Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - M's Fall Flat In Texas, But Team USA Impressive In Calgary

Episode Date: May 10, 2021

While the Mariners were busy stinking up the new Ballpark in Arlington (or whatever it's actually called), Team USA was winning a bronze medal at the World Women's Curling Championship. But since this is Locked On Mariners and not Locked On USA Curling, D.C. talks about the three-game series against the Rangers in the first two segments. The first game was a win, and the offense showed signs of breaking out of its slump, but the next two games were sloppy. And Sunday's was a disaster. But D.C. talks about the good news in C block, and recaps the weekend of curling in Calgary to close out the show. 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, brooms up. The USA takes home the bronze at the World Women's Curling Championship. Welcome to Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. For a while, it was looking as if Team USA would miss the playoffs entirely, but got in with a 7 and 6 record, advanced to the bronze medal game, which they won over Powerhouse Sweden. Welcome to Locked-on Mariners, ladies and gentlemen. I am D.C. Lundberg, the bowling and curling ambassador of the Locked-on Podcast Network, brought to you by Built Bar. Please remember to download, rate, and follow this program using whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use.

Ask your smart device to play Locked-on Mariners podcast or any of the other great shows here on the Locked-on podcast network or T-L-O-P-N-O-T-Lop-N-Lop-N-Lop-N-Lop-N. Congratulations to Tabitha Peterson and the rest of Team USA for their bronze medal at the World Women's Curling Championship. I'll talk about this in the third segment of today's show, because the first five minutes of a baseball program shouldn't be taken up by dissecting a curling match. But first I must tell you about the three-game series in Texas. Yeah, I have to. But at least I get to discuss a win in the first segment. First, some roster updates.

On Friday, the Mariners signed two free agent pitchers. Right-handers Justin Grimm and Brooks Pounders were both signed to minor league contracts and were signed to AAA Tacoma. On the Friday's game and Chris Flexion who started was shaky early and didn't have command or feel of his curveball. But about the fourth inning or so, he found it and began using it effectively and was very good in his last few innings. That start kind of epitomized his season thus far, kind of encapsulated the whole thing. He's either got control problems and gives up a bunch of hits and walks, or he's on top of his game, locates his pitches, gets people to swing over the top of his curveball diving out of the zone,

and looks like he should pitch a shot out every day. He winds up going six in the third total innings on Friday, allowed 10 hits, four runs, all of them earned, walked one, and allowed a home run to Nate Lowe when the third struck out two. Seven of those hits, and all four of those runs came in the first three innings. Anthony Masevich came in with one out in the seventh and also pitched the eighth, while Kendall Graveman pitched the ninth, also only allowed one hit and earned his fourth save. After performing so poorly on offense the last few weeks,

capped off by being no hit in the final game of the preceding homestand, Skipper Scott Scurvis emphasized to his hitters to try to hit the ball the other way, something I've been talking about in the show for a long time, to try to snap out of this cold streak and also decided that a shakeup of the lineup was necessary, and it seemed to work to some extent. Thai France, who came into Friday's game on an 0 for 23 slide, which dropped his batting average from 295 to 246, was moved out of the number two spot and into the cleanup roll.

He was effectively flip-flopped with Kyle Lewis, who went from number four to number two. J.P. Crawford, who was doing pretty well on the number nine spot, was moved to number five. his first time ever hitting number five in a major league baseball game. The number five through eight hitters had been doing next to nothing, and they needed some more production in the middle of the lineup, even though Crawford isn't a power hitter. Crawford responded with a three-for-three-day,

including his first home run of the season and a walk, and Lewis went three-for-five. France snapped out of his slump with a fourth inning double and was aboard for Crawford's home run. Crawford singled in the second and was on base for a Dylan Moore home run. The Mariners added their fifth and final run in the seventh inning. Taylor Tremel hit a two-out double against Fresh Relief pitcher John Spores and was immediately driven in by a Mitch Hanninger single.

Well, this was not a breakout performance by the offense. They did collect 10 hits, strung a couple of hits together a few different times, and got five runs out of it. They only walked twice, though, and struck out eight times. Rangers starter Mike Fultenevich was far from sharp. most of the game, yet still struck out five Mariners and allowed just one walk. It was good to see a couple of almost kind of sort of rallies from the Mariners on Friday night. They did enough to win while Chris Flex and settled down after three shaky innings

and was able to get through six and a third. In the first few innings, it looked like he had to be pulled in the fourth the way things were going, but those innings that he ate up were, I shouldn't say ate up, but those innings that he pitched were very important, since the Mariners had to utilize another bullpen game on Saturday, which we will talk about here shortly, sorry. Now it's time for the trivia corner. Kyle Seeger always seems to hit well in the state of Texas.

