Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mariners Take Series Lead on Julio Rodriguez's First Career Walk-Off Winner!

Episode Date: March 31, 2024

Despite a mostly lethargic night, the Mariners' bats came through when needed the most, rattling off three runs in the bottom of the 10th to stun the Red Sox. Ty and Colby hop on the mics to discuss Julio Rodríguez's first career walk-off, Logan Gilbert's fascinating night on the mound, and what to expect from Bryce Miller in tomorrow's series finale.Ask us questions!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!IbottaRight now, Ibotta is offering our listeners $5 for just trying Ibotta by using code LOCKEDONMLB. Just go to the app store and download the free Ibotta app to start earning cash back now.Amazon Fire TVFire TV recently created Fire TV Channels to deliver a constant supply of the latest videos from your favorite sports brands, all for free. That includes all of us at Locked On and most of the big pro leagues and college conferences as well. To Learn More, visit www.amazon.com/LockedOnFireTV PrizePicksGo to PrizePicks.com/lockedonmlb and use code lockedonmlb for a first deposit match up to $100! eBay MotorsWith all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to turn your car into the MVP and bring home that win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. FanDuelNew customers, join today and you’ll get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS if your first bet of FIVE DOLLARS or more wins. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started. 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.

It's only game three, but we kind of got the full Mariners experience tonight. Some magnificent pitching, a lot of frustrating offense. And of course, chaos ball. Our thoughts on the Marriors 4 to 3 walkoff win over the Red Sox coming up here on the Locked on Mirrors post game show. Colby, hit it. You are Locked on Mariner's. Your daily Seattle Mariner's podcast.

Part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Oh, hoys, sailors. It is Saturday, March 30th, 2024. This is Tadning Gonzalez and Colby Patnaud for the Locked Ahmerers Postgame Show. Thank you so much for making us your first listen after the mirrors 4 to 3 victory over the Boston Red Sox. Subscribe, like internal alerts if you're watching on YouTube, or subscribe and leave a five-star review on your preferred podcast platform if you like what you hear. And if you're part of the crew and rock with us every single day, let us know in the comments below. We'd love to hear from you. And if you want to hear from us even more, please consider signing up for our Patreon. You can now get a free seven-day trial to check out the show. The link as well as our social accounts is in the description of this episode. And I am congested. I am also about half an hour

removed from taking a full dose of NyQuil. So this is going to be a lot of fun. But, you know, we had to do a post-gamer after this one. This was a really fascinating game on a multitude of levels. and this didn't feel like a game the Mariners were ultimately meant to win. But alas, here we are. So let's go over this 10th inning. The Red Sox, of course, they get a pair of runs to make a 3-1 in the top half of the 10th. And given the way this Mariners offense has looked for most of the series and had looked from basically the second inning onward in this game, things were looking a bit bleak,

to be quite honest with you. But Seattle gets one back on a broken bat single by Luke Rayleigh. Then Josh Rojas singles and Brayu, of course, misplays the ball, which then puts runners at second and third. Rayleigh then scores on the grounder by JP. And then, of course, Julio gets his first career walkoff hit with a single in the gap. Didn't do too much. Just single in the gap.

That's all the barriers needed. That's what Julio gave them. just beautiful stuff. So Colby, thoughts on this win, thoughts on that 10th inning. Yeah, it was poetry in motion because this is what the Mariners were supposed to be. This was what was supposed to be different about this offense versus last year's offense. And pretty much from the first inning yesterday, this offense has looked eerily similar to last year's offense. A ton of strikeouts.

Just kind of relying on the home run. You're hoping somebody gets a walk and you hit a homer. And that's how you score. and this inning they didn't score or this game they didn't score on a homer. That's how they, that's the only way they were able to score in their first two games. This first inning, they put the ball in play, right? They want single. They make an error.

We get a base hit. Nice and easy, simple, the way baseball should be played. And the 10th inning after eight innings, nine innings of just flailing away and just missing hangers and trying to hit the 480 foot bomb. All that stuff. What do we see finally with their backs against the wall? They put the ball in play. They force Boston to make plays.

Boston couldn't do it. The bloop single, broke a bat single. Sometimes you need some good luck. You need something to change, something to turn to go your way. Not only is that hit kind of what you needed to get going, but also we should give Thai France a lot of credit on that. That was a very good piece of base running. He read the ball perfectly.

