Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - MARINERS POSTCAST: Seattle Mariners get MASSIVE WIN vs Houston Astros

Episode Date: July 19, 2025

Anders and Chris are back from the All-Star break and so are the Mariners, we break down a close battle between the Mariners and Astros battling it out.  Luis Castillo was excellent and the Mariners get clutch home runs from both Randy Arozarena and Mitch Garver. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! 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/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. FanDuelRight now, new customers can get ONE HUNDRED FIFTY 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), 1-800-522-4 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. Four back, baby. Four back. Let's keep it going. What a big win for your Seattle Mariners, huh? Christopher and I are back with the postcast.

Vives are high. Mariners win game one out of the first series out of the break. Christopher Crawford has a new camera. Life is good. Mariner's have won 19 of their last 30 games. That is, that'll do. That'll do, donkey. That'll do.

A huge game here from Luis Castillo. Just, that's everything you ask for from him. And he has been so consistent all year, especially at home. It's so great to see Randy and Mitch Garver clutch home runs. And then the little bit of added offensive firepower there in the eighth innings to kind of give the Mariners a little bit of insurance going into the ninth so they don't have to use Munoz is huge. Christopher will be back.

He will be back, I promise. He's having some Wi-Fi issues, but that's okay. I'm Anderson Hurst. That's Christopher Crawford, and he's already back. Look at that.

I forgot to plug in my microphone. Oh, we talked about it just as a behind-the-scenes thing. I said, oh, I'll plug it in before we go live. And then I literally looked down. I stared at a USB thing that was blank and said, oh, I'm going to fix this right now. So do I sound beautiful?

You sound excellent. And this is your Mariners postcast. We go live right after every single Mariners baseball game. We've been off for the past four days. So it's great to see you guys again. I love seeing your comments. Dank, bud, sushi dude, Nelson, James, Jolly Badger. Keep throwing those in there.

It's awesome to see you guys. Make sure you like the video. Some more people can see it and hang out with us every single night. We're going to talk about the rock. how awesome he is la pietra i call him just a huge start from him that's exactly what you look for in an ace every single night uh six point two innings just about as easy of going as you possibly can hope from louise castillo so i'm i'm feeling really good about where he's at right now just his overall demeanor is so fun to watch as well uh the offense wasn't great for most

the game, but they end up getting to Hector Nairus in the eighth inning. And that's always a fun one. We'll get to that in a little bit. But we're also do our unsung hero and villain. Chris Crawford, first game back, what do you think? Big dub against the Houston Astros. I mean, I love this. I loved it. And I'll be honest with you, for the first five innings, this game was a slug. And that is a compliment to both starting pitchers. We pitched extremely well. But it also was just not a very exciting game. And then we see a little bit of a blunder. And then we see a ball that is absolutely shellacked. Ball and bad pending. Yeah, absolutely. Yep. You're allowed to do that. You're, you're enough part of the crew that you're allowed to battening. Yeah, I'm allowed to do that.

Just a, if there is such thing as a must-win game in the year of our Lord 2025, this was it, right? Like on July 18th is what I meant. to add there too. If there's such thing as a game that you have to win in the middle of July, you had to win this one. If you think the division is a real thing, you have to win this series, and you probably got to sweep one of these series as well. The other big thing here is evens the series. It evens the series against the Astros. It's 4-4 now. The winner of this series is going to probably have the tiebreaker. And that matters. It absolutely matters because of how close I think this thing is going to go.

But I just love, and here's the other thing I love. No, your offense wasn't great today. But you take what you did against the Detroit Tigers and you applied it for the most part and in particularly in the late innings to get that win. I am just pleased his punch. Yeah, I pleased his punch. I like that. Ooh.

All right. I'm adding that into the spectacular that I'm hoping for every single night. But yeah, it goes to show that like, you can. can win games in different ways. And I think the calling card of this marriage team is they can win games in different ways. I think for the previous couple years, they absolutely had to have dominant pitching top to bottom for them to have any sort of chance. That hasn't been the case this year.

And they're still in this division race. As we mentioned, the top of the show, they're four games back. And like, you're still getting good starting pitching performances. Luis Castillo is awesome. tonight, but your offense isn't in the place where it has to be absolutely carried. And that's something that I think is huge. I'm not saying this is an upper echelon offense. I know the numbers suggest that it's at least a top thin offense in MLB.

