Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Trio of Homers Push Mariners Past Padres For 80th Win

Episode Date: September 15, 2022

The Mariners secured their 80th win of the season on Wednesday, defeating the Padres by a score of 6-1. Ty and Colby discuss Luis Castillo's impressive start, the Mariners' magic number to clinch a postseason berth, Seattle's offensive explosion and more.Be sure to follow or subscribe to Locked On Mariners wherever you prefer your podcasts! For questions and other inquiries, email: [e-mail] up to date with all things Mariners at Inside the Mariners - a FanNation website covering the Seattle Mariners on the Sports Illustrated network.Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11 | @InsideMarinersFor more of Ty and Colby, check out their Patreon: patreon.com/controlthezone/ 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.

Julio Gino and Carlos all go yard as Luis spends six scoreless and a big win over the Padres. This is the Locked-on Mariners Post-Game show. Colby hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked-on podcast network, your team every day. Mariners defeat the Padres by a score of 6 to 1 on Wednesday afternoon. This is Taday Gonzalez and Colby Patnode for the Locked-on Mariners Post-game show.

Thank you so much for making us. your first listen after the game, subscribe, like, and turn on alerts if you're watching on YouTube, or subscribe to the show and leave a five-star review on your preferred podcast platform if you like what you hear. If you want to hear from us even more, consider signing up for our Patreon.

The link, as well as our social accounts, are in the description of the show wherever you're watching or listening to this. Seattle winds up splitting its two-game set with San Diego today. We'll be diving into Luis Castillo's impressive start on the bump, a strong bounceback performance from Seattle's lineup.

and some injury news from manager Scott's service. But let's get it to Luis Castillo, who returns serve after you, Darbis shuts down the Mariners last night. Six scoreless innings for Castillo. He strikes out nine Padres hitters. The Padres were able to get his pitch count up. That's why his afternoon was ended abruptly with six innings. But a dominant start nonetheless.

We saw him, you know, Colby, we saw him hit. 100 miles per hour at one point that first inning that he had was absolutely filthy. What did you see out of Castillo today? Yeah, it was it was better Louise Castillo, let's say. First inning was about as good as you can get. There were a few times where, you know, a couple of things didn't really go his way. Soft, soft base hits. He had Juan Soto struck out and clearly strike three.

the pitch never left the strike zone. It left his hand in the strike zone. It entered in the strike zone. It was caught in the strike zone. It was called a ball. So there were a couple of innings there. We had a couple guys on, had to work around it. But he did really, you know, San Diego never had a serious threat against Luis Castillo.

And the stuff was, was filthy. Velocity was up today, which I'm wondering. It may be the extra day's rest helped with that. We saw him hit 100 a few times. But even the, you know, the slider velocity was up. The change up velocity was up. up a little bit as well. So it was a very good outing from Luis, just kind of continuing what we've seen since the Mariners acquired him. He's been very good. You know, some minor hiccups here and there,

but that happens with every single pitcher. He's been well worth the price of acquisition and then some. So it's another really good day for Luis. A lot of run on the fastball today. And we saw a good amount of sliders and changeups that also had impressive run. The thing with Castillo is, is that if he can get anywhere near the corners of the zone with his stuff, you're going to have to fight very hard to scrape together one or two runs. And even if he's just throwing stuff down the middle of the plate with the movement it has, it's still tough to score a run.

So Luis Castillo continues to build and continues to look like a guy who can kind of carry you through a playoff series if you need them to. And that's exactly what the Mariners paid for. Yeah, the strikeout to Juan Soto, which Pitching Ninja reposted 19 inches of run on the two-seam fastball that is that's wizardry that's literal wizardry

that's not normal for those that are not really into the pitching numbers and all that stuff but that is very good think about it like this right the strike zone itself is 18 inches long so the pitch ran an entire strike zone away from Juan Soto yeah that's after starting in the strike zone

that's impossible to hit and if Juan Soto can't hit that if Juan Soto isn't able to identify that that's going outside of the zone the no one's going to be able to identify that no one's going to be able to lay off of that no one's going to be able to catch up to it it's uh that's just just a ridiculous pitch. Louis Castillo is nasty at times, dude. He is nasty. The first inning, like I said, you know, and you go back to the start against the White Sox last Wednesday, obviously that didn't end the way that, you know, Luis and everyone would have hoped. But

the seven straight strikeouts to start the game, like we are seeing some elite level pitching out of Luis Castillo at times. We'd like to see, you know, maybe a little more of a consistent start, maybe get more deep into a game. He's had a couple starts like that though. So, you know, but we'd like to see more of that. And obviously with the schedule getting a lot lighter, there's going to be more opportunities for that as well for Castillo to do that. Just naturally thinking about the offenses that he's going to face.

