Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Seattle Mariners GET RIGHT, Mop Up Houston Astros With Improved Bats and Big-Time Pitching

Episode Date: April 14, 2026

Ty and Colby recap the best parts from the Mariners' four-game sweep of the Astros, discussing the offense's big turnaround, Logan Gilbert and George Kirby's fantastic starts, and more. Click to learn more about the Everydayer Club! Join the Ahoy, Sailors Discord server! Check out our Patreon! Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11 Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolby Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Turbo Tax Intuit TurboTax now has in-person locations nationwide. You can meet face-to-face with a real tax expert, and your documents get uploaded straight to your TurboTax app on the spot.  Visit https://TurboTax.com/local to find a store near you and book your appointment today. Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel.Right now new customers can bet just five dollars and get two-hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins.Visit https://FANDUEL.COMto get started — Play Your Game.   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.

29 runs and a whole lot of base runners later, the Mariners have mopped up the Astros as they continue their dominance over Houston. We'll break down the best parts of the mayor's last four wins coming up. 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 Monday, April 13th, 2026. My name is Tading Gazzalison. I'm joined as always by my co-coes Colby Pat News. Today's show is brought to you by Fanduel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $250 and bonus bets if your first bet wins at defanduel.com to get started. And today we're going to try our best to talk about all the goodness from the Marys four wins against the Astros this weekend. Lots to talk about.

We'll definitely talk some Logan Gilbert and George Kirby, but we've got to talk about this offense first call because it was obviously the thing that we talked about the most heading into the series. You know, the Mariners had the worst offensive baseball going into the series. The Astros pitching was the worst in all baseball going into the series. And certainly one of those things showed up this weekend. But it was the one that worked out in our favor, in the Mariners favor. As the Marys are now 29 and 14 against the Astros since Houston eliminated the Mariners in the 2022 ALDS. It has been, for the most part, all Mariners in this matchup from that point forward.

And the Marrers get their second sweep in a row of this Astros Ball Club, which is going through it. We saw it right away. Tatsuia Mai couldn't even get through the first inning. He lands on the IL with arm fatigue. You know, Cody Bolton has to leave the game yesterday in the second inning. This pitching staff was a mess and the Mariners greatly benefited from it. I think they walked 27 times over these four games.

They scored 29 combined runs. They had a billion base runners. But I guess the question is, and I've already seen this as we put out our tweet for the mailbag episode tomorrow, is this a matter of the Mariners being back or the Astros just being bad? The simple answer is we don't know. We really don't because the Astros were that bad. And the crazy thing about that walk number is that I think they only had one walk today. Like, yeah, it's. And that didn't come into.

like the seventh inning or something. Yeah. So it really is kind of nuts, just how bad the Astros pitching is. And I mean, look, I mean, obviously they lost Framber in the offseason and Hunter Brown is down right now. And Christian Javier got, you know, put on the IEL before the start of this series. He wasn't going to pitch in this series anyways. But whatever, that's another blow. And then my now arm fatigue in April.

But, I mean, if it wasn't the arm fatigue, it was because he wasn't used to pitching in 68 degree weather. And if it wasn't that, it was the mound being hard. The mound was a little hard. So you just can't really make that adjustment. Don't worry. He's got you covered on why he didn't throw well. He's got three good options there that he can go back to. The fact that the Mariners didn't score more than three off of that guy in that inning is whatever.

But yeah, it's tough to say. I mean, pretty good test coming tomorrow. Michael King, who we know is a very good pitcher. But the Mariners also roughed him up the last time they saw him. So we'll see how it goes. I think it would be really easy to just say, oh, the Astros just stink. And maybe that is what it ends up being. But I think when you look at the guys who we have been talking about who need to get it going, Cal Raleigh, Julio and Josh Naylor,

Julio pretty consistently good in all four games. Josh, obviously, at the big game today. And Cal, pretty good, pretty good series overall. Still some misses that you don't really want to see from him, still too many strikeouts and all that. But all three of those guys really performed. and at least in one or two of these games, and Julio is really good for all four. So it's just kind of one of those things

where it's like, it's tough to say because we did see some things that are very positive, but it's like spring training numbers almost because you're facing double a pitching the entire time. I don't know if it's good or it's bad. The walk number is great, but it's not like there were a ton of like super competitive pitches

and like eight pitch walks where they just had to grind. trying through it. It was a lot of, you know, especially Friday when they walked, what, 10 times? Yeah, something like that. Like a lot of those walks were very non-competitive plate appearances. So it's hard to put a lot of stock into that.

