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Well this is about as anxiety-inducing a series as I can recall this season. Coming off a train wreck series in Chicago the Mariners are desperately hoping for a rebound after crushing our fan souls 5 of the last 6 days, but it won't be easy. On the bright side, if the offense shows up and Iwakuma continues to be the best holiday gift we've ever been given, this is a chance for the Ms to get up and start climbing the playoff ladder again. On the dreary side of things, we'll see another offensive offensive performance and you'll all stop reading/commenting on LL and then we really will have to start writing about volcanoes because molten lava launching into the atmosphere is far more exciting than baseball. So, y'know, no pressure Mariners.
Bonus points today if the one run the Rangers win by is a Carlos Gomez solo dinger, because once the sadness scale pushes past a certain point it all becomes absurdist comedy anyway.
Lind is in and will smash a monster home run tonight because he's fueled by your DFA chants, Martin leads off against his former team and oh, what's that? There is a startling lack of Norichika Aoki in the lineup, because he is instead chasing Rhubarb the Reindeer through convoluted routes around the grass of Tacoma. Instead we have pocketknife Shawn, here to be incredibly useful for all sorts of unforeseen circumstances but also with the potential to be dangerous and/or painful when you don't know what you're doing. We'll also get to see our magnificent HOMEMADE catcher face off against their pale, crumbly catcher they bought on sale from a store that's soon to go out of business. Here's hoping this series goes more like the first Texas series rather than, well, all of the others.
Game Info:
Mariners at Rangers, Globe Life Park in Arlington, 5:05 PT
TV: ROOT Sports
Radio: 710 ESPN
Online: MLB.TV
We haven't really asked nicely lately, so maybe the Mariners are simply sticklers for some good manners? Can't hurt to try.
Please, goms. Please, gobiz. Please, dontletCarlosGomezironicallycrushus.