8/2: Open game thread

Coming into this stretch of seven games against the Cubs and Red Sox my hope was for 4-3, with a "hey you doofuses really need to go at least 3-4." Through horrific travel circumstances and against terrific competition the Mariners have put themselves in position to start that stretch off at 3-1, with competent 9th inning relief. Unfortunately, for us, the team, and poor Steve Cishek, that's been in scant supply, and the Mariners are instead 1-3.

I just want this Red Sox series to be over with, honestly. It's only three more games, an eye blink in baseball's cosmic calendar, and then we can move on to the soft part of the August schedule. A .500 record is a slow, painful death. So many Mariner teams have had the decency to kill us quick and clean in April, but in context this year's hot first ~third feels like the feast before the orchestra starts up the Rains of Castamere. It's just cruel, and it's agonizing.

In about three weeks we should know, for good or for ill, if the 2016 Mariners have a final gasp left within them, or if injury and blown saves were too much to overcome. I just want to finish up the series against the Brewers on August 24th, and see where we stand. Then, we'll either have something to hope for, or we'll have rest. We won't have this. This torture.

Tonight it's Wade LeBlanc and his spectacular nothingness versus David Price, who currently finds his ERA and FIP staring resentfully across a wide channel at each other, determined to never meet. Price's peripherals remain largely near career norms (which are very good), but his .338 BABIP and sky high 13.8% HR/FB rate have doomed his ERA to averageness. That will certainly change tonight against the Mariners, unless the team manages to hit 1-2 home runs, which they are more than capable of doing. Unfortunately they are not capable of much else.

Guillermo Heredia is batting leadoff for the second game in a row. This is because he is fast, and thus must bat leadoff. In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

Just win a damn baseball game, you adorable balls of teal fluff.

Game info

• Red Sox @ Mariners, 7:10 PM, Safeco Field
• TV: ROOT, Radio: 710 ESPN, Online: MLB.TV