That's why I especially like today's performance. Because today, there was no holes to poke in the performance for the Marys. They're going up against, you know, Mike Burroughs, who hasn't gotten off to a good start, but has good stuff. And we see the Marys all the time struggle against pitchers like Mike Burroughs.

And they, strictly just let their bats do the talking today. There were no gimmee walks. There were no wild pitches. There were no hit by pitches. Nothing like that. It was just stringing together hits and then doing damage. Again, to circle all the way back to the question,

are the Mariners bats back or is the Astros pitching just this bad? I think my answer is yes. You know, just in general to the which one is it? Yes. It's the why not both GIF essentially. But I, you know, again, until you see them do this consistently, And that's why I think, like you said, today was a good, you know, kind of test. Because Burroughs wasn't great today.

He hasn't been great this year, but he was pretty good last year. And this wasn't, you know, walks and wild pitches and hit by pitches. Like they had to get on base. They had to drive the baseball. They had to get these runs in the old-fashioned way. And, you know, again, were they perfect today? No. But anytime you're off in score six, it was a good day at the ballpark, like regardless of how it happens.

So, yeah, it's just kind of tough because the other three. games are just like so heavy dependent on walks and walks are we don't want to discount the walks like you saw have to earn the walk but like it's and it could it could have been very easy for for this offense to get overly aggressive against a bad pitching staff that's really struggling and then right you know missing out on some of those opportunities where like hey if you just don't swing here they're probably going to score some runs just doing that alone there were a couple moments of that too so like again it wasn't it wasn't perfect but they put up the runs they put up.

Did the Astros help them out with, you know, hit by pitches and walks and a couple of errors and mistakes? Yes, absolutely they did. But the Mariners, more than they have at any time this year, took advantage of all of those things. So there's still work to be done here. And again, I'm not going to sit here and tell you like, oh, the offense is back and now. But, again, Julio, to me, looks like he's cleared the hurdle. Now, he could go out tomorrow and go, oh, for four, because, you know, Michael King's a really good pitcher. Yeah.

He's hitting the ball hard. He's pulling the ball more. I still like to see a little bit more in the air, but he's pulling the ball hard with authority. Lots of line drives and ground balls that are, you know, 100 plus miles an hour. Cal's at-bats are getting a little better.

He's starting to get pole-side a little bit more with his pop. And then we'll see where Nailor goes from here. It's really, it's only one game for Josh, but he looked great in his first two at-bats and the rest of the at-bats. He missed some cookies, you know,

so it's kind of up in the air. We'll see. But, you know, Julio's rested the bat on his shoulder now. Josh is getting to his setup earlier in his swing a little bit. Cal is seeing a ton of pitches. He's been way more patient. So we are seeing like real changes, real tweaks that have been made.

And we're starting to see results from those. So maybe just maybe it's something, maybe it's nothing. But, you know, at the end of the day, the mayor's offense was really good. And the Astros pitching was really bad. And that's kind of how it has to be for you to sweep a team in a four-game series. Yeah. Yeah. Again, today I thought this was their best performance as an,

offense, maybe all year. You know, everyone in the lineup had a hard hit ball, even the two guys that didn't have hits. I mean, Randy today went 0 for four, but he had three hard hit balls. So really nice to see from him, especially after he had, what, a three hit day yesterday, four hit day yesterday? Three hit day yesterday, I think it was. Yeah.

