4/16/19: Open Game Thread

These past few days haven’t been a whole lot of fun. Of course, when you draw Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, and Trevor Bauer back-to-back-to-back, runs are going to be at a premium, but it felt like nothing went the M’s way at all this weekend. Hopefully Mike Leake and friends can put an end to that.

Cleveland is deploying Shane Bieber, who put up a very solid 3.23 FIP in his first big league 114.2 innings last season. Bieber owns a career K/BB ratio of over 5:1, and leans heavily on his 93-94 fastball and good slider. Stuff-wise, he seems fairly similar to Jakob Junis, who the M’s battled fiercely last Tuesday. We’ll see if they can bring that same excellent approach tonight.

It’s Daniel Vogelbach’s turn to sit out, with Jay Bruce and Edwin Encarnación filling out the rest of the middle order. Of course, with Mike Leake catching, we also get Tom Murphy behind the plate. Brief former Mariner Mike Freeman, just promoted today, rounds out Cleveland’s lineup. Fun fact: I saw Freeman’s sole big league home run in 2017, and he also singled in the ninth inning. Those were his only two hits as a Mariner that year.

Game Time: 7:10 PDT

TV: ROOTNW, MLB.tv

Radio: 710 ESPN, MLB At Bat