REACTION: #Mariners SWEEP Houston Astros | #SeattleSports

REACTION: #Mariners SWEEP Houston Astros | #SeattleSports

You don’t need to be the one saying it, you know. So, I’m I’m going to say it for you, Salt. You know, you have you have stood out there at times, you know, in the wilderness screaming, right? Some people thinking you’re a mad man. You don’t know really what you’re talking about. Some people thinking maybe you jinx the Mariners, but you have been a very loud and a very proud and a very right voice when it’s come to this club and really when it’s come to the Astros and the Rangers and their and the Tigers and some of their peers in the American League, you have said it more loudly and more clearly than anybody that uh that the Mariners are aren’t just a good team, they’re a much better team than all the rest of them and they have shown that and put that together. or they’ve done it at home. Since the All-Star game, there’s been nobody better than the Seattle Mariners at home. And after a couple really brutal road trips, they just said, “Enough’s enough. Going to pull up our pants, going to go to work, and we’re going to end the Astros in their building in their last home series and send them all home crying.” Which is exactly what they did this weekend. So, kudos to you, my friend. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. I I think I’ve been wrong about so many things with regards to the Mariners this year that I I’ll take a couple of uh a couple of platitudes shots in the dark where I No, I think I’ve been I’ve understood the other teams better than I’ve understood the Mariners this year. The Mariners have continued to confound me and every time I think they’re going in one direction, they go in another until really the last week or so. But the other teams like I just kind of looked at Houston and Texas earlier like, yeah, those just aren’t that good. They’re just not the same. Is that through your lens of just kind of all your years of watching baseball? Is that through your lens of seeing kind of what championship teams are and haven’t been around them? Do you think that’s kind of built on sort of Yeah. And some of it’s kind of a gut feel and just like there’s something wrong there. Like Texas, they’re just they’re just not good enough and they’re about to not make the playoffs. I think they’re probably eliminated by the end of the day today, maybe tomorrow. Uh the Astros, the Astros might not make the playoffs. Yeah, Detroit might not make the playoffs. Yeah, Cleveland. We’ll see. I mean, but like one or two of those teams are not going to make the playoffs. That’s pretty remarkable, right? Considering and and right now it’s essentially a coin flip between Houston, Detroit, and Cleveland. Which one’s going to be in? Which one’s going to be out? So, how good are any of those teams? Cleveland doesn’t really have all that much talent. Passing certainly told us all about it over the week, you know, last week on Tuesday, and I was giving him a little grief over the weekend just for fun. But like they whooped up on Detroit, then Detroit went to Atlanta and got spanked. Meanwhile, Cleveland keeps finding ways to win. And if they win tonight, they’re going to put Detroit in a very uncomfortable position. Yeah, I think they play a three game set, right? They I think every is everybody off today in baseball or or I thought Cleveland played today. I might be wrong. There’s there’s three games going on today, but they’re all National League games. So, okay, my bad. Never mind. Yeah. No, it’s all right. But Cleveland, Detroit go for three. And yeah, I mean the way you’re going right now and you handle your business and then Detroit finishes with Boston. That’s right. So like Detroit, if like if I had to guess, I don’t know whether Detroit’s going to be in the postseason. Houston might end up sneaking in with Cleveland as the final two. Like Cleveland ends up in that scenario as the as the division winner in the in the Central and then it’s really down to the Tigers and um and Astros. Red Sox and Astros. Yeah. Yeah. And if and if the Red Sox are beating the Tigers a whole bunch of games in that scenario to allow Cleveland to get in, you know, maybe it’s Houston at that point because they, you know, find a way to sneak in in the last You know what the Lion does? The Lion doesn’t concern himself with the sheep. That’s damn right. Because ahead now, all those teams are behind you. You know what you’re looking ahead to now? You take care of business. You’re the number two seed and you get to watch all of those sheep get to go play and go play in a short series and go knock each other out and then they’re going to come into your home. So, I ask you, how did they do that this weekend? How did they go in and not just win a series? How did they go in and just put a stake right through the heart of the Astros in their house? Well, let me go back um a little farther. Today is the 22nd of September. Let’s go back three weeks to the start of September. Okay, since the very beginning of September, the Mariners lead the American League in runs, home runs, on base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS. That was as of last night, but I think they scored a whole bunch of runs, so I don’t think anything would have changed. The Mariners led the lead the American League since the start of September in runs, home runs on base percentage, slugging, and OPS. I don’t know what else you would possibly need to lead the league in offensively other than those than those categories. I mean, obviously runs is the most important. And the highest run differential they’ve had all season, I believe it’s plus 43 in the month of September. Just for one month. Just for one month. runs, home runs on base percentage, slugging on and ops. They lead the American League in all of those categories since the start of September. But Brock, but that’s not all. But Brock, let me let me also say that during that same month, they are second in the American League in both erra and whip walks and hits