Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - MARINERS POSTCAST: SEATTLE MARINERS ONE WIN AWAY FROM WORLD SERIES AFTER GAME 5 WIN VS. BLUE JAYS

Episode Date: October 18, 2025

Chris and Anders go live to talk about Game 5 of the ALCS. Did the lineup changes work? Did Bryce Miller repeat his effort? Can Seattle get one win away from the World Series? 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. OpenPhoneStreamline and scale your customer communications with OpenPhone. Get 20% off your first 6 months at www.openphone.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/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 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. What a sport, man. I know. What a sport. I'm going to apologize in advance. There may be a couple times where I break down a little bit.

Big old same. Big old same, man. Let him all out, buddy. This is what this is all about. I, they're in that. thinning out. That's about as happy as I've ever felt as a Mariners fan. This is now the closest the Mariners have ever been to the World Series. And it felt so nice to get that tonight. The Mariners win six to two over the Toronto Blue Jays. And you get two absolutely massive home runs

from Cal Raleigh and Eugenio Suarez. And God, Chris says, it in our group chat and I'm with him with Nathan Bishop and Chris and Ian Furness and myself and Mike Benton, KGR boys. Redemption arcs are crazy, right? He just hasn't been nearly good enough since he's come to Seattle. But man alive did he more than make up for today? Not just for the go-ahead Grand Slam. The solo shot was huge as well, guys. Yeah. And he, you I just, I love to see it. These moments are what make baseball so special. This is the Mariner's Postcast.

I'm Anderson Hurst. That's Chris Crawford. I'm going to allow Chris to just take the floor for a second while I gather myself, man. I'll do my best. I mean, I just don't know if anything I can even say makes sense to be completely honest. This is the biggest one in Mariner history. It's not even close. It's not even close.

The closest, I think, is, A lot of people disagree with me on this, but I actually think it is the win over the angels to get into the postseason because without that win, you don't have baseball in Seattle. In 95. Yeah. And all that stuff in 1995. Without that win, nothing happens. Yeah. But this is different because you're now one win away from reaching the World Series.

You're now one win away from playing for a championship. And it didn't look good. Oh, no. It looked real bad. And I was, I was lamenting that I was thinking, man, I really don't want this to be the penultimate episode. I really want something to go out on a high. And oh, boy, oh, boy, do we go out on a high? And all of the bonkers managerial decisions in this game, I don't care.

All of these terrible offense for seven and a half fittings, all of it just pushed away. I haduked it. I can't command. made it. Whatever it is, you call it in Dragon Ball Z. I, I'm a little bit still stunned. I, I sobbed when that ball went over the fence. Just sobbed. Just absolutely sobbed. And oh, my God, you know what? Real quick, let me just get this out of the way. I was kind of harsh on the Seattle Mariner crowd in game three and game four. You guys freaking rocked. Oh, dude. rocked and it was it was really cool this is really cool guys the Seattle Mariners are one win away

from going to the world series good vibes only good vibes only and I don't know what it is about this team it seems like they play their best when their backs up or against the wall a little bit when when kind of the ride in the highs it almost feels like they're too loose but when uh or not even too loose I almost think they came into this home three game homes stand, I guess you could say, with a little too much pressure, kind of knowing, hey, like, you can get it done. You don't even have to win all three.

You can win two of the three and you go to the World Series. Now, now that we're at the point where that can't happen, you obviously have to go back to Toronto for game six and hopefully not game seven, but we'll see. But I think they're going to be locked in again. I have a weird feeling that because they had the taste of what it might be like to to not get the job done. They're like, no, we're not doing that.

Today just changed everything. I'm sorry, today changed everything for me. I was about ready to come on and yell and be angry and be like, what a wasted opportunity. And I realized that even if the Mariners had lost today, their season would still be alive. But this is such a big difference. Softy on KJR today, if you guys listen to KJR, he made a really good. point. This might have been the biggest game in terms of range of outcomes and just emotions. Oh, yeah. In Mariners history. Like if you lose this game. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Honestly, if you lose this game,

it's, it's like the Mariners are doing it again. Huge miss. If you win this game, your one win away from the World Series. And that's exactly what happened. Yeah. And, you know, I'm not going to lie to you. I was feeling pretty down, man. I was getting ready to be pretty somber in this episode and you know behind the scenes uh anders said hey i'm not going to the game today uh i'm going to be hosting today and i was freaking relieved because i just didn't think i had it in me i didn't have it in me and you know i anders i think we both would have been struggling right now to uh man it's so hard not to swear because i just want to i just want to i just want to yell out i was about ready to swear in the other way if this just had been thousand percent

