Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Two Out of Three Ain't Bad

Episode Date: May 3, 2021

The Mariners did take two of three games over the weekend against the Angels. D.C. talks about all three games, including Saturday's disastrous outing from Ljay Newsome, and Sunday's pitcher's duel. He also breaks down Jacob Nottingham's very brief and very odd tenure with the M's organization. In C block, D.C. offers some grand slam trivia on the anniversary of Dan Wilson's inside-the-park salami against the Tigers in the Kingdome. 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.

Today on Locked-on Mariners, I move my psychiatry practice to an office in my home, after my wife gets a job as a journalist to help look after our three children. Not four children. Can't forget about Chrissy. Welcome to Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. I'm sure that there are a lot of you who watched that particular program. Who would like to forget about Chrissy? Well, gang, another week is upon us.

looking us up today. I'm D.C. Lundberg and I'm the host of this little show called Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on podcast network brought to you by Built Bar. Please remember to download, rate, and follow this program on whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use. Ask your smart device to play Locked on Mariner's podcast or any program here on Floppet. It is so simple to do and so much fun. All you got to do is say, hey, smart device. Please play Locked on Mariner's podcast. Well, gang, I'm not exactly the happiest person right now. There was an incident at the World Women's Curling Championships over the weekend.

A number of members of the broadcast team tested positive for COVID Saturday night, leading to a short delay Sunday morning, and also leading to no broadcast coverage until Tuesday, no TV coverage, no streaming coverage. The latter doesn't, you know, doesn't really do me any good since its region blocked in the United States anyway. But the United States did beat Canada yesterday afternoon in what looked like a great match looking at the line score, and no one will ever get to see it.

At least we have a couple of Mariner wins to talk about today. I'm going to combine Fridays and Saturday's games into this first segment rather than giving them each their own segment, partially because Saturday's game was so awful, but mainly because I saw very little of either game in all honesty. We'll start with Friday's game. It was not a day for starting pitching. Andrew Heaney and Chris Flexen combined for seven in the third innings. Flexen pitching four and throwing and needing a lot of pitches to get through those four

innings. Flexen allowed four hits in his four innings, three runs all of them earned, one walk and a home run, a solo blast off the bat of the incomparable Shohei Altani in the third inning. The Mariners got Heaney for three home runs in his three in a third, the first one coming off the bat of Mitch Hanager to lead off the bottom of the first. And the other two, by players who have gotten off to horrible starts thus far, Dylan Moore and Tom Murphy. Heaney allowed six hits overall and four runs, all of those earned, and he walked two. The Mariners walked six times as a team, two of them came around to score, and the Angels committed two errors which led to runs. as well. Flexon may not have done his best work on Friday, but the bullpen really picked him up.

Drew Steckin Rider, Casey Sadler, and Anthony Masevich combined for four innings and didn't allow a base runner, and Shaggy struck out three. In fact, he was the only Mariner pitcher to record a strikeout on Thursday. Rafael Montero came into pitch the ninth with a four-run lead, gave up a lead-off double to Mike Trout, who scored one batter later on an RBI single by Jared Walsh. was it, though, and the Mariners won 7 to 4. Shaggy's second rider got the win, while Heaney was tagged with the loss. Manninger went two for four with that home run. Dylan Moore went two for three with a home run and an RBI single, drew a bases on balls and scored twice. J.P. Crawford went two for four, and Tom Murphy, the number nine hitter, went two for three with a walk. I noted on

Friday's program that service was not shy about putting both of his catchers in the starting lineup, and he had Jacob Nottingham sitting on the bench as a reserve catcher for this one as well. Both Torrens and Murphy started on Friday. Torrens was behind the dish while Murphy was the DH. That would be the only day Nottingham spent on the Mariners Big League roster. He was designated for assignment on Saturday and the Mariners recalled pitcher Wyatt Mills from Tacoma to take up that roster spot. For what it's worth, Nottingham had been assigned uniform number 13. I realize that's probably of little concerned to any of you out there listening,

but since he never got into a game, and therefore it's not going to show up on a baseball reference, I wanted to get it on the record. So if someone is listening to this in 2024, Jacob Nottingham wore number 13 for his one day as a Seattle Mariner. Nottingham had originally been acquired from the M's as a waiver claim last Wednesday during the series in Houston and placed on the big league roster prior to Friday's game. Then DFAed the next day.

