Buster Olney joined the most recent 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast to talk about the M's chances down the stretch, Kade Anderson's chances of being called up and much more, including Woo's shoulder issue.
The Seattle Mariners earned a huge win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday night just one day after the most embarrassing loss in team history.
The Mariners are currently 4-4 on this nightmare nine-game road trip through New York (Yankees), Houston and Milwaukee, and they'll have a chance to secure a winning road trip on Thursday morning in the series finale against the best team in baseball (11:10 a.m. PT).
While there has been plenty of bad on this road trip, there have been some really nice developments: Namely the impact felt by Brendan Donovan, continued offensive success from Dominic Canzone, some strong team-wide resilience, and the bounce back road efforts of Bryan Woo.
Woo, who's road struggles have dominated conversation for much of the last three months or so, delivered five shutout innings against the Yankees last Tuesday and then threw six innings of two-run ball against the Astros on Sunday.
However, after the game, Woo said he had "shoulder discomfort," which could have contributed to him being removed after just 75 pitches. Woo said he wasn't concerned, and I am not particularly concerned either, but we asked ESPN's Buster Olney about his concern level on the latest 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast.
Seattle Mariners pitcher Bryan Woo (22) delivers in the first inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. William Navarro-Imagn Images"Not until you see a significant impact on, say, his velocity or how long he can pitch. Look, just look at Paul Skenes, right? His velocity’s come down a couple of miles per hour. There’s a big difference that we’ve seen tangibly in what’s happened on the field. That hasn’t happened yet for Bryan Woo. Like, his fastball velocity was fine, and you don’t know, is this just a cranky shoulder? Because you know, this, Brady, is that these guys pitch through stuff all the time. You know, their arms hurt all the time. It’ll hurt into retirement, quite frankly, for some of these guys.
So, you know, it’s good that there apparently is an open line of communication between Woo and the staff, and if he’s not feeling good, then they can back him up, give him a little bit of rest, and maybe that’ll work. It’s certainly a red flag, and the question: are there more red flags to follow?"
The Mariners will hope there are no more red flags to follow because they need Woo to be at his best if they want to make a run at the playoffs over the final six weeks of the season.
Seattle enters play on Thursday at 60-67 and four games back in the American League West. They are 2.5 games back of the third and final wild card spot, which is currently held by the Minnesota Twins.
Of note
The latest edition of the 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast, featuring ESPN's Buster Olney and Paul Hembekides, is out. You can listen here or you can watch in the YouTube player below.