I think there's somewhat of a question as to if that's the case. But they're at least above average offense, which is all we were asking for going into this year with this pitching staff. And, you know, I almost take more solace and positivity from performances like this tonight where you get the dominant start where you feel like, dang, if Luis Castillo is going against the Astros in a playoff game right now, you'd feel confident. And hope the offense just has some sort of explosion at some point in the time and it came in the eighth inning.

Yeah, it did. And, you know, it comes after you give up that run, right? you're starting to feel like, uh-oh, like what's going on here because Matt Brash did not look great over these last few appearances, if we're just being honest, but he gets it out of, you get out of that gym and then a terrific offensive effort there. And, you know, we've got to start with the start because. Yeah, let's do it. Go ahead. Like, I don't think you could overstate how good Luis Castillo was tonight. And I saw the side eye that he gave Dan Wilson when he got Did you see that too?

I tweeted that out. That was crazy. I saw a little bit of a day. It was not like a sarcastic side eye. I was like, oh, really? Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I think that just shows there have been some people who have questioned whether Luis Castillo was a great competitor. Come on.

Who? Come on. Oh, I see the books. Unfortunately, as being a mariner writer, I see a lot of stuff. And here's the thing. It's the similar thing to a Julio Roger. biggest thing where if you make money, you better never make a mistake, right?

Because Luis Castillo is easily the highest paid pitcher on the staff. He is the guy who has the highest expectations, right? Well, for the overwhelming majority of his mariner career, he's gotten the job done and then some. And a lot of people will also point out, hey, oh, he does it at home. He does it at home. He could have been pitching in Yellowstone.

He could have been pitching in Jellystone. He could have been pitching in any park you're talking about. and he was going to shut dudes down today. His command and stuff both today were so good, so good. And if you get that version of Castillo, you are going to be, oh, you're going to have a fun time because you know what you're going to get from Brian Wu at this stage in his career. And I honestly believe George Kirby and Logan Gilbert, they're kind of what they are, what they are too. I know we've had some disappointments with Gilbert, like not getting deep in the game. but you saw that start against the Tigers, right?

And you saw what he did against the Yankees before. Sometimes Logan Gilbert, or excuse me, Luis Castillo, has had some oops-a-dazes on the road. Tonight was an example. It's not a question of stuff. It'll never be a question of stuff on Luis Castillo. He was fantastic, and I'm so glad they were able to give him the W he deserved. Yeah, it's crazy, man. It's like I've always been a big Louise Castillo defender.

Me too. Through last year, I was still like kind of he's going to be the guy coming into this year. Now, I'm not saying he's the best pitcher on this team by any stretch of the imagination. No, not anymore. But that's not a bad thing. Like having him as your third or fourth starter is completely fine. It's crazy how good it is. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What I was just going to say is that's part of what comes down to the money thing too, right? is that you say, well, why are you paying your fourth starter so much money, right? I love that, by the way. He's locked. He's dominant.

But the fact of the matter is that number one, nobody's arguing this right now, but I'll just point it out. Luis Castillo's contract is more than reasonable, right? Absolutely. Luis Castillo, if he hit the market last year, would have been looking at probably 3.30, something along those lines. And you're paying him considerably less than that. but it was just so good.

And here's the other thing I want to point out, and a bunch of people have pointed out who's starting tomorrow. You had to win this game because of who's starting tomorrow for the Seattle Mariners. Had to because will I be shocked if Logan Evans pitch as well? No, I won't because Logan Evans has shown the ability to pitch. Well, will I be shocked if the Mariners offense needs to carry Logan Evans tomorrow? Not even a little bit. I mean, he just doesn't have great swing and miss stuff against a,

lineup that doesn't swing and miss all that much. Like they put the ball in play. So you had to get this one and La Piedra showed up and then some tonight. I love seeing it. Yeah. And it's like just the aura he brings on the mound. I know that's like a phrase kids use nowadays. It's just a aura.

But no, it's true with La Piedra. It's like he brings it every single time. Let's talk about the offense in a second. I want to get to our sponsors for. the day really quick. But in the comments, you know, are you feeling confident going into tomorrow with Logan Evans? Are you feeling confident that the Mariners can come out with the job and get the series win, hopefully the sweep on Sunday? What was your biggest part of tonight's win that you think carry the team to victory? Was it Luis Castillo's start? Was it the offensive explosion,

the eighth inning? Let us know what you guys think. But first, Chris Crawford, I want to talk to you about some fandals. That sound good. Sounds wonderful. summer sports are in full swing. And whether you're all about baseball under the lights, golf on the green or high stakes soccer action, Fandual is the best way to make every game even more exciting. You're already following the action. Why not make it a little more thrilling?

