FT Postgame Reax: Mariners blast Blue Jays to snatch 2-0 series lead

00:00:03
Speaker 1: FT Live instant reaction postgame show presented by Fox One. We have Aeric Kratz and Kevin Plaramscott Braun KP are more recent former Big leaguer and former Blue Jay watching this team and doing some analysis for Blue Jay's TV and not seeing the same team from the Division series. We want to give a ton of praise to the Mariners for going through a marathon game five in the DS and now going up to oh against the Toronto Blue Jays heading back to Seattle. KP, what are you seeing in this series after this one was a drubbing.

00:00:45
Speaker 2: I think it's more about the Mariners are doing than the Blue Jays are doing. I think they're staying consistent with their game plan and what they've always done. I think this is just a team that everyone kind of always feared if they got the hitting, the match to pitching at the pitching match to hitting. This is always a team people feared if the Mariners were able to get to the playoffs. This is a type of team people thought they could be.

00:01:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, Kratz, go what do you got for me?

00:01:15
Speaker 3: Man? Ten to three?

00:01:17
Speaker 1: Mariners beat up the Blue Jays. Trey Savage did not look like the dude who went five and change hitless against the Yankees eleven strikeouts that last time around. Splitter wasn't the same. Did you see, like, let's start there, did you see a Tray Savage that didn't have his best stuff? Did you see a Mariners team that has a superhuman named or Hey? Polanco obviously wasn't the only one to contribute to the ten runs, but he's unstoppable right now. They're gonna have to figure out how to circle his name in the lineup card going forward.

00:01:52
Speaker 3: What do you got? I mean?

00:01:54
Speaker 4: I would say Tray Savage maybe was a little bit ran into a little bit of bad luck, not getting on two guys that he struck out. But I think it's because the Mariners took the opposite approach that the Yankees took. The Yankees were like, we're swinging, We're gonna do damage. You say he's unhittable, We're gonna hit Oh shoot, we struck out eleven times. The Mariners were like, if it's so unhittable, if we can't hit it, then we might as well not swing until we see some more pitches. Take the Julio Rodriguez at bat, he went splitter strike, splitter strike, didn't even offer at it, and then he was like, you know what, We'll go back to another one, and he just ended up being a slow fastball middle middle of the plate. I think it was eighty eight or eighty nine, and so I think the approach was definitely a team approach. They just kind of waited him out and Doug Eddings wasn't calling very many borderline pitches and so it didn't go his way. And I think a lot of things could have swayed a little bit maybe, And I think the biggest thing would have been maybe Trey Savage stays in the game and has an opportunity to get himself out of those jams instead of instead of the three run homer that Louis Varlin gave up.

00:03:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, Trays or sorry, Trey.

00:03:17
Speaker 1: Doug Eddings was quite bad this evening, rolling bos strikes. It's not just the misses for me, it's the timeliness of the missus KP. I mean, Doug's been around for a long time, but what did you see there?

00:03:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, we we were touching on this in the earlier show today about umpires. I just think that they're finally held to like a really high standard and they're expected to lock it in. I mean, a lot of these umpires are unplaying games that only people in their local market are watching. Now this is national TV. We're down to the final four. There's an over compensation that these umpires have to make because the whole world's watching, and they tend to err on the side of small because they've been so big all year, and it tends to kind of people tend to make a bigger deal about the pitches that are outside the strike zone that are cult strikes as opposed to these borderline pitches or pitches that just clip the strike zone cult ball. So I think we're just seeing a huge over conversation from a group of umpires that don't really have to fully lock it in every single day during the year, and now they're held to this higher standard because the whole world's watching.

00:04:27
Speaker 3: And pushing forward Kratz.

00:04:30
Speaker 1: The Blue Jays are in trouble, the Mariners are forced right now, they're riding momentum. They're up two to zero heading back home, and then you light up the starting staff at home, which we already know about as George Kirby Game three, matching up against Shane Bieber. Game four will be Luis Castillo. Game five might be Brian wu if he's feeling up to it. And depending on where the series is at, we might not even have a Game five, And if we have to flip back, then we'll do that and the starters will be in a better place. We'd get to logan Gilbert coming off short rest on having his best stuff. But going forward for a moment here, how in control are the Mariners. It's hard to see them suddenly falling in what four out of the next what.

