8/17: Open game thread

Let's start with some sadness, for it's the milk we were weaned on:

It is Aug. 17 and the Mariners have allowed more runs (91) this month than they did in June (70), July (76), and Aug. (80) of last year.

— Lookout Landing (@LookoutLanding) August 17, 2015

I suppose this goes pretty well with Andrew's post this afternoon. The Mariners identity has drastically shifted since the All-Star break from the pitching first organization that's been the team's thing this entire decade to something roughly along the lines of the '98 Mariners. I mean:

And the third-worst ERA lands them at 14-15. https://t.co/iHUGLddnsR

— Colin O'Keefe (@colinokeefe) August 17, 2015

So yeah, welcome to five years of fetishizing power. The Mariners can now conquer Safeco fences, score runs with the best of them, and make opposing pitchers very scared. Unfortunately it's come completely at the expense of anything resembling run prevention. Is the pitching as bad as it has been this month? Of course not, nothing is ever as good or bad as its most extreme. But it's hard to not see what's been going on recently as the result of the organizational focus shift that began way back in 2011 after the outfield/defense model blew up so spectacularly.

Here we sit, waiting for it all to come together.

But the good is today we get Taijuan Walker, who may yet prove to be one of Jack Zduriencik's greatest triumphs. It's no secret that Felix's 2015 has been rotten, particularly recently, and with Walker just freshly 23 and full of confidence and miles per hour he may be the number one most enjoyable thing about the team right now. Of course this will lead to that thing that happens when anyone on this website writes anything resembling an opinion about anyone but hey, we press on.

Logan Morrison starts against Cole Hamels while Jesus Montero sits. (Commentary goes here.)

Win, ya goobers.

Game info

• Mariners @ Rangers, 5:05 PST, Globe Life Park
• TV: ROOT, Radio: 710 ESPN, Online: MLBTV