Tag Archives: Isaiah Campbell

The Mariners Won 1 Game Per City On Their Last Road Trip

Posted on by
Reply

I guess it’s lucky the Rangers have been so atrocious lately, but the Mariners are free-falling, and I don’t know if there’s anything that can be done to fix it.

We lost 2 of 3 to the awful Mets. Then, we lost 2 of 3 to the average Reds. After a 1-0 victory to open up the Rays series, we lost the next 3 games to fall to 79-64, and as of Monday morning, up by only half a game over the Rangers for the final wild card spot (lost in all this has been the fact that the Blue Jays have been on a tear, winning 8 of 10 as we lost 7 of 10 on that road trip).

And, really, we were lucky to win two of those games. So, this hasn’t been the funnest September, after a record-breaking August.

The 1-0 win was everything this team needed. Dominant Luis Castillo start (6 innings, 4 hits, 4 walks, 8 strikeouts) and lockdown bullpen work by Campbell, Brash, and Munoz.

My hopes for a bounce-back series against the Rays were dashed the very next night, with another off-kilter performance by Kirby. He gave up 2 runs in a ragged first inning where he couldn’t throw strikes, then settled down through the sixth. We had a 4-2 lead heading into the seventh, but then we tried to squeeze another inning out of Kirby (who, in spite of a tough first inning, had a reasonable pitch count and probably should’ve been able to go one more). Kirby ended up getting one out before giving up a double and a game-tying homer before being pulled, turning a quality start into a no decision. Campbell entered the game and gave up a 2-run home run of his own, before Dominic Leone gave up a solo homer in the eighth to give the game its final score of 7-4.

Kirby didn’t have pleasant words to say about being put out there for the seventh. He questioned the manager’s decision, which I’m sure a lot of fans did as well. Kirby predictably walked those words back the next morning – heat of the moment and whatnot – but I’m sure a lot of fans were mixed. There’s the younger fans – who’ve become accustomed to what baseball is in today’s age – and a segment of Anti-Servais Mariners fans, who probably sided with Kirby.

Then, there’s the old timers, and the Unwritten Rules crowd (usually comprised of ex-players like Roger Clemens, who got his ass roasted on Twitter for wading into the conversation). Someone even had the gall to compare Kirby to Erik Bedard for … reasons. They point to Randy Johnson and Nolan Ryan, who would regularly throw 120-150 pitches per game, trying to go the full nine if at all possible.

I don’t like this argument. Yeah, complete games are cool. But that’s not what baseball is today. Instead, you’ve got starters regularly throwing in the high-90s, and that kind of strain isn’t conducive to throwing 110+ pitches very often, if ever (unless you’re a unicorn). Not if you want them to make it through an entire season, or multiple seasons, without arm surgeries. It’s a Get Off My Lawn stance, and I won’t hear it. Just accept that things change, and it’s never going to be the way it was when you were younger.

That being said, you have to take it in context. It’s early September. We’re in the midst of a 10 games in 10 days East Coast road trip. We don’t have an off-day until this upcoming Thursday, and after that we only have one more off-day until the end of the season. We’re also breaking in not one but TWO rookie starting pitchers, whose outings need to be carefully managed (including the occasional skipped start, as with what happened to Woo on Saturday). That means the bullpen gets taxed. We also – for better or for worse – traded our best and most-consistent reliever at the deadline, which means that taxed bullpen is that much less-effective. We brought in three veterans (Thornton, Weaver, and Leone) who look(ed) objectively terrible, we have another rookie in Campbell who is just trying his best, but is by no means a lockdown guy, and other veterans we brought in – like Saucedo, Speier, and even Topa – have shown serious cracks as this season has gone on.

To be blunt, the bullpen is over-worked, and that falls on the starters. That falls predominantly on guys like Castillo, Gilbert, and Kirby, who have experience, and should be able to go out there in the seventh inning, on 94 pitches, and take care of business for another three outs.

The home run Kirby gave up was to the #9 hitter! It’s not like we were asking him to take on the heart of the order for the fourth time through. This is a backup catcher!

I 100% see why Servais did what he did. If this was April or May, or if our starters had been rolling a little more of late – allowing our bullpen to stay fresh – Kirby would’ve handed over the ball after getting out of the sixth inning, and all would’ve been right with the world. But, it’s early September, in a pennant chase, and we desperately needed our second-best starter to squeeze another inning out of his arm. He failed. He failed with a questionable mix of pitches and locations. And, if he missed his spot, that’s on him. If he hit his spot, that’s still partially on him and partially on whoever was calling this game (either the catcher or the manager in the dugout). Maybe Servais should’ve walked him. I dunno. That’s a conversation. But, I’m not blaming Servais for his handling of the bullpen. And, I’m certainly not blaming him for his handling of Kirby. Kirby, more often than not, has had it easy. The team doesn’t ask him to over-exert himself very often. He could’ve done us this solid. And, quite frankly, he should’ve taken his loss like a professional, rather than whine about it to the press after the game.

Saturday was, *sigh*, a bullpen day. Trent Thornton got the opener role, couldn’t throw strikes in the first, and ended up going 2 innings, giving up just the one run. He gave way to Luke Weaver, who gave us the Luke Weaver Special (4.1 innings, 4 runs), and then was thankfully DFA’d by Sunday. I hope we never see him again, unless it’s on an opposing team’s pitching staff.

We, at one point, led 4-1. Then, the Weaver Experience left us trailing 5-4. We miraculously tied it in the eighth, before Saucedo lost it in the bottom of the ninth with a 2-run homer. We were 1/8 with RISP, and once again starting a backup catcher who failed to finish the game, necessitating us to overwork Cal Raleigh, as per usual this time of year.

