Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Our Biggest Takeaways From the Mariners' 5-1 Homestand and the Season So Far

Episode Date: April 15, 2025

Ty and Colby give you their takeaways from the Mariners' big homestand and the first 16 games of the season then get you set for the team's road trip opener versus the Reds.Check out our Patreon!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolbySupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Wonderful PistachiosLooking for a snack that’s both delicious and nutritious? Get snackin’ and get crackin’ with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more.Supply HouseJoin the TradeMaster program today at SupplyHouse.com/TM and start ordering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical supplies with just a few clicks. Plus, use promo code S-H-5 for 5% off your first order. That’s SupplyHouse.com!UpworkVisit Upwork.com right now and post your job for free to connect with top talent and grow your business today! Just IngredientsVisit JustIngredients.us/Bryce-Harper and use code LOCKEDONMLB for 20% off your order! And for more wellness tips, follow @just.ingredients on Instagram.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with MonarchMoney. Use code LOCKEDONMLB at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLBfor $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.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.

Fresh off a 5-1 homestand, the mayor is head to Cincinnati to kick off their first extended road trip of the year. Let's talk about it. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners, your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Ahoy, Sailors. It is Tuesday, April 15th, 2025. This is Tadine Gis Alas and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdown Marys podcast.

Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. This episode is brought to you by Fandul. Right now, new customers can get $250 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. And as always, if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, you can check out our Patreon. All you have to do to check that out is click the link in the description of this episode. So on today's show, we're going to recap the Mara's 501 homestand and talk about where this team is at right now. The things we like, the things we don't like, all that good stuff. And then we'll get you set for the Mara's Red Series starting in just a couple of hours.

But let's start with reflection on this. This homestand, Colby, the mayor is take 203 from the Astros. They lose a game they should have won and they win a game that they should have lost. Then the Rangers come to town and they handle them quite well. A couple of two run wins and then a blowout win on Saturday. Offense was really cooking aside from that, you know, one basis loaded situation that they had on Sunday that they kind of fumbled. They still got a run out of that on a hit by pitch. It's Randy a Rosarena, but they could have gotten more there.

They had nobody out. You know, bases loaded. Yeah. Very typical Mariners outcome there. But overall, the offense was really good. The bullpen was really solid. The rotation was pretty good. Didn't get the sharpest days out of Logan Gilbert and Bryce Miller,

but they still gave you, you know, five innings, five solid innings. And Brian Wu, after what could have been a disastrous start to his, outing cooked the Rangers with six scoreless innings after that first inning. He was spectacular. So, yeah, a lot of positives to take out of that series in particular. I mean, when you sweep a team and you have a blowout win, you know, there's naturally going to be a ton of positives to take from that. And just from this homestown in general.

So how are you feeling? The offense has been good for the last, you know, eight, nine, ten days now. And we're starting to see them a bunch hits together. The, you know, the batting average with runners and scoring position thing started to go away that narrative for a brief time. I mean, they're still not great there. But, again, you don't have to be amazing there. You just have to be competent there. And you're going to score some runs.

So, yeah, overall, it was a really good homestand, obviously. You go five and one against your division rivals. And I know I'm the guy who keeps on bringing this up every year. but remember that the tiebreaker for these, you know, races are going to be head-to-head record. There is no game 163 anymore. So it's annoying that I have to keep bringing that up, but look at what the Mariners do every single year.

Tie-breaker always seems to be a factor that we have to, you know, factor. So, yeah, the tiebreakers are important. And so winning these divisional games are important because you want the tiebreaker. It's like having a game bonus on these teams, and particularly Houston and Texas, and Seattle, those are the three teams that we kind of think are going to be competing

for this division. And you might only get one American League West team in the playoffs this year. The American League is down. Who knows what's going to happen with the other teams? It's a whole lot of mid right now in this league. And it's only 16 games. We're 10% of the way through the season.

So things can and will change. But right now, being 3 and 0 against Texas, being 2 and 1 against Houston, those things do matter. You have, you know, right now at least, obviously things can change. You have the advantage over those teams so that when we get to the end of the year and this thing is being decided by one or two games, you have that little bonus game that you get to play with. So winning these series against your divisional opponents are huge, not only for the tiebreaker, but because this is who you're going to play for most of the season. So, you know, you're 7 and 3 against your division right now.

