8/5: Open Game Thread

Baseball's back in Seattle. Tonight, they'll face the always entertaining R.A. Dickey, who has been all over the place this year. I talked about Dickey a bit in the series preview, but what is there to say about knucklers? You have it, or you don't. I watched some of MLB Network's ill-fated reality series "The Next Knuckler" this spring, and it was really entertaining watching guys try to complete accuracy challenges while throwing a knuckleball.

In the Knuckleball documentary (worth a watch), it was great watching R.A. Dickey, Tim Wakefield, and Charlie Hough all sit around and discuss the art of throwing the pitch, or what art there is. Derek Jeter famously said about Tim Wakefield that "I don't even think he knows where it's going," and that's probably true, based on how much of a feel pitch it is. Grip it right, push it out, watch it go. Dickey will loosely try to know where it's going tonight, and the Mariners will try to blast it out of the ballpark. It's almost as if they'll play a game of baseball!

Did you hear the podcast today with Aaron Goldsmith? You should listen to it. It's really interesting to hear him talk about using saber stats on the air among other things. The Mariners have a super awesome guy calling their games.

Lineups:

Seattle Mariners

Brad Miller - SS
Kyle Seager - 3B
Kendrys Morales - DH
Michael Morse - LF
Raul Ibanez - RF
Michael Saunders - CF
(Now with 100% more 1B) Justin Smoak - 1B
Dustin Ackley - 2B
Humberto Quintero - C

Hisashi Iwakuma - P

Toronto Blue Jays

Jose Reyes - SS
Rajai Davis - LF
Jose Bautista - RF
Edwin Encarnacion - DH
Adam Lind - 1B
Colby Rasmus - CF
Maicer Izturis - 2B
Brett Lawrie - 3B
Josh Thole - C

R.A. Dickey - P