Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Mariners Win Weird Series vs. Rangers

Episode Date: July 5, 2021

The first game was a cheap extra-inning win, the second game was a blowout, and the third a nice, quick two-and-a-half hour victory. D.C. talks about all three games of the Rangers series on this "Catch-Up Monday" edition of Locked On Mariners. He ends with some calculations of what some 2021 Mariner batting averages might look like under last year's conditions, and conditions five years ago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today on Locked-on Mariners, give me an F! Give me a you! I'm going to stop right there. Welcome to Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am back. John revealed on Friday that I do, in fact, have another job. I'm a cheerleading coach, and I had to spend some extra time with my team over the last several days in Jamaica.

It's a tough job, but someone's got a job. to do it. It's no wonder I've been really tired lately, but they all enjoyed my homemade flan, and I got back into town yesterday afternoon. Masey is doing fine, and I cannot wait to hear what John Miller comes up with next. Next time he guest hosts for an excuse as to why I have to be away. Anyways, catch-up Monday kicks off another week here on Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on podcast network. Please remember to download and follow this program on whichever podcasting up that you personally care to use. Ask your smart device to play a lockdown marriage podcast or any program here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. I hope you all had a good time last

night celebrating America's birthday. I didn't. The city of Spokane had to cancel its fireworks shows because of the extreme heat over the previous couple of weeks. The conditions were very, very dry as a result. So I understand the decision completely. I would much rather be board, then be on fire, so I'm not unhappy about that turn of events. Sort of a mixed bag of Mariners baseball over the weekend as well. Going backwards, Mariners won yesterday, got clobbered on Saturday, and got a cheap extra inning win on Friday, the difference being the free runner. So really only one legitimate win in the three-game series.

As we often do on catch-up Monday, we'll go in chronological order starting with Friday. A quick note first, however, Hector Santiago's appeal is probably going to be heard sometime this week. And knowing my luck, the results probably are going to be announced after I've recorded the show, but before it's published, or while it's still being edited or something like that. Probably not. It's not expected to be heard today. Should be coming around the corner pretty soon, however. Now for Friday's game. Ameriress had runners on base in every single inning except the first and the night.

And even though J.P. Crawford led off by making an out, led the bogging off by making an out, still was not a bad at bat. Started off 0 and 2, made Kyle Gibson throw six pitches before lining out. So not the best way to lead off a game, but not a horrible one. Rangers got on the board first, with a two-run single by Brock Holt in the third. Nick Solac hit a one-out single. Charlie Culberson then came up and reached second base on a Mitch Hanager fielding error. and Soak moved along to third. Brock Holt shot one past Shedlong Jr. at second base,

scoring both runners. Manninger threw on home to try to nab Cobbertson, but his throw was bad, and Holt took second base on the play. Two errors by Manninger on back-to-back plays, one fielding error and one throwing errors. First two errors of the season, by the way, I'm pretty sure. Rangers add on one in the fifth. Culberson is involved once again,

this time driving home Jonah Haim on a double. Colberson then ran them out of the inning, actually. I don't remember who hit the ball, but he grounded semi-sharply up the middle on the second-base side. Shedlong corralled it, but there was no way he was going to throw him out on time. He did throw on to first. The runner was safe, but Culberson was trying to score from second base. First baseman Jake Bowers threw home to get him. The play was not that close, and Culverson committed one of the cardinal sins of base running,

making the final out of an inning at home plate. I'm all for aggressive base running. It's exciting and it's the way to do things. But this was a pretty boneheaded mistake, especially with your team already up 3-0. If he would have been content to stay at third, who knows what could have happened. And remember, this game was tied all

after the regulation nine innings. That base running mistake could have meant the ballgame. I'm not saying it did. You cannot predict what would have happened. if circumstances had been different, but it certainly makes for an interesting point. But in any case, the Rangers only pick up the one run in the fifth, which the Maritors get right back leading off the bottom of the frame. After working the count full, Ace Fraley launched a change-up out over the right field

