Seattle Mariners Find Themselves in Familiar Territory Heading Towards DECISIVE Game 5

Seattle Mariners Find Themselves in Familiar Territory Heading Towards DECISIVE Game 5

It’s winner take all in Seattle on Friday night. Let’s talk about it. Colby, hit it. [Music] 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 Thursday, October 9th, 2025. This is Todd Gonzalez and Kobe Patnode for the Lockdown Maris podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. This episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use the promo code locked on MLB. That’s Loc, $20 off your first purchase. And as always, if you want to hear from me and Colobby even more, and help support the show, we have a Patreon. It’s called Control the Zone. And on there we talk Mariners, we talk Seahawks, we talk about a lot of different stuff. For more information, go to patreon.com/control thezone. Link in the description. So the Mariners dropped game four of the ALDS yesterday, 9 to3. They were up 3 nothing in the fifth inning, but the Tigers go on to score nine unanswered runs to take back momentum in the series and force a game five in Seattle tomorrow night at 5:08 p.m. Pacific. Trick Scooble of course is going in that one. That is pretty scary. Uh we don’t know yet who the Mariners are throwing. Uh but we’ll talk about Scooble and who could take the bump for the M a little later on in this show. Uh but first, you know, just to get the ball rolling here. Uh let’s put yesterday’s game to rest. All right. Uh, you know, we decided to hold off on talking about it until today, mostly because I felt like, you know, we’d basically do the same show yesterday that we’re going to wind up doing now. Um, I also just wanted to sit on on the game a little bit more. Just kind of think about it a little bit more. And also, I was I was just salty, right? And I just needed to get through my saltiness. I needed to cope. Uh but yeah, this this was a heartbreaker mostly because the first four innings went almost perfectly for the Mars now. Like yeah, they missed out on an opportunity there to add even more runs uh to their tally in that bases loaded, nobody out situation. They only get one. Jorge Palano barely misses a home run. That would have made things 5 nothing before everything kind of just went off the rails. Uh but you know, Bryce Miller uh gave you 12, actually 13 clean outs. Uh you know, you’re up three nothing against a Tigers offense that has been just toothless all series long except for when they’ve faced Caleb Ferguson. U Tigers fans are booing. The just the atmosphere in that ballpark isn’t great. Just kind of seems like they’re done. And then all of a sudden that game flips on its head. And you know, look, we can talk all we want about Ry’s bad route on that double uh that drove in um the Tigers first run. We can talk about Dan taking Domzone out of the game super early. But in the end, the reason that you lost is very simply because two of your most sturdy guys in your bullpen, Gabe Spy and Edward Bazardo, just didn’t have it. They just got beat. It’s as simple as that. It can absolutely be just as simple as that. And the playoffs, it sucks. The timing of it just absolutely absolutely awful. Yeah. I mean, and there’s really not anything you can do about it is is also the I mean, again, you there’s some things you can nitpick about the management of of the game, but nothing really that is egregious or anything like that. I don’t like taking Canzone out, but that wouldn’t have made Gabe Spire or Bazardo pitch better. Uh, so there’s really just not much you can do about it because in that same situation, you’re going to those same guys. Again, if it happens in game five, you’re going to the same guys. Like, why wouldn’t you? They’ve been nails for 95% of the season. For Spire, it’s been like 98% of the season. Yeah. Um, and and even if you went out at the deadline and you got Yawn Don or another reliever or whatever, you would still you still would have to trust Edoir Bazardo and Gabe Spy in these situations, right? Like at the end of the day, very simply, those guys weren’t good enough yesterday. And it stinks because it kind of, you know, puts a a mark on what has been two like incredible seasons from both of those guys. And and they went from, you know, Spire like we don’t really know who he is and Bazardo, people were saying he shouldn’t have even made the team. he should have been DFAD last year and and all of that to like no those are two guys we’re going to build out the rest of our bullpen behind for 2026 and probably beyond. They’re both club controlled. They’re both really good. They both took steps this year like and they just didn’t have it yesterday. Both of them on the same day. Like that is that is not something