Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - M's See Few A's on Their Report Card vs. Oakland

Episode Date: August 3, 2020

Over the weekend, the Mariners dropped both games to the Oakland Athletics with identical scores. What exactly happened? D.C. Lundberg talks about both games. Also, Saturday saw the Mariners' first extra-inning affair of the season, meaning that M's fans got an up close and personal look at the ludicrous new "free runner" rule, which led to a cheap victory for Oakland. D.C. talks specifically about how the rule affected that game, and reiterates his thoughts on the rule in general. Spoiler alert: He is less than enthused. 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.

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, I was hoping to be able to give you some good Mariners news coming into your Monday, but unfortunately they dropped both games of the weekend series to the Oakland Athletics with identical 3-2 scores. We'll talk about in that in a minute. But welcome to Lockdown Mariners, ladies and gentlemen, part of the Locked-on podcast network, or of course T-L-O-P-A-R-A-R-A-R-A. or Tloppin, as I like to say.

Please remember to download, rate, and subscribe to Locked-on Mariners on Google Podcast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, or whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use. Ask your smart device to play Locked-on Mariner's podcast or any of the other wonderful shows here on Tloppin. Follow this program on Twitter at L0-U-U-Sor-Mariners. I'm on Twitter as well, gang, so you might as well follow me. I say funny things from time to time.

You can find me there at D.C. underscore Lundberg, L-U-N-D-B-E-R-G, for those scoring at home. As I said, the Mariners did drop the weekend series or the games two and three of a four-game set in Oakland, in Oakland, to Oakland. Oh, my gosh, it's going to be one of those shows. In any case, they're in Seattle. They played the Oakland A's, and did not score straight A's against the A's, so to speak. As a matter of fact, if I were to grade them, their report card would resemble mine from high school. Not a good thing.

And those of you who went to high school with me are laughing right now, because you know what kind of grades I pulled down. In any case, let's talk about Saturday's game. As I said, a 3-2 final, although the Mariners did get the scoring started in the third inning. With two away, J.P. Crawford, singled. Austin Nola followed with a single. Kyle Lewis walked. Bases are loaded.

Kyle Seeger then came up and drove in both runs, pardon me, two runs on a single of his own. Crawford and Nola both scored. Lewis went around to third base. A's countered in the seventh, however. With one out, Mark Kana hit a ground rule double. And then one strike out later, Chad Pinder hit a two-run home run.

And this was off Nick Margieviches, who replaced Yusay Kikigy, who actually fared pretty well in this outing. He pitched six innings, only gave up three hits, walked one, and struck out nine. Certainly a far cry from his first outing of the season in which he did not look good at all. So this is an encouraging sign for the Japanese left-hander.

Margievich has wound up pitching two innings, technically got a blown save out of it. Two innings, two runs, both of them earned, four strikeouts, a walk that Homer had I mentioned. Matt McGill came in for an inning, and then Dan Altavilla will get to that in just a bit. On the athletic side, Mike Fires started with six innings, four hits, two runs, both of them earned, three strikeouts, and a walk. He looked also pretty good. The game was tied, ladies and gentlemen, after the regulation ninth inning.

So we get our first look at this ridiculous new rule in which each extra inning starts with a runner on second base. And since the A's are the away team, they get first crack at this. The runner starting on second base for the athletics was Chris Davis, or not. They chose to pinch run Tony Kemp, very fast man. So, of course, that's the right call. However, they didn't try to bunt him over, as I thought should be the case. Instead, Stephen Piscotti let off with a flyout. Then Robbie Grossman pinch hit for Sean Murphy.

Grossman sizzled one into the right center field. gap, which stuck underneath the outfield wall. Kemp scored on the play, and it was originally called a triple, but since the ball, you know, I guess got stuck underneath the wall, they reversed it. They called it a ground rule double. Kemp still scored on the play, but instead of a runner at third base with one out and one in, Grossman went back to second base. Marcus Simeon, another very underrated player, lined out to center field, and then Matt Chapman struck out. so the A's do score one, rather cheap run, quite honestly.

And going to the bottom of the 10th, I liked the Mariners personnel they had coming up. Shed Long was scheduled to start the inning at second base, and since he's got wheels, there's no way they're going to pinch run for him. Tim Lopes was the lead-off hitter, and, you know, he's been hot. Down one run, I'm not sure it's a good idea to bunt, but that's exactly what Lopes tried to do after taking a strike. He was not successful in his first attempt, fouling one off. And then with two strikes, he bunted a pop-up right back to pitcher Liam Hendrix for the first out.