I’m happy to say I didn’t see one iota of our 6-3 loss on Sunday, what with NFL football dominating the day. Bryce Miller stunk up the joint (5 innings, 5 runs), and I don’t even feel like talking about the rest.

Next up, we have the Angels in town. Then, it’s the Dodgers, then it’s the home stretch. One way or another, this season is almost over.

The Mariners Looked Like Their Old Selves, Losing 2 of 3 To The Mets

Posted on by
Reply

I hated almost every minute of this weekend when it came to the Mariners. I’m not going to say I saw the losing series coming, but I also can’t say that I’m entirely surprised.

The 2-1 loss on Friday was easily the most frustrating game of the series. It’s frustrating that we struck out 13 times, it’s frustrating that we were 0 for 7 with RISP, it’s frustrating that we squandered another awesome start by Logan Gilbert, it’s frustrating that Andres Munoz blew yet another one late (how he ended up winning the Reliever of the Month Award for August is beyond me), it’s frustrating that he just STOPPED throwing off-speed pitches to Daniel Vogelbach (who was timing him up pretty well, and only needed a bleeder of a single to get the go-ahead run home), and it’s even frustating that we got saddled going up against their lone quality starter, in an otherwise miserable season for the Mets.

We won Saturday’s game 8-7, but it shouldn’t have been that difficult. We were up 3-0 early, before Castillo gave it all back. Then, we took a 7-3 lead, before the combination of Castillo and Speier gave most of it back again. 5 innings and 5 runs for our “Ace”. Saucedo ended up blowing the save in the bottom of the 8th, but luckily J.P. Crawford was there to homer in the top of the 9th to give us the margin of victory.

Sunday’s game was a real nothing-burger from the whole team. George Kirby had an even-worse start than Castillo, going only 3 innings, giving up 4 runs (3 earned). From there, the bullpen was just eating innings, with oldcomer-turned-newcomer Dominic Leone, Isaiah Campbell, and Trent Thornton going 5 and giving up 2. We hit back-to-back homers (Canzone and Ford) to score our only three runs in the 4th, but otherwise the offense was garbage against a lot of garbage pitching.

What, did we spend all weekend going to Broadway plays and partying until five in the morning? Cincinnati should offer much less in the way of distractions. Of course, they more than make up for it in having a better baseball team to go up against, including one of the most exciting players in the league in Elly De La Cruz. So, that’s fun.

The Mariners Completed A Team-Record 21-Win Month Of August

Posted on by
Reply

It’s kind of incredible that the Mariners went 21-6 in the month of August. Incredible in that this was the franchise record for wins in any single month, especially when you consider the team won 116 games in 2001. But, also, just compared to where we came from to start this season.

We were 12-16 through April. We went 17-11 in May, but 7 of those wins came against Oakland. Then, we went 9-15 in June to further send this season spiraling, culminating in a 15-4 loss to the Rays that had the fans in T-Mobile Park booing like we haven’t seen in quite some time. 38-42 felt like the nadir, and a real tipping point for this team. With two weeks to go before the All Star Break, and a month to go before the trade deadline, you had to wonder if this team had what it takes.

After that, we started to turn it around, going 7-2 to close out the first half. In the entire month of July, we went 17-9, in spite of some hiccups in the immediate aftermath of the All Star Break. That kind of play brought us to 55-51, but not a whole lot in the way of activity at the deadline.

Then came August. Two 8-game winning streaks in that span. An 8-2 road trip – including a sweep of the Astros – and a 5-1 homestand at the end, against the dregs of the sport.

We won 2/3 against the A’s this week, which isn’t as disappointing as it appears when you consider the loss came in a game where everything that could’ve gone wrong DID go wrong.

Let’s kick it off on a happy note: an easy, breezy 7-0 victory on Monday. Bryan Woo – in his second start coming out of an IL stint – was still on a restricted pitch count, but managed to go 6 innings, giving up 3 hits and a walk, while striking out 5, all on 69 pitches. Boy, that’s huge! I know the level of competition is sus, but he still had to go out there and do a lot with a little, if we wanted to preserve our bullpen, and he passed with flying colors. The Mariners jumped all over the Oakland starter – scoring 4 runs in the first three innings, and 6 runs in the first four – affording us the opportunity to utilize the back-end of our bullpen (Saucedo, Campbell, and Thornton all feasted).

The heart of our line up – one through five – did all the damage. J.P. led off the game with a homer, had 2 hits total, with 3 runs scored. Julio went 4/5 with a homer, 3 RBI, and 3 runs. Suarez had 2 hits and a walk, with a run. Teoscar also had 2 hits and 2 RBI. And Ty France went 2/3 with a walk. 12 of our 14 hits came from those five guys; simply remarkable!

It’s hard to say whether or not this would’ve been a sweep had everyone been healthy, but things got off to a VERY rocky start on Tuesday when George Kirby was scratched due to a stomach bug. It looked even more grim when Julio was also scratched with what was later revealed to be a nerve issue with his foot, that has a mysterious origin no one can seem to pinpoint.

Given the last-minute nature of things, Luke Weaver was forced into action, and the results were as predictable as they were aggravating. It really does look like he has quality stuff: the fastball is live, with some movement; the breaking pitches are solid, and he’s got a great mix of different ones to go to. But, his command and/or control is EXTREMELY lacking. He catches WAY too much of the plate, and was pounded accordingly. Since he wasn’t stretched out, he only went 3.2 innings, giving up 7 hits (including 2 homers) and 3 runs, with 0 strikeouts. I don’t know how many hard hits he gave up to batters with two strikes, but it was appalling. And, to make matters worse, he had one of the worst pick-off moves to first I’ve ever seen, spiking it so bad it bounced up and bashed into Ty France’s thumb/wrist, resulting in him being pulled from the game out of an abundance of caution and hand swelling.