you can prepare for and it’s not something you can predict. And it happened and you know it’s it’s one of those things where I know people don’t like to hear it. They don’t like when it when people say it because it sounds like it’s an excuse, but so much of what happens in the playoffs is about luck. Like you have to have luck on your side and uh because you know there’s no reason to think that Gabe Spire would struggle like he did yesterday. There’s no reason to think that Bazardo would struggle like he did yesterday. And they did and it the only explanation for it is that’s baseball. Sometimes guys don’t have it and they struggle and it just happens at the time. So like the winning the division and and you know making the playoffs and all like that’s skill because it’s over 162 games and talent rises to the top and all that in a playoff series. The shorter the series the luckier you have to get. And the Mariners got unlucky yesterday. I mean like forget the bullpen decisions for a second. If Jorge Palano like holds his swing like 1/100th of a second longer, that ball stays fair and the Mariners are up five to nothing and they win that game. Like there it’s over at that point. It is absolutely over. There’s no chance Detroit can muster much of a comeback. Plus, you have a larger margin for error. So you might go to Brash, you might go to Kirby, you might go to Muno earlier than you would have. Like that that’s the difference right there. They only get one with the bases loaded, nobody out and all that, too. But like it really is just a margin of error of almost nothing. And it doesn’t matter if you’re the better team on paper in a best of five playoff series because in a oneame sample, literally anything can happen. And that is what the playoffs are. It’s just a series of oneame samples. You make the best decisions you can. You hope for the best, but at the end of the day, if a guy’s just going to struggle that day, that could be your season. Like your season might be over because your best player had a bad day. And that’s just what happens in the playoffs. And in the regular season, you deal with it. You move on there. You play again tomorrow. It’s not a big deal. You accept it and and that’s just part of the game. In the playoffs, it doesn’t work that way. So, so much of success in the playoffs is just luck. You have to be lucky. You have to be healthy. You have hot at the right time. Your guys have to not blow up. And these are the guys, we’re not You have to be lucky. You also have to execute. You have to execute. They didn’t. But again, but again, it’s still about luck. Yeah. Because at the end of the day, it takes real it takes real skill and real talent to get into the playoffs for the most part. Sometimes you can get lucky and get in, but at the end of the day, when you’re talking about a one game sample size, a winner takes all, that’s like Terrick Scubel is going to win the Sai Young award this year. Yeah. What if he goes out there and he only goes four innings and he gives up six runs and he has his worst start of the year? Like, that’s just bad luck on the Tigers part. There’s nothing you can do about it because that stuff still happens. It just it happened to happen in an elimination game. Same goes for the Mariners. They had a chance to put that game to bed yesterday. They go to their two best guys before Munoz and they both stink. Like that’s just that’s bad luck, you know, and not to take anything away from the Tigers, you know, uh they they they took advantage of poor execution, but those guys just didn’t have it yesterday. And it stinks because you had to sit there and watch it and you’re like, “This isn’t, you know, there isn’t anybody to blame really.” Like there’s nobody to get mad at because Spire and Bazardo are entitled to have bad days because a they’re humans, b they’re professional athletes, and c they’ve been really, really, really good for the previous 16 games at that point. And the other thing too is like the Tigers have seen a lot of them at this point in the series, which you know, we’ll also talk about that with Scooble a little later on from the Mariners side of things, but like Tigers have seen a lot of these two guys, especially Spire. They’ve seen a ton of Spire in this series. You know, you you have the book on a guy once you have the book on a guy like, yeah, if he makes a mistake, you’re probably going to make him pay for it. And Spy made a couple mistakes yesterday and they jumped all over him. And you know, that’s when things just completely got out of hand. When it was 3 to3 and he was able to get out of that without giving up the lead or without uh or without giving the lead to the Tigers, uh I was like, “Okay, new ball game. That sucks.” But I still feel pretty