wall for a home run, his seventh of the season, only a second solo home run, and his first ding-dog at home. Crawford later doubled one out later, but he was stranded by two groundouts. Marrers pick up another one in the seventh, with Crawford on second and Manninger on first, just having drawn a base on balls. Kyle Seeger grounded to first baseman Nate Lowe, who threw on to second base to force out Manninger, but Culberson's throw back to first was poor. Seeger was safe, probably would have been safe even with a good throw,

but Crawford was able to score on the play, and Culberson was charged with an error. Crawford had reached base himself on an error as well. sloppy fielding led to runs for both teams. The Rangers committed two errors all game. I just talked about both of them. And the Meriders made three, two of them by Hanager, which we discussed earlier. Moving on to the bottom of the eighth,

Luis Torrens tied up the ball game with a solo blast with one out. He continues his hot hitting since being recalled. Ace Frey then walked. Surprise, surprise. He stole second base. And then he scored on a C.A. I single off the bat of J.P. Crawford, which snuck through the hole at short. There was a play at the plate, and it was close. Ace was called safe, the Rangers challenged,

and lost. So the Mariners have a four-three lead going into the ninth inning, which is pretty safe in Kendall Graveman's hands, right? No, not so much, but it wasn't entirely his doing. Eli White reached second base on an error by Ty France with one out, and the very next hitter, Jonah Haim doubled him home to tie the ballgame. Graveman got the next two guys to limit the damage, but that unearned run gave him his second blown save. And of course, the Mariners being the Mariners, they go down one, two, three for the first time since the first inning,

ending the baseball game and starting up a T-ball game. The Rangers' Little League free runner did not score the 10th, and the Mariners did. Whoopi, cheap win, whatever. There has got to be a category for stupid wins. like these, where the Little League free runner is the difference in the ball game. These are not real wins. Didn't hockey used to include overtime wins in their win-loss record?

Wins, losses, ties, and overtime wins? Something like that. Baseball has got to start doing that. These cheap-o wins, where the difference is a runner who should not be on base in the first place, should be noted differently than legitimate wins, or legitimate losses for that reason. The Mariners had runners on base all day. They collected nine hits and drew six walks, including two apiece from Torrens and Ace Freyley. They left 12 men on base, which is generally not a recipe for success. They got pretty lucky, honestly. They really didn't deserve to win this

game, but then again, neither did the Rangers. It was a sloppy game, and it was a long game. Four hours and 19 minutes. These are the kind of games. that make people order pizza and binge watch some series on Netflix, or just turn off the TV and go to sleep. Saturday's game was a long one, too, not approaching the four-and-a-half-hour mark, but still long. At least the first half was long. I'm getting ahead of myself, though.

Anyways, both starting pitchers, Logan Gilbert and Kyle Gibson, went five-and-two-thirds innings, and they both needed over 100 pitches to do so. Mr. Gilbert wasn't great, but he did well enough. Again, five-and-two-thirds innings, Three runs, two of them were earned, so he had some help in that department. Five hits, two walks, and six strikeouts. He'd like to see him more economical with his pitch count,

especially against a team like Texas. Yes, they have some good pieces, but by and large, they're not very good. Anthony Mosevic picked up the win, by the way, tossing a one, two, three, tenth inning. Hector Santiago had the eighth inning for this one, his first appearance since his ejection and bullcrap suspension. The first thing he did was pick up the rosin bag, walk into the foul line, and toss it to the ball girl out of play. A brief conversation with the umpires followed.

Scott's service came out for a very quick word for the umps. Mr. Santiago waved his fingers to someone trying to bring the rosin bag back, as if to say, don't you dare bring that back to the mound. And then play proceeded as normal. Can you blame the guy? While the use of foreign substances should be stamped out of baseball, this really could not have been handled worse by Major League Baseball, and they've been made to look really bad in this whole thing.