Weaver had a tremendous Mariners debut against the White Sox, pitching 2 flawless innings, striking out 5. But, he’s followed that up with two appearances where he’s gone 4.2 innings, giving up 4 runs. Just scrolling through his game log with the Reds this season, I would say the latter two performances are more on brand with what he is. I don’t understand how this is something we’re valuing over a guy like Tommy Milone, who can at least induce weak contact and get the defense involved. You can’t utilize your defense if you’re giving up bombs to the cheap seats!

All that being said, the bullpen did everything it could to keep us in this one; the A’s never scored again after Weaver was pulled with runners on base. Campbell, Thornton, and Saucedo each pitched on no rest, and ate up 4.1 innings of 1-hit ball, with Matt Brash sprinkling in a scoreless inning as well.

Unfortunately, the offense just didn’t have it in this one. The A’s starter was wild – giving up 5 walks – but he held us to 1 hit and 1 run in 4 innings of work. And the bullpen behind him was pure filth, striking out 9 across 5 innings, probably pitching better than they have all season. Just hitting the corners, keeping us off-balance, and making us look ridiculous. Down 3-1, with 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth, we did manage a little rally. Rojas singled and J.P. doubled to give us two in scoring position with Suarez at bat. But, alas, we couldn’t complete the rally and that was that.

On getaway day yesterday, we were still without Julio, though France had healed up enough to go 0 for 3 with a walk. Bryce Miller didn’t have his best stuff, but he gutted through 6 innings, giving up 3 runs. Teoscar tied the game with a 3-run bomb in the third, which was precisely what this team needed to get going. Justin Topa didn’t have good stuff either, giving a run back in the seventh to put us in a 4-3 hole.

Our offense really lit them up in the bottom half of the inning, though. With a lefty on the mound, Canzone doubled, Ford singled, and Moore walked to load the bases. One out later, J.P. doubled home two runs to give the M’s a 5-4 lead. Too bad we couldn’t play add-on, but Brash and Munoz had it going on to preserve the victory.

We head into September tied for the A.L. West lead. We’re also comfortably ahead of the Blue Jays for a wild card spot. Not SUPER comfortable; I’m not dropping the ol’ Mission Accomplished banner just yet. But, they seem to be the only competition outside of our division for the wild card, if worse comes to worst.

29 games to go. 7 against Texas, 3 against Houston, 4 against Tampa, and 3 against the Dodgers. There’s also 6 against the Angels and A’s. In our immediate future, we have our final East Coast swing until maybe the playoffs, at the Mets, Reds, and the aforementioned Rays. The Mets are bad, the Reds are average, and the Rays are still ahead of us by a fair amount. It’s gonna be edge-of-your-seat entertainment from here on out!

This Is Not A Drill: The Mariners Swept The Astros In Houston

Posted on by
Reply

Well, then I guess there’s only one thing left to do …

I can’t even begin to tell you how unlikely all of this is. We’re now 14 games over .500; remember the All Star Break? We were one game over .500, and needed to go 45-28 to get to 90 wins. Remember the next week after the All Star Break? Remember how we lost a series at home against the lowly Tigers, and were in the midst of breaking even against the Twins? Remember how – at that point – we’d dipped down to one game below .500? It’s insane to think of how this season has turned around in such a short period of time.

Now, all we need to do is go 21-17 to get to 90 wins. Not that 90 wins are any sort of guarantee. Might take 93-95 wins this year, with the way things are going in the American League. Regardless, as of this weekend, we are in the third wild card spot by half a game. Time will tell if this is our emotional high-water mark on the season, or if we’ll power through to the finish. But it’s been a lot more fun to watch this team over the last month.

It was especially fun to watch the Mariners this weekend, because fuck the Astros! As you know from my post on Friday, I didn’t have high hopes. It just seemed like our bullpen was taxed, our starters were iffy, and we were in their home (where we’ve rarely done well). I don’t think this weekend could’ve gone more perfectly.

On Friday, we just barely scraped by with a 2-0 victory. Bryce Miller had his good stuff going in this one, completing 6.1 innings, giving up only 2 hits and 1 walk, while striking out 2. Justin Topa – who was pretty fresh – bridged that gap to the ninth inning, where Andres Munoz (also pretty fresh) nailed down the save.

Offensively, this was the Julio Rodriguez Show. It’s been his show for the last week, and really since the All Star Break. He went 4/5 in this one with a solo homer in the third. Mike Ford had the other solo homer in the sixth off of J.P. France, who was otherwise very good.

On Saturday, Julio went 4/6 with 2 runs scored en route to a 10-3 Mariners victory over Framber Valdez (who went 5 innings, giving up 6 runs). It was largely a team effort in this one, as Teoscar Hernandez had a big game (3/5 with 2 RBI and a run), as did Dylan Moore (2 home runs, 3 RBI), Ty France (2 hits, 2 runs), Sam Haggerty (2 hits, including a homer), and Jose Caballero (1 hit, 1 walk, 1 run, and 1 fight instigated by the Astros battery, who just hate him).

Logan Gilbert gave us 6 innings of competent pitching in this one, giving up 2 runs on 8 hits and a walk, with 3 strikeouts. Thankfully, we kept adding on runs throughout, so we got away with our back-of-the-bullpen arms to finish this one. That ended up being pretty fortuitous, considering what happened on Sunday.