00:05:14
Speaker 3: Does it have to be here? Four out of the next six or for the next five?

00:05:18
Speaker 4: Five?

00:05:19
Speaker 3: Right, for the next five.

00:05:20
Speaker 1: It's hard to see that happening from Seattle, given the starting pitching staff that they've had that we've talked about for years, given the bullpen in a really good place. Not to mention, they barely used any of the big boys. What three or I think three out of the four big boys weren't used in this game too because it was a blowout. And the offense, it's just hard to see the offense not having some nights where some homers get bashed, some hit, clutch hits come through. Okay, maybe you could see the offense quieting a little bit, but I don't know. It's just hard to see this team suddenly falling apart here.

00:05:51
Speaker 4: I mean, I think the game is the game from here on out. We're not going to have ten three games most likely. The reason we have those early is because I think managers kind of stay like, Okay, I'm gonna stay with this guy a little bit longer. As the series goes on, We're gonna have three two games, We're gonna have four four, three games. We're gonna have close games because everyone's just gonna blow out their bullpen. Everyone's going to just use these guys and to me, one run games at home. The Mariners are even if the series was tied, they would swing to the Mariners favor because they're playing the next three at home in Seattle. Seattle has never been to the World Series. The fans are gonna be rabid, and I think the team. While I would have never said this coming into the series, this team is playing better than the Blue Jays. They proved it in the first two games. I would I would have said nobody's playing playing better than the Blue than the Blue Jays right now, or the Dodgers. We'll see what happens in the other series. But it shows you that you come in riding the momentum of a tough series, which in my opinion, shouldn't have been a to with the Tigers, and then you come out and you prove that you're you're dominating your opponent. They're dominating the Blue Jays right now at their home blue Jays were fifty four and twenty seven at home. You know the team that had the second best home record in the American League, Seattle Mariners, and everybody said it. We talked to Brent Rooker. I talked to Brent Rooker when I went to Kansas City earlier this year, and he goes, do this this bullpen, Oh my gosh, this bullpen's ridiculous. And that's if you get past their starters. For the Mariners, they're just a suffocating rotation to bullpen. That Isn't that what you need for the postseason? Isn't that what KP said, That's what we've said for the last two years. Don't let this team get in. Now you see the Astros. Let this team get in, and they're two to oh in the American League Championship. Series.

00:07:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this was the game that Toronto had to have. KP you had it lined up. I mean, I get it. You gave up a home run early if you're Toronto and Trey Savage, but they caught back up.

00:08:05
Speaker 3: They tied the game early.

00:08:06
Speaker 1: By the bottom of the second inning, we're tied right with Toronto doing their thing.

00:08:11
Speaker 3: Logan Gilbert did not have his best stuff.

00:08:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I don't disagree with anything Kratz is saying, especially the Mariners are just playing better than the Blue Jays. But I think this series just has funkiness written all over it. I think everyone would have thought Blue Jay's at home, you know, having the rest, not having to come off that emotional series that the Mariners did, going deep in the game, having their bullpen in shambles, They're pitching in shambles. It just seemed like it was destiny that the Blue Jays would win the first two games at home. They had their Ace and Kevin Gosman. Then they had Trey Savage, who didn't give up a hit in his first playoff game. The Mariner's going to beat them. Now we fly across country, we go to the West Coast, we go to Seattle, the team that has the second best home record in the American League. Their pitching plans are perfectly in line, their bullpen is rested. This just feels weird to me. This just feels like there's gonna be a series where if you try to predict that what's gonna happen, if you're betting on the favorites to win, it just feels weird. And I think the Blue Jays are not down and out. This is coming from experience someone that was down two oh in a seven game series in an ALCS. You go in and you win the first game, you obviously try to win that second game, but if you just can figure out a way to get that series back home, you gotta love getting back home. So they just got to figure out a way to win two. They don't have to win all three. I would feel confident in them coming back three to two, down three two, back home to Toronto in front of the best home crowd in baseball, and I mean, from there, anything can happen. But I don't think they're out. I just think there's something weird going on this series where if you try to predict what's gonna happen, the opposite's gonna happen.