Dylan Moore popped out to Matt Chapman and J.P. Crawford promptly struck out to end the game, giving the athletics what feels like a very cheap victory. I'm not a fan of this rule, ladies and gentlemen. And I would be saying the same thing if the Mariners scored a cheap run. This is not baseball, ladies and gentlemen. This is T-ball for five-year-olds, and I will talk about this rule once again in the second half of today's program. Yay. Getting to the next game, however, this was also a victory by the athletics.

Mariners got the scoring started again, however, in the very first inning. J.P. Crawford led off by being hit by a pitch. Dillon Moore then grounded into a force out, so you've got Dillon Moore on first base at this point. Kyle Lewis then struck out. which brings up cleanup hitter Daniel Vogelback. Scott Service showing confidence in the big guy by hitting him fourth, even though he's been struggling all season. Daring Voguees at bat, Moore Steele's second base is first stolen base of the season.

Vogelback winds up hitting a line drive single to center field, which scores more. One-nothing Mariners. Evan White struck out to end the inning. The fifth inning is where everything came apart again. Kendall Graveman started for the Mariners, and, you know, he looked okay, even though he threw a lot of pitches in most of the innings. 20 in the third and in the fifth is where it fell apart once again. He winds up going four and two-thirds innings, giving up three hits.

Two runs, two of them earned, both of them earned, pardon me. Two walks, three strikeouts. The A's would wind up scoring three runs in that fifth inning. Tony Kemp would walk with two outs. Semen would then hit a single, Marcus Semyon, and at that point Anthony Mosevic replaces Kendall Graveman. Mosevic promptly gives up a three-run home run to center fielder Ramon Luriano to give the A's a three-to-one lead.

The Mariners would score one again in the eighth inning. Kyle Lewis up at the plate looking to extend his hitting streak, the multi-game hitting streak, probably gone by the wayside since it was so late in the game. But he does extend his hitting streak to 10 games. He's hit in all 10 games so far. this season with a scorching home run to center field to bring the marries to within one run. Vogelback would ground out to end the inning. A's would not score in the top of the ninth, and they'd bring in their closer, Liam Hendricks,

to try to close out the Mariners. He would get Evan White with a strikeout to lead off the inning. Shed Long would then single, however. Pinch hitter Kyle Seeger comes up replacing D. Gordon. He struck out after a very lengthy hit bet in which he fouled off quite a few pitches. was a pretty good battle. And then Austin Nola would then strike out on a foul tip to end the game. So Liam Hendricks wind up striking out the side.

For the Mariners' second consecutive, three to two loss against the Oakland Athletics. As they stated a little earlier, second half of the program going to talk about the extra inning free runner rule once again, hopefully the last time in a while. But since the Mariners were involved with this in Saturday's game and it gave the A's a cheap win, I have some, I don't know about new thoughts, but different thoughts, the stuff I want to reiterate, that kind of thing. Mariner's trivia question for the day is this. In the 19 contests, the Mariners and A's played last year,

what was the Mariner's record against Oakland? Answer to the trivia question, following this from Postmates. If you are the type who starts thinking about what to eat for dinner while you're eating lunch, then you will love using Postmates. And you'll probably love them even more right now because you can get food delivered without leaving the house or even opening the door. Given what's going on in the world, they created non-contact deliveries. So now when you order from your favorite restaurants, everything gets left right outside your door.

They have Postmates pickup, which you can use to order takeout from your favorite local restaurants. But they don't just deliver burgers, sushi, chicken, pizza, whatever you can think of. They can make your life easier by picking up everything you need from the convenience store or grocery store of your choice. and drop it right outside your door. Just download Postmates for iOS or Android, find your favorites, and get everything you want delivered within the hour. For a limited time, Postmates is giving everybody who can hear the voice I'm using right now $100 of free delivery credit for your first seven days.

To start your free deliveries, download the app and use code Locked On. That's code Locked On, L-O-C-E-D-O-N, for $100 of free delivery credit for your first seven days when you download the Postmates app. Anything you need. Anytime you need it, postmate it. Answer to the trivia question. The Mariners' record against the Oakland Athletics

last year was 9 and 10, almost a 500-474-74 winning percentage. 73 runs scored, 96 runs allowed. That's quite a run differential, ladies and gentlemen. And since action has returned, we are bringing back the fan mailbag. So if you've got a question for me or a comment on the show,

send it along to Locked-on Mariners at gmail.com, and I will reply to your question in our Friday mailbag segment. I don't know if we're going to have one this Friday kind of depends on how many questions I get, hopefully next Friday, and the question does not have to be about baseball, remember. Any question you want, just as long as it's family-friendly. I will not answer raunchy questions

and appropriate questions, things of that nature, or just general comments on the show, whether you like the show, whether you think I'm an idiot. I'll read those on the air, too. don't care. Locked-on Mariners at gmail.com. Remember, is the email address, and Locked-on Mariners will continue in a jiff. Now back to Locked-on Mariners and your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you very much, Joey Martin, for leading us back into the second half of Locked-on Mariners, as you do on almost every show, always do a great job. Talking about the Oakland