It looks like Emerson Hancock’s season might be done. He left the game after 2 innings with a right shoulder strain. He had a lat strain in 2022 that delayed the start of that season, so I would say this is pretty concerning. For him, anyway. The Mariners were all set to bring back Bryan Woo from the IL in this upcoming series in Chicago. Now, the intention was to go to a 6-man rotation for a spell, and that appears to be in jeopardy. But, maybe the time off was all Woo needed to at least get us to the finish line. Either that, or maybe we sprinkle in a spot start or two out of one of our AAA starters. It’s already almost September, so it’s not like the guys have a ton of starts remaining.

Anyway, on Sunday, the M’s had built up a 6-0 lead heading into the bottom of the third, when our bullpen was forced to take over. Unfortunately, that bullpen gave us quite a scare right off the bat. Tayler Saucedo had zilch, getting no outs, giving up 5 runs on 4 hits and a HBP. Of course, two of those runs came around to score by his successor, but that’s still his fault.

The rest of the bullpen was pretty much nails! Thorton ate up 1.2 innings (including getting us out of that Saucedo scrape with a lead intact), Brash went 1.1 innings, Campbell went 1 inning (giving up the Astros’ sixth run, after we’d already gotten our seventh), and Topa, Munoz, and Speier locked it down from there, keeping the score where it was, 7-6. As it happened, I was at Wild Waves, following along on my phone. I saw that Munoz did the 8th inning – taking out the top of the order – and was sure he’d be in there for the 2-inning save. Instead, Speier of all people got the job done, starting with Destroyer Of All Things Mariner Yordan Alvarez and striking him out. I’m glad Y.A. was relatively cool in this series; it’s nice not to see him homer against us literally every single day.

Julio doubled in the first in this one, before coming around to score. Otherwise, he was quiet, but if he’s not the Player of the Week, there’s some shenanigans going on. Canzone was 4/5 with a RBI and a run, Moore was also 4/5 with a RBI. Rojas had 2 hits and 2 runs; Suarez had a 2-run homer; and even Brian O’Keefe had a 2-run double (though he’s still yet to finish a game he’s started, with Cal pinch hitting late both times).

The Mariners got all the way to be within a half game of the Astros (tied in the loss column). On top of that, we have officially taken the season series against them! So, bring on the tiebreaker! Again, we’ll see if this is our high-water mark or not. We have three more against the White Sox starting tonight, before we get to go back home for what – ON PAPER – looks like the cheesiest of all homestands (3 vs. the Royals, 3 vs. the A’s), but we saw what happened the last time we faced the Royals. Off-days are starting to get scarce, but we rustled up a well-deserved one this Thursday.

On the plus side, we finally get J.P. Crawford back from his concussion. On the downside, we’ll see how long it takes him to get back in the groove.

The Mariners Completed An Exhausting Series Victory Over The Royals

Posted on by
Reply

Is anybody else wiped out by this 4-game series? I mean yeah, the Mariners had to fly from Seattle to Kansas City without an off-day and play in four hard-fought back-and-forth games, down to the bitter end each and every day, in sweltering heat, minus their short stop and regular backup catcher (Murphy, who landed on the IL this week), with just a pesky, free-swinging opponent that didn’t play for one minute like the bottom-feeders they are. But, as fans, I would argue it was even MORE exhausting! Yeah, I said it! I need a cigarette and a nap!

On the one hand, you hate to lose even one of those games against a team like the Royals, who are pretty clearly the second-worst team in the entire MLB, in a tier with only the A’s as the absolute beans of baseball. But, on the other hand, I think I’m just relieved we won the three we did, and didn’t endure an insufferable split. Following our recent scorching hot stretch by blowing two games against the Orioles, and then treading water against KC would’ve been a nightmare, if not totally on brand for the Mariners.

Still … could’ve had the sweep. The M’s were three outs away from one of the most impressive potential comeback victories of the year, with ostensibly their best reliever on the mound starting a clean 9th inning with a 1-run lead. That’s the table that was set on Monday, after an absolutely abysmal first 7 innings of that game, where we were no-hit through most of them. We headed into the top of the eighth nursing our wounds down 5-0, when finally the offense got things going.

With one out, Mike Ford doubled to right and Dylan Moore reached on a HBP. Josh Rojas singled sharply to load the bases for Julio Rodriguez, who mashed a double to left to clear them. After a J-Rod steal of third, Suarez singled him home to make it 5-4, before Raleigh and Canzone struck out to end it.

No matter, with two on and two out in the top of the ninth, Rojas singled to tie the game, and Julio singled to take the lead. What a reckoning! If only …

All you can say is that Brash didn’t have it. He gave up three hits, managed only one out, and even that was a sac fly to tie the game. I’m hard-pressed to say he was even overworked in that one; sure, he pitched the night before against the Orioles, but that was coming off of three days off.

As for Tuesday’s 10-8 victory in ten innings, I don’t even know what to tell you. I missed the whole thing, as full disclosure, I was out in the sweltering heat sweating my way through engagement photos; I hope our photographer can photoshop out my perspiration. I’m kinda glad I didn’t have to sit through the nonsense of this game though.

Not to be out-done by the Royals gagging away a 5-run lead the previous day, the M’s decided it would be fun to somehow send a game that was once 7-0 into extra innings. We scored those 7 runs in the fourth, with a massive deluge of hitting prowess. Suarez homered, France homered, Cal walked and Teoscar homered. Caballero doubled in a run, then Rojas homered him in. I don’t know if there are many things I love more in baseball than when my team fully bats around; it’s always a tremendous amount of fun!

