Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - MARINERS POSTCAST - Mariners LOSE SERIES in Another PATHETIC showing vs Washington Nationals

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

Big Yikes. Christopher Crawford and Anderson Hirst unload on another awful game for the Mariners. Why is Jorge Polanco still playing? What's wrong with Randy Arozarena? Why isn't Andres Munoz pitching the 10th? Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Trade CoffeeRight now, Trade is exclusively offering our customer 50% off your one-month trial at drinktrade.com/LOCKEDONMLB. 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 LOCKEDONMLB 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. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, this might be the one. I have to really try not to swear tonight because this might be the one that I just absolutely go off on. I have so many questions. I have so many questions, so many pieces to talk about today. I'm curious your thoughts, Christopher Crawford.

Anderson Hurst here. To my left is Christopher Crawford. This is your Mariners Postcast right after the final pitch of the game. We could have done this right now for the top half of the 10th inning, to be honest. We knew this offense wasn't scoring seven runs. The Mariners lose 9 to 2. So they give up nine runs for a second straight game. I have a lot of questions for Dan Wilson.

I have a lot of questions for Jerry DiPoto. I have a lot of questions for a lot of these players. But before we get into where I want to get into in this game, I just want your initial thoughts, Christopher Crawford. Not great. Not great. It was, you know, it was a pretty boring game for a long time. If you were a neutral party watching this game, and if you're a neutral party tuning into this, thanks for joining in our misery. Thanks for being here. It's just not good enough. It's not good enough. And the last week or so, even as good as that sweep of the Padres was, winning two of three against a double A baseball team in the Chicago White Sox.

What you've seen against the Astros and the Nationals isn't good enough. And tonight wasn't good enough with some of the pitching. Tonight wasn't good enough with all of the offense. And boy, oh boy, would I like to talk about some defense as well, particularly in the 10th inning. because, whiff, this was just a, and this is the thing, too, remember how excited we were

after Tuesday? Tuesday? Yeah, the 9-1 win and how they played such a complete baseball game. These last two games, they have played anything but complete games. They might be the two worst games the year, to be honest. They honestly might be the two worst games

of the year. And it's frustrating because, you know, sure, they lose 9-3, they get the absolute meaningless run in the bottom of the 10th inning. But... Oh, yeah. I forgot about that.

Yeah, it's okay. It's okay. No one cares. Absolutely, no one cares. You know who cares? Whoever drove in the run. Leo Rivas. Yeah, yeah.

Outside of that, I don't think anyone just cares about the score. But it's just, it's so frustrating to see two pathetic efforts against not the worst team of baseball, not even close to the worst team in baseball. And if you were not a good team, if you were playing MLB the show, the nationals would be a really fun team to develop as a dynasty. There's no question about that. But you wouldn't expect to win a whole heck of a lot of games in 2025 if you're playing

on the hardest mode. Shout out to MLB, the show. Please sponsor us. It just isn't good enough, Anders. Yeah, to me, this is the worst series of the year. It's hard to say, even like you said, after that first. game on what was it Tuesday. Because like you said, that might have been your most complete game in the year.

But these last two have just soured it and made it so bad. I think it's worse than the Houston series because there was a couple games in the Houston series. Okay, a couple things go your way. You know, maybe you can change some stuff there. Yes, it was against the division rival. But I think because of how the rest of the road trip went, you could justify it in your head. They played awful baseball the last day.

Just straight up awful baseball in all facets. Like, I know people are going to say that Emerson Hancock was decent tonight, and why are you taking him out at 65 pitches? I'm sure you have thoughts on that because he wasn't good. For someone who didn't give up, I guess he did get the year and run for the James Wood RBI. But for someone who didn't give any runs up when he was in the game, he got incredibly lucky. And, like, I think you put it in our group chat.

Like he was lucky not to give anything up up until that point. Yeah, he was. And look, it wasn't a bad start by any stretch of the imagination. It was just far from five and third innings, five and a third innings of shutout baseball. It was nowhere close to that. Heard a little bit by umpiring a little bit, but his command was really bad. And I think we can just talk about that decision now. I had zero issue with the decision to pull him for Gabe Spire.

It is absolutely the right call there. he was struggling. He couldn't find the strike zone on top of an umpire who clearly didn't love the Seattle Mariners tonight. Maybe he has issues with the C-Tac airport. Maybe he has issues. He can't get a table at El Goucho, whatever it is. He didn't like what was going on in the 206. But Gabe Spire is also maybe, and I only say maybe because I can't think of one right now. Yeah. The left-on-left reliever in baseball. Yeah, I want Gabe Spire pitching to James Wood in that situation. a hell of a lot more than I won Emerson Hancock pitching in that situation. And I know there were complaints like our buddy, well, redact it, was like pulling a guy after 65 pitches.

