Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - YIKES: The 2026 Seattle Mariners Are a HISTORICALLY BAD Defensive Team

Episode Date: September 22, 2026

Ty and Colby discuss Kade Anderson's dominant start on Sunday, how the Mariners can play spoiler this week, and how the M's made history for the wrong reasons.Subscribe to the Control the Zone YouTube... channel and set alerts to be notified for Friday's free livestreamCheck out our Patreon!Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_MarinersFollow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolbySupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!IndeedListeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast.Gameday Mens HealthGameday Men’s Health is a real, in-person men’s health clinic that looks at the full picture  before developing a treatment plan. Book your complimentary test and consult at https://join.gamedaymenshealth.com/reasons_to_choose_gameday-1201?utm_source=lockedon&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=MLB&utm_network=lockedon&utm_adgroup=corp&ghl_tag=national,corpOdooGreat organizations win because operations matter. And that’s why you should get Odoo. Try for free today at https://Odoo.com/lockedon.5-Hour ENERGYGet candy-flavored chaos with Fruity Rainbow 5-hour ENERGY®️ Shots - available online at https://5hourENERGY.com or AmazonStanceCheck out the ICON collection from Stance—premium comfort, performance, and durability designed for whatever your day brings. Use promo Code LOCKEDON at checkout for 20% off your purchase.  Learn more at https://Stance.com.Stance. The Official Sock Partner of Major League Baseball.KALSHIFor a limited time, Download Kalshi and use code Locked On to get $25 when you trade $25. Kalshi. Trade what’s next.  GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. It’s time to put your knowledge to the test with College Football Pick’Em from FanDuel.  Download the FanDuel app and play College Football Pick'Em for free. Only on FanDuel.  Join all the action at https://FANDUEL.COM FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 The Mariners' bad defense has reached historic levels. Colby hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Ahoy, Sailors, it is Tuesday, September 22nd, 2026. My name is Tadangazilis, and I'm joined as always by my co-co's Colby Patnode. Today's episode is brought to you by Kalshi.
Starting point is 00:00:30 For a limited time, download Kalshi, and use the promo code locked on to get $25,000. when you trade 25. Cal sheet, trade what's next. On today's show, we'll tell you how the Marin has made history this past weekend, but not for the right reasons. Also tell you how they can play spoiler to their biggest rival over the next couple of days. But we start with Kate Anderson, who made the sixth start of his young Major League career on Sunday,
Starting point is 00:00:55 and it was by far his best of the bunch. Three hits, no runs, seven strikeouts, no walks, over seven innings pitched against the Colorado Rockies, eclipse a 40% whiff rate on both his curb ball and his change-up. He jobs, Colby. Yeah, pretty easily
Starting point is 00:01:17 his best outing of his young career, and he did it against a not good Rockies team, but certainly pitching in Coors field is difficult for anybody. And, you know, Colorado, Jake McCarthy is having a very good season that nobody's talking about.
Starting point is 00:01:33 and Hunter Goodman's having a very good season. And I don't have to see Cole Carrig run down another fly ball in the gap. But ever again, I'll be pretty happy about that. So there are some players here. It's not like he was facing a AAA lineup or anything like that, at least not half of one. But he still shoved. And again, to go seven innings of scoreless ball, only allowing three hits at Coors Field is pretty impressive in a game where there just wasn't a lot of energy on either side of the diamond. Cade really shoved.
Starting point is 00:02:02 and he very, very rarely found himself in any sort of trouble whatsoever. I think he had to pitch out of one mini jam, and that's it. And you just kind of look at how he did it. He threw 73% strikes in this game, 71% first pitch strike. So he got ahead early, and then he got guys, he got the Rockies to expand because he had a 40% chase rate in this game. And he was only in the strike zone for 52% of his pitches, yet he threw 73% strikes. like, yeah, that's what you want and that's what Kate has to do. He has to get guys to expand the zone.
