IT’S GO TIME: Seattle Mariners Kick Off Postseason Run With ALDS Bout vs. Tigers

IT’S GO TIME: Seattle Mariners Kick Off Postseason Run With ALDS Bout vs. Tigers

It’s official. Mariners Tigers kicking off this weekend. We’ll talk about it all coming up here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Colobby, hit it. You are Locked On Mariners, your daily Seattle Mariners podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Ohoy sailors. It is Friday, October 3rd, 2025. This is Todd Gonzalez and Kobby Patnode for the Lockdown Merrors podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Download the FanDuel app today. And as always, if you want to hear from me and Colby even more and help support the show, you can check out our Patreon. All you have to do to check that out is click the link in the description of this episode. So, the Mariners have their ALDS opponent. The Detroit Tigers are coming to town this weekend. Game one tomorrow at 5:38 p.m. Pacific and game two on Sunday at 5:03 p.m. Pacific. Tigers with a 6-3 win over the Guardians in Cleveland yesterday to win that series two games to one. We’re going to get into who the Tigers are, the challenges they pose, and a whole lot more on the show today. But first, Coley, just reaction to the Tigers being the team. Oh, I’m glad the series went to three games. Um, the potentially nice thing there is that they used the three starters that they wanted to use in this series in the last one. So, they’re going to have to kick off this series probably with a bullpin day. Maybe they use uh Chris Paddock as an opener uh who kind of dominated the Mariners in Seattle earlier this year. So, you know, uh but uh yeah, it seems like a bullpin day, so that’s all good. Uh the downside is is that you’re gonna have to face Scooble at least once. Uh if you get to a game five, you’ll have to beat him in game five uh to to advance. So let’s not get to game five, gang. But uh yeah, it’s again like I don’t I think continue to maintain this. Seattle is better. They’re more talented than both of these teams. Uh we have 162 games of data that tell us that. We also have the head-to-head which saw Seattle destroy Detroit’s three best pitchers all in a row at their home ballpark before they added Josh Naylor and before they added Au Heno Suarez. Uh so uh yeah, I mean I I think that there’s a lot of reasons to like this matchup. There are some concerns as there would have been with Cleveland. Uh so yeah, I mean at the end of the day it is what it is. It’s kind of what I expected uh to have happen. Uh I I guess you know again if if you took scubble out of it I really Detroit’s not really much of a threat uh in you know in a big sample size. They’re just not as talented as you. But Scooball is an equalizer obviously and the fact that you’re going to have to face him at least once uh maybe twice uh in five games is going to be a challenge, a real challenge. Um, so, and again, it’s worth noting, we’ve said this a lot as well, in the playoffs, talent doesn’t really matter. There’s not enough of a sample size to to have the talent take over. So, it really comes down to who plays better, who gets hot at the right time, uh, and who performs. And that’s really what the playoffs is. Major League Baseball season is a marathon where where large sample size uh and you know just talent will eventually in theory take over and it will push the better teams to the top and push the worst the you know the worst teams to the bottom. Uh and it’s why we see you know teams in April who are in first place in April they finish with 90 losses pretty regularly at the end of the year. Talent is eventually going to rise to the top in the playoffs. Not the case, not always because it’s a small sample size. you’re you’re playing four small sample sizes when in the regular season you’re using large samples and all that to kind of form conclusions. So, it’s just a completely different animal. Uh, you know, Detroit is dangerous in the same way that Cleveland is dangerous and the same way that New York is dangerous and the same way that Toronto is dangerous is that they all have, you know, good players. They all have good uh parts of their team and they also have holes in their roster. And when you look at what Seattle has to offer and what Detroit has to offer, Seattle is going to be the better team every day that Terkoo is not on the mound on paper at the very least. Uh, will that mean anything? No, it doesn’t mean anything. You have to play well. You have to win the game. You have to play well. That’s ultimately what matters. But again, whether it’s Detroit or whether it was Cleveland, Seattle is the more talented team. They should be favored in this series. It doesn’t mean anything that they are. No. And I wouldn’t overlook this Tigers team. And I feel like I’m seeing some fans and creators in general kind of doing that. Uh but this team, like, yeah, they they had the complete utter collapse there over the final two months of the season, but they were able to survive that collapse and get in for a reason because they were just so good for most of uh you know, the rest of the year. Um, and this is a club that went on a nice little run last year, kind of developed their identity that they carried into this year when they were red hot right out of the gate. They again they were able to survive and avoid complete total disaster to punch their ticket, kind of reset themselves, reset their year. They uh pulled a pretty large perverial monkey off of their back by getting past the guardians who have been a problem for them. they eliminated them last year. They have AJ Hench who has managed in a lot of big games. Um, you know, and right now they kind of have this road warrior