Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - MARINERS POSTCAST: Seattle Mariners get FIRST WIN OF YEAR over Cleveland Guardians

Episode Date: March 28, 2026

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Got number one out of the way. Let's go get a few more. And let's rock and roll. Welcome to the Mariners Postcast. My name's Anderson Hurst. I'm Chris Crawford, and it's a cold world. Real cold world. This is the Mariners Postcast.

Your instant game reaction for the Seattle Mariners. Part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. Welcome into the Mariners Postcast. That's a release. Welcome to the Marriors Postcast. My name's Anderson Hurst. I got Chris Crawford with me. Mariners win this one, five to one against the Cleveland Guardians.

Go to one and one on the season. And as of now, split the four game series with the Guardians. Got two more to play over the weekend. We'll see how that one ends up in the first series of the year. But just get the first win out of the way. I think George Kirby was excellent today. most of the offense was good today. A couple spots will definitely chat about.

But I think overall a good baseball game, Chris Crawford, what are your initial thoughts? Yeah, it was nice to see a bounce back. It was nice to, you know, be reminded that this team is capable of playing with the best of them. You know, scoring five runs on a day where, I mean, Gavin Williams command stunk. But to get his swing and miss stuff was there, folks. It was really good. a lot of 99 to 100 mile per hour fastballs. I was really impressed with this win.

I thought the defense was good. We'll talk about one catch in particular. That just was wow. It's a good baseball team. And yesterday was frustrating because I thought the process was bad as well as the result. Today the process was good and the result was good. And it's a nice reminder that this team is as good as any team in the American League. Yeah.

I think that's a great way to put it. And I'll just mention once again, welcome back, Mariner's Postcast, myself, Fannister, and hers, Chris Crawford with you. We're live on YouTube after every single Mariner baseball game, so you can come hang out with us right after the final pitch. We'll go live. We like to think we're a pretty dang good postgame show. You can get your content here.

You got Ty and Colby during the day with the Lockdown Mariners podcast. They kind of get the day-by-day stuff, the bigger picture stuff, and then Chris and I react to the game right after it finishes. So appreciate everyone hanging out with us, whether you're live right after the game or whether you are, excuse me, it concerns. assuming us after the fact via podcast, watching it again on YouTube and seeing our beautiful faces. Just like the video, if you are watching on YouTube, there's a huge favor for us. But Chris, as we always do, let's start with that start.

George Kirby was really good today. Yeah, George Kirby was really solid today. And, you know, it gives up the solar homer to Chase DeLotter. Congrats to DeLotter on becoming the greatest player in baseball history. Like, that's not something I exactly had on my bingo card. Really good prospect, though. And those of you who play fantasy baseball, I want to take a look at Chase the Latter

because he's going to hit near the top of that lineup ahead of Jose Ramirez. What really impressed me about Kirby was, in that fifth inning, the command really waned. It looked like things were going to go bad. And I would like to take Reese Hoskins for one of the worst decisions

I've ever seen in my entire life. Stackcast estimated that as a 206-foot throw, for those who missed it, just an, absolute two plan of biblical proportions from Mr. Reese Hoskins that gets them out of the inning. But his command did not look good in that inning. What I loved is the sixth inning was one of his best innings. He bounces back and just he is not going to be the same command artist after this injury guys because his arm slot is so much different. He is still kind of figuring this out. I'm not saying he's going to lead the league and walks or anything like that. I think the other

pitcher who pitched today is going to lead the league and walks like he did last year. Yeah, absolutely. But by the way, I'm loving that white and the off white combination that we got today. Yeah, it's just a great combo. It's a great combo. It is a very fun. Beautiful. I thought George Kirby was really solid today. I thought all the pitching was solid today, to be honest with you. But this was a nice reminder that when George Kirby has that arm slot going, like he did for most of last year, not all of it, most of it, George Kirby's stuff has improved so much. and has a chance to be a real top of the rotation arm. Yeah, we talked about it last year a lot because I don't think he's going to be that guy that has the lowest walk percentage in Major League Baseball like he was the first couple

years of his career. Right. But he has improved his stuff. So I think he kind of has a little tradeoff in that aspect of things. And if you take away the injury and I think working back from the injury last year as well was kind of a thing for him, once he got going, he was. was one of the best pitchers on the Mariners last year. And I think if he kind of gets more reps with that arm slot, it takes a while for a lot of these pitchers to kind of figure something different

out. It's not just a new pitch. It's a completely different way of pitching. I think that's going to be something where I think he has the potential to be this team's true ace, to be honest. We'll see what happens with Brian Wu. Obviously, he was the best pitcher last year. I still have faith in Castillo, not as an ace, but just as a, you know, mid to lower rotation guy. Bryce Miller, again, injuries. We'll kind of see what happens there. But I like where George Kirby's at right now. He's getting strikeouts.