But two hits for Donovan, two hits for Raleigh, even though, you know, one of them was that little grounded to first base. That was like... Kind of an important moment, because if he, if they make that play, Nailor's home run as a solo, it's five to two in the ninth inning. and now you have to use Munoz. Yeah. Well, you feel like you have to use Munoz.

Right. Yeah, it could have made a little bit of a difference there. But yeah, the lineup, again, everybody's. And you know what? Julio, because he's Julio, is going to get a lot of the praise and all that. And he should because he's that important to this team. And so is Cal and so is Josh. But Luke Rayleigh had himself a heck of a series as to J.P. Crawford.

Yeah, yeah. Rayleigh with three hits yesterday, three hits today, Julio with two hits. nailer with the two home run home runs so um you know some of your biggest bats in your lineup doing a ton of damage today that's what you want to see all right so we're going to talk more about the merr's four wins over the course of this weekend including a mixed bag of starts for the merrers rotation a couple of amazing starts and then some iffulness as well we'll get into all that in just a moment but first a reminder this episode of the locked on merriss podcast is brought to you by five-hour

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It's cool. But as cathartic as Friday's win was after the way the road trip went, I thought that Saturday's win was exactly the type of win that this club really needed because of just the way that it went, right? You're down 7 to 2 after that game starts in a really fun way. You know, Cal hits the two run homer. You know, Julio has the double his first extra base hit of the season. Wouldn't be his only extra base hit of that game.

And then, you know, you get down 7 to 2. yeah the Astros pitching staff has really struggled but we've also watched this Mariners lineup for you know the first two weeks of the season it's hard to feel great about their odds of getting back into that game but that fifth inning happens they're able to string together some hits and then of all the people to knot things up the fact that it was Julio driving a ball to dead center I think that meant a lot and then you know obviously to walk it off later on in that game you know some gutsy bullpen performance is not pretty bullpen performances

along the way to get you there, but some gutsy pull-pin performances, to be sure. Anytime you can force yourself into a situation where you have to get Yordon Alvarez out, it's a win for you. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I

think that was the most important win of this series. And we might look back on it as one of the more important wins of the early season for this club, just given the position that they were in. So, and you were there for it. Yeah, it was awesome. You know, yes, the Astros pitching staff is really bad, but McCuller's really settled in at that

point. And it was, you know, just not a, not a, not a ton of bad at bats by any stretch, but just a lot of ground ball outs and just really didn't get anything going until what, the fifth inning. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And then, you know, you start to drink some hits together and you put some pressure on them and all of a sudden, you know, hey, it's, it's, it's, Canzone had the double into the gap and then Col Young's single walk single yeah JP singled into

yeah he got both of them in and then I don't remember how cow sack fly broken bat sack fly or whatever and then all of a sudden it's seven to five and they're going to the bullpen and that's when things start to get a little bit real because Astros bullpen sucks it's really bad it's I mean it's I mean there were there were reasons to be kind of worried about it before the season started

and now with all the injuries and how many endings they've had to cover over the last week. Like, yeah, I mean, that's when things start to get really exciting. And Julio's done what he's done now. This is his third big clutch hit with a chance to tie the game. And he's got. And they actually won this time. Yeah, they actually won this time. So it's kind of one of those things like Julio's been struggling. I mean, even still now, his overall numbers aren't great, but he's back over 200. The WRC plus is at 77, which I don't know. He's still OPSing under 600, but yeah. At the start of the series, he was his, you know, WRC plus is like 23.

So, but even despite all that here, just what are we six, 17 games in now. He still had three huge hits and clutch situations, which has kind of been a knock on Julio, whether fairly or not, that he, you know, he struggles in those spots and he's got three hits in those spots right now. And again, we could, you can nitpig and be like, it's the fifth in. And it's not the end. And it's like, well, okay, if he doesn't hit that home run, they don't win that game. So I would say that's a pretty key moment there. But yeah, it was just, it was awesome to see.