good. Like I still feel pretty good that this offense, especially cuz Kyle Finnegan’s already been burned. Like I feel pretty good that they’re going to be able to get more here. Um but yeah, the offense just didn’t have it really either yesterday. I mean, just and you know, once the Tigers exploded and they scored four more and it became 7 to3 bias hits that home run, it just felt like the soul got taken from the Mariners and there was just nothing left there. You know, thankfully after the game though, they weren’t really, you know, focused on it and they can’t afford to be, right? But hey, you know, sometimes you you might hear quotes of like, man, you know, it just sucks. Like it felt like we really had that game and blah blah blah blah blah. You know, they were just on to game five, which great, awesome. You know, we can we can linger on it. Us the fans, us, the, you know, the podcasters and all that. We can linger on that. We can talk about how God, that’s such a missed opportunity, but those guys absolutely cannot afford to do that. And it seems like they’re taking the right man mentality heading into Friday. And by the way, the Tigers literally just done the same thing. They got their doors blown off in game three and they came back and they won game four. Yeah. Like it happens, you know, in the in the playoffs sometimes. There are still blowouts in the playoffs. There are still, you know, bad games in the playoffs. You just hope you have another opportunity when those happen to make up for it and the Mariners do. Granted, it’ll be very difficult. Uh but yeah, it just one of those games where it just felt like, you know, they’ve had a couple opportunities to just deliver that shot and and you know, put them to bed and they didn’t quite get it. They tacked on one run, but it’s like, man, they could have gotten two or three there. There was couple, you know, the polo foul ball would have made it five to nothing and you’re just like, man, if that had gone fair, like three nothing, you still felt pretty good about it, especially after what Miller had given you. But it was still it’s three to nothing. It’s one swing of the bat and and you’re right back in the game. And so, uh, it was just a bummer. But, you know, all things considered, like if the Mariners do indeed lose this series on Friday, it’s not going to be yesterday’s game that I remember. It’s going to be game one all the way back in game one when they should have won that game. And if they had, this series would have been over, you know, and and so we’ll see. Maybe it won’t matter at all. Maybe the Mariners can beat Skoo for a fourth time. Uh, certainly, it’s what again, it’s one game of baseball. Like I said earlier, the sample sizes are all there is no sample size. It’s just one game. Whoever plays better, whoever, you know, they’re going to win. It’s a game-to-ame basis. It’s an outtoout basis. That’s right. So, could the Mariners beat Scubble for a four time? Yes. Yeah. Should they are they a favorite to do it? No, probably not. But could they? Yeah, absolutely. All right. So, uh let’s talk about TKO in this game five. The Mariners have to over overcome him once more in order to advance to the ALCS for the first time since 2001. We’ll talk about that in just a moment. But first, a reminder. This episode of the Lockdown Mars podcast is brought to you by Rouette. Fellas, you’ve probably heard of Viagra or Seialis. Maybe you’ve even tried them. But if you’re looking for something beyond the usual pill, it’s time to meet Rouiet Golong. 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Tigers won game one. Mars won back-to-back games. Tigers punched back yesterday. Uh, and now it feels like we’re in a pretty similar situation to where we were after game one where the Tigers have their guy Trick Scooel, the presumed Al Sai Young award winner, maybe the best pitcher in the entire game, at least the second best pitcher behind Paul Ske after breaking uh the Mariners hearts. We’ll see if the Mariners can punch right back like they did in game two with their backs against the wall. And I mean in that game they were essentially fighting for their season like we talked about after that one. Friday they are absolutely fighting for their season. No ifs, sand ands or buts about it. Like you lose your season is done. And you know, we haven’t come this this whole way and done all these podcasts over the course of the season and watched these first four playoff games and and all that, gone along on this ride just for me to get on here and tell you it’s over. It’s done. They’re cooked. I’m not going to do that because like you said, Colby, in the first uh segment, it’s baseball. And they have handled TKO pretty well this year. Now, I think a little too much