Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - The Mariners' Pitching Woes Are More Than Just a Matter of Home/Road Splits

Starting point is 00:00:00 Are the Mariners T-Mobile Park merchants? We'll discuss that and more coming up here on the Locked-on Marrars podcast. 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, and it's Friday, August 22nd, 2025. This is Tadding Azales and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdown Marys Podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:33 This episode is brought to you by five. our energy. Enter for a chance to win a dream golf trip for two to any golf tournament in the USA. Visit 5H.E.W.W.com for full rules and entry. No purchase necessary. Excludes the Masters tournament ends October 31st, 2025. 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, the Mariners, particularly on the pitching side of things, T-Mobile Park merchants? In other words, are they only good because of the ballpark that they play half of their games in?

Starting point is 00:01:16 Plus, the Red Hot A's come to town for three, so we'll get you covered on that. But we're actually going to start with a bit of old news at this point, but it's our first opportunity to actually talk about that. Victor Robles finally got his suspension handed to him. 10 games is the duration. He is going to appeal and we'll see if he's able to get that reduced at least a little bit. And then I assume we will find out about that relatively soon. But for now, it is 10 games and he is going to have to serve those 10 games at the major league level, which means the Mariners are going to have to play with a man down whenever they add rubless to the major league roster.

Starting point is 00:01:59 So how do they navigate that, Colby? Probably not well. The optimistic way to look at it is that the Mariners haven't played with a 26-man roster for about three months now. So what's another 10 days? But yeah, it's probably not going to go well. The interesting thing here is that he can't serve the suspension until he's added to the Mariners roster, but he also can't play in any sanctioned games. So he can't really continue his minor league rehab.

Starting point is 00:02:33 assignment in Tacoma or any of that either. So it's not like, hey, well, we'll just leave him in Tacoma until September 1 and then we'll call him up and we'll mitigate the suspension that way. No, because whenever the suspension, the final suspension is handed down, which I expect to be today or tomorrow, whatever that number is, he can't play in those rehab games. So you're kind of stuck because he doesn't, he can't play in any of the minor league games. he can't play in any of the major league games until his suspension is served, but he can't serve his suspension until he's recalled to the major league roster,

Starting point is 00:03:10 at which point you can't send him back down to the minors to continue his rehab assignment. So yeah, it's a bit of a gray area. It does sound like the marriage were planning on having him, you know, before they went back out on the road. That was the plan, apparently. So it sounds like they were possibly considering calling him up today to be in the series, which I probably make sense when you look at the pitching matchups that the Mariners were going to have. More lefties, which means more Dylan Moore.

Starting point is 00:03:41 Yay. The worst player in baseball. Just got to get that guy more at bats. Leo Reboss is to. Well, Leo Rebos is down in Tacoma, just crushing it. Nearly has a 500 on base down in Tacoma for like 60. Remind me, what was Leo Rivas' on base percentage at the Major League level before he was sent down? I think it started with a four.

Starting point is 00:04:04 Yeah. At one point, it was, it was 500 for like the first three weeks. And then they just stopped using them. Yeah, this isn't the Dillmore segment, but you guys know how we feel.

Starting point is 00:04:14 And I'm sure you all, I'm sure you all share our feelings in that regard as well. So, yeah, as for how the Mariners handle it, I don't know. Because they're going to play a man down. Again,

Starting point is 00:04:27 regardless, they already do. Yeah. Pretty much. Yeah. Yeah, so like I guess it kind of, A, it depends on when they get the final suspension number. And B, if it's reduced or not. We don't know.

Starting point is 00:04:42 So right now it's at 10. Usually on appeal, these things get knocked down a game or two. Maybe it gets down to seven or eight, but maybe it doesn't. It doesn't have to just because you appeal. But so I do wonder maybe there's something to like, hey, well, let's recall him on August. 27th or whatever. And then he can serve, you know, four or five games of the suspension.

Starting point is 00:05:07 And then we get to September where we can call up another guy and basically get back to 26 man while Rivas or sorry, well, Robles serves the last five games. You know what I mean? So it's like, that means you get six days of the suspension

Starting point is 00:05:23 where you still get another position player. Right. Kind of mitigated where like, well, for six days, we have 13,000. position players still. So, or, well, 14. So, yeah, I mean, maybe they try and finagle it that way. But, yeah, there's really not an easy path here for them to make this work.