He knew where the defenders were. He knew they weren't going to be able to get to it. He took off right away. France is not the best. most fleet of foot. So the fact that he got off to that really good start, that was huge. I was stunned, frankly. Right. I thought he was going to stop at third. Like, okay, he had to make sure it wasn't going to get caught. No, he read that, he read that ball perfectly. Right. And then you have Rojas come in against the lefty. By the way, Rayleigh also against the lefty. Rojas flips a ball

into right center field after Eureas hits an absolute missile right to the second baseman. That guy can't catch a break. Ross comes in and he kind of flips a single over the right or the second baseman said right fielder comes in he misplays the ball he looks up to see if raleigh's trying to go from first to third that's what speed does it puts pressure on the defense he misplays it rojas running hard the entire way gets to second base on the misplay as well and that becomes huge that is a massive little note that goes unnoticed rojas gets into second now crawford hits the ground ball right routine put the ball in play don't strike out make them make a play and he did and guess what the Red Sox couldn't make the play.

It was a bad throw. He kind of was back on his heels. He didn't charge the ball aggressively. And Luke Rayley is fast. We can drop the qualifier. He's not fast for his size. He's fast. He's a fast man.

And he got a great jump. Again, he didn't hesitate. He took off. That was contact play, not a fan, but whatever, it worked this time. And he beats the throw pretty handily. I don't even know if a good throw gets him. I mean, that was just perfect. You put the ball in play.

You make them get you out. You do not help them. And then Julio comes up. First pitch of the up-bat looks a lot like 20-23 Julio, where you're like, oh, no, he's going to chase. He's going to expand, double play. But no, then he lays out. It was very clear what the Red Sox are trying to do.

We're going to pitch around Julio. If he gets himself out, great. If he doesn't, he'll take first. We'll go after Polanco. Gets the 3-1 count, gets a pitch, doesn't get to the outside corner like it needs to, kind of stays middle away. Julio just puts a nice simple swing on it,

lines it into right field in the Mariners. in the game. It's the way you're built. You have the home run, you have the home run club in your bag. You can pull it out when you need it. You can hit home runs. We know this team will hit home runs. But if you can't get to that club, you have to be able to put the ball in play and put constant pressure on the defense. These are professionals, yes, but you know what your batting average is? When you strike out, zero. You know what your batting average is when you put the ball in play at all? It's about 300. So put the ball in play and good things will have. happen. And that's what happened in the 10th. Hopefully this carries over over the next few days.

Yes, you still want them to hit home runs. Home runs are good. Okay. I bold statement, home runs are great. But you have to be able to win games in multiple ways. And the Mariners found a way to win tonight's game, not with the home run ball, not by hitting screaming doubles into the gap, but by putting consistent pressure on the defense and forcing them to make plays by not handing them easy out. So, you know, we talked a lot last year about the, uh, the clutch factor for Julio. How many times that he came up late in games when the mirrors needed a, you know, a big base knock, what have you. And, uh, he didn't come through, right? And it oftentimes looked like he was trying to do too much. Uh, even earlier on in this game, the app bat

before the game winning at bat, he looked a lot like 2023 Julio gets a couple of, uh, sinkers from, uh, from Martin there in the top, uh, inside corner. strike zone fouls both of those pitches off or maybe swung through one of them what have you and then stares down strike three in the middle of the zone um this is pretty huge i think just to kind of get the proverbial monkey off of his back uh what do you think about you know what this could do for for julio's confidence finally getting that walk off when finally being the guy right in the big moment yeah i think it's i think it's uh you know i i i don't don't think it's a confidence issue. I don't think Julio's going up into those situations thinking

like, oh, I'm going to fail. But I think it is just this idea that like I have to be the guy because I am the guy. So if I, you know, if I grip the bat a little bit harder, if I swing the bat a little bit harder, I can be the guy. And in reality, it's we just need you to do what you do. Just be a good hitter. So I don't know this is like, I don't think this was a crisis of confidence in Julio from the last couple of years. But it is just kind of a reassure. a reassurance, right? Stay within yourself, do what you're capable of doing, hit the ball hard like you always do, and you'll be fine. These things will work out. Julio's not going to have a thousand in those situations. Nobody's asking him to. We're asking for good, solid approaches

at the play, good game plans. Just try and, you know, just try and be yourself. Don't try and be something more than you could ever be. Just be yourself. Be the good hitter that you are. And that's what Julio was. Took a big aggressive hack on the first pitch. Probably thought he was. He was getting a fastball, looked ugly, but then he took three pitches that they were very clearly trying to get him to chase. And then he recognized a mistake. He didn't try to do too much. With the infield drawn in, he knows he just has to hit a ball hard and he's probably

winning this game. That's exactly what he does. So I don't think it's a crisis of confidence thing. But it is, you know, just a reassurance that, hey, like this idea of staying within myself and not trying to do too much in these situations, it works. I can do that. It doesn't all have to be about, you know, I hit the walk off home run.

