After a successful 5-1 road trip through the St. Louis Cardinals and Minnesota Twins, the Seattle Mariners return home on Friday night to take on the Kansas City Royals at T-Mobile Park.

At 16-16, the Mariners are 1.5 games back in the American League West, while the Royals are in last place in the American League Central.

Despite those records, this series will certainly be tough, as starting pitchers Cole Ragans (Friday) and Seth Lugo (Saturday) are expected to take the mound for Kansas City.

Friday night's game will air on Apple TV and will be broadcast by Wayne Randazzo and Dontrelle Willis alongside field reporter Heidi Watney.

Watney, a veteran broadcaster, stopped by the most recent 'Refuse to Lose' podcast to talk about the matchup, her broadcast preparation and more, including the infamous "in-game manager" interviews.

Question (paraphrase): Those interviews tend to draw ire from fans, not because of who is asking the questions, but because the managers often don't say a whole lot. How difficult is to get something out of those guys in such a finite period of time?

Answer: (exact): 

"Because we do have a really small window to get two questions in, and sometimes I'll do like a really quick follow up third if it really necessitates it and the first two answers were really short. But generally speaking, I get two questions and that's it. And like I'll have a whole host of questions.

For me it's more—I know most of these major league managers so well. We always have our private one-on-one with the broadcast crew and the manager in the afternoon for both teams, and then I've gotten to know them just from covering the sport for 20 years. So I will know the kind of question to Dave Roberts that's going to elicit a good response for him for the most part.

And sometimes, it's also that they said something in our private manager meeting that I thought was really interesting, and rather than me do a hit on it and say 'I spoke to this manager and he said this,' I'll just ask them in that manager meeting. And it may not be directly related to the action from the previous inning, but it's something that he said that was really interesting about a player or a situation or what's going on with their team that I know he gave me a really good answer earlier in the day, and I'm hoping he does as well on an open mic so that's kind of how I balance that.

And oftentimes, you know, it's the end of the third inning, there's not a whole lot of action, so I'm asking about the starting pitcher because from the manager's perspective, and the pitching coach is right there, they're constantly watching their guys and they're watching their starting pitchers like a hawk. And they see them every start, so they know if something's a little bit off or his, you know, splitter's dialed in or his fastball's a little, you know, a couple miles an hour slower, whatever. So they always, generally speaking, provide good insight on the starting pitcher."

This will be the second time that the Mariners have played on Apple TV this season. They defeated the Cleveland Guardians on March 27.

Remember to join our MARINERS on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other Mariners fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!