Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - MARINERS POSTCAST: Houston Astros WALK OFF Seattle Mariners to Win Series

Episode Date: May 25, 2025

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This is the Mariners Postcast. Your instant game reaction for the Seattle Mariners. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Oh boy. The Mariners are walked off in the final game against the Houston Astros to lose the series. One game to three. Tough one for Seattle. Christian Walker with a walk-off home run.

Casey Legamina comes in in the final inning. So much to discuss. I have a giant page of notes here. I'm riding solo today. You guys might be wondering where Chris Crawford is. Myself Anderson Hurst here, your host. He's had a wedding today, and what a game for him to miss. He's leaving this just giant meatball of grossness for me to analyze. So, ooh, tough one for your Mariners to end the road trip. They still end with the six and four record on the road trip. So this is a tough one. I'm going to be leaning on you guys today. I'm going to looking at some comments. I'm going to be asking what you guys think

because I normally have Chris Crawford with me to help me analyze this, but I'm going to be using you guys a lot today. So let me know what you think. I'll be looking through those, but we have a lot to discuss. Anderson Hurst here, your host of the Mariners Postcast, right after the final pitch of every single Mariners game, you can find

me and normally Christopher Crawford breaking down the entire game we just watch on the Locked on Mariners podcast page on YouTube. Oh, boy. First thoughts, just this team didn't play winning baseball. Today or the whole series or really the last couple series, they got lucky enough to take two out of three against Chicago

because there was a terrible team they're playing against. But they were honestly lucky to win one game of this four-game series in Houston. The offense is really starting to dry up a little bit. Jorge Polanco looks lost. Even when he gets put in against a right-handed pitcher, he still looks lost. He can't swing the bat at all. He's looking like 20-25.

for Jorge Polanco out there. I really hope there's nothing long term with him because we need him to get going. Julio has a good day. He goes three for five with another hard hit ball for one of his outs as well. No strikeouts. He did the job that he needed to do. Dylan Moore in the leadoff position is just disgusting to me. I can't stand it.

I don't know why he's being put in that situation. He's not a lead off hitter. I understand he hits lefties well. It's just not what we need right now. But let's talk about Dan Wilson because there's a lot going on here with him. You can talk about the lineup decisions, but I want to go straight to a couple of the biggest moments in the game that really, I think, changed the outcome here. First of all, leaving Castillo in through the sixth inning to get a season high 114 pitches. This is actually the move I feel the least issue with.

I understand he was hit around quite a bit today, Castillo was, but his velocity was still there. I believe out of the options that you were going to go to, you weren't going to go to Brasher, Munoz in that situation. I still think Castillo at that point in the game is the best choice to get through the inning, and he ended up proving him correctly. The other ones, though, bringing in, So Rowdy Tellez pinch hits for, I believe it was Mitch Garver at that point, right?

And then, no, sorry, it was for Donovan Salano because Mitch Garver was for Jorge Polanco. Rowdy to Les pinch hits for him, gets the single. Then you bring in JP Crawford to beat your pinch runner. This is in the eighth inning because Polanco starts off with the K, yikes. he's just not the same guy at the plate rowdy gets the single pinch hitting for donovan slano against the right hand of pitcher uh so then he gets pinch hit for with j p a brinch ran for excuse me jp not the fastest guy but i understand it okay so the thought is to move dylan moore who played shortstop today move him to first base and then have jp go i would have gone with master bony if you're going to go

with the straight speed. But I can sort of live with that. But Leone gets a single with another great AB, probably a shout for unsung hero today. We're going to have an unsung, unsung villain as well. Ben Williamson with a fielder's choice, JP is out at home.

So then that moves J.P. straight into the game in the bottom of the eighth inning at shortstop. And he throws a ball away on a routine play that he makes every single time that he's, in the game. But I think a lot of that had to do with who his first baseman was. Dylan Moore looked uncomfortable making that reach. Like, I know it was a bad throw, but that

has a lot to do with it. When you're used to throw into one guy in there, you know, Rowdy and Solano can pick it a little bit. They help their guys out in the infield, especially with a couple weaker arms with JP and I don't think Ben Williamson has the strongest arm at third base either. Yeah, but I think Brian O'Connell says it perfectly here. Dylan needed to pick that.