00:09:52
Speaker 1: Okay, So we're gonna take a quickie break. It's quick, and then we'll swing back. We'll look at how the starting pitching lines up on the Blue Jays side. Will also highlight how the Mariners offense got the job done tonight, easily showing off their power.

00:10:07
Speaker 3: Be right back, KP.

00:10:09
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00:10:31
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00:11:11
Speaker 3: All right, we're back.

00:11:12
Speaker 1: We talked about how Seattle is lined up really nicely the next few games with their starting staff, which for years has been, if not the best top two or three in baseball.

00:11:23
Speaker 3: Right KP.

00:11:24
Speaker 1: On the Blue Jays side, Shane Bieber was the big hired gun acquired at the trade deadline. Was okay, right against the Yankees you need him, and then probably a Max Scherzer start in Game four. Before you start thinking about what's next. What do you think of these next couple games coming up?

00:11:44
Speaker 2: I mean, I like the Mariners guys better, but I would have said that about the Blue Jays guys in the first two games too. I would have liked Kevin Gosman and Trey Savage. So I don't know what's going on in the series. It feels weird, but I do know Shane Bieber has been in this situation before, where he's been in big games. He's pitching the postseason. He didn't pitch terribly in New York. He just you know, he got kind of dinked and dunked a little bit. His command wasn't the best. It wasn't the sharpest stuff he had. But what I do know because I watched it in New York, he's gonna be on a short leash, especially down two oh, so he's gonna have to show that he can be very dominant early if he wants to pitch deep into this game.

00:12:25
Speaker 1: Maybe the Mariners are also huffing, puffing crats because they beat Scooble twice.

00:12:31
Speaker 3: I mean, they won Scooble games twice.

00:12:34
Speaker 4: Now they head home four times. It's almost like it's almost like they go, Okay, well what is your best pitch or who is your best pitcher? And they're like, well, we'll get up for this game. Well we'll figure out how to do this. Like they're a train right now. And Shane Bieber has the ability to do well. I just I never, you know, I feel like the Yankees see bebe really well. So maybe that's not a good barometer, but he's pitching well. Has he pitched dominantly since his first outing? Since his first outing with the Jays, has he been dominant and to me, if he's gonna give them length because of the hook quick hook, because of the off day, because of the fact that they're down too to oh, he's he's got to almost dominate the first five six innings for John Schneider to say, Okay, I'm gonna get ninety pitches out of you. I'm gonna get eighty five pitches out of you. Because he's gone to that quick hook keeping his team in the game and it hasn't worked out so far.

00:13:38
Speaker 1: And the weakness for Toronto is their bullpen KP and it's letting them down so far.

00:13:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, they don't have except for you know, maybe a couple guys in the back end. They don't have like a ton of swing of miss guys that you can bring in. And you know, you need to have guys in the bullpen that have swing a miss because there's gonna be situations in the game you need to get strikeouts. And the Blue Jays don't just have those guys in the bullpen. They are really good when they can get to a lead, and they cant kind of mix and match their bullpen and matchup. But when you're asking those guys to have to cover, you know, thirteen fifteen, seventeen outs. It gets a little thin, you know, and that's where the Mariners, you know, like Brett Rooker said, and I experienced when I was with the Angels, there was always this big talk about the Mariners starting pitching, you know, for obvious reasons. On any given day, they're rolling out, you know, a one or two starter legit starting pitching. But the bullpen was always nasty. You know. You started that back end with munos and then you go to even you know, the last guy in their bullpen, they all have swinging miss stuff, and it's it's it's suffocating, like Brett Berger said, it's very suffocating. No matter who comes out of that bullpen, it's stuff. It might not be the best pitch ability, but it's stuff. And at the end of the day, stuff plays.

00:14:56
Speaker 1: So the game was decided in the fifth inning, right you savage pitching.

00:15:02
Speaker 3: Vilo is down a little bit.

