Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - MARINERS POSTCAST - Seattle Mariners WIN SERIES vs Chicago White Sox

Episode Date: May 21, 2025

Chris and Anders break down the big win against the White Sox series with Logan Evans struggling on the mound against a bad lineup.  Julio stays hot with a beauty of a three-run homer and Cal Raleigh comes up big to tie the game in the sixth, but the biggest swing of the day goes to Leody Taveras as he puts the Mariners in the lead with a bomb of his own in the eighth.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Wonderful PistachiosGet snackin' and get crackin' with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more! Supply HouseJoin the TradeMaster program today at SupplyHouse.com/TM and start ordering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical supplies with just a few clicks. Plus, use promo code S-H-5 for 5% off your first order. That’s SupplyHouse.com! Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONMLB at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is the Mariners Postcast. Your instant game reaction for the Seattle Mariners. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Boy, did your Seattle Mariners need to win that game? It's about as urgent of a game that you needed to have against the White Sox in the middle of May, as there can be. The Mariners end up closing. closing this one out a huge, huge victory for your Seattle Mariners winning six to five.

Wow. Laudy Tavares with a huge, huge home run and in a big moment too. So happy for him to get his back going. He's been great defensively. Logan Evans struggled against a bad, bad lineup. So that's something to keep in. eye on as we hear that George Kirby's coming back tomorrow against Houston. But the big, big, big topic of today is Lodi Tavares. Of course, Julio Rodriguez and Cal both Homer as well.

My name is Anderson Hurst. This is Christopher Crawford. We're your hosts of the Mariners postcast here on the Locked-on podcast network. Thank you so much for tuning in. We'll break down every single Mariners game right after the final pitch. Chris Crawford, thoughts on the game. Big, big series win here in Chicago. You know, I've talked about it a lot on that other channel I used to do that they're not all equal. And sometimes there's the overwhelming sense of joy of a victory. And then there's these games where it's just avoiding the dread of the loss. Really?

Because this would have been a horrible loss. It would have been a horrible series loss to waste a three run homer in the first inning, literally with nobody out a ball bet it was just absolutely shellacked we'll talk about it in a second but you get the win you get the win and i brought this up a couple of days ago with the win i believe it was on saturday against the podres those are games the seattle mariners don't win in 24 they just didn't win those games in 2024 nearly often enough those games where they were order line out played for the majority of them but the first inning was good the seventh inning was good And that was enough.

That was enough to get a win against an absolutely atrocious baseball team. It's great to get a win. It's great to get a series when a five and one start to this road trip is outstanding. But boy, there were some real signs today, too, of, uh-oh. Yeah, I mean, they, like, as Max says here, it doesn't matter how you get it done, just get it done. And they needed that. They needed this.

If they were to lose this series before, we're going to four in Houston. Yeah. That would have been a huge, huge, uh-oh moment, I think, because that can easily snowball into something bigger against a huge division rival

who's only a few games back from you at this point. Thankfully, we get George Kirby back tomorrow. We'll talk more Houston, of course, right after those games. But you needed to get this one before you go and have that huge four-game series against Houston. So if nothing else,

it's just like, get out of Chicago, get those vibes from that series out of here. There was one point where the Mariners scored eight runs through like 25 innings or something like that. And seven of them came from Julio Rodriguez. Yeah. Who, by the way, like not even like saying that he had a great series. He had two good swings and then the rest kind of pretty bad at bats, honestly. Sure.

But that's all it takes. That's the talent that he has. there's a lot of things to discuss. The Polanco regression is real. We have to kind of address that. But I want to go positive here. And the Mariners win the series. If you were to tell me going into the San Diego series that you're going to win five in the next six games.

Yeah. I would take that no matter what. I would take it no matter what. Probably would expect to sweep against the White Sox and two out of three against the Padres. But either way, however you crumble it. series win, keep up the momentum going into Houston. Sure, absolutely. Now, I will say expectations adjusted after you get that sweep against the

partners. There's no question about it. But, you know, if we do the Captain Hindsight thing and go back and say, hey, they're going to win four out of six of this series. You would take it. You definitely would take five out of six. Absolutely, without a doubt, you would just assume that the three came against the White Sox instead of the Padres.

but, or excuse me, the White Sox. Yeah. I said, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, come on. No, it's awesome to get a win. There were definitely some things that were shaky to me. We can probably start now talking about Logan Evans.

Yep. Sixth innings of four-run baseball. I think he was considerably worse than that. And look, maybe I'm being too harsh on Logan Evans. Maybe I'm just expecting every Seattle Mariner pitcher to pitch like a top of the rotation starter. But this was pretty ugly. and those balls were absolutely clobbered.