But what a day for Luis Castillo today. And the Mariners now get win number 80 on the regular season. Colby, we hear the term magic number a lot during this time of year. What does that mean, first of all? Yes, the magic number is the number of results that need to go your way in order to clinch a playoff spot. Results being wins and losses, but not just your own, also the teams that are chasing you. So basically you have your magic number every time you win a game. A number gets, you take a number down from that.

You subtract one one game from that. every time your opponent that's chasing you loses a game that number also goes down by one and i think right now we're all safe in assuming that the only team that can catch the mariners and knock them out of the playoffs entirely is the baltimore orioles uh Minnesota is obviously not going to do it nobody from the central is going to do it so that leaves Baltimore so while technically teams like minnesota could still get in in the wild card and cleveland can still get in or you know one of the AL Central teams can still get into the wildcard. It would take literal historic runs by those teams to do that.

And that's just not going to happen. So really, the only team that matters for the Mariners' purposes of making the playoffs. Again, not to get the number one C, not for any of that stuff, just to get into the playoffs. The only team you should take into account when you're looking for a magic number is Baltimore, because they're the only ones that can actually catch you. Yeah. So what is the Mariners magic number? at now after this went.

Yes. So keep in mind that this is my math. So I might be off. Mathing is hard sometimes, as we all know. Yes. And as Maddie knows, sometimes spelling is hard. But such a weird shot.

It is, but it mirrors one. I'm in a good mood. So anyways, you look at where, the first thing you got to do is you got to look at the standards, right? So Seattle is as of right now, They are five and a half up on Baltimore pending the completion of their game. They're tied right now with Washington. But we'll just call it simple. We'll call it five, right?

There are five games up on Baltimore. But they have the tiebreaker, which means technically they are six games up on Baltimore. So Seattle has 20 games left. Baltimore after tonight will also have 20 games left. That means Seattle or that means Baltimore has to go, has to be six games better over their next 20 than Seattle. has to be then Seattle is over there next 20 so what is the number of games the mariners have to win to make whatever the Orioles do irrelevant 15 15 is the answer the mariners go 15 and 5 over the last 20 Baltimore could go 20 and no and not get not get in the

playoffs so the mariner's magic number right now is 15 got knocked down again today because the mariners won if Baltimore loses to the nationals which yeah we'll see uh then that number goes down to 14. Every time the Mariners win a game gets knocked down, every time the Orioles lose the game, number gets knocked down. So right now, as things sit right now, I believe the magic number is 15. Might be 14. It kind of is a little bit fluid right now because Baltimore is playing. But yes, if the Mariners go, actually, you know what? I'm wrong. It is 14 because if the Mariners go 14 and 6 and Baltimore goes 20 and 0, right? They set six games.

Baltimore is six games back of Seattle. It's a tie. Seattle goes. So that's the magic number. You need any combination of 15 more Marinery wins and Oriole losses gets them into the playoffs. There you go. There you go. And, you know, after the game, Julio Rodriguez, dressed in the fans at T-Mobile Park,

you know, saying that you guys know what we're playing for. And by the time that they get back to T-Mobile Park after this upcoming road trip, the opportunity to clench might be there. Maybe they've already done it by the time that they get back to T-Mobile Park, non-zero chance that that happens.

But I think you and I, Colby, we both are in agreement that the Mariners, it's only right for them to clinch in front of the fans at T-Mobile Park, right? Fingers crossed. Yes, yes. Yes, unfortunately, there's a good chance Baltimore will, you know, there's a good chance the Mariners will clinch when they're not on the field

or when they're in the middle of the game, right? I think what you and I really want, obviously just make the playoffs. But if we could draw it up any way we want, we want the Mariners to make the final, get the final out, have that be the win that clenches their playoff spot. So we could see the dog pile and get the celebration in the stadium and all that stuff. That's ideally what you want. Might not work out that way, but that's certainly,

what you're hoping for, but at the end of the day, just get in and we'll find a way to celebrate later. Yeah, that's the one thing that sucks about the team that's chasing you, being the Orioles and being on the East Coast, is that they're going to be playing their games. Most of their games is about three hours ahead of you. So by the time that you start your game, their game might already be over or about to be over. So yeah, so that seems to be the likeliest outcome that it's, you know, they eventually clenched because Baltimore lost, not because the Mariners won, but who knows? Maybe there is a perfect combination that leads to, you know,

maybe the magic number goes to one after the Orioles lose on a night, and the Mariners, they win that game and they get it, right? Maybe that's it. Hopefully that's it. Hopefully that's it. Hopefully, that's it. Yes, yes. Hopefully.