I did this. I did that. I just got to have a good at bat. And the game will take care of itself. And that's what Julio did tonight. Let's talk about Logan Gilbert, who had a really good start. It was kind of a weird start, though.

Probably the weirdest Logan Gilbert start. I've watched. We'll go over that in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Merritt podcast is brought to you by Fandul. Say goodbye to Busts the brackets because Fandul lets you bet on every game of the tour. Whether you're betting on a big upset or a one,

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Just gives up the one run. And this was a really weird and kind of unexpected start from Logan Gilbert. Colby, if I told you, I don't know, a year and a half ago, two years ago, that Logan Gilbert would make his debut in 2024. And from the second time through the. the order onward he would mostly throw his secondaries and efficiently so what would you say what would your reaction be oh that's the natural progression of a future ace pitcher i think would be my answer um i think people over i think people think gilbert threw his fastball a lot more than he did

last year even and he really didn't throw it all like he is really uh becoming a a mixed-it-up type of guy And that's partly because his fastball is less effective than it was a few years ago. The league has made some adjustments on it. So he has to have his other secondaries now. And thankfully tonight he did, particularly from probably the third inning on. He was just dicing up guys. And around the fifth inning, he started to find the splitter, which he didn't have much success with early. But around the fifth inning or so, he found the split.

and the splitter of course six swings six whiffs for you math geniuses at home that is a 100% whiff rate on the splits on the split finger fastball so yeah it was a unique logan gilbert the velo was down on his secondaries quite significantly with the notable exception of his curveball again this is a one outing thing so you know we'll see if that if that continues but Yeah, I mean, the slider was The slider tonight was 86. Last year was almost 89 was the average on that pitch.

The splitter, the average was 82.5. Last year was 85.6. So a couple of pitches, he throwing a lot softer than he did last year. Fastball down a tick, that's probably just more about being early in the year than anything. So nothing too concerning there. But you kind of look at

my favorite, the splitter he threw he threw 10 spliters right the maximum spin rate on his split like the split the splitter that that rotated the most 816 yeah RPM wasn't the one that uh that has been kind of making the rounds on social media 51 yeah yeah yeah I thought it was like 450 460 something like that the one yeah 451 yes yeah um so yeah yeah last year Last year, his average spin rate on that pitch was 906. Today, his average was 640. Now, spin rate on the fastball and a curveball, typically good.

Spin rate on change up and split, you want that down. You want that as close as zero as you can get. It's what gives the pitch the tumbling action. That makes it really tough to hit. And Logan had a really good one. Didn't have much feel for it early in the game. But again, he really dialed it in. Got a couple big strikeouts when he needed them.

with that pitch. So the split, you know, kind of making the rounds. That'll be the pitch that you see on pitching ninja. But the slider was actually huge for Logan tonight. You know, it's interesting. We talked about this when he came up. Like, how is Logan Gilbert going to get lefties out? Because eventually he's not going to be able to do it with the fastball.

A lot of lefties and Boston's lineup. And, you know, tonight he went right after him with the slider and the fastball. Through the slider and the fastball, both 29 times tonight. Both were really good pitches. He had a 34% call. Strike Plus Whiff on the fastball, 31% on the slider. Neither pitch.

The average X velocity on both of those pitches were below 86 miles per hour. He was really good tonight. Kind of kitchen sink, kind of leaning on what was working, but it was fastball slider at equal amounts, dropped in the new cutter that we heard he was working on and threw a couple really good ones.

It looks like Logan Gilbert has another viable big league offering. We'll see if you can do it again, but it looks like off of first reaction, the cutter is like last year's Splitter where it's immediately good enough to use it in big league games and get success off of it.