I mean, what about that? Cal and Julio hit home runs on the same night. They can do that. Wow. Yeah, they should try and do that. That's illegal. Yeah. So it really was, it was an awesome night.

And, you know, there was multiple times. I'm like, yeah, well, they're, they're going to have this great come back and lose still. Because that's, you know, we've seen that already a couple times this year, not five runs, but, but, you know, they've scored some big The Angels game. Yeah. The Guardians game shoot also. So yeah, but it's just like Bizarro first and third. Nobody out.

Well, here we go. And then just absolute paint. The Bazaardo is special on the two seamer to get Tremel, who of course almost went Grant Slami in the first after I turned to my buddy. And I was like, I'm just waiting for Taylor to go grand slam on us here. And dude, almost did. Close enough. That was probably.

that's probably the closest prediction I had on the night because I also like, oh, Bizarroro just doesn't have it tonight. And yeah, this ask, make no mistake. The Astros lineup can hit. All right. This is a good lineup.

Even with, 17 hits in that game and you somehow won. I mean, and nobody from the bullpen was that sharp either. Luis was obviously terrible. And that's going to happen from time to time. They really jumped on his slider. But,

yeah, it was this Astros lineup, you know, the offense is, dangerous enough to maybe even maybe keep their head above water, although right now they're on eight game losing streak. Eight game losing streak. It's the worst losing streak in like 10 years or something like that.

Since like they were like the 100 lost team, I think, right? Yeah. Yeah, it was it was something else. But, you know, big pitches and in big moments. And you walk out of there with the win and their high leverage reliever couldn't get it done. He walked the bases loaded. And then the perfect guy came to the plate at the perfect time because, you know, we've talked a little bit about this.

J.P. Crawford is an incredible hitter with the basis loaded, and J.P. Crawford is an incredible hitter, one of the best of all time in high leverage situation. His WRC plus in high leverage situations in his career is like 200. Like he's Barry Bonds with the game on the line.

And no place to put him. And of course, he fell behind O2 after three straight walks. And you're like, I mean, come on, man. But now, Aubrey, you can throw strikes. No, JP will find a way. He'll find a way. He'll find a way. And he did. So yeah, J.P. Crawford, heck of a return series for him back to Seattle. Because remember he missed opening day.

This was his first first games back in Seattle. And he was born to wear those steelheads uniforms. I got to tell you. Oh, swaggiest player you'll ever see. Yeah. Like it would be McCutcheon if they ever brought him over and they wore the Northwest Green. But since they won't ever do that, JP in the steelhead, who, yeah. You know who else was born to wear the steelheads uniforms?

Randy or Rosarena. Yeah, yeah. They just look good on everybody, man. They look good on everybody. So, yeah, it was a great time. But obviously, you know, Luis, not sharp at all. Certainly the weakest start of the three or the four, rather, and the bullpen really walk in, you know, a tightrope, but they got it done.

And it was, it was awesome to see. And it was just kind of a vibe shift in the stadium a little bit because, you know, you don't really know how the next couple of games are going to go. and it was tough to trust them at that point. They got to win, and at that point, I think all eyes turned to like, let's sweet these guys. Like, screw the series win. We're going to take it to them.

And they did. So, yeah, that could be one of those early season moments that kind of changes the trajectory of things a little bit. They'll slump again. They'll lose four in a row again. Like, it's going to happen at something. It might happen in the next four. We don't know.

But that certainly did feel like a significant win for what was in April, what, 10th game at the time, 11th or whatever. So yeah, it was fun to be there. But yeah, that one could be the catalyst going forward or it could just be kind of a fond memory type of thing that we look back on. So you mentioned Louisa's struggles on Saturday. I want to talk about Friday.

