3/19: Open Game Thread

The Seattle Mariners will play baseball again today, this time against the Texas Rangers at 1:05 PT. The contest will be the second-to-last Sunday game for the Mariners this spring, meaning we are getting oh so close to that beautiful, wonderful start of regular season. With the Mariners off tomorrow, all the WBC players are expected to be back in camp on Tuesday. Just a couple more days until we get to watch those Segura-Cano-Cruz-Seager lineups again, and there’s nothing Jose Reyes can do about it.

For today, here is your lineup:

Dillon Overton will make his first official start of spring today. Overton had a strong start to spring, but he was roughed up a bit in his last outing, surrendering three runs on three hits in two innings against the Chicago White Sox on March 14th. He’s yet to walk anyone this spring and has registered five strikeouts over his last six innings, so there’s that.

We’ll also see a lot of utility guys in today’s game, with Taylor Motter (LF), Tyler Smith (SS), and Mike Freeman (2B) all starting. I know I’m not alone in this, but I’m about ready to officially pencil Motter in on the 25-man roster. We’ll also get to see Danny Valencia play third base. The Mariners are really flexing their positional flexibility muscles today.

In other news, holy hell I swear Will Middlebrooks is on a different team every day now.

Game Time: 1:05 PM PT

Radio: 710 ESPN/Mariners.com

TV: MLB.tv