So we start to kind of look at what Logan's bringing to the table right now. Four Seamer, slider, cutter, splitter. And oh, by the way, he still has his curveball. He threw eight of them tonight. Yeah. Again, not just, it's kind of a show me pitch.

It's not something that's there to do swing and misses, but it's a way to steal a strike early. It's there to put something in the back of the hitter's mind. He threw it 9% of the time tonight. You cannot dismiss that pitch when you're at the plate, and he throws it just enough that it's there. It's something you have to be cognizant of. So really good outing from Logan tonight.

He was fantastic. Not the best we've seen him in terms of stuff, but, man, when he got on the roll there and around the fourth inning. He worked out of trouble. I think it was the third or the fourth. He worked out of a little bit of trouble, you know, worked around it. And then he was just lights out for the rest of the night. Probably in June, July, he's probably going back out there for the eighth.

Only through 91 pitches tonight. He was very good. And the Mariners needed him to be very good. And he was. So a great night for Logan Gilbert. So we got to give a shout out to awesome both and Gabe Spire. spire was awesome that that slider that you threw to i believe connor wong was nasty on him around yeah matt brash versus jose ramirez right high vibes got a similar reaction out of erin goldsmith

too oh cold he was on fire tonight oh he was he was yeah um good yeah and uh both i mean that's not really a guy that you would expect to come up huge and uh you know in a high leverage spot but But there you go, right? And I mean, right now, while you're kind of having to patch things together and, you know, Munoz wasn't available after his four out save last night, Stannock probably wasn't available either, maybe in a break, you know, glass in case of emergency situation, but otherwise, no, you know, with Santos and brash out, you kind of have to get some unexpected things like this.

So the Mariners are going into tomorrow looking for a series when. They're going to be wearing the Sunday creams, I would assume. So they're going to go for the jersey cycle in the series. So that's kind of neat. Bryce Miller on the bump for his 2024 debut. We're going to get into that in just a moment. And you're listening to the Locktime Marries podcast. Thank you again for making us your first listen after the Marries 4 to 3 victory over the Boston Red Sox and extra endings tonight.

So now the mayor. will go for a series win to start the season off tomorrow afternoon, and it's going to be Bryce Miller making his 20, 2024 debut against Garrett Whitlock. So, Colby, what are your expectations and hopes for Miller tomorrow? Yeah, Miller's going to see every lefty the Red Sox have to offer, and they have a lot of them. They have quite a few good ones, and we'll see if Devers is back tomorrow.

Obviously, the Red Sox is not. Yeah, obviously the Red Sox lineup lacks a little bit of when Devers isn't in it. Yeah, I'll just say it is significantly less scary with him out of it. It is. Still make a lot of contacts. I'll have a lot of speed. But Devers is the guy that you fear in that lineup. He's the guy that you're always keeping circled like, okay, where is he at?

Where is he at? So we'll see if Devers can play tomorrow. You know, the Red Sox, like the Mariners, have been very cautious. with guys early in the season. Kenley Jansen had a bit of a back issue tonight. He was not available at all. That's why he didn't come in to close the game. Obviously, the Marys have been very cautious with Mitch Garver and his back spasms.

We'll see if he's in the game tomorrow. But yeah, regardless of Devers is going to play or not, every lefty is going to be in the lineup tomorrow against Miller. And that's been his bugaboo. That's been how you've beaten Bryce Miller as you get lefties in there. He doesn't really have a pitch to counteract. the lefties, at least good lefties. Now, he's been working on a splitter.

We've seen it a little bit here and there. To me, it looks like a useful change-up, but it doesn't look like a swing and miss pitch to me quite yet. There's still work to do on that pitch. So I suspect he's still going to be pretty fastball heavy. Now, I do think he's going to make an effort, like a conscious effort to throw the split and to throw the slider early in the game often

and try to get those two pitches established. but, you know, for Bryce Miller until we see otherwise, he lives and dies by the fastball. He has to locate that pitch well. He has to get in off the plate. He has to get at the top rail. And we'll see what the velocity's at. We saw them at times this spring be 97, 98, which is, you know, where he needs to be. And we've seen him last year at times he was 93, 94.

It's an effective fastball either way. It's a high spin rate pitch. But again, you have to have more than your fastball, particularly against lefties. Lefty's torched Miller last year. So that's going to be the key. How does he do against Kossis? How does he do against Yoshita? How does he do?