It wasn't like way off. He had no chance. I think if you have Rowdy or Solano in that spot, they picked that ball. They picked that ball. It doesn't end up hurting him because weirdly, Colin Snyder comes in. Another weird decision for Dan Wilson. He doesn't bring in Brash or Munoz.

I understand not going to Munoz there, but not bringing in Brash for the eighth inning is a weird one. J.P. throws it away. but Snyder gets Dubon to pop out for the second out of the inning. So Brash comes in, or sorry, for the first out of the inning, Brash comes in and then Wax Pena, but then gets Paredes to ground out with the bases loaded. So Brash does his job in the eighth inning. Again, it doesn't end up hurting you.

But the weird thing to me about bringing Brash in in the eighth inning was because that tells me like, or bringing in Snyder before Brash in the eighth inning, that tells me, hmm, maybe Munoz is an available question mark. I don't know. The biggest thing for me was the ninth inning. Why are we bringing in Casey Legamina in that situation? It's a tie gaming. It's the middle of the order. One of them, Jose Altuve, who's just been absolutely on fire this series, totally changing his entire season outlook.

And you're bringing in Casey Legamina. I like Casey Legamina. I think he's a fine sixth, seventh inning guy, maybe eighth inning. If you absolutely need him, if Brash isn't available. But that makes no sense to me. I really am waiting to hear from Dan Wilson Post game if Munoz wasn't available. Because if he wasn't, that's a weird one to me. He had a day off in between.

Last time he pitched was on Friday. And he only made seven pitches in that outing. And then they have a day off tomorrow as well. So if Munoz isn't available, that's a really, really weird one for me. I get it. It's a tie game. I will say, If he says that Munoz is unavailable, that makes more sense to me than him saying, we're waiting for to get the lead and then Munoz to pitch the bottom of the inning.

So you're waiting for a situation that might not even come. You've got to put your high leverage guy in at the very, very end of a game because that is just, we've seen it all year long. Yes, like Scott's service was the type of manager to be putting his best reliever against the most high leverage spot, whether that's in the eighth inning, whether that's in the eighth inning, whether that's in the. in the ninth inning, maybe sometimes even in the seventh inning if you need to get a couple outs. But this year it's been Munoz in the ninth when you need to save no matter what. But you cannot just save him for save situations only. You cannot do that. You have to use your best guy in the highest leverage situation, especially in a chance for the other team to win the game when you're losing the series. Just overall. And then before that, he gets tossed

for arguing a strike three that was clearly a strike. Like, I understand, like, you want to get your guys fired up. You've got to have a point where you've got to get your guys back. Like, sometimes managers pick their moments really, really well, not just because they think that the umpire made the wrong call, but to get their guys, all right, that's a momentum shift. Our manager just went out to bat for us. We got to get this win.

That was not that moment. That was a clear strike three. there was nothing to argue about Randy and Ladd's Dias were having a pretty tame conversation. And Dan Wilson comes out and just gets tossed and it's like, what are we doing? So not that that had any effect on the game because the Astros just win it right after that. But it was just such a weird hill for Dan Wilson to die on today. So that was a really, really, really weird one against the Astros too. I get you still have a six and four homestand or sorry, road trip.

but you have to get like we've seen so much so many times of the past couple years how these one or two games against division rivals make big difference in the playoff runs as we found out last year when the Astros won on a tiebreaker so it's god but the biggest thing is the offense man so many ground balls i understand you're trying to be aggressive but you were going against a terrible pitcher today Colton Gordon was throwing meatballs up there, and he was getting everyone to swing and miss. I just, that was a terrible offensive performance, a terrible managerial performance in a game that you had to have. And it sucks, because we should be talking about a really good day for Julio. He scores a run.

I still, I'm going to beat this horse until it's dead. Julio needs to be a lead offender, and he proved it again today. He seemed like he was the guy that was kind of starting everything. He gets on base, moves over to third. You know, Randy get, or Mitch Garver ends up getting him in in the top of the first after a Randy single as well, two zero Mariners. Top three, Julio singles again, two wild pitches than an awful strike three call on Mitch Garver. But then Donovan Salano comes through with two outs to make it three zero.

