5/1: Open game thread

What's going on in Seattle? That's the obnoxious phrase you are going to start hearing from the lips of MLB Network prognosticators from now on, the easy lede from a should-be-retired sportswriter trying to fight the future by only looking at events which took place in the past. But it's true, and they will be saying it for a reason: with last night's victory over the reigning world champs, the M's have notched their fifth-consecutive series win. They are walking at a crazy rate, pitching may have begun to stabilize, and they are doing all this with some players still underperforming their career norms. They are currently three games over .500, and aside from recency bias, you really have to think that something just might be different this time. That, and this:

With last night's win the Mariners have clinched just their second April above .500 since 2003.

— Lookout Landing (@LookoutLanding) April 30, 2016

Yeah, you know all this, and while I'm always the last person to feel good about anything I will say that there are a number of ways we could approach going into today's baseball game against the Kansas City Roylols, and I don't want to start saying which is the correct one. Instead, I'm going to sit on my couch and watch Taijuan Walker do things that only .00001% of the entire human race are capable of, and I'm going to have fun. I hope you'll join me.

Game info

• Mariners vs Royals, 1:10 PM PDT
• TV: ROOT
• Radio: 710 ESPN
• Online: mlb.tv