Starting point is 00:02:40 And he talked a little bit about this either after, I think after a start, he said, you know, like one of the things I wanted to do is I'd get ahead O2 and I wanted to throw more pitches outside of the strike zone. Like I can't challenge everybody in the zone here like I couldn't double A. I have to get them to expand. And he did that very, very well. And he did it with the change up in the curbst, especially. Not to say the slider was a bad pitch or anything.
Starting point is 00:03:05 He got Hunter Goodman on a filthy back foot slider. I think that was the last out of the day for him. But regardless, it was a very, very good outing for him. The change up really popped, and he was able to throw it early in counts to get a strike. He was able to throw it late in the counts to expand the zone and get guys out of it. And I've said, you know, since his debut, that the change up is probably going to be the separator for him. because until he gets the fastball figured out, until he gets comfortable with the new ball,
Starting point is 00:03:36 he's going to need that change up to help the fastball play up to its max. And the breaking balls have been good, you know, and they've been a little inconsistent, as you might expect from a, you know, 22-year-old making his first, you know, handful of starts at the big league level. But we know that the breaking stuff is really good when it's on. And he can get tons of whiffs and tons of strikeouts on that. But you still have to have the fastball to set those up.
Starting point is 00:04:00 and how right now he's going to set up the fastball is with the change-up. And the change-up was very good. It was down in the zone. It was on the corners. Didn't sail that many of them. That's been a problem. He's been up and away with the change-up a lot on his last starts. He just looked comfortable out there.
Starting point is 00:04:13 He looked in total control. He went right after guys early in counts, and then he got them to expand and chase. And when you do that, you're not going to have a good day. I mean, against most pitchers, but you're certainly not going to have a good day against Kate Anderson. So really nice penultimate start for, for Cade. He'll get one more against the Angels. And we'll see if this one goes better than the last one against the Angels. And then that'll put a bow on what has been a very successful season for Cade. And we'll see if he can parlay that in 2027 into maybe a rookie of the year run. But we'll see how it goes. But yeah, this was easily Cade's best start and a lot to be really excited about. He even mixed in a sinker. Like what? Yeah, Kate Anderson apparently has a sinker or at least Stackass. I think.
Starting point is 00:04:59 so. So we'll see how that goes. They thought so seven times. So, I don't know. Interesting. Yeah. So we'll see if that's a new thing. I think Cade would really benefit from a cutter,
Starting point is 00:05:10 something like a little firmer slider. And on the right, he's especially of the fastball spin rate's not going to get to where you want it to be. But we'll see what he does. You know, he's got the entire winter to figure it out. And again, we are pretty darn confident. He's going to be in the opening day rotation next year. So, yeah, this is a great, you know, penultimate start.
Starting point is 00:05:32 And then we'll see if you can match it or come close to it and in the season on a high note against the Angels. But, yeah, this was great. And this is kind of one of the reasons. I mean, the Rocky series overall sucked because you barely won a series against like the worst team in baseball. And you know, just everything about September baseball sucks for the Mariners. But you did get a Kate Anderson gym. You got a big Las Montes home run. And you got a big.
Starting point is 00:05:59 Michael Royo hit to set up the home run to the first game. So that's kind of what September's been about is watching these young guys play. I don't know. Maybe they'll actually play a little bit here in the last week. That would be nice. But yeah, Cade was the star of the weekend.
Starting point is 00:06:15 Yeah. So spin rate on the fast ball, just one RPM down from his season average at the major league level. The curveball, though, 115 r p.m.'s up from his season average. Yeah. And obviously the curb ball eight in this game 43% whiff rate 56 point or 56% called strike plus
Starting point is 00:06:36 with rate so curb ball fantastic in this start change up starting to really come around as well like you mentioned yeah and keep in mind Colorado the the breaking stuff is is usually what suffers in Colorado it's hard to to really spin a breaking ball in Colorado well that's why so many Rockies pitchers are sinker that you don't see a lot of big curveballs in Colorado. So, yeah, for Kay to be able to do that in a unique environment. Although, yeah, no, because he, I was going to say, like in AAA, you pitch to, you pitch in Albuquerque and you pitch in Reno and these other environments that kind of do damage to the baseball.