But then again, this is Kaiser Manfred we're talking about, so, you know. And the pitchers are letting him know that they're pissed. Santiago taking the Rosenberg out of the play is not the first such demonstration, for lack of a better word, made by pitchers who object to this mid-season change. And this has only been in place for a couple of weeks, so it's going to get worse. Leave it to Kaiser Manfred to take a good idea and mess it up beyond belief. This may not be all his doing, but he's at the top. The buck has to stop somewhere.

It's happening under his watch. No trivia corner today, gang. Frankly, I ran out of time before I could write one because I got to get this thing published. I need to be out of house much of the afternoon. However, we do have this word from bet online, the fastest and easiest way to bet on all your sports action. Baseball season is in full swing. It's been in full swing for a while now, gang,

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Here once again is your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you, sir. I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time talking about Saturday's game. It was, well, it wasn't Marco Gonzalez's finest hour, let's put it that way. He started off fine, actually. Not great, but okay. Three different at-bats in the first two innings used up 24 pitches collectively, eight apiece, but only gave up one base hit in those first two frames,

but he flat out fell apart in the third. Former Mariner John Hicks led off with a solo home run, Marco left a big fat sinker pretty much right in the middle of the zone. You cannot do that solo home run. Charlie Culberson then singled. Isaiah Kiner Folefa walked on four pitches. Then another sinker caught too much of the plate, which Eli White took advantage of,

writing it out to left field for a three-run jack and a four-nothing lead. A double and a hit by pitch led to a visit from the pitching coach. Then David Dahl struck out to end the inning. Four runs allowed, although it could have actually been worse. In the bottom of the third, the Mariners set themselves up for a big inning of their own, but in typical Barter fashion, failed. J.P. Crawford led off with a single. Mitch Hanager was hit by a pitch on a full count. Kyle Seeger walked with a full count to load the bases. Then Ty France worked the count full, and drew a base on balls to force in the M's first run. Looking pretty good. Still no one out. And then Jake Freely flew out. Dylan Moore struck out.

And finally, Jake Bowers flew out to let Jordan Liles off the hook. Those are the types of innings I keep going back to when the Mariners struggle offensively. They load the bases with no one out and can only muster one run and on a base on balls, no less. Don't get me wrong. I love scoring on a base's loaded walk. But when you load the bases with nobody out, you expect to score at least a couple. And the Mariners squander way too many of these opportunities. The game was over at that point. Over.

Even though Jordan Liles was not his sharpest, the M's really helped him out by settling for just that one run, and Marco could not get out of the fourth. He only lasted three and a third innings, gave up seven runs, six of them were earned, seven hits, he walked two, allowed three home runs, and struck out four. Another clunker for him, I'm afraid. I'll speak about him later on the segment. I'll finish wrapping up the ballgame first, although there really is not that much more to say. The offense was not much help.

They left eight men on base. Drew more walks than the Rangers' offense did. Kyle Seeger had a good game, which he desperately needed. Two for two with a solo home run, two runs scored, and two walks. It was another game in which the Mariners had runners on base frequently, but couldn't score hardly any of them. And as bad as Marco and the offense were, I must say that the bullpen came in and did its job very well. And it was two pitchers who you would least expect to do that well.

Raphael Montero pitched two and two-thirds innings and allowed only a single. Johann Ramirez pitched the final three innings and allowed only a single in a walk. As short as Marco's outing was, the Mariners only needing to utilize two relievers was huge. I didn't know Mr. Ramirez was a multi-inning reliever like that. Even though it was just mop-up duty for Mr. Montero and Mr. Mr. Ramirez, they still gave the Mariners much-needed innings, saved the rest of the bullpen, and for that they deserve praise. It was another three-hour-plus ballgame, about three and a quarter hours or so.

It felt much longer. The first few winnings took an hour and a half or something like that, I think. Again, it felt longer than it really was. Getting back to Marco Gonzalez, though, he is clearly not himself. Maybe we can chalk this one up to sleep deprivation from having a new baby at home. but there comes a point where the excuses have to stop and he has to correct whatever issues he's having in order to get back to himself.