Yesterday the Mariners traded him away to the Brewers, the exact same team, from whence he came. Milwaukee sent cash considerations to the Mariners, which I'm pretty sure means about $400 in Ivar's gift certificates. Anyways, as Saturday's game was a mess, honestly, the less said about it the better. L.J. Newsom got his first start of the season. It was a disaster. He only went two innings during which he allowed eight runs on seven hits and two walks and allowed three home runs. Robert Dugger pitched the next three innings and was marginally better. He allowed another two runs on two hits and one walk and allowed another home run, but struck out three. Kenan Middleton, Wyatt Mills, and Domingo Toppia pitched the final four innings and gave up no more runs.

Middleton and Tapia each gave up two hits, but nothing else. The Mariners had a tough time figuring out Griffin Canning. He actually was somewhat wild, but the end still could not do very much. had his slider diving away from right-handed hitters and got a lot of swings and misses and some ground ball outs. The Angels committed two errors in the third inning. With one out, Murphy reached first base on a throwing error by shortstop Jose Iglesias, and Murphy was immediately driven in by J.P. Crawford on a double. Mitch Hanigar then reached first base on another throwing error by Iglesias. He's ordinarily a pretty decent fielder, not really gold glove caliber like their

previous shortstop, Andrelton Simmons, who is now with the twins, but he's certainly more than serviceable. They committed three errors overall, while the Mariners committed two, pretty sloppy ballgame. Tom Murphy had a throwing error, and Kyle Seeger had yet another fielding error. This was his fifth already this season. He made four all of last year in 53 games, and his fielding percentage this year is 934, which is beginning to get down toward Russ Davis territory. Okay, it's not that bad, but it's been a far cry from his gold glove days for sure. And his range numbers are down as well. He'd ordinarily been above average in terms of range numbers at third base,

but he's fallen to below average this year. We'll talk about yesterday's victory here in a bit, but first the trivia corner and this trivia question. Today, May 3rd, is the anniversary of Dan Wilson's Inside the Park Grands, slam against the Detroit Tigers in the kingdom. Who was on base? I will tell you, after this word from betonline.ag, the fastest and easiest way to bet on all your sports action.

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Coming up, would justice prevail in Seattle, or would the Angels accomplish a miscarriage of justice? More awful wordplay in a jiff. Welcome back to Locked-on Mariners. Here once again is your host, D.C. Lundberg. That was Joey Martin, the intrepid announcer here on Locked on Mariners. Give him a big cheer out there if you're listening. Why'd I say that? Prior to yesterday's game, another pitcher landed on the disabled list.

Casey Sadler was placed on the... the 10-day IL with an inflamed right shoulder. Eric Swanson was recalled to take his spot in the bullpen. Yesterday's game was yet another pitching duel. Justice Sheffield would tow the rubber for the M's, and while he did keep the Angels off the scoreboard in his six innings of work, it was a little bit of a struggle. He did allow only two hits,

but he walked three and hit two batters and needed 103 pitches in those six innings. This is the first time he's thrown 100 pitches or more in a major league game. Dylan Moore committed a fielding error in the third as well, which did not help matters. Dylan Bundy also pitched six innings for the Angels, and he allowed five hits and a walk, but two runs, both of them earned. He had a very impressive slider yesterday, which helped him strike out six Mariners, and I also liked the looks of his curveball. The Mariners first got on the board in the fourth. After Ty France got the inning started with a strikeout, the Kyle connection hit back-to-back singles. Jose Mormalejos struck out.

Then Dylan Moore got enough of a sinker on the inner half of the plate to pop over second base into shallow right-center field, scoring Seeger. In the fifth, Luis Torrens led off with a double. Then a little small ball was put into play. Telegram Sam Haggerty was up, showed Bunt on the first pitch, but took that first pitch breaking ball for ball one. He swung at the next one, though, which was a fastball off the inside corner, Then with the infield still drawn in, he bunted the ball firmly to third base when Anthony Rendon on a beautiful sacrifice play.

