7/27: Open game thread

The Mariners, coming off one of their most emotional wins of the year (we'll pause so you can locate your feelings), open a three game series against the Diamondbacks facing Robbie Ray. As Jake noted in his series preview, Ray has been one of the nice surprises for a Dback's rotation plagued by injuries and middling play. He's also been somewhat lucky; despite a 43.9% FB rate, he isn't giving up many home runs (his HR/FB ratio is an itsy-bitsy 2.7%). Here's hoping the Seager-Cruz-Cano wonder team can keep the good July times rolling, smack the ball over some fences, and get this regression train rolling.

Mike Montgomery will try to avoid being eaten by snakes or relying on the kindness of strangers a repeat of his last performance against the Tigers. A combination of Pretty Bad Defense and Very Costly Dingers limited him to just 2.2 innings pitched, during which time he gave up approximately 100 runs. Against the Diamondbacks, he'll face his greatest challenge in first baseman Paul Goldschmidt who has a stupidly high 182 wRC+ in 2015. The good (?) news: he's cooled a bit, posting a mere (LOL) 135 wRC+ in July. The bad news (very bad yup): he's put up a 210 wRC+ against left handed pitching. In fact, he's the second best bat in baseball vs LHP by wRC+. The best? Thankfully he wears 23 for your Seattle Mariners. Still, you take great care there, Ol' Monty. And throw strikes, please.

Let's hope we see more of this:

Go M's.

Game Info

• Diamondbacks @ Mariners, 7:10 PM, Safeco Field

• TV: ROOT Sports, Radio: 710 ESPN, Online: MLB.TV