What are you doing? Well, the reason you pull him is because it's not about the pitch count. It's about the chances of having success in a high leverage situation. Yes, there is a high leverage situation in the sixth inning in a zero, zero game. That's as high leverage as ever. And credit to James Wood. James Wood is him right now. Now, James Wood is having a, not just a spectacular season for a first year full player.

He's having a spectacular season for anybody. He's like slugging like 580 with a 385 on base percentage, something like that. He's a star. So I want the guy who has the best chance to get him out in that situation. It was Gabe Spire. No, he's not. I have to throw it on there. Nelson, I love you, but no, he's not.

You know what? I'll tell you to my buddy Nelson. the decision to move Drew Pomerantz for absolutely nothing looks pretty bad right now because you sure could use a second lefty in the bullpen having Colin Snyder and we can talk about his sit pitching in a second it's not good and either way even if you want to say Drew Pomerantz I still want Gabe Spire facing him more than Emerson Hancock a lot of issues tonight that is certainly not one I have with Dan Wilson's uh let's get into the bottom of the six so at that point it's two zero nationals.

And, you know, you get through the rest of it. And you get first and third, nobody out for JP. Okay, awful strike three call. He gets about as pissed as I've seen any mariner, period, in the last three, four years, at least. That's the maddest I've seen a Seattle Mariner player, uh, coach or anyone since Lloyd McClendon. Like, if you remember Lloyd,

Lloyd could throw a pretty good tissy fit here and there. You know, Lou Penella was the most famous one. Right, right. But more recent, yes. Like that. Now he only gets angry if you don't stay at Shag apartments if you're 75 years or older. We love you, Lou, but those advertisements are ridiculous.

He was ticked off and he should have been. The umpiring was atrocious tonight. And let me say just a quick second here for this because I used to do this on the old channel all the time. My issue with the umpiring is the lack of accountability and the lack of consistency. There is no consistency. You don't know what's going to be a called strike from batter to batter. And the reason that you don't know is because these guys can kind of make it up as they go with zero punishment.

Zero. There's no accountability. That is the main reason I want this ABS system implemented as soon as possible. as ASAP. I'd prefer just a full ABS thing. You've got to at least have the ability to challenge that. Because J.P. Crawford challenges that.

He gets to play on and who the heck knows what will happen. Now, here's hoping J.P. Crawford isn't suspended. Usually an injection like that, it's not going to lead to an insin. He was mad, though. You overheard him on that broadcast. Whoa. Yeah. Absolutely. And, you know, if there would have been intentional spit,

I think you might be looking at it. objection there. Look to me to be in an unintentional spits. Such a weird thing to be talking about. But I don't blame him for being mad. We have got to get better on piring folks. It's not the reason the Mariners lost tonight, but it's very frustrating to watch a game-by-game situation as someone who covers Major League Baseball for a living. It's so frustrating to see this be a consistent issue when you have something to replace it. And the more frustrating thing for me is we saw Dan Wilson argue a clear strike three call that was the right call against Randy Rosarena in the Houston series. Yeah.

And then he goes out to defend or goes out to JP almost pulling him back, not saying a single word in this one that clearly it's incensing him. And this is the chance to fire your guys up. That is like, I'm sorry. Like there are times to get pissed off. That is awful managing. That's awful managing. You have to have your guys back. You know, I think that his thought process,

I'm just going to play the devil's advocate here a little bit. Maybe his thought process is the way he's supporting J.P. Crawford is trying to keep him from getting ejected from this game and trying to keep him from... That had already happened before Dan was even out there, though. That was what I was just going to say. Yeah. Maybe Dan didn't know that. Maybe Dan was really trying to save.

And maybe Dan was also trying to save a potential suspension. It doesn't happen very often. You really, really, really have to go at these guys in order to get even a game suspension now. But either way, it didn't work out whatsoever. Yeah, then Julio strikes out. He had another bad night even before the injury. I really want to see him get over the hump, but he can't do it in high-leverage situations right now. Cal walks and then Randy.

Talk about someone who's broken. He strikes out. He's over five tonight. He's just, I don't know what's going on with him. Terrible defense. Anytime he tries to throw home, it's like, where is that ball going? I don't, I, oh, terrible bottom of the six.