is being made of that. I do think there’s a little too much being put into the narrative of beating him three times already, just because look, this guy is so so so good. Eventually, I just feel like eventually he’s going to get you, right? Like eventually that just can’t go on forever and ever and ever and ever and ever. However, yeah, could it go on for at least one more game? Sure. Yeah, absolutely. But also, I mean, any other pitcher, if he goes seven innings and gives up two runs and strikeouts, strikes out 10 guys, we would say he got you. Yeah. Like on that day. So, like, you could argue that he has gotten them a couple times. And the Mariners have still found a way to beat him or at least beat the Tigers with him on the mound, however you want to phrase it. But, um, yeah, man, it’s it’s tough. There’s there’s no way around it. It’s a difficult situation to be up against and you know um the odds aren’t aren’t really in your favor but uh it’s baseball you know that just the way it goes and it’s not like you’re going to be throwing a a bum up there against him. I mean I don’t know that the Blue Jays beat Cam Schlitler yesterday with a bullpen day. Like it’s just one of those things where you can keep the game close. you can, you know, maybe even have find a way to have a lead after you get him out of the game. You can attack this bullpen. We know this bullpen can be vulnerable. Uh, and you’ve seen they’re high leverage guys basically in every single game. So, you have plenty of data on them and and you can attack and you can add on or you can come back. So, it really is about keeping the game as close as you possibly can with Scooball out there. Uh, finding a way to scrape a run or two off of him and then attacking the bullpen and hopefully he gets Scooble out of the game, you know. six, maybe seven innings. I mean, if he goes eight or nine, it I mean, it’s gonna be really tough to beat him. But, um, he might though, even if he gives up two or three, they might just be like, “We don’t we don’t trust anyone else to throw here. We’re just going with Trick.” Like, that’s, you know, that’s elimination game type stuff. So, we we’ll see. But I mean like at the end of the day, you’d probably like Scooball throwing pitches 100 to 125 is probably not as good as school throwing pitch one through, you know, 99. Sure. Uh so yeah, we’ll see how it goes. Again, it’s a very tough matchup. We know this. We know the Mariners have beaten him three times. We know that he’s still thrown well against him in all but one of those three starts. And we know the Mariners have a pretty good game plan. they’ve been able to at least, you know, get him out of games at a reasonable time and they’ve been able to y string some long innings and long at bats against him. Uh, and that’s just kind of how it has to go. And then when he does make the mistake, you have to take advantage of it. And hopefully more than just Polo can do that on Friday. It’d be nice if if you could get a couple guys on before Polo hits a big home run if he does, you know, but like yeah, we’ll have to see. It’s it’s a tough draw. There’s no question about it. Again, this is back in in game after game one. I I you know I posted on social media I don’t really see a path forward for them to win this series because they have to beat school at least once and probably twice and and here we are and I still feel the same way. I don’t feel great about their odds of winning this game, but they’re not zero. Like, it’s not over. They’re they’re not it’s not low even. Like, it it’s not above 50% in my mind, but it’s it’s 40% 45% chance to win this game. And that’s that’s a lot. That is a good that’s a pretty good chance to win a game when the other team has a pitching advantage over you in a one-ame playoff. Like, it just Yeah, it it really is. Again, it’s going to be difficult. There’s going to be it’s going to be nauseating. If the Tigers jump out to an early three, four nothing lead. It might be game over. So, it really is important that you find a way. You have to be within one or two in this entire game. You can’t be down by three or four runs against with Skoo on the mound. You’re down one to nothing, that’s fine. I mean, it’s not great, but it’s fine. Two to nothing, still doable. You start getting three, four runs, it and you get five down, it’s it’s over. So, like it’s just one of those things where you have your pitching has to keep it close. Dan has to be willing to use everybody in any spot. And if that means using Munoz in the third or whatever, he has to be willing to do stuff like that because giving up a third run in this game more than likely means you’ve lost. But, you know, maybe for all we know, Scubble is going to go out there and he’s going to go five innings