mentality after going into Cleveland and taking that series. So, this is definitely not a walk in the park. Like, the Mariners are definitely more talented on paper than this Tigers team, but could I see the Tigers winning this series? Absolutely. And it’s not just because of TKO. obviously a big part of it, but this is a this is still a very talented team with guys like Carrie Carpenter and Riley Green and Glabber Torres. Like they have some real dudes. Dylan Dingler is another guy. They’re also uh potentially going to get healthier going into this series. Colt Keith could potentially be uh added to the roster after dealing with a rib injury. And Matt Verling uh who’s kind of like a do-it-all player for them. He’s been out with an oblique. He might also be back on the roster uh for this series as well. So, you know, and there’s a lot of different ways that uh they can attack you. Um, you know, there’s the uh platoon that they have, which we’ll get into later, cuz that’s going to be a big part of the series, and that’s going to be a a big key for particularly one player uh on the Mariners roster, and we’ll talk about that later. But, um, yeah, I mean, and and that bullpen definitely regressed from how good it was last year. I mean, at times it just carried Yeah, at times it just carried that club last year, but there’s still some talented arms in that bullpen. They’re going to be able to create some problems for you. And uh yeah, I’m fascinated to see just kind of how this chess match uh plays out between these two clubs. We we watched this Mariner team play inferior opponents for pretty much the entire month of August and they got their doors blown off several times by bad teams like and the Tigers are not a bad team. So anything can happen because again it is a fivegame series. It’s based five random baseball games. Anything can happen. Uh and again it is not like Detroit is without talent. Riley Green is one of the most underrated players in the entire game. like he’s a really good player. Uh obviously Tolson since broken out and Bayz was an all-star even though he really didn’t deserve to be but whatever. Bayz was an all-star. He’s had a nice year especially relative to the last couple like uh you know we know who Torres is and and yeah they they have plenty of matchups that they can throw at you and they will throw at you. Um and you have a first year manager on the other side who’s going to have to try and deal with all that. Like those are all going to come into play here. So it’s certainly not a walk in the park. Again, the Mariners should win this series. Uh, but there’s no guarantees. Like, the Mariners aren’t really exactly a battle tested playoff group. I mean, most of them have been to the playoffs, but it’s been a couple years and and you know, they’ve never been really the favorite, right? And right now they’re I mean, right there with the Yankees is the favorite to win the American League. So, uh, it’s all new for them. They’re pitching the Mariners pitching right now pretty inconsistent. We don’t think we’re going to see Brian Woo, at least in the first couple games of this series, if at all. Uh Logan Gilbert’s been wildly inconsistent. Luis Castillo kind of seems like they’re lining him up to start on the road, which why? Um but uh yeah, I mean there there are a lot of things here that that can go wrong. And as we see in the playoffs, even when there is a talent discrepancy, ball bounces an inch or two one way versus the other, it can make all the difference. Like Cleveland is clear or Detroit is more talented than Cleveland. Cleveland very well, very easily with just one or two more bounces could have swept Detroit right out of the playoffs. Like that’s the difference. One smart base running decision and maybe we’re not even talking about this. Maybe we’re talking about Cleveland yesterday because we knew that that’s who they were going to play. So, the margin of error is smaller and it always, always, always in the Major League Baseball playoffs comes down to which team plays better, period. Teams don’t get outplayed and win games in the playoffs. It just doesn’t happen. Not Not in baseball. It just you have to play better. You play you play better for longer than your opponent, you’re going to win these games. And as we know with the Mariners, they’re entirely capable of playing like the best team in baseball. And they’re also capable of playing like one of the worst teams in baseball. There is a very high ceiling on this team. There’s a very low floor. So what version of this team you get on, you know, in these five games or hopefully, you know, three games that you win, um, you know, is is going to determine everything. And and throw out everything else that happened in the regular season, none of it really matters anymore. It’s a brand new year. All right. So, we’re going to dive deeper into the Tigers. Uh, talk a little bit more about the challenges that they pose. also talk about some key players for this specific matchup. We’ve kind of done the key player thing just like in an overarching sense for just the whole postseason, but we’re going to talk about some guys that are particularly important for playing against this Detroit Tigers team in just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Lockdown Mars podcast is brought to you by Prize Pick. This episode of Lockdown Mariners is brought to you by Prize Pick, the daily fantasy app where making the right call can actually pay off. 