Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - These Mariners Will Be KEY to Making the Playoffs as 10-Game Gauntlet Begins

Episode Date: September 21, 2023

The Mariners' 10-game gauntlet against the Rangers, Astros, and Rangers again begins Friday night and whatever happens over that stretch could make or break Seattle's season. Colby and Ty discuss just how many wins are needed to secure a spot in the postseason, how Scott Servais will have to manage these final regular season games, and which Mariners will be key to a successful end-of-season stretch.Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Jase MedicalSave more than $360 by getting these lifesaving antibiotics with Jase Medical plus an additional $20 off by using code LOCKEDON at checkout on jasemedical.com.  eBay MotorsKeep your ride-or-die alive at ebay.com/motors. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelMake Every Moment More.Make Every Moment More. Right now, NEW customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED in BONUS BETS - GUARANTEED. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.SleeperDownload the Sleeper app and use promo code LOCKEDON and you'll get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. Terms and conditions apply. See Sleeper’s Terms of Use for details. Currently operational in over 30 states. Check out Sleeper today!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) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, for the past month, we've been talking about it. We've had it circled on our calendars. Now it's here. The 10-game gauntlet that will determine the Mariners playoff lives. Let's talk about it here on the Lockdown Mariners 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. Uh-hoys, sailors. It is Thursday, September 21st, 2023. This is Tedding, Gazzal. and Colby Patnode for the Lockdown Marries podcast brought to you by Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create an account, use promo code Lockdown MLB for $20 off your first purchase. Last minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. Thank you so much for making us your first listen.

Subscribe, like, and turn on alerts if you're watching on YouTube or subscribe and leave a five-star review on your preferred podcast platform if you like what you hear. And if you're part of the crew and rock with us every single day, let us know in the comments below. We'd love to hear from you. And if you want to hear from us, even more, please consider signing up for our Patreon. You can now get a free seven-day trial to check out the show. The link as well as their social accounts is in the description of this episode. So on the show today, we'll get you

set for the massive series between the Mariners and Rangers. That's, of course, starting tomorrow night down in Arlington. As a reminder, you can catch all the action on the Mariners hometown broadcast with SiriusXM via the SXM app. Today we're going to go over how Scott's service will likely need to manage this series and the two series after it. Also give you six key players, three apiece, for this series and over this stretch. But first, Colby, let's cut through the BS. How many wins do the Mariners need over the next 10 games to get into the postseason? I would say seven is the number you got to shoot for to feel really confident that you're getting in.

I think six gives you a good shot of getting in. Five, you're really playing with fire. And at that point, you need somebody, Houston or Texas to go four and six or whatever. Do you even have a shot there? So, yeah, anything less than five, you're out. Five or six, you have a shot. Six, obviously, much better than five. But seven would almost certainly get you in.

So it's six or seven at least. Yeah, seven, I feel 110% confident that you're in. six i mean that would get you to 90 wins which we've said is the pretty much going to be the magic number for you to get in and i i maintain that i think if you get to 90 wins you're going to be in the postseason uh five you're definitely not beating out texas because if you only get five wins that that means that you're not going to have the tiebreaker over them and that means that probably that series or those two series against them did not go as you wanted them to so at that point you're probably solely relying on the astros tiebreaker or

the tie-breaker that you have with the Astros coming into play, and you're relying on the Royals and the Diamondbacks to handle them, and you're also relying on yourself to have a good series against them Monday through Wednesday. So, yeah, win six games, please, and let's just leave very little doubt. Seven games would be amazing because that for sure gets you in. But I think six is a good spot to be in. Yesterday on yesterday's show, we had a couple of comments from listeners asking about tiebreakers and how they all work. I don't think like the three team tiebreakers are really going to matter.

There's a very, very, very small chance of that happening. I know all three of these teams are basically in a virtual tie with one another right now. But given how many times Seattle has to play Houston and Seattle has to play Texas, over the next 10 days, I don't think that it's going to wind up mattering. the Mariners, of course, have the tiebreaker over the Astros. The Rangers, or sorry, the Astros have the tiebreaker over the Rangers, and the Rangers have the tiebreaker over the Mariners. So none of those teams have tiebreakers over the two others. So it comes down to overall record against the two other teams.

And right now the Mariners have a slight edge on that front. They're nine and six against both the Rangers and the Astros. Most of that is the eight and two record they have against the Astros. against the Astros this season. That's doing the heavy lifting there for the Mariners. But again, they play 10 games against these teams, so it doesn't really matter at the end of the day. So that's how it all works.

