6/16: Open game thread

Good Morning, and welcome, once again, to another day steaming aboard the railway of life on the Mariner Express. Today's conductor is James Paxton, whose engine has coal and fire in abundance but perhaps at times burns a bit too hot. All the speed in the world does you little good if you take a corner too fast, de-rail, and kill everyone on board in a fiery mass of horror and tragedy.

Speaking of horror and tragedy, the Mariners have lost four games in a row, and are now 6-13 since they defeated the A's 13-3 to move to 28-18. In those thirteen defeats eight have been by a margin of 1-2 runs, and many of those have featured excruciating, inches from victory-style losses. It has been Very Bad, and I am ready for it to change. At this point I'm not even too worried about winning and losing. I'll just accept a game in which the Mariners don't lose while slowly removing my intestines through my belly button and then doing the cha-cha on them.

The team desperately needs James Paxton to throw 6+ innings today. The bullpen is completely spent, and between Paxton, Wade Miley, Nate Karns, and Taijuan Walker, a vast portion of the rotation feels as likely to go three innings as it does six. With a looming series against the freshly-awoken Great One that is the Red Sox offense, followed by three games against still potent Detroit, the Mariners have made things hard on themselves. Please bear with me while I yell for a moment:

*Ahem*

YOU COULD SEE THIS COMING THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T GET SWEPT AT HOME BY THE ANGELS, A'S, AND TWINS YOU GOD DAMN IDIOTS!!!!!!

*Ahem*

So, anyway, facing off against the Mariners today is local product, and top prospect Blake Snell. Snell is left-handed, like Drew Smyly, but with better stuff. Since Smyly struck out 12 and walked none through six innings yesterday well, ohohohoho things are starting to feel very Mariner-y these days.

That transitions me nicely to the news that Leonys Martin is out again with a sore hamstring. Shawn O'Malley is playing centerfield.

Amazingly, the Mariners are still three games above .500 and very much in the race for a playoff spot. However, they need to, y'know, occasionally win games. Since they are playing a game today, the present seems like an excellent opportunity to start doing that again.

Win, ya Mariners.

Game info

• Mariners @ Rays, 10:10 AM PDT, Tropicana Field
• TV: ROOT, Radio: 710 ESPN, Online: MLBTV