00:15:04
Speaker 1: You get an infield single and a bad throat from Jimenez and then they intentionally walk cal Raley and they bring in Louis Arland. He strikes out Julio Rodriguez. I think that pitch was center cut fastball and then and that's okay. I mean, Louis Arland throws hard. But here's my question for UKP. I don't know if you've faced him, but you certainly have faced many guys that look like Louis Arland in terms of stuff out of the bullpen. Where Hey, Polanco, you know, hits a three run home run on a fastball that caught the middle of the plate. Are you seeing too much of that from Loui who's giving up some big home runs. You look at him and you're like, on the outside, this looks really good. This guy's pumping heat. He can strike guys out, but he's also giving up big hits, including big homers.

00:15:50
Speaker 2: I mean, that would be a better question for Kratz. I mean, he he's the catcher, he's got the better view. But my question to Krats he would be you have the big arm and the big stuff, but at the end of the day, flyball pitcher, right, that's a situation where you maybe when you have first and second economically, you're trying to get a sinker baller in there, someone that used really hard to get the ball in the air. You try to get those two outs on one swing and then you just do what you got to do to get the last guy out. But bringing in a fly ball pitcher who also has some swinging miss stuff is kind of a risky play right there. I don't know what Kratz thinks. You know, as a catcher, you know you have some confidence when you know this guy's got like a sinker that's hard to get in the air. You feel like you can get two outs on one swing of the bat. Kind of lowers the temperature in the room. You know, runner at third base with two outs feels a whole lot different in it inning.

00:16:42
Speaker 4: To me. Besides, besides Hoffman, Louis Varland's the guy you're going to. So we're talking about this because what Scott said, that was the game he comes in, slams the door. That game might swing in the mariners favor, but he didn't, and he has given up some big homers. To me, they are it seems like hitters are not surprised when he starts that splitter and it runs way off the plate like they're not even it's not even like a like a close take, and they're on his one hundred miles an hour now. Obviously one of his home runs was against Judge, which was ridiculous that he hit that. But for me, Louis Varlan's he's getting there's he's getting a lot of contact out front for one hundred miles an hour. You need to get some guys that are that are taking the opposite field, like taking you out, because you're going elevated up in a way and they're taking you out. To me, he's the he's either showing them something, he's tipping something, or he's not moving their feet enough. And he has to do that because if this series goes past five games, however many games it goes, Louis Arland's gonna be in there. John Schneider is proven, he is not going down without Louis Arland pitching. Jeff Hoffman didn't pitch. He's your closer. Louis Arlan's what I would call your secondary closer in the situation in the lane, he's the guy. He is the guy they want Julio to face. He's the guy they want to turn Jorge Polanco around. And it didn't happen again tonight. And when you're in those spots, you're gonna have to set a precedent. The next time you come in to me. If he backs Jorgey Polanco off the plate, I think he's cooked. I think jorgees cooked because he can't lean out over that fastball was kind of it wasn't middle middle, it was a little middle away, and you can't let guys get that much extension on you. One hundred mile an hour heater.

00:18:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, it also looks like Mike Cratsy's saying, a guy, those one hundred miles an hour guys are just cheating to the fastball. I mean, they're not respecting his secondary pitches. Maybe he's got to come in and almost pitch backwards a little bit to try to get the guys off the fastball. And you know, knowing the both hitting coaches that are in Seattle, I had them in Atlanta, and you know they're they're good at preaching that those little fine details of you know, hunt the pitch that you feel like you can do damage on, kind of eliminate the other pitches. He hasn't really shown the ability to, you know, land the secondary pitches or throw them consistently throughout the bat. He might show you that get me over one early, but is he going to go to it again and again. Ultimately, he wants to get back to the heater, and I respect him for it because if I had a triple digit heater too, I'd want to show it off too. But also to krats point, you know, when guys are getting out in front and leaning out over the plate, you got to move their feet. You got to show them something. Get get up a little high and tight, you know, move their feet a little bit, make it a little bit less comfortable, because facing one hundred miles an hour should never be comfortable.

00:19:53
Speaker 1: And he's pitched in every game so far in the playoffs for Toronto, six games. Yeah, they're going to keep throwing them out there. I mean, hindsight blah blah blah. But if you're a Toronto fan right now, you're like, damn it, I wish we went the extra mile and got ourselves the Duran somebody else, even if they got to Ireland right like, they could use another high leverage guy right now.