So Julio scores two runs today. That's what a lead off hitter does. You get on base, you start the rally a little bit. you can make things happen with your speed. He can steal some bases. I just, I don't know. He screams leadoff hitter to me. That's where he was at his best in 2022 when he was having the best stretch of his career

for a long period of time. I just, I can't, I cannot stand the Dylan Moore leadoffs. I get he mash his lefties, but no. No, that's not what we're doing now. Dan Wilson has a lot to answer for after this game. A tough one for the Mariners as they drop to six and four. on the road trip. That's the thing. We have to kind of put things in perspective a little bit here. Going out and sweeping San Diego really gave you a lot of room for error in this road trip,

and they used all of it. They really used all of it. So now you have to come home, have another winning homestand and get the job done because Houston's on your tail now. Houston's on your tail now. I haven't looked at the exact standings yet. Let me look right now. I believe Houston's only a game and a half out now, maybe even less than that. standings you got the west yeah Houston Astros is only a game and a half back now so you go into this series three and a half up on the Houston Astros they gain two games now it's a game and a half up I don't understand saving Munoz loombo I get it saving saving Munoz for the next game you have a day off tomorrow use your highest guy he will have his and he had a day off yesterday too

So it makes, I don't know. It doesn't really make a ton of sense to me. But Dillamore had a terrible game. Let me know what you guys think. Heck, the Astros from Cal over here. Dan should have took Luis out after walking the first batter. Could have had the lead still. Yeah.

If you're going to take Luis Castillo out, it's then. I agree with you, Mark. If you're going to take Luis Castor you out, it's after he walks the first guy. So you can try and get out of the inning on the skis. but a lot of people are shouting for that to happen after the Cam Smith double. Luis actually ends up still getting out of it after that point. So it depends on when you want to make that decision.

If you want to try and be a little more proactive and still try and get something out of the inning, but knowing, again, I don't know if Munoz isn't available. So maybe that's something where you go in and you're trying to get Luis Castillo to go as far as he can it's because you don't have one of your higher leverage guys. But yeah, I don't understand a lot of the decisions that were made today. Randy Rose Arena had a couple bad at bats. He's added some up and down stuff. He's getting beat by high heat right now.

So it's a little bit of concerning how this offense is starting to really come back down to earth. It's a good thing you're getting George Kirby back at this point. Yeah, I just, there's a lot of concerns with this team moving forward. I really, really hope the offense could turn around. Julio's been fine. He's been actually really, really good the last couple series. Cal Raleigh's still doing what he does. I think Lioti Tavaris was a positive in this game.

Makes a great catch and right field, even though they score on the play. But he's up against the wall. He has a good hit as well. Yeah, I just, Zander can't hear. Dan envisioning the 10th inning, bunting the run of the third sat flying Nuno strikes three out. It was a great plan in his head. Yeah, I mean,

I don't even want to talk about the bunch because that's definitely not my favorite way of going about things. But I'm a fan of managing the game that you have, not managing the game that you can expect to have, right, if that makes sense. Like, you can't manage a situation that might not happen. And that's exactly what happened. When you think, okay, I got to save Munoz for when we have the lead, you might not even use them. You might not give your team the best chance to win in that moment. I don't love it. I really don't love it. And if he's unavailable, I don't understand that either. Maybe he's dealing with something. I really hope not. But what else you guys think? Unsung hero,

maybe a little unsung villain today too. Again, Anderson Hurst, your host of your Mariners Postcast. I'm riding solo today because Christopher Crawford's out of wedding, but don't worry, he'll be back for Tuesday's game. Mariners Day off tomorrow. You'll get a tie-in-coly locked-on Mariners podcast episode. So they'll break it all down, break the whole series down, maybe look ahead to the homestand a little bit. So bigger picture view with Ty and Colby coming tomorrow. All right, before we get to some of the bigger moments in the game and then talking about our unsung heroes, I want to talk to you guys a little bit about Fanduil. The NBA playoffs are in full swing and every night delivers highlight-worthy performances,

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I'm going all in on Minnesota tying the series at 2-2. They absolutely smacked the Thunder last night. So I think they're going to do the same thing again tomorrow as well. I really, really hope they do because if they don't, we might have to come to grips with the fact that the Thunder might be winning an NBA championship because both those teams in the east, I don't think, are anywhere close to Oklahoma City. But let's pray for Minnesota coming through here. If you're new to FanDuel, it's the perfect time to sign up.