By a terrible offense, probably the worst offense in the league. Yeah, Tim Elko shouldn't be beating you, bud. That's just not something that should be happening. Now, on the positive side, I thought he did a nice job of generating some swings and misses. I thought that his sweeper looked actually pretty good at times today. But I definitely have seen over these last three or so starts, if you're asking me which pitcher gets demoted of those guys. It's Logan Evans to me, in part because I think Logan Evans needs more time

and has a higher ceiling than Emerson Hancock. So you want him making those starts in AAA. Okay. The six innings of four-run baseball from your fifth starter is not so bad. You have to inflate a little bit that this was more like five innings of seven and a half run baseball because he was like a hundred thousand percent. Like a billion percent. Like when you are facing its lineup like this,

six innings of four-run baseball just really doesn't look very good. I still believe that Logan Evans could be a very solid back-end starter for the majority of his career. I just don't think he's ready to be a starting pitcher on a team that should be competing for a world championship. Yeah, and like to be fair, he's not. Like he's a fill-in for when your guys are injured. Exactly. And because that's what he is, I'm not like ringing alarm bells at this point.

He's a guy that's helping you survive until you get Logan Gilbert and Bryce Miller back. So I'm totally fine with that. Like you said, in the long run, he'll give you some innings. He'll just at this point they're trying to survive. Yeah. Get George Kirby back tomorrow. Hopefully Logan Gilbert in the next couple weeks, Bryce Miller as well. So once that happens, I still believe in this pitching staff to be one of the best in the league.

No doubt. But it was, this show. that those injuries, this is a big drop between those five guys that we slot it in before the season and then Emerson Hancock and then even bigger drop to Logan Evans. No question about it. And look, the first three innings I thought for Evans were fine. You know, it does give up the solo homer. Then things kind of unraveled really quick. And that's, I think, my biggest concern with Evans. Now, I will say, start before that, had runners on third base, I think three straight innings and he still was able to keep

them scoreless against a and some of this is that's just baseball you know what i mean like right you do that against the podres and then you'd give up three home runs against the chicago white socks what's your deal sport why don't you make any sense but i do think there were even signs even in that podres game of a little bit of luck a little bit of luck um it wasn't the worst start we'll see from a seattle mariner this year but it was not the best and he is certainly not the reason why the Seattle Mariners won this game. Yeah, that's good. That's a good point. The pitching wasn't the reason they lost yesterday's game,

and it's not the reason they won today, which is weird because usually it's all down to the pitching with this team. And the offense is getting it done. Definitely a little bit of a wake-up game. I think we kind of thought that Dan Wilson might have been kicking them in the behind after last night's game in the locker room. And it kind of showed right off the bat you get JP and Polanco walk. And then my God, that swing from Julio Rodriguez was a beautiful thing.

That looks like Julio when he's hot. That is a prime Julio swing stays inside on the baseball with power to the opposite field against the wind. That was, it didn't look like it got out by much, but believe it or not, that was absolutely crushed. Yeah, that ball was absolutely shellacked. And you know what I love to? And I'm sure there were some folks who were just absolutely wringing their hands on But you draw the couple of walks. They have the mound visit.

And then Julio Rodriguez swings at the first pitch. And you think, oh, what are you doing, man? He's just walked a couple of guys. No, attack, man. You have to throw strikes. And he gave him quality strikes a pitch right down the middle of the plate. If there's any complaint about it, I have about Julio Rodriguez, I'd love to see a little more of these home runs on pitches that are not right down

the middle of the plate. You know, beggars can't be choosers. But like, it'd be nice to see. By the way, it's also worth pointing out, he had a ball real hard and a terrific play by Carlos Vargas to rob him of a base hit. I truly can't name a player who gets robbed of base hits more than Julio Rodriguez. Like, it's absolutely insane how many times. It's crazy, too, because with his speed, you'd think he would beat out most of them. But he hits the ball so gosh dang hard on the ground sometimes that it doesn't matter.

Like, they have enough time to go and make that play. But I thought Julio Rodriguez looked really good in this series. Now, it wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, and there's a couple of balls I think he would have liked to have caught. But he was a very solid center fielder again today, as he usually is. Always. And getting off to that three nothing lead against a pitcher who has been really good this year in Shane Smith and a pitcher who was really good for the rest of the game, by the way, in Shane Smith. Not often we see Rule 5 picks make this kind of impact early on. Not often we see Rule 5 picks make any kind of impact whatsoever.

but he certainly is a solid pitcher and to get off to that three nothing lead and they needed every single one of those runs too every single one of those runs i love julio rodriguez yeah let's talk a little bit about where unraveled a little bit for logan evans bottom four of matt tice single lenin sosa homer joshua palacios homer made it four three white socks but then right after that top six cow raleigh solo shot to tie the game it was a cow it was julio and it was leotty taveris how they got all their runs today. Yeah, and that home run from Cal Raleigh is an example of why he is legitimately, and I know people look at average and will disagree, and they're just wrong, one of the best hitters in baseball, because there's maybe five hitters I can think of who barrel that baseball.

