Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - MARINERS POSTCAST: Seattle Mariners BATS FALL ASLEEP against ROOKIE

Episode Date: August 16, 2025

Anders and Chris are with you today to break down the second game of the series against the New York Mets.  Bryan Woo does Bryan Woo things, but the offense couldn't figure out Mets rookie Nolan McLean. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! 5-Hour ENERGYTee up that trip! Enter for a chance to win a dream golf trip for two to any golf tournament* in the USA. Visit 5HEWIN.com for full rules and entry. No purchase necessary. Excludes the Master’s tournament. Ends October 31, 2025. PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONMLB to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.PrizePicks — Run Your Game.Click Link Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LO... Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONMLB at monarchmoney.com/lockedonmlb for 50% off your first year. GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now. 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, the Mariners drop this one. It's not the greatest offensive showing on the face of the earth. There's some questions for me, at least, on if these boys had one eye in Williamsport with the travel day today. Brian Wu was a little shaky at first, but ended up just, just doing what Brian Wu does, six innings, and was it nine strikeouts or was it eight?

I didn't know. He was eight. He's two away from that magic number that he can't reach. That he absolutely can't reach. This is your Mariners postcast, Anderson Hertz, Chris Crawford with you. Pretty off a pretty frustrating offensive day today. We'll go through it, kind of the opposite of yesterday, to be completely honest. So tough one for the Mariners.

They still have a chance to win the series tomorrow. Gino gets another homer. kind of meaningless at the end of the day, but it's still good to see him, you know, connect on something. It's going to be important for him moving forward that he continues to see the ball. Well, he's slowly working his way out of his slump here to begin his second Mariners tenure. We're going to talk about Brian Will. We'll talk about the offense.

And, of course, we'll do our unsung hero. Chris Crawford, initial thoughts on the game two loss. Can't win them all. This is the most can't win them all game of loss that I think we felt in a while. My only thing is, now you've lost three of four, right? Now there's a little bit of pressure to win this next one so it doesn't feel like things are sliding. But credit to a pitcher who pitched really well today in his MLB debut, I'll talk about my one frustration with that. Credit to Brian Wu for pitching well.

Not a lot of credit for the bullpen. It wasn't very good today. Marcus was bad again. And, you know, Caleb Ferguson doesn't get the job done either. But, you know, this does kind of feel like one of those you can't win them all. And it also, and how many times have I had to say this? Thank goodness they win yesterday, right? Because without that win, we're talking about something completely different.

But this one to me is just kind of one of those, you know, they say that you win 60, you lose 60 is what you do between the other 42. This didn't feel like one of the other 42. This just felt like one of those 60 that you lose. I'm having a tough time being too upset about it. Yeah, I kind of feel the same way. It is, but if you, you know, you can kind of look at it in whatever perspective you want. I just see it as, like you said, lost three out of four after that kind of good stretch.

It seems to me that that good vibes, really good Mariner baseball stretch is officially done. Now you got to kind of get yourself going to start another one. You know what I mean? Totally fair. And like I just, I wish it could have lasted a little bit longer, but hey, you got to reset. Let's go. We've got to get back on the groove a little bit. Those stretches aren't going to last forever.

Not every team's Milwaukee Brewers, right? So it's just like, it's fine. But at the end of the day, we're kind of coming back down to Earth after the trading deadline a little bit. Let's start with the start. Brian Wu, I sent our group chat at first. And I think it was during the second inning that I'm like, yeah, I don't know if Brian Wu is a very great pitcher against good lineups,

which, hey, you know, obviously if you're a good pitcher, you're going to be better against bad teams and then it's going to be harder against good teams right it's just kind of how it goes i had a feeling in my head like just kind of trying to you know look at the last few starts for brian woo that it's not like he he looks so dominant against those really bad teams and then it kind of is like a big difference between when he's playing a good lineup but then all of a sudden he figures out like okay settle down get out of that bases loaded jam and I'm going to get six innings and eight strikeouts again. It's just kind of what he does.