and the Mariners are going to score six runs off of him. Like, yeah, it’s baseball. It’s weird. The Mariners have a good lineup. Uh so it’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility, but I expect this to be a stressfilled game. I think it’s going to I think the lead isn’t going to jump by more than one or two runs for the entire night. And I think it’s going to come down to those last, you know, the last three out. I think we head to the bottom of the ninth or the top of the ninth uh with either team just, you know, one swing of the bat away from from winning this game. And and so I expect it to be close. I expect it to be nerve-wracking and and we’ll see who steps up and and you know how the ball bounces. But uh it does stink that you’ve put yourself in a position where you do now have to beat him twice in in five days. Uh which after having beaten him twice. You know, you had an opportunity to end this thing yesterday. You had an opportunity to end it in game one really. Uh and you didn’t take advantage and now it all hinges on this and you know hopefully we’ll see. I mean, who knows? We have no idea how this is going to end. Um, again, I don’t love their odds of winning, but I’m not going to sit here and tell you that they absolutely can’t win or that it’s over because it’s not. That we have seen much stranger things than Mariners beating trickle this year. Yeah, look, he’s so so so so good, but you just saw him in his last start. You’re going to see him, you know, it’s going to be on normal Russ, but you’re going to see him again. I don’t imagine that he’s going to make too too many adjustments. You have the book on him. You were able to put together some really nice at bats against him uh in game two. Uh even when you didn’t come away with runs, you were able to take a piece of him with you from several innings. And when he did make a couple of mistakes and when his command did start to fade, you took advantage of it. Well, Jorge Palanco specifically took advantage of it. I don’t think Jorge Palano is going to hit two home runs in this game. I dare him to. I dare him to. That would be great. Built a statue. Yeah. But you’re going to So, in all, you know, in all likelihood, you’re going to need someone else. You’re You might need a couple of somebody else’s to to do this. Yeah. To But they had a pretty good game plan against them last time. I assume it’s going to be mostly the same game plan again this time around. Yep. And it’s just best on best. And it wouldn’t hurt if if you had a a weird little thing go your way. Like a ball that just barely nicks the the the chalk line down the right field line for a double instead of being a foul ball. Uh maybe a a ball that kicks off a a rock and, you know, flies over Bias’s head. Like you know those little lucky bounces that we talk about all the time, those those game of inches. It wouldn’t hurt if a couple of those went your way either. Uh, but those are things you cannot control. So, you’re just kind of, you know, you’re at you’re at the whim of of baseball and she is I’m not sure what words I’m allowed to use here, but she is fickle and she is unforgiving and unpredictable and you just kind of have to roll with it and and it is what it is. It again, it sucks that you put yourself in this position. Absolutely. sucks. And if they lose this game, it’s going to be a disappointing end to a, you know, a season. We’ll talk, I’m sure we’ll talk about this a lot. If they lose this series, is it a disappointing year? Is it still a good year? Blah, blah, blah. That’s for that’s for Monday’s show. Um, well, hopefully not. Yeah, hopefully not. Hopefully not. Yeah, hopefully we don’t have to answer that question, but if we do, we’ll talk about it, I’m sure, on Monday. Uh, but yeah, it’s going to be tough. It’s going to be, you know, nerve-wracking. it’s going to be um painful or it’s going to be one of the best moments in franchise history, you know, and that that’s sports, baby. And that’s why we watch and that’s why we often wonder why do we watch this because there’s like a good probability this just ends in pain. And you know, I I think Locked On Twins host Brandon Warren said it the best. You have to enjoy the ride. You just have to enjoy the ride because the destination is going to suck for 29 teams every year. Yeah. Yeah. And uh you know, but it doesn’t make But there’s also levels of suck. Sure. I just again I don’t want to get into this unless we have to which really only happens if they lose on Friday. They go to the ALCS. I don’t care if they get swept. We’re not going to sit here and tell you that’s a disappointing season. Um but it it is, you know, we’ll have to see. We’ll have to see how it goes. Again, I don’t love the odds, but it’s one game