Now let's switch gears here. Let's talk about how Scott's service is going to manage this whole thing. This is going to be a wild 10 days. And Scott is going to have to be on his A game in order to maneuver through all of this. So let's discuss what that means. moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Lockdown Mirrors podcast is brought to you by Game Time. Buying tickets to your favorite events shouldn't be stressful. Game Time is a fast and easy way to buy tickets for all the sports, music, comedy, and theater near you. And with killer

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Locked on MLB for $20 off. Download game time today. Last minute tickets to lowest price guaranteed. And you're listening to the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Thank you again for making us your first listen. Again, you can catch the Mariners and the Rangers starting tomorrow night and over the course of the weekend on the Mariner's hometown broadcast with Sirius XM via the SXM app.

So we've been saying this for the last few weeks on this show. the playoffs start for the Seattle Mariners on September 22nd. Playoffs are here right now. It is due or die time. And Scott Service has to manage this thing like it's do or die time. Like it is the playoffs already. Now you can't necessarily do that one for one, right? You can't completely manage it like the playoffs.

Like you can't do things like bringing in Luis Castillo late in the game out of the bullpen, stuff like that, for example. but Colby, when we say Scott has to manage it like the playoffs, what does that mean? It means that you kind of have to treat it like game one of a playoff series where you're not, you know, in theory, you're not using Castillo on short rest. You're not necessarily bringing in your game two starter,

you know, into game one to get out of a tight spot. But what it does mean is is that you can't really sit around and wait for somebody to find it. Either they have it that day or they don't. And if they don't, you need to get them out of that game as soon as possible, kind of regardless of what it does to your bullpen. Like, that's a situation you're in. The other way it kind of manifests itself is that you really can't afford to, like, kick games.

So like even if you're down like five to two in the sixth, like you probably should still use Matt Brash. You probably should still use Andres Munoz because you can't really afford to be like, oh, we'll play for tomorrow. because every single game is so critical. There's certainly a point where, like, I don't know, tomorrow, if you're down 10 to 2 in the 7th, then like, okay, it's not what we want to do,

but we'll throw Bizarro, we'll throw Leone, and we'll save the guys for tomorrow. But if you're within a swing of the bat of tying up the game, you probably have to use your highest leverage guys if they're available, you know, when the situation dictates. You can't just be like, well, it's 4 to 2 in the 8th. We're probably going to lose this game. So I guess we'll just let Trent Thornton go out there and try and pitch to the middle of their order and save Brash for tomorrow.

No, you got to use Brash. You got to use Munoz and you got to hope your offense can figure it out. So it's just it's one of those things where you have to be pretty aggressive with your bullpen. You have to have a really short leash on your starters. You can't let games get out of hand early. We saw this last year, by the way, in the Toronto series game two where that game got out of hand. Robbery didn't have it. And yet Scott kept on going.

He went to Seawald in like the fourth inning. He went to Brash early. He went to Munoz early. And he pretty much emptied out that pen. And a lot of us were like, why are you doing that? Like save those guys for tomorrow. And it ended up being really important. It was a risky gamble because if you lost that game,

then all those guys are, you know, tired for the next day. They threw a lot of pitches. But you kind of have to act like that. You kind of have to treat it like that. So you have to be willing to get your starter out early. If he doesn't have it, you just can't sit around and hope that he finds it, not against these teams. you have to be willing to be aggressive with your bullpen arms.

And if that means, you know, Brash has to come in in the fifth and get the last two outs there. And then he has to go, you know, the sixth, then so be it. Like you really have to be aggressive with your best arms. You have to use your best arms as often as they can physically go. And you have to be really aggressive with your pinch running and your pinch hitting. Like if there's a matchup you like, even if it's only the fourth inning, if it's, you know, I don't know. uh, Will Smith versus Dom Leone or, uh,

Cairn's own and, and the bases are loaded and there's one out. Even though you might want Cairnone and there to face, you know, LeClerc in the seventh, you might have to go to, to Dylan Moore. You have to be willing to pull that trigger. Every run matters. Every situation matters.

And you kind of have to, you kind of, it's weird. You kind of can't put too much focus on tomorrow. Today is the most important game of the season. And that's kind of how you have to manage it. within reason. And when you get to the last three or four games, those are elimination games,

the reason kind of goes out the window. You know, if Castillo is scheduled to pitch on Saturday, right, second to last day of the year, but you're in a position where you need him for an inning on Thursday. Well, you might have to go to him on Thursday and Saturday.