But the bottom of the order bails you out in the top, at the bottom of the seventh, Tavaris and Williamson both come through. Tavaris looking like you is going to have a great night. Three for three with an RBI. Ben Williamson as well to get him home to tie. the game. You get Andres Munoz out in the top of the ninth to, and he pitches 12 pitches. First time he's pitching in six days, by the way. I said four yesterday. I was wrong. It's six

days at this point. He didn't pitch since last Friday. So he only pitches 12 pitches, goes through one, two, three. And then you bring out Colin Flippin Snyder in the 10th. I am struggling to find a reason to justify this one. Because if you're going to bring him out in the tie game in the ninth inning, why not bring him to pitch two innings? Especially because of how much rest he's had, especially because he went through a very quick ninth inning. So I have no idea. I have zero defense for Dan Wilson on this one. And it obviously bit him. Yeah. So if he was facing the bottom of the order and it was a bunch of right-handed hitters, I would have had no issue. you honestly going with Snyder because I would like to have Andres Munoz available for two of the

three games against the twins. I would like that to be a thing because you're probably not having him go back to back if he works multiple innings. That's just the way it is. However, it didn't make any sense to go to that situation when they had C.J. Abrams and James Woods coming to the plate in that next situation. And I don't want to crap on Snyder too much. I've seen a bunch of people about DFA. Colin Snyder was an elite relieverer last year and has been pretty solid this year. He hasn't been great, but he's been pretty solid. I also want to talk about Leoti Tavares for a second because he had a wonderful offensive game. Three for four, drives in the big run. Big moment to me was stealing that base to get the second base and then

a great piece of hitting by Ben Williamson to knock him in. And he throws someone out in the eight-hitting limit. Yep, on an atrocious send. by the Washington Nationals. Holy crap, almost as bad as the send that we had for Big Dumpur the other day. What in the world was that? I just happened to be watching another channel where people were talking about it, and they were having the same issues going forward. That didn't make any sense, by the way.

My issue with Tavares is that ninth-th inning defense was freaking awful. I've heard of guess hitters. I've never seen guess outfielders before. He was guessing where the baseball was. He missed it by the second double. He missed by nine inches, feet. He was feet away from the baseball. Two of those balls should have been caught tonight.

And again, Carl Snyder gave up five runs, made a horrendous throw to second base. Oh my goodness gracious, does he need to go work on? The wild pitch to start the inning. Wild pitch to start the inning. Then it gives up the, the sack fly. That ball was hit hard. And Tavares gets back on that one. That's great. Yeah. Two of those balls should have been caught. This inning should have ended at three,

two. This inning should have ended at three two. And Lioti Tavares, as good as he normally is defensively, had no idea what he was doing in the outfield in those last inning. It sucked. It sucked. It sucked. And, you know, again, I don't want to say that Colin Snyder was great tonight. Obviously, he was not. But he should have escaped only given up that one run. He should have escaped and I'm sorry, there's nothing in the Tacoma bullpen that I'm bringing up for Colin Snyder, nothing even close. Do I want him working in high leverage like that as often? That's no. He's not as good as he was last year. Last year, Colin Schneider was elite. He's not the same guy. And that happens with bullpen dudes. Happens all the time. But Colin Snyder should have

gotten out of this one, just giving up the one run. And Liotti Tavares, he's a big reason why that inning even happens because he drives in that run and steals that base to score the run. But he's a massive reason why that inning keeps going. So here's what we're going to do. I have a couple more things I want to hit, but I want to get some wonderful pistachios love. So we're going to do that real quick here. And then we're going to talk some Jorge Polanco. And then we're going to talk some possible roster moves.

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some possible roster moves, I want to ask you about Jorge Polanco, because he, it was a bit of a surprise to me, going against McKenzie Gore, a good left-handed pitcher that he was in this lineup tonight, but he was batting lower in the lineup. So I'm like, hmm, okay. Are they just moving him around? Maybe he's feeling less comfortable with the left-handed, or against the left-handed pitcher batting from the right side. I don't even think it's that.

I think it's literally just I have no one else to put in that spot. He squared up to butt at least three times. Yeah. Early in the count. Dude can't even swing the bat, right-handed. So why is he, A, in this lineup, first of all, B, if he can only bat from the left side as a DH and has been awful for the entire month of May,

why is he not on the aisle? If it's something that is hindering him this much, he needs to be on the aisle to get healthy. There's no question about it. And, you know, I want to give Jorge Polanco credit for trying to play through this. You know, it shows that it ain't Jorge Polanco's toughness that he's always on the injured list. It's a fact that some guys just are injury prone. Some guys just deal with injuries more often than not. It's not him not being willing to play through it because if,

if he wasn't willing to play through it, he would just be on the bench right now. The Seattle Mariners need to take the decision out of Jorge Polanco's hands. Literally need to take it out of his hands, literally need to place this guy on the injured list, and let him get healthy. Because I think the biggest issue right now with Jorge Polanco is his timing doesn't look right. And I think the reason that the timing doesn't look right is for the first time in his career, he's a platoon player not playing every day. And lots of guys struggle with that.