Starting point is 00:07:18 And well, Kate didn't have that. He was pitching in Dickie Stevens and whatever other Pulparks they have in the Texas League. None of them are a mile above sea level is the point. And so, yeah, I thought Cade was really impressive in just about every factor. All right, coming up, the Mariners have the opportunity to play
Starting point is 00:07:36 spoiler against their biggest rival. We'll talk about that in just a moment, but first, a reminder this episode of the Lockdown Marries podcast is brought to you by five-hour energy and stance. If you've got a sweet tooth like I do, then you know how tough it is to find that perfect treat without all the sugar. That's why
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Starting point is 00:08:23 It's become my go-to when I want something sweet without good. going overboard. Get candy-flavored chaos with fruity rainbow five-hour energy shots available online at five-hour energy.com or Amazon. It's time for the everyday icon presented by Stance. As the official sock partner in Major League Baseball, Stance knows greatness isn't built in a single moment. It's earned over time through consistency, preparation, and showing up every day. That's why each week we're recognizing one player whose performance embodies those same qualities. This week's everyday icon is Kate Anderson, who threw seven scoreless settings in Colorado this past weekend.
Starting point is 00:09:01 The everyday icon is presented by Stance. Check out the icon collection from Stance, premium comfort, performance, and durability designed for whatever your day brings. Use the promo code locked on. That's LOCKD-O-N at checkout for 20% off your purchase. Stance, the official stock partner of Major League Baseball. Learn more at Stance.com. And you're listening to the Locktime Air and his podcast part of
Starting point is 00:09:28 the Locked-on podcast network, your team every day. Thank you so much for making us your first, listen for all things, Mariners, and also thank you for making Locked-on the number one sports podcast network. If you like the show, give this episode a like and hit the subscribe button if you're watching on YouTube,
Starting point is 00:09:42 or if you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, leave us a five-star review. It only takes a few seconds and really helps us out. Greatly, greatly appreciate it. So it is, unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you feel about this season at this point. Elimination week for the Mariners.
Starting point is 00:10:01 Their elimination number is now down to two in the American League West. They have already been eliminated from wild card contention. So any combination of two Mariners losses or officially knocks the Mariners out of the playoff race. Right now it's a two horse race for first place in the ALS for the ALS crown. Rangers currently have a game league. over the Houston Astros, the Astros with an elimination number of six. Depending on what the Rangers do these next couple days,
Starting point is 00:10:38 the Mariners could help bringing that number down to as low as two. As much as I'm bitter about the Mariners having to be in this position in the first place, I would like to see the Barron's play spoiler for the Astros. I mean, you know, take small wins where you can get them at this point, right? if there's anything to root for this week that isn't just tied to Las and Arroyo and Cade and the young guys it's this it's ensuring that your biggest rival gets to sit on the couch with you this October yes for the second September in a row you can snatch the soul of the Houston Astros and more or less in their season now unfortunately
Starting point is 00:11:33 it won't be because you're using their dead corpse to climb higher up on the mountain, but, you know, you could drag them down to the gates of hell with you. So that that's, you know, almost as good. Not really, but whatever. Take what you can get. It's an extreme way to describe it, but I like it. Yeah, yeah, whatever. It's the asteros. Screw them. But yeah, I mean, like, look, we'll see what kind of energy and effort these guys play with. If they had any pride at all, I feel like we would have seen it over the last three weeks. But here we are. So, which is pretty crazy because of the Mariners had just done what they were supposed to do. It would be like two games back right now. Yeah. Like the series would be very interesting. Yes. Yeah. Yes.
Starting point is 00:12:14 You'd be like two back right now and like this. Yeah. So you had your opportunity. You had your chance and you blew it. So. Yeah. We'll see if they have any fight left, any pride left whatsoever. Again, I doubt it.