of baseball. Odds mean nothing in one single game of baseball. Yeah. I I feel like if the Tigers win this game, it’s going to be like four to nothing. Yeah. I feel like if the winers win, it’s going to be two to one. Two to one in 13 innings. It’s going to be a walk-off wild pitch or something crazy. Leo Revas walk-off. What have you done? Punts or something. I don’t know. Yeah. Leo Reas is gonna Carlos Gon this thing. Yeah, it’s going to be something like if the Mariners win, it’s going to be crazy. It’s going to be the most the Dylan versus Josh hater. Yeah. Hit by pitch slashbunt slash whatever. Yeah. It’s going to be the most unpredictable, stupid, most roundabout way of winning this series because that’s how this entire series has gone. They they lost the bullpen game in game one. They beat Scooble in game two. They blew the three nothing lead yesterday. like, yeah, they’ve had easy opportunities to win this series. They’ve gone, nah, we’re good. We’re going to take the hard route and uh, you know, they’re they’re doing that again here in this game. And I don’t like it. And so I I assume that if they do win this game just because Mariners and because how of how this series has gone that if they win this game, it’s going to be in just the most roundabout way possible. Honestly though, it might be even more Mariner if they just dropped like eight runs and they they smoked them. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the other thing that I would say too is like, hey, at the very least, and I said this, uh, you know, after they won game three, like at worst, you know, you go you go back home, you get to play one one more playoff game in the series at home, you’re going to be on your turf with your fans, you know, the atmosphere that you prefer, all that. Uh, I do think that there is something to that. And I hope you guys, if you’re listening and you’re going to the game tomorrow night, you make Ter Scoo’s life a living hell. Countdown the pitch clock, chant his name, all that stuff that we see other fan bases do. Make his life a living hell, right? Just do literally anything to maybe potentially just throw. And maybe you don’t, right? Maybe you don’t. Maybe he’s just so locked in. And he probably is. He’s so good. He’s He’s so so good. But just anything that might throw him off, do it. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow. It’s going to be a fascinating game. But the most fascinating aspect of this really is who are the Mars going to counter Scooble with. Talk about that in just a moment. But first, a reminder, this episode of the Lock Mars podcast is brought to you once again by Game Time. There’s nothing like catching a baseball game live. The energy, the crowd, the chance to see your team in person, but actually getting tickets, that’s the tough part. Cues, login screens, surprise fees. Uh, it takes all the fun out of it. That’s why I use Game Time, the app that gives the advantage back to the fans. Game Time is fast, easy, and backed by the Game Time guarantee. You’ll always get 100% authentic tickets delivered on time and at the best price. Plus, all fees are included. So, the price you see is the price you get. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use the promo code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, that’s promo code Loc MLB for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go. Download Game Time today. and you’re listening to the Lock Mariners podcast. So, we know who’s starting for the Tigers. Colobby, who who’s starting for the Mariners? You going with George Kirby on five days rest or you going with Luis Castio on normal rest? Yeah, it’s an interesting question because obviously George on the extra day rest is is nice. Um, but George’s stuff probably plays up in the bullpen better than Luis. Uh, so yeah, it’s kind of one of those things like how do you want to start the game? It is, you know, the first inning is very important. You really want to throw up a zero. Uh, and you know that uh, you know, Carrie Carpenter is going to be one of the first three hitters and he kind of owns George Kirby. Uh, but in general, like you probably prefer the stuff of Kirby to the stuff of Luis, and it feels like you’re going to need, you know, big- time stuff to match Scubal. However, Luis has beaten Scubble twice this year, uh, both times at at T-Mobile. So, it’s kind of one of those things where it’s like they’re pros and cons for each one. I think we’re going to see both of them anyway, so doesn’t really matter all that much who who you start. Uh my hunch is is that Luis gets the start and he goes through the lineup once maybe one and a half times and then Kirby comes in and pitches, you know, for one time through the rot or one time through