So he ends up doing what he does, which is great. But what are your thoughts on Brian Wood today? So I'm glad you brought that up because I sometimes get that feeling too of not having the comfort of Brian Wu pitching against a team. By the way, is my microphone like just completely destroying my face? It doesn't matter. I get that feeling sometimes too just because he's so fastball heavy and relies so much on spin. But this is interesting. His winning percentage and, or excuse me, his, when he faces a team with a

winning percentage above 500, hitters are hitting just 201, 21, 21, 21 against him. Wow. Bad teams, 214, 23, 423. Now, better. Better, but here's the thing. That's also a little misleading because Oakland just beat the crap out of him that one game and hit, what, 13 home run something along those lines. And it was in Sacramento, wasn't it? Yeah, that exactly. So, but I do sometimes get that gut feeling too like, oh, I don't feel real comfortable here that you're throwing so many pitches down the middle, but he gets the job done. Like he picked more than well enough to win tonight. And I love how, you know, after that hard contact in the first and second inning and then dealing with a little bit in the sixth as well, I love that he was able to battle through that and able to get plenty of swings and misses too. So it wasn't just a case of, you know, line drives going straight to the outfit or anything like that. But I agree with Tan here. Like, this Mets team is bound to be back. Sure, of course, right? Like, they can't be this bad forever.

If you ask a New York Mets fan, they will disagree with you because they are the most miserable fan base in the world. I love them to death. But, like, they make us look like the most positive fan base in the entire world, right? No, Wu was good tonight, good tonight. And I thought he made a really nice adjustment the second time through the lap. And he certainly kept you in the game. I mean, let's talk about the run.

he gives up too, right? Because that play by Dom Kanzone in the outfield was not good. And it wasn't so much that the ball was hit hard or that he was even late to it. Why are you so late on that throw? Because Beatty takes a look there and says, oh, I can go. I can go because Kanzone has not gotten the ball into the infield yet. You have to get rid of that football quicker. I was football quicker. I'm so used to saying get rid of the football. We may have had a quarterback who had some issues with that in the past. I thought that that was a play that should have been second and third, right? It should have been.

And, you know, at first I was like, oh, Kanzone got to that pretty quickly. And then I watched Bady take off. And it's because Kanzone has not gotten rid of the baseball yet. That can't happen. Right. That can't happen, man. And I love my chances of Brian Wu getting out of that inning with, because he makes a terrific pitch to Juan Soto to the next to get that out.

He could have easily gotten out of this thing without giving up any runs. But overall, the overall Brian Wu experience, while it sometimes can be how do you get away with this throwing the pitch down the middle so often is usually a pretty pleasant one. Yeah, it's weird because we talk about the law of averages with teams. And like I think Brian Wu almost plays the law of averages with his pitches because like, yeah, I'm going to get hit a couple times because I throw so many fastballs, but more often than not. And when I absolutely need it, I'm going to get away with it. And I'm going to make a pitch exactly where I need to. It's the Marshaun Lynch quote, right? the I'm going to get got, but I'm going to get them, however the heck he says that.

It's so brilliant. But like, it is kind of like that, right? Like, hey, you are going to get me sometimes. George Kirby does this too. Like, you know what? You're going to get me every once in a while, but I'm going to get you a lot more often if I keep doing this. Brian Wu and George Kirby are the ultimate examples of process, right? Like where they trust the process of throwing strikes with high spin pitches that are also in the mid to high 90s.

So that obviously helps too. They're those guys who are going to get that done. Every once in a while, it backs up on him like we saw against Sacramento, right? Like we saw that happen. But more often than not, this guy gets the job done, and he is certainly not the reason the Seattle Mariners lost today. On the other side of the break, we're going to talk about the offense, not really existent today.