Starting point is 00:12:28 But we'll see. You know, they do. If there's one thing, the 2026 Mariners have done well. And it's the only thing. They've done well. It's beat the Houston Astros. They are very good at that. I personally would very much like to,
Starting point is 00:12:44 mostly in the Astros season. Like you can't officially do it in the series. But I'd like to really much bury them at the very least. I want to leave here with something, guys. All right. Coming up, the Mariners made history in, Colorado. Not for a good reason. Talk about that. Just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the lockdown era's podcast is brought to you by Fandul and Kalsh. College football fans,
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Starting point is 00:15:34 the Seahawks and a whole lot more completely uncensored and unfiltered. Visit patreon.com forward slash control the zone for more information. Link in the description of this episode. And if you want to test around the show, be sure to tune in to our free live stream this Friday afternoon over on the Control the Zone YouTube page. Link for that will also be in the description. So the mayor's defense has been really bad this year.
Starting point is 00:16:01 We all know that. Talked a lot about that. well now it's reached historic levels colby after their series against the Rockies this comes from john troopin of lookout landing the mariners are now the 2026 marines specifically are now the worst defensive team in stat cast era history by outs above average they're at negative 56 outs above average they're passing the 2025 los angeles angels of Anaheim. Definitely a team you want to be in the company of. I know that totally fills you with joy that the Mariners are somehow worse than the Angels in at least one way. Well, several ways because they couldn't even win a series against them. So yeah, at this stage, my hope is that it's so tragically awful that the front office
Starting point is 00:17:01 realizes they have to change some stuff. But, yeah, the Mariners have never really cared about defense. And this team is just kind of the ultimate. Now, in their defense, Julio going from like near elite to below average was not a jump anybody could have seen coming. But you knew that JP was probably going to play a lot of shortstop for you. You knew that Brennan Donovan was going to be trying to learn third. But then again, Donovan only played like 38 games. So, but you knew that was a possibility that you were going to have this whole.
Starting point is 00:17:36 at third base at some point because you didn't know that Cole Young was going to explode. And there was always a possibility that you'd have to move Donovan to second base and then try to back build third base again. So some of this is, you know, Naylor got significantly worse. Cal stopped being able to throw out runners. Like some of this stuff was a little unforeseen, but not all of it. A lot of it was pretty blatantly obvious if you just looked at it. And the marriage just kind of refused.
Starting point is 00:18:03 And even with the bench guys that they brought in like Rob Rest, Snyder can't play defense you know Patrick wisdom can't play defense Connor Joe can't play defense like they did they just ignored defense and and this is the result and when you ignore defense in general and then you have guys who request defensively like some of your best gloves actually regress to yeah this is the result you're going to get and hopefully uh you know the front office has realized that like uh we can't we can't uh you know do this we don't have to be like elite but we can't be outlier awful on defense and we got to make changes to that.
Starting point is 00:18:39 I mean, and by the way, it's not like it gets significantly better if you use other defensive metrics. I know that, you know, defensive metrics are not 100% great. If you look at defensive runs saved,
Starting point is 00:18:50 they're 25th or 26. So it's not like they're leader. And keep in mind, that's what like Cole Young being like second best, second basement of baseball by that metric. Which I believe Cole Young's tragically awful. Now it's above average or one way or the other. So again,
Starting point is 00:19:04 they're not perfect. but we have eyes. We've watched this team play for 156 games. They're terrible defensive ball club. And it's not just the balls that they don't get to that they should. It's, you know, missing the cutoff man. It's making errant throws. It's not really understanding the situation.