100%. Yeah. Like what I've done in some videos before Anders is I have put the mute button on and just screamed the word into the microphone. Make sure you have the new button on. I may need to do that Sunday and Monday. We'll see. But I can't believe it. I can't believe it. How do you even break this down? Right. Like how do you even break this down? I don't. I don't. don't know how we do our jobs today, guys. Yeah, I mean, I start with the big moments, obviously. And let's work backwards. Okay.

First of all, Munoz comes in and looks excellent. And I realize you're up by four at that point. Anyone who's questioning him coming in, guys, he hasn't pitched since Sunday. And you have a day off. You're using Munoz there. You want to absolutely make sure. It's for nothing else to get him some pitches, right? And he's pitching game six.

And if he has to pitch game seven, he has to pitch game seven. It makes no sense to save him for any situation. You could be down 14 to 1 and you're still bringing in Munoz, right? Like you have to bring in your closer. You're not saving him for game 8. That's not something that exists. You have to use your guy. He looked great.

His command was perfect. It was great to see, considering he hadn't pitched in a while. I don't think he had pitched since game one, I believe, of this series. So it was awesome to see. Can I give you my unseason? sung hero right now. Let's do it. Yeah, it's really the gosh damn a rose arena. Yes. The catch that he makes, that robbed a Homer. I've watched that replay over and over again. That ball was going to go over the fence. Randy or Rosarina took a run away.

And instead of a three one game, it's one swing of the bat ties the game and then you see what happens. It's such a different game. We've talked about being down two verse one in series stuff. It's even bigger in games. It's a huge difference between a bloop and a blast and just a blast, right? that play saved the Seattle Mariners season. Not as much as the Grand Slam, of course. But Randy a Rosarina making that leaping catch and you know what? Wearing it. Not getting out of the way of that baseball.

Fighter flight, nope, he stuck in there. He took it and he did the best thing for the Seattle Mariners in that situation. Good for you, Randy. Gosh damn a Roserina. Yeah, two things for me. Number one, it's weird when he's the better corner outfielder. Oh my God. We'll get to that later.

We'll get to that later. I almost forgot about it, but that reminded me of that. Number two, my unsung hero, unsung moment, I'll say, because there's still some questions whether, you know, he had a good game today. Dan Wilson, thank you for not bunting when it was first and second, nobody else. Yeah, yeah. Now I realize Randy Rosarana has literally never bunted in his career. But still, thank you for not bunting.

And Chris, we've talked about it so many times playing for the big inning. And it's not even just because you get the grand slam. Bunting is like it's a very, you limit a ton of your outcomes, right? Versus if you let the guy just take the at bat, you can walk, you can get hit by a pitch, you can get a wild pitch, you can get a hit. You can get a productive out still by swinging it. Like that is why we don't like it. I'm not one to fixate on that, but I just know.

No, that's a great point. And my biggest thing, what a manager does best, the number one thing a manager does is something that we can't see. So it's hard to quantify. It's the clubhouse. It's keeping those guys ready. It's keeping those guys. Which I think Dan's actually really good at.

I think he's great at it too. I think that the spiritual side of Dan Wilson, let's just call it that, has really helped the Seattle mayor. Vibes police. Vives, police, and also other stuff. Let's just be honest here. No, I know. The other thing is putting your players in the,

their best position to succeed. And the Mariners' best position to succeed is not having Randy or Rosarina try to lay one down. It's hard enough to sacrifice, but asking somebody like Randy a Rosarina who's literally never done it and doesn't have it in his skill set, that's silly. That's absolutely silly. Let him be a patient hitter. That's when he's at his best. I know everybody was screaming about how many fastballs he was taking.

And yeah, I was frustrating to me too. And I'm glad they moved him down in the order. put him in position to succeed. And the best position there was him showing his patience, wearing that pitch, and giving a Johani Oswar as a chance for the biggest swing in Seattle Mariner history. Yeah.

And I think, I mean, do you want to say anything about Gino's home run before we get to Cal's? Because I think that gets a little overshadowed here. Yeah, yeah. Just he looks so much better. And honestly, he looks so much better. He hits that line drive, you know, to the opposite.