Unfortunately, Emerson Hancock had a bit of a crushing rookie moment. He was more or less cruising through two outs in the fifth inning, but then gave them 5 runs back, including a grand slam that I don’t know how didn’t end his day right then and there. 5 of his 9 hits given up were in that inning; I don’t know if he got tired, or if the Royals just figured him out in their second and third time through the order. I’m not inclined to freak out about the results (again, I wasn’t able to witness the actual stuff), because the Royals kind of did that to all of our starters in this series. Maybe not in such a massive clump like that, but no one was safe.

Certainly not our bullpen! We even went so far as to add on an insurance run in the seventh with another Teoscar RBI (he was 5 for 5 on the day with a homer, a double, and 3 RBI) to make it 8-5, but Andres Munoz – on the heels of back-to-back late-game suck-jobs against the Orioles – gave up a whopping 3 unearned runs in the bottom of the ninth to send this to extras. Luckily, he was bailed out by Ty France with his 2-RBI single, and we won 10-8.

Wednesday’s victory I want to say was less frustrating, but how can I? The Royals went with a de facto bullpen day, gave us 4 runs in the first two innings, with Luis Castillo on the mound; how WASN’T that a cake walk?! Well, with the bullpen so taxed over the last few days, Castillo was forced to get us 7 innings if we wanted to survive this series. That meant pitching more to contact – with less focus on strikeouts – to keep his pitch count down. Quite frankly, he didn’t have his best stuff, and for whatever reason, when he managed to throw a good pitch out of the zone, they were hitting them fair.

Anyway, the offense went into hibernation from the third through the seventh innings. Well, I can’t say that’s totally accurate; we were getting guys on base, but not hitting them in (finishing a disrespectful 4/15 with RISP, with 13 LOB). That gave the Royals enough time to tie the game 4-4 heading into the eighth, when we finally woke up. We didn’t quite get the big hit we needed, but Teoscar hit a medium foul ball to right field and the resultant throw just BARELY missed the sliding Dylan Moore. For good measure, Julio knocked in another run in the ninth to give us some extra cushion (his 4th hit and 2nd RBI of the day), which was absolutely necessary since Brash gave up a solo homer before recording just his third save of the season.

To wrap it all up, we had Kirby going yesterday morning, coming off of his 9 innings of shutout ball. Even HE had trouble with this lineup, ultimately giving them 4 runs in 6 innings of work. Three of those runs came in the sixth inning, taking a 2-1 lead and turning it into a 4-2 deficit. It all started to feel a little hopeless until the eighth, when Julio mashed a 3-run bomb to give us the lead. Cal hit a pinch hit bomb in the top of the ninth, and this time Brash worked a clean bottom half to get his fourth save.

What does this all mean? Well, for starters, I can’t envision a scenario where Brash pitches tonight, since he’s gone 4 games in 5 days, all of them extremely high-leverage. Campbell and Thornton helped mop up Thursday’s in-between later innings, so that should free up the rest of our (better) bullpen members to take the reins.

But, I dunno. That series looked like we played 8 games in 4 days. No rest, no easy ones, constantly battling for nine and sometimes nine-plus innings. Now, we gotta go to Houston to play a team that’s gone 20-11 since the All Star Break? A team that’s still 3.5 games up on us, that’s had our number (especially in their home ball park) for ages now, without our top two starters (Castillo and Kirby). I just can’t envision a scenario where we win this series. We likely won’t even win a game! J.P. France dominated us earlier this year, and Framber Valdez has been a force against us (and everyone in baseball). The only guy we’ve had success against – Hunter Brown – goes up against Emerson Hancock, who I have to imagine is going to struggle mightily in this ballpark, against that offense.

Don’t forget, the Astros have four guys who are slugging well over .500, with Alex Bregman to boot, who always gives us fits.

This is NOT the time you want to play the Astros. That doesn’t even mention how we’re riding a 3-game winning streak; you want to know the best cure for that? The best cure for Mariners fan excitement? Play a series down in Houston and rant and rave while getting swept and it’s not even particularly close. And oh by the way, it’s not even a given that we’ll have J.P. Crawford back yet, as he still needs to play at least one rehab game in Everett.

Weather’s still nice, folks. I’d recommend making other weekend plans. I’ve got a Paul Reiser stand up comedy show in Tacoma on Saturday night, and a trip to Wild Waves on the agenda for Sunday morning. I’ll see y’all there!

The Mariners Have A Bullpen Problem

Posted on by
Reply

The Mariners have lost three of their last four games, and it was damn near four in a row. All in the 9th inning or later. All thanks to a meltdown by either Andres Munoz or Matt Brash, ostensibly our two best relievers.

This bullpen problem didn’t happen immediately following the trade of Paul Sewald, but obviously that’s the move you point to. It’s been an especially bitter pill to swallow because Dominic Canzone and Josh Rojas have both had some VERY impactful hits late in games to pull our asses out of the fire; the irony being the fact that they were able to temporarily save us, but we didn’t have someone like Sewald to come in and lock it down.

In Paul Sewald news: after his own meltdown, he’s come back to save three games in four days this week. Oh cruel fate, why have you cursed us so?

The thing is, I would argue our bullpen problem predates the Sewald trade, though obviously it hasn’t helped matters. We came into 2023 believing the bullpen was the best and deepest part of this team, which has been anything but the case. Diego Castillo is struggling to stay afloat in AAA. Matt Festa, Chris Flexen, and Trevor Gott aren’t even in the organization anymore. Penn Murfee is on the 60 day IL. Now, we have the Sewald trade, and we’ve back-filled with some very uninspiring arms.

Isaiah Campbell seems to be used exclusively in mop-up duty during blowouts or lost causes. Trent Thornton has wildly unimpressive stuff (it’s no wonder he was previously DFA’d; he would be the last guy I’d use in a high-leverage situation). Ryder Ryan is the latest guy we’ve picked up off the scrap heap; he made his Major League debut at 28 years old last week, so we’ll see.