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show. I was really impressed with Brandon Walter. And Brandon Walter is a guy that if you go take a look at the savant page, there's some really impressive stuff. This guy is in, he has a 1.2% walk rate. Like that is a, which is why Julio Rodriguez drawn a walk against him was actually pretty cool to see. Because that is difficult. Yeah, but the second one was off of our very good friend, Hector Narras. I thought the offense was okay today. I thought that there were some pitches missed, but he is similar to a Wu slash Miller where some stuff down the middle doesn't really feel like it's down the middle because there's some good spin to it and it gets on top of you really quick. Yeah. Really, really quick.

It's maybe more of a combination of a Miller and a Gilbert because of the extension that he gets. I thought the offense was fine. I like that they were patient at the plate. Hitters coming into today against Brandon Walter, by the way, against a four-scene fastball. and this is crazy because he only throws at 91 and 93. 0.077 is what hitters are hitting against his four-seeing fastball. That's great. Like that's almost impossible.

Like, and there is some magic there. But long story short, I thought the offensive approach was good today. The results, you know, could be better, could be better. Only the one run through the six innings was a little disappointing. But it was very awesome to see how they got all of their runs. It was more of a quality. quantity thing than just quantity quantity quantity yeah i like that i like that it wasn't just a volume like you multiple good at bats it was in the biggest moments that you absolutely needed it we'll talk

about what happened right before the home run uh but let's talk about randy rosalana that one run that you mentioned through six innings uh randy he just continues continues continues i think that's his 10th home run has lost 14 games uh he is an 828 ops right now like like he's he's mashing the baseball and at the perfect time. I, I just, I love his at bats. I,

I love what he brings the table. He runs. So he's a little bit of desire tonight, but, uh, we'll gloss over that as we're staying a little bit more positive. Uh, and a six one victory over the dreaded Houston Astros.

So right. Just talk about Randy and his offensive performance. Uh, so good. I mean, that ball was just absolutely shellacked. And, you know,

it was nice to see after, a disappointing moment. And we can just, you know what, though? There were two disappointing moments in that inning because, okay, so Julio draws the walk. That's great. He gets caught stealing-ish, a ball of that. Double play.

Double play. But in a weird way, caught stealing, he's a victim of being too fast that he gets to second base too quickly, and then just loses track of where the baseball is, right? Just lose his track. What's lost in that is that Cal Roll, got a pitch to hit. Yeah, I did. You're right. And so what should have been happening there was probably

runners on first and third. And I call that more unlucky than a tube plan. We will probably two bland it in our heads a little bit because we've seen two blans from Julio Rogers. And for those of you unfamiliar with the term tube land, it's thrown out on the basis like an income poop. It's one of my absolute favorite phrases that we come up with. But it was more of a collective thing than a huge mistake from Julio Rodriguez and my personal opinion. But there was also a pitch that should have been shellacked. So it was wonderful to see Randy a Rosarina say, never mind. I'll do it myself.

And he just absolutely clobbered that baseball. And not to toot my own horn a little bit, I have talked about how Randy Rosarina goes through these stretches and that you just got to be patient. You've got to be patient because this will happen. Now, I didn't think 10 homers in 14 games because that's just unrealistic, right? That is got it with just the sliders on MLB, the show, unrealistic, right? But it's just an example of like, this guy's raw power is never going to be questioned, ever.

The production level, he's never reached 30 homers before. I don't believe he's ever reached 25 homers. He's going to reach 25 homers now. He better reach 25 homers now because otherwise, God forbid, an injury, or he just stinks over the next two months, right? I don't see that happening though. What you're seeing at the plate right now, even if he doesn't have the absolute power that he has right now.

Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, it's just so big to get that Homer there and give La Piedre the chance to get the win, right? Because this guy has so many no decisions that have been such bad luck. And it's an example of why the win lost that is bad. but I was just so happy that they gave La Piedre that chance for a win. The other offensive guys that I think we've got to talk about, Mitch Garver.

Yeah, man. That's a clutch home run. Huge homer. Huge homer. And absolutely destroyed as well. He just looks so much more confident swinging the baseball bat lately. Like he's not just going up there looking for contact. He's going to drive or looking to drive the baseball.

