Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - M's Out-Dueled Once Again

Episode Date: April 21, 2021

It was another one of those games where the M's certainly pitched well enough to win, but the opposing pitcher was just THAT much better. D.C. talks about this great pitcher's duel -- his favorite type of game to talk about -- and also tries to think pitchers he grew up watching to compare to both Marco Gonzales and Julio Urias. In the second segment, D.C. brings you up to speed on how the Red Sox have fared, in preparation of the upcoming four-game series in Beantown. Finally, D.C. answers your email questions in the Fan Mailbag. (Well, he answers most of them. One of them was addressed to Clive Braithwaite IV.) 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, three contestants answer questions to accumulate spins to take to the big board, where they can rack up big bucks and try to avoid the whammy. Welcome to Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. Well, gang, another day, another pitcher's duel. Welcome to those of you out there in podcast land. I am D.C. Lundberg, and I get to talk pitching again today on Locked-on Mariners, part of of the Locked-on Podcast Network,

brought to you by Rock Auto. Please remember to download, rate, and follow this program on whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use. Ask your smart device to play Locked-on Mariners podcast or any program here on the Locked-on podcast network, or T-L-O-P-N for short,

or for even shorter, T-L-O-P-N-for-allop. I was very much looking forward to yesterday's pitching matchup, ladies and gentlemen, both left-handers who don't walk a whole lot of hitters, both left-handers who will keep the ball in the ballpark more often than not, and two left-handers who both wear single-digit numbers. The same single-digit number, no less. Little things like that get me excited.

I can't explain why. Also, at the end of this segment, a trivia corner which I'm rather excited about. It's not a question I expect anyone to know the answer to, but I do hope that you find the subject as interesting as I find it. Anyways, yesterday, another afternoon game in Seattle, the only 110 Pacific start time in baseball yesterday. And since it was an afternoon game and also since it was a beautiful day, I found it the perfect opportunity to hop in the car and listen to the ball game while driving into Cordois, enjoying the inland northwest scenery along the way.

Marco Gonzalez, first two starts again very, very poor, followed by a good one, Julio O'Reas, who started for the Dodgers, his first start was great, and that was followed by two okay ones. Both starters yesterday, though, were on top of their games, and their styles are not entirely dissimilar. Eriest throws harder than Gonzalez does and uses a curveball to change speeds, while Marco has that great change-up. Both teams would also be without one of its key offensive pieces, both of whom got hit in the forearm with pitches the night before. Mookie Betz was not in the Dodger lineup, and Thai France was not in the Mariners lineup, although he did pinch hit later on and play an inning at second base. And while France went out, Kyle Lewis came back in. The Kyle connection was back in the lineup hitting back to back, but not the way we got used to last season.

Lewis hit second in France's stead, while Seeger remained in the number three hole, which he's been occupying all season. And to make room for Lewis on the active roster, Braden Bishop was sent out to the alternate training site. Like the Grinky game on Saturday, there's really not much to dive into with this one. It was a fantastic pitchers duel through seven innings. While the Mariners' bullpen walked three in its two innings, they didn't allow a hit or a run.

Middleton, who pitched the ninth, was wild once again. He walked two, and is called strike three on the final batter of the inning, may not actually have been a strike. It may not have been in the strike zone. It took a very good defensive play from Kyle Seeger to keep the Dodgers from scoring another run during Middleton's inning. Former Mariner Chris Taylor led off that inning with a walk, stole second base, and advanced to third on a flyout. Justin Turner grounded semi-sharply to Seeger, who threw the ball home to get Taylor trying to score on the contact play. Dylan Moore had made a fantastic diving catch earlier in the game

as well, which prevented a run from scoring in the third inning. A.J. Pollock had led off with a double, and then Edwin Rios grounded out to advance him to third. A little small ball in action early in the game, which honestly is the smart thing to do. The way both pitchers looked in the second inning, it looked like runs were going to be at a premium, so absolutely play a little small ball and scratch a run across if you can. Anyways, following that ground out to advance Pollock to third, Austin Barnes walked, which would be the only walk Gonzalez would allow, by the way. Following that, Chris Taylor hit a sharp low-line drive up the middle.