Whether it's something with his release point, his mechanics, or whatever is going on, he's just not getting the job done. And the mayor assigned him to an extension last year, year before that, to be the mantle piece of the rotation. And if he cannot get the job done, that's a huge problem.

Yusay Kikichi has stepped up this season and has really turned the corner. Chris Flexen is putting together a pretty nice season overall, but the Mariners need Marco to be Marco. They can't have him go out there and be Greg Hibbert, which is basically what he's done, only with far more home runs. For this season, Marco has started 10 ball games,

pitched 51 innings, and has an ERA of 582, which amazingly is not the highest ERA in the starting rotation. It's close, but it's not the highest. Last year, he started 11 ball games and pitched 69 and 2 thirds innings. That's an average of 6.33333333 innings per start, which is honestly not very good for a number one starter. This year, he's averaging 5.1 innings per start, which is horrible. His whip this year is 1.451 compared to 0.947 last year.

Hits per 9 innings have gone up, but it's similar to what his rates were in 2018 and 19, actually. strikeouts per nine innings have remained consistent from last year to this year. The two areas where he's really fallen off the map are walks and home runs. His 3.3 walks per nine innings is actually around league average or so, but for Marco you expect so much more. His ratio last year was under 1.0.9 walks per 9 innings. He's walked 20 in his 51 innings this year, almost three times as many walks as last year,

in nearly 20 fewer innings. But the long ball is really what's hurt him. 13 home runs allowed, almost as many home runs as he allowed in all of 2018. That's 166 and two thirds innings. 2.3 home runs per nine innings this year. That is off the charts horrible. I don't know what else to say,

but he's got to turn it around or else the Mariners are going to be in big trouble. He's signed through 2024, and they did not sign. him to be a fourth or a fifth starter. He can get the job done. He's proved it in the past. Again, I don't know what else to say,

but it's very frustrating to watch, and this is just one storm, I think. We just kind of need to ride out until it gets better. Have you got a question or a comment? Send it on over to Lockedon Mariners at gmail.com. Questions and comments on any subject are highly encouraged. Does not have to be about baseball. Does not have to be about sports at all.

In fact, I got an email from Aidan Sones with an update on Willie McGiver. This has to do with baseball. He's doing quite well in AA Hartford. I had asked Mr. Sones for an update on Willie McGiver, who was just called up to AA Hartford from Advanced A. Spokane. He was fun to watch with the Indians. And over the weekend, Willie McGiver became the first Hartford yard goat to hit three home runs in a ball game.

Good for him. He's doing quite well in AA. Perhaps we'll see him in Colorado, a few years. Coming up, would the mares be flexing their muscles on Independence Day? Short answer? Maybe. But first, this word from Bilt Bar, the greatest protein bars and the history of greatest

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your order. Builtbar.com promo code locked 15 for 15% off your order. Builtbar keeps a licking and keeps on ticking. Now back to Locked-on Mariners and your host, D.C. Lundner. Thank you once again, J.M., final segment of the day coming up here on Locked-on Mariners, and we finally get to talk about a real win. Of course, following two really long games that both started at 7 on Friday and Saturday, Sunday's game was a nice, swift two hours and 22 minutes. I'm not sure if that's the shortest game for the Mariners yet this season,

but it's got to be close at the very least. And I'm talking about nine inning games, not these shortened, double-header games. In any case, Chris Flexen got the start and did quite well, thank you very much, over his six innings, threw only 81 pitches, but he had begun leaving some balls in the middle of the plate, had a couple of long at-bats, so he only goes to six. I can understand it in this case. In fact, three of the four hits he allowed came in that sixth inning, and the one run he allowed also came in the sixth. He walked no one and struck out five. Mike Fultenevich was almost equal to the task. He went seven innings, allowed four runs. All of them scoring, by the way,