Like, you're in that spot, but you're not quite to that extreme yet. These aren't elimination games, but you do have to manage them like their games pretty early in a postseason series where you can't kick them, you can't punt the games, you know,

you can't hope that your starter figures it out so you can eat some innings for you. It's go time. It's sprint time, you know, and if a guy has to pitch four days in a row, he's got to pitch four days in a row. I don't know what to tell you.

That's just kind of where we're at. Right, right. And so this is especially important when we talk about this series in particular because both Bryce Miller and Brian Wu as of now are scheduled to make starts. And so you have to keep those guys on a short leash. You know, you can't let Brian Wu just sit out there and eat it, give up seven runs in the first three innings if it goes, you know, similarly to his major league debut down in Texas.

You know, Bryce Miller is only landing the fastball and the fastball is catching a lot of plate and, you know, the Rangers maybe are not punishing it yet. you need to nip that in the bud before it does eventually get out of hand because this is a lineup that will take advantage of those opportunities if you give them enough of them, right? You might get lucky and you might be able to survive it for a little bit, but not for the duration of five, six inning. So if Bryce Miller, if you think that Bryce Miller doesn't have it, you got to go get him, even if he hasn't given up, you know, a ton of runs,

even if he's only given up a run or two through four, right? You still, like, if you see the signs, you just got to, call it right then and there. And I know that you got to try and manage this bullpen, et cetera, and keep guys fresh and all that. And it's still the regular season. And you still got to play a bunch of games.

But this is go time, like you said. Yeah. It is worth noting, too, by the way, is that the Mariners bullpen is in excellent shape. Munoz has thrown, I think, nine pitches since Saturday night. So he's totally fine.

Brash has appeared in one of the last four or five games. So he's totally fine. Spire, I don't think has pitched since Saturday. Topa has, you know, pitched, I think it's something like 22 pitches since Saturday.

Like the bullpen is in really good shape right now. So yeah, that's not really a valid excuse. There shouldn't be anybody who's unavailable on Friday and Saturday. And so if they are, then they don't need to be on this roster. You got to make a move there. So, and that's the other thing too is like, don't be,

don't be surprised if there's like a few moves made in this 10 game stretch. And it seems like this is the squad and you're rolling with it. Don't be surprised if Bizarro gets sent down and, you know, they call up Riley O'Brien or Casey Sadler or Perala in the middle of it. And then you're just like, whoa, don't be surprised if they send down Haggerty and call up like Ryan Bliss. Like you have to play the match up as, you know, tight as you can. and sometimes other different guys give you better chances and you take those shots. So it really comes down to the foresight of Scott's service and not really in terms of the next day or the next couple of days,

but in terms of the future of the game that he's currently in, right? And so again, that's making judgment calls. Like if you don't think that Bryce Miller has it, you just got to go get him. You can't try and extract a couple of extra outs from him, right? It's the stupid games, stupid prizes type of thing that we talk about with Scott. And, you know, I can let that slide a little bit more during just the natural course of the season. But in games like this, no, you have to be quick on the draw with those decisions. So that's going to be the key for me when it comes to Scott's service and how he manages the next 10 days and manages these next 10 games.

Now, depending on the circumstances, right, and depending on what's going on in the standings and all that, that might change a little bit, right? There might be some context there that helps with some of those decisions. But for now, as things currently stand, he has to be very aggressive, very, very aggressive because this could be it. This could determine the entire season. One moment, one decision could determine the entire season, whether or not you are playing baseball beyond October 1st.

So it's going to be very interesting to see how that. all plays out. We're going to talk about three key players each. We're going to give you three each that are going to be huge for the Marys or that we think are going to have to be huge for the Marys in order to make their way into the postseason over the next 10 days. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown Marys podcast is brought to you by Fandul. Celebrate the start of the NFL season with great offers from Fandul, America's number

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And you're listening to the Lockdown-Marris podcast. Thank you again for making us your first listen. can catch the Mariners and the Rangers starting tomorrow night on the Marr's hometown broadcast with Sirius XM via the SXM app. So, Colby, there's going to be a lot of guys on this team that are going to have to step up over the next 10 days. But let's go with six key players to make this whole thing happen here. You're going to do three.

I'm going to do three. We're not going to have any overlap. Tell me one of your three guys that you have that you think are going to be key to make in the postseason. Yeah, I think, you know, pick a starting pitcher. It's probably one of those guys. I'm going to go with Logan Gilbert. He's got both of his starts are going to be against Texas.