Hopefully not against Devers. But I would guess Devers is going to be out there tomorrow, but who knows? Again, it's early teams are going to be cautious. So, yeah, it'll be interesting to see how he handles the lefties. Does he just stick with the fastball? Is he just dead set on getting that splitter to be the out pitch against lefties? How he handles them will tell us a lot about how he plans on. attacking hitters the rest of this year.

So, you know, it's a little bit of a, like a surprise grab bag. You don't really know what's in it. You hope it's good. Could be, you know, could be nothing, could just be kind of a mediocre outing. It could be great. And it would be awesome if it was great. You should have Stannock back tomorrow. You should have Munoz back tomorrow.

I imagine, you know, Spire, only things. through like 11 pitches. Now he, do you want him to go three days in a row this early in the year? Yeah, you know, maybe not. But I do think that, you know,

most of the bullpen should be good to go tomorrow. Haven't seen Colin Snyder. Where are you, bud? Let's get him into a game. But yeah, I think Miller, uh,

is going to try and get the splitter established early in this game. So I expect the first thing to see a lot of fastball up, split down just to see how it looks and, and, you know, see if you can get some, uh, some weak contact. we contact off of those pitches.

Yep. And like you mentioned, we'll see if Mitch Carver is back in the lineup. Scott Service earlier today said that he wasn't feeling great when he woke up this morning. So they're going to just, you know, play it by year, be pretty cautious with that. You know, like you said, it's obviously very, very, very early in the season. Don't need to force anything. I know that, you know, service, especially last night, you know, has been managing these games a little bit more aggressively than he has. you know, previous March and April games in the past, but that would be pushing it a little too much to ask

Garber to go out there if he's not feeling 100%. I think he feels like he's already pushing Hanager. A little bit. Hanager's played three days in a row. He did have a DH day in there, but, you know, you're pushing it, right, with Mitch. So I kind of doubt Hanager's going to be in the lineup tomorrow. I think we'll see Rayleigh and Canzone both in there. And then my guess is you'll see like Ureus D.H.

You might see Cal D.H because I do expect Sebi to get his first crack. Dig it in a night game. Cowell's caught three games in a row. Zabal is going to get the start behind the dish tomorrow. So I would suspect Hanager is either. I'd be shocked if Hanager was in the lineup at all. But if he is, it's going to be as a DH. I don't think they want to push that.

Even if Mitch is feeling great, right? You just, you don't want to push that. You got the series, you know, split at least. It's really hard to win these four-game series. So it's nice that you've got the two. your back pocket. You can get a little bit aggressive tomorrow, but you can also be smart. You can be smart with your bold and you can be smart with the decisions on Bryce Miller. You can be smart on trying to keep both the Mitches healthy throughout the year.

So my guess is tomorrow we're going to see Sebi catching and then we'll either see Raleigh D-Hing or we're going to see Urea's DH or Rojas, whoever's not playing third will DH. That would be my guess. So we'll see what the lineup looks like tomorrow. We'll see if Garber's in it. you know I doubt it I think they're going to want to make sure that like he's in a really good spot and they don't think he's going to tweak anything sounds sound to me like based on the comments today probably another day or two so hopefully by the end of this homestand he's back in there

um yeah there's just no reason to push him right now it is it is march 30th yeah so there's just no reason to just to be like oh well no no he's healthy we didn't sign you know an injury prone player. That's not a thing. You can't be worried about that. You got to do what's best for the player. And by doing that, you're doing what's best for the team as well. You want these guys playing well in September. You don't want to burn them out trying to win, you know, not meaningless games, but you don't want to burn them out in April and May. And then you need them in September. Like, you got to be smart here. Well, that's going to do it for our show. But before we get out of here, once again, a reminder that lockdown has launched the first ever national sports,

4-7 streaming channel on YouTube. And now it's also available on Amazon Fire TV and the free Fire TV channels app. Locked-on Sports Today is here for you 24-7 covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of Lockdown, plus our national shows covering every league. Find Lockdown Sports Today now available on the free Fire TV channels app. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdowner's post game show for Colby Patnode. I'm Tadine Gazzalas. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L.O. underscore Mariners.

You can follow me at Ty Dane Gonzalez and Colby at C-Pat. P-A-T-1-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. Thank you again for making us your first. Listen to have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next time. Peace.