Emerson Hancock start real quick. Just get your feel on that one. Because I walked away from that start feeling a little conflicted because like the second inning, he gets himself in trouble. And then he almost gets, himself out of it. And he throws a pitch that is essentially in Christian Vasquez's armpits. And, you know, Vasquez has a career 78 WRC plus somehow turns on that ball and gets it down the,

yeah, keep, you know, keeps it fair down the third baseline to clear the bases. Like, come on. And that turns out to be the only runs that that ever since gives up in that start. He goes five, you know, but his, it was his best game, Velo wise, though. I overall like it was definitely his worst start of the three so far, but I didn't feel bad about it coming out of it. No, I actually quite the opposite. I feel even better about Hancock's sustainability after watching that because what we saw is Hancock, his stuff plays in the zone now. He, he had a 36% whiff rate on the sweeper, which is really good. And that's the new pitch for him.

he had a 42% whiff with rate on the four seamer 42% against that lineup you know and and things you know could have gotten away from him early they they almost did obviously he made a pretty good pitch I mean I'd say it was a good pitch but it was very clearly a ball it almost hit the guy so you know kind of was it a great pitch no was it a strike though no was it a pitch that should have led to that result absolutely not and then he just kind of settled in and so you know we've seen Hancock in the first inning against the angels that was a really rough inning for him Then he's settled in. And so he's still racking up whiffs.

He's still getting fastball value. The arm-angled thing is real, and the sweeper is continuing to find some level of consistency. And it was, again, another four-seem heavy night for him, which I think is the take. I think it's four-seem in that sweeper, force him at the top of the zone. The sinker, whatever, I know he's going to throw it occasionally, but I really don't love that pitch that much. And he, once again, went back to the four-seam as the primary fastball. in this one. So I actually felt like that was a pretty good sign. It wasn't his best start by any stretch, certainly not. But I did feel like that was actually a good sign that against

this lineup, even when things start to kind of go against him, he's able to flush it and he's able to go out there and give you three more scoreless innings. And the pitch count got away from him a little bit, mostly because of that inning. So yeah, I mean, again, still kind of looks like a number five, number four to me. But again, that's a really good lineup. And he battled. And he was, you know, if Vasquez doesn't swing of that pitch, maybe it hits him, maybe he ends up walking him or maybe he gets him out on the next pitch, I don't know, but he was, you know, just a little bit away from going five or six scoreless innings or at least, you know, getting out of that unscathes. So I actually thought Hancock was okay, all things considered.

And again, I'm loving the metrics I'm seeing on the fastball along with the VLO. Because that arm slot, 97 consistently, and he's getting 40% whiff rates on that pitch against this lineup. I think that's all pretty impressive, which I think will play very well out of the bullpen when Bryce Miller returns. And it sounds like, you know, we're slowly approaching that. We got a pretty good update on Bryce earlier today, I think. Yeah. Yeah, but Hancock, yeah, I would say it's another solid start.

I would say it's another, you know, it's definitely a step back statistically to what he did in his other starts, but I would say it's another quality start. Yeah, the VLO averages by anning on the four seamer for Hancock, 96.4.4. in the first, 96.1 in the second, 95.9 in the third, 94.2 in the fourth, and the 95 flat in the fifth. So just way better trajectory or downward trajectory, but more. Sure. But a lot more consistent, though, than his first couple of starts leading into that. So kind of a trend that we saw starting in Anaheim and one that he certainly continued in this start against Houston. and so really nice to see it from Hancock.

All right, so Logan Gilbert finally did it. He finally went seven. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about George Kirby's start today in just a moment. But first a reminder, this episode of the lockdown era's podcast is brought to you by Fandul and TurboTax. The NBA playoffs are here where every possession matters, every matchup is magnified, and every game can swing a series.