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Uh, the Mariners pretty much have the advantage in almost every major statistical category over the Tigers. Uh, the Tigers have hit for three points higher in batting average. Uh they have an erra six points lower than the Mariners, a FIP about 18 points lower than the Mariners, but other than that, the Mariners have the advantage here. Uh and I mean that lines up with everything that we just said in the first segment. Uh but let’s get a little bit more specific here, Colobby. What are some of the challenges this Tigers team poses to the Mariners? Yeah. Um, obviously the biggest one is Scoo and I I know that he’s only going to pitch in one game guaranteed, maybe two. Uh, but that is the biggest ch. Like it it would be foolish for us to sit here and not think that trick school is the biggest obstacle in the Mariners way. Um, but Detroit is very good at manipulating matchups to work in their favor. They have some platoon uh that they like to use. they have a manager who is willing to uh and been shown capable of of managing those situations well and getting his guys into the favorable matchups uh you know for the most part uh every single time. So uh that really is their their strength is is that they have a lineup that is kind of matchup proof in a way like you can’t just be like oh I’ll just go to the lefty here. It’s like, okay, well, we’ll go to Perez off the bench or or we’ll go to maybe Verling now off the bench or we’ll just go to the righty here. And it’s like, okay, well, here comes Parker Meadows, who is, you know, one of the or Parker Meadows and and uh Carrie Carpenter. Yeah. Yeah. Who just like they mash right-handed pitching. It’s one of those things where, look, Detroit kind of has to be this way because they lack the overall talent. Like, you look at Seattle, they don’t really have a lot of platoon that they use. Why? because they’re talented enough that these guys can play against righties and lefties. They don’t need to do that. Detroit kind of does, but because they do have to do that, you have to counter it with your bullpin, and that’s going to create some undesirable matchups for you late in games in particular. So, uh, Detroit is is very good at at, you know, playing these matchups and getting the the little advantage that they get with their, you know, with the switch hitters and the ability to pinch hit and be aggressive on that front and all that. So, uh, really it the the Tiger strength aside from Scubble, uh, and Casey M for the most part, although he’s kind of fallen off here in the second half, or he did, but like whatever. Like the starting pitching’s okay. The three guys they have, Scubble brings everybody else up a level or two, but it’s not like Flity and Mai are are scrubs, right? Like those are guys Flarity especially has pitched in some big games, too. So, he has a lot of posters and experience. Yep. Yeah. who usually comes up big in the postseason like he he’s he’s battle tested and all that but yeah had a solo game yesterday game to me the the thing that gives me the most concern uh from the Tigers aside from Scubble is Hinch’s ability to manipulate matchups to give his guys an advantage and he’s very good at that and he was in in you know Houston where didn’t really have to be he had a lot of talent but he would still find a way to do it and and we saw it you know against uh the we saw it against the the Guardians is that he kind of has answers for whoever you want to bring out of the bullpen uh late in the game. He has an answer for that and he’s very good at knowing when to pull that trigger and when to pull back and let his guys go through the at bat and all that. So I I think the matchups that they can specifically throw at you late in games because of how they deploy their bench is going to be critical. And as we’ve seen in these playoffs, pretty much every game is close. Every game comes down to the last inning. There’s very few blowouts if any. Uh like the the Yankees won last night four to nothing and it felt like a massive blowout. Like they just destroyed the Red Sox and that that’s a four-1 four-run game. You’re one swing of the bat away from tying that game and it felt like a blowout. That’s how close the playoffs are. And so when you can get an advantage late in a game, even if it’s only a one or two% advantage. Yeah, it makes all the difference. So that that’s my bigger my biggest concern with this uh Tigers team. So this Tigers bullpen, we talked a little bit about it in the first segment. This Tigers bullpin has three former Mariners in it. Will Vest is their closer. Raphael Monto is in here and Paul Seald. It’s not exactly 2022 Paul Sewald, but no, but it’s, you know, it’s interesting. I just thought that, you know, it was worth mentioning. Sure. But, uh, winning game one though is so so massive because like you mentioned earlier, it’s going to be a bullpen game for the for the Tigers most likely. Either Chris Paddock or more likely it seems like it’s going to be Ker Montero who the Mariners have had mixed results against. Yeah. And frankly, this year the Mars have actually been able to handle good pitching, great pitching, right? They’ve won a couple of games in which school has started. They beat Carrick Crochet, you know, they’ve won a couple games that Hunter Brown started. They won a game that Max Freed started. It feels like they’re actually at their best when they go up against guys that they have a ton of film and data on. It’s when they start to, you know, face guys that they don’t know as much about that there starts to be a little bit of a problem. So, the bullpen game actually in a way kind of concerns me even though on paper it shouldn’t. Even though on paper like that is massive advantage in the Mar’s favor, right? And to me, if you lose game one, you might lose the series. That might Yeah. like everything might I don’t know if the same can be applied to the Tigers, which is crazy to say because the Mariners are the team