Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - MARINERS POSTCAST: Seattle Mariners WIN SERIES vs Texas Rangers

Starting point is 00:00:01 Welcome to the Mariners Postcast. The Mariners get the win on Sunday, get the series win. Guys, that's a huge series win on April 19th against the division rival, who I think is going to be your biggest threat to the ALS going back to back. 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'

Starting point is 00:00:37 postcast. My name's Anderson Hurst. I go live right after every single Mariner baseball game, win or lose. And thankfully, today it's a win. Two good Mariner games in a row, guys. And I mentioned off the top there that I think this is a huge series win. I know it's April 19th. I know that only takes your record to 10 and 13 at this point. But that's a huge series win, especially considering you got swept by them earlier in the year. I think that is a good Texas range. That's a really good Texas Rangers team. I think they're going to be kind of the main threat to the A.O. West crown for the Seattle Mariners coming down the stretch. They can pitch. They hit the ball well this entire series. It's just they got a little unlucky with the timing of those hits and everything.

Starting point is 00:01:22 They talked about that a little bit on the broadcast today, but it's a big, big time series win. And you started to hit a little bit at Team Mobile Park against a good Rangers pitching staff as well in two different ways. You score seven runs yesterday, only hitting one home run and it was a solo shot. You get five runs today and all of them came on the home run. So I like how this offense, it's always going to be pretty reliant on the long ball.

Starting point is 00:01:48 It's just kind of how this lineup is constructed. But I like how you can... I like how the offense is kind of starting to find different ways to get... Find ways to score runs without having to hit the home run. run. So that's the big thing for me. And it just seems like the Mariners are kind of right on the cusp of climbing out of this early season funk. And getting a win against your division rival is I think a big part of that. So a big reason why you won is Brian Wu. Let's start with the start.

Starting point is 00:02:26 Brian Wu was fantastic today. This is the Brian Wu that we saw during 2025. It's good to kind of, you know, know that he can get back to that just dominant fastball, the sweeper mixing in left and right. It just, he looked like his 20, 25 Brian Wu self today. And he has for the majority of this year as well. It's weird how it kind of ends up because I don't think anyone was questioning the move at that point to kind of throw him back out there for the seventh inning. He was great on pitch count.

Starting point is 00:03:01 He looked completely in command. It only given up two hits at that point. but that for those of you who are usually lean on the side of i want my starters to go a little bit longer that what happened today is a classic example of why managers are so quick to pull the plug on starters nowadays is because there could be no signs of a starter having any sort of struggle he like i said he was in complete control was dominating the lineup um you know only had a couple hits against him, no walks, and his pitch count was fine. There was no warning signs whatsoever. And then seventh inning rolls along. You feel like you can kind of breeze through that

Starting point is 00:03:45 and then go through the last two innings with your bullpen. And he runs into some trouble. And that's just Major League Baseball guys. That's against a good lineup, I will admit. But going through the lineup multiple times, a little bit of fatigue from Brian Wu, this is why starters rarely go the distance now. This is exactly why. Even when you're pitching efficiently, you're pitching well, and the offense hasn't yet figured you out yet, it can change so quickly, even though you have a five run lead that turns into a three run lead really quickly. He does get out of that ending, goes,

Starting point is 00:04:21 does get through seven innings, Brian Wu does. And that's a big kind of moment for this bullpen who needed a little bit of a rest today. And I'll get to the offense on the other side of the break, but I just wanted to mention the pitching and we'll kind of go to the bullpen here as well. I think that's a big kind of moment for Andres Munoz. He looked nasty today. I know he kind of lets the guy get on base because of the strikeout in the wild, wild pitch, wild throw error, throwing error, whatever you want to call it.

Starting point is 00:04:53 But his pitching itself was absolutely, that's the Andres Munoz that I expected to see from the beginning of this year. And he went through a little bit of a rough patch. But his last two nights, last two days, last two outings have been fantastic. And it's the exact stuff that I like to see from Andres Munoz. When I think Andres Munoz is at his best, I know his slider is his best pitch, but it's when he's relying on that fastball. Too many times when he struggles, he's trying to pitch backwards. He's trying to get the slider in the zone and then have the fastball play off the slider.

Starting point is 00:05:28 I think he's best just kind of going more standard mix in fastball heavy, rely on that stuff and throwing a sinker too. I love how he's added the sinker. That at bat to Josh Young is just, that's nasty Andres Munoz. A 99-4 seamer at the bottom of the zone, a 98 sinker that runs in towards his feet, and then the high fastball to get him to chase. That is the best version of Andres Munoz. And then when you can get the slider to play off that,

Starting point is 00:05:57 that is when he becomes an elite closer. So I'm so glad that we're starting to gain some more confidence in that part of the bullpen. And again, guys, this is a big series win. This is a Rangers team that had been playing really well coming into this, coming into this point. They've been hitting. Their pitching has been fantastic. Mackenzie Gore had been dominant versus the Mariners for, you know,

Starting point is 00:06:24 going back to his days at Washington. So this was a good kind of two games set, especially considering you drop the first one. This is as big of a series win on April 19th as you're going to get because you got swept by them earlier in the year. So you can't lose any more ground because the tiebreakers could become a thing, guys, with this team. So I think it's going to, that's a good Rangers team and that's a good series win against that good Rangers team. I'm going to put up our thoughts for Unsung Hero. I'll get to mine a little bit later after the break, but type in the chat. I'm going to put it on the screen now.

