Tampa Bay Rays Face FIERCE Seattle Mariners Offense

No safe harbor in Seattle. The Rays face their fiercest foe in this road trip. You are Locked on Rays, your daily Tampa Bay Rays podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to the Locked OnRays podcast. Locked on Rays is part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. and we are Kevin and Ulissiz and we are lifelong Rays fans who have been podcasting about these race since 2019. On today’s show, the Rays will look to continue their twoame winning streak against the playoff contending Seattle Mariners. In a few minutes, we’ll discuss why the Rays lineup just isn’t the same without Randy Rose Arena. But let’s begin with the upcoming series pitching matchups and that Seattle offense that is quite enviable. But first, today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase. Well, the Rays will need all the help they can get. Luckily, they have some upward momentum with what they did against the Angels, but I don’t think there’s any question that the Mariners are through and through a better team than the Angels. Uh as of this recording uh the Mariners are 61 and 53 and that means that equates to according to fan graphs a 71% chance to make the postseason. Moreover, the Mariners are 32 and 25 at home and they have 31 comeback wins. Um the pitching matchups I it always seems to befuddle me how whenever we try to look ahead at a series the other team doesn’t have their starters or their probable. So at least we know for the Rays that Drew Rasmos is pitching that Joe Bole is pitching and Adrien Howser is pitching. So we at least got two shots at the apple there with Rasm Mustin and Bole. And to me at this point, Hower is a bit of a question mark based on what he did in his first start in a Rays uniform. Uh I believe we’ll see Luis Castillo for the Mariners, but beyond that, I’m really not sure. That Friday match up, Brass Mus against Castillo is going to be mustwatch TV. I mean, if you if you like baseball, I mean, those two guys have been fantastic uh in their careers. So, I mean, Luis Castillo, for a guy that gets traded with so much fanfare and then gets signed to an extension, he has been living up to expectations uh with with his performances. So, he’s going to be a tough tough customer. Uh, but if the Rays are able to scratch out that win on Friday against Luis Castillo behind Drew Rasmmanson, if you win that Friday game, you have a really good chance to to take a series from one of the league’s best offenses. Yes. And I think if the Rays win the series, they would be back up to 500. So that’s at least a benchmark that we’re fighting for because we’ve been under that 500 mark for a little bit now. And if you can, you know, so show show some gumption against the Mariners, that’s a good sign. But it’s it’s going to be tough because the Mariners are a team, you know, Ulyses, I know we’ve debated, were the Rays buyers, were the Rays sellers, were they inbetweeners, did they do a little bit of both? We know it wasn’t the fire sale of last year. The Mariners did the thing and actually acquired some names. They went out and got what they needed to. They got the lefty Caleb Ferguson as a reliever. Uh they also enhanced their offense significantly by getting Venezuelan bump in Ulysi’s book, Uanius Suarez, who uh has more home runs than Junior Camro this year, 37 uh if you were counting at home. Plus Josh Naylor, who is just an all-around solid bat. He’s I don’t know, call him a poor man’s Jonathan, but he is a he’s a solid hitter through and through. Um, but the Mariners, even before adding Suarez to the equation and Naylor to the equation, they were still one of the biggest boppers in baseball thanks to what’s it big dumpster. What’s what’s his nickname? Big big dumper is the big dumpster, but the big dumper. There we go. I messed it up. I I screwed up. But Cal Riley, who has 42 home runs, Randy Rose Arena, former Ray, who we’ll talk about and reminisce about uh in the next segment, 22. J-Rod has 20. Palano has 18. Uh they got a bunch of guys smattering with nine and seven. But if you look up and down the lineup at full health, plus all the acquisitions, it’s pretty stacked for the most part top to bottom, like one through seven, one through eight. It’s a tough deal in a tough time. And you know, Jerry Dota, who is the general manager for the Mariners, we know he loves to make trades and this was an opportunity. Hey, we’re in the driver’s seat or we have a chance to really do something and make the playoffs. They made that extra effort to give themselves