that you know they’re the favorite. They have homefield advantage here. But if you lose homefield advantage tomorrow when the Tigers are rolling out a bullpen game and Scooball is starting game two, that is a tough tough thing to come back from. There’s a high probability you’re down 2. Yeah, you are staring down the barrel of a 20 deficit. And keep in mind, uh, Scubble looms in game five. So even if you win game three and four, Scubble’s there. You have to beat you’re going to have to beat him at least once. If you lose, if you lose tomorrow, you have to beat Scubble at least once, maybe even twice. So tomorrow’s game is is critical, but I I you know, I saw a lot of people like, “Oh, it’s a bullpin game. Seattle should crew.” And it’s like, no, no. I mean, look, Detroit’s bullpin, I wouldn’t classify it as great. It’s serviceable. It’s pretty good. Will Vess had a very nice year. Uh, you know, Kyle Finnean’s got really good stuff. They get a ton of ground balls. Like all of their arms pretty much 50% ground ball guys or higher. Like it really is insane. They have a couple lefties in there that can make things really difficult. Uh, Will Vest has a, you know, the super change up which makes also difficult on lefties. Um, so and you know they Yes, they they used a lot of their guys yesterday. None of them really threw that many pitches. They have a day off today. And as for does this give the Mariners an advantage later in the series? It might if you can make all these guys work. But keep in mind they have a day off on Monday. So they and also school is very likely to go seven plus. Right. Right. And if school can go seven plus then even if you do kind of you know exhaust some of the the middle options then you don’t need those guys. You have your backend guys to come come after school. So, the bullpen game is not as much of an advantage, I think, as as a lot of Mariner fans want it to be or think that it is. Yeah. Um, it’s not as ideal as say like the Mariners just being able to roll out a well-rested George Kirby or a well-rested Luis Castillo or or Logan Gil, whoever it is, right? It’s not as ideal as that. Yeah. But it’s far from like, oh, this is this is stupid. Like, what are what are the what are the Tigers doing? Blah. Like, no. No. Again, it’s it makes sense. Uh and it’s something that the Mariners are going to have to deal with. And it’s it’s tough, you know, when you when you have that you don’t know who you’re going to face when you go when you you know come up to the plate. Like if you’re hitting sixth, you don’t know who’s going to be throwing you the the ball in the bottom of the second. Yeah. You don’t know. Like it’s just one of those things. So you have to be prepared for everything. If you And it also complicates how Dan And it also complicates how Dan fills out this lineup, right? Again, what he should do is he should fill out his lineup the best way. And if if it just so happens that, you know, they have a lefty ready to go for Dom Canzone, then whatever. Dom Canzone takes the at bat because I know I’m going to want Canone in the seventh inning against, you know, vest or or Paul Sewald or whoever. How funny was that? Paul Seawald versus Domone. Um but uh I didn’t think about that. Oh my god. Probably in like the seventh inning. Yeah. Oh my god. Yeah, could happen. Could happen. So, yeah. Um, it’s again it because the Tigers are, you know, pretty deep in terms of like their roster build and because they have they have a manager who understands how to pull the the the right trigger at the right time. They can they can present some really tough matchups for you even on a day where they’re bullpinning. So yeah, uh again, it is it is far from a uh you know, LOL Tigers or it’s far from a well that’s an easy win. No, no, it is not. And also, they did this last year in the playoffs. Yeah. So like they have experience doing this and again it’s AJ Hench who’s who’s done this and he’s managed a lot of big games and all that. Like Yeah. I to be fair, they did this last year in the playoffs and it led them right to where they are right now where they lost the series three to one. Like so there’s a bit of an expiration date but they also don’t have it’s also not just here’s scubble and then games two three four is all bullpen like it’s not that because they have my because they have flarity so uh we’ll see how it works out for them but yeah Detroit you know again their bullpen their numbers overall pretty mediocre and they’re going to have to more or less throw some of their middle guys uh at some point in this game to just get through nine innings that those are the guys you have to attack. You have to score runs off of those guys. Uh but, you know, you get to the back end of that bullpen and it’s a close game. They can, you know, match you uh kind of. Uh again, Seattle’s bullpen is better. Uh but Seattle’s bullpen has also had some sketchy moments. You know, Munoz didn’t have a good outing his last time out. Matt Rash has been pretty sketchy recently and missing and not missing bats. Bizardo had a couple of pretty eh outings towards the end. Hopefully the rest that they’ve gotten can kind of give them a quick reset. But yeah, bullpens are sketchy in general and in the playoffs those things go up and every little, you know, every little detail really matters. So, we’ll see how it goes. But, uh, yeah, Detroit can can, you know, constantly kind of make the odds tick in their favor just based on how they manage their matchups. They’re they’re built very well to play the matchups. uh which can mitigate some of the you know the talent discrepancy that that Seattle clearly has more talent than Detroit. But if the if you can maneuver the matchups a little bit, you can get the