That's great. I haven't seen the Angels yet. We'll see them pretty soon. But, yeah, so I think overall you have to be really happy with how the series went. They hit well enough pretty much every day. The exception of that Tuesday game. Yeah. But they're not striking.

In attendance for that one? I was. I was also in attendance for all three. three of Cal Raleigh's homers. There you go. So suck it. But yeah, it's, you know, the Tuesday game is kind of the outlier because like they're not striking out all that much except for Tuesday when they struck out 19 times.

Yeah. So they're drawing walks. They're starting to hit for more power. I believe they're, uh, we looked this up yesterday. I believe they're top five in home runs in baseball. They're top five in walks. So they're definitely like top two or three and stolen bases. Yeah.

So they're getting on base at a decent amount, mostly via walk. They're stealing bags. They're hitting homers. And I think probably the sneaky heroes of the homestand was the bullpen. Like after kind of a rough first week, the bullpen's really settled in. It's not perfect. They're still trying to throw Trent Thornton in these high leverage spots. He has no business pitching in.

But yeah, other than that, the bullpen was. really good this homestand. So I think that's a positive. And we're seeing guys like Carlos Vargas emerge as legitimate middle-in type of guys. And, you know, Gabe Spire looks incredible right now. And so does videos. And so, yeah, the offense is clicking on the homestand, the starting pitching. You know, not bad.

Are you concerned at all about Bryce Miller? He has reported soreness. He is going to start tomorrow. he's he's been pushed up they didn't give him the extra rest day that the the off day yesterday created they've instead chosen to skip the fifth spot in the rotation of course they would the week that I'm actually going to see them play when I was when I was initially lined up to see Louise Castillo Brian Woo and Logan Gilbert pitch but whatever yeah yeah shut up oh boo woes me

but yeah Miller it's been pretty clear this year that Bryce is not 100%. It's been obvious. The fastball command has been terrible. And so he really is trying to kind of grit his way through the lineup. And he's done a nice job. He's given you a chance to win all of his starts. But he's also only going five innings.

And to get through five is an absolute grind. He's hanging some breaking balls on occasion. But the fastball command, he's falling behind a lot. And that is not Bryce Miller. We know what Bryce looks like when he's healthy. He's pounding the strike zone. The fastball has, you know, it's probably a 65, 70 grade fastball when he's going well. And right now it's probably a 40 because the command and control of it is like a 35.

Like he's really struggling the VLO's drop. So yeah, I think he should be a little bit concerned because of he's dealing with like a legitimate, not injury, but he's dealing with like a, you know, there's something physically wrong. that is preventing him from reaching the ceiling we know he's capable of reaching. So, yeah, I think you should be a little concerned. I guess if you're looking for some cope or some good news on that front, the fact that the Mariners aren't concerned enough to not have him pitch every five days and to not have him throw 100 pitches in those starts, you kind of trust the Mariners when it comes to everything pitching related.

and that includes keeping guys healthy and development and all that stuff. So the fact that they are at least confident enough to throw them out there, maybe that's a good sign that there's nothing seriously wrong and it's just kind of something he has to work through. But yeah, it is a bit concerning that in April he's already dealing with this and the VLO's down. And it's really the command of the fastball. And it's obvious that he is not 100% right now.

It's been obvious in all three of his starts that he really needs the fastball command to get ahead and then he can go to work with his off speed stuff. But right now he's just kind of grinding through these lineups. And again, give him credit. He's doing enough to keep you in this game and to give you a shot to win all of his starts. But yeah, it's very clear that he is not 100% right now. Yeah, his his whiff rate is about the same right now.

His first pitch strike percentage is about the same as it's always been. but in zone contact rate against him right now is up 7%. 90% of the time right now, opponents are making contact on pitches inside the zone off of Bryce Miller. And as a result, his called strike rate is down by about 4% from where it was last year. So something to keep an eye on there. But all right,

let's talk a little bit more about what we like about what we're seeing from this team right now. What we don't necessarily like about what we're seeing from this team in just a moment. But first a reminder of this episode of the lockdown air is, podcast is once again brought to you by Fandul. The NBA playoffs are almost here and Fandul is given new customers an incredible way to get in on the action. Right now when you join Fandual and place your first $5 bet, you'll get $250 in bonus bets if your bet wins.