Has he got a higher career batting average in Arlington or Houston? I'll tell you following this word of interest from Rock Auto, which is a family business serving Auto Parts customers online for 20 years. Go to rockato.com to shop for auto parts from hundreds of manufacturing. Whether it's for your daily driver or for your classic, get everything you need and a few easy clicks, delivered directly to your door. The rock auto.com catalog is unique and remarkably easy to navigate. Quickly see all the parts available for your vehicle and choose the brands, specs, and prices you prefer.

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Amazing selection, reliably low prices, all of the parts your car will ever need, rockato.com. Answer to the trivia question. Kyle Seeger has a 286 career average in the state of Texas. 271 in Houston and 299 in Arlington. He hit 301 in the ballpark in Arlington and so far is hitting 280 in the Rangers new stadium. Coming up with the offense starting to awaken from its slumber, what the hell went wrong over the weekend? I'll try to explain following this word from Bet Online, the fastest and easiest way to bet on all your sports action. Baseball season is in full swing and you can

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Now back to Locked On Mariners and your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you very much, Joey Martin. I am going to talk about Saturdays and Sundays, games, both of them here in B Block. Sundays was as forgettable a game as the Meritors have played all year, while Saturday was just plain frustrating. The offense finally put together a really good game, but as soon as the bats got tuned up, the pitching starts spewing oil. The Mariners scored early and often. Mitch Hanigur and Kyle Lewis began the game with back-to-back singles, then Kyle Seeger walked to load the bases with no one out. Ty France grounded out, but

Manninger scored so it was a productive out. And the M's still had two on with only one away. J.P. Crawford grounded sharply to the first baseman, who started toward first to get Crawford, but then threw home to try to get Kyle Lewis, who was trying to score. It was a close play. Lewis was ruled safe,

and Rangers manager Chris Woodward challenged the call. It was certainly close. The question was, if the catcher got a glove on Lewis's hand before Lewis's hand slid across home plate. And as close as it was, the umpire in New York didn't see anything to overturn the call on the field. The call was upheld, and the M's had a two-nothing lead. If Lewis had been ruled out, then I'm guessing that call also would have been upheld.

Too close either way to reverse, in my opinion. But again, the replay Ump in New York is wrong half the time, so take that with a grain of salt. The Mariners began the second with a Dillan Moore single. and an Evan White Homer to take A to make the score for nothing. And they'd hit back-to-back doubles in the fourth to score another run. It was a good game for them, by and large, and it was nice to see them not to have to rely on hitting the ball out of the ballpark, though they did do that as well.

Rangers' starter, Kohi Adihata, was wild all game, and the M's drove him out after three and two-thirds. He gave up six hits, three walks, a home run, and five runs total. As well as he was, he still struck out three in that short outing, but the M's only struck out six times all game. The game ended in a very frustrating manner. Down 9 to 7 with Manninger on second and Lewis on first,

J.P. Crawford hit a two-out blue pit into shallow left center field. Both runners were going on contact, obviously, with two outs. Manninger scored easily, and third base coach Mani Acta waived home Lewis, but he was thrown out at the plate to end the game. And the play wasn't all that close. He wasn't out by a mile, but it also wasn't a bang, bang play like his play at the plate in the first inning. That would have been the tying run, but alas, it was a frustrating 9 to 8 loss. Not only that, but if Luis Torrens hadn't been caught napping the previous half inning,

it would have been an 8 to 8 tie at that point. I'll get into that when I talk about the M's rough day on the mound. It was another bullpen game necessitated by all the injuries to the pitching staff. Eric Swanson started and did well once again. Two and two-thirds innings and 45 pitches, two hits including a solo home run off the bat of Joey Gallo and a walk. Joey Gallo hitting a home run? Not really a surprise. Gavin Newsom was next and he was expected to give the M's at least a few innings.