a push. And I got to give them a little bit of credit for doing that. Like it’s it’s fun to see teams go out and not just say, “Oh, well, we’re not the Yankees. We’re not the Dodgers. Uh we can’t do this thing. let’s at least, you know, throw something out there and see what we can do, even if we have to give up a top ranked prospect or two. And that’s what they did. But, um, it it hurts if you’re a Rays fan because you’re facing a boosted, bolstered Mariners team on the road. And it’s a team that with their stadium, you’ve never really uh compared them to great offenses in the past, right? It’s really tough to hit well. Uh, well, I was going to say safeguard, but in T-Mobile Park, it’s really tough. And, you know, you look up and down that lineup and you’re seeing 42 home runs, 22 home runs, 20 home runs, 18 home runs, 37 home runs. I mean, the top three there with 42, 37, and 22. You compare that with the top three of the race and it’s like 30, 20, 20. There’s a difference there. So, it’s it’s it’s a juggernaut of an offense that they’re going to be facing. And when you have really good pitching like the Seattle Mariners have in in that young rotation, man, it makes it very complicated. So that’s why that Friday night game, if you’re able to chip away against Luis Castillo, and I understand they’ve been redhot at home, but you chip away that that Friday night game, then you have a chance to do something against a team that is not only ahead of you in the standings, but I think a lot of people would would not be surprised if the Seattle Mariners end up going on a long playoff run. Yeah, and think about it this way. We have Junior Camroero. They have like two and a half between Cal Riley and Yueno Suarez and you know throw in JRod or Ron Randy or whoever it may be. So it is uh going to be a tough test and that’s where I am wondering and hoping that even with the Rays improved bullpin of late that Drew Rest Mus can go deep, Joe Bole can go deep and maybe keep that bullpin a little bit rested just in case you have to pull the hook on Hower sooner rather than later. So that’s going to be something to watch is like, hey, if Joe Bole has four scoreless innings and 60 pitches, are they going to be able to roll him out for a fifth or six? Are they gonna do the cautious thing and say, “Hey, we’re we’re just protecting his arm for the future, which fine, but then it’s like, well, this is a long road trip.” And I understand that you have a couple more off off days where you can really unload your bullpen, but but if you start doing that on the first day of the series, we all know baseball by the time that you’re closing out that series, hitters talk. They’re going to see them once, twice. they they understand where the ball is coming from the tunneling and and then it gets a little bit more difficult for that bullpen to get the outs that they need to get. Yeah. Hot take. Um and I again I know people hate this. I know they uh admonish me for saying this and putting this out in the ether. Okay, don’t you dare. I I like the raised chances. However, however, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a clunker somewhere in this series where the Mariners have like five dingers and maybe they can recover after that. I I see a crooked number in one of these games. I’ll leave it like that. I hope that the crooked number is on the Ray side. And you know what? Maybe a crooked number is the one that the race ended up feeling when Randy Rosarena was traded uh from the race last year in that fire self, which we got to talk about that right now. Have you ever decided at the last minute to head to a ball game with friends and family? I know Kevin and I have literally less than a week. We went to see the Dodgers. And maybe it’s you who needs to do this. Maybe against St. Louis, maybe against the Yankees. The Rays are in a long West Coast road trip. But when they get back, you can do that by using Game Time. Game time makes it possible for you to save money on the tickets so you can spend the rest on the food, drinks, and merch at the big time. And remember, Game Time is the official ticketing partner of Locked On MLB. And the seat views right in the app before you buy. and you know exactly where you will be. So, take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code L K D O N MLB for $20 off. Download the Game Time app today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Thank you for listening to the Locked on Raise podcast. We are of course part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Yes. Let’s focus on one