There was a couple moments where you could have broken it open a little bit, and they just couldn't come through. We'll break that down on the other side of the break, although the Mariners Postcasts here on Lock on Locked oners. Time to fuel up and turn it up with five-hour, energy transfusion. This great ginger and lime-flavored shot brings the iconic taste of a golf course favorite to a non-alcoholic boost. Perfect for sinking birdies or making great memories with friends. It's a hole in one for your energy game. Whether you're out in the course or you just need a little

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you can control all your bank accounts, control all your stocks, all of it done through Monarch money. You get more than just ad reads when it's with us. You get representation of what it looks like. Don't let financial opportunities slip through the cracks. Use code locked on MLB at monarchmoney.com in your browser for half off your first year. That's 50% off your first year at monarchmoney.com with code locked on MLB. All right, Brian Moot was good. It ends up getting six runs or sorry, six innings of was it one run at the time. Right. So you get what you asked for. with your starters. So your offense just needs to put a little on the board. Didn't happen today. I don't, the reason I put predictable on the thumbnail today was A, because Brian Wu, like,

predictable, he's going to get through six, six innings, one run baseball with eight case. Yeah. It's just what he does. But it's also predictable because whenever the Mariners go up against a debut taunt starting pitcher, it seems like they really struggle. Chris, before we get into it, I'm going to ask you, is that a common thing with a lot of teams? And if it is, it feels like the Mariners are even more of an extent of that. But I just want to know kind of your thoughts generally when a average slash above average offensive team faces a debut taunt starter that's maybe not like the Paul Steins of the world or the Jacob Miziarowski's.

But like, you know, a good pitcher, but you should be able to get through it if it's not the first time. It's a really good question. And I'd have to do a little bit more research. I will tell you that it does happen. It does happen that especially the first time looking at a pitcher, like you can watch all the video, you can take a look at the data, you can see where balls break, you can see a bunch of stuff, but you can never really simulate seeing that arm angle, seeing that stuff.

So a lot of people do struggle against it. And look, Nolan McLean is a top 40-ish prospect, top 50, according to a lot of people that I talk to. He's a good pitching prospect. Yeah. And he had good stuff today, right? Like he generates 11 swings and misses. That's pretty darn solid for a first ever start.

My issue was, and I brought this up yesterday, was this guy struggles to throw strikes, right? And he ends up walking four. Should have been more than that. Yeah. Should have been more than that. You should have been more patient against Nolan McLean today. And, you know, it's tough to say that when you're an offense that scores 11 runs. And to me, the predictable thing is, Anders, the predictable thing is not so much the Mariners struggling

against a new pitcher. It's following a game where you score 11 runs and then getting nothing until the ninth inning. It's a great point. That's the biggest thing for me, right? Because if you take a look, you say 11 runs one game, one run the next game, well, that average is six, right? Twelve divided by two, six. That's not really how that works. No. Right. Like, you need it all. If he scored six runs in both games. Well, I guess you still would have lost one. But yeah. Right. Sure. But and that's the thing too. Like you needed all 11 of those. You needed a good offensive effort today, right?

Because your bullpen blows up a little bit and one run isn't good enough. It's just not good enough. I'm sorry. I will also say this. I'm done with umpires. Just freaking done. Holy crap. I mean, tonight was another example of just embarrassment. And I'll give you my unsung. I don't have an unsung hero because nobody

was good enough today. No. Big Dumpur, maybe. Unsung villain. You could go with a few guys. The unsung moment is, Digg Mariners get the bases loaded. It's 2-0 on Randy a Rose Arena,

and there's a pitch about a foot outside of the strike zone that they call for a strike, and it changes everything. Everything. By the way, the bases weren't loaded yet. I'm sorry about it. Yeah, yeah. It's first and second.

First and second. Nobody out. It's 2-0. Randy lays off a slider that is clearly out of the strike zone. It should be a 3-0 count. but it changes everything. The difference between 3-0 and 2-1 is massive. And Randy Rosarina played a terrible baseball game today,

minus one throw, right? Really good throw to cut off the runner. Not really sure while Indoor was going on that play, but hey, testing his arm. Testing his arm for sure, and it's an arm to test because it's not very good. But he had a poor game. But I have a tough time giving him too much crap for that at bat

because I think in this, there's no real visual evidence here. I think he draws that walk, right? And you have bases loaded, nobody out in Cal Raleigh, the one guy at the plate, even with Suarez sitting at the home run, that's the one guy at the plate who had a good game today, right? Yes. That's a huge moment. And then, so big dumper, unfortunately, hits a ball too hard to score a run, right?

