Open Game Thread: 5/31/17

First the important news:

PAX

IS

BACK!

Expectations should probably be a bit tempered: Pax will be on a pitch count, and he only had one rehab outing. His night will be short and he probably won't be going all-out. I expect him to get hit around some by a powerful Rockies lineup that the Mariners' pitching staff have been pretty well able to keep a lid on over the first two games of this series. The Mariners will need to do some work against Senzatela, a double-A callup who has a very good four-seam fastball but lacks polish on his other pitches. After a sparkling eight-inning debut where he surrendered no runs, Senzatela wasn't as effective in his next few games, going five innings each in the next two, and six innings in the next three. He was better in his next three games, making it all the way through the seventh each time, but he faced San Diego and San Francisco twice in those outings. The Mariners will need their bats to stay hot and try to work some long counts against Senzatela to exploit his lack of a third pitch. The right-handed Senzatela throws his fastball 75% of the time, so ideally the lefty fastball lovers in the lineup should have a good night--looking at you, Cano (.330), Seager (.299), Heredia (.286) and Gamel (.278).

Game time: 7:10 PST; TV - ROOT (both NW and RM, which I surmise stands for Rocky Marshmallows), radio - 710ESPN, yada yada