Head to FanDuel.com and place your first $5 bet. If it wins, you'll get $200 in bonus bets. Make every moment more with Fandul, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. All right, guys. So a couple things really quick before we get out of here. I'm going to go through some unsung hero. I'm going to go through a quick couple of the bigger moments in the game and my thoughts on them. I kind of did a little rant at the beginning there.

But really, I think you get the three runs in the first three innings, which I think is great. start you come out after last night and you're like all right we got to get this game you got one of just the pitchers you feel best about on the mound in louise castillo uh and let's actually take a moment to talk about louise castillo start today because um i think this is this is a very louise castillo and 2025 start where you know he has to battle through some innings his first inning was 28 pitches uh he really kind of struggled with the swing and miss stuff today But at the moment where you need him to, he makes the pitches that he that he needs to make. And I think if you were to say six innings, three runs before the game started today,

you probably would have taken that. Yeah, you would have probably wanted a little bit more from him. But I think if you were to ask for six innings, three runs, I'd sign up for that before this game started. I don't understand, like, he gets a lot of hate. I get it because of a lot of the money. that he makes, but he's still one of your stronger pitchers right now, especially with two of your top five guys injured. So it's going to be important for him to kind of find his groove a little bit. He's been pitching better lately, I think, today. I don't want to say a step back,

but it wasn't as good as his previous start in Chicago. Yeah, I just, I don't know. Before we get too doom and gloom with this baseball team, this is why sweeping that three-game set in San Diego was so important because you needed to set yourself up for a room for air for the rest of the road trip. Again, same kind of concept here. If you were to go into that San Diego stretch, you know you had San Diego, Chicago, and Houston, if you were to say, hey, six and four on the road trip, would you sign up for that? Yes. You could say that's two out of three in San Diego. That's two out of three in Chicago and that's splitting the series in Houston. That's six and four. I think almost everyone would have signed up for that.

that. Now, yes, you do drop three or four against a division rival in Houston, so that hurts you a little bit more in that aspect. But then you get the sweep in San Diego. So, you know, you give, you give and you take a little bit. It just sucks because it feels like there was more to get, especially offensively today for the Seattle Mariners. So let's see. All right, Matt's DFA, Genesis Cabrera and the Cubs DFA Julian Meriwether recently would either be worth a shot. I have no idea how much money either player is making. Yeah, I don't know how urgent the Mariners are going to take this bullpen situation because I don't think it's a huge glaring issue. They're just being used in the wrong spots right now. Like, especially with Matt Brash back,

I understand if he was still injured, you need another arm. Yes. But now with him back, you have kind of a good roadmap. If you get through at least five, sometimes even six from a starter, you got your legamina and Vargas, you got your Snyder, or you got your Gabe Spire against lefties, who is another one we didn't see much in this series because the Astros really only have one left-handed hitter. So he's kind of your lefty specialist. Now, I would actually advocate for another lefty because you

really only have one left-handed pitcher on your entire staff right now. So maybe that's something you look for. But I just don't know how urgent they're going to. to see because Carlos Vargas is looking great. His stuff is awesome. And I still think Legamina's been good, too. He just should not be your ninth inning guy in a tie game. Like, that's just not his role.

Shane, I hope Randy is okay after the stinger on the hand. Yeah, it's a good sign he both A was able to stay in the game and run the bases, and B went back on under the field as well. So I wonder how much that had to do with his last couple A-Bs in the game. which were both with runners on with a chance to take the lead. So it was a tough one there. Hopefully he's okay. The fact that he went back in and played in the play in the field is a good sign for him moving forward.

I just don't know where we go with this offense. We're getting to the point, especially with Polanco, just not there. That we're talking, it's Julio, Cal, sometimes Randy, and then sometimes Rowdy. is kind of your offense right now. And that's not a long lineup. I know J.P.'s been coming back recently, but he's, like Chris mentioned yesterday, he's been bad in the leadoff spot.

He's better in the nine hole. And I think he's better as, like, a supplementary piece than rather than one of your guys. I mean, you still score three runs today, which, you know, isn't the end of the world. It's not like you're getting shut out in these games. But you can't, yeah, Levi, Dylan, 0 for five, horrible defense.