The guys who’ve stuck are, again, Munoz and Brash at the top. Justin Topa seems to get overlooked, but should probably have a bigger presence in high-leverage situations. Tayler Saucedo is an interesting breakout for this team, but I don’t know if he’s necessarily a high-leverage guy, so much as a solid 6th or 7th inning bridge arm against the bottom of the opposing team’s order. And Gabe Speier is your run of the mill lefty; he has good days and bad days.

As the Mariners have largely underperformed this season, it’s not exclusively due to the lack of hitting. It’s been kind of a nightmare scenario and you can point to two critical figures: our record in 1-run games (16-22) and our record in extra inning games (6-11). When you look at the 2021 and 2022 Mariners, those were pretty well reversed; the Mariners were remarkably clutch in tight games like these, and I would argue the bullpen played at a significantly higher level as a result.

See, it’s not JUST the hitting, it’s a collective effort. More often than not, yeah, we haven’t been able to get the big hit. But, sometimes it’s a poor start. And sometimes, these close games we used to nail down are being blown by relievers we’re forced to rely on.

What we’re starting to see is the hitting coming around. It’s a little later in the season than we’d like, but they’re finally doing their jobs. So, these blown saves, and these lost extra innings games are standing out a little more. It doesn’t help that we’ve bunched a number of these blown saves all in a row, now involving multiple pitchers. Maybe that’s just baseball. Peaks and valleys and whatnot. I’ll buy that to a point, but I think it also points to a bigger concern as we hit the stretch run. The Mariners need to win as many of these games as they can if we want to make it back to the playoffs. And even if we do manage to beat the odds and sneak into a wild card spot, can we really rely on these guys in a playoff situation?

It feels like we’re in need of one really awesome high-leverage arm. I had hoped Munoz or Brash would’ve stepped up to be one of those ace closers with a sub-2 ERA, but as we’ve seen all year, they’ve had their ups and downs. They’ll go through great runs of excellence, but then hit these spots where they’re extremely hittable, and then all hell breaks loose.

It’s a bummer, because the rotation has been largely amazing. And on the whole, the bullpen is pretty solid. But, the margin for error is so razor thin with this team that we can’t afford to be this bad in close games. This feels like a problem that’ll have to settle itself next year.

The Mariners Won Their Sixth Straight Series With A Sweep Of The Padres

Posted on by
Reply

In case you weren’t counting along at home, that’s 7 consecutive victories, 12 of 14, and 24 of 34 dating back to the season’s nadir: when we were 4 games under .500 after a 15-4 loss where we were booed off the field at home against the Rays back on June 30th.

The funny thing is, this is exactly the kind of winning I said we can’t depend on. There’s no way the Mariners can keep doing this year after year! At some point, we need a little more everyday consistency! Yet, here we are, with the same exact record – 62-52 – that we had last year. The standings around us are different, but otherwise we’re right there in the thick of it thanks to this stretch. Baseball is fucking weird.

This was just a 2-game series against the Padres, with off-days on either side. So, otherwise a restful week, all things considered.

On Tuesday, we saw perhaps Logan Gilbert’s best-ever performance. He went 7 innings, gave up 1 questionable hit (that very well could’ve been an error), and struck out 12 en route to a 2-0 victory. That was the nastiest, filthiest stuff I’ve ever seen from him; he was in complete command from the jump. Sure, he had some help – a few nifty catches by Julio in the outfield, including a home run robbery – but this was Logan at his finest. He’s put up great box scores before; a lot of zeroes in his relatively short history with the M’s. But, I’ve never quite seen the type of movement and mix of off-speed he was able to throw at them. It’s cool to see Logan blossom, from a long-armed fireballer with lots of run on his fastball, to a crafty pitcher who can keep other teams off-balance and guessing throughout.

The offense consisted of a bases-loaded walk by Cal on a pitch clock violation in the fifth, and a Moore triple in the sixth that scored Tom Murphy. I had kind of hoped for more when it came to the Padres going with a Bullpen Day thanks to injuries. But, it turns out, that’s all we needed, as Brash and Munoz nailed down the final two innings no problem.

I had cause for concern yesterday, as Yu Darvish was on the mound. I don’t know if this is actually true, but it feels like Darvish always dominates us, getting tons of flailing swings and misses. But, this is an older Darvish. Even though he spun some nice gold – 6 innings, 1 run, 0 earned runs – we managed to keep the pressure up, putting a man on almost every inning he was out there. In the end, though, it was 1-1 going to the bottom of the eighth, before we finally busted this one wide open.

We don’t often get to talk about the Mariners batting around, but we saw it last night. Julio led off the eighth with a walk and after a Suarez strikeout, Cal hit a massive 2-run bomb to make it 3-1. That felt like it was going to be it for us, and it also felt like all we needed. But, after Teo was hit by a pitch (on the bill of his helmet, definitely not intentional, based on the pitcher’s immediate reaction, and he fact that he had two strikes on Teo), and the next batter grounded out, the bats really came to life. Ty France doubled in Teo, Marlowe singled in Ty, Rojas reached on an error (originally ruled as his first hit in a Mariners uniform), and Moore singled in Marlowe, to give the game its final score, 6-1.

This game was notable for being Emerson Hancock’s first Major League start. I guess he most certainly IS ready for this promotion!

It started off a little rocky in the first. He walked the leadoff hitter, then pretty much ignored the guy as he stole second and third base. Hancock even ignored him as he was scoring on a fielder’s choice right back to the pitcher; granted, the likelihood of gunning down the runner at home was slim, but it was weird to see a pitcher so casual about his base runner. I’m wondering if he was told by the team to not worry about the men on base, just focus on the hitter at the plate.