Starting point is 00:05:44 And again, you know, it's, it's, I think he's a little fortunate that it's only 10. I think the Mariners are pretty fortunate that it's only 10 because any more. And it would really, you know, probably make it difficult for them to, actually at him. You can't just play a man down, or in the Mariners case now, like three or four men down when you're chased down a playoff spot and you're trying to chase down a division lead. You just can't do that. So, yeah, it's not a great, not great timing. And the Mariners get, they don't get, you know, screwed by the rules. These are just the rules as they are. You get suspended for field action. Your team suffers too. If you get suspended for PED use,

Starting point is 00:06:28 your team doesn't get, you know, double whammed for that. So this is just the way it goes. And I don't know how they're going to navigate this because it does sound like their plan was to have him up this weekend. Yeah. Now they can't. And now, I don't know. And they can't really even add him until they know what the suspension is. So until Major League Baseball, you know, here's the appeal and offers the official suspension.

Starting point is 00:06:57 they can't really plan to do anything right now. So they're in a tight spot, but I do think ultimately what they'll try to do is they'll try to, you know, stagger it. So about like half of Victor's suspension is served in September, where they'll be able to call up an extra guy anyways. And they'll kind of try and do it that way.

Starting point is 00:07:18 So he'll still be able to, you know, work out, hit off the trajectory machine, all that stuff. But yeah, you do have to worry about, you know, a guy who just began a rehab assignment now having to take 10 days off or 10 games off, right, which probably winds up being what 11 days, 12 days. I don't know exactly what the mayor's off day situation is. Obviously, we don't know exactly when the suspension is going to start. But there are obviously questions already about how he was going to look when he got back

Starting point is 00:07:54 and how recover the shoulder was ultimately going to be and all that. But now you throw in this kind of stop and start that he's going to have to go through. It's completely up in the air what you're going to get in Victor Robles once he is able to actually play for you. All right. We are going to switch gears here. We're going to talk about, unfortunately, the mayor is starting pitching and the pitching in general, but mostly the starting pitch. are they T-Mobile Park merchants? We'll get into that in just a moment.

Starting point is 00:08:29 But first, a reminder of this episode of the lockdown mirrors podcast is brought to you by five-hour energy. All right, folks, it's time to fuel up and turn it up with five-hour energy transfusion. This grape ginger and lime flavored shot brings the iconic taste of a golf course favorite to a non-alcoholic boost. Perfect for sinking birdies or making great memories with friends. It's a hole in one for your energy game. Whether you're out on the course or just need a little extra push to power you through your day,

Starting point is 00:08:59 five-hour energy transfusion delivers the clubhouse flavor you love without ever leaving the green. And golf is all about good times with good people and good flavors. The grape ginger lime flavor, five-hour energy transfusion gives you the best parts of your clubhouse go-to without leaving the course or chasing down the bev card. And now you can amp up the fun even more. Just buy, snap, and enter for a chance to win a drive. dream golf trip for two to any golf tournament in the USA. T up that trip. Visit 5H.E.W.W.com for full rules and entry. No purchase necessary.

Starting point is 00:09:36 Excludes the Masters tournament ends October 31st, 2025. And you're listening to the Lockdown Marrars podcast for instant reactions following every Mariners game. Be sure to tune in to the Marriss postcast with Anderson Hurst and Christopher Crawford available on both the Lockdown Marries YouTube and podcast. ass feeds. So, uh, the mayor is pitching.

Starting point is 00:10:01 It's not particularly good on the road trip, particularly towards the, uh, tail end of the road trip. Now breaking any news there. You all saw what happened. And we've tried to delay talking about this for as long as possible, but we have to address it. And it didn't help the,

Starting point is 00:10:19 uh, narrative at all that the, uh, the mariners are T-Mobile Park merchants. In other words, the baron's pitching staff is only good because of the ballpark that they play half of their games in i do think that is a little bit of an oversimplification here because watching especially on this road trip watching like logan gilbert pitch and louise castillo pitch it doesn't look as if it's just a matter of oh well you know the batter's eye in seattle just helps them get lower quality swings and get whiffs and you know, some of the hard hit balls are dying at the warning track.

Starting point is 00:11:00 I'm sure that's part of it. But also when I look at Logan Gilbert specifically, I see a slider that has significantly regressed this year and is getting smoked right now. Opponents are slugging 531 off of his slider. I just don't think the stuff is as good this year. It's a big reason why. Yeah, he's ultimately getting strikeouts,

Starting point is 00:11:24 but he's taking a long time to get those strikeouts. And then Luis Castillo, he's obviously really struggled away from T-Mobile Park. He's kind of like the ultimate culprit here of the T-Mobile Park merchant narrative. But I just see a lot of armside misses, like just a lot of bad misses in general. The V-Lo has been noticeably lower. At times it's been 97. That's, yeah. But that's not a T-Mobile Park-related issue.