the lineup. Uh and then they kind of go to their Spire, Bazardo, Brash, Muno mix. Um yeah, so my hunch is that Luis gets the ball. I I I think both options are viable. I I think if I were making the call, I’d probably give it to George just because he has the extra today, but that Carrie Carpenter matchup is is scary and you know you’re going to get it at least once uh if you start Kirby. So now is Carpenter leading off because I actually like the idea of Kirby facing Carpenter with nobody on. Yeah. Worst happens, it’s one- nothing. But uh yeah, I think I would probably pick Kirby. I think it’ll ultimately be Castillo with Kirby coming in in relief and I think that’s fine. I I don’t have a problem with that. Uh but I think I would probably pick Kirby. It’s all hands on deck here. I mean Logan Gilbert only threw 85 pitches. Uh not that he’s going to start, but could he give you an inning an inning? Yeah, he probably could if you really needed it. And so really is all hands on deck. There’s nobody who should be, you know, off limits. everybody. They had the day off today obviously and u you know Brash and Munoz didn’t even pitch yesterday so they’re obviously going to be very fresh and ready to go. So uh I think you’ll see both of those guys in this game. My hunch is they give it to the veteran. They let Louise start. Um and Kirby’s on standby. He probably starts the game out in the bullpen and he’s probably the first guy they go to out of the pin. Uh because you got to do what you got to do, you know. And and would it stink to burn both of these guys in in game five? And yeah, it probably would. But like Logan was probably starting game one either way. And one of these guys, assuming neither assuming both of them don’t throw a 100 pitches, you know, they could one of them is going to be able to start game two. Uh probably would be Kirby because you’d be on the road. But um I think it’s Luis for at least one time through or well or until he runs into trouble and then you have to have a quick hook. But I think Luis gets the ball and then I think Kirby comes in. He’s the first guy out of the bullpen. Um, and it’s not a lot of uh experience or anything, but Kirby does have, you know, has come out of the bullpen in the playoffs before. Yep. For one inning. So, it was a big inning though. Yeah. I I I get it either side. Like whatever whatever Dan decides, I I think it’s justifiable. I think you can totally make it work and and I understand it. It’s just, you know, if I were I would probably start with George just a higher upside. Um, but I I think Luis is the veteran and, you know, he that’s this game. He’s the rock and he’s beaten Skoo twice already and he pitches very well at T-Mobile Park. So, uh, I think both are viable. I would probably pick Kirby. I think ultimately they’ll pick Castillo and I’m fine with that. Uh, I think I go Castillo and then hand it off to Kirby. Um, now I I would be willing to go with Castillo as long as he can keep things clean. Yeah. And then just reassess. Again, we’re on an out basis in the playoffs, especially in an elimination game. Um, so just see how much you can get out of Luis. See what he looks like the first time through the order against, you know, the Carrie Carpenters and the Riley Greens of the world. And then uh and just reassess um you know once you know Carpenter comes back up I assume he is going to hit lead off again. Once he comes back up then you know just how do you feel about letting Luis face him a second time? Um you know again like you are facing maybe the best pitcher in the game. Two nothing even a you know a three nothing even a two nothing lead might be the end of your season. Yep. with how well that guy can throw the ball. So, every run is so precious. So, I mean, like I would even if if it really comes down to it, like say like they get a couple of guys on and Carpenters up there in the third inning, you might have to go to Spy. Yep. So, it’s you’re you are re-evaluating your plan essentially every pitch, not even every batter, every pitch. And you have to be sitting Dan has to be sitting next to uh you know, uh Pete and and his guys the entire game and just talking through like, okay, is is now the time to get somebody up? Is now the time to get somebody hot? is now the time to, you know, you have to be very careful because your margin of error against Scooble is basically zero. So, yeah, uh it really is a difficult thing. It’ll be the toughest thing that that Dan’s had to do. And it’s it’s something I wish that he, you know, had been doing for a decade like AJ Hinch because those are the things that can make the big difference in these in one baseball game where one baseball game matters. Unfortunately, managers also matter and the Mariners are at a huge