In spite of that run coming around to score in the first, Hancock never looked overwhelmed. He had lots of good movement on his pitches, and was pretty willing to mix it up and not just stick to fastballs. In total, he went five innings (throwing 87 pitches), limiting the Padres to just that one run, on 2 hits and 3 walks, with 3 strikeouts. The biggest concern in that whole line is the three walks, but we can chalk that up to first-start nerves. Otherwise, I was very impressed, as that Padres lineup has the potential to be quite potent and damaging.

We brought out all the stops with the bullpen, considering we had two off-days to count on this week. We used five different guys to get through the last four innings, and as the game remained tied later and later, it felt like this one was going to go extras. We even used Brash on back-to-back days in the eighth. The only thing saving us from using Munoz again – he was warming up to come in – was the fact that we put up a 5-spot in the bottom of the eighth. That’s the second time recently that Isaiah Campbell took Munoz’s spot thanks to a late Mariners scoring spree.

You know, I hate to be this guy, but I’ve found myself to be very much more engaged with the Mariners of late, now that they’ve been winning. Oh sure, it’s bandwagony as hell, but this team was legitimately hard to watch in the first half of the season.

With everyone starting to come together and get hot at the same time, it really feels like the Mariners can do anything. That they’re capable of playing with anyone and taking this thing all the way to the World Series. I know that’s just the hot streak talking. We’ll come back to Earth and play some .500 ball again for a while. But, I’m inclined to ride this wave as long as it’ll take me. It’s fun winning so often!

One cause for concern: Suarez and Crawford collided in the field yesterday, both trying to make a play on the same ball. This resulted in J.P. getting hit in the head and later being taken out of the game. He’s being tested for a concussion right now; I hope to Christ it isn’t serious. He’s the last guy I want to lose, after all he’s done to keep this team together.

Also, quick sidebar: Paul Sewald has only appeared in two games so far with the Diamondbacks. They’ve been on a massive losing streak (0 for the month of August) and so he hasn’t had many opportunities to save games. Finally, they threw him into a 12-1 blowout just to get him some work, and he pitched a clean inning. But then, the very next day, with a 3-2 lead in the ninth, Sewald gave up two homers to lose it 5-3 in walk-off fashion. Yikes!

The Mariners Won Their Fourth Straight Series

Posted on by
Reply

It sounds good, until you realize it means the Mariners are just four games over .500.

You can glass half full this thing or glass half empty it. On the plus side, we’re talking about an 8-4 stretch, and I’ll always take that kind of success. On the down side, we’re 2-3 in that same span in 1-run games, which means it could be even better, if we were even the slightest bit clutch.

My point is, the Mariners need to sprinkle in some sweeps. It’s nice to win series, but we have a lot of ground to cover, in a short amount of time.

Monday’s 6-2 victory was pretty enjoyable. The Red Sox scored a bullshit run in the first thanks to two fielding errors by the Mariners’ defense (a run that was mystifyingly earned for some reason); it would prove to be the only blemish in an otherwise short day for George Kirby (5 innings, 1 run, with about 90 balls fouled off). But, the M’s bounced right back in the second with a solo Cal Raleigh homer. That was it until the 7th – with the Red Sox starter cruising until then – when Raleigh homered again to make it 2-1. Then, the floodgates opened in the 8th, as we finally knocked their starter out and nipped at their bullpen a bit.

On the day we lost Paul Sewald, the rest of the Mariners’ bullpen was pretty great. It got a little hairy in the top of the 8th; Munoz came in with two outs and two runners on, and struck out the next batter to finish it. By the time the 9th rolled around, we had amassed a 5-run lead, which meant we didn’t need the 4-out save by Munoz. Isaiah Campbell gave up a relatively harmless run, but got out of his own jam without further damage.

That closed the book on July. August started out with a major whimper, losing 6-4. Bryce Miller had his second consecutive bad game, and also his second consecutive game with diminishing fastball speed as it progressed. That’s … concerning. He gave up all 6 runs in 5.2 innings; all came after a clean first three innings for him. Not ideal for someone who wants to stick in the rotation longterm. Hopefully, this is just some dead arm from a rookie who isn’t used to pitching this much.

To their credit, the hitters kept fighting, against a pretty nasty starter from the Sox. Suarez had 3 RBI, including a 2-run homer. And France, Marlowe, and newcomer Canzone all got in on the fun. But, as a team, we were 2/12 with RISP. The newly-acquired utility player Josh Rojas was 0/4 on the day, 0/3 with RISP, striking out twice. Did he single-handedly cost us this game? Who’s to say?! Kolten Wong couldn’t have been worse, though; not that I’m the biggest Kolten Wong fan in the world. I’m just saying.

I was moderately impressed with Trent Thornton stepping in and pitching 2.1 innings of scoreless relief. He’s got an interesting repertoire for someone without the hardest stuff. I’ll be interested in tracking him the rest of the year. It was also nice to finally see Devin Sweet throw a scoreless inning after being called up from AA. It’s interesting to say the least that we still have some of these questionable rookies (Sweet, Campbell) on the Major League roster, while someone like Matt Festa – who was pretty solid for us last year – is languishing in Tacoma.

The Mariners won 6-3 on get-away day. Good on Logan Gilbert – who was subjected to a lot of chatter about possibly being traded in the last week – to shut out the noise and pitch a Quality Start his first turn after the deadline. That’s a pretty good Red Sox lineup, so I’ll take 6 innings and 3 runs anytime against them. And, once again, the non-Sewald leftovers in the bullpen did their jobs: keeping the Sox scoreless the rest of the way.