Moore dove for the ball and snared it on a fantastic play. The second game in a row, he's made a great catch. On radio, Rick Riz stated that within the last 48 hours, Moore must have turned into a flying Wollenda. Anyways, that proved to be very important because the next guy, Corey Seeger, singled to center field. It scored Pollock, but Barnes could only advance to see. second. Had Moore not caught the previous ball, Barnes would have been on second to start the at-bat,

and likely would have scored on that play. He's one of the few catchers who has a little speed. Those also were the only two hits the Dodgers would get all day, and the Mariners could only manage one, a squibber off the end of the bat of Mitch Hanigur. Dodger reliever Victor Gonzalez robbed J.P. Crawford of a likely infield hit in the eighth. It was a slow roller to the first base side of the pitcher's mound, which Gonzalez kind of dove out for and was able to throw Crawford out at first base. Had it snuck through to the second baseman, Crawford likely would have been safe considering his speed, and the fact that the ball was not sharply hit at all. I was a little surprised to hear that Orias had been removed from the game after seven

innings as fantastic as he had been. He'd only thrown 88 pitches, not a high total for one's fourth start of a season. Certainly not a high total also considering he had 11 strikeouts. Seven innings pitched, that one hit, no runs, one walk, and 11 strikeouts. Kyle Lewis drew the only walk in his first played appearance in the first. So a good debut then, but kind of all downhill from there, which you can't blame him or the rest of the mayor's offense for, really. Orias was that good.

Marco was almost just as good. He needed 101 pitches in his seven. seven innings, so it wasn't really a surprise that a reliever came in in the eighth. The final line for Marco, seven innings, one run, two hits, one walk, and six strikeouts. You know, just like, again, like the Grinky game, there's not much to talk about in this one, which could lead to a short episode. I'm not going to nitpick about the Mariners' offense since it was another one of those games that the opposing pitcher was just seemingly untouchable.

And the Ms were one weak infield single away from getting no hit. I was looking at Arias's major league stats, and I was trying to figure out someone to compare him to, you know, from among the pitchers that I grew up watching. Someone with an average strikeout total for the era, moderately low number of walks, not a lot of home runs allowed, with decent fastball velocity and a good breaking ball. I couldn't really come up with anybody. Most pitchers from the era that I most remember with an above average fastball, who also used a great breaking pitch, it was more of a slighting. while Urias has more of a slurve, slower than a slider with more movement, but faster than a curveball. Mark Burley had a great slurve, but I remember him more as a finesse pitcher rather than someone who had, you know, above average fastball velocity. I've compared Marco Gonzalez to Jimmy Key on this program before.

You know, Key's best pitch was his curveball, while Marcos is a change-up. Marco's also going to strike out more hitters than Key ever did, which in a way is a product of the eras in which, in a way, is a product of the errors in which they pitched, but Keyes strikeout totals even for the era were more below average than Marcos is for his era. Marco is also similar to Tom Glavin, but Glavin walked more hitters over the course of his career than I remember, 3.1 per nine innings, which is certainly below average for the time, but not remarkably so. Glavin also avoided home runs at a very impressive rate, about a quarter of a home run

per inning, and Marco also gives up a few more hits than Glaven did. Again, one time I think of the final score, not really that much, not really much to dissect in this one at all. We'll open up the fan mailbag later on in the program and we'll talk about the impending Red Sox series in our next segment. But first, the trivia corner. As I was looking at Marco's career numbers while writing the piece that I just did, I got to thinking about who else had played in the Biggs who went to Gonzaga, since it's a local school and that's where Marco Gonzalez went. So today's trivia question is this.

Who was the first Gonzaga alum to play Major League Baseball? I'll tell you about him after I tell you about Built Bar, the greatest protein bar, in the history of hexahedral prisms. Yes, gang, hexahedral prisms. They're soft and easy to chew without a gritty or chalky texture or a weird aftertaste. They're low in sugar and calories, and they taste as close to a candy bar as a protein bar can get. Great for a between-meal snack. a quick breakfast on your way out the door,

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But the orange is also great. The German chocolate cake is also really good. coconut and almond, lemon almond cheesecake. They're all good, ladies and gentlemen. And if at checkout you try to use promo code snork, snirk, blurk-de-bleck, nothing happens. So use promo code Locked 15 instead, and that'll get you 15% off your order. Builtbar.com promo code Locked 15, L-O-C-E-D-1-5 for 15% off your order of the greatest protein bars in the history of delicious things. Built Bar, let's go places. Answer to the trivia question.