That low and end slider, that was a good pitch. It was a really good pitch, but Cal is just so strong and able to drop the barrel on the baseball, literally, if you take a look at baseball, Savant as well as anybody. He's barreling something like 22% of baseballs, which is just a borderline unrealistic number. Yeah. He's awesome. And that was huge too because, you know, sure, they end up giving up another run and we'll talk about that in a second. But just the fact that you were down four three, you had done absolutely dittily doo-do for on offense since the first inning to be able to come up huge like that. Man, Cal Rale can be super clutch and just really really could have paced Paul. Yeah, and I second everything you say about him being a really good

hitter. I think most people can acknowledge that him be on both sides of the ball being an elite defensive catcher and his bat being, I think up until this year above average. He gave you a lot of power, but a lot of swing and miss as well. Him at the plate, he's looked extremely comfortable and a lot of that bats where he's like you and I talked about right after our stream yesterday, how much I love watching Kyle Schorber taking a bat. Anything that's borderline, he doesn't even look like he's going for it. And I'm seeing that a little bit of Cal Raleigh now. Like he's zoning in on his spot and he is crushing it when it gets into that spot.

That's why his walk rate is up. You can say something similar about Julio, but I especially see it in Cal. And offensively, he's been so, so, so, so good. So good. And look, I think a big difference here is that, like, look, he drew 70 walks last year. It's not like he was just a free source. winger, but the 30 walks and hits dropping in. And balls that, you know, he's fighting off two strike pitches.

Now, he's done a great job of that throughout his career and doesn't get nearly enough credit. Yeah, he strikes out 170 times. And he's on pace to strike out like 150 times this year. So the strikeouts are going to happen. But he does such a good job of making pitchers work and then taking advantage of that mistake. If they don't make a mistake, tip your cap. I tip my cap right now, but I don't want anyone seeing my hair.

he's just a special baseball player and that was a massive home run in a massive moment. You can't have massive moments even when you're playing AAA teams like the White Sox. And once again, you needed this game. I think you can underestimate a little bit how important this game was because of what the series before. It's the series before the one against Houston. So if you went and how early it is in the year too. Yeah. And if you go into that four game stretch in Houston after losing a series of a white

Sox. Your bad vibe central. I'm all about vibes when it comes to baseball in the 162 game season, rest and peace, Eugenio Suarez. But they had a chance just after that in the seventh inning to get something out of it. Base is loaded two outs for Randy Rosarena and he grounds out. His at-bats are looking a little iffy recently. It was something we talked about through the San Diego series that we were impressed with a lot of his at-bats. It's one of those situations. where I don't know if he's getting these take signs and it's making him uncomfortable. But now he's starting to chase a little bit more as well. Maybe he's hearing the noise about him taking too many pitches.

I don't know. It just seems like he's a little off right now. Hopefully he can get that together before he's done. Yeah. And, you know, he's had moments like this throughout his career. Like there have been, to quote my very good friend, Celine Dion, there have been moments of golden flashes of light, but there have been moments that have not been.

And that's not in the Celine Dion song, by the way. I just don't want to get a copyright strike there. There is a reason why Randy or Rosarine is not typically a five to six one player, right? Like there are times where not only does he have some oof-magoos defensively, where he kind of loses that approach to the plate and maybe he'll press a little bit. Overall, the experience is a positive one. But I don't think there's any doubt, especially today, that was a massive moment in the game. And he, look, he fouled off one pitch that was absolutely, he was.

had the timing on, it just happened to be fouled off. If you ever see a guy foul a ball straight back like that, they're on the pitch. They just happen to get under it or on top of it. It kind of depends on what's going on there. But he was on the pitch, but unfortunately the result wasn't very good.

I think maybe this could just be me. I'm also thinking about how dreadful that a bat in the ninth, or in the eighth inning was where he swung out a very, very, maybe that was the ninth inning. Either way, it was a, it was the ninth inning because it was after the Donovan Salon.

double. Yeah, it wasn't, no, it was right before the Donovan Salano double, excuse me. Anyway, maybe I'm carrying that over a little bit with me, but we need Randy at Rosarena to be better. I agree. I agree. Hey, comment, what you guys think is the biggest takeaway from today's, or today's, this series as a whole against the Chicago White Sox.