His second at that. Yes. And the thing is, I'm even going further back than that, Anders, the run that he drove in in game four. Oh, yeah. Which should have set up a big inning, but unfortunately, Big Grumper decided other things were more important in there, and we won't talk about that anymore. But he looks much more, I hate the term locked in. He's seeing the baseball better. He is seeing the baseball so much better than he has. And we've talked about this a lot.

Aoha Hoha Suarez is a streaky-ass hitter. And it won't shock me at all if he's locked in for these potentially two games in Toronto as well. Terrific piece of hitting. Go on the opposite way, using his strength. At worst, you're going to get the sack fly there and take the lead. But instead, you put the baseball game tonight, night. That was incredible. Incredible.

Biggest, I mean, it's hard to say because both of, I say both Cal and Geno's home run, I put him together. Those two are the biggest home runs in Seattle. Oh, yeah, no question about it. No question about it. And, you know, the double's always going to be the most famous hit for the Barroners. It will. Part of that it's because it has the greatest call in Mariner history attached to it.

Let's be honest. And it's not Brent Musburger. It is Dave Nehouss with that call. But you can't be more clutch than that. You simply can't. Unless it's Cal Raleigh, right? Because with your season on the line, should we take a commercial break and then we can talk Yeah, let's talk about the big dumper home run after the break here.

On the Mariners, Postcast, Anderson, Chris Crawford. Thank you guys so much for tuning in, hanging out with us. The Mariners just won the biggest game in their history. I think they are now closer to the World Series and they ever have been one more win, guys. One more win. And I'm not even saying one more win for, and then everything's done. No. Because you obviously can go win the World Series at that point,

but one more win to do something that you've never done in your entire history. This has been a ton of fun. All right. We'll talk about big dump or some run. And then we usually start with the start, but I kind of want to talk about pitching in the second half here because we had to talk about those big moments. So we'll be right back here on the Mariners podcast. This episode is brought to you by prize picks.

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I have now gathered myself a little bit. I apologize. Actually, I don't really apologize. I think getting emotional is a good thing. Absolutely. Makes things real. And I'm happy to do it with you, Chris Crawford, and you guys that are listening and watching us,

however you may be consuming the Mariners postcast here. We go live right after every single Mariner baseball game. Have all season long. And man, I am glad that we are continuing to do this, Chris. So let's talk about Big Dumpers' home run because Gino's obviously took the lead. He just needed a sack fly. He just took a great swing. But big dumpers leading off the inning down by one run, down to your last six outs,

not in your season, but in going really behind the eight ball here, game five is always a big pivotal game in seven game series. So talk about how big that moment was. It's so massive. I mean, you're down to your final six outs. And really, you're down to the final six outs of the season. I know that they could possibly go win to in Toronto, right? That's totally possible.

It's asking a lot. It's asking a lot to win four games against Toronto in Toronto when you've won four straight postseason games against them. But I'll be just honest. My thoughts when that ball was hit were he got it. But did he hit it too high? Did he hit it too high? and that ball just, that ball was in the air for 45 seconds,

and I don't care what anyone tells me. Hey, that went so long. Should we say our unsung hero is the roof being closed tonight? Oh, there you go. Yeah, that's not a bad little point. That's not a bad little point. Seriously, that might be blown back in.

Oh, my gosh. And it just hung in the air so long. And it was probably just me having, you know, in the movie moment, that three seconds from a football play actually ends up taking like a minute and a half. Remember the Titans. I know some people love that movie, but it's very guilty of that for sure.

But that's just such a clutch piece. And what's the most impressive thing about that Homer, other than everything, I shouldn't say the most impressive. One of the underrated things there, I believe that's the first swing he's made right-handed in this series. It is. And 100% is they've said it on the broadcast the first time. And that's a wild decision.

I guess honestly, I don't know. find Blue Jay's postcast. I'm like, on one hand, he's been so good right-handed all year. But on the other hand, he hasn't hit right-hand at all series. No, and, you know, the other thing there is you have the platoon advantage of him. You have the platoon advantage against Polanco, who's been better right-handed this year than left-handed. Correct. And then you have the major platoon advantage against Naylor, right? So that has a lot to do with it.

