Dee Gordon:
"I got one thing to say and I said it 3 years ago and I'm going be done with it. If you don't believe in God, you might want to start. I said it three years ago when I hit the homer for Jose. They had a no-hitter today. Y'all better start. That's all I got."
Cal Raleigh: “We’ve got to commit to winning, we have to commit to going and getting those players you see other teams going out and getting — big time pitchers, getting big-time hitters. We have to do that to keep up.”
Cal Raleigh didn’t need to apologize for anything he said postgame. Servais tells his players to be themselves and he said what he believed.. And anyone in the organization that thinks he needed to apologize should ask themselves why.
JP Crawford: “I think Cal had some great comments yesterday. I know there's a big controversy about that earlier this morning and I'm with him on that. I think we need to go out there and make really make a move to help this team win.”
Ty France on Cal Raleigh
“I respect Cal. he's really established himself as kind of a veteran guy on this team and he's put himself in that position to be able to speak openly.”
“I don't think anyone in here has an issue with whatever he said yesterday.”
On June 30, the Mariners lost 15-4 to the Rays on a packed Friday night at T-Mobile Park. They were booed loudly and deservedly. Seattle fell to 38-42 and 10 games back of Texas in the division.
Since then, Seattle has gone 39-16 and shares the lead in the AL West. Unreal.
Servais: "How about the fans in the in the stands tonight? I never thought I'd hear, 'Let's go mariners' here. How many years have we listened to 'let's go blue jays' at T-Mobile Park. When I heard that late in the game, I thought "We have to win this game."
The Mariners don’t have their Sunday cream uniforms yet. Still delayed from Nike. They are supposed to be back for the next homestand.
Also Bryce Miller wore the bat boys pants for the city connect game cause his didn’t fit properly.
This first-pitch slider to Luis Robert Jr. was Luis Castillo’s 48th pitch of the game and his last offspeed pitch of the game. His final 47 pitches were either four-seam or two-seam fastballs.
Julio Rodriguez said he got goose bumps on the field for the first time in professional baseball after he took the bases-loaded walk and heard the reaction from the crowd.
Winker called it the at-bat of the game.
The Mariners are trading Jarred Kelenic, Marco Gonzales and Evan White to the Braves for RHP Jackson Kowar and RHP Cole Phillips.
I will now turn off Twitter
When you get upgraded to first class by
@AlaskaAir
and the person sitting next to you is the general manager of the baseball team you cover. This is why I fly Alaska
Scott Servais said on ROOT Sports that Taylor Trammell has made the MLB roster and will start in either left or center depending on Kyle Lewis' health.
he said Trammell broke down crying.
Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto has sent a letter to minor league players in the system saying the organization would continue to pay them through the remainder of the 2020 season.
Paul Sewald: "We don't we don't have Aaron judge on our team. We don't have a $35 million pitcher. But we have 26 guys that are all really good and all have a key part of this team. And when they do their job, we end up winning more games than we're losing and that's the key."
That's eight shutout innings for Luis Castillo. There hasn't been this sort of dominance at T-Mobile from a Mariners pitcher since the days of the King.
Jean Segura on not getting chosen: "I mean, it's ridiculous. I don't make that decision. I feel disappointed. For me, I will just continue to do my job and play for Seattle and push this beautiful team and this beautiful city to the playoffs."
Logan Gilbert on Cal Raleigh’s comments: “Everybody’s got his back. I really don't think it was as controversial as it was made out to be. It's kind of just like, yeah, every team would be better by adding big players. That’s just how the league works.”
Mariners win 7-3. They take two of three from the Yankees without Ty France and Julio Rodriguez in the lineup.
Luis Castillo was as advertised.
CB Bucknor is still bad.
Updated Mariners trade story with player reaction.
“Are you (expletive) kidding me? It never changes. They don’t care about winning. How do you trade him and say you care about winning? And you trade him to Houston? It never changes.”
For those that didn’t notice, George Kirby threw a first-pitch knuckleball to Corey Seager for a swing and miss. Statcast had it as a splitter, but Kirby has been threatening to throw his knuckleball once in a game.
More Cal: “We've done a great job of growing some players here and within the farm system, but sometimes you’ve got to go out and you have to buy. That's just the name of the game.We'll see what happens this offseason. Hopefully we can add some players and become a better team.”
Cal Raleigh: “We’ve got to commit to winning, we have to commit to going and getting those players you see other teams going out and getting — big time pitchers, getting big-time hitters. We have to do that to keep up.”
I’m not saying I wish bad things on the people that came up with this graphic. But flat tires in rush hour traffic while dealing with food poisoning seems fair.
Felix Hernandez admitted he was nervous throwing out the first pitch and coming back.
"It felt good to be home."
The Mariners contacted him a few days before they clinched and he said let me know when you clinch.
From multiple MLB sources: The Mariners are expected to send reliever Erik Swanson and left-handed pitching prospect Adam Macko in exchange for Teoscar Hernandez.
Mariners win 7-5.
For the first time since Aug. 26, 2003, the Seattle Mariners find themselves in first place in the AL West late in the season (post all-star break). That's one day shy of 20 years. They are tied with the Rangers at 72-56
Tom Murphy: "That was the most emotion I've ever seen out of Logan. You could really tell that it meant a lot to him. And what he doesn't know, it meant even more to the team."
Sources confirm
@JeffPassan
's report on the finalizing a a 5-year, $115 million deal with Robbie Ray.
Ray is flying to Seattle to take his physical and sign the contract.
It will be the largest FA contract given by Jerry Dipoto with the Mariners.
Asked about his future, Mitch Haniger said:
"I don't really know to be honest with you. Just kind of wait to see what happens. I've loved playing here and hope to continue to play here. I'm really big fan of guys here and I've had a blast playing here the last couple years."
Mariners win 4-2.
They are now 89-70 on the season and remain a half game out in the wild card race with three games left to play.
Biggest final series of baseball in Seattle since maybe 2014. And this feels different cause the M's aren't backing in. They are charging in.
Mariners magical season ends with three losses to the Astros in games that all seemed winnable.
It will be interesting to see how motivating this season was for all aspects of the team going into the offseason and next year.
Besides Mariners fans, a quick list of people offended/insulted in Mather's video:
Kelenic
Julio
Marco
Evan White
Seager
Iwakuma
Japanese players
Latin players
Taijuan
Pax
Luis Torrens
MLBPA
Everrett Memorial Stadium
Kelenic took a 6 am flight to Houston. He arrived in the third inning, put his uniform on, took about 10 swings in the indoor cage and was told he was going into the game.
Scott Servais: "Our fan base is starved for this type of baseball. We have a team that can provide it. We're fun to watch. We can be frustrating to watch. I get all that as a fan and what it means to hang on the edge of your seat for every pitch. That's what baseball is about."
Asked about his team's ability to put pressure on Alek Manoah and the Blue Jays immediately yesterday and by winning Game 1.
Scott Servais smirked and responded: "That's just something you put in tires."
Julio Rodriguez on the experience: "Really fun. My family was loving it. I feel at the end of the day, everything I do is just to make them proud and make them happy. To just see their faces, they had a lot of joy."
Few players I’ve covered take defeat and failure more personally than George Kirby. His frustration doesn’t dissipate as quickly as others. What he says in obvious anger after a frustrating outing probably shouldn’t be defining of him or his commitment to winning.