Hopefully, hopefully. Definitely not at Oakland. God. Please don't be at Oakland. that feels so wrong that feels so wrong that feels that feels disgusting you have to go into those clubhouses and like pot the champagne and i feel like i need a shower just even thinking about that ballpark you don't want to shower in that ballpark there's leaking sewage lines all over the place yeah yeah that ballpark is nasty as someone that has attended multiple games at that ballpark in the past

it is everything that people say it is you should admit to something like that. I'm not proud of it. I'm certainly not proud of it. You know what I am proud of, though, Colby? Uh-oh. The fact that Bluetooth is our sponsor this afternoon.

Fellas, we all know that confidence can take you far in life. That's especially true in the bedroom, especially when it's time to step up to the plate. That's where Blue Chew comes in. Blue Chew is a unique online. service that delivers the same active ingredients as Viagra and Cialis, but in chewable tablets, and at a fraction of the cost. You can take them any time day or night so you can plan ahead

or be ready whenever an opportunity arises. You know what I'm talking about. The process is simple. Sign up at bluechew.com. Consult with one of their licensed medical providers. Once you're approved, you'll receive your prescription within days. And the best part, it's all done online. So no visits to the doctor's office, no awkward conversations, and no waiting in line at the pharmacy. Blue choose tablets are made in the USA and prepared

and shipped direct to your door in a discreet package. And with Bluetooth, men everywhere are excited to see the postman because when your package has arrived, your package has arrived. So, if you can benefit from extra confidence

when it's time to perform, chew it and do it. And we've got a special deal for our listeners. Try Bluetooth free when you use our promo code locked on at checkout. Just pay $5 shipping. That's Bluetooth.com. promo code locked on to receive your first month free. Visit Bluetooth.com for more details and important safety information.

And we thank Blue Chew for sponsoring the podcast. You're listening to the Locked On Mariners podcast. And thank you again for making us your first listen after the game. And just a reminder. Because I've gotten a couple of DMs out. asking if it's too late to submit a video saying what the Mariners making the playoffs would mean to you. And no, it is not too late, actually. The deadline is Friday night, this Friday night, at 11.59 p.m. Pacific time.

So please record a 45 second to a one-minute video of you saying who you are, how long have you been a Mariners fan and what the Mariners being in the playoffs would mean to you. to Lockdown Mariners at gmail.com and if you get it to us by Friday at or by 1159 p.m. Pacific time on Friday

you'll get yourself into a very special episode of Locked on Mariner's that will be posted later on this month. I'm going to start getting to editing it together on the weekend so should be could even be coming next week or maybe a little

my idea, but But yeah, sure, you edit it together. That's fine. I mean, all right. If you want to, hey, if you want to take the work off of me, if you want to take the work off of me, I will happily, I will happily push that over to you, sir. I just know how you like to exclude me from things that are my idea. So, yeah, just, you know, throw that up.

And by the way, guys, let's be honest, you think if you send your submission at Saturday at like 1203 a.m., we're not going to take it. Yeah, no, it's fine. It's fine. It's fine. Yeah, we'll take it. We'll take it. We'll take it. But we would prefer if you would get it to us. be easier for us if you get it done by Friday. Yes. Yes, please.

Okay. So the offense explodes for six runs today after getting shut out by the Padres last night. You Darvish was, as you described, effectively wild yesterday. And but the, but the mariners were not able to do any damage against them. They were able to get a lot of hard hit balls and balls to the warning track. Just couldn't get any runs on the board. Couldn't get any traction there. That changed today.

however. Julio Rodriguez leads off the game with a solo home run. Then two batters later, a Eugenio Suarez goes deep again for like the millionth time in the month of September. 31 home runs now for Gino. And then Carlos Santana, who has the most perplexing baseball savant page and the history of baseball servant, possibly, as Jordan Schusterman of Sespas Family BBQ pointed out today, hits a three-run home run. massive three run home run to give the mariners the insurance that they need to put the Padres away today. But I want to circle back to Julio Rodriguez, who joined the 25-25 club. He becomes just the third rookie in Major League history to join the 25-25 club. And what that is is 25 home runs, 25 stolen bases. He stole his 25th bag today, hit his 26th

home run of the season. Congratulations to Julio Rodriguez and Colby. I mean, you know, we predict, we had some predictions that we made, you know, coming out of the All-Star break. One of them was, will Julio Rodriguez be a 30-30 guy? Will he get 30 steals? Will he get 30 home runs? Does it seem like he's going to get there now? I'd still say no. Okay.