Starting point is 00:11:59 No. It's not. So I think in general, just some of these guys in a rotation are just in a bad spot right now. It's not because of the ball. It's independent of the ballpark that they're pitching in. Now, can T-Mobile Park help mask some of these deficiencies? Sure. But I don't think it's specifically just because they're pitching away from T-Mobile Park that this is happening.

Starting point is 00:12:22 It's just kind of a weird year for the Mariners pitching in general. Like, yeah, we know that they're better at home than they were on the road last year as well. But the difference wasn't quite this stark. And what's the difference between this year and last year? Well, both Logan and George have missed significant time with injuries related to their throwing arms. So is Bryce Miller. Although Bryce has pitched so little, it's kind of irrelevant to discuss his splits. And Luis Castillo is a guy who's been significantly better at Team Mobile Park than on the road for the last couple of years now.

Starting point is 00:12:56 But specifically what we saw on this last road trip, it did. didn't appear that like the reason louis sucked this last road trip was not because he wasn't pitching at team mobile park if he was pitching at team mobile park with the numbers have been quite as bad no probably not but he still would have been bad like he was just bad straight up yeah he was bad uh against a couple of really you know good lineups uh but that's the thing right when you get to the playoffs everybody has a good lineup usually you know so it's kind of one of those things where it's like, yeah, we can see him and be like, oh, well, Billy's got a great lineup. And it's like, yeah, and so do the Yankees and so do the Red Sox and so do the Astros.

Starting point is 00:13:38 Blue Jones, etc. Yeah. So that's not really an excuse that doesn't make you feel any better. So it's kind of one of those things where it's like, yeah, they're better at Team Mobile Park than they were on the road, just like they were last year. But this year, I look at Kirby and Gilbert and I look at their arm injuries and I look at some of the pitch data, specifically on Gilbert. you know and I just say like that's not team mobile park related that's picture related individual pitcher related um so it I think it's real easy to look at the ERA and say like oh they just there's so much better team mobile park that has to be it and it's not like like most you know statements like most hot takes it's not like it's not based on a kernel of truth right like objectively statistically yeah the mariners are significantly worse on

Starting point is 00:14:24 the road than they are at home pitching wise but the important thing is to look at and say why like how why is it and on this last road trip specifically for louise he was just bad straight up he was bad and there is nothing that being at team mobile park would have helped with there name kind of goes for logan to be honest and logan's issue is different from louise it's not really a stuff declining issue it's command and control and he's having a really the only pitch you can get consistent whiffs on from Logan Gilbert right now that he trusts enough to throw regularly is the splitter. Well, we also know the splitter, you know, is putting a lot of strain on the elbow, which is the, which is the injury that Logan had to work back from, you know,

Starting point is 00:15:06 and so there's kind of this delayed, or there's kind of this effect where it's like, I have to throw the splitter to get outs, but the more I throw the splitter, the more I put my elbow at risk. And so it's just kind of one of those things where there's a lot of little factors that are going into the Mariners pitchers seasons that they're having right now. And while some of it can be explained by like, oh, well, Team Mobile Park's a great place to pitch and all that. Other parts of it can't be like Luis missing armside and Luis's velo dropping a couple

Starting point is 00:15:37 miles per hour on the road. Like it's not wrong to say like they pitch better Team level park because that's just a fact. It's a fact. But is it enough of a fact? just be like, yeah, on the road, they're going to get torched every time. Like, no, obviously not. George Kirby threw a shutout in Baltimore.

Starting point is 00:16:00 Now, granted, that was against Baltimore, not like Philadelphia. But like, you know what I mean? It's like we've literally seen these guys throw the ball well on the road a lot. And for Logan, you know, it's funny last year, we talked about this last year with Logan. Is he just a team level park? And when you looked at the numbers, the answer was yes. but when you looked at the games, remember, he got tagged in back-to-back games by Minnesota and Boston, both on the road. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:16:27 And it skewed, and when he took those out, his numbers were pretty much the same as they were at home. Well, guess what just happened to Logan Gilbert? He got tagged and back-to-back starts on the road, you know, and so, and now you had the injury on top of that. It's really hard to judge Logan's season this year because we don't know how much the elbow is bothering him. We don't know how much time this is affecting him. So it's and again, the sample size is so small because he missed six, seven weeks that the home road splits are an even smaller sample size. You know what I mean?