you can get the playing field level and then anything can happen in a baseball game. So, yeah, you’re going to need to get to Montto at least a little bit though, assuming that he’s the one that starts because he’s someone that that can go multiple innings. That could give them three or four theoretically. And maybe AJ Hence wants to squeeze as much juice as he can there because every inning that Montto pitches, that’s an inning that Tommy Canley doesn’t have to pitch or Troy Melton doesn’t have to pitch or Raphael Montero doesn’t have to pitch or Paul Sew doesn’t have to pitch. So, you need to get to Monontto if you want to get to some of those middle guys that Kobe just talked about. You have to get to Monttero at least a little bit. Maybe that doesn’t mean necessarily scoring runs, scoring a bunch of runs, but at least getting a couple of hits, driving up that pitch count, all the things that we talked about heading into the Astros series and those pitching matchups. Like, even if you don’t score a run in an inning, at least make sure that you take a piece of that pitcher with you, right? make sure that he has to earn it. Make sure that even if it’s three up, three down, it takes him 15 to 20 pitches to get that three up, three down, right? So, yep. I I will say the one nice thing about facing Detroit um is that when you look at the the types of teams that give Seattle problems, right? The hyper athletic, they run the bases because Seattle pitching cannot hold runners and all of that. That’s not the Tigers. The Tigers don’t even try to steal bases or anything like that. So yeah, the Mariners, you know, the the little things that I talk about that the Mariners are really bad at. One of them is controlling a running game, uh, and one of them is like the tagging and stuff like that. Detroit’s not really going to test you on that front, at least when it comes to stealing bases. Um, so that is a positive, uh, and you’re one of the underrated positives, uh, in your credit is that you’re better at stealing bases. You can put more pressure on these guys than they can on you. Your lineup’s deeper. So, uh, again, like we we’ve talked we’ve pumped up Detroit a lot, but you guys know how good the Mariners are. Like, you know what they’re capable of. So, we’re not sitting here telling you like, “Oh, Seattle’s not going to win this series.” Because we’re talk we’re just trying to kind of like give you guys a snapshot of who the Tigers are, why they can beat you, but could the Mariners win the series? Yes. Could the Mariners sweep this series? Yes, of course they could. Especially if they win game one and they beat Scooble in game two. Oh, it’s over at that point. At that point, you’ve you’ve snatched their should their soul. Now you’re just going to America to handle business, right? It just you got to win one of the next two and and you’ll be doing that against Mer Flity who you’ve already handled. Well, at least in America, you handled. So, yeah, it’s just one of those things where I think winning game one is incredibly important. Uh but and I think it’s more so for the Mariners than the Tigers. Yeah. Yeah. Well, because I mean again, if you’re the Tigers, it’s like, okay, we lost game one, but we have Scubble going tomorrow and he can just as easily give us, you know, a one to one tie and then it’s a best of three. Anything can happen. So, yeah, but I do think winning game one is really important. The Mariners did beat Scooble twice. You know, granted, the the first time he really dominated them if not for the funniest home run of 2025. Uh, but you know, second time in Detroit, they actually handled him really well. They got him for like what, five runs and they got him out in the fifth inning. And so again, is school is school though. So, you know, I don’t want to just like I see a lot of people being like, “Oh, well, I’m not scared.” Like, they handled him just fine this year. Look, dude, it’s TK school. He’s the best pitcher in the game. Like, and he’s and he’s going to make Yeah, maybe it’s Sk, but you get what I’m saying. Like, he’s going to make the necessary adjustments, right? Yeah. Again, like even prime Pedro Martinez had bad outings. Yeah, in the playoffs like it’s totally possible that you know goes out there and we’re hyping him up and he just struggles and the Mariners tag him for six in like four innings. What’s more than likely going to happen? Seattle’s going to have to scrape and claw to get one or two off of him in seven innings and try to get him out where they can still have a shot to to, you know, attack the bullpen. That’s probably what’s most likely going to be necessary to beat him. Uh, and again, if you lose game one, you’re pretty much going to have to beat Scooball at least once, but probably twice. So, winning game one is is pretty important tomorrow. And again, can Seattle do it? Yes. Uh, am I pretty confident that they they’ll win this series? Yeah, I think they’ll win this series. I I think they’re just better. But again, we need to point out Detroit, there are no bad teams left. Yep. That’s not a thing. Like, so while you may be more talented than them, it’s not like Detroit doesn’t have any talent. They’re a talented group. They’re a team that can absolutely go to the World Series. Yes. Everybody left can. Yeah. I mean, like, it really does feel to me like right now after the wild card rounds, the four best teams in the National League are still playing. The four best teams in the American League are still playing. Yeah. Like, no disrespect to Cleveland or Boston or or you know, the Padres’s or whatever, like the riff raff has been eliminated. These are the four best teams in each league, which means anybody can win this thing. It’s a wide open field this year of all years. There is no dominant team. Detroit can beat you. Absolutely. But you can also beat them. All right, we are going to switch gears and focus more on the Mariners. We’re going to go over some key players for this particular matchup. Talk a little bit about Brian Woo as well in just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Lockdown Mariners podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. The NFL season is here and FanDuel is making sure you’re ready for kickoff with a can’tmiss offer. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. FanDuel makes every game more exciting. Whether you’re watching your team or just keeping an eye on your fantasy lineup, it’s quick, easy, and the best way to add a little more energy to Sundays. So, are you ready to play? Download the FanDuel app now by visiting fanuel.com to get started. That’s fanuel.com to place your first $5 bet. And you’re listening to the Lockdown Mariners podcast. So, uh, on Tuesday when we had Anders, uh, Hurst on here, we we talked about key players for the postseason as a whole for the Mariners. But let’s talk about some key players for this specific matchup because Colobby, I think one of the most important players for the Mariners in the series, maybe the most important player for the Mariners in the series is actually Gabe Spire because of when he’s going to be deployed and the platoon that the Tigers deploy like we talked about earlier on because Spy is going to be put into this game as well as Caleb Ferguson by the way to to a you know slightly lesser extent to get Carrie Cer and maybe uh Riley Green out of this game, right? And and the Tigers showed a willingness to pinch hit for for Green in the in the Cleveland series. Uh so that means that Gabe is going to have to face Jamai Jones, maybe Andy Abanz, maybe Matt Verling if he gets activated in these situations. Now, Gabe has been pretty darn good against bothhandednesses, but it’s quite possible, and it feels silly in a way to say this out loud, but it feels possible that um the biggest at bats in the series could be Gabe Spy versus Jamai Jones, Gabe Spy versus Andy Abanz, Gabe Spy versus Matt Verling, etc. Sure. I mean, we all think it would be like Scooble versus Raleigh. Yeah. No, no. It It’s It’s probably going to be, you know, Gabe Spy versus, you know, like you said, Andy Andy Abanz, or it might be, you know, Matt Brash versus Parker Meadows. Like, again, it is one of those things where uh and this is why it’s a big test for Dan Wilson, who we talked about this the other day, or was it yesterday? I don’t know. All the shows are starting to run together the other day. Um, you know, Dan has gotten better at things as the season has progressed, but he’s still not very good. And these are the tough decisions he’s going to have to make that AJ Hinch has made a thousand times that Dan Wilson has never had to make. Uh, so there there’s a real chess match coming in and and one of them one of the managers is a novice, the other one is an expert, you know, a ranked player and so yeah, you’re you’re in a bit of a a predicament there. And Gabe Spire’s ability to get out whoever he faces is going to be huge. Of course it is. Uh, you know, and again, like you said, Gabe Spy has been pretty good against righties. He’s dominated lefties. Uh, but one thing that could come into play here also is, let’s say it’s the sixth inning, Riley Green’s coming up. You go to Spire, you force AJ Hinch, okay, am I going to take out my best player in the sixth or am I going to let him face a lefty who has just dominated lefties and lose this scoring opportunity? like it can work both ways. You can use the matchups to your advantage. Will Dan Wilson do that? I don’t know. But I think Gabe Spy is going to be a huge part of this. Um because he probably has been the most consistent reliever all year. Like he’s had very few hiccups. He’s mostly been dominant. Uh and he’s the guy who kind of is being treated as as you know the closer before the closer because Dan has been unwilling to use Muno. Let’s be clear and situation comes up where it’s like you’re up by one and there’s runners on second, third with one out in the seventh. That should be Munoz. You should be using Munoz in that spot. Will Dan do it? Probably not. So, who should he go to after that? Probably Gabe Spire is the guy you trust the most. So, yeah, Gab’s going to be a big part of this and and he’s going to have to get some righties out because AJ Hinch will not just let him feast on on his left-handed hitters. He will make changes. Uh but again, that could be a way for Dan to get some of these guys out of the game for later. So maybe you can set up a instead of a Riley Green versus Andreas Munoz type of thing, you can have Munoz versus, you know, Jamai Jones in the ninth, which is much more favorable. So again, it could work both ways here. We just don’t know if Dan is is capable of making those calls and doing them correctly, whereas we know AJ Hench certainly is. Uh but yeah, Gabe Spy is going to play a huge role here. Uh, you know, Spy and Bazardo kind of been combined to make one really great high leverage guy. Uh, Bazardo against righties and and, you know, Spire against lefties. How Dan manages those two guys and how he gets them into specific pockets to get big outs is is going to be a huge thing. So, yeah, Gabe Spy probably going to have to play a pretty big role in this series. What do you think Bryce Miller’s role is? What situations can you imagine Bryce Miller being put in? It’s tough because you might want him to make a start because Woo, I don’t think he’s going to be on this roster. Uh, you know, he’s talking about like I hope by next week I’ll be 100%. It’s like the series