I think he's going to fall a couple of steel short. Yeah, I think it will be steals. He's having an incredible month of September, which is good because he had a little slide there in August when he first came back from the injury. He still found a way to help quite a bit during that time. But now he's on fire. He's like, if you look at, for example, right, if you look at Adley Ruchman's numbers in September, he's been very good. And Julio is still putting distance between him and Adley for the rookie of the year. But I think Julio will get the home runs.

The stolen bases, again, he had 21 at the break. And now he's just now getting to 25. And with the Mariners being in the position they're in where they're going to be playing a bunch of, let's just call them bad. teams because that's what they are. And they're in a very good spot to make the playoffs. At some point down the line, they'll have clinched a playoff spot. They might be the Mariners plan to get him some days off down the stretch just to kind of try and keep him fresh.

So I think he's not going to run as much. They don't want to risk that. So I feel like maybe like their one shot is that like, Julio, if you get one week to steal five bases. And if you can't do it, we're going to shut you down from stealing base. bases. So I think he'll fall short on the steals, home runs. I think he'll probably get to 30. He's just on such a nice run right now that he's sitting the ball so hard. It's hard to kind of bet against him reaching the 30 home run mark. I just I just think the Mariners are more so than

Julio are going to, I don't want to say that the marries are going to prevent Julio from getting the 30, 30. But I think they're going to strongly encourage him not to steal bases in the latter half of the year or the latter part of this last 20 games. Thankfully, you know, he did get hit by a pitch today on the chest and thank God that it didn't hit his wrist or his hand. That's immediately what I thought. Yep. Especially after the reaction and the way he was kind of letting his shoulder hang for a little

bit there. Obviously, you know, I don't want him to get hit at all, but I'm very glad that it wasn't his wrist or his forearm or. or his hand or anything like that. Yeah, you know, I can't wait until Mike Trout gets on Twitter and says Clevenger needs to be banned for Major League Baseball because he can't pitch inside. I'm sure that reaction is coming because Mike Trout, as we know,

is a very level-headed guy who is not a coward who starts brawls and then stands in the back. That's totally not Mike Trout's thing. But, yeah, I did find a humorous that immediately the next pitch after he gets hit by the pitch, he steals second base. Yeah. I thought that was kind of a little, you know, screw you to Clevenger. Yeah, I think, you know, again, the most important thing is to make sure you have a healthy Julio in the playoffs.

Because if you don't, you're probably going to and queue. Like you're probably getting sweat because you need Julio to be good to make your playoff run. And right now he's on such a heater that I just think the Mariners might err on the side of caution, particularly down the last 10 games or so once it looks like they got everything they can get clenched, they have it. So we'll see, but I wouldn't say it's impossible. So,

Eugenio Swares just keeps on mashing baseballs. Tater after Tater after Tater. It feels like he hits a home run every game now this month. It just continues and continues and continues. There's no stop. There's no signs. of him slowing down. There's no, I mean, you know, we've seen him have some, some hot runs this season.

And then, you know, there's, he's kind of had a roller coaster season. You know, two weeks, he'll be red hot. Next two weeks. Next two weeks, red hot. Next two weeks, kind of bad again. You know, and then it just, it's, that cycle has kind of repeated throughout the season. But now, you know, I think we're going on week three that he's just been smoking the baseball. I mean, if he continues to do this throughout the month of September,

I mean, you said that maybe he should start hitting two. You still on that train? Sure, why not? Yeah. You want more at-bats for Gino or you want fewer at-bats for Gino? The way Ty France and Mitch Hanigur are swinging it right now. The answer seems kind of obvious. He needs to be hitting in the first inning at least, so if not two, he needs to hit three.

and he has the last few days with the absence of Hanager. That needs to be permanent. There's really just no way around it. So, yeah, Gino should be hitting in the top three. At least I would have a go, Julio, Gino. I get why the Mariners maybe don't want to do that because he still does strike out quite a bit. And you want some contact skills up top.

And Julio, while he's gotten a lot better at it, he still will strike out some. And Gino, obviously, is going to strike out. It's part of his game. So I get it. You want Ty France up there. He's got some contact skills, but what good is that done for you recently?

And by the way, France getting hit again today on the forearm. It's never going to stop, guys. Ty France is going to continue to get hit by an abnormally large amount of pitches. So, yeah. Has he ever considered wearing a wrist guard? I don't know. Last two years, his overall numbers will suffer greatly because of, a long stretch where he was dealing with a wrist injury.