Starting point is 00:07:04 We're going to show it and type one, two, or three in chat. I gave you J.P. Crawford, Rob Reff Snyder, and Randy, erosal reina for your options for Unsung Hero. Type one, if you think it's J.P. Crawford, type two, if you think it's Rob Reff Snyder, type three, if you think it's Randy or Roserana. Coincidentally, the three guys that hit home runs today. We will talk about the offense and those homes. runs coming up next year on the Mariners Postcast. The NBA playoffs are here where every possession matters, every matchup is magnified, and every game can swing a series.

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Starting point is 00:08:25 for the kind of trends to happen. And then obviously the money lines over, under is all that. Jazz. Fanduil is the way to go. You can head to Fandual.com to get started. Fan dual play your game. Welcome back, Mariner's Postcast. My name's Anderson Hurst. I go live right after every single Mariner baseball game.

Starting point is 00:08:47 Mariners win this one, five to two. Take the series against the Texas Rangers. And Mariners have two series wins on the season, and they're both against the A.L. West of the four-game sweep of the Astros. at home and winning two out of three against the Rangers here this weekend. So I think, guys, it's important to beat up on your division, especially considering that's kind of the main path to the playoffs and the Mariners have started doing that, even though they did get swept in Texas.

Starting point is 00:09:17 And they lost to L.A. in the three game series down there. But doing it at home is another important thing, too. So that's a big moment for me. Let's talk about the long ball and kind of the offense in general. You get three home runs today. Rob Restetter with a leadoff home run. His hit to home run percentage is 100%. Every single one of his hits as a Seattle Mariner has become a home run.

Starting point is 00:09:43 It's because he only has one. And that was the hit today. But it's good to see him kind of get going a little bit. He does mash lefties, believe it or not, guys. I know it's been a little bit since you've seen him do that and have not seen him do that in a mariner uniform. but, you know, there's a lot of questions about if he should be hitting lead off. I'm not the one to really go into lineup construction and stuff like that.

Starting point is 00:10:05 I'm okay with it, especially considering you're sitting, Josh Naylor. Brendan Donovan's hurt right now. So he's kind of a de facto spot there. And, you know, I'm sorry, guys. My mic keeps getting unplugged. I need to get into court. But if you're going to be your DH against left hand of pitching, it just, it makes sense.

Starting point is 00:10:28 if he's going to be that guy, he needs to be able to do that. And having him lead off is a good spot for him to do that as well. So J.P. Crawford also hits a, hits a bomb. Great to see him put a good swing on that ball. He, for whatever reason, loves hitting against McKenzie Gore. I'm here for it. I'm absolutely here for it. Good to see J.P. Crawford getting off to a good offensive start.

Starting point is 00:10:50 Because I think that's a big kind of factor on if he's going to be a valuable player for the Mariners this season or not because his defense is subpar. I kind of want to talk about Randy just in the scope of the rest of the offense because we talked yesterday about this team being able to score runs without having to hit the long ball. And obviously all their runs come on the home run today, which is fine. But, you know, being able to do that is indicative of what Randy or Rosarena has become in 2026. last year he had a good year by all by all kind of measurements um even with the kind of slump towards the end of the year he ended with a 760 something OPS which is above league average he gets on base at a pretty high clip does or this was him last year did strike out a decent

Starting point is 00:11:40 amount um and he still will have his fair amount of strikeouts this year as well but there was a lot said about Randy or Roserana's bat speed coming in or in the early part of 2026 and everyone associates bat speed with power. It's more than that, but a big part of it is, you know, your ability to get the barrel of the ball quickly through the zone, and then that generates more power. With Randy, it feels like he's had a slight change of approach this year compared to years past.

Starting point is 00:12:12 I mentioned this on Twitter yesterday, but I think he's turning into kind of a more high contact guy. He only hit like, I think, 2.30 something, maybe 2.4. 40 last year as his batting average. And you guys all know, I'm not a big batting average guy, but it's a good indication of where your contact level is. The way he's swinging the bat, it's not like he's all in on the walks or the home runs and then throwing a couple doubles in there as well. He's definitely more of a contact first guy. And I think it really has helped his kind of start to this season. In my opinion, he's the best Mariners hitter right now. He's been the

Starting point is 00:12:51 best Mariners hitter for the first, you know, almost month of the season, uh, here. So, and I love the spot. They, they kind of moved them up with Josh Taylor out of the lineup today. I like that move as well. I might even consider if Brendan Donovan is out long term, I might consider leading off Randy again. And it's weird because I know the, um, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, kind of lead off experiment last year didn't go great. Um, but that was just kind of thinking about his on base. And he still has that on base. And he still has that on tool. He still takes his walks very, very well. But with the on base plus the contact that he's going to bring it into his game a little bit, that's an even, that's a perfect lead off hitter for