But not only was the ineffective, three runs in one inning, but he had to leave with an elbow injury. The injury bug has bitten the M's pitching staff in a major way. Will Vess came in and was good initially, but in his final inning allowed two singles and a double. The second single scored two runs. Wyatt Mills came in to clean up the sixth inning with two outs, wound up only needing to throw one pitch. Drew Steck and Ryder did his job in the seventh, allowing a two-out walk, but nothing more. Anthony Mosevic had the eighth, and it was another uncharacteristic, outing for him. He came in with a 7-6 lead, but that lead was erased on his first pitch to

Adolas Garcia with a solo home run. A Chris Davis single followed, a wild pitch sent Davis to second, and then after catching Isaiah Kiner Folefa looking at strike three, he intentionally walked Charlie Culberson to get to light hitting Jonah Heim, but Jonah Heim hits a double to score Davis to give the Rangers an 8 to 7 lead. It was a pretty well-struck double down the right field line going the other way. Aaron Fletcher came in at this point, and he got Willie Calhoun to ground sharply to shortstop J.P. Crawford.

Crawford threw home to Luis Torrance to get Culberson, who was going on contact. The throw beat Culberson by a mile, but Torrens failed to tag him out, thinking it was a force play. It wasn't. Culberson scores the Rangers' 9th run and Torenz is charged with an error for this mental lapse.

This game was a mess for both teams. It was one of those games, it seemed like neither team really wanted to win. Prior to Sunday's game, which was a disaster in its own right, L.J. Newsom was placed on the 10-day injured list with elbow inflammation. And I can't say this name. I'm going to try. J.T. Shagwa was recalled from the Tacoma Rainiers. I still cannot say his name properly. I've been working on it.

It's the first syllable that really gets to me. But my roommate told me the last syllable, gua, is like guacamole. So from here on out, I shall call him the avocado. Just as Sheffield started and labored through his five innings, he didn't have command or feel for a slider, like Flexen didn't have a handle on his curveball to start Friday's game. But Chef never got the feel for his breaking ball like Flexen did.

It also didn't help that the M's committed three. three errors behind him, adding to that pitch total. He gave up 10 hits and seven runs. Five of them were earned, but he didn't walk anybody. The Mariners collected 10 hits, but only managed two runs, both of which they scored in the fifth inning, to take a two-to-one lead at that point. But the Rangers exploded in the bottom of the fifth.

Charlie Culberson, pardon me, hit the first pitch of the inning out of the ballpark to tie the game. Jose Trevino reached on a fielding error by J.P. Cross, Another lazy throw to first. It seems like Crawford, when the runner is slow, kind of lets his guard down and this kind of lobs them all over the first base. And that's where most of his fielding eras come from. And this opened the floodgates, ladies and gentlemen,

and they put up a sixth spot in the fifth inning. They'd score two more in the sixth off Wyatt Mills, one more in the eighth off former ranger, Raphael Montero, and they'd win 10 to 2. This game sucked. the way to put it, and the less I talk about it, the better we will all feel. This series was frustrating. After taking the first game, the offense woke up in game two, only to have the pitching blow up, and in the third game, sloppy defense and a poor outing

by a starting pitcher led to getting killed, basically. This team is in a slump. They have an off day today to regroup, then they play the Dodgers in Los Angeles beginning tomorrow. If you got a question or a comment, if you do, please send it a over to Lockdown Mariner's at gmail.com. I'll reply to it on the air in an upcoming mailbag segment. Questions and comments on any subject are welcome, by the way. They're also highly encouraged. They don't have to do a damn thing with baseball. They don't even have to do anything with sports. Coming up with the Mariners putting together a rough weekend in Arlington, Tabitha Peterson and Team USA was busy putting together a good one in Calgary. I'll tell you about it after this word

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Ladies and gentlemen, if you cannot tell, I am really tired. Sunday was a very full day, not only the Mariners game and a PBA telecast, six hours of curling coverage as well. I'm exhausted. And in today's third segment, I'm going to recap the weekend of curling action from the World Women's Curling Championship. And I'll talk about the upcoming series with the Dodgers briefly at the end of the show. As I stated at the top of the program, Team USA skipped by Tabitha Peterson, took home the bronze medal. It was the United States first ever bronze medal at the World Women's Carling Championships. They previously won both gold and silver, but never bronze.

