 17. Oh, wow. That's a really nice game. A cult strike plus whiff of, I believe, 38% on his forcing fastball. and 41% on his sweeper. Everything was working for Castillo today. And I just, I'm so impressed with how he handled those challenges. Maybe Easterbrook, you want to bend down a little further. You know, maybe if you keep missing the same pitch in the same spot,

Starting point is 00:05:22 maybe my point of angle is not correct. And by those pitches were just missing. I mean, just missing. Just a terrific effort. And I mean, look, Logan, Gilbert clearly had the worst start. If your worst start is five and third innings with seven strikeouts and three runs, your rotation is really freaking good, really good.

Starting point is 00:05:44 And this rotation, the first turned through it, pitched like the rotation that has a chance to do unbelievable things, things the Seattle Mariners have never done before. Yes. But Luis Castillo, I mean, he technically is the fifth starter for the Mariners. Obviously, I think technically it's the fourth. They just wanted him to start. They moved, they did the right thing. They had Hancock based the Guardians instead of the Yankees.

Starting point is 00:06:06 But ultimately, that guy is the definition of a mid-rotation starter. He's no longer the ace he used to be, but he's a damn good starting pitcher. And they got a really, really strong performance against a pretty darn good lineup today. Yeah, it gets his 1,500th career strikeout as well against Aaron Judge. And the thing that I was really impressed with Louise tonight is there was a lot of times last year where it felt like he kind of got lucky, where he would have the other hitters get marine layered where he leaves something over the plate and they drive it and it just barely doesn't go out or something like that. Or Julio makes a great playing center or whatever.

Starting point is 00:06:46 There was none of that tonight. No one squared him up whatsoever. Aaron Judge had three A-Bs against him and the best he could do is a walk. Like, I don't know. I understand that's going to happen sometimes. But he did that in the entire. lineup. There was no hard contact whatsoever against Luis Castillo tonight. Did you see Castillo in the dugout afterwards? Because by the way, 1500 strikeout is against Aaron Judge. That's got to be pretty nice.

Starting point is 00:07:12 But it was pretty clear what Castillo was saying was that he was trying to throw a slider there to Aaron Judge. And it just backed up and Judge got so fooled by it. But like in a lot of situations, pitchers are going to be super tense and like, you know, take it so seriously. Luis Castillo was just having a blast out there. And that's infectious, I think. And I think that, you know, the Seattle Mariners were going to want to win this one anyway. I don't think there's any doubt they really wanted to win this one for the Rock

Starting point is 00:07:42 tonight. And while he doesn't get the win and the win stat is a very stupid one, he deserves almost all of the credit for this W. Yeah, I think, like it could have been nice to get him that win, just to kind of like you said, get him the credit for this one. but I don't think pitchers even really care about their win loss that much anymore. It's just it's not what they look at. And I love that moment in the dugout that you were talking about

Starting point is 00:08:09 because they talked about it on the broadcast as well. By the way, when you were talking about the umpire and maybe you should bend down a little bit, I love sometimes when the Mariners broadcast does Mariner things and they tried to give credit of all those challenges to Mitch Garver for framing it, I'm like, well, that would be nice, except it doesn't matter, okay, because they can challenge it. So really, like, what are we doing here? But yeah, no, Luis was great tonight. Hey, and credit to Mitch Garver on this way for calling a good game.

Starting point is 00:08:41 I think he called a very good game behind the plate in his first game catching in 2026. And you know what? Angie Mentick brought this up too, that like he led the Yankees into making those challenges. Like he was able to frame those pitches. And, you know, should the umpire make an adjustment, you'd like to think so. But that's not how they work. And that's not how they're going to work ever. Even if there's an ABS system, they're going to somehow just call the same pitches over and over again.

Starting point is 00:09:10 But yeah, just a terrific effort. And clearly those two had some nice chemistry going on tonight. Let's get to the late inning heroics. After a quick break here, we'll talk about, you know, how it got to be tied. who was your unsung hero, and then, of course, the walk off with Cal Raleigh. We'll be right back with more of your Mariners' postcast

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Starting point is 00:11:50 on the season when the opening game of the series. Luis Castillo did the rock things. And Chris Crawford, we get ourselves the first walk off of 2026. So first, first, let's talk about you. You take the early lead with Cole Young, a little broken bat single. Luis Castillo looks strong, but let's talk about how the Yankees tied this up and kind of go into a little negative territory before we go into obviously the positive with the game later. Sure. Yeah, the defense wasn't very good tonight. And there were a few gaffs that were pretty concerning to me. Earlier in the game, Leo Rivas, a play that you have to make is a shortstop, gets dropped and on second base.

