Preview: Seattle Mariners (6-9) vs. Detroit Tigers (8-5)

There are many good match-ups to look forward to this evening. That's generally what happens when one of the best pitchers in the game takes on one of the best offenses in the game. We can look forward to Felix vs. Miguel Cabrera, Felix vs. Prince Fielder, even Felix vs. the all of a sudden maybe superstar Austin Jackson. My preference would be for the Mariners ace to emerge victorious in all of these confrontations. I'd also like him to best the opposing pitcher, Max Scherzer, another Detroit Tiger to makes up half of an excellent battle. After looking over these examples, the Mariners are really slacking on their side of the competitive arrangement, with Detroit bringing the bulk of the talent to the table. Go figure.

About that Max Scherzer: he's an interesting guy. One of the few professional baseball players to embrace sabermetrics, and known as the Avant-Garde Sportsman in certain crevasses of the baseball internet, he combines a prodigious strike out rate with shiny advanced peripherals in such a way as to endear himself in the hearts and minds of the analytical. Last year, he enjoyed his most successful season to date, regrouping after a terrible April to post improving ERA numbers every subsequent month. He ended the year having accrued 4.5 fWAR, with a 3.27 FIP, 3.23 xFIP, and 11.08 K/9. He also has crazy eyes, with one being blue and the other brown. I bet in Little League he scared the shit out of every sniveling batter he faced.

Staying with Scherzer, there's no good transition into talking about this and so instead just read these words until I link you to Robert Sanchez's powerful piece on the relationship he shared with his brother, Alex, and how Max and family dealt with Alex's shocking suicide last year.

Now that you're sufficiently depressed and overwhelmed by the fragile beauty of human life, Happy Felix Day! Baseball!

Time: 7:10 pm PDT
Location: Safeco Field, Seattle, WA
Television: ROOT Sports, MLB.tv