7/20: Open Game Thread

Well good morning and how are you? Since the last time Felix Hernandez toed the rubber for the Mariners the team has gone 19-28, fallen from division leader to playoff longshot, and generally crushed our spirits. Now Felix returns, and as I wrote last week, ride or die it should only happen with him in the rotation. Felix Hernandez is the Seattle Mariners, and will be until the day he stops wearing the jersey, which I personally hope is about ten years from now.

The White Sox are blessedly countering Felix with a pitcher who is not one of the AL's best left-handed starters, in journeyman Miguel Gonzalez. The Mariners are precipitously close to being 0-5 out of the break, and the offense has played a major role, scoring only ten runs over that span. While there would be no more appropriate welcome back for Felix than a loss in a brilliant effort as the Mariners' bats get buzzsawed by an also ran, let's hope for something a bit more regal.

The Mariner lineup sports new, familiar names. Along with Felix the team has called up Nori Aoki and Mike Zunino, and both are in tonight's starting lineup. Gone are the days of Daniel Robertson, and while I would have (and I'm sure will shortly) enjoyed watching Guillermo Heredia in a Mariner uniform, I understand why Aoki is here. Hopefully he will start playing like Nori Aoki, and less like Chone Figgins.

Whatever happens today, Felix is back.

We've already won.

Happy Felix Day. We missed you, Felix. pic.twitter.com/hlBY0x3iJL

— Lookout Landing (@LookoutLanding) July 20, 2016

Game info

• White Sox @ Mariners, 12:40 PM PDT, Safeco Field
• TV: ROOT, Radio: 710 ESPN, Online: MLBTV