Randy Arosena who may or may not have been the franchise player or the face of the franchise for the Rays for a period of time there before he got traded to the Mariners, of course. And just going back a little bit, uh during that fire sale of 2024, the Rays traded Randy to the Mariners and in return got Aiden Smith and Brody Hopkins. Brody Hopkins, a friend of the program, is killing it uh in the minor leagues. Aiden Smith uh not doing so hot after I believe he was promoted from low A to high A. But one guy who is doing hot and and let me just put this out. I’m not ready to judge the Randy trade until we see what happens with Aiden Smith and Brody Hopkins. Maybe they become major leaguers. Maybe they become main stays. Maybe one of them becomes an all-star. Um, right now it’s not looking so hot. It’s still early. You got to let these things marinate and play out. But I will tell you that I am envious of the production that Randy is putting forth this season in a Mariners uniform and wish we had that type of production on this team, especially with all the injuries that have transpired uh over the course of the 2025 season. In fact, Randy is basically having a career year at 30 years old. Uh he’s already generated 4.1 war, has 22 homers, 21 stolen bases, 138 OPS plus, 825 OPS, 351 batting average, 473 slug. Uh got a lot of hits, got a lot of RBI’s, got a lot of runs scored. Um and I was looking at Randy and I was thinking, man, when he was with the Rays, he had a lot of 2020 seasons. And I was correct. he did uh as he has now notched his fifth straight 2020 season, which um is pretty rare. There’s not many who have done five or six or seven. Um it’s it’s a pretty short list if you look at it that way. Um and he’s still going. I mean, he could he could be a 25 guy this year or 27 27 guy this year. But what really kind of has me thinking about Randy is not the 2020 and all the entertainment and excitement that he provided in a Rays uniform and then now in a Mariners uniform. It’s the durability factor and and that’s how you get to a point where you can be a 2020 player. It’s the durability and consistency in the final line. Like at the end of the year, you know what you’re going to get from Randy and it’s between 140 to 150 games, more so on the 150 game end of things. And he’s going to put up a line that is pretty status quo for every year that he’s done. And I know that some Rays fans have this fascination towards it’s seems to me they’d like to root more for the front office than players sometimes. So when Randy was traded last year, I saw a lot of yeah, he’s washed. Uh we didn’t need him anymore. Uh he’s always been overrated anyway. and all these coping uh tweets that I was just like, “Oh boy, these people don’t know about baseball.” Like, “Thank you for putting out that.” Do you want to you want to give the list of people that have seven or more 2020 seasons so that people can understand? So, by the way, he’s actually doing right now. Yeah. So, Randy has five and it’s very well within range that he can have six or seven. Um, and I don’t even think these players are all consecutive necessarily, but Randy has done it five straight years in a row, but the guys with seven 2020 seasons, Carlos Beltron, Eric Davis, Jose Ramirez, nine, Bobby Abra, who should have more Hall of Fame votes, and then the guys who have 10 a piece, the Bonds family, Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonds, those all those players are tremendous. is. And I know you can make any type of narrative with whatever numbers you are. That’s that’s that’s baseball. You can do that. But I I feel like it we can’t you’re you’re right. We can’t fully judge the Randy trade just yet. But his production this year is definitely enviable. I mean, you’re talking about not only speed, but you’re talking um not horrible defense and the fact that the power is always there, too. I mean, you you you talk about 22 home runs in that park. I mean, I know he’s not doing the 22 in Seattle, but it’s still a big portion of where he’s going to be playing, and he’s still doing it. I I I miss Randy. I will always root for Randy. I will always hope for good things about Randy. The the issue that we know, you know, that w with him and Yandi or the wives of Yandi and R and and Randy. Uh it’s a shame. It’s a shame because maybe if you take that human portion of the equation out, maybe that Randy trade never really happens. But I agree with you. You can’t fully judge the trade, but you can surely miss his production, right? and and so far again we haven’t seen Smith or