Once again, Cal Raleigh was a monster, with a 2-run homer to kick off our scoring in the 6th. That was only the beginning, though, as we put up a 4-spot in the 7th to wrestle control of the game from them. Suarez and Tom Murphy had 3 hits each, Julio continued his on-base streak with a hit and eventually stole home to score our final run of the day (on a nicely-timed double-steal). Canzone had a walk and a run, and Marlowe had a pinch hit single and RBI. Lots of good stuff here.

We’re on to Anaheim starting today, and of course we start off by going up against Ohtani on the mound. He’s been in fucking overdrive lately and pretty much all season, so I’m expecting to see a lot of damage inflicted upon us in this 4-game set. I wouldn’t be surprised if we fall all the way back to .500 when it’s all said and done, destroying all the progress we’ve made over the last 12 games.

Jarred Kelenic Breaking His Foot By Kicking A Water Cooler Is The 2023 Mariners Season In A Nutshell

Posted on by
Reply

I’m not mad at Jarred Kelenic for breaking his foot in a fit of frustration, just like I’m not mad at the Seattle Mariners for only managing a 2-2 split with the Twins this week. It is what it is. I’ve already given up on the 2023 season, and I suggest the organization does the same, by being sellers at the trade deadline.

And believe me, I understand the instinct to take out your rage on an inanimate object. This Mariners team makes me want to punch a hole through my television. It makes me want to scream into a pillow. It makes me want to throw my remote against a wall and decapitate my bobbleheads one by one.

But, I think this past week was the last time to feel any of that. If you haven’t come to the conclusion that a .500 Mariners team almost 100 games into the season isn’t good enough to suddenly transport itself into the playoffs by October, then I don’t know what else to tell you that your eyes haven’t seen all year long. This team is NOT good. It’s not bad, necessarily, but that’s how you get to be 48-48, right? Sometimes you’re shit, sometimes you’re the best team on the fucking planet.

There’s no switch in baseball that you can turn on and magically become what you were always meant to be. Baseball is the great equalizer. Over time, it shows you who you are, warts and all. Sometimes, you’re able to skate by on an unsustainable amount of good luck in close games, but eventually all the mediocre teams are weeded out and summarily destroyed, frauds that they are.

I was happy to hear – on the same day I posted about the Mariners being sellers at the trade deadline – that it looks like my dream will come to fruition. At the very least, I don’t see any blockbuster deals for a Luis Castillo-type coming our way anytime soon. I think the tea leaves are starting to blow the way I want them to with the players I mentioned getting rid of. I mean, how does Ty France fall to 7th in the batting lineup if he’s meant to be here through next year?

Of course, also on the same day I published that post, Kelenic’s injury came to light and he was put on the IL (presumably for the rest of the season, though I don’t know how long a fractured foot is supposed to keep you out), AND the Mariners won impressively to salvage a series split. It’s baseball, nothing makes sense.

The first game on Monday was encouraging enough; a 7-6 Mariners victory. Logan Gilbert gutted his way through 5 innings, limiting the damage to 2 runs. It took waiting until the fifth inning, but the M’s put up more than enough runs in those middle innings to win the game, taking a 7-3 lead heading into the ninth (Kelenic had 2 hits and 2 RBI, Suarez had the same). But, then Ty Adcock got bashed around for a 3-run homer in the 9th to give the game its final score, necessitating Paul Sewald coming in to get the final out.

That 9th inning was a harbinger for things to come, as we lost 10-3 on Tuesday. Bryan Woo laid a total egg, and the bullpen had to wear one. Ty Adcock had to pitch 2 more innings in this one – giving up 2 more runs – before being sent down with Isaiah Campbell, to make room for two more AA relievers. I don’t know what to tell you about the offense, other than Suarez hit another homer. We actually had a 3-2 lead after the first frame, before everything went to shit.

The Mariners were arguably worse in a 6-3 loss on Wednesday. This one featured a solid, if unspectacular start from Castillo (6 innings, 3 runs, 11 strikeouts, but also 2 solo homers, leaving us in a 3-0 hole). The M’s fought back to tie it at 3-3 with a Murphy solo homer and a Suarez 2-run bomb. But, then Andres Munoz came in for the 8th and kept giving up too much of the plate and getting knocked around accordingly. He’s not good enough to leave sliders hanging in the center of the zone. Also, for a guy who routinely touches 100 mph, it’s disconcerting to see him throw so many breaking pitches, especially to lefties, who can see them coming a mile away. One of our AA bullpen call-ups – Devin Sweet – pitched the 9th and gave up 2 more runs to give the game its final score. Not a great start to a Major League career!

Of course, that led to a 5-0 victory yesterday, because the Mariners are nothing if not a .500 ballclub (+/- 1 game). George Kirby followed up a shit start with a blazing one, going 7 innings, giving up 4 hits, striking out 10. Teoscar Hernandez accounted for the first two runs, Mike Ford hit a 2-run bomb late, and we scored on a wild pitch for our fifth and final run. Not too shabby for a team that was 1/8 with RISP.

Now, Toronto comes to town. People are up-in-arms about the Mariners selling Blue Jays gear in their stadium. Everyone’s gonna be even more upset when they see how many actual Blue Jays fans show up to drown us out. I’d just as soon avoid this series altogether, which won’t be hard to do. I’ve got Oppenheimer tonight at IMAX. I’ve got a wedding to attend tomorrow. And, we’re throwing a board game day on Sunday, complete with barbecue and bottled cider. MUCH more enjoyable than the stinky ol’ Mariners. Might even kick a water cooler for old time’s sake!