Starting point is 00:19:22 And it's not knocking the ball down with a runner on second, you know, and keeping that ball in the infield. It's range. It's arm accuracy. It's knowing where to go with the baseball. like it's covering first base by the pitchers. That's been an issue this year. Heck, I mean, for two months,
Starting point is 00:19:40 Josh Neller could even flip the ball underhand to a pitcher correctly. So like it has just been an absolute avalanche of failure defensively this year. And they need to fix it. And as much as they need to fix the offense, which yes, they do. But I do think it's much fairer to say the offense will naturally get a little better because we're going to assume that Josh Naler and Cal Raleigh, and Julio and Brennan Donovan aren't this bad and aren't this unhealthy every year
Starting point is 00:20:10 because we have, you know, half a decade of date on all of them that says like, no, these guys are way better than this. And we're going to, we're going to count on them to do that. And that's not outrageous to me to think that you're going to get a better cow. You're going to get a better Julio. Donovan will play more than 38 games next year. And neither should be better too. That's going to do a good amount of heavy lifting.
Starting point is 00:20:29 Of course you still need to go replace Randy. Of course you still need to replace JP. but you can replace that value in other ways. You can get an average bat, like less than those guys are. But if they're plus defenders, then you're making up those runs in another avenue. You know, run prevention is twofold. It's pitching and it's defense. And while the priority should be pitching and pitching is, at least I think,
Starting point is 00:20:53 it's most of run prevention, you can't ignore the defense. And especially you can't have this lack of cohesion on your run prevention strategy. that we've talked about a lot over the years, and that is that you can't build a bullpen full of guys who get ground balls and then have an infield of guys who can't field ground balls. It doesn't make sense. They have to mess. If you're going to go and focus on ground ball pitchers,
Starting point is 00:21:15 you have to have an infield that can go get ground balls, and you're already going to be below average there at first base. So at shortstop and third, you cannot afford to be the worst in baseball or bottom three in baseball at both of those positions if you're going to continue to build your pitching staff this way. So you have to go get a plus glove at shortstop at the very least and then hope, I guess, Donovan is plus or, you know, maybe go get a third base,
Starting point is 00:21:37 if you can find one, go get a third baseman and move Donovan out to right field, which should improve the defense out there. So, yeah, it really is one of those things. The Mariners cannot afford to ignore defense like they have for the last, you know, three or four years. And in 2025's team, the defense was about average. It was kind of middle of the pack, which is all you have to be. Like, you don't have to go out and get a goal glover at shortstop, third base, and left field.
Starting point is 00:22:00 you just have to get three guys who can actually catch the baseball and throw it. Like get three average guys and your defense will improve significantly over what you have this year. Out of average is obviously a range base. Yep.
Starting point is 00:22:17 You need to get better athletes. Yep. And like you said, you're not going to be able to overall fix the product, right? Because Josh Taylor is going to be playing for a space. Julio, hopefully he can bounce back.
Starting point is 00:22:30 but Julio's going to be your centerfielder. There is no realistic shot that they're going to move him to a corner spot, even if there is an argument to me, yeah, even if there is an argument to be made for it. Brennan Donovan, probably going to play third base because like you, there's like 17 other teams also looking for a third baseman. Go find the third basement that's actually available. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:22:53 So you just can't magically make these players appear at a market that, in a market that is devoid of, enough talent but you need to go get better athletes you need to make up for your deficiencies in the ways that you can and it starts with getting better athletes in here and getting guys
Starting point is 00:23:13 that can cover more ground and that's what makes the the JP Crawford conversation so complicated because like yeah there aren't a lot of short stops out there and you're very familiar with JP and Cole Emerson isn't going to swing a bat for the whole off season and all that
Starting point is 00:23:30 but like JP's a bad shortstop. He's not he's not a short stop. Like he just he shouldn't be a shortstop. He has no range. He's he's he's a you know a decent chunk of this. Obviously he's missed you know a decent amount
Starting point is 00:23:46 of time this year but like still like you want to talk about lack of range defensively for the Mariners. J.P. Crawford's kind of the poster boy for that unfortunately. Think about the number of times JP has dope for a baseball that he didn't get to that most other short stops would and it's allowed an extra base or two like you have a
Starting point is 00:24:07 runner on second base like you don't have to convert that ground ball in the hole to an out but you cannot let it go into left field and we jp's done it constantly and and he just he can't move like he cannot move well enough to play shortstop anymore uh they abandoned the third base idea which i don't know why again weston wilson is currently playing third base who cares who's playing shortstop, find out if JP can play third base. And at that point, maybe you have a conversation. But, you know, and we've talked about this. We had Ryan Divish on who reiterated it.
