4/20: Open game thread

Yesterday was just about the best/worst/more worse/greatest baseball game we've had in a long time and in that order, and while it may be unfair to follow that emotion with the general letdown that a Monday can bring, we can't have it all. What we do have is another game of baseball on a beautiful evening in Seattle, Washington. Life doesn't really get any better, all things considered. If you have the time, I'd be so bold as to suggest going downtown and grabbing the game in person. It's early, but attendance at Safeco is already about 8,000 Mariners fans higher per game compared to this game last year. We could all use eight-thousand more friends. Actually, that sounds exhausting. Go, but drink alone.

While tonight's lineup features what I am so far, and subjectively, calling our best-possible offensive lineup, it's a little odd that Nelson Cruz is being favored in right field over Seth Smith. However, I fully understand that at this point Nelson is probably writing the lineup himself and Lloyd is like, "Just hand me some more Double Bubble, you got this, man."

I think one of the things I'm most excited about for tonight is seeing just exactly how Asher's surname fits on the back of his jersey. However, I'd also love for tonight to be when LoMo (.222) and Dustin (.190) get their BABIP up, and The Bear finds his command. After doing a decent job of keeping the sinker down last outing, we'll look to see if Hisashi can also keep from leaving the mistakes out over the middle of the plate. As well, he finished a relatively short start in Los Angeles looking completely gassed. Let's hope he has a little more in the tank and can get the M's on to the first win-streak of the season.

Things I Thought About Today:

• Both of today's starters come in to their third start with -0.1 WAR, Iwakuma also is boasting a 1.64 WHIP, and Asher a 1.63. This could potentially be like watching a game of two really bad chess players. Neither knows when it's over and both queens are gone within ten moves.
  
• Kendrys Morales has already managed 0.5 WAR this season, while Nelson Cruz sits at a lofty 1.1. Baseball is a beautiful, fickle beast.
  
• This tweet, however, wasn't what I wanted to think about today (because of the ending):

#Mariners, by the way, would be ecstatic if Cruz puts up same year as Sexson did in debut season: 39 HR, 121 RBI, .910 OPS

— Larry Stone (@StoneLarry) April 20, 2015

• I miss carnitas at Chipotle.
• Tim Tebow, barely.

Game info:

• Mariners, Astros 7:10 PST
• TV: ROOT
• Radio: 710 ESPN
• Online: mlb.tv

Then Altuve saw the Bear. It did not emerge, appear; it was just there, immobile, solid, fixed in the hot dappling of the green and windless noon, not as big as he had dreamed it, but as big as he had expected it, bigger, dimensionless, against the dappled obscurity, looking at him where he sat quietly on the bench and looked back at it.

goms.