Mariners Moose Tracks, 8/19/24: Julio Rodríguez, Chris Sale, and the Little League World Series

Monday morning you sure look fine

The Mariners managed to avoid back-to-back sweeps with a decisive win over the Pirates yesterday in which, for the first time this season, every player in the starting lineup got a hit. Unfortunately, that was the easy part of the road trip as they now have to face down the Super Team Dodgers in LA.

In Mariners News . . .

• At the Times, Adam Jude wrote about Julio’s transition from Face of the Franchise, to spokesman for the players.
• The Mariners will once again play the Mets on Sunday Night Baseball in August again next year: MLB announced that the two teams will face off in the 2025 Little League Classic in Williamsport.

Around the league . . .

• Speaking of the Little League World Series, our boys from North Hill did us proud representing the Northwest Region but were eliminated yesterday in a lopsided defeat to Pennsylvania.
• The staff of the Athletic rounded up some of the best personalized equipment from Players Weekend.
• Brandon Lowe has been on a heater lately (which is saying something for the guy who has the fourth-best wRC+ of any second baseman in history), and he crushed another home run yesterday.
• Mike Petriello broke down the practically unprecedented nature of Chris Sale’s comeback to Cy Young contender status.
• Despite wOBA/xwOBA of .353/.336 since his call up, there was a bit of a Twitter discourse yesterday morning about the fact that James Wood had yet to pull a single fly ball. Well, maybe he saw the tweets. Look out NL East:

Zach’s Picks . . .

How about a TV rec. Y’all watching Extraordinary? Because it’s wonderful. Despite its high-concept premise, it’s a cozy, character-driven little comedy.