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It's tax time. But for a lot of us, the old way of doing taxes is a lot. Trying to book an appointment that's not the most convenient, sitting in a waiting room with a stack of papers, emailing back and forth and wondering if they really get your situation. This year, you're getting a major upgrade. Into a TurboTax now has in-person locations nationwide. You can meet face-to-face with a real tax expert,

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Network, your team every day. As always, if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, we have a Patreon. It's called Control the Zone. and on there we talk mirrors seahawks all the good stuff for more information go to patreon.com forward slash control the zone link in the description of this episode for the first time since opening day 2025 Logan gilbert went seven in a single start against the houston astros yesterday just four hits allowed one earn run that was a home run from einer dyes but

that was it seven strikeouts just one walk on 85 pitches he easily could have tried to go eight for the first time since September 7th, 2024 against the Cardinals in St. Louis. But there you have it. You know, the thing that we've been talking about for so long now with Logan that have been over a year since he lost in it, he's finally done it. He's finally gone seven, which is exactly what you want to see out of Logan, Gilbert. Yeah, I thought, you know, Logan was obviously awesome.

You could have gone, you know, eight. And you kind of assumed like, hey, this early, let's not push it. But then again, George Kerr. today he was at 84 so is the is the magic line 85 like you're out at 85 I don't know Dan Wilson likes George Kirby more than Logan Gilbert I mean whatever Logan you know simply could have been hey do you have another one in you no I don't think so like oh okay fine no problem or not wanted to push it plus the bullpen was in a little bit worse shape yesterday than it was today so yeah but anyways Logan was great he had 38% whiff rate in this game and and yet he was

efficient to go 85 pitches for Logan Gilbertry's usually the fifth inning like entering the fifth inning sometimes like it it was extremely efficient on his end again the 38% whiff rate he still had seven strikeouts in the seven inning so it wasn't like he was just not missing any bats or anything like that either you know he was it's pretty interesting pitch mix for him because usually he's much more like kitchen sink and it's not unusual to see the the slider be his primary pitch, which I think it wasn't his last outing. It was a good outing. But today, or well, today, yesterday, he used his four-seamer.

That was his number one pitch. He used it 35% of the time. It's not a great pitch, you know, in terms of getting swing and miss, but he got a 25% whiff rate on it, which is pretty good for Logan. And it was at the top of the zone a lot. Like he was right at the top rail. The Velo was great on it. So it was a really interesting outing from him there.

The slider, which has been a pitch that, you know, I've talked about not being very good. It was magnificent and it looked different. Like it didn't have I he threw a couple that looked. I thought they were splitters, but they were too firm to be splitters and they were spending too much to be splitters. Like it almost he had one. I think it was Paredes. It was almost like the the backup splitter, the reverse slider or whatever it is, Amai was throwing. So I don't know if that's a tweak he's made in the slider. I've tried to ask a couple of people about it to see if they've noticed anything. But I don't know. It's only one. one start. And like we said last time with the change up, he has to do it before, you know,

more than once for us to really start to talk about trends or anything. And by the way, the change up, he only threw four. So I guess that really isn't that important of a pitch, but he found something. And the slider was very good. And I think getting the fastball top rail consistently, 97 and finding a way to throw that pitch and get strikes with it, I think is huge. Because the fastball is a pitch that he can get in trouble with because, you know, despite his extension and his how hard he throws, it's not a super great fastball.

Like it's pretty straight. And it is a pitch that can get roughed up a little bit, but it was really good in this game. He was he got 80% strike rate on it. Also though, there's, I mean, this is really unusual, is that the splitter was his fourth most used pitch.

He only threw the splitter 10 times out of 85 pitches. Logan is typically like 25 to 30% with that pitch. So, I mean, usually it's a pretty even split between the splitter, the slider, and the fastball. And it was a very clear fourth in this one. He threw 16 curp balls. Like the splitter was clearly something he was keeping in his back pocket.

He wasn't showing it too early. And it was fine. He got a couple of whiffs on it, 33% whiff rate on it. Only one of his strikeouts came on it, though. Three of them came on that slider. Two of them came on the curf ball. So it was a little bit of a different pitch mix. He didn't rely so much on the splitter.

He really relied on the fastball. Maybe he's finding some confidence in the four seamer. And maybe because he's throwing more curb balls, which is more of a 12 to 6 action because he's also mixing in the change up, which is a little firmer than the splitter. Maybe he can get more value out of that because he's showing those other pitches. And that's allowing the fastball to play up. We'll see how it goes.