And I give John Smoltz a hard time. I thought he made some really good points today. including that one. Like that's the reason why the lefties in here, right? Yes. The Mariners have a chance to take advantage of it because you have to have the lefty for Nailer there. You have to, have to, have to. It ends up blowing up in their face.

And then some terrific takes from Polanco and Nailer both in that at bat as well to draw the free passes to get on base as well. Man, what a huge moment though for both of those guys. and MVP MVP. MVP. So let's, I think that kind of covers the offense. I want to talk about pitching here in the last little bit. Sure. Again, let's work backwards.

We talked about Munoz a little bit. What did you think of Brian Wu's usage today? So there's a lot to talk about. Yeah. I like that they gave him a clean inning to start. I think it would have been a massive mistake to say, runner on second base, a guy who hasn't pitched in a month,

a guy who's never made a relief appearance in the major leagues, a guy who is known to wear his emotions on his sleeve, let's put you in this situation. That would have been a lot, right? A lot. So I like that Dan went with the clean inning. I don't like that Dan waited an inning too late for that to be the queen. Interesting.

They should have gone to Wu to begin the clean inning. fifth. That's when I would have done it. And, you know, this leads into Bryce Miller. And I saw a lot of people complaining about the removal of Bryce Miller. First of all, heads up to Bryce Miller for battling, scrapping through, getting through that game without giving up a run until he ends up leaving the game. So it gets charged for one. To say he was playing with smoke and fire there is the understatement of understatement. I think it was three straight lead off doubles. The Blue Jay said everything timed. Everything timed. Thank God. By the way, one of the most unsung moments of this game, because you forget about it because it was so

freaking long ago, the play by Cal Raleigh to make sure that ball doesn't go foul on the double plate. To make sure he pounced on that father mucker to make sure that he steps on the plate and makes the throw to first. And also terrific stretch by Josh Naylor there because it was not a great throw to first. base, but it ends up working out. You absolutely were, Miller was done. My issue was giving Miller another batter. I don't understand that whatsoever. He gave you those four scoreless.

God said to you or whatever entity you believe in, but I'm going with God today, baby. Whatever you believe in, he gave you that chance. He said, we gave you four inches of scoreless. Don't push us. Don't push it. Don't take that apple from that tree, okay? go to somebody else here and then brash just leaves and i question the pitch sequencing here too right why three straight sliders there would you have gone to brash would you've gone to someone else i probably

would have gone to see i i think i would have stuck with brash okay i would have stuck with brash my the swing and miss stuff there there's no runner at second so i'm less worried about the wild pitch situation which is the thing i worry about it's just to run on first Yes. Oh, but I question the pitch selection there. Why three straight sliders? Why not the fastball up and in? Real quick on the George Springer situation.

I hope he's okay. I don't blame anybody who didn't feel terrible for George Springer today. At the same time, never boo injuries. Never boo, never cheer injuries. It's not cool. It's not cool to cheer somebody being hurt. So I also think that there are situations, you boo him when he comes up to bat.

It's George Springer. Involved in the cheating scandal. Of course. All that stuff. Yeah. That's irrelevant to me. With the whole injury thing, I don't know, for the longest time, whenever I've heard someone kind of, I guess it depends on how heavy the cheer is.

If it's like kind of a sarcastic, hey, get him out of here. I'm sorry to interrupt. I think this is a great point here. I think there were a lot of Jay's fans booing that he got hit. That's more than. Mariner fans cheering him getting him. hit, right? And that's, and when I hear cheering when someone's walking off injured, it's almost like, okay, give him a clap. Yeah. I don't view that as, oh yeah, we got him injured. As long as that's what

it is, that's fine. But I'm just, I'm just saying it's a bad look to be like, yes, we knock this guy out or something along those lines. That's not my favorite. It's not great, but I don't care. I will, I care a little bit. I'm that, again, I'm the guy who roots for the bad guys in law, law and order not to be in the felons. I am I am that sucker. But I'm hopefully he's okay and hopefully he doesn't play in game six and game seven. It makes them worse. I'm sorry. That makes me feel kind of crappy, but I don't want to watch George Springer hit. He's been a wagon this year. He's been the best hitter in this series. Now, I know Vlad's kind of come up lately. So that leads to my next question. Sorry, I don't mean to interrupt you. Well, please. I just want to keep going.

