LOS ANGELES -- Cal Raleigh said out loud what has been increasingly clear for the Mariners throughout this Trade Deadline season. Which is that, especially in a buyer-heavy market and no aircraft-carrier-type bats out there, Seattle’s late-season upgrades primarily must come from within. “I feel like we’ve got a really good team here right now as it is,” Raleigh said this week at Dodger Stadium. “I don’t even know if, necessarily, you have to add. But I think, obviously, playoff teams want to add. Ultimately, we’re still gunning for the World Series, so we’re going to add, and I’m excited about that. “At the same time, I feel really good about the guys that are in here right now. Regardless of what happens, it’s going to be up to this core group here to decide, ultimately, where this team ends up going.” Despite a 53-56 record and third-place standing in the American League West, Seattle’s front office actively intends to buy before Monday’s 3 p.m. PT Deadline. A right-handed bat and bullpen help are the only items on its shopping list. |
In that sense, this is probably the most complete roster during Raleigh’s time in Seattle -- albeit one that has mightily underachieved. Wednesday’s listless loss after Tuesday’s dramatic win represented a 24-hour encapsulation to their entire season. “We’re missing some guys with injuries, and we’re going to get [them] back,” Raleigh said, citing the expected returns of utility man Brendan Donovan and relievers Matt Brash and Cooper Criswell. “You can’t keep running a seven-man bullpen, especially, and that has to get figured out in itself. But besides that, yeah, I mean, there’s always little things you can nitpick and things that you want or whatever.” Moreover, as Raleigh alluded, Tuesday night’s win illustrated the group’s potential -- maybe more than in any game this season, and especially given the championship-caliber opponent and hostile environment. Raleigh hit the first of Seattle’s season-high five homers, along with Julio Rodríguez, Rob Refsnyder and Dominic Canzone, who went yard twice. The bullpen then locked down a near-scoreless effort, featuring all four of its highest-leverage relievers -- Gabe Speier, Jose A. Ferrer, Eduard Bazardo and Andrés Muñoz, who despite surrendering the group’s lone run in the ninth, flashed some of his most electric stuff of the year. “At the end of the day, I do feel good about every single man in this locker room,” Raleigh said. “I think we all do. It’s just a matter of us going out there and executing and getting those wins like we should. I believe that is going to happen.” |
What about Tuesday night allows him to believe that? “It was a good overall focus tonight,” Raleigh said postgame on Tuesday. “Like I said, we kept our composure. We didn't get too high, didn't get too low. We kept that good focus all night long.” Raleigh repeated the word “focus” multiple times, then was asked if focus was something that had gotten away from the Mariners during this up-and-down season. “I mean, baseball is hard,” Raleigh said. “It's just a long season. It's hard. Things can happen, and sometimes you need something like that to kind of get you back on track. And by no means am I saying is everything fixed, or [we're] back to where we were. But I think that was a step in the right direction.” |
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MLB MORNING LINEUP PODCAST |
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CASTILLO, HANCOCK ADDRESS DEADLINE |
With Monday’s Trade Deadline looming, there’s a legitimate possibility that either Emerson Hancock or Luis Castillo have made their final start with the Mariners this week at Dodger Stadium. Each talked about how they’re handling it all. |
Muñoz is pitching with sky-high confidence right now, and for good reason. The run he surrendered on Tuesday, via an RBI double to Shohei Ohtani, was the first he’d surrendered since June 14, ending a scoreless streak of 13 outings. Even so, he still had the composure -- and more so, stuff -- to strand Ohtani on third base as the tying run with no outs and preserve his ninth save since the last outing he surrendered a run. “The mentality was attack the zone, throw the hardest that I can,” Muñoz said. “That was the mentality on every pitch.” Confidence is such a huge component to Muñoz’s success, and it’s when he admittedly lost it earlier this season that he experienced his most pronounced struggles. Recent consultations with Mariners mental skills coach Adam Bernero, who encouraged breathing exercises in those high-stakes moments, have also been a huge help to the closer’s turnaround. “I have to give credit to that a lot,” Muñoz said, “because in those situations of pressure, you need to be able to control yourself and calm you down a little bit, and that was what I did.” The practice is fairly straightforward, but super effective. “It's more about trying to get all the air that you can in, hold it for a little bit, breathe it out,” Muñoz said. “But that simple thing changed a lot -- everything -- and having the mentality of just don't don't stop the arm. That helped me a lot, too.” |
MILLER PUSHED BACK; WOO BUMPED UP |
The Mariners made a slight tweak to their rotation for the end of their trip to Dodger Stadium.
They bumped Bryan Woo up to Thursday’s series finale and pushed Bryce Miller back to Friday’s homestand opener vs. Minnesota.
Here’s why. |
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