per innings pitch. Probably the two most basic and telling stats. That’s like how you win 15 to 16 games or something darn near. Yeah. No kidding. Right. I mean like and you look through it because I was curious about the other teams. That’s kind of what got me going down this road. I was like, “All right, I’m not sold on, as I’ve told you now 100 times, the Tigers, the Astros, the the whatever, all those teams. What about the teams in the AL East?” Cuz really, those three I think are much bigger threats than the other teams in the West and the Central. And so I went kind of looking, okay, where where are those three teams at? Boston, New York, and Toronto. And all of them are on the offensive leaderboards for the month. I’m just looking at how they’re playing now and basically since the trade deadline. Yeah, all three of them are right there. But pitching, not so much. Nope. They’re not there on the pitching side of it. They’re kind of spread out all over for RA. I think the highest of them was eighth in the American League and the others were outside the top 10. Like they’re not they’re not pitching all that well. And by the way, they all play in in band boxes. So I look, the the Mariners are more complete. They’re deeper and they have the highest upside of any of these teams playing right now. I believe it to be the case. I think you know it’s the case whether or not you’re willing to admit it to yourself. And if you ask Tim Kurchin, who was on uh with I believe Wyman and Bob late last week, Bump and Stacy, of course, I got that wrong with Bump and Stacy on Friday. I was playing golf, I’ll just be very clear, but he was on with Bump and Stacy on Friday. And he says, “Look, we’re not the only ones who feel that way.” I remember at the trade deadline, I spoke to a talent evaluator who I trust implicitly and I said, “Is there anything about the Mariners that worries you?” Because we all know, you know, just when you get excited about the Mariners the last few years, something goes wrong and he said, “No, I’m not worried about anything with the Mariners. They’re that good.” That’s what he told me at the trade deadline. and they’ve started now to play like a team that doesn’t really have any significant weaknesses. So, I really like where the Mariners are right now. I think they are good enough to win the division, win the pennant, and win the World Series with, of course, a bunch of things falling in the right place. And I’m not sure I’ve been able to say that about the Mariners in a really long time. I love the way he emphasized it. They are that good. Interesting. In that series in Houston, they were that good. JP Crawford said it as he was leaving the clubhouse wherever they were before Houston. And he used a little expletative to emphasize it that they were ready from him. They were ready. They were ready to go. And from the jump, they were ready to go in Houston. They were the better team. There wasn’t a fluky win. There isn’t an Astros player, an Astros talent man, anybody in that clubhouse, anybody around that club, any of the 40,000 trying to make noise in that in that house, all of them left the Crawford boxes going, “Yep, they are that good. They are and they’re better than us and they just shoved in our face.” It’s interesting you you focused on that phrase from Kirchin. I kind of focus on the other one where he says they really don’t have any weaknesses. Nope. And I think that to me is the thing bullpen’s a little scary. Bullpen. I’m not not going to lie, bullpen. You’re a little nervous about the pen. Bullpen’s a little tenuous even with a seven nothing run, whatever. It was like, okay, where are we where are we going here? There’s an argument to be made that Saturday got a little nervous. Do you feel better about a two or three run lead than you do a seven lead with the Mariners at times just based on who that means would be coming out of the pen? I think you could make a conversation there. But Bazardo’s pretty nasty over the last week again. Brash looked like he got it back again last night. Munoz has been doing his I don’t know. And then you add in the defense and you add in Rolace in right field and we’ll talk through the catch he made on Saturday and you add in the home run power and Julio and Suarez and obviously Cal breaking the record and then continuing to go on from there is now the all-time leader at Mariner home runs in a season and that’s just going to keep going. And you talk through the starting pitching Brock which we’ve barely mentioned here but all three starters and really all five of them their last turn through the rotation were tremendous. and whatever I said about Luis Castillo. George Kirby certainly came in uh on Saturday. I was like, “Hey, hold on. Not so fast. You just wait cuz look what I’m about to do in Houston.” So, I I mean, look, they don’t really have weaknesses right now. One through nine, the lineup is clicking. One through five, the rotation looks good. We’ll wait and see what’s going on with Brian Woo Peek. The back end of your bullpen’s good. If the only weakness you’re pointing to right now is their non-lever relievers aren’t as good as you want them to be, you’re talking about a team and not surprisingly the stats and the and the standings back it up that right now is on pace to clinch during this Colorado series. And if you don’t if you never been to a game to a to a to a playoff clinching game, pin it clinching game. Pin it clinching game. go because because both of those things are on the table here Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. And not only that, homefield or a first round by clinching game. So, there are a lot of opportunities in front of the Mariners here in just the next three days, and I know we’ll be talking about all of

The Mariners hot streak continues as the club sweeps aside AL West rival Houston Astros on the road to control their own destiny in the march toward the MLB playoffs. Brock Huard & Mike Salk (Brock & Salk) react to the series.

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