So should consider something. So the other thing that I wanted to talk about today, J.P. Crawford's defense has been, let's just say it, putrid this month. It's been awful. He had another kind of defensive lapse yesterday. He obviously

had two pretty big errors in the Atlanta series. Of course, he's dealing with a pectoral injury and I would assume that's probably at least playing some role in that because you know he has I would say that you know this year he took a step back defensively but he was still you know good we still saw flashes of like great JP defense you know we've still seen you know the good of JP with the glove this year but this month there's some uncharacteristic mistakes from JP and the mariners right now don't really have a guy that is a natural shortstop. You know, Adam Fraser is probably the backup right now. But the Mariners might have some good news on that front. Dylan Moore, who suffered an oblique injury and landed on the IL on August 30th, had took BP yesterday and felt good. And Scott's service today said that Moore should be back on the upcoming road trip. So what does that give the Mariners here? What does that add to the Mariners getting Dylan Moore back on having maybe someone that could spell JP for a couple

days that's short. Not much. Dylan Moore kind of sucks. Come on. By the way, as I was asking that question, I knew that was going to be your answer. And I asked it anyway, which is, you know, usually like I know the answer to your, to my question when I ask it to you most of the time. And I just still ask it anyway.

Yeah, you can't just lob that softball out there and expect me to take it. Well, I mean, I'm doing that on purpose because I know what the people want here, right? The people want... Dillmore is the worst player in baseball history. Yeah, they want you to drag Dillamore. Even though they love Dillamore, they love you dragging Dillamore. Do people love Dillon more than they love me dragging Dillamore? That's a good poll question.

It's a good poll question, yes. Let us know in the comments below if you're watching it on YouTube. Yes. Yeah, you know, send us an email. So, yeah. I think Dimo could help if for no other reason, then he gets JP off the field for more than a day at a time. You know, JP's not in the lineup once and people are like, oh, wow, that's huge.

It's noteworthy, right? And JP's a guy who's faded throughout his entire career. He did it last year as well. So JP's a guy, maybe you don't want him playing 150 games. You know, maybe he's a guy who needs to be playing 120. Unfortunately, the Mariners don't have that guy right now. although apparently Mason McCoy hit a 458 foot

game winning home run last night. I'm sorry? What? Yes. I didn't hear about that. According to the Rainier's Twitter account, the estimated distance of a home run was 458 feet and it was a game winner. I mean, to be fair, PCL ball, but 458. It's 458.

That's still impressive. Yes, very much of course. I think that's impressive. You had a bouncy ball. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, forget the baseball. But they just don't really have that guy. So, yeah, Dylan Moore should help with that. Moore should get some at-bats, particularly against lefties.

Towards the bottom of the lineup, obviously. But Moore's handled lefties pretty well. He had some thump to the lineup as well. And he is obviously an upgrade over somebody like, you know, Jesse Winker defensively, Mitch Hanigar defensively. At this stage, Adam Frazier defensively. So, yeah, Dylan Moore can help this team. you have to get not good Dillemore

but you can't get like 80% Dillan more because 100% Dillan more is like he's like barely the 26 guy on a roster 80% Dillamore you're probably better off going you're probably better off going shot than VR yeah I think Dillamore can't help I do

I think you have to be smart about it and he has to be 100% this was an oblique injury yes if I remember correctly, or quad. Right, right strained oblique. Yeah, that's tough to come back from. And that's usually it doesn't happen this fast. So if you're not getting a 100% Dylan Moore, you're getting a very bad baseball player

because 100% Dylan Moore. You get it, you get it. But yeah, I do think he can help. I do think you can add some power. He can add some base running skills late. He's definitely versatile defensively. He's a guy you probably want starting in left or right field against lefties.

at least on some, or maybe even second base against lefties, so you can sit Frasier and use him later. So yes, Dillan Moore can help this team, but it has to be healthy Dillmore. You're probably utilizing him much. For sure.

All right. Well, it seems like our internet connection is telling us to hop off the show now. So we're going to do that. That's going to do it for us. Thank you so much for joining us. joining us here on the Lockdown Mariners postgame show for Colby Paddode. I'm Tiding

Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez, the C-A-N-ZL-Z and Colby at C-Pout 11. That's CPAT-1-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. And thank you again for making us your first listen after the game. Now make your second listen, the Lockdown MLB podcast. MLB expert Paul Francis Sullivan brings humor, passion, and unique perspective on every team and the biggest stories around the league. Follow the number one daily league wide podcast locked on MLB on the Odyssey app, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcast just like us. And with that,

have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you tomorrow.