So that's kind of the team that you're chasing right now, the team that you have the biggest hill to climb over. And both of those starts right now, he's facing an undetermined pitcher. It sounds like it's probably going to be Martin Perez. But we don't know that. Those are games that you have to win. Gilbert, it doesn't matter who Texas is going to start in those games. Logan Gilbert is better than whoever they're going to throw in there. He has to pitch well. And it's a really good lineup. We know that they can score runs. Gilbert has to pitch well. He has to shut that lineup down because when you have such a clear pitching edge like they do in game two on Saturday, you have to take advantage of those wins, of those potential wins because you need as many as you can. You need to bank a couple of those.

if you lose a game like that, now you have to go and you have to, you know, beat Framber and Verlander to make up for it, you know, so I think Gilbert has to in his last two starts, both against Texas. He doesn't have to dominate because that, again, that's a good lineup, but he has to find a way to go seven innings,

give up three or fewer runs, you know, limit damage, limit opportunities. If you could do better than that, fantastic, but he can't be five innings, four runs and he leaves in the sixth of a four four game. He has to be better than that.

So to me, Logan Gilbert is the key here because both of his starts are coming against Texas. And both of this starts as of now are lined up to be against probably Martin Perez. You're better than that. You're better than him. You have to outdule him. You have to, you know, kind of carry the water in your starts so that you maybe can save up open arms where possible. And those are two opportunities. I think those two games that Gilbert pitches, they're pretty close to must wins unless, again, you're going to beat Verlander.

Valdez, which is possible. But I think Gilbert is kind of the key to the rotation. Right. I'm going to stick with the rotation here, and I'm going to cheat a little bit. I'm going to pick both Bryce Miller and Brian Wu here because they're in such similar situations, right? Miller is going to start this thing off, right? He's going to set the tone. And depending on what happens in the start, that's going to have a trickle-down effect on the rest of the series and how the Mariners are positioned for the rest of the series.

both negatively or positively, right? If he goes out there and he shoves, right? Bullpen's in a great spot. But if he goes out there and, you know, again, if Scott Service has to make that decision and take him out after three or four or whatever, that's going to have a negative impact on the bullpen for the rest of that series potentially.

So you need a really good start out of Bryce Miller here to kick this series off. And, you know, he's been up and down, up and down, but he has shoved against a couple of really good, good lineups this year and you're going to need that version of Bryce Miller tomorrow night for sure as for Brian Wu I mean I feel like it would be unfair to to say like he needs to go out there and shove just like Bryce Miller because the situations are a little bit different they're both young guys who have already blown past their career high and professional in a

throne but woo is obviously an even you know more delicate case than Miller here there's three different situations that he could find himself in on Sunday either having to salvage a game in Texas, either going for the series win, or either going for the sweep, right? In all three of those situations, he's going to have to be big time for this team. But really, like,

again, I don't think he necessarily needs to shove or that should be the expectation put on him, but he also can't be an utter black hole. He has to be able to at least keep you in the ballgame. and so if you can just get four earn runs three earn runs or fewer over four or five innings i would consider that a win from brian woo but again you're gonna you're gonna need him you're going to need him to at least be decent here because he's going to start two of these seven games against the rangers at least as of now right we'll see if maybe the they finagle their their

rotation a certain way they obviously have pushed him back you know a couple times already. They clearly don't feel 100% confident in him down the stretch here, but they're going to need him at least to a certain degree. And so, yeah, he has to be a key player, right? Just for that reason alone. Colby, who's your next guy here? Yeah, so I think you're going to need your lineup to step up as well in this last seven games.

They were pretty good in the Oakland series, but hardly, you know, a juggernaut. And we saw how bad they were against the Dodgers. But at the same time, you know, it's easy to say Julio or JP or anything like that. But I feel like you're going to get something from Julio. You're going to get something from Jay Oscar. You're going to get something from, you know, Cal at some point. So what you're looking for, really, I think, is somebody who hasn't had a good year,

step up and have a good year. And to me, there's two candidates for this. but I went with Thai France, who has been really at best, mediocre all year, and has at times been one of the worst hitters in the American League. Like he's looked awful at times. And this is what we get to, man. There's 10 games left.