Starting point is 00:12:32 And then Brendan Donovan loses one in the lights. I'm not going to give him too much crap for that one. Like that's his first probably time seeing one of those in that angle and just loses it. It's a little disappointing that Leo Rivas isn't backing up Donovan. They get him out though at second, right? They do get him out. And kudos to Donovan for just hustling, getting the throw in. And also kudos to Giancarlo Stanton for being maybe the slowest runner in Major League Baseball right now

Starting point is 00:12:58 outside of Alejandro Kirk. Boy, he's slow. Slow, slow. He can hit the, you know what, out of a baseball. Oh, yeah. But then the run scores here because of two defensive mistakes that really concerned to me. Number one, it was hit hard, and Brandon Donovan gets eaten up by the ball.

Starting point is 00:13:18 And then my other concern there is with Stanton running, Leo Rivas, you see that arm is just not very strong. And I don't think it was going to be safe anyway. Yeah. The fact it ended up not being. close because he can't get the throw there is concerning. And that's going to be a concern to when J.P. Crawford comes back. The Mariners have noodle adjacent arms. They have the Chad Pennington's playing short stuff right now. If you guys don't remember, good old Chad Pennington. Oh, God.

Starting point is 00:13:44 And then with jazz chisholm up, runners on first and second, Jose Ferrer initiates what I think should have been a double play. Yes. And Cole Young, who we can say a lot of positive things about today. I don't know what you're doing, but he takes his sweet. You know what time with the transfer makes the out at second base, which is great, but it should have been two outs with a runner on third. And then when Bizarro comes in, that out is just an out instead of the sack fly that ties the game. This is not a great defensive team. They have a great center fielder. They have a great catcher. and they have a few competent guys here and there. The other one, Randy a Rosarina,

Starting point is 00:14:29 has to track that ball down in the gap there. That's not a double, man. That's got to be a single there. Especially to Stanton. Especially to Jean-Cardos Stanton, right? Like, you cut that off. He has no shot of getting to second base, but kudos to Matt Brash for getting out of that inning.

Starting point is 00:14:46 Kudos to the entire bullpen today. I thought all of the pitchers pitched well today, even Jose Ferrer, who gives up the run. I don't think he pitched poorly at all. Defense has got to be better. It's my number one concern for the Seattle Mariners is this team behind all of these great pitchers. Yeah, and it was defense,

Starting point is 00:15:07 and it was if the starting rotation could jump back up to 2024 levels. If that, those two things happen, this Mariners team is a World Series contender. They'll take that step up from what they were in 2025, right? because you basically kind of run it back in that front. So I think so far the early returns have been starting pitching. Yes, it looks like you're getting more like because people forget 2025. I know it was a great season.

Starting point is 00:15:37 You're starting pitching kind of took a step back overall from the previous couple of years, right? It's only because of injuries. Exactly. And if it goes back to the 2022, 23, 24 levels. Yeah. And you keep that same offense that you had in 2025. That's how this team can take a step. up but the other thing like you mentioned is the defense and i want to kind of throw randy under the bus

Starting point is 00:15:56 for one more because i know you mentioned leo rivas dropping that ball where they're all kind of doing bermuda triangle yeah probably got to cut that ball off uh-oh did anders mute or did i mute no that's good my mic totally unplugged as i was in the middle of my point so i apologize i was about to hit a bunch of uh of the soundboard while you're dropping i wouldn't have been able to hear it so i wouldn't Yeah. But no, I'd say that should be Randy's ball. That should be Randy's ball. That should be Randy. Honestly, that should be Randy or the shortstop who makes that play. Yes. Either one has a better angle of that play. Or, you know, Brandon Donovan might have been able to get there as well.

Starting point is 00:16:39 Yeah, they all could have. But the guy coming into the ball is the one that you can make. No, I totally agree. And unfortunately, Randy just doesn't get great jumps. It's not a lack of athleticism. And I don't think it's always a lack of effort. I think, think sometimes it's just a lack of defensive instincts. Yeah. Like it's not him being lazy. It's not him not caring about defense, although there are times where it does kind of look like he jogs out there a little bit, a little bit of a saunter, if you will. But ultimately, Randy or Rosarina probably should be a designated hitter. But the Mariners have about four guys who should probably be a

Starting point is 00:17:16 designated hit him. But the Mariners get themselves in a position. Let's go through that last inning real quick after good outings. Matt Brash. Woo! Yeah. I might hear about him later. For me at least. You let me go to the full summary here as we get to the ninth inning. I think Brennan Donovan leads it off.