The first Gonzaga alum to play Major League Baseball was a man named Dave Skeles, S-K-E-E-E-L-S, who pitched one game for the Detroit Tigers on September 14th, 1910. He only played two seasons of pro-ball, 1910, and 1911. In addition to his one game with Detroit in 1910, And at the age of 18, by the way, he pitched 47 games that year with the Class D Regina Bone Pylers, yes, the Regina Bone Pylers, ladies and gentlemen, of the Western Canada League. In 1911, he pitched 17 games for the Class B Seattle Giants of the Northwestern League.

Not the Northwest League, as we know it today, nor the same team that we become the Seattle Rainiers. The Giants predate the Rainiers. Mr. Skeels, who was one-quarter Native American, was born. born December 29th, 1891, in Adi, Washington, ADD, Y, about an hour or so northwest of Spokane on Highway 395. After his two professional seasons of baseball at ages 18 to 19, he became a farmer. And according to his World War I draft card filed on June 15, 1917, he was working on the Colville Indian Reservation, and his city of residence was listed as Meteor, M-E-E-O-R, a city

I've honestly never heard of. He died at the age of 34 on December 2nd, 1926, just a few weeks from his 35th birthday, in a tuberculosis sanitarium in Spokane. And he is buried in Chilewa. I love local

history here of the Inland Northwest. I had no idea that the first Gonzaga product to break into the major leagues happened over a hundred years ago. And again, I don't write these trivia questions thinking anyone is actually going to know the answer. It's more or less kind of a way to you something about baseball history that I hope you find interesting.

And most of the time, I'm learning this stuff as I write the show. Occasionally, I will write a question that y'all have at least a chance to answer. This was not one of those times. If you did know this one, though, I'd be very impressed. Coming up, what will Clive Braithwaite to the 4th have to say about music? I don't know. We haven't recorded that segment yet, and we're talking about the Red Sox next anyways. Now back to Lockdown Mariners and your host, D.C. Lundberg.

Thank you very much, Joey Martin. Ladies and gentlemen, this year the Locked-on podcast network is partnering with the Draft Network to cover the NFL Draft Live. Get insight and analysis from Locked-on local experts and the Draft Network's national experts. Subscribe to the Locked-on NFL YouTube page to watch live three-day coverage of the NFL draft April 29th through May 1st. Back to baseball gang, and we're going to talk about the upcoming four-game series. in Boston, which begins tomorrow.

Mariners have a travel day today, which is one reason the show is coming at you much later than normal. I ordinarily like to have the show published at 6am every morning so you can listen to it on your way to work, but since there's no game today to prepare for, and also since I got home much later than anticipated yesterday, and fell asleep pretty much right away,

I figured that there wasn't much rush. So maybe you're listening to this on your lunch break or on your way home from work. If that's the case, I hope you had a good day. Anyways, the Red Sox are one of the surprising teams of the American League. Not much was expected of them. But after Tuesday's action, they've got the number one batting average, number one on base percentage, and number one slugging percentage in the American League.

A team slash line of 287, 347, 470. They've accumulated the most hits, doubles, total bases, and runs, and are second in the AL with 22 home runs. They're not walking a bunch, though, and their 50 bases on balls rank 9th in the junior circuit. Some of their early season batting averages are somewhat off the charts at this point, so they will come back down to Earth. Christian Arroyo is hitting 357. Zander Bogartes is hitting 3.93. J.D. Martinez is hitting 375 with an outrageous OPS of 1194.