We're not asking you to be something that you've never been before. You could just be first half Thai France from 2022 for 10 games this year. It could make all the difference in the world because Thai France, we know, has the capability over a couple of weeks stretch to hit four or five, six home runs to, you know, hit five, six doubles to hit 300 with high on base and high slugging and really kind of carry a lineup. So if you could get that version of Thai France for any length of time with any, you know, kind of like any reasonable percentage of what you've gotten in the second half from Taylor, Oscar Hernandez and Julio and JP, if you get all that going at the same time, it makes your lineup deeper. It makes it more dangerous. It gives you so many more options on how to, you know, kind of set up your lineup.

So I think Ty is a guy here who, you know, again, we're asking basically 10 games to salvage his season. If he could get it going. And he's been okay in September. Strikeouts are still ugly, but, you know, he's sitting 270 this month. in that range and he is you know getting on base a decent amount so by getting hit by a lot of pitches but you know it just you need some power now if he had 270 over his last 10 games but he hit four homers and and you know added three or four doubles it would make a lot of difference for seattle so i do think that tie france is is a guy who hasn't produced really at all this year

with any kind of regularity and that's a guy i would like to see uh really heat up here in these last 10 games and finally kind of be the guy that the Mariners thought that he was going to be all year. And if he does that, and then I think Seattle does have a chance to win seven of these last 10. Agreed. Agreed. And I'm going to stick with that theme.

And I'm going to go with another corner infielder for the Mariners here, A. E. E. E. Hennio Suarez, who's had a rough month of September, just a 77 WRC plus this month. But he has heat up at least a little bit over the last few games. in Oakland, he collected four hits. He was hitting the ball hard.

He had some rough-at-bats at times as well. But if he could just be at least semi-hot the rest of the way, that would benefit the Mariners greatly here. Because, you know, you feel good about Julio, you feel good about JP, you feel pretty good about Cal and Teo. But odds are you're not going to get all four of those guys clicking at once. So who's going to be the guy outside of those four, who steps up and makes the difference?

And I think Gino is the prime candidate for that because, look, he's going to get opportunities with runners in scoring position. He's going to get some bigot bats over the next 10 days. Is he going to be able to convert? The Mariners need him to. The Mariners could really use a two-run, three-run bomb out of Eugenio Suarez. And I think that it will come down to a moment or two like that over the next 10 days where Gino, where it's going to come down to Gino probably. or where, you know, Gino's got runners on second and third one out,

and if he strikes out, that's going to put a lot of pressure on the guy behind him. And that might derail the inning, right? So he has to come through in those moments. And, you know, as of late, he really hasn't, but we know that he's more than capable of doing that. He had plenty of clutch hits and clutch home runs last year during the run to October.

You need him to be that guy again this time around. So Colby, who's your last guy? on your list. When I brought you this idea, you made a joke. Yes. Because I said I was going to surprise people with my last pick. Wait,

was I right? And you made a joke. You're like, I can't wait for you to pick Sam Haggertie. And you were a quarter right, because I'm taking the entire right-handed bench of the Seattle Mariner. So that is Cabiero,

Haggreti, Moore, and Luis Turenz. Why the Mariners are going to face Jordan Montgomery twice. They're going to face Framber Valdez. The Rangers have Andrew Heaney,

A world is Chapman, Will Smith. They also sounds like they're going to start Martin Perez, or at least that was the plan. They've moved up Montgomery a little bit to start on Saturday, but they're probably going to start Perez at some point in that Mariners series or pitch him out of the pen. There's going to be a lot of lefties. At least four starts,

I think at least four starts of the last 10 are going to be started by left-handed pitching. The Mariners haven't gotten a ton from Dillon Moore lately. They haven't gotten a ton at the plate from Cabrero, with the exception of, you know, Friday night. And Haggerty's been, okay. He's been okay since he got called up. And Turence has been totally fine,

but it's only been five at-bats. Now, these guys aren't going to start every single game. Like, you're probably not going to take at-bats away from Jared Kelnick right now to give them to Sam Haggerty. You're probably not taking at-bats away from Cal Raleigh to give. But these guys are going to be important because you're going to face a ton of left-handed pitching over these last 10 games. And those guys are going to have to contribute. And it's not just at the plate.

They're going to have to play some good defense. They're going to have to be ready to go earlier than they probably normally would be. And for three of those guys, at least, a lot of these games feel like they're going to come down to a run or two. And having those guys come off the bench and run and be able to steal a base or take go to first to third on a base hit to, you know, center field, those are going to be critical. And the Mariners have a lot of slow guys on this team. So I think that the, you know, the right-handed bench of, or really what is the standard bench of the Mariners of Moore, Hagridi, Cabriero, Turenz.