Lots of guys struggle with not being in the everyday routine that he has been used to for a very long time now, a very long time. Yeah. Jorge Polanco needs to be on the injured list. And Cole Young needs to be a Seattle Mariner right now. Okay. So let's move to that part of the conversation now. I think we're at the point where Rosh moves need to happen now. You're having at least two guys that are your top end prospects that are really.

ready to play baseball in the major leagues in Cole Young and Harry Ford. You mentioned you want to bring Cole Young up now. Okay, great. Who would you, like, move for him? Where would you play him? Would he be your starting second baseman every single day? Is he only against righties? Because he's a lefty.

Like, how are you playing Cole Young in this situation? Yeah, I'm playing him every day. I'm playing Cole Young every day. I am having him be my everyday second basement. and the move to me is placing Jorge Polanco on the injured list. There's clearly something going on with his side. You clearly have the ability to place him on the injured list. He may fight you on it.

And the MLBPA may fight you on it if he disagrees that he's hurt. Take that chance. Take that chance and place him on the injured list. Now, when Polanco's ready to go, hopefully very soon, hopefully it could even be probably not a minimum stint, but a couple of weeks of getting better, right? then you probably are moving on from Miles Master Bonney. You're probably taking him off of the roster. And, you know, Miles Master Bonney has a place on a roster because of his versatility,

the ability to play third base, second base. There's better players than him, though, now. There's better players that you can play. Exactly, exactly. And the fact that you have those better players makes him pretty easy. And he's also a guy that I think you can probably get away with Dufang, probably a guy you can stick in Tacoma and he's your new Sam Hagridi.

He is that new guy that you have to select the contract of a couple of times and bring him up. I think you have to at this point bring Cole Young up, put Jorge Polanco on the injured list, and then you are moving my own

master boning when that comes. What about Harry Ford? I know there's a lot of people that are asking for him to be moved up. Maybe there's a service time. manipulation thing going on. I don't see that. I think they're just trying to figure out the roster at this point. But having Mitch Garver not even be a DH against lefties now, what is he on the roster

for at this point? Besides the fact that he makes $12 million. That's the, that's the only reason, is that he is still due just under $8 million now because he was due 12 and we just went over the one third point. By the way, we're already past the one third point this season. It is flying by. Here's what I'm doing with Harry Ford, and we talked a little bit, and it's just something I kind of thought about just as we're doing it. I'm having Harry Ford start playing some first base in Tacoma, and I am having Harry Ford be a replacement for Donovan Salano. Because, you know, I get that Donovan Solano's been marginally better lately, and he's had some really good at bats that have not paid off. I wholeheartedly believe that Donovan Solano probably goes joints, another team and probably does pretty well, partially because we're buried.

The stadium is on an ancient burial ground. And partially because there's still enough signs from Donovan Solano that suggest he's not terrible. Yeah, he's not cooked. He is in the oven, though. And for the Seattle Mariners, it's time to make a new meal. Let Harry Ford go play some first base and let him be that guy who can be a guy who subs in at catcher here and there, a guy who subs in at first base, you could even put him in

the outfield here and there. Because that's what Harry Ford's ultimate long-term landing spot is probably. If he's on this team. If he's on his team. Because, you know, he is easily, I don't think it's even close your number one trade chip. Just easily your number one trade chip to get better. And the risk with calling up Harry Ford is that if he comes up and he's 10 pounds of crap at a five-pound bag, your trade value for him goes down, even acknowledging how young he is, small sample, blah, blah, blah. So why not trade him now if that's the case? Because nobody's just willing to make trades right now.

It's so stupid. It's just so dumb, but everybody wants to wait until the middle of June at the earliest to make these type of moves. I think Jerry DiPoto and them have to be super aggressive right now. They need to look at the waiver wires, scour the trade market, everything you've got to do to make this roster better. not blow a chance at a division title again. But Harry Ford, I think, is a guy who I'm talking myself more and more into is a better

option than a lot of these bench guys are. The long-term future of him matters. And it's important for him if you do somehow view that he's your catcher of the future and big dumpers, your DH, you know, like, because you think you're going to overplay him, which pretty mean. you've got to think about that. But at the same time, you also have to acknowledge that what he's done offensively, particularly as of late, is just too good to leave in the minor leagues right now.