Athletics, sweeping this weekend series against the Mariners, I shouldn't say sweeping the weekend series, taking Saturdays and Sunday's games of the four-game series with identical three to two scores. Saturdays was an extra inning affair, which leads to this next segment where I am again going to talk about the free runner rule in extra innings. Now that I've seen it up close and personal,

it just felt, it felt like a really, really cheap win for the Oakland A's. And again, I would be saying the same thing. If the Mariners were on the winning end of things, it just, it doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel right. Dave Valley said on the

TV side, he likes the rule, because it'll lead to quicker games and whatnot. In some cases it hasn't, in some cases it hasn't. Let's say that the away team, they start with the runner on second base, they small ball in the one run and that's all they score. Okay. The Mariners tried to small ball as well with that one run deficit, so let's say that that one run is the only one they score.

They're going to, if it keeps up that way, you can keep trading one run innings with each other for eternity, and it's going to go on forever. That's not going to quicken any pace of play. It's not going to make any games any shorter. It's just ridiculous. And again, I can't get past the fact that it feels like a cheap win. I would rather see a tie ball game than a cheap win for the Mariners or for anybody else.

What's wrong with a tie baseball game? This season is so messed up anyway that why not have ties? Give them three extra frames to play with. And if they're still tied after the 12th. winning. Well, guess what, gang? It's a tie baseball game, and they can figure out some tiebreaker situation or points like they do in hockey, or even the NFL has ties. What is wrong with a tie baseball game? Answer me that, would you please? And again, you know, the A is, they didn't smallball their way to that cheap win. They had Grossman, you know, drive him in with a

gapper because that's the personnel they had up at the time. They pinch ran. I forget who the runner was supposed to be, but they pinch ran their fastest guy, which is the smart strategy, and the Mariners had shed long as their first free runner. He is already fast, so you're not going to pinch run for him. But you've got Tim Lopes hitting, and if the A's hadn't scored, Lopes is a much better bunter than he showed on Saturday. He fouled one off and then he popped one up to the pitcher. He's better than that.

He will normally get the job done for you. So now, for the sake of argument, let's just say that the A's didn't score and that Lopes executed his bunt. I forget who was up after him. I think I might have been Dylan Moore. And Dylan Moore's got a hot hand, some contact hitting. At the same time, Dylan Moore can bunt. What's wrong with a squeeze bunt in that situation?

That is the exact scenario that I have laid out, and you don't even need to put a pinch runner in in that situation because you've got shed long in there. I hate this rule. Dave Valley is the only baseball person that I have heard who actually likes this rule. And his reasoning is, well, it gets the catchers off the field because they have to, and that's an understandable argument. But you've got two catchers on your roster. What's wrong with relieving your catcher like you would a starting pitcher?

Let's just say you're in the middle of a very, very long baseball game. It's in the 12th inning, 13th inning. And you haven't used your backup catcher yet. Well, let's take the starting catcher out of there. He's probably tired. Let's get some fresh legs and a fresh arm back there. Nothing wrong with that. That's why you've got a backup catcher.

That's one reason you have a backup catcher on your roster, I suppose. And if you're starting catcher had to be replaced early in the ball game and your backup's already in there, then you give them a day off the next day or call somebody up from AAA and get a third catcher on your roster and save them that way. There are ways around this gang. This rule, to me, still just makes no sense. It does not even feel like baseball.

It gave the A's a cheap win. I keep going back to that. It affected the world baseball classic three years ago. The Netherlands were involved in the game. I don't remember if they were on the losing end or whether they were on the winning end of it. I think that they were on the losing end. I could be wrong about that. I apologize if I am.

But there's nothing about this rule that I like. It makes much more sense to me to just have the damn game end in a tie. There is nothing wrong with a tie game. Okay. With that rant, ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to take my leave for the day and get the hell out of here. Tomorrow on Locked-on Mariners, I will be joined by guest panelists, Dr. Jerry Robinson, Zordon, and a Peach Pit. The four of us are going to talk about all the COVID crap going on, particularly with the Marlins and the commissioner being a p-a-k. Yes, I've got to talk about it, ladies and gentlemen.

I apologize. I'll try to keep it short. But in the meantime, please remember to download rate and subscribe to this program on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, or whichever podcasting app that you can think of. This show is on Twitter, so follow it. I've never said it that way before. LO underscore Mariners is the Twitter handle for the show. My Twitter handle is at DC underscore Lundberg. Thank you for listening to today's program, ladies and gentlemen, and I hope you have a great start to your week. This is Joey Mark, speaking for Locked on Marin.

part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.