There are still at bats that infuriate me. He's not the same. offensive player that he was a couple of years ago. But if you're getting this as your platoon D.H, that is huge. If he can be just a solid D.H. version for left-handed and then give Big Dumber those spells, right? You have a valuable player. And it's worth pointing out that some people were bringing up in the comments here.

He's been so much, he's been really good in July over his career. And this looks like that version of Garver. I was just so happy to see that. lead go up to two nothing because I felt like the way that Castillo was pitching and knowing who the bullpen other arms were going to be in that game, they weren't going to score two runs. Yeah, it's interesting because they started with Walter Houston did. And the Mariners obviously put out a lot of their lefty mashers. Right.

You know, Dylan Moore, Donovan Salon, Mish Garber are the three that come to mind for me versus their righty platoon players. And then in their first bullpen, you know, decision, they go to Sousa, who's also a left. So it's almost say, hey, we'd rather do the lefty, righty thing than trying any of your left-handed hitters in this lineup. So Mitch Garver is like, all right, I see your left-handed pitcher. I raise you one home run. And I will tell you this, if this game would have ended up being a one-nothing win or heaven-forbid a loss, I was going to bring that up is that people don't fear that.

do not platoon at all. They just don't. Dylan Moore sucks. I'm sorry. I'm going to say it really quick. He is a terrible baseball player. I'm going to keep saying it until something happens. Donovan Salon is okay.

Mitch Garvers looked a lot better. Dylan Moore sucks. I cannot stand watching his at batts right now. It's not going well. It's not going well. And I thought that this might be a day where maybe we can see the get right. And I know he homered in. Saturday's game against the Tigers? Maybe it was Friday's game. One of those two.

They threw anything but a fastball to him. That's what happens. Well, and see, and that's the thing, man, is just like he's so late on everything. And it's bad. It's bad. It's bad enough that you might have to make a roster decision in the coming weeks. So I was not impressed with Dylan Moore's game. I was not impressed with Donovan Solano's game. Can I get my unsung hero? Yeah, let's do it. Unsung hero, go ahead. It's Ben Williamson.

That defensive play that he made at third base today, it ended up being huge, except for the fact they ended up scoring four more runs, right? But that was a fantastic play that cut down a double. His defense at third right now is among the very, very best in baseball. In fact, if you take a look by defensive run saved, he is way up there. And let's not forget that Ben Williamson, didn't begin the year in Seattle.

Ben Williamson didn't come close to beginning the year in Seattle. So the fact that he has provided this type of defensive value, yeah, the offense stinks, and I'll tell you right now we had a message in our, yeah, sucked. Well, except for, I will say, I got it at the time, right?

Like going for one more run, it ended up not mattering too much, but I'll tell you what it was funny in our text message is that our good friend Nathan Bishop said, that's the highest exit velocity that he's had in quite a while, which is bull crap. Exit velocity has actually been fine for Ben Williamson, but I did laugh quite a bit. That was a funny comment. He's a very good defensive player.

And if you had a more complete offensive lineup, you could justify him being the starter easily. Yeah. You just barely can justify it right now. Just barely because the defense has been spectacular. Spectacular. All right. Chris Crawford goes on brand with the Ben Williamson Unsung Hero.

We need to, you know, I don't know. It's too late now. Are we going to retire Ben Williamson at some point? No, but it's more just like we need to have a counter. You can only do it a certain amount of times. And so we'll do that eventually. Maybe next year we come back for the Locked-on Mariners Postcast here. We are the Locked-on Mariner's Postcast.

We go live right after every single Mariner baseball game. Happy to have you guys come hang out with us. We have 277 viewers right now. That is awesome. Tell your friends, like the video. subscribe if you haven't already please do so it helps us a ton you know we love hanging out with this awesome community uh yeah with the williamson thing it's just weird because it's probably the i'm not saying it's the position you need the most upgrade in but it's probably the easiest

position to upgrade if you know what i mean right because there's a lot of third baseman that could be available that would at least offensively really help this team and get it get it a little bit longer in terms of the lineup. So I'm with you. I think if he's your eighth or ninth best hitter, we'll sign up for that every single time. But right, I mean, he probably still is. But it's not to the level that you expect for the offense.

Unsung Hero for me, gosh. Let's see, let's see, let's see. J.P. Crawford. I'm going to go J.P. Crawford. That at bat in the. the eighth inning to kind of blow it open a little bit with Koyong on second base. That's just vintage J.P. Crawford right there. And I think that is kind of the thing that set the eighth inning in motion a little bit. Just he has two strikes on him, goes the other way.