Yeah, I think it's pretty simple. The fact that he gives you more offensively than probably about half of your starting lineup at this point. I mean, I guess you can't predict that that's going to be the case when he comes up. But you've got to try something else because this office. Offense is bad again. And as we kind of wrap up this one, the offense is bad again. It's been bad like for a while now besides maybe the a couple games, maybe one in the Houston game or series, one in the national series.

But since this Padres series, it has been bad, bad, bad offense. And it's Cala Raleigh's been great. Like Julio started to get hot, but he's had another bad couple of games to kind of bring him back down to earth. J.P.'s been bad for a few weeks. Randy's been awful for a few weeks. The bottom of the order is so hit and miss. I mean, Ben Williamson has a good game tonight.

Miles Master Boni, like, what's the most he's going to give you? Like, I don't know. Like, you have so many holes right now, so many holes that what can it hurt? And you need to just figure out a place to put them. I get your looking about long term. But you have to think about what's going to help this team that has a really good chance to win the division right now this year. Yep. Yep.

And, you know, I am not willing to give the benefit of doubt here that they just don't think he's ready yet. I'm not willing to do that. I'm just not because I would be willing to give the benefit of doubt for a few guys. When you're getting on at the clip Harry Ford is right now and finally starting to drive the baseball, even playing in cesspools for pitchers in the PCL, look what you're getting from guys like Donovan Salano. Look what you're getting from guys like Miles Mastroboni. Look what Leo Rivas has done after that. Incredibly hot start.

That's another guy you could think about moving to. Mitch Garver. I mean, I understand you're paying Mitch Garver, but. Exactly. No, it's from a- You've paid Mitch Hanigar before the season. What's stopping this? No, exactly.

And, you know, I think at this point, you probably have to consider making that move because there's no power there. There's just not enough defensive skill set. He's probably a better major league catcher than Harry Ford right now, but not good enough for you to say that Harry Ford can't be part of your roster. It's really frustrating to see, and it's just going back to tonight. Like there were just so many bat at bats.

I do want to give some credit to McKenzie Gore. Last night, Trevor Williams stunk, and the Mariners just stunk. McKenzie Gore pitched well tonight. Mackenzie Gore has a chance to be a frontline starter for a very long time. So I will give him some credit, but that doesn't mean that the Mariners' bats were good. was a combination of McKenzie Gore being good, the Mariners, bats being bad. If I have to name an unsung hero, I'll go with Ben Williamson tonight, by the way, because of the fact that I think that was a huge, huge hit.

Obviously it was because it ties the baseball game up. But it was a neat piece of hitting. He's been pretty good, actually, over this last week, making some hard car attack to the opposite field, which there was just even a semblance of power. But if you have to name an unsung hero, there you go. I'll second that one. Just one more thing. the strikeouts are starting to pile up too again this team that used to like not be striking out

a tonne. They had another 11 strikeout night tonight as a team. It's they're forming back to that 2024 team and I'm really afraid that that's what's going to happen long term. So you need a jolt of energy, whether that's a trade, whether that's calling up people from Tacoma. All right, Chris Crawford, thank you for helping be my therapy here. You guys too on the comments.

Really appreciate you. If you missed any part of today's episode, you can catch it anywhere you get your podcast for audio say you're on the go or something you can't watch our look at our beautiful faces for a good 28 minutes then uh i i feel sorry for you but also you could still catch us uh in your ears as well uh but if you do want to rewatch this whole thing just make sure to go to the lockdown mariner's youtube page hit the live and you'll see a list of all of our postscast right there but appreciate you guys tuning in uh thank you so much for uh for being with us today bearing through this tough stretch of Mariners baseball. They're back at it tomorrow. Weekend series against the Minnesota Twins. Anything to think about before that, Chris Crawford?

Homer Hankies used to be pretty cool. Real quick, real, real quick. Please go check out Mina Kimes on with Ty and Kobe. It was absolutely phenomenal. She is the best. It was a terrific interview. It was both hilarious and insightful, which of course it was. Yeah. Go check that out because it was awesome.

Yep. Definitely check out Ty and Colby. They'll have another awesome episode tomorrow as well. We'll be back with you guys. Yeah. Just tell you. Just to go back to the Meena Kimes one. No, you guys, they always have great stuff. We'll be back with you guys right after the Minnesota game. So come tune in after the final pitch. Thanks so much for tuning in. Go Mariners.