Hopkins in a raise uniform and you wish that with some of these trades these guys would be you know at the AAA uh level and and more ready to contribute. So we’re not going to know until years down the line but odds are odds are that Ry’s career war will probably be higher than Smith and Hopkins combined. I’m really I’m willing to go out on a limb for that. that Randy will, you know, one player that is established, that is a multipletime all-star, that did unspeakable things in the 2020 World Series, that is a rookie of the year, that had his own section in the outfield called Randy Land. Um, I I honestly think, you know, beyond the Randy and Yandi feud, um, it it I almost got the vibe or the impression that Ry’s persona had almost like outgrown the Rays. Like he was too big for the race, if that makes sense. Honestly, I feel the exact Honestly, I feel the exact same way. I feel that not only the in the classic but the 2020 World Series run and the the 2021 he has a home run and then he steals home. Yeah, he’s he’s been sometimes some guys just evolve over their environment and I think he did and you talk about you know those people that that you know oh I don’t miss him or whatever bro uh you wouldn’t have race fan race nation does not have a lot of tremendous great you know runs in them that 2020 was one of them and we don’t get there. We all don’t have that collective happiness moment without Randy Rosarena. So, I do I do think that the the fans that were rooting for the front office last year with that trade uh are misguided and and I hope that um they have some time to think it over because I don’t think that’s the I don’t think that’s why you got into sports is to root for front offices. You root to for other players. That’s why you’re a fan. You don’t you don’t root for quarter zips and suits. Let’s let’s root for uniforms. Yes. On the field, if you will. Um and the crazy thing, too, is that Randy is having a career year and I still think he has a year before free agency. So, he’s not even in a contract year yet. So, he keeps this up and he might be getting that uh I don’t want to say mega deal, but a good chunk of change, if you will. Um, and just want to read a quote, uh, because the Mariners are clearly pleased by his production this year, um, from manager Dan Wilson. What he’s done at the plate, especially lately, has been outstanding using the whole field, driving the ball for power. We see him hit the ball on a line. We see him take his walks. He has really done a great job here. And, you know, the Mariners are rewarding the players on their roster. We saw extensions with Julio Rodriguez. We saw extensions with Cal Riley. We’ve saw we’ve seen extensions with other players, so they seem to be doing it right at this juncture. Um, and we’ll we’ll see what happens and what Randy does in this series as well. All right. Um, we have baseball trivia and Name That War coming up. This episode is brought to you by Prize Picks, the daily fantasy platform that lets you turn your football predictions into real rewards. Preseason, it’s already heating up and college football isn’t far behind if you didn’t know already. Uh, and that means it’s the perfect time to lock in your seasonl long more or less picks for the 2025 football season, all before week one kicks off. Uh, I’ve used prize picks now for a few seasons and what I love is how simple it is. In fact, I can get a lineup in before my coffee finishes brewing. That’s minutes. Just a few minutes and uh, I can get it done. It’s as easy as that. Uh, so go ahead, join me and download the prize picks app today and use code locked on MLB to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That’s code locked on MLB. L O C D O N MLB to get $50 in lineups after your first $5 play. Prize picks run your game. All right. Uh, first off, thank you for making the Locked on Raise podcast your first listen every day. We are part of the Locked On podcast network your team every day. And it is a fun Friday episode, which means it’s time for baseball trivia and name that war. Listies, my trivia question is in regards to the Seattle Mariners. Um, we talked a lot about home runs and the power they provide. And I have in front of me a list of the all-time home run leaders in a Mariners uniform. I have the top 10 list. I want five names and I want them now. Uh, let’s go with Ken Griffy Jr. Numero Uno with 417. Let’s go with Edgar Martinez. Number two with 309. Let’s go with um I I I apologize if I mispronounced his last name. Jay Buunner. Jay Buunner is correct. He is number three on this