It's just everything we've known and loved from J.P. Crawford. And I've said this multiple times. It seems like he's putting together what's made him good up until 2023 and that 2023 breakout season all in one season, right? So what made him good in 2023 was that he was hitting for power. And I think he was selling out for that power just a little too much, but it ended up working out for him. He ran into a little bit more. But then last year in 2024, he went for that way too much.

He struggled. He had some injuries, obviously, as well. And he kind of reverted back a little bit to like a perfect combination of a guy that can run into a couple if you absolutely need him to. Still has some slug in him. But when it gets to two strikes, he absolutely. absolutely has one of the best approaches in baseball. I still can't believe he has a higher batting average with two strikes than he does without two strikes, which is insane.

If you really look into the stats and realize that like, hey, when you have two strikes, the strikeout is a possibility. And you still have a higher batting average than when you don't have two strikes. That's crazy to me. That shows how good of an approach he has. And that like that single going the other way, or I think it was a double actually. Single. I don't think of a single. Yeah, I got to second base.

But yeah. But that bat was so perfect. And I think it was a huge moment in the game for the Mariners. It was. I could also point out that we saw some examples of that range, not looking so good defensively as well. But we won't because we're just going to be positive today. The only one thing I wanted to mention before we get out of here,

Cal Raleigh's at bat in the eighth inning. And actually, Julio's at bat before that was fantastic as well. And it's so great to see how many walks he's drawing lately. The power obviously is huge too. but he's clearly recognizing pitches right now and that is so great to see by the way please check out my interview with justin hollander anders gave me a fantastic question to ask by the way and i really appreciate that but i thought that interview went really well uh i heart radio just go and look for that podcast on uh thursday um on the inn finesse show is we're in the infurness show is

yeah um maybe i'll put a link in the description when we're done here that's great that sounds good people. Yeah. The, that was a terrific at bat. And then Cal Raleigh, who was not having a very good offensive day. Let's just be honest here. It was not a great day. It was great to see him, by the way, get the ovation that he deserved for doing what he did. But then in the ninth inning, or excuse me, the bottom of the eighth inning, he gets a pitch right down the middle of the plate and we both thought it was gone, right? He just clobbered the thing, but it went foul. And you think, crap, this bat is done for. And then he does such a good job, such a great piece of hitting to drive that ball into right field and to score the run.

On a dot, that was a great pitch, by the way. It's a great pitch, great pitch. You missed the hitable pitch. And he showed that I am not just a guy who grips homers. I am not just a grip it and rip it dude. I take good at bats and I drive baseballs where I am pitched the baseball. Sometimes I'll screw up because it's a really hard sport. I don't know why I'm talking in.

The third person is Gowling. It's just crazy how good this guy is. And we talked about it today on the show. Anders and I on KJR talked about this guy's getting recognized as being not just a star in Seattle, but a superstar in major league baseball. And that at bat tonight was a prime example of why. because if he had a 38 homers and was hitting 2.10 with a 530 slugging percentage, nobody'd give a crap. I mean, they'd care, right?

You know, they'd say, ooh, look at this guy. The big Ripper. But the fact that he's hitting for average, the fact he's getting on it's such an elite clip and the fact that he's got 38 homers, it's pretty special, man. And I just hope everyone's really, I don't doubt that anyone watching this show isn't appreciating Cal Rale. But boy, oh, boy, just like. take mental pictures of this because this is a special baseball player having a special season. Yep, definitely enjoy it. He doesn't get a home run today. It feels like he could have multiple times,

but still drives in a huge run with that double. It's so great to see, you know, he's still continuing to match the baseball. He just looks locked in every time he's up at the plate. Same with Julio as well. I've talked about this multiple times. When he's walking, that's such a positive sign for me because it means he's not trying to do too much. He's recognizing the slider away and then he's on time for the fastball, which is big. So hopefully that continues. Mariners win six to one against the Houston Astros. They climbed to within four of the dreaded trash cans.

If they win two more, oh man, we're talking about a ALS race for the ages coming down the stretch. We still could be at this point. tomorrow. Logan Evans against Lance McCullors. Maynors have struggled a little bit against Lance McCullors, but Lance McCullors has been really bad this year. So hopefully those two things kind of even itself out. Let's get another dove. Let's go win the series, get the chance for the sweep on Sunday.

We'll talk to you guys then. Any last words? Christopher Crawford. Welcome back. Welcome back.