ends on like Tuesday or Wednesday. Like, oh, that’s that doesn’t fill me with confidence that he’s going to be able to start game four or game three. So, maybe we’ll see. will probably get a big I mean obviously if he’s not on the playoff roster he’s he’s not playing but uh if you don’t think he’s going to pitch in this series why would you put him on the playoff roster that’s just a wasted spot you could use on a on an arm so tomorrow we’ll probably know just about everything when they released the rosters in the morning um you’d think that they would just go with a threeman rotation though right because that’s what they were planning on doing in 2022 right but you go uh whichever order right let’s say it’s Kirby game one, then you have game two, day off, game three. Uh, so game four would be on his fourth day of rest, right? Yeah. So, you could still pull it off. Um, so yeah, I don’t I don’t know though, are they going to want to do that? I mean, the other thing too here, which is kind of like an underrated aspect of this, now obviously it’s because they both dealt with injuries, but both George Kirby and Logan Gilbert are well under their career high in innings. like they’re a lot fresher than you know most pitchers are at this point in the year from that standpoint right throwing at 85% all year like but also Logan yeah Logan might be dealing with an elbow thing still I would say that’s likely I don’t know if George is still dealing with anything from the start of the year the shoulder thing it’s it’s he’s never returned to his to his old arm slot he’s still throwing much lower than he used to so I would say yeah it’s I mean I don’t know maybe that’s a conscious decision that he just made. He just liked it and he stuck with it. I don’t know. But I mean 4 days rest is still 4 days rest. But just my point though is like they are in a position where they haven’t they don’t have the um just the natural wear and tear of a season that they typically would at this point in the year. Sure. I just don’t know there’s that big of a difference because they miss time with an injury also. So I don’t know that actually changes anything, but it might. Sure. Yeah. Miller is interesting because um like we have these visions of what he can be coming out of the bullpin uh with the fast ball and the splitter, especially the splitter. Yeah. Um and the VO would be cranked up a little bit, we assume, because he’s he only has to get, you know, three or four guys out. Uh but are you going to ask him to come in in the middle of an inning to get a big strikeout? That’s not something he’s done before. Are you going to you know, so I’m I’m not sure how it goes. I think the first time out they’re probably going to want to try and give him a clean inning. Um like just I can’t imagine that they’re ever going to give him inherited runners. No, I I don’t think at least not in this series. Maybe if he performs well and you advance maybe in Toronto or New York, but yeah, I mean the nice thing about Miller though is that with that splitter, he can be effective against lefties. So you put him out there, there’s a real decision by Hinch like, do I stick with my righties or do I stick with because traditionally righties have struggled off of Miller. Lefties have hit him pretty well, but the splitter is a game changer. It’s a great pitch to throw against lefties and in a playoff sit or in a playoff situation and in a short relief situation. There’s no reason for Miller not to throw as many splitters as his elbow can handle. Like he doesn’t have to mix in anything. He just throws splitters if that’s his best pitch. So um yeah, I Bryce is kind of an X-factor here. I’m not sure how they’re going to use him. Um I would think that they would try to give him a clean inning. Uh and I would think that his job would be like, hey, you know, we have three righties in a row here and then, you know, a couple lefties that we like the matchup for and and your job is to face these five hitters. So you might have to go out there, sit come back to the dugout, sit down and go back out there, which he’s done, you know, a hundred times in his major league career as a starter. So that part should be fine for him. It’s the, you know, getting hot at a moment’s notice. I think they’re going to want to take Bryce and give him like, hey, right now it looks like you’re pitching the sixth. So, in the fifth inning, get up, start doing your thing, and like because they they do have to, you know, not necessarily baby him in because adrenaline will handle a lot of of the getting ready and all that, but yeah. Yeah, it will be interesting to see how they handle it because there is no easy answer for this and and you know, it’s kind of why I wanted them to, you know, test run some of this after they clinched and all that. uh even, you know, sometimes in September, even before you clinch. It’s why I wanted these these dry runs, you know, of doing this in a regular season game that they never got to. Uh but yeah, Bryce, I I don’t think they’ll give him inherited runners, at least not uh you know, in this series if they can absolutely help it. Uh any other key players for this series to you? I mean, Cal Raleigh and like if those two guys are really good, then you’re going to run away with this series. like, yeah, Detroit just doesn’t have anybody who can match those guys. All all due respect to Riley Green, who’s one of my favorite players. Riley Green’s awesome. He’s a really good player. Yeah, he’s not anywhere close to what Julio can do when Julio’s playing at his 100th percentile. He’s not anywhere close to what Cal Raleigh has done. Uh so the stars still have to be stars. Absolutely. Yeah, but I think that’s a given. I think we all know that. Uh