00:20:18
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean everybody.

00:20:20
Speaker 2: Anthony demingis too. They got Sir Anthony down there too, and you know he's typically their eighth inning guy, you know. To Cratzy's point, louis just kind of I think the team knew what they were getting. I don't think baseball really knew much about Louis Arlin. You know, he was kind of hitting an organization that you know, maybe you hadn't seen him pitch a lot. You know, when I saw the move, I'm like, oh, does that really move the needle? And then you watch him pitch, and the guy is legit. You know, he's earned the right to kind of be this fireman. You know when at the highest leverage of the game, whether that's in the fourth inning, the eighth inning, somewhere in between, then you're going to Louis Arlin and to your point, yeah, he's giving up some home runs. You know, you could kind of even eliminate the one to judge that was just a ridiculous That was judge just being judged. He did give up the homer to Jazz, you know where it was kind of a fastball that kind of leaked over the plate. But you know, I think both of our points about having to move the guy's feet make him feel a little bit more uncomfortable, but also being able to kind of maybe pitch backwards for a little bit, trust the secondary stuff to at least steal a strike. Maybe a second strike and then try to elevate the heater up out of the zone. Try to speed people up a little bit, because people don't look like they're sped up on his fastball right now.

00:21:29
Speaker 3: Meanwhile, on the Seattle side, Bizarto is a huge factor for them.

00:21:35
Speaker 1: Now, and you're just a guy that you can add to the circle of trust. So it's it's a special group here going for Seattle. I mean Bizardo, obviously, Muno Sprash like They've got some big boys that are getting the job done. Also, I mean some guys you go through hot stretches, cold stretches, and that happens to hit at the right or wrong time. And right now in the postseason, Seattle's got it going with their So let's do final thoughts here, KP.

00:22:05
Speaker 3: The Blue Jays come back.

00:22:07
Speaker 2: If I think the Blue Jays come back, if they take a recipe out of their book from the first series and score early, score first, score early, try to silence the crowd and Seattle it's going to be a very rowdy crowd. But what people who haven't played for the Blue Jays don't understand and maybe have an experience Seattle for a long time was considered Toronto West coast, you get a lot of that influx of people from the West coast to Canada come down. So that's something I'm going to be interested in seeing because there was days I went there for batting practice and there might be twenty thousand Blue Jay fans there watching practice. It was maybe their only opportunity to watch their beloved Blue Jays come remotely close to them on the West Coast, and they would come down. How Seattle kind of trait maybe is try to counteract that with ticket sales, maybe not selling tickets across the border to be seen. But I think the Blue Jays have to score in that first inning like they've done, like they did in the Yankees series. Silence the crowd, get a couple shut down innings, get that kind of momentum back, get that confidence back, and I think they'll be Finekratz.

00:23:19
Speaker 1: I'll go the other way unless you've got something strong on Toronto. The Mariners sweep.

00:23:23
Speaker 4: If he keep doing what they're doing, the Mariners sweep if the blue Jays bats don't wake back up. Really, I mean, I think that's how the Blue Jays got to where they were. They gave him a lot of runs. Everybody remembers Game three when John Schneider just orchestrated this beautiful, beautiful nine pitchers, nine innings type of game. But the reality is the Blue Jays got where they were because they were banging. They were hitting dingers, they were getting on base. Blue Jays don't hit, they get swept.

00:24:02
Speaker 1: There you have it, and we know that ALCS Game three in Seattle will be available not just on Fox the TV station, but on Fox one, the brand new app sponsoring us here for this postgame show. If you would like to get your hands on Fox one, the website's very simple, Fox one dot com, or if you want to hit the QR code or description at the bottom of the episode here on podcast or YouTube format, if you want to click that link to give FT a little bit.

00:24:31
Speaker 3: Of love, that would be cool.

00:24:32
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00:24:49
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00:24:50
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00:25:00
Speaker 3: Thanks for watching the post game reacts and drafts.

00:25:02
Speaker 1: The Mariners going home up to oh h