He's figuring out a little bit more of that command. Wained a little bit later in the game, but I like where he's at. Sure, absolutely. Yeah. And, you know, being able to get out of that jam in a large part, thanks to, again, just an absolute disgusting decision. If you're a Guardians fan by Reese Oskins. Yeah.

It's not only the Mariners that make bad in game to say. No, it's not just. Seattle Mariners who make bad base running decisions. But yeah, very encouraging to see George Kirby get off to a good start. It's worth noting last year, you know, miss his time with the injury and then stunk. He was really bad those first few starts. I think it's working back, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah.

Absolutely. Absolutely. This was very encouraging to see, even though I don't want to overreact too much to March 27th. Yep. And we'll kind of have that PSA now. We'll say that a couple times during the first couple weeks of the season. we react to this specific game.

That's what we do in the Mariners Postcast. We sometimes put things in perspective a little bit throughout the whole season. We've only had two games, guys. So we're not going to make rash decisions like bench Julio, Bench Cal, all those guys. We're not in that boat, okay? But we can react to their baseball game this evening. Speaking of that situation, let's get right to a two through four in the order. Not good tonight.

For the second straight night, Cal, Julio, and Josh Nader. there were really the only three guys that didn't do anything today offensively. So what is your reaction to that without, I'm just going to leave it a blank story? Sure, sure. Yeah, you know, the results are the results. And I think one of the good things about a game like today is it's nice to see the Mariners get a result with those three guys all failing at the plate.

Now, you know, Julio draws a walk. Josh Naylor finally hit a ball hard, you know, a very nice play by two. A lotter. Yeah, yeah. Big Dumper had some decent at bats. He worked some counts. It's just the results have been outside of that walk. And the first plate appearance have been really disappointing.

But here's the overall takeaway. It's disappointing. It's incredibly early. If the Mariners are going to be a World Series contending team, which I demand they do, I've said it on like 14 different platforms. Let's make this the 15th. I demand it. They're going to need better results from these guys.

It's just the fact of the matter. These are important baseball players. These are all legitimate stars in Major League Baseball, and they need better results at the plate. We can talk about the defense in a little bit because in particular one guy, I think, makes a kind of unsung moment of this game and play in this game. Hey, how about that? But yeah, they're just the timing looks off. Their swing decisions look off. And in particular, Julio, unfortunately today takes a pitch down the middle of the play for.

for strike three, misses one, look frustrated too. That's the one thing I want to keep an eye out here is how frustrated Julio looks. Now, he didn't look frustrated in on the field. So that was nice to see. But you saw him kind of kick his back leg after he misses that pitch and flies out to first base. But I cannot overstate how little sample size we have here. And yet I cannot overstate how important it is for these guys to get going. Yes.

Because if the Mariners are going to reach her ultimate goal, they will need these three guys to play better. 100%. I couldn't say it better myself. You can react to what they've done and that's bad, but you can also say that you don't expect them to be this bad for the entire season and also saying, hey, they need to be better, straight up. I think this comment from SD Mariners here, WBC can take a toll.

I don't disagree with that. I do think that there is something to be said about maybe not getting into the swing of things with your team as much. Now you can argue the opposite, like you're playing high pressure games earlier on. And it comes off as a little bit of an excuse type of thing. But we have seen lots of guys look good in the WBC and look good in spring training and get off to bad starts. And here's the ultimate takeaway, guys, baseball's freaking hard. Yeah.

It's such a hard sport. And it's long. And it's long. It's so long. If it was an 0 for 8 streak for Julio and Cal on July 31st and August 1st, I don't think anyone would say anything. but because of the small sample size and because of the fact that Julio's gotten off to bad starts before, it's a little bit more of a talking point.

And that's the thing with me with the whole WBC conversation. If this wasn't kind of a, regarding Julio specifically, because he's historically gotten off to slower starts. Exactly. That's why I'm just like, okay, I can't really use that as an excuse because even when there wasn't no WBC, he was still having a tough time getting out of the gates.

So I was hoping the WBC would kind of kick him up the backside a little bit and be like, all right, that's your beginning of the season. Now you can come here and be in midseason form. But, you know, it is what it is. It's only two games. Let's kind of, you know, wait on the sky is falling type of reactions here. Correct.