Starting point is 00:24:39 Like, the Mariners are going to have to go get a shortstop. Because you cannot count on Colt Emerson to be ready to go on opening day whenever it is or count on him to perform next year at all. So you have to go get a veteran shortstop. And while that leaves the door open for JP, I think it is vitally important for the mariner's to go get at least average defensive shortstop and live with whatever you get with the bat because shortstop is that important of a position like and if you're going to be like the worst shortstop in baseball you better be cj abrams at the plate and while you know it's been a rough year for
Starting point is 00:25:14 jp but he's finally healthy and he's swinging the bat much better uh while jp is a good offensive shortstop he's not elite and you cannot be a average slightly above average offensive shortstop but also be the worst defender in baseball. You just can't do it. So, yeah, the Mariners, to me, I think infield defense is more important than outfield defense, not that they should ignore outfield defense, but, you know, go fix the infield defense. Your starter should be more glove heavy in the infield.
Starting point is 00:25:45 And then go out and get guys on your bench who can, or our athletes who can cover ground, who can, you know, make these big plays and then use them at the end of games. You don't need Randy or Rose Arena playing in the ninth inning when you're up by one. I'm sorry, you don't. You should be playing Victor Robles out there every single time. And the Mariners have refused to do even that, even those little things where they get incrementally better late in games when they have elite. They refuse to do it. And so you need to be open to doing that.
Starting point is 00:26:10 But in order for you to be open to doing that, for the manager to be open to doing that, you have to have better athletes on your bench and guys who can actually go catch the baseball. And the Mariners have just completely ignored that factor for way too long now. And it's finally come and bit them in a way that it. is impossible to ignore. Yeah. Again, a historic level, right? An ounce above average, obviously, doesn't, it's not the one size fits all stat for defense.
Starting point is 00:26:40 It's definitely flaws with it, right? It doesn't paint the whole picture, but still, you have been historically bad in that regard. You are the worst defensive unit of the last decade in terms of range, right? You need to get better athletes on your roster. And again, like we talked about last week, if you're going to go spend $5 to $8 million on a free agent or two, you know, like you have the last few years where you've gone out and you got in Donovan Salon
Starting point is 00:27:12 or you got Rob Refsniter, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Go on and get instead of a bat only, you know, a guy that matches lefties who winds up not mashing lefties and gets DFA in a couple months time. So doing that, get a guy. that has multiple has multiple paths to contributing guys that can that can help you defensively and on the base pass and stuff like that and like if they're like an 85 to 90 w rc plus bat okay whatever at least they still help me in other ways and again if i don't care of you like defensive run saved i don't care of you like outs above average i don't care of you
Starting point is 00:27:49 like field field fielder's value or whatever uh field field fielding run value whatever whatever stat you want use the Mariners are at the bottom of the league in that stat. I think the only stat they're actually decent at is fielding percentage and I still think they're like 20th. But keep in mind, fielding percentage only accounts for the balls that you get to. So it's a worthless stat. Yeah. And like the way that errors and base sets are now called in baseball, like it's even more useless now. There are there are compilations of videos out there where you can watch balls that are
Starting point is 00:28:24 very clearly errors be ruled hits and the other way around like it's fielding or fielding percentage is just a garbage staff it's garbage it is the pitcher win uh it is in that category it is less valuable than even things like batting average so uh you go look at any metric you want to use the mariner's defense has been an abomination and they need to fix it full stop all right that's going to do a far show thank you so much for joining us here on the lockdown Mariner's podcast part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day for Colby Petnode. I'm Taday Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Mariners.
Starting point is 00:29:02 You can also find us on Blue Sky at TDG, Colby at MLB Colby in the show at Lockdown Mariners. You can also find us on Instagram and TikTok at Lockdown Mariner's. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time. Peace.

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