Starting point is 00:17:37 No, it's Leo Rivas. Excuse me. Yeah. Because I actually think Leo Rivas played a good offensive game today as well. Yeah. And he singles. Cole Young flies out is one at that where he doesn't get on base. of course is against the right-handed pitcher, which is really funny.

Starting point is 00:17:52 Just misses it, too. Yeah, he does just, and he kind of breaks his bat on the end, or the end of the bat as well. But then Brendan Donovan gets another single, too. You're kind of feeling in a good spot first and third. And then Cal Raleigh comes up after being a pinch hitter earlier in the game and striking out in a pretty big moment with two guys on, he comes up clutch with the base hit down the line.

Starting point is 00:18:13 So a breakdown, you know, how big this one was for Cal? Like, I know you're very much in the camp. of not worried at all. He's fine. Everyone's just STFU a little bit. But just talk about that moment. Sure. By the way, I love how Dan used that designated hitter spot tonight. It was the right call to pinch hit can zone there, although, you know, it does make things easier. And if the Mariners would have given Cal Raleigh a true day off, this may have getting a little bit ugly because we might be talking about Ryan Bliss situations or Canzone hitting against lefties. I was a little surprised Luke Randley doesn't hit for Victor Robles.

Starting point is 00:18:53 It was a little bit of a, but maybe you just want the defense in the low scoring game there. So maybe that's, but I have no issues with anything Dan Wilson did tonight. Let's get that out of the way. You know, the reason it's big is it's just a, for us, it's a reminder of what Cal Raleigh is capable of. It's a reminder that, yeah, striking out, what, 11 times and, 16 plate appearances to begin the year is ugly and probably suggests he isn't picking up the baseball great and that the world baseball classic may have really hurt big dumper because he didn't

Starting point is 00:19:27 get the chance to play late there. But, you know, that guy just has ice in his veins and took a good pitch and lines it down the line there to score that run. Gives you the big win. By the way, I'm going to have blackbirds spinning in the dead of night, but I'm going to have Blackburn instead, Beatles song. Yeah, I'm very old. Yeah, that's just, that's, that's, he's capable of magic. He's capable of magic and it's so great to, it would have been great if anybody would have gotten the hit there. If you in Aski Betancourt would have pinch hit there and gotten the RBI single, I would have been, you, whew, Ueisky Betancourt. But there is something about when you have the guy who should have won the MVP last year coming up as a pinch hitter to deliver a, big moment to get you a as big of a wins you can have on March 30th is something different.

Starting point is 00:20:20 Yeah. And as someone who, if we're reacting to all that we can see, had looked pretty bad at the plate up until then. And I think those moments for these types of players can really kind of jumpstart you out of the fog. Similar to a couple nights ago with Julio, now I realize they didn't get that win because it was a game tying hit instead of the game winning hit. But still, like those moments where it's tightening and.

Starting point is 00:20:44 you know, you tie the game. And, you know, Julio doesn't do a ton the night. It hits a couple balls hard. 100 eight mile per hour on the first one. I wanted to talk about that briefly. I was disappointed because he does sting that baseball. The rest of the bats were really bad tonight, really bad. And he's got to get going. He's got to get going. There's no question about it. I'm not worried about Julio Rodriguez, but it's tough for this offense to succeed if your number

Starting point is 00:21:12 three hitter has it bats outside of that one stinger that he hit out to center field really quick when you think about josh nader still really kind of struggling in terms of results but it seems he's chopping the baseball yeah he's chopping the baseball right now and he's a little bit jumping out of his shoes he's not getting his foot down in time and josh nailer's gotten off to some tough starts in his career before it's worth pointing that out so not worried long term maybe a guy you consider moving down against left handers for a little bit though I don't want him hitting fourth against Max Fried. I think that that's something that you really have to consider, you know, as bad as bad.

Starting point is 00:21:51 Even though Ref Snyder hasn't gotten a hit there, maybe you consider hitting Ref Snyder second and moving Raleigh to fourth for that game against Freed and moving Nailer down to six, Brendan Donovan, probably in that seventh spot. By the way, I'll just do my unsung here right now, Brendan Donovan. Yeah. Just three times. And, you know, that pit to move the runner to third, I think it's going to score either way, but it still makes things a lot easier. You're just asking for big dumper to lift one.

