[jaa36]

AG: Welcome once again to The Wheelhouse. I'm Aaron Goldsmith, with me as always is Jerry Dipoto, and man, there are a lot of games in a season, aren't there, Jerry?

JD: There sure are, Aaron. 162 of them every single season.

AG: Seems like there could be fewer.. Anyway, a little bit of a rough patch for the Mariners this week, losing four of six, but no problem really, still way out in front in the Wild Card standings.

JD: Yeah. Even the best teams have weeks like this every now and again.

AG: The M's offense shut down by a few pitchers without necessarily the longest of best track record, like Scott Diamond, Dinelson Lamet and JC Ramirez this week.

JD: Well, Scott Diamond is a pretty good baseball name, I've gotta say.

AG: What do you think is the best baseball name you ever played with, Jerry?

JD: It's got to be Quinton McCracken- played with him in Colorado in 1997, I think it was. And McCracken could really hit!

AG: For me, almost as good as Coco Crisp, that's a name that's hard to top. Anyway, kind of slow week for the offense, though we did see Kyle Seager with another home run and three more doubles, and Robinson Cano with a good week with the bat as well.

JD: Yeah, are veteran core is looking really strong heading into the last few weeks of the season. It's been great to see all of them, Robbie, Kyle, Jean, Dee, Nellie hold up so well this year. It's looking like all of them plus Mitch Haniger will play at least 150 games this year, which is a real accomplishment to keep all those guys healthy and playing well.

AG: Right, the rotation has been impressively durable, but even that isn't quite as impressive as the health of the regular lineup.

JD: Absolutely. Every year you expect to lose a few guys for parts of the year, if not the whole year, and that really hasn't happened. I give a lot of credit to our training staff and our new High Performance department, which certainly led to a lot of unwarranted cannabis-related puns, but in reality they've made great efforts to keep our guys on the field.

AG: Seven more steals for Dee Gordon this week put him above the century mark, now with 105 on the season. We saw a couple of double steals with Jean Segura, including the one that got him to a hundred. He's now the first player since Vince Coleman to steal a hundred bases in his season, and he did 31 years ago, in 1987. What an accomplishment for Dee!

JD: It really is. And he's done it with remarkable efficiency, too, getting caught just 18 times. By our metrics, he's added more value on the bases than any other player in baseball, and most of that comes from the stolen bases. The stolen base is a weapon that has really fallen out of favor in the modern era, but with him and Jean Segura, and to a lesser extent even Kevin Pillar and Ichiro this season, we've been able to get guys into scoring position, avoid the double play, and put pressure on the pitcher.

AG: Right. What a world we live in, where the Mariners lead the league in stolen bases and are just 12th in the AL in home runs despite having seven guys in double figures, and three likely to finish right around 30 home runs in Nellie Cruz, Kyle Seager and Mitch Haniger.

JD: Yeah, it's a different game than twenty or thirty years ago, that's for sure.

AG: We saw two more pretty good starts from Erasmo Ramirez, and he's knocked his ERA down a full run from a month ago. Marco Gonzales rejoins the rotation this week. Any other lingering injuries on the team?

JD: You know, knock on wood, not really. We'll probably give each of our starting five two more turns through the rotation and then see where we're at, and maybe turn to some of our other guys like Andrew Moore, Austin Gombert, maybe even Hisashi Iwakuma to close out the year.

AG: Well, why don't we take a question while we've got a moment. Here is Donna from Capitol Hill, right in downtown Seattle. Donna would like to know, who do you match up best with in the postseason in the AL, and which team would you worry about playing?

JD: Honestly, I don't worry too much about anybody. This has been a great year for our team, and at the same time, I'm not a fool, and I know that the Yankees, the Astros and the Indians have all run away with their divisions, and speaking realistically, any of those three teams would be favored against us in a series. That said, we've played pretty well against the Astros this year, winning 9 and losing only 6 so far, and I think our guys have been able to keep their right-handed bats under wraps pretty well this year, and put up some runs against a good pitching staff.

AG: You play your last series against the Astros this week, then the Rangers, then back home for the last week of the season.

JD: Yeah, it'll be a good way to close out, and hopefully to clinch a playoff berth in front of our home fans.

AG: Any other thoughts before we finish up this week, Jerry?

JD: Don't think so, Aaron, just looking forward to getting to the end of the season.

AG: All right. Well, thanks as always for being with us, Jerry.

JD: My pleasure.

AG: We'll see you next week on The Wheelhouse.