Starting point is 00:13:31 the Mariners can steal bases as well. The drawback with what he's doing there is, I don't think he's going to have the power that he had last year. I don't think he's going to hit 25 plus home runs. I would actually be even surprised if he gets to 20 this year, which I think is okay. Everyone's going to kind of freak out when they look at his final stat line and it says 17 or 18 home runs. for Randy Rosaraine. He does hit one today, like I said. But you're not selling out for that power. You don't have to do that. I think the double swing is a great example of that, right? He just gets his barrel to the ball. He's not trying to overswing it, hits it down the line, and it's an absolute frozen rope at 113 miles an hour. So I love what I'm seeing from Randy early on in the

Starting point is 00:14:14 year in the batters box. And I kind of love the approach change that he's had as well. So props to him at this point in his career it's the year before he goes to free agency you would think a lot of guys would kind of just kind of do what they do best and hope that what their process has been up until now will get them that payday it's it's good on randy for kind of noticing that you know the power hasn't really been as high the last couple years so selling out for that is not going to you know do you a lot of good couple on base with your if you're walking ability your ability to take, you know, good pitches and stuff like that. With some added contact, you're going to get on base more often with more contact, and you don't have to hit as many home runs to be an effective player. So I love what I've seen from Randy. And I think that has kind of reverberated throughout the entire lineup, too. Because I think a little bit of that comes from Dom Canzone as well.

Starting point is 00:15:07 That's why he's been very successful in the early part of this season. He's not a kind of all or nothing guy. Like we have gotten used to him being over the first couple years in a Mariner uniform. Okay, on Sung Hero for me today, I'm going to go Andres Munoz because I know it technically is a safe situation, but he kind of felt like... Sorry, guys, I keep getting disconnected here. And then what happens is it actually puts the wrong... There we go. Okay, it puts the wrong microphone.

Starting point is 00:15:49 There we go. Okay. Yeah, so I'm going to go with Andres Munoz. I know, like, I'm making you wait for my explanation. here. Having him be an elite closer is a big deal for me because you don't really have that top guy. You know, Sarah's mentioned something like this last week. You kind of think of Matt Brash, who's the next guy below Munoz, obviously. You kind of think of him as an elite, an elite strikeout pitcher, right? If you look at his last couple of years' stats, he hasn't really

Starting point is 00:16:20 been that this year. He's a pitched more of a pitch to contact guy than I expected him to be. So seeing Andres Munoz struggle a little bit, really have me worried about if there were things to go downhill, where the Mariners would go at the closer position. But having him kind of bounce back a little bit, I love how we kind of talked about what was, you know, not working for him in the early part of this year. Be very public about it. A lot of times you see especially pitchers kind of just put their head down and, you know, work on their mechanics, so to speak, and just try and figure it out. I love how he talked about it. And you could tell it kind of helped him get things off his chest a little bit. He went in and was much more confident with his fastball.

Starting point is 00:17:04 And I think mixing in the sinker really, really helps him with that. It gives him kind of an out pitch if you're not getting the strikeout, if you're not getting the swing and miss on the slider. So having that sinker as a really good kind of out pitch to, you know, get a quick ground out or something like that is a really good option for Andres Munoz. That's why I'm going to him. but I like all the three of the options that you guys put in the in the chat as well. J.P. Crawford, he's had a great start offensively.

Starting point is 00:17:29 Rob Reff Snyder getting off the Schneid a little bit and getting that home run. Hopefully, you know, he's not just a home run hitter. You can get on base and, you know, get some contact there as well. And we talked about Randy. And I've really been impressed with, you know, Randy or Rosarana start this season. But that's a big series win, guys. Like I said, I think this Texas team is going to be the main threat to the A.O. West crown for the Seattle Mariners.

Starting point is 00:17:51 They can pitch. Their hittings kind of started to bounce back a little bit, you know, with a little bit longer of a lineup. I think that trade away of Marcus Simeon actually has done them wonders. And they have a good lineup. They kind of play good all around baseball. And they play good defense. Wyatt Langford's a stud. Corey Seeker is always going to be there.

Starting point is 00:18:13 Yeah, I think this is going to be kind of the team you're battling. So it's important to get this series back-ish. I know you technically are still one game behind them because of the sweep. But this is a big series win, guys. The Mariners kind of started to figure something out offensively, and the pitching's always going to be there. So hopefully they can keep this going. We'll talk to you guys tomorrow.

Starting point is 00:18:34 Actually, I don't, I haven't actually checked to see if the Mariners play tomorrow. They do. They play at home another in-division game against the athletics. So, you know, another team that possibly could be threatening for. you, although I do think the Rangers are slightly better. So at home, we'll talk to you guys tomorrow. 640 start for the Mariners against the athletics tomorrow. Let's keep it rolling.

Starting point is 00:18:59 Go, Mariners. Talk to you guys then.

Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - MARINERS POSTCAST: Seattle Mariners WIN SERIES vs Texas Rangers

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