Starting point is 00:17:00 So like this could just be a case just like it was last year where Logan gets jumped on the road a couple of times. It skews all of his numbers and we look back at it and we say, oh, well, Logan is just not good away from Team Mobile Park. And it's like, well, I mean, if you if Logan just hasn't been good enough in general. Yeah. Like he's just, he's not getting deep into games. Again, he's allowing these, you know, his pitch counts are getting ballooned by the fact that he is not putting guys away in a timely fashion.

Starting point is 00:17:29 We talked about this, I don't need to repeat it, but it's just like in general, no matter where Logan is pitching this year, he has struggled. You know, does the final stat line look like a pitcher that it's struggled? You know, if you ignore the pitch count and you ignore the innings pitch, like you see probably 10 strikeouts and only one run, giving up and you're like oh that's great but then you know you see oh only five innings pitched or four and two thirds that's not good enough yeah that's not good enough and so you know again like we talked about after that white socks start like what happened in philly was the fear this was like the thing in the back of our minds when we're watching him even struggle to get white socks hitters out that oh god if he runs into a buzzsaw of a lineup what's

Starting point is 00:18:25 going to happen and then we saw it in philadelphia and so that leads me to my ultimate concern what is this going to look like in the playoffs if they get there let me ask you let me spin it and ask you this way let's say hypothetically the mariners do win the division and they don't play like you know, the worst team in baseball for the last 34 games of this year. And they win the division. They get home playoff games. And they're the three seed, right? Does Logan get the ball in game one, two, or three?

Starting point is 00:18:57 If you're at T-Mobile? Because if you're at T-Mobile, I think Wu, Kirby, Castillo. Like the fact that it's not an obvious, like, yeah, of course you give Logan the ball. That's an indictment on Logan Gilbert's entire season. On the road, maybe you risk it. I would definitely give Kirby and Wu the ball at home. Do I trust Castillo to throw enough strikes? Well, I mean, this is where part of it is like, okay, well, they have about five starts a piece.

Starting point is 00:19:35 Yeah. Six starts a piece, I should say. Like, let's see how they look over their final six. For all we know, Logan Gilbert turns into Saian Gilbert. I'm probably still going Logan. And even if he gives me five, I, I, feel like if one of the two are going to give me, you know, five innings of one run ball, it's probably Logan more than Luis.

Starting point is 00:19:57 And then I just hope that my bullpen can hang on for Dear Life for the next four innings. That's the way Dan manages it. It's a close enough debate. That's a problem. Logan's supposed to be your ace. Yeah. And you're listening to the Locked-on Mariners podcast.

Starting point is 00:20:17 So the A's are coming to town. winners of 18 of their last 25. So even when you get one of the worst teams in baseball record-wise popping up on your schedule, they're playing pretty good ball. So it's not even really much of a reprieve. So yay. This is a team that you have to beat, though.

Starting point is 00:20:37 You have to have a good series against. You have to be able to get back on the horse against because you got the Padres coming up after. You have to play well in this series. Like no way around it. There are no excuses here. You're at home. you got the day off yesterday.

Starting point is 00:20:52 You don't have to deal with all the rain delays and the East Coast traveling and all that stuff. Like you are back at home. You are back where the pitching plays the best. And last time you were at home, your offense played very, very, very well. So no excuses. You have to get back in the win column,

Starting point is 00:21:16 especially against this club, no matter how well they're playing, no matter how talented they are with Nick Kurtz and Brent Rucker and Shane Lang Lears and all those guys, you have to at least take two or three here. Frankly, I think you need to sweep them. They should try, but winning a series is the most important thing because it's very important that you win the Padre series because then you get the better cup. Right. Hang the banner.

Starting point is 00:21:43 Which, as we all know, is actually what the Mariners are playing for this year is the better. That's right. even though they only need to win one of those three games to secure that worthless hunk of metal. So yeah, it's one of those things where it's like, you've got to stop the bleeding more than anything. You know, right now you're, you're bleeding out. And your, like, your pulse on this season is getting really faint. You need to stop the bleeding. And the only way you can do that is to win games.

Starting point is 00:22:11 You have to win these games. Like, it's one of those things, like you said, you just got the day. off the bullpen is going to get a reset there's also probably going to be a new arm or two i would imagine by the time by the time you guys hear this you already know they made a roster move call up here uh harry 40 cowards but uh yeah we'll see what if any moves get made by the way fun little note i just looked up they're facing two lefties which means dillan more is probably getting a couple starts he better not he better not he shouldn't but he probably will you know what the mariner's record is with dillan more uh starts in games that dillan more started this year

Starting point is 00:22:46 No, tell me. It's 26 and 21. They're actually winning 55% of their games where Delamore gets a start, which is clearly why he's still in the roster. That's 500, 54. Right. Yeah. You're going to face Springs who just owns you,

Starting point is 00:23:03 and you're going to face Lopez, who's having a really nice year. And yeah, so you better win this first one and then find a way to at least split the next two. But, yeah, you have to win. Like, you have to stop the bleeding. Yeah. because you are spiraling right now. And at the very least,

Starting point is 00:23:22 you know, I kept pointing to all those parallels between last year. The Mariners going one and eight on that road trip. And this year they went two and seven. It happened at the exact same dates and, you know, very similar type of teams and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right?