Yeah, absolutely. What do you think about walking Vlad as much as I did today? The first decision to intentionally walk Vlad Guerrero was one of the worst decisions I've seen this year. And I was so relieved that it works out. You cannot put the winning run on first. As good as that guy is, you cannot put the leading run on first base in that situation. There's just way too much baseball left to be played. Later, after the fifth inning, walk that guy all you want, right? Like it's that guy has the chance to be the difference maker. And all due respect to Alejandro Kirk, the bane of my existence right now, because I just feel so uncomfortable every time he comes to the plate. Good Lord.

And a lot of people are going to disagree, by the way, on the Vladdy Walk thing. There's math that points out that I'm right and you're wrong. Well, explain the first one. I think it was there was a lead off double. You're up one zero. Then they walk Vladdy. Is this with Matt Brash in at this point? No.

Is it still with Miller? It's the fourth inning. They walk Miller to put runners on first and second. Then Miller walks Alejandro. That's right. To load the basis. And that's the other reason about an intentional walk. Guys, when you put guys on base, when you allow other things to happen, it becomes

amplified so much worse. Right. So much worse. You still have a 65% chance of getting Vladimir Guerrero Jr. out. I know it doesn't. feel like it. But sometimes the math does kind of matter. And yeah, four square. math doesn't matter for the Mariners. Come on. We know this. Math and science are the two things that we get to ignore when we're passionate, right? But credit to Miller for getting the, I believe,

the strikeout of Dalton Varshow for the first out. Yes. Yes. And then that terrific play by Dumber and that ball is millimeters from going foul. Millimetres. And he has to jump on that quickly. You have to jump on that real quick there. The only other thing I really want to talk about, the only negative I have to talk about in this game. Tom Canzone. Don't Cansoe. And, you know, I felt so bad for Canzon when that ball just barely goes foul.

Just barely goes out. It would have been perfect redemption for him. Oh, yeah. I was right to title this thing, redemption, if it would have been. I don't know it would have been perfect. It also would have been stealing an episode of Entourage title. Shout out, Omerich. Roger show that was on 20 years ago, probably before you were even bored.

That throw to home plate was probably the worst throw I've seen this year. I mean, here you, did you see this, Stad Anders? Do you know how many times Alejandro Kirk scored from second base this year on? That was his first time. And not only that, it was the first time they've sent him. Yes, a thousand percent. And look, Don Quanzon's arm strength is normally fine, normally fine. Normally fine. If you take a look at the Zavant page, I think he's even actually above average.

Doesn't know where it's going. Yikes. And the other thing that's underrated there, and again, they win the game. That's all great. But we have to react to this type of stuff. And there's a reason why Victor Robles is brought in in the ninth inning as a defensive replacement. I don't know if Robles catches that ball from Kirk on the double from Brian. I was thinking that. But he gets to it quicker and that's not a double. Not with that guy running to second day. Big beefy boy.

He is a big beefy boy. He's a little beefy boy. He is, he's just, him just will guy, but him just wide guy too. A really good player. Alejandro Kirk is a really good. It should have been first and second. Right. It's a big difference.

Yes. Big, big difference. And the other thing was, and credit to Wu for getting out of it, that throw allows the runner to get to second base. And that's really nerve-wracking. Because if you fall down by two in this game, I just, I don't know. I don't know.

But you don't. And wow. Wow, wow, wow. I'm out of words. Yeah, I am too. This is like it's, I just keep trying to put myself in this moment that I just witnessed the, probably the biggest mariner win in history.

Now, again, stakes, you'll probably say 95 when you, when you. Jason says he looked like Kirk was running in Sandra. He really did. Like, it kind of looked like, and again, I'm not fat statement. Look at this beautiful body. I can't do that. But what I am saying is, he is a slow man.

If you guys have ever seen the Simpsons episode where Homer is running on the treadmill, it kind of looked like that. But it doesn't matter because the marries win this one. Six to two, that is about as, What's the word I'm looking for? The score doesn't indicate what the game was as it gets. No, this is not far run. No, it was not.

Because Eugenio Suarez hits the biggest home run of his career, right after Calderalli hits the biggest home run of his career in the biggest inning in Mariners history. And they are now one game away from one win away in the World Series. I just keep saying that. I keep thinking it. The Mariners are one win away from the World Series. I'll let you end this one, Chris Crawford.

What are your last words? Let's go Mariners. Good stuff, Matt.