Hold on. Before you move on, was there a shout to send JP there? Because I feel like he may have been able to score. I will be completely honest. I was driving to my grandmas when that happened because I was just doing my my checkup, my checkup on grandma every day. I realized I had a couple of seconds. So I didn't see that play.

So I don't want to. So I'll explain it. It was like you said, it was pretty well hit to Juan Soto. It seems like J.P. got a good jump. But Wonsoto's arm hasn't been great this year. And he ends up being off target.

Now you can't like predict that as it's happening, right? Right. But I would have liked to test it in that moment. There is one out. So, okay, you're going one out for Julio with the base is loaded. But it ends up mattering because right after that, Julio grounds into a double play with the bases load. Right.

And that's, that's a fair point. Like, I would probably challenge Soto's arm too. Like that's just a guy that, you know, it's not a bad arm. Like, he hits arm strength. But, you know, I'd probably challenge the accuracy there. And early enough in the game that you could take a little bit of a risk. So that's fair. I'll watch the play and I'll report back on that.

Maybe I'm wrong, but it felt like I was like, I thought they would send him to be honest. We will find out Sunday if you're getting yelled that for sure. That play by McLean on the double play by Julio was a terrific play. One of the better defensive plays I've seen from a pitcher this year, right? Like to be able to backhand that ball and not only that to make that super accurate throw to second base. You could see it wasn't a case of Julio not hustling.

He was running for first base. That being said, Julio Rodriguez has to drive that baseball, man. Like that's sure, it should have gone up the middle and it should have been a two run single and we like two run singles. That ball should have been Maliwop, right? It was a poor, poor pitch and you got to be better there. Today, Julio had one of his worst offensive days in a long time. A long time. They're going to happen, right?

Like Randy played a really good offensive game yesterday was awful today, right? Josh Naylor has had really good offensive success lately. Pretty darn bad today. Just misses a homer. by the way, I need a Seattle Mariner announcer to start reading the ball off the bat. I am tired of getting fooled every single time. Come on, guys. Come on.

I know that, like, you have a radio background, so you have to play it up a little bit, usually when you're doing that, right? You can't do that on TV. You can't, you have to be better than that. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I love you. I love you, love you, love you.

You're a big part of my childhood. You got to be better there. And speaking of that, Julio Rodriguez has to be better. than the whole offense has to be better than there because i'll be honest with you anders before the homer from swaras i was ready to go pretty hard yeah he looked dreadful now now you can look at it and say well he doubled a huge double yesterday and a huge homer today like i know that it ends up being a little bit of a blake bortals homer a garbage time homer right like that there is richie sexton homer yeah i like going with blake bortals just because i don't want to insult a pnw's

finest. But it's just, like I'm watching right now, they're showing the pregame stuff. You hit nine doubles yesterday. Nine. Did they have any extra base hits until the Suarez, Homer? I don't think so. They had two hits before that. So no. Jeez Louise. Yeah, and they were both from Big Dumber. And they were hard hit. And again, a Big Dumber played this whole weekend has been fantastic. Yeah, he has been good. It's been awesome to see. But maybe one of Cal's was a double. I think they were both singles. Yeah, because these singles, too hard, remember to order to run,

whether or not he did, we'll find out. We're going to find out if you're right. And the other one was he lashes that single and then Julio strikes out in that next at bat, one of your last chances to get the offense going. Just got to be better. You got to be better. Ultimately, I still do come down to you can't win them all with this one, but I need more consistency.

And also, you know what? The other reason I need more consistency, see is man, I am dying watching how close all of this is with the division, right? Like this is, every loss matters so much right now. And every win is so big. And every loss for the Astros is so big right now that it becomes a little more frustrating. You can tell me all you want about how it's April, May, June, July, August. They all mean the same.