list. Are you cheating right now? He has 307. No. Um, I showed my hands on YouTube if you guys haven’t seen. Um, okay. Griffy Martinez Buunner. Four. Number five. Has to be guys that have been there a long, long time. Okay. Well, Ichiro was there for a long time, but he had no power. Let’s try it though anyway. Ichiro strike one. Okay. Longtime mariners. Oh. Uh, Seager. Which Seager? Kyle. Kyle Seager is number four on this list. This might be a record of you naming the first four in sequential order. Uh he has 242. Oh gosh. Now I want to get fancy and go like Richie Sex or something like that. Bring you don’t have to get that fancy. No. Okay. Not that fancy, he says. Who was a good power bad for the Mariners? Carlos Gueen. Strike two. It’s staring me in the face, isn’t it? There’s a couple names staring you in the face. And it’s not Ichiro or Carlos Guian. I went dark horses there. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Come on. I got this. Oh, this is a good bleeping question, man. Who is staring me in the face? And right now the background music of night driving is not making me think, think, think, think. It can’t be Cal Rally, right? I mean, 42 jacks does help you though. He’s been there a bit of time. He probably has over a 100 home runs with them. Does that make the list? JP Crawford has been there for a while, but he’s got no pop. Julio Rodriguez, not enough time. Need a name. Five, four, three, two, Cal Riley. Number 10 on this list with 135. But you’re going to be disappointed because number five on this list was Alex Rodriguez. Number six on this list was Tampa Bay Rays great Nelson Cruz. Seven, Alvin Davis. Uh, eight, Raul Ibanz. And nine, Brett B. Guess what? I’m disappointed, but still got the points, baby. Congratulations. Well, that was fun. Do we have time for name that war? Quick, I’ll shoot it from the hip. Okay. Well, uh, name that war is when we take a player from the past and we try to guess their career war according to baseball reference. Today’s player from the past is Jamie Moyer. Jamie Moyer, uh, who played till he was like 87. Uh, no, real talk. I think he played till he was 49. Um, definitely play with the Mariners and the Phillies and maybe another couple other teams. I think all that time in the majors had to rack up some numbers. Might have been a one or two time all-star. I’m looking at like a 4.2 career erra and I don’t know 150 160 wins something to that effect. I could be way off. My guess, even though he played like 25 years across, I’m guessing three decades, give or take, his career war, according to baseball reference, is 22. 25 years. You undersold this man. 269 victories, a 4.25 25 year 4,074 innings, 2,441 strikeouts in a career war of 49.8. Basically, he was a two war guy per season. And yes, folks, he pitched until he was 49. And he made his debut in 1986 at 23 years old with the Cubs, retired with the Rockies in 2012. And just a one-time all-star. Yep. Hot take. I think like the Veterans Committee should put him in the Hall of Fame at some point. It’s pretty remarkable. Yeah. Throw war all out the window like him and uh who is it? James Franco that played, you know, in their late Julio Julio Franco. Julio, sorry, Julio Franco. Um, like it’s just an amazing feat. So, kudos to Jamie Moyer on that one. Uh, in the meantime, hope you all enjoyed and appreciated the episode. We’re trying for you to bring you race content every single day. Um, meantime, we do want to tell you that for your second lesson, check out the locked on MLB game night. Every game, every night, all season long, local analysis brought to you on a national scale. You can find MLB game night on lockdown MLB on the YouTubetubes or wherever you listen to those podcasts.

Can the Tampa Bay Rays overcome the red-hot Seattle Mariners? The upcoming series promises fireworks as two AL powerhouses clash.
Kevin Weiss and Ulises Sambrano break down the crucial pitching matchups, including a must-watch duel between Drew Rasmussen and Luis Castillo. They analyze Seattle’s offensive juggernaut, led by Eugenio Suarez and former Ray Randy Arozarena, who’s having a career year. The hosts debate the Arozarena trade’s impact and explore the Mariners’ historic sluggers.
Tune in for expert insights on the Rays’ strategy against Seattle’s potent lineup and discover if Tampa Bay can maintain their momentum from the Angels series.
5:13 Mariners’ powerful offense poses challenge
10:03 Randy Arozarena thriving with Mariners
15:51 Evaluating the Arozarena trade long-term

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