Obviously, Logan is very much a tinkerer and he's very much a pitch mix. and sequencing guy. Like you trust him to make these adjustments. And it looks like he had because again, in his last start where he was pretty darn good, I really thought the change up was kind of the difference making pitch for him. This time it was a mix. It was a four seam heavy approach relative to what he normally does.

And the splitter was not really an afterthought, but like you can almost see like they assume splitter is coming. And then he just pipes a fastball. And you're like, oh. So again, Again, maybe the splitter has now become such, you know, a standout pitch that Logan can maybe not, I'm obviously not shelved it, but maybe he can kind of use that to set up the other pitches rather than just relying solely on the splitter to get guys out. Again, he only had, he only had one strikeout on that splitter. So, again, we got to see it more than once before we start to decide if there's a trend here or anything like that.

and maybe this was just matchup dependent. I don't know. But anyway, you want to slice it, Logan was fantastic, and it was great to see him really look like the ace that he is supposed to be of this staff. And obviously, you know,

they can set a good trend going forward. And George came out today and nearly went pitch for pitch with Logan, if not for the weird little decision he made in the fifth. Yeah. So I thought George was good enough to throw Maddox today, you know, especially because the Astros were very aggressive with him early on.

And, you know, we've seen this go one of two ways with offenses against George. They'll be very aggressive against them because they know that he's going to be in a strike zone with consistency. And either he's going to get jumped or he's going to jump them. And today was certainly one of those days where he jumped them. You know, so a lot of quick outs very early on. The pitch count was in a very, very nice shape going into that fifth inning. And then, yeah, he gets away from his from his fastballs.

which were his two best pitches, I thought, today. It starts to throw a lot of breaking balls, and the astros were kind of all over those. And they were able to put together a couple of runs and the pitch count ultimately got off track there. And that was unfortunate, because, again, I felt like he could have gone the distance in this one easily. So that sucks, but, I mean, other than that,

like he gets the double play from Nick Allen, which clears the bases there, you know, trades a run for two outs on a, on a, basketball. Yeah. So imagine that. Yeah. What about the three previous hitters who all hit and led to a couple runs? What, what pitches were? Yeah. I mean, like the Cam Smith, uh, hit was I think he threw four straight sliders. They were all like pretty much in the same spot too. Um, you did that earlier in the game against the parades, I think got ahead oh two on a couple sliders and he just kept on going to the same exact spot over and over again. Uh, so, you know,

some things to nitpick, but yeah. So that, that was a situation there where I'm like, George, Just, you know, let the passball eat, man. Just shove it down their throats. But whatever, you know, from that point forward, he locked back in and was able to give the mirrors a couple more scoreless settings. I was able to argue with Dan Wilson to stay in the game there to face Yordon. Unfortunately, through four non-competitive pitches to Yordon and walked them.

Yeah. Which was a little disappointing because I actually, I actually liked that from George. I liked that from Dan to trust George to stay in the game. I didn't hate it. because I was like, well, if he gives up a home run, you're still up by two, and you're going to bring Brash in, and you saw Munoz with a day off,

but then also it's like, but you can't walk him because now, you know, Parades hits a home run, so now all of a sudden you got a problem. But yeah, I don't know. I feel like maybe we're seeing some maturation out of George

going out there for another inning, because, you know, the whole thing, like, oh, they told me I was only going to go six times. So I went six and all that. And, you know, kind of the like,

Oh, he had a couple of fluky hits that didn't really go his way. Paradeus went opposite field for two hits today, which he never does. Yeah. Yeah. There was the one, was that Parades who hit, like, no, I think it was cray. He hit that little cue shot right off the end of the bat and it rolled past Nailer, just like perfectly placed. And he was fine. Like, okay, whatever, I'm annoyed, but I'm going to go out there.

I'm going to compete. And so maybe we're seeing some maturation from George. So this is one of the cool things that Stackass has added. They, they track the pitch usage by times through the order now. Yeah. And his first time through the order, George threw 26% slider, 37% fastball, 26% sinker. So it was, you know, fastball heavy and then sinker slider in equal proportions. The second time through 46% slider to only 14% foreseamer.