They're all one game, blah, blah, blah. No, they're not. Nope. Right now it means a heck of a lot more. Yeah. And like, I just want to be able to. not worry about scoreboy watching, I just want to worry about, hey, if you get the job done, then, what?

It'd be so nice. Oh, yeah, sorry, I thought you mentioned something else. But, like, that's the whole point. Like, and I guess maybe that's a former, not baseball player, but player in me is just like, just do your job. I don't want to have to worry about other things. And, like, fans can get caught up and all that. It's like, oh, if there's the Astros lose, then you didn't lose anything today.

But I just take care of what you're supposed to take care of it. Right. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and that's why control your own destiny is such a big thing, right? Yeah, exactly. And unfortunately, the Mariners don't control their own destiny. Not right now. Not right now. So they do for the wild card, which is great. It's great, but it's not enough. I need to win this division. I need to see home games in T-Mobile Park. I need to feel like this team is building something that can win a world series. And a wild card's cool. But a division championship feels a heck of a lot cooler. Really quick before we get out of here. Today it just felt, it seems like we talk about the long lineup, and you don't have to have everyone going at the same time, right? Today felt like one of those days where everyone just happened to have a bad day.

Yeah. Offensively, right? And except Cal, I guess. And he was the only one. And it felt like a lot like earlier in the season when he didn't have a long lineup. But these days will hopefully, it seems like they will be few and far between. with the talent that you have in this lineup. Like Julio just had a bad day.

Randy had a bad day. Naylor had a bad day. Gino before the home run had a bad day. Although I will say that's four straight games with a hit for him. So I think he's slowly getting his timing back, working his way out of his slump a little bit. But it's just it's a kind of, I totally agree with what you said.

This didn't feel like the, you're going to lose 60, you're going to win 60. It didn't feel like the whatever you do with the rest of them, it felt like one of the ones they, like, yeah, you're going to lose this game. Yep. And hey, you know what? It's nice that Edwin Diaz had to throw 31 pitches today. Yeah, good point.

And the rest of that bullpen is, I think we saw. We really struggled for New York as of late. I mean, the big thing here is like for Sundays, just keep Francisco indoor off the gosh damn basis. He is on fire right now. He is on fire. And I am very worried about George challenging him right now, because especially in the park they're going to be playing in tomorrow.

that'll be interesting to see for sure. I'm excited for this, by the way. I think it's really cool that I wish there was a way for Mariner fans to go to this game. But it's also just any time the Seattle Mariners are on national television, it's really, really cool for me because we went a long, freaking time without these type of games. Yes. Go get the win tomorrow, win this series, and it takes a lot of pressure off the Philly series, I think, personally. Yeah.

By the way, real quick. Zach Wheeler, unfortunately diagnosed with a blood clot in his right shoulder. So he will not be available to pitch against Seattle. Prays up to him, man. Like, that's devastating. He was having a siong season. Well, and this is the thing, too, with Zach Wheeler is I think God just doesn't want him to win a siong. No, he's been second like six times.

It's crazy. But as a guy who deals with blood clots, I hope everything's okay. Because those can be really, really scary. It's in the upper extremity near his right arm. That just got an ounce right before we were. starting to record. But it looks like we will not face Zach Wheeler. And I don't hate that portion of it. I don't. Yeah. Well, the Mariners drop this one. We'll be with you guys tomorrow. Kind of a weird schedule this weekend with the Mariners doing a day game today. But then they go back to an evening

game on Sunday. They have the, it will be on Sunday night baseball tomorrow from the, for the Williamsport Classic, I guess it's called, at four o'clock first pitch. So we'll be with you guys directly, excuse me, after that at about 630-ish, depending on how long the game goes. But thanks guys for hanging out with us today. Let's go win the series tomorrow and then we'll see what we got for the rest of the road trip. But Mariners dropped this one three-to-one. Brian Wood was Brian Wood things. Offense, not really there.

But hey, let's flush it down the toilet. Go tomorrow. Sound good? Chris Crawford, last word. Chop cheese is overrated.