Let's get to the unsung parts of the game. I think there's a couple really, let's go to the good parts of the offense first and then we'll do our unsung hero and Dylan. But first, we need to give some love to our sponsors here on the Mariners Postcast. We are live right for every single Mariner baseball game. Mariner's win this one, five to one, over the Cleveland Guardians, myself, Chris Crawford with you.

We'll be right back after a quick commercial break. We got to say thank you to the good people of PlayStation. And this week's MLB Top 100 highlight is brought to you by MLB, the show 26, the latest from the beloved video game franchise. Each week we're highlighting the stars of MLB's Top 100 playlist, the elite names you'll be controlling, building around, and going to head to head with MLB the show. Tonight, I'll highlight Julio Rodriguez.

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I think seven Ks, I want to say. I haven't looked at the exact one. Six strikeout. Six strike out. My bad, my bad. Yeah. And the offense was pretty decent today. You get contributions from everywhere, basically, except the two, three and four hitters, the meat of your lineup, which is great.

But let's talk about the positive side. We talked about the negative sides of things. Hopefully, Calh, Julio, and Josh Dayn there can get things heated up. Brendan Donovan gets two walks. Randy Rosarena, three walks, two runs scored. Great day at the plate for him. Luke Rayleigh hits another home run. Dom Canzon gets another walk and a hits.

Oh, sorry, no hit for Canzone. Cole Young, a home run kind of gets his season going a little bit. And Leo Rivas does get one of the hits as well. So almost everywhere else in your lineup, besides that two, three, and four spot, you get contributions, Chris Crawford. And I think that's a really good thing. Yeah, it's really nice to see. But in particular, that Cole Young Homer, I don't think can be overstated. I think it's a massive moment.

You're down one nothing. I believe there were two outs. If there weren't two outs, it was one out. I think there was. So Cole Young had looked pretty awful. He was bad yesterday. It was something that we just kind of ran out of time. But he really struggled.

And he strikes out again. and I joke on Blue Sky that if Colt Emerson strikes out in every plate appearance, you know, we might see Colton Emerson a little earlier than we expect. And of course, the jinks worked and I expect Cole Young to send me something nice, maybe some frankincense or something like that. I don't know. But that was a nice reminder of how good he looked this spring, that he is a legitimate former top 50 prospect,

a still a guy who if I think he just turned 22, if not he's 21 about to turn 22 either way extremely young fella who has all the talent and you know anders and i were talking about this in our text chain with some other folks that he's changing they have clearly made cole young a guy who they want to be power over hit and that can work great we've also seen it fail i know a certain outfielder who uh did not like the changes that the mariners made to him and he's looking for a new organization right now the last time checked but I really like what I saw from Cole Young it was great to see the homer from Rayleigh as well still not sure about that guy as a middle of the order hitter for the Seattle

mariners but looked good this spring for the most part and you tough to argue with a 162 homer pace yeah it was a nice day from the lineup it was a solid approach Gavin Williams made it easy on him because he just really didn't have great command of what was great stuff but a really solid offensive game Yeah, and I think regarding Rayleigh, and I can throw a Dick-Can zone in this category, too. I'm interested to see how this looks versus left-handed pitching because did they swap both of them out? Maybe it's Ruff Snyder Robles, depending on how that looks. But I kind of like, you know, both those guys can match versus right-handed pitching.

And, you know, obviously, Rayleigh was injured a lot last year. I think we get more of the 2024 Luke Rayleigh this year, hopefully. I agree with you in terms of his defense, not a huge fan, and we'll get to that here in a second. But yeah, I just think I like what Brandon Donovan's done offensively. Radio Rosarana, good to see him back, kind of feeling a little bit more comfortable at the plate with those three walks today. And hit a ball hard late in the game, by the way, as well. So, you know, I think that's going to be a big kind of thing moving forward. You expect the two, three, four hitters to kind of get going a little bit.

Let's get torn sun hero. I'm going to go mine really quick. mentioned it. Randy Rosarana, three walks, including, I mean, more give the hero to Reese Hoskins for running on that. But hey, that was a big play. Need to make the throw. You know, it looked like he was kind of like, what's this guy doing? But honestly, more offensively, if you're just going to be an on-based machine and you're a slight negative in left fields, as long as you're not just an absolute adventure, which you can be sometimes, I think that's going to be a positive for this team for the majority of 2026. So Randy Rosaray is my

unsight hero. Yeah, I think that's a good call. And I was thinking about Randy, but I'm going to go unsung hero, Edward Bizarro. And it's partially just because he looked great, you know, and also everything that happened last year. And, you know, he's the guy. He is ultimately horrible decision. It's not his fault. I don't blame him at all. Not his fault at all. Ultimately, he's the guy who threw the pitch. Yeah, okay. Well, not. The process.