I love how Fandual makes betting so easy, whether it's picking my favorite team or diving into player props. From three-pointers to steals to assist, Fanduel has so many ways to bet your favorite player props. Plus, after the game tips off, you can even combine live prop bets into a same game parlay for a chance to win big. Don't miss out. Head to fendual.com and claim your $250 in bonus bets today. And you're listening to the Locked-on Mara's podcast. So let's talk a little bit more about this Mara's ball club so far through the first 16 games of the season. They're eight and eight. They played pretty well over their last few games. Obviously, had the five-and-one homestand.

again the offense played pretty well over the course of the homestand particularly in the the sweep against the rangers and we're seeing some some positives from this offense it's a weird offense though we'll get into why in a second here but the good uh or the the positives i'm seeing out of this offense right now they're their fourth and walk percentage and their eighth and hard hit rate right now or actually they're tied seventh and hard hit rate and their eighth and barrel percentage. That's typically a pretty good combo to have. If you're taking your walks, you're working at bats,

and you're also making quality contact with some regularity. But also, they're the only team in baseball with a sub 80% in zone contact rate. So they're whiffing a lot on pitches inside the strike zone. They're also felling off a lot of pitches inside the strike zone. So again, missing cookies, whether they're swinging through them or just fell on. them off. So they could be doing more damage than they are right now, which you could take as a

positive. You could also take as a negative. This team is actually really good at identifying which pitches or strikes and which ones aren't. They're second right now. They have the second lowest called strike rate against, but they also are whiffing a ton at the moment. Again, both on pitches inside the zone and a little bit outside the zone. But it's most the pitches inside the zone that are that are killing them at the moment. But they're also making things happen on the base pass, like you mentioned. They are third right now and stolen bases. They're top 10 in home runs.

They are 22nd and runs scored, which is the name of the game. So that needs to increase in the runners in scoring position. The situation is rough. Yeah. We should point out, though, that Seattle is always going to rank lower. and runs scored than their offense like produces as weird as it. Because they play half of their games and the most difficult hitters ballpark in baseball. It is the ballpark that suppresses runs more than any other.

And so the raw run total is always going to be lower. And they played 13 of these first 16 games at that ballpark. Yeah. Like scoring four runs at Team Mobile Park is like scoring five or six at Great American ballpark. Like it's hard to do. Right. So, yeah, the raw run total is always going to be a little misleading for the

Mariners just because they play in such an extreme ballpark, which is why, you know, WRC Plus is a category that we like quite a bit because it does factor in the ballpark. Yeah. Right now in terms of WRC Plus, the Mariners are 13th tied with the Baltimore Orioles, just below the Giants, the A's, the Blue Jays, and the Dodgers. Yeah, 13 of the first 16. We're at Team Mobile, and it's not like Oracle Park is some hitters paradise either. So we'll see.

I mean, obviously they're definitely going to be in some great hitters parks over the next, you know, 10 days or so. But yeah, we'll see whatever. But yeah, obviously the Mariners are swinging and missing in the zone a little too much, which honestly makes their strikeout rate being middle of the pack pretty impressive. Yeah. Because, yeah, they're not expanding, like you said. they're very close to controlling the zone, one might say. Sure.

Sure. Once they start doing damage on those pitches in the strike zone, then I think they've reached it. So yeah, and that's the thing, right? The walks, those are sustainable. Is J.P. Crawford's 22% walk rate sustainable? No, probably not. That would make him Juan Soto, walkwise. No, but is a high walk rate sustainable for this offense?

Yes, that is. something that is repeatable, it's sustainable. Yes, it is. Is the strikeout rate sustainable? I don't know. They have guys who swing and miss a lot. They also have guys who don't swing and miss a lot. So I think the strikeout rate's always been a little bit of an overrated thing.

But yeah, right now that that's not an excuse. Like you can't say, oh, they're striking out too much. No, they've only had three double-digit strikeout game so far. And like you said, because they have kind of a balance of high strikeout guys and low strikeout guys they're probably going to land somewhere in the middle of the pack right and they have a lot of streaky hitters cow raleo rhodriguez randy rosarena they're all pretty we just we just saw it we just saw it like um you know cal and julio had really good series in san francisco kind of nondescript series against the astros aside from you know the one double that cal had and then the the game

time double that julio had and then both of those guys had really good series against the rangers I mean, Cal had an insane series where he just basically took the whole thing over. But yeah, even Julio had a really solid series against the Rangers. But yeah, so, you know, that's just going to happen. I mean, like Randy, outside of the game time hit on the Sunday game against the Giants, had a pretty bad series down in San Francisco. Then, you know, he was the hero of that final game against the Astros.