Starting point is 00:23:39 Well, that cost Scott's service's job. That's how bad that road trip was. Now you come back home, After an off day, you're starting on a Friday, right? At least after that trip last year, the Mariners played good ball. They finished the year, I think they went 21 and 14 down the stretch in those last 35. If they can do something similar, if they can just play good ball for the rest of this year, they're going to be in the playoffs.

Starting point is 00:24:06 If they win 20 games, they're 20 of their next 34, they're going to be in the playoffs. And is it that outrageous to think that the Mariners can win 20 of 34? No, it's not, especially when 20 of them are at home, especially when you look at the overall talent on this roster. So you need to win 20 games to pretty much guarantee a playoff spot. I think 88 is almost certainly getting you in this year. And that's how you kind of have to look at it. So every game you lose from here on out,

Starting point is 00:24:37 the odds of you winning 20 are significantly lower. So you need to start winning these series. Again, to go 20 and 14, 20 and 13, whatever it is right now. That just means you have to win series. Yeah. So just take two out of three, two out of three. Find a sweep here and there. That way when you inevitably lose a series, it's not as damning. And just get back on track. You have to stop the bleeding. This is where you need, you know, your Julios and your cows and your Randis and your JPs to step up. You need the leaders who have been here all year to step up, put their foot down and demand more from this group because

Starting point is 00:25:12 this group is capable of more. And that starts with it by winning one. game. Doesn't matter how you do it. You need to find a way to win. And it needs to happen soon because, again, you are hurtling towards disaster. And if you don't stop the boat, if you don't turn the boat around, pretty soon it's going to be too late. It has to start tonight.

Starting point is 00:25:33 So they need to play better. They need to win tonight. They need to win this series. Go into the San Diego series with some momentum. Yeah. Don't roll over. Don't die. Pitch well, hit the ball.

Starting point is 00:25:43 You know, get back to what you were. just 10 days ago and rebuild some momentum and start to roll this boulder back up the hill. So, yeah, we'll see if they can do it,

Starting point is 00:25:56 but it has to start tonight. And look, you got, you got Wu tonight, you got Kirby tomorrow, you got Gilbert on Sunday. These are three guys that you have on paper

Starting point is 00:26:06 the pitching advantage in all three of these games. These are three guys that really need to lead the ship here. Yes, the offense needs to play better, than it did on the road trip though they did start to get it going a little bit which coincided with the pitching going off the rails as it usually does because of course you know we can't have both at the same time but you know the offense needs to play better than it did on the road trip but this ultimately falls on the shoulders of brian woo george curbing and golden gilbert they have to pitch well in this in the series especially again this is a very talented a lineup you know again they're getting jacob wilson back they have nick kurtz they have have Shay Leggelears, Brent Rucker,

Starting point is 00:26:47 and Lawrence Butler and Tyler Sotom. It's a good lineup. For as bad as the A's R record-wise, this is a good lineup. Langleyers, by the way, I think has like 15 homers since the break. So, like, he's one of the hottest sitters on the planet.

Starting point is 00:27:05 Kurtz is going to win rookie of the year. We know how dangerous Rooker is. So, yeah, it's a really good lineup. And it's going to come down to the pitching. And how about this? Not only do you have to pitch well, you have to go deep into these games. Yes.

Starting point is 00:27:18 You can't keep asking Carlos Vargas to bail you out with multiple innings. And you got to stop putting Dan Wilson in a position where there are multiple options at his disposal. Yes. You want to make it as full proof as possible. He'll still try and find a way. But yeah, you got to put the child box and the, you know, you got to pad every corner when Dan Wilson's your manager. because the dude still can't figure it out. But yeah.

Starting point is 00:27:49 All right. That's going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Locktime Marrars podcast. I've been your host, Tiding, Gazzalas. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Mariner's. You can follow me at Tadine G1. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB Colby in the show at Lockdown Mariner's.

Starting point is 00:28:08 You can also find us on Instagram at Lockdown Mariner's. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day. We'll see you next time. Peace.

Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - The Mariners' Pitching Woes Are More Than Just a Matter of Home/Road Splits

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.