The entire process of being put in in that situation is not on Bizarro. And it's just a nice reminder of this guy being one of the better relievers in baseball. But I do have to, that moment, that catch by Julio, man, because Matt Brash did not look great today. He was the one pitcher. By the way, Andres Munoz looked fantastic. He gives up a little bleeper of a single. Literally broken bat.

Literally broken bat. He's awesome. But Brash didn't look great. And I don't think people understand how hard that catch Julio makes is that it is right in front of you. And is a center field or ask any of them, the hardest play to make is the one that's hit right at you. And if Julio doesn't make that catch, it's rolling. And it is rolling for a while. And let's just say he knocks it down.

And by the way, why did that challenge take so long? It wasn't even close. I terrible call in the first place, but I'm just hoping New York needed to log back in to watch the play or something like that. But huge play because the best hitters for Cleveland are coming up and how much different is it if we're talking first and second

with one out and Jose Ramirez coming to the plate compared to two outs and just that one guy on. I think that's a huge difference. And as bad as Julio has looked offensively, that's what he can do. He can make a difference with the glove. And I think that's a real unsung moment for the game. I completely agree.

Unit 557 says Naylor's trying to promote MLB the show by emulating my in-game batting approach. This spoke to me. I'm sorry because I am a terrible batter and MLB the show. And yeah, as a connoisseur of the video game myself, no, bueno. Real quick, do you play classic? Like, do you do swing, or do you use the analog sticks when you're swinging? Oh, I do classic. Yeah.

Okay. So I move the analog stick to wear. the pitches and then I hit the button first. Yeah, I have to do all button stuff. Anything involving analog sticks for anything but juke moves in NCAA is going to be problematic for your boy who, yeah, we could talk about my lack of hand-eye coordination some other time. But nailers looked rough. It's been a rough first couple of games, but I was encouraged that he hit the, you know what,

out of that baseball. DeLotter just makes a great catch. And hey, we won't have to see Chase DeLotter after this weekend for a while. Yeah, he's the Kerry Carpenter of Cleveland. Let's Unsung Villain ABS challenges. Figure it out. Oh, yeah. Good for well little, man.

Hey, showed everyone up. Like, there were so many chances. Like, and I personally don't understand. I realize that you want to try and save them for later in the game. But there's still high leverage situations earlier in the game. Absolutely. You should, especially if you are very certain. that I'd rather have a very certain, like, hey, I know that that call was incorrect earlier in the game than a screw it like Leo Rivas did later in the game.

Like, hey, you know, it's seventh inning anyway. Might as well throw one out there while we're up five to one. No, do it early in the game when it could matter. And it might not matter later in the game as well. So that's where I'm like, okay, like they need to figure this out a little bit. I feel like they have a little too much of an old school approach either not using it at all or waiting. until the last second, the ninth inning and there's two outs to use them all. Like, I just, it doesn't really, they need to kind of figure out how to do that because

it's a tool in their bag and it doesn't feel like they're utilizing it very well. I would totally agree. And the only thing I'll say is they shouldn't have to. There shouldn't be a rule on how many challenges they can use. Yeah, but that's just where we are. Yeah, but that's where we are. And so it's, it's become strategery. And I don't like that it's strategery.

If those of you who don't get that, go watch the SNL from the 90s. Um, yeah, yeah, they're, they're going to have to figure this out because, and as somebody brought up, it was nice to see a batter challenge. So we know that. So that kind of refuted what we were talking about yesterday. And Dan Wilson immediately refuted it in the clubhouse. Somebody interviewed him after the game and said, no, batters can absolutely challenge. Okay. I think some guys have more of a lenient stick on there than others. But, uh, yeah, this is, we're in a whole new world, baby. Yep. Uh, just, it's just a whole different thing. Um, so. So Mariners win this one, five to one. Little things here and there that little bother us,

but I think mostly good from today's game. What do we got? I think Emerson Hancock goes tomorrow, if I remember. No, tomorrow is going to be Brian Wu. Because I thought we today, by the way. But, yeah, Brian Wu against Joey Cantillo. So we'll get our first chance to see what the Mariner lineup looks against left-handed pitching.

Let's look forward to that one. We'll be with you guys right after the game as well. So don't go anywhere. Check out Ty and Colby. Actually, they won't have an episode tomorrow. It's the weekend. But, you know, you get Chris and I. So we'll come hang out with you right after the game once again.

We'll talk to you next time. Have a good one. Go Los Marineros.