Yeah, I mean, this was one of the worst games of baseball I've seen from a specific mariner this year. It's tough. And, you know, I like Demo in his role. Being a super utility guy can kind of play multiple positions. But this shows his limitations. He's not a first baseman at all. I get you wanted to try and get a faster runner in there for Rowdy. It didn't end up making a difference, though.

He is not a lead off hitter. I get he can match lefties and like he's better on the road than he is at home. But even today, I was against the left hand of pitcher. He went 0 for 5 with 2Ks and some terrible at bats. It wasn't like he was battling away these pitches left and right and then got unlucky with a, you know, a hard hit ball to someone. No, these are terrible at bats. He's not even making contact on most of these pitches.

He's not a lead offender. He's just not. He doesn't get on base enough. He slugs a decent amount in certain situations. but he shouldn't be playing every day and he shouldn't be a lead off hitter whatsoever. So you're not better than the Astros are going to win the division again. I mean, yeah, that's another thing that's scary about this series

is you look on the other side and the Astros have struggled mightily for the first month and a half, two months of the season and they're sitting one and a half games back from you. So you have to expect there's going to be some positive regression, especially from a Christian Walker who looks like he just broke out of his funk by that swing. That's a swing that gets someone out of a funk, and he's been in a funk to start this whole season, signing a big contract with Houston in the off season. Jose Al Tuvae was terrible coming into this series, and all of a sudden, I think he has,

like, close to 10 hits in the four games, maybe even more than that. Just a crazy performance. He looked like MVP, Jose Al-Tube again. Yeah, you got to come home and get some, you get some. get some dubs because as weevillus says here luckily the mariners get watched it in baltimore soon but knowing how we look versus the white socks it's not the most comforting thought yeah i mean every series uh you got to win at home this this uh homestand because um you know Washington's not a good team but they're not a terrible team they're not the white socks um they can hit the ball a little bit

james woods fun to watch they have a couple good starting pitchers Baltimore i think is getable extremely getable right now. They're in a terrible part of their season. But I'm looking more internally. Like what can we do to make this Mariners team better? I'm going to go with my own sung hero. I'm going to go Leoni Tavares today. I think he was a really good defense,

had a good at bat late in the game. I believe it was in the eighth inning. Yes. That catch he made in the bottom of the third after the Walker single. uh, Kyrotini hit the sack fly. Um, it made the great catch. That could have been out of,

the game could have been out of hand at that point because there was two guys on. Uh, and two guys could have scored if that gets over his head. So, uh, great catch from Lioti to get the second out. Uh, and then they get out of the ending after that.

Still three, two Mariners at that point. Um, so his defense has been great. Um, he, he plays a good right field. He,

he has good at bats. Um, and, uh, you know, he's starting to hit the ball a little bit harder, starting to pull it a little bit. Biggest positive thing I'm going to take from this series is Julio Rodriguez.

He's looking like the Julio that we expected coming into this year a little bit more, just incrementally getting better and better and better. And if you look, don't look now, but he's not having the terrible start that he's had in the first three years of his career. This is like a good, like, okay, baseline Julio performance. And then once he gets that incredibly hot stretch that we know is in him, it'll be a really good sign for the Mariners moving forward. But I appreciate you guys tuning in to the Mariners postcast.

This is my first time doing it solo. It's a little weird kind of talking to myself, but you guys chiming in with comments left and right makes it so much easier. So I really appreciate you guys. Before we go, just remember that tomorrow is a day off for the Mariners and you'll get a tie and Colby locked on Mariners episode. They're going to break all this down in a way that I can't even imagine. So make sure you look out for that on YouTube.

You can catch any of the audio from today's postcast on any podcast platform that you subscribe to or you use. Just look out for that right after this drops. You can watch it again on YouTube. Just go to the live section of the Locked on Mariner's podcast page on YouTube. Appreciate you guys. Once again, day off of the Mariners on Tuesday before the big series against Washington starting on Tuesday. I believe it's Washington, right? let me double check that make sure i get it right for you guys you know it all mariners

that today yep it is watching it on tuesday so uh hopefully the mariners can get themselves right with a couple easy not i don't want to say easy series but series you should get uh so tie and colby tomorrow with lockdown mariners thanks again for tuning in guys really appreciate chica really appreciate you for making this a lot easier for me and uh chris will be back with us on on tuesday so we'll talk to you guys then thanks