And I thought the four seamer was his best pitch today. And so that was, it was annoying a little bit. He mean, four of his six strikeouts came on the four seam fastball. So, and he had a 35% whiff rate on that. And again, you know, I'm sure at this point you guys know this because I say it pretty much every time we talk about it. Elite whiff rate on the four seam fastball is 30%. Anything above that, particularly for a starter is really good. George's that 35%.

The Mariners got actually, I mean, with the exception of Luis, who mostly the slider was the problem for him, they got really good value out of their fastballs in this series against a really good lineup. So that's a good sign. But, yeah, Georgia, that was really good again. Just that little, that weird little, I don't know. Deviation. Yeah, deviation. I don't know if it was planned or it was to set up the next time.

I don't know. Whatever, right? Yeah. But that was just weird, kind of weird pitch selection. Everything kind of the same speed, the same location, the same pitch over and over. And then naturally the two fastballs he throws in the entire inning. He gets three outs on them, but whatever. So, yeah, just let the big dog eat, George.

let the big dog eat but he was very very good today yeah yeah seven and two-thirds seven hits the two earn runs both coming in that that fifth inning six strikeouts just one walk and the walk obviously how he ended his start I know he's going to be upset about that but uh let it go big guy let it go yeah but it was it was a great start so him him and logan doing that you know back to back I mean what more could you ask for um lots of lots of endings a lot of dominance against one of the best lineups of baseball so far. Which is good because, you know, the Mariners bullpen had to cover quite a few innings in the first two games.

It was actually pretty shaky all weekend. But they had to cover a bunch of innings. And, you know, they don't have a day off until next Thursday, not this Thursday, next Thursday. So for them to have those two guys go and get them what almost, almost 15 innings out of the 20, out of the 18 that they played over the last couple days, with a good chance to get another six or seven innings from Brian Wu tomorrow, who I believe is pitching against a king.

So yeah, the rotation was fantastic. The offense was very good. The bullpen, effective enough, like they got the job done, but certainly not the cleanest. We've seen the bullpen, but you know that that's a good lineup, and you handled them for three of the four games very well.

And you ended up sweeping your division rival, your hated division rival in a four-game series, at home you kind of you know rechanged the narrative back to i mean i know they're eight and nine but we talked about it if you have you lost this series or god forbid you got swept in this series it starts to become like a real hole that you now have to dig yourself out of now eight and nine blip on the radar they've won four in a row the offense is clicking they just got two great starts from the two or two of their three best guys like yeah no things are great hoolio's starting to hit you know josh had a big game cow's starting to hit a little bit you're

you're feeling great about yourself and that could have flipped the other direction. So, you know, not often April series are critical and sometimes they're not, even when they feel like they are, but this one felt like it was and for them to go out there, not just settle for a three out of four, but to earn the mop over the hated Houston Astros, who just suck, by the way, and their fans. That's right. I know you're listening. No, they only listen when they win, Colby, which hasn't been for a while.

I haven't seen those guys around in the comments for a while now. coincidence I think not. All right. So Mariner's off to San Diego tomorrow. We're going to kick things off with a mailbag. So be sure to hit us up over on Twitter. The tweet is now up. If you want to submit your questions, we'll answer some of those on tomorrow's episode before the game.

But that is going to do it for us. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Marys podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast network, your team every day. Once again, if you never miss an episode, it's time to make it official. Join the lockdown every day. club and get ad-free audio access to our members-only discord and more all built for our most loyal

fans colby pat note i'm tiding gonzalez be sure to give us a follow on twitter at l-o underscore mariner's you can follow me at tiding gzalus and colby at cpat 11 that's cpat 1-1 we're also on blue sky you can follow me at tdg colby at m lb colby and the show at locked-on mariners you can also find us on instagram and tic-tok at locked-on mariners have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time peace