He's also got seven doubles and six home runs. Raphael Divers has five home runs. Deavers is only 24, but it already seems like he's been around forever. Kike Hernandez was brought over from the Dodgers. He's contributing. Marwin Gonzalez is another acquisition. Any team that Marwan Gonzalez is on always seems to be a winning team. And they're doing this gang without Andrew Benetendi, who was traded to the Royals,

another surprising team at the beginning of the season. Franchi Cordero was acquired in that trade, and he's filled the void in left field pretty well. On the pitching side, they've been very good there as well. Their 3-60 team ERA is fourth in the AL with their team whip of 1.271. And they're keeping the ball in the ballpark, allowing the fewest home runs in the American League with 11. They've allowed the fifth fewest runs and have a run differential of plus 30. They're 12 and 6, tops in the AL East at this point, two games ahead of Tampa Bay. The Mariners, by the way, after getting out-duled by the Dodgers,

yesterday are 11 and 7 and tied with Oakland for the lead in the AL West. Oakland has been on a tear after playing horribly the first week. I knew they were better than that, and gang, they've proved it. And that's one reason I didn't think the M's possession of first place in the West would last all that long, because I knew Oakland would catch fire eventually. Though I didn't think that they'd do a complete 180 like that. I thought it would take a little bit more time. It certainly was quick, ladies and gentlemen. I want to compare the M's offense to the Red Sox. The M's have been getting it done with pitching for the most part,

but also taking advantage of weak opponents. The Orioles are, they're not good. The Astros were severely decimated when the Mariners played them. But to the M's credit, they beat the teams that they should have. And going into the Dodgers series, if you were going to say, you know the M's are going to split that two-game series? You'd have taken that. The Mariners currently have a team slash line

of 215, 292, 367, ranked 11th, 11th, and 13th in average on base and slugging respectively. They do have the sixth-best ERA in the junior circuit at 386, and the bullpen ERA is 269, a far cry from last year's disastrous relief core. ERA among starters is 470. That is partially influenced by the two starts at the beginning of the season, in which Marco Gonzalez just was not himself. If you take Marco's first two starts out of the equation, that starter's ERA goes all the way down to a much more respectable 397.

The Mariners are going to have their hands full in this series, I think. First game is tomorrow at 4.10 p.m. in Seattle and Spokane, 7.10 p.m. in Boston and Worcester, spelled Warcester. Justin Dunn will get the start for the M's, and I'm excited to see what he can do. He looked like a totally different pitcher in his last start in Baltimore. Starting for the Red Sox will be Nick Povetta, the former Phillies pitcher, a 6'5-215-pound right-hander. He'll be making his fourth start of this season, and thus far has a 386-ERA,

but a high whip at 1.636. He's walked 11 men already in just 14 and 2-thirds innings. The Mariners have shown some patience at the plate this year, so this might be a good matchup for them. We'll see. If you have a question or a comment that you would like addressed on the air, send an email to Locked-on Mariners at gmail.com. On the other side of the impending commercial announcements,

we will open up the fan mailbag to answer those emails. Questions and comments on any subject are welcome and encouraged, and it doesn't even have to do anything with baseball. Coming up, I answered your email questions while hoping there's enough material to fill the rest of the show. First off, this word from Vets Online, the fastest and easiest way to bet on all your sports action. Football's over, college basketball's over, they really got to change that script.

But NBA and NHL are in full swing. And the script doesn't mention anything about baseball either, which has been going on for several weeks now. Bet Online even covers awards, TV shows, and reality TV. Real-time updated odds and props on almost anything you can imagine. Bet Online has you covered for all the news, scores, and odds. It's the best way to place your bets, and it is absolutely free to sign up. Head on over to the website or use your mobile device or mobile device, since Clive will be here in a little bit,

to sign up today and receive your 50% welcome bonus with your first deposit. Bet Online, your online sportsbook experts, promo code, Locked On. Why do I say it like that? Welcome back to Locked On Mariners. Here once again is your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you once again, J.M. The Ultimate Mock Draft 2020, presented by Locked On and Odyssey, is happening now. featuring analysis from NFL expert Michael Irvin, Jason LaConforah, and Brian Baldinger.

Our local experts for every team making trades and picking the next stars of their team. Search the Ultimate Mock Draft 2021 on the new Odyssey app or wherever you get podcasts. Odyssey is your audio home for all the sports, podcasts, music, and news that matter to you. That's AUD ACY. D.C. Lundberg here, and it's now time to open up the fan mailbag. And of course, that means my personal secretary, Clive Braithway to the fourth, is here to read your emails. Clive, how are you? I'm well. It's weird coming in in the third segment of the show.