Like, it's just, you know, they're kind of just passing the baton right now in that one through five. Yeah. I mean, Polanco's been steadily good, but, you know, Master Pony has had his moments. Lou Gehraly has had his moments. Heck, even Rowdy Telles had a moment. So, yeah, it's one of those things where you do need to get more consistency in your offense. They're still very much acceptable for going on runs where they struggle to score two, three runs a night, and that's a problem. That's not how you want to build your offense.

But it does feel like the floor has been raised a little bit. just based on how Polanco looks and how Julio's looked early on and all that and having Randy for an entire year. Imagine that. That helps. But what's pretty impressive is they're still really, they're still stealing bases at a really high clip. And they're doing it without Victor Robles and Ryan Bliss, who are probably their two most gifted base stealers. Not their fastest guys, but probably the two best base dealers they have. And they haven't had them and they've still ran.

I mean, heck, Jorge Polanco and Mitch Garver have a stolen base. Like we talked about this. You don't need to be in elite offense to win a lot of games in Seattle. Yeah. So they just need to be competent. And they need to have some consistency. So far they've been competent. The consistency, consistency part, they're still working on it.

They're still working on it. Yeah. Yeah. So the bullpen has been pretty good overall. I mean, they had a really, really nice series against the Rangers. They were a big reason that that series went as well as it did for the Marys. One guy didn't have a particularly good series against the Rangers. Yeah.

But right now they're sporting a 305 ERA, 378 FIP, 3-81, X-FIP, 720 Ks per 9. So not striking out a ton of dudes right now. 332 walks per 9. And they're doing this. So they've had so many questions in the bullpen. They still do, by the way. It's not like all those questions have suddenly been answered. But it does seem like maybe guys are starting to figure out what their roles are.

Dan is starting to figure out what guys' roles are. I mean, he's still trying to force it with Trent Thornton, but whatever. That's all another discussion. So that at the very least is good. Like we're starting to kind of see how the pieces to the puzzle are fitting in the bullpen. We're starting to get clarity. And now they've added Troy Taylor. They should have Matt Brash here in the next couple weeks.

We'll see on that. And they're doing this while pitching the third most innings of any bullpen in the game right now, which is impressive given what our expectations or our concerns were heading into the season with this unit. But also that is kind of a negative that they are throwing as many innings as they are right now with the questions that we do have about this bullpen because bullpins are finicky could just give way at any moment. And again, there's still a lot of uncertainty here. So frankly, Marist starters just need to get deeper into games. They just haven't really done that yet. And I mean, like you even look at the Rangers series again, like Bryce Miller and Logan only went five. Now, look, they're human.

They're not going to go seven every single time that they go out there. But so far to start the year, seeing too many. and this is obviously greatly emphasized by that number five spot and emerson hancock and louise f castio not being able to give you really anything uh that role um but uh yeah marron starters for the most part to start the year have not gotten deep into games and that's really hurt this bullpen yeah um you know the bullpins held up pretty well they do need to strike more guys out they need to miss more bats uh that is absolutely true uh you would hope would the addition now of Troy Taylor and the eventual edition of Matt Brash, that that would go up naturally by itself. But you do need to miss more bats if you're going to be a bullpen. Missing bats in high leverage spots is kind of the name of the game. But yeah, overall bullpen, despite being overused, overtaxed, has been solid.

And, you know, even Trent Thornton has had some good outings mixed in with some really, really bad ones. So, yeah, they do need help. but again, Taylor, hopefully, ready to go. He's been added, and then Brash, hopefully, by the next homestand. Sounds like a real possibility for him. Hopefully those two guys stabilize. And we'll see, you know, obviously injuries are going to happen and all that stuff.

But, you know, right now the bullpen is kind of Gabe Spire and Munoz. And then it's a whole lot of like, throwing the ball pretty well right now. So, I mean, I guess, like it's Bargis, it's Santos. It's, you know, those type of guys. And you're just kind of like, we'll see. but the Mariners bullpen, one thing that they are doing right now, that is totally sustainable is they're getting a lot of ground balls. They are.

They're number one right now. While you don't want to, you know, you want to strike guys out if you're a reliever, like that's what gets you paid and all of that. That's where no damage happens to you. If you have a lot of ground balls, that's better than a lot of fly balls and a lot of line drives. So it's one of those things where it's like, look, you want guys, you can't be a good bullpen and strike out seven guys per night. Like that's not going to be sustainable.