Starting point is 00:22:19 A big dumper lift. We call that a BBO. That way, that's one I regret immediately. But it was, Brandon Donovan just looked great. Outside of some, a couple of defensive gaffes.

Starting point is 00:22:36 And by the way, he made a nice play too, moving to his right to get to make the throw there. I really don't have a lot of concern there. He just needs more reps. He's got to get more reps at the hot corner for me to feel super confident. Brenna Donovan is my unsung hero. I think I know who years is. So following up on that before I get to mine, we talked on, what was it, Saturday or Sunday?

Starting point is 00:22:58 I think it was Saturday, where the Mariners against the left-hand pitcher against Cleveland, they led off Ref Snyder and did, like, Donovan hit like six or seven. But in tonight's game, against the left-hand pitcher, Brennan Donovan leads off. and does really well, by the way. It's two minutes, gets on base three times, his total. What do you think about him just being set it and forget it lead off, lefties or righties?

Starting point is 00:23:21 I'm okay with trying it for a little while. I'm okay, but then you have to be ready in the summer months to make that move. It can't be a situation where he's a 600 OPS guy against lefties, which he's been around that, I think, for his career, 640, something along those lines. Can't really afford that. But I'm willing to give it a try. And I also think it's going to be pitcher by pitcher what I think you do there.

Starting point is 00:23:46 If you're facing a guy who's had some history with struggling to throw strikes like Weathers, it makes a little more sense for him to hit first, right? Because he is that guy who can draw that free pass and the on base percentage means more than the average in the power. But that set it and that set the table guy is really important. Whereas when you face a guy like freed who pounds the strike zones, maybe you're moving him down in that situation. And you have a guy like Ref Snyder who has such a long track record of mashing left-handers.

Starting point is 00:24:16 Maybe you're playing it ear by ear. But there's also something about the comfort too, right? Like guys like to be in the same spot. So if they want to try Donovan in the leadoff spot for a couple of weeks and see how things go, I don't have a huge issue with it either. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he's proven that he can kind of get it done against both sides.

Starting point is 00:24:34 So I'm interested to see kind of how that plays out. And he's been just an absolute awesome start to his meritors. career. My own song here was Matt Brash. Just how good he looked against the meat of that Yankees order as well, kind of making sure you have an opportunity to walk it off in the home half of the ninth inning is so huge. And I think once again, great move by Dan Wilson to go to your higher leverage guy in that situation, even though it's a tie game still at that point. I love it. I think, like you said, every decision that Dan Wilson made tonight, was one that I would have made as well in the moment.

Starting point is 00:25:14 I wasn't like questioning in my head. Hmm, that was interesting. So thank you to Matt Brash and thank you to Cal Raleigh for making us not witness Casey Legamina and extra innings because we would have. I was ready for that or a Cooper Crenwell. And I just would have been so disappointed. Real quick, I know most of these comments from Yankee people, but I addressed it early last year.

Starting point is 00:25:38 I'm going to do it this year. This is called a humanioma. It's harmless. It is a growth that I've had on my face since I was born. It is benign. It causes nothing. But I usually tell people who are rude about it. That's my conjoined twin.

Starting point is 00:25:54 That just didn't make it. And that's a little dark. But since everybody wanted to know, this is called a hemangioma and it's harmless. Yeah. I appreciate the PSA. And to the people who are rude about it, Eat a... We'll leave it at that.

Starting point is 00:26:13 Thank you so much, everyone, for tuning into the Maritors' Postcast. Meriters win this one, two to one, over the New York Yankees. They go to three and two on the season. We'll be back with you guys tomorrow evening. If you're new, we're live right for every single Mariner baseball game, Anderson Hurst, Chris Crawford. Hopefully it's the first of many walk-offs this year. It kind of feels like it will be.

Starting point is 00:26:33 This is a good team one to get us started. Like, okay, great, two-to-one. Let's a good one to kick us off. There'll be some bigger ones and bigger moments throughout the rest of the year. But I'm excited. I'm excited to be with you guys every night. We'll talk to you guys tomorrow. Chris, I'll give you the last word tonight.

Starting point is 00:26:51 Okay.

Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - MARINERS POSTCAST: Cal Raleigh WALKS NEW YORK YANKEES OFF with single

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