Is it that you're a little worried about the offense, how much they struggled in two plus games? Is it Jorge Polanco's regression specifically? or you could go positive, you know, how Julio has kind of picked up his end of the slack recently, especially with seven RBIs in the last two games, or three games, I should say, because they didn't have any yesterday. But what's your biggest takeaway from this White Sox series before a massive, massive series in Houston over the weekend? And comment who your own song hero is, if you guys are new to the show,

we do this every single episode of our Mariners Postcast here. You know, there's moments in the game, there's players in the game that may not get the headline. and the biggest reason why you won or lost the game. So we like to give them their praise when they do their job and do what they need to do. But first, Chris Crawford, let's talk about some Monarch Money. Ever check into your bank account and wonder where did all my money go? Between dining out, online shopping, and entertainment, it's easy to lose track. That's where Monarch Money comes in, your personal CFO,

giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch money isn't just a budgeting app. It's a complete financial command center. You can track all your accounts, investments, and spending in one place. So you stop just managing your money and start building wealth. It's the all in one convenience for me. The fact that you don't have to have like seven different windows up, you know, you confuse it with the box score.

Oh my gosh. I just transferred all of my money from Zurich instead of checking to see if Dylan Moore was charged with an error on that plate. and he should have been. But yeah, Monarch Money is the most convenient way to do everything you need with banking. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code locked on MLB at Monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. That's monarchmoney.com code locked on MLB for half off your first year. All right, I kind of buried the lead a little bit on this one. Before we get to your unsung heroes, please comment in who you guys have picked for today

and maybe what your biggest takeaway is from this White Sox series. Biggest moment of the game. It could have been the base is loaded for Rania Rosa Raina. It ended up not. So then the bottom of the seventh, Tim Elko singles, Josh Rojas walks, and then Chase Midroth singles.

So the White Sox retake the lead going into the eighth inning. But Routi Telez with a lead-off double question mark. And Laotie Tavares. It doesn't matter. Either way, it wouldn't have scored. Lioti Tavares, but a massive two-run bomb to go from down one to up one for your Seattle Mariners. Big moment in the game, good for him. By the way, I mentioned in the ad read, but if you somehow skipped past that, what are you doing? Let us make our money, folks.

That should have been an air on Dillon Moore. Absolutely should have been an air on Dillin Moore. That's a play you have to make, and that run should have never happened. So I don't think Casey Legamina pitched great, but I think he did solid enough and should have gotten out of that inning without giving up a run. Look, so Teles lines that single to left. Michael A. Taylor, who is well known for his defensive abilities, just completely whiffs on a ball that rolls to the wall. You can see his frustration, the fact that he just lobbed that ball into shortstop

because he knew that the wheels of Rowdy Tiles were not going to be advancing to third on that play. And my first immediate thought is, Dan, please don't bunt. Please do not bunt here. I know it's the bottom of the lineup. I know, yeah, yeah. I think about that. Yeah. And nope, Leotie Tavaris just ambushes the first pitch he sees.

I believe it was the first pitch anyway over the right field wall to make it six to five. And look, if you take a look at Tavares's numbers since joining Seattle, they're not great. The eye test for me tells me that Lioti Tavaris has played exceptionally good baseball over the first 13 or 14 games with the Seattle Mariners. Not only has he been a good defensive player, and sure, there have been some at-bats that have been failures. All major league players have failures in a bat. That's what this sport is. I think for the most part, even if the results haven't been there, he's looked good doing it. And it's so easy to make the Victor Robles comp because their former top prospects who were no longer wanted by their previous organizations

that you pick up for nothing. But that doesn't make it an inaccurate description. And no, he's not as good as Victor Rubles because he's not as good a defender and he doesn't have quite the offensive upside that Victor Robles does. But boy, that's a nice player to have in your organization. That's a really nice guy to have. And he's been such a consistent source of non-worry for me. Like, I know that a ball hit into right field. When Dom Canzon is playing right field, even when Luke Rayleigh's playing right field, I don't have a lot of that same confidence. confidence. But what a great way to get your first homer. It's worth pointing out that Randy Rosarina hit his first home run as a Seattle Mariner in Chicago. And now our good buddy,

Leona Tavaris, did. Huge moment. Mike Vasil is a great example of why ERA for a reliever is a bad stat. He is not a good pitcher. And he was due for some regression. But it's great to see it happen against the Seattle Mariners. Yeah, I think the Robless Comp is fair. He's obviously, he's not as good as Robles was last year Robles was one of the best players for the stretch that he was in Seattle. He was one of the best players in the league like overall. Yeah, no doubt. Giving your team value offensively and defensively. And Leody's bat hasn't been there quite yet.