But if you can get 55% ground balls, that certainly limits how many strikeouts you need. And Gabe Spire is a big ground ball guy. Colin Snyder is a big ground ball guy. Bizarardo, Santos, those are all big ground ball guys. So that part is sustainable. And it does now make a lot of sense to have Ben Williamson on this team. If you're going to go, you know, this ground ball heavy pitching staff,

then having an elite defender or near elite defender at third base, it's really going to help. because second base, Dylan Moore's not out there. Yeah. That's a little bit iffy. First base isn't great. And shortstop is above average,

slightly defensively. So yeah, the bullpen, what would help the bullpen more than anything right now is Mariners starters consistently going six innings. Yeah. Prior to Brian Wu going seven the other night, the Mariners had one other pitcher go more than five. go more than, sorry, go six innings or more since April 3rd.

So even with Wu, the last 12 days, Mariner's starter has gone six plus innings only twice. Yeah. That's a problem. Yeah. So, and that's just not what you expect out of this rotation. And again, look, these guys are cammon. You know, you can't expect that they're going to give you that every single time out.

But they're definitely not giving it to you as much as, you know, I think we all, kind of we're hoping for and we're expecting have have you know come accustomed to right with this rotation so um you know but also this this rotation didn't get off to uh necessarily a great start last year either and then you know they turned into what they ultimately turned into yeah i'm still not worried about the rotation yeah so all right uh hey the mayors are kicking off their first like real road trip of the year because they only went down to san francisco for three games um went really well. Yeah.

Yikes. So hopefully this one goes a little bit better than that one. They start things off with a trip to Cincinnati. I don't really want to remember the last time they went to Cincinnati. We'll just move past that. Hopefully this series goes a lot better than that one. Let's just say that. At the very least, it's coming at a very much lower leverage point in the season.

So, yeah. We'll talk about that in just a moment, but first a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Marys podcast is brought to you by Price Picks. Baseball season is in full swing and there's no better way to get in on the action than with Price Picks, the best place for daily fantasy sports.

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than one stolen base. It's that simple. Setting up a lineup takes less than 60 seconds and when you win, your payout is quick, safe, and secure. I always take advantage of Taco Tuesday, where price picks offers discounts on select player projections for even more value. Download the app today and use the promo code locked on MLB to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. That's promo code L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N-M-LB for $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. And you're listening to the Locked-on Mariners podcast. Mariner's and Reds kick off here in a couple hours from the time you're probably watching this. It's going to be Luis Castillo going for the marries tonight against Nicola Dolo and for Castillo. Hard to believe this is the case because the

marins have faced the Reds six times since the trade, but this is the first time that Luis Castillo is facing his former team. since the trade happened. And it's going to be at his old home ballpark. And Luis is a much different pitcher for the last time he pitched in this ballpark. He was a very change-up heavy pitcher back then. And now it's more, I mean, this year it's more like sinker slider for Luis. So really interested to see kind of how that works out.

But he's going up against one of the worst offenses in baseball up to this point. the reds have been dreadful offensively. Right now they rank 29th in batting average, 28th and on base percentage, 27th and slugging percentage. They are tied for last in WRC Plus, and they are dead last and hard hit rate by far, by like a good 3% or so.

So on paper, pretty good opportunity for Castillo to continue the hot start that he's on. But Nick Lodolo, countering him tonight. and Lodolo has only allowed three runs in his first three starts. So probably going to be a pitcher's duel tonight, I would expect. And because I just said that, game is probably going to end like eight to seven. Sure.

Why wouldn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Luis needs to continue to get a lot of ground balls. Obviously, it's a bit of a bandbox down there in Cincinnati. So anything in the air is potentially. dangerous. Ladolo,

lefties been a bit of a problem for the Mariners. Their right-handed platoon bats are only playing against right-handed or left-handed pitching. So it's kind of tough for them to get any kind of rhythm or anything like that. So you look at a guy like Solano, who they should probably cut. He sucks. Am I right, Ty? Solano and Garber, you look at those guys. The problem not only is that they're only going up against lefties,

which is severely cutting into their playing time. The lefties that they have faced are like Jeffrey Springs, Nicolodolo now, Tarek Scouble, Framber Valdez, like, what are we doing here? The one break they've gotten against left-handed pitching this year is they face J.P. Sears, who kind of owns them. So. Yeah.