I'm used to being here the entire time. I suppose it is. During the regular season, though, that really can't happen since I have games to recap and other news to get to. And also, since we got so few emails this time. Listenership is increasing, yet the number of emails has gone down, at least for this episode it has. That's true. And the first question was addressed to me. It comes to us from our resident comedian John in Fife. He writes, Clive, do you like music, or are you annoyed by it? John, I do like music. However, questions about music on this show piss me off since DC rambles on forever about it. But I love music. Yeah, I suppose that's true. It's just one of those subjects that I can go off wherever.

I love talking about it. Clive, what's your favorite type of music? Electronic. Anything synthesized. Yeah, that figures. What do we got next, Clive? We have two more emails, both sent to us from loyal listener, Aidan Soames in East Hampton, Connecticut. He prefaced this first question warning it was about prospects, a subject you know absolutely nothing about.

But this is one you may be able to. answer. Mr. Sones writes, what players are you looking forward to on the Spokane Indians for the upcoming season? Yeah, you would think I would be able to answer that question. I actually have no idea who's in the Colorado Rockies system. Colorado is the affiliate, or who the Spokane Indians are affiliated with. And I have no idea who's in their farm system, quite honestly. I'm just looking forward to being able to go watch a baseball game. I'm just looking forward to the Spokane Indians playing at all. I don't really care who's. on the team. I'm just looking forward to

to Spokane Indians baseball. I know that's not the answer probably you were hoping for. Aden, I apologize for that. I really, I don't, prospects is not something I'm interested in at all, unfortunately. I should be since I'm in a minor league city, but maybe I'll get into it once I get to

know or see the Indians on the field in action for a little bit. I don't know. Anyways, not Aidan, but Clive, Aidan had one more question for us. What is it? Mr. Sones began this email by telling you it wasn't a prospect's question. It reads thusly, there has been a rumor that the Mariners were going to alter one uniform in the next couple of seasons. What do you think will be

changed? Because personally, I think they are perfect as they currently are. I don't know if I would call them perfect, but I wouldn't change really anything. I'm with you in that regard, but honestly, Aidan, that's a rumor that I had not heard. However, one thing I've noticed this year that on the road, I don't recall them wearing their road gray jerseys yet. It's always either been the midnight blue ones or on the Jackie Robinson day game in Baltimore. They had their teal ones on, which is unusual for the road. But I like those jerseys on the road. I haven't seen the road grays.

Another change that I've seen Aidan is that they're wearing their alternate caps now for all road games. The teal build caps is what I'm talking about. Those used to be the home caps several years ago, and the all-Navy ones used to be the roadcaps. That seems to have been inverted now. But again, Aden, I had not heard that rumor. And I'd be interested to learn where you heard that rumor. Again, I had not heard it, but that's not to say that it's not out there, and I missed it. That's certainly a, certainly a possibility. That is going to be all today, ladies and gentlemen. We got just three emails, but the first segment ran quite a bit longer than I thought it was going to,

considering there wasn't much to dived into with yesterday's game. And the second segment also went a little longer than I thought it might, which is kind of nice. We can do kind of a shorter third segment, which I'm glad I don't have to stretch to fill time after getting only three emails. Clive, thank you again for joining us today. Always a pleasure. Enjoy your day off. Thank you very much.

Not going to be all that much of a day off. I'm going to actually go out and run some errands while I have the opportunity, but I shall do my best to enjoy myself. Always a pleasure having you on the show as well. Ladies and gentlemen, there will not be a show tomorrow, but we will be back on Friday. to recap tomorrow's Mariner's Game in Boston, the first of a four-game series. Here with me to do that will be Karnack the Magnificent, McRuff the Crime Dog, and a jar of pickled beats. Please remember to download rate and follow Locked on Mariners.

Look for us on any podcasting app that springs into your brainhead. Leave a rating and review with your podcasting app of choice, so allows. Thank you for listening today, ladies and gentlemen. Remember no show tomorrow, but we'll be back Friday to recap tomorrow's Mariners game in Boston. In the interim, have a great day. This is Joey Martin for Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.