Haggerty's job was to get Torens over to third base any way he could, either with a sack bunt or a groundout or even a base hit. Mike Blowers on the TV broadcast was speculating that the sack bunt call might not have been from the dugout, but that telegram Sam might have taken it upon himself to move the runner over in that fashion. Although he didn't call him telegram Sam. I'm the only one who does. But anyways, with Torens on third, Mitch Hanager sent a fly ball out to center field, which was caught by Mike Trout for the inning's second out,

and Torens came into score on a sack fly. I do love me some small ball, ladies and gentlemen, and with runs seemingly at a premium yesterday, and also with the Mariner offense, not really doing much lately, other than a couple of impressive innings, definitely the right call. And Torenz's run would be the last score,

of the day. And while Justice Sheffield was not exactly top chef yesterday, he was certainly good enough to pick up his second win of the season while Bundy got the loss and fell to 0 in 3. The bullpen threw four scoreless innings. This group of relievers is a complete 180 from the disaster that we saw last season. And service showed a bit of old school managing in the eighth inning. He brought in Kendall Graveman, the club's best reliever, to pitch the eighth. and did not save him for the 9th. But the 3, 4, and 5 hitters were due up in the 8th, so even though it was not a save situation at that time,

well, it was if he would have pitched multiple innings, but he didn't. He still brought in the ace reliever to get the heart of the order out. He got Mike Trout to ground out, allowed a single to Anthony Rendon, then got Jared Walsh to ground into a double play up the middle to end the inning. If you go back a few years before so-called save inflayers, took over, many times the team's closer would come in in the middle innings to try to put out

whatever fire was afoot. It wouldn't count as a save in the box score. But if you needed a game saved earlier than the ninth inning in order to keep the other team from going ahead, then it would not be unusual at all to see the closer go out there before the end of the game, well before the end of the game. There was a game that MLB Network rebroadcast several years ago, was from 1979, I think. It was a wild one between the Phillies and I think the Cubs, and I think it was in Wrigley Field. Tug McGraw was brought in the fifth or sixth inning when the Phillies were in trouble.

It used to happen quite frequently. This is just one example that's popping into my brainhead. Even with the M's not having a designated closer at this time, I was somewhat surprised to see Graven warming up in the 8th. Not unpleasantly surprised, mind you, considering who, considering who was due up, but surprised nonetheless. Raphael Montero got the ninth inning, and I kind of figured that the Angels were going to at least tie the game.

But he looked great in the ninth inning, set them down in short order, and preserved the two-nothing victory, and he earned his fourth save. It was a total team effort yesterday. The offense strung together some hits in the fourth to score a run and scratched another run across in the fifth with a sack bunt and a sack fly. And they also stole three bases. Dylan Moore stole his sixth. Telegram Sam stole his fifth, and Taylor Tremel stole his second.

While the starting pitching on both sides could have been a little sharper, it still was a great game. The Mariners begin a three-game series against the Orioles this evening in Seattle. Dean Kramer will get the start for Baltimore. He looked pretty rough in his other start in Baltimore against Seattle and has something, I think, a seven and a half something ERA still for this season. And Scott Service has yet to announce who will get the nod, pardon me, for the ends.

This would be Marco Gonzalez's turn in the rotation, and it's going to be a bullpen game. He wanted to see how yesterday's game went before making a decision on a contingency plan for tonight. But if I had to guess, I'd guess that Eric Swanson would probably be the most likely candidate among the available pitchers. Just a guess, do not read anything into that.

If you got a question or a comment, I encourage you to send it into Lockdown Mariners at gmail.com. and I also encourage you to ask questions and have nothing to do with baseball. Questions and comments on any subject are welcome. Coming up, I tell you more about Dan Wilson's Inside the Park Grand Slam while eating an entire box of Bilt Bars. And speaking of, did you know the Bilt Bar is the best tasting protein bar on the market? And did you also know that this is the first time that I've worked a sponsor's name into the T's?

Anyways, they're high in fiber and protein while also being low in calories and shat. sugar. I almost said shalleries, which is not a word. They come in 18 delicious flavors. All of them are great. My favorites are peanut butter brownie and mint browning. Going over to Biltbar.com to buy to try some for yourself. You can order their variety pack, which includes one each of all 18 flavors, or compile a box of three flavors of your choosing. And if you try to use promo code snork, glorg, gloggy-glog, and nothing happens. So just use promo code Locked 15. checkout and you will get 15% off your order. Builtbar.com promo code Locked 15 LOCED-E-D-15 for 15% off your order. Built Bar, is it in you? Welcome back to Locked-on Mariners. Here once again is your host, D.C.