I mean, and again, I, like, Garver, I understand more now with the, you know, the like cori polanco can only dh right now and he's only going to hit from the left side so like obviously you're not going to take out polanco against the righty but like garver in general especially once Polanco is able to play in the field again

seems like that's going to be the case here in the next week or so once that happens like garver should get opportunities against righties because he's not a splits guy Donovan Solano isn't a splits guy right he should get some opportunities against righties I mean one of his what two or three hits that he has year game off of Brian Abray.

Yeah, I mean, like, there's no reason for either of those guys to be riding the bench against right-handed pitching when Rowdy Telles is getting at bats. Yeah. For as much fun as it was to see Rowdy hit a homer and attempt to get a triple. Yeah. As much fun as that was, dude still stinks. 14 WRS Plus. Yeah. And Solano and Garver have no history of needing protection against right-handed pitching.

whatsoever. So yeah, we're going to see Solano tonight. We're going to see Garver tonight. I don't know what's fair expectation for them, considering this will be their first game started in like a week. But yeah, we'll see if they can produce anything. And it's a little bit unfair to judge them as being failures when they're not playing nearly enough to prove anything. I also assume we see Ben Williamson at third. And I assume we see Dylan Moore at second. So probably no Miles Masterpony. So right now, lefties present kind of a problem for the Mariners because Poria Polanco can't play against them right now. And Master Boni is one of your better hitters, unfortunately, right now. They're not going to use him against lefties. So, yeah, lefties are a bit of a problem. Luke Rayleigh's probably going to have to play against the lefty because of how the roster is built. So, you know, I guess they could play Miles at second and use Dillon Moore in right field for Rayleigh. But either way, there's going to be a lefty who probably shouldn't be facing a lefty.

in the lineup tonight, and that's kind of a problem with the Mariners in their roster build right now. They really need a right-handed bat. And you hope it's Ben Williamson, but Ben Williamson should be playing just about every day anyways. So, you know, we'll see how they want to handle all this. But, yeah, lefties are a bit of a challenge for the Mariners just based on their roster build right now. And on top of it, Lodolo having a great year. And he's a really good pitcher. So it might be a little bit of a tough night at the ballpark for the offense.

But we'll see, you know. They roughed up Jacob de Grom. They roughed up Kumar Rocker, who had all this hype coming in, and they destroyed him. Like, they've hit off of good pitchers before, and we'll see what they can do. But yeah, the lefty thing certainly is a problem. The Mariners are going to struggle against left-handed pitching for a while. The Reds today activated Austin Hayes and Matt McLean off the IL.

So a couple new bats going to be in the lineup. They also activated Alexis Diaz. So Brett's closer returning. And they ironically today send down Noelvi Marte, who of course was traded for today's starting pitcher Luis Castillo. I was looking forward to the matchup. Yeah.

So there's that, but also a note that is worthwhile because of how much we talked about him. The Marlins DFA Jonah Bride. Oh, wow. He is a right-handed hitter who can play second. He can play third. He could play first. And he had a great second half last.

year. It's off to a bad start this year. So we'll see if Seattle wants to take a shot there. He's better than Rowdy Tellez. Certainly more useful. So I hope that they do take that stuff. Well, not statistically this year, Colin. Yeah. Okay.

You want to talk. Let's look at what they did last year, shall we? But yeah, so, Bride, definitely a name to watch. I don't know if the Mariners are interested in him or not. It's just a guy that I thought was, you know, potentially bright-handed Luke Rayleigh this offseason.

again are the mariner's going to be interested in him i don't know to like would i be mad if the mariners didn't claim him or didn't acquire him no i wouldn't be mad like whatever but uh it is the name that we talked about and he is available and the mariner sure could use some right hand to thump off the bench and and the fact that he could play a couple infield spots also certainly does help so keep an eye on that but yeah uh ladolo uh like kamar rocker doesn't generate a ton of whiffs. So again, something has to give here. We'll see if it works out in the mayor's favorite like I did with Rocker. And hopefully they can keep this win street going, extended to five.

And, you know, they got Miller and Wu the next two days. So you got to feel pretty good about your odds in both of those games. All right. That is going to do it for us. Thank you so much for joining us here on the locked on Marr's podcast for Colby Pat. Note I'm Tiding Azales. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L.O. underscore mirrors.

You can follow me at Tiding Azales and Colby at C-Pat 11. That's C-Pat-1. Also on Blue Sky, you can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB Colby, and the show at Lockdown Marrors. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you next time. Peace.