No. But I think you put it perfectly having it was, it's a part of the lineup where there were injuries that you were worried about how this team was going to weather that storm. I do not want to watch anymore, Don Quanzona Bats. I really do. No, thank you. And especially him in the field. I can't do it. So having someone who's competent and not just competent,

a plus defender in right field, really good arm, gives good at bats. The results haven't been there yet. It was great to see him come up in a big spot here. You saw how excited the entire bench was when he came back. You could tell he's a guy that they like. And like you said, a guy that you think probably can keep around in this organization

as some outfield depth. He can play center. He can play right. He can play left. especially when everyone's healthy. You can kind of work the matchups a little bit. Switch hitter, better from the left side. But still, I like his ability to kind of be a almost,

I don't want to say, utility outfielder. But if you're trying to work the matchups a little bit, he's someone that you like to have in your organization. So good for him. I agree with you. I think the eye test has been there. Let's go to our unsung hero. There's a couple shouts.

I'm going to steal one from the comments. I've let you go first for our entire first run of this podcast, so I'm going to go first. Mike Sutton comments, Largus looks like a legit high leverage option so far. I couldn't agree more. I think his stuff has been awesome. And to get like someone that you feel good about, especially with not being able to go to Matt Brash every single night, now that can be another discussion if like there's, I don't say it's something to worry about there, but wondering if there's going to be ever two nights in a row from Matt Brash.

but having Vargas come in and just dominate hitters is a little wild, not the best command, but it looks like no one can really barrel up any of his stuff. Yeah, that's the thing too. It's not like he's missing a bunch of bats. Like his whiff rate coming into today was 22.9. That's a well above average number. And typically, if you're a really good reliever, that whiff rate is way up there. But he's very difficult to square up.

So it's just a matter of throwing consistent strikes. I haven't quite joined the extreme trust of Carlos Vargas, maybe. Now, to be fair, I've just seen so many relievers have great starts to years and then fail and can't help but note that Carlos Vargas was so bad in Tacoma last year that the Mariners didn't even consider giving him a call-up. And still a little mad about the Leone Tavaire, or Leone Tavares, still a little mad about the A. Johanio Suarez trade, but he's my unsung hero too, because he did a great job. some people asking about Matt Brash.

It is a little weird that they didn't use him at all in this series. Maybe you're saving him for that four game. Now he did warm up for one of those games against the White Sox as well when it was 1-0 and then became 5-0-0. They sat him back down. But yeah, Carlos Vargas has to be your Unsung Hero because Andres Munoz, there's no unsung about that, dude. Nope. Heroes, Julio Caliotti from Ben here, bullpen as well.

Unsung is rowdy for getting on baseball. for Lioti. I like that show. That's a big at bat because that's a tie game versus a go-ahead game now. Really good point. I love that shout from Maddie Tellez, who also like there was time for a couple weeks where he was really cold. He's starting to pick it up a little bit recently as well. Again, good platoon option at first base. I think you still need to fix that position. And another shout from David here, they won two out of three, unlike last year in Miami, or they lost two out of three indoors in Marlins were 30 to 51 at home last year. I think this is comparing this Mariners team to last year's

Mariners team, and this may have been a series that they lose from one of the teams in the last couple of years. So I think it's a great point. And, you know, bouncing back from last night was really important to get that taste out of your mouth. So the Mariners did that. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. Be sure to catch any place, sorry,

be sure to catch anything that you missed from our show. Anywhere you get your podcast, we're in audio form as well. also Spotify, you know, YouTube music, Apple Podcasts, however you do it. I don't even know all the platforms nowadays. But you can watch, you can watch us again on YouTube. Just go to the live section on the Locked-on Mariners podcast page. And then you can rewind and move forward however you want to make sure you don't miss any of the action. Be sure to catch Ty and Colby tomorrow.

Actually, they might have an episode coming out today. I have to double check that. But they're probably going to look forward to the, they're going to talk about this Chicago series and then look forward to the Houston series, a big, big one over the weekend. We'll be with you guys tomorrow. George Kirby's return, baby. Let's go. Pitches for the first time in 2025.

I'm pretty hyped. I'm going to try and drown my sorrows after Man United loses to Tottenham and the Europa League final right now. Please pray for me because yikes. But thank God the Baron just wanted to help me out a little bit. You guys are awesome. We'll talk to you tomorrow after the Houston game. Go, Mariners.

Good stuff. Are we still going?