disadvantage there. Um, again, not that Dan did anything wrong yesterday. I’m not I’m not making this at the Dan problem from yesterday, but we know that No, it’s just it’s it’s more about Hinch. What you’re saying is more about Hinch than than Dan. I mean, Hench won his thousandth game yesterday. Like, there’s just so much more experience. There’s championship experience there. He’s managed like a hundred games in the playoffs. Yeah. And Dan Wilson is managing his fifth. Yeah. And he’s already made some really questionable decisions in this in this playoff series. So, yeah, who knows? Uh, but uh yeah, every pitch is a re-evaluation of what you want to do, what you need to do with your bullpen. And this will be Dan’s, you know, greatest challenge and and hopefully he’s up for it. I I don’t have a lot of confidence that he is. As we said, you know, a week ago when I told you my confidence level in him was two out of 10. Uh but uh you know he can he can go a long way in building up a reputation here if he makes the right calls at the right time. And you know he might make the right call at the right time and it might not work. That’s just the gig. But uh yeah like yesterday like I saw people saying like oh he shouldn’t have let Spy go out to face Riley Green. What was your other option that you felt legitimately good about? Like I know Spy didn’t look good in the inning prior, but like that’s the guy that you’re using Spy against. like Spy is specifically so important to this series to get Riley Green and Carrie Carpenter out and for the most part he’s been very good at it. He wasn’t yesterday so it just it happens. Yeah. So like you said like Dan can push the right buttons here and it still doesn’t work out. It’s just process over results. Was the process sound? If the process is sound, I can live with the results of what happens. Mhm. Yeah. And sometimes it might be murky, by the way. Sometimes it might be a little bit like, yeah, that could have gone either way. I can kind of see how we came to that decision. In hindsight, yeah, I don’t know if it was we would like it. And and even in the moment, I felt kind of unsettled about it, but I also like kind of understood it. Like there’s also things like that, right? Um, but yeah, so like a lot of this is on Dan, you know, just pushing the right buttons, but ultimately you got to have a very similar game that you had in Endgame 2 where you’re just annoying Scooble enough. you wear him down just enough where he shows you a couple of cracks and you have to take advantage of that when it happens. And on the flip side, you have to match him pitching wise. If you don’t and you find yourself down three nothing, 4 nothing, potentially even two nothing, that might be your season just because that guy is just so good. He’s so good. And you know, he’s also going to be pitching in that ballpark, T-Mobile Park. Like the Mariners might get some great swings off of him and they might have nothing to show for it in the end. They might hit 10 balls at 105 mph plus off of him and they all die at the warning track. Baseball’s baseball. So, you know, you just have to put Dan has to put his guys in the best position to succeed. And you know, at that point, the rest is just best on best and we see what happens. That’s going to do it for our show. Uh we will be back after the game tomorrow. No matter what happens, either we’re talking about a huge series win and a huge huge biggest wins in Mariners history. Yeah. Make no mistake about it. and and just a huge statement to overcome trick school again or we’re talking about the end of this season which has been a lot of fun to cover and has been a ton of fun to talk about with you guys especially over the last few weeks and um you know we’ll sit on it for the weekend and we’ll get back after it on Monday mailbag Monday and start getting into our offseason stuff but I’m hoping we can push that off a little bit longer And I think we can. And you know, another four games sounds nice. And I I just I really think that so much more is possible for this team and and for us. And yeah, I I I just I don’t think that this has to be the end of the road. I really don’t. So see how it goes and then we’ll talk to you on the show tomorrow. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockowners podcast for Colobby Pad Node. I’m Ted Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at l_mmers. You can follow me at titang gazales 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 Lockdown 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 put the Mariners’ ALDS Game 4 loss to rest and turn their attention to Game 5, going over how Seattle can overcome Tarik Skubal one last time and more.

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