And to get to that bronze medal, they had to beat Sweden in the bronze medal match, an elite team skipped by Anna Hasselborg. Although they didn't play like it in the second half. While they were fairly sharp early, they started making a lot of mistakes in the second half and missing a lot of shots. and while Sweden was falling apart in the second half, Team USA took full advantage of Sweden's miscues. Team USA scored five points in the seventh end, a huge score, and two in the ninth. Hasselborg's team conceded after the ninth end with the score 9 to 5, giving Tabitha Peterson's team the victory and the bronze medal. This was the first international event that Tabitha Peterson skipped. She had been the vice skip for this team until last.

Last year, Nina Roth, who was the team skip at the time, took maternity leave. They won the 2020 U.S. national championship with Peterson skipping, so they decided to leave Peterson in that position when Roth returned, and Roth is now the team's vice skip. The United States had a 7 and 6 record in round robin play, good enough for the number 5 seed in the playoffs. They beat Denmark 8 to 7 in a very good quarterfinal game, but then lost to Switzerland to the semifinals, relegating them to the bronze medal game. I must say that Team USA hung in pretty well against an elite Swiss team who went 12 and 1 during round-robin play.

They were nearly invincible. Sylvana Tiranzoni is the Swiss skip and she throws third stones for her team. In the fourth position is Vice Skip Alina Petz, one of the top curlers in the world. She is such a weapon to have throwing final stones for that team. Butcherland is the team that set a record earlier in this tournament by scoring eight points in a single end that had never been done at a world championship either on the women's or the men's side. They are just so, so good. And again, only lost one game during round robin play. In Sweden's semifinal, they played the Russian Curling Federation or RCF or Rousseff. And to be frank, they look terrible. Very uncharacteristic. of Anna Hasselborg's team.

They're ordinarily great. But second Agnes Nockinauer and third April McMahon has both had very off games, which led to a victory for RCF, who played great. Russia is not allowed to compete under its own flag or their national anthem or any national symbols in any international competition until December of 2022 because of continued doping violations, not just in curling, but in any sport. Sweden had played Canada in its quarterf, and as bad as they looked against RCF in the semifinal, they looked that good against Canada.

If it weren't for hockey, curling might be the national sport of Canada. In the gold medal match, it was Switzerland versus RCF, and it was a low-scoring affair, which Switzerland won four to two. They won the previous women's world championships as well in 2019. They're only the fourth team to go back to back in the women's. Women's World Curling Championships. Congratulations again to Solvana Tiranzoni and her team for a great gold medal victory. The Mariners, they have an off day prior to its two-game series in Dodger Stadium,

which begins tomorrow to completely switch gears. Scott Service flip-flopped Tuesdays and Wednesday's scheduled starting pitchers. It was originally going to be Justin Dunn and Yusei Kikichi in that order, but Kikichi-San will get the nod on Tuesday, while Dunn will. start Wednesday. With the bullpen being heavily utilized in the final two games of the Texas series and with Kikuchi-san going seven innings innings in his previous two starts, he's more likely to eat a lot of innings and give the bullpen a much-needed rest. This will be the M's first game in a National League park this year. In his major league career, Kikajisan is 0-1 at the

plate with a strikeout and a sack bunt. In Japan, he was three for 22 with a double and one sacrifice. Justin Dunn has 13 professional at bat, in which he's collected two base hits and also two sacrifice buntz. He has one major league at bat in which he struck out. That'll do it for today. I am not sure whether or not there is going to be an episode tomorrow or not, given that there will be no game to recap. And quite honestly, gang, I am sincerely doubting at this point that there is going to be an episode tomorrow. In any case, The panel for the next episode, whether it is tomorrow or Wednesday, will be Eunice Higgins, the Energizer Bunny, and a cement truck. That is a great panel.

Definitely one worth waiting for if there is no show tomorrow. So download, rate, and follow Locked on Mariners, so you never miss an episode. Look for us on any podcasting app you can think of. Leave a rating and review with your podcasting app of choice so allows. Thank you for listening, ladies and gentlemen. Congratulations once again to Tabitha Peterson, Nina Roth, Becca Hamilton, Tara Peterson, and Aileen Geving on their bronze medal at the World Women's Curling Championship. Have a great Monday, gang. I'm going to bed.

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 Lockdown's team of local experts. Follow the Lockdown Today podcast on the Odyssey app or wherever else you get your podcast. This is Joey Martin for Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.