I think those guys need to be, you know, they need to play a pretty significant role. They don't have to be stars. They don't have to look like everyday players. But when they're called upon, they have to get the bunt down. they have to execute the hit and run they have to steal the bag runners on second and third infield playing back of a two you know in a two nothing game they got to get that guy in from third they have to do the little things they have to be ready to play wherever they need to play for the last three innings or four innings of a game because they got called on to pinch run in the

fifth instead of the seventh uh i think the bench is going to be key here particularly the righties on the bench because you're going to face a ton of left-handed pitching and you're going to need base runners late you're going to need guys who could steal bags late can't get picked off You can't do stupid things. You can't have terrible at-bats. The bench, the Mariners bench, is going to play a huge role in these last 10 games. And it would be nice if all of them could find a way to contribute, but if just one or two, Dylan Moore just hits a home run or two.

Luis Terenz goes, you know, gets seven outbats and he goes three for seven with a double in a couple walks or something like that. Like, it could be a huge difference. So I'm taking the bench, the Mariners bench, as kind of the key underrated part of this last 10 game stretch. Yeah, we told you six key players. It's probably going to end up being like 9, 10, 11, but whatever.

You know, you know what you sign up for here by, by clicking on this video. I'm probably put five in the title. Because five sounds better on YouTube than the top six or 10 or nine. So like, yeah, top five. Sure.

I'm going to go with another combo here for my last one. I knew you would cheat. Yeah, yeah. I'm cheating even more. I'm going to go with Andres Munoz. Matt Brash. At least mine was creative and daring. Yeah, right.

Lazy. And I'm, I'll throw Justin Topa in here as well. I knew you were going to throw Topa in there too. Yeah, you got to throw Topa in there, of course. But really, really, it's,

it's Munoz, it's Brash, right? Those guys are on it. We talked about this on yesterday's episode. Those guys are on it, you have arguably the best one-two punch in any major league bullpen. And you can beat anyone with those guys at their very best.

But in the pitch. particular case of Munoz and Topa, not really Matt Brash lately, but Munoz and Topa, those guys haven't really been at their very best lately, right? But with Munoz, right, we've seen him kick into an extra gear here as of late. While he still is really struggling to land that slider effectively, he's consistently hitting 100, 100, 101 mile per hour with the four seam. And now he has this two seamer that he's using a lot more often. which is probably a direct response to the lack of slider that he has. That could be a legitimate weapon for him,

especially going up against guys like Corey Seeger, Nathaniel Lo, lefties where that pitch is breaking away from those guys. That could be crucial for him to have that two seamer working in the series and over the course of the stretch in general. Because it's not just those guys, right? When we get to the Houston series, it's going to be Yordon, it's going to be Kyle Tucker, Michael Brantley. It's going to be guys like that as well that he's going to have to throw against.

So you're going to need Andres Munoz. You're going to need Matt Brasch because these are really good offenses that you're going up against. These games are likely going to be very, very close. You're probably going to be, you know, if you're in a position to win these games, you're probably holding on to a one two-run lead at best. So you're going to need Munoz to be nails. You're going to need Matt Brash to be nails. You're going to need Justin Topa to be nails.

And you're probably going to need someone outside of that three as well, like a Taylor Saucato, like a Gabe Spire as well, to step up. So this is a huge, huge stretch for the bullpen. The ballpen, the mayor's bullpen, I don't think it can be overstated, could literally determine everything with how this stretch goes, right? Because like the offense could do its part, the starting rotation could do its part, but if the bullpen can't hold these leads, then you're cut. So a lot of this rides on Andres Munoz, on Matt Brasch, on Justin Topa. Yeah, and that cannot be overstated, like I said.

So we'll see how it all plays out, but those are our key players for this stretch. Apologies for how late this episode is going to come out. Apologies for the cuts in this episode. This has been a nightmare of a day for us technically. So hopefully we're able to get you this episode in a timely manner. I'm going in this recording because it looks like we're lagging again because of course we are. the lockdown mirrors podcast is synonymous with technical difficulties you guys know this but this time it's completely on me it's on it's on my internet today i don't know what's going on with it anyway that's going to do it for our show thank you so much for joining us here on the lockdown mirrors podcast for colby pat note i'm tiding gzalus be sure to give us a follow on twitter at l o underscore mariners you follow me at dan gonzalz and colby at c pat 11 that's cpat 1-1 you can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode thank you again for making us your first listen have yourself beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time peace