Lundberg. Thank you once again, J.M. circling back to the trivia corner at the beginning of A Block, I'm going to talk more about Dan Wilson's Inside the Park Grand Slam here in a bit, but I'm also going to talk about some other Grand Slam trivia. Yesterday, just yesterday, the Dodgers put a whooping on the Brewers in Milwaukee. And the aforementioned Jacob Nottingham got the start as catcher for Milwaukee, but that is not why I am bringing this up. The final score was 16 to 4, and 15 of those Dodger runs were driven in by just two players. Matt Beatt Beattie, the number 6 hitter, went 4 for 6 and drove in 7.

He also scored 3 runs. The number seven hitter, A.J. Pollack, went three for six and drove in eight runs. They're only the sixth pair of teammates to each drive in seven or more runs since 1920, when RBI became an official statistic. The other RBI, by the way, was driven in by the number eight hitter, Gavin Lux. Brewer's starter, Alex Bettinger, was making his major league debut, and it was a forgettable one to say the least. He did go four innings, but gave up 11 runs. on 11 hits and two walks. The next guy, veteran Jordan Zimmerman, really didn't fare much better.

Five runs on five hits and two walks in three and two thirds. Beattie and Pollock both hit Grand Slam home runs, and Pollock added a three-run blast. Going back a few years, the Dodgers are on the other side of some historic Grand Slams. On April 23rd, 1999, Fernando Tatis made history. In Dodgers Stadium, he came to bat with the bases loaded with no one out in the third inning with his Cardinals down to nothing. He blasted a Grand Slam home run off Chanho Park to give his team a 4-2 lead.

He was not nearly done, though. The Cardinals scored three more times that inning before Tatis again stepped to the plate with the bases loaded. He worked the count full, then launched his second Grand Slam of the inning. and the Cardinals had an 11 to 2 lead. Former Mariner Darren Bragg was on base for both of these grand slams, and the Cardinals would eventually win 12 to 5. Now to Dan Wilson's inside the Parker. It occurred on this date, in history, as it were, May 3rd, 1998.

It was the first inning against the Detroit Tigers that day. I'm going to take you through that whole inning. The Tiger's starting pitcher was Frank Castillo. Joey Cora led off by grounding out, innocently enough. Alex Rodriguez followed with a groundball single. Ken Griffey Jr. struck out. David Siggy singled to center field and Edgar Martinez walked. Dan Wilson then stepped up and hit a high line drive off the wall in left center field,

which both Luis Gonzalez and Brian L. Hunter misplayed to some degree. They almost crashed into each other. The ball bounced off the wall and rolled away into right. field and by the time shortstop Davey Cruz went to retrieve the ball, Willie was steaming around the bases and the throw home was not really close at all and Dan Wilson had himself and inside the park Salami. The Mariners scored one more time that inning against Castillo. Russ Davis scored on a Rob Deucy double. Then the Mariners scored five more in the second. Castillo walked Joey core to lead off the second. Alex Rodriguez hit another ground ball single. Then Castile was removed from

the game mercifully in favor of AJ Sager. Sager promptly gave up back-to-back RBI singles to Ken Griffey Jr. And David Sagi, then Edgar Martinez blasted a three-run home run to put the Mariners up 10 to 2. Those 10 runs would be all they would score the entire game, five apiece in the first and second innings and they won 10 to 6. Willie's Inside the Park Grand Slam was the first in Mariner history, and I'm honestly not recalling another time that a Mariner hit one. If you remember another time that it happened, please email me at the email address that I listed at the end of B Block.

Wilson has at least one more Inside the Park home run, I believe, but I could not find the game in which it occurred. I want to say it was 1999, because I seem to remember that Shane Monaghan was on deck, but my memory could be failing me. His first grand slam of the conventional type over the wall occurred in 1996 off the Angels Jim Abbott in the kingdom. The starting pitchers in both of those games for the Mariners, none other than Randy Johnson.

Get all the sports news you need in under 20 minutes with a locked on today podcast. Host Peter Bikowski updates you on the latest news in every major sport with the help of our local experts. follow a Locked-on podcast on the Odyssey app or wherever you get podcasts. That'll do it for today, gang. There will not be a show on Wednesday for reasons I will explain tomorrow. But on tomorrow's show, I will be joined by Howard Borden, Spuds McKenzie, and a swing set.

Please remember to download, rate, and follow Locked-on Mariners. Look for us in any podcasting app that springs into your mind. Leave a rating and review if your podcasting app of choice so allows. Thank you for listening to today's show, ladies and. gentlemen. Have a great Monday and I'll talk to you tomorrow. This is Joey Martin for Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network.