on two home runs. He walked only one and also struck out five. He also allowed four hits, two of them coming in the fourth inning. He also hit a batter in that inning, which came around to score on a three-run home run by Luis Torrens. The other Mariner home run came in the fifth inning, off the bat of Shedlong Jr., who took a page out of Taylor Tremel's book by standing and admiring it way too long. Yes, it hit the hit-it-here cafe, but you just do not show up the other team like that. If I'm Fultenevich, next time Long is up to bat,

and he did face Fultenevich later on in the game, he'd be getting a fastball right in the middle of the number four on his back. This team is full of showboats, and that's not good. Sooner or later, there's a pitcher out there who's going to take exception to their hot dogging, and he's going to start throwing at them. And you know what? They probably will have deserved it. they're showing off and showing up their opponents is getting really old.

This is a huge part of what is wrong with baseball these days. I'm digressing, though. Sorry to go off on a tangent. Drew Steckenrider, Paul Sewell, and Kendall Graveman had the final three innings, collectively allowed only one hit and struck out three, with Graveman picking up the save after a one, two, three, ninth inning. There's not much to say about this ball game either. It was a nice, tidy win. Mayer's pitching did not allow a base on,

balls and only five hits. The Mariner offense could not do much against Texas pitching, but they did enough, but again was too reliant on the home run ball, with all four runs scoring on home runs. On the plus side, they only struck out five times, which is pretty impressive. After ending a 12-game hitting streak on June 27th, J.P. Crawford now has a modest 6-game hitting streak. Since the 12-game hitting streak began on June 13th, he's got a slash line of 349. 379, 494, with six doubles and two home runs. And in June, he slashed 352, 400, 528, with 10 doubles and three home runs and a strikeout rate of 19.4%. Very much below league average. He's now hitting 289 for the year. With the league batting average down this year, way down, I was curious what Crawford's 289 batting average would be equivalent to five years ago.

The Major League Baseball batting average this year is 239. That is historically bad. We can get into why that is happening on a future episode. But five years ago, 2016, the American and National League both hit 255, or a collective 255. That's a difference, pardon me, of about 6.69%. That's huge. If you increase Crawford's 289 batting average by that 6.69%, the number you get is about 308. So under conditions, five years ago, Crawford would be hitting about 308.

Put Ty France's batting average through that same process, and it goes from 265 to about 283. Manninger's batting average would go from 255, pardon me, 252 to about 269. With all the talk of batting averages dropping this year, I was very curious to, to see what would happen to players' averages this year if they were mathematically compared to conditions of the recent past. Even last year, there was a 2.51% drop in average from last year to this year, and a 5.44% drop over 2019. Take Crawford's 289 current batting average, put that in 2020 conditions, and he's almost a 300 hitter at about 296. Put that 289 batting average in 2019 conditions, and he's hitting about 305. I'd be very curious to do this with strikeout numbers as well on a future show,

but I'm going to stop for now before this turns into a 55-minute episode. Off day for the Mariners Today, gang, and tomorrow Stacey Gatsulius of Locked on Yankees will be with me, pardon me. Hopefully I will have untied my tongue in the interim. She and I will be talking about the upcoming series against the Yankees in Seattle. joining us will be June Cleaver, Lord Zed, and a coffee mug. Please remember to download and follow Locked-on Mariners. Look for us in any podcasting app you can think of. Leave a rating and review if your podcasting app of choice so allows.

And remember to check out the other great programs here on the Locked-on Network. I am D.C. Lundberg, I'll talk to you tomorrow, gang. Have a great afternoon. Get all the sports news you need in under 20 minutes with the Locked-on today podcast. Host Peter Bukowski will keep you updated on the latest news in every major sport with Locked On's team of local experts. Follow the Locked On Today podcast on the Odyssey app or wherever you get podcasts. This is Joey Martin speaking for Locked On Mariners, part of the Locked On podcast network.