the stars have to be stars. Uh I think a potential big key here is is going back to the bullpen. Matt Brash has not missed bats. Like he went through a stretch where he wasn’t missing any bats. Then he started missing a ton of bats and then the last week or two he hasn’t missed bats. And that is the role for Matt Brash. You need him to get swing and miss. That is where you want to use him. And if he’s incapable of doing that, then you need to change his role to where he gets the clean inning and he can go get three ground balls and he can give up a single and it’s not the end of the world because he can easily get the double play ball. Like Brash is still a very effective reliever. It’s just if he’s not getting swing and miss, it changes what kind of leverage situations you can use them in because often when we talk leverage innings or leverage moments, you need a strikeout. Yeah. Like that is the ultimate leverage when you need a strikeout. And that used to be Brash’s specialty. Mhm. Like, oh, we need a strikeout. Brash strikes out, you know, 35 40% of the batters he faces. This year he hasn’t. And I think it’s mostly just a result of him returning from Tommy John and and, you know, trying to figure it out. and and it usually takes guys a full year after they return for them to get back. So I expect 2026 brash to look much closer to 2023 Matt Brash, but the swinging miss is still a problem right now. And so it does change the the calculus a little bit there. So if you get nasty Matt Brash who can command and control his stuff enough to get some whiffs and to get some strikeouts in this series, I think it could be an absolute game changer in the back end. Uh, but if you just kind of get like the the still very good Matt Brash, but one who’s, you know, ground ball heavy and gets maybe a strikeout per inning, it it kind of changes. He’s really no better than Bizardo if that’s who he is. And yeah, frankly, I trust Bazardo more to throw strikes. So, uh, you know, what what version of Matt Brash you get is going to be fascinating. Unfortunately, you’re not going to know that until you put them out there probably in a super high leverage spot. So, I think Brash and Spire are two, you know, big critical components of this because of the matchups that the Tigers can throw out there late in the game. Absolutely. Uh, specifically talking about the matchup with Scooble, uh, JP Crawford has been the mayor’s best hitter against him. He is four for five against Scooble with a double, three singles. Uh, hasn’t struck out against him. So, u, Randy Rosa Raina, five for 18 uh, with a double. It’s pretty good. Mitch Mitch Garver two for 14 with eight strikeouts. However, he does have a home run against Trick School. Look, Garver’s going to be in the lineup in game two and I’m going to hate it, but he’s going to be in the lineup. He’s going to be in the lineup. Um, Jorge Palano 7 for 26 against Scubble with a home run. So, that’s that’s another guy to keep an eye on. Cal so far has been two for nine against Scooble with three strikeouts. Uh, he also has a home run against Scooble. Uh, and Julio’s two for eight against him with a home run. With a home run. Yeah. If if you’re hitting above 200 against Scubble, you’re doing a pretty good job at something like Yeah. And there are You see him pretty well if you’re hitting over 200. That’s There are five Mariners hitters that are hitting two uh over 200. I got some, right? Yeah. That that’s pretty good. Like for anybody else, that’s not very good. But when you’re talking about the Scoos and the Kohl’s and the Skines and like the Hunter Browns, if you’re if you’re putting up a 200 batting average or better against these guys, that’s pretty good because relative to the rest of the league, you have had success against him. But we’ll see. Hopefully you win game one tonight. Uh it doesn’t make game two like gravy or anything like that, but uh it it does relieve some of the pressure because you do not want to, you know, be trailing in this series and have to face Trick Scoo. Yeah. So, we’ll see how it goes. Um again, tomorrow after the game, uh obviously Anders and Chris have you covered on the Mars post. Ben Reeri of Sea Level and I will also be recording a postgame episode that’ll come out, you know, a couple hours after the game. Uh Colby will be back uh with us on Sunday after that game uh to recap it. Uh and then uh mailbag Monday of course and all that good stuff. Another postgame on Tuesday, Wednesday if they have to play game four, etc. Uh tomorrow morning, uh I’ll be dropping a uh pretty lengthy conversation that I had with Stacy Joe Ross of 710 Seattle Sports. Uh so look forward to that. So you’ll have some pregame content uh to listen to if you’re, you know, on your way to the ballpark or just getting ready for the game, all that. Uh both of the Mariners games are going to be on Fox Sports 1, uh by the way, so plan accordingly. again, uh 5:38 p.m. Pacific time start for game 1 tomorrow 8 uh 5:03 uh Pacific start on Sunday. And again, both of those games on Fox Sports One, not just Fox. So, that is going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lock Mariners podcast for Colby Patnode. I’m Ted Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at l_mmers. You can follow me at Titan Gonzalez and Colby at Cpad1. That’s CPAT11. We’re also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG Colby at MLB Colby and the show at Locked On Mariners. You can also find us on Instagram at Lockdown Mariners. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we’ll see you next time. Peace.

Ty and Colby react to the Tigers emerging as the Mariners’ ALDS opponent and get you set for the series.

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