4/5/19: Open Game Thread

After a seemingly interminable wait, baseball is back, baby. Even though it’s breakfast-ish baseball, and it’s at the White Sox, where it feels like the Mariners always perform horribly. Staff writer Zach pointed out that the Mariners are actually .500 against the Sox over the last few years, although from 2012-2014, the Mariners were an astonishingly bad 4-24 against the Sox, and for the last ten years, the Mariners have gone 12-24 against them on the road. Chicago! Slightly hateful! (Related: put roofs on your stadiums, Midwest teams.)

Lineups:

Edwin Encarnacion gets a day off to rest his sore wrist, which means we get a Vogelstart. He will be available to pinch-hit if necessary.

Yusei Kikuchi gets his first road start, and hopefully the team will gift him the win he deserved last outing. I admit to not really knowing what a Reynaldo López is, but that’s why Jake writes the preview series. The Mariners batters seemed able to handle Eovaldi’s velocity okay, so let’s hope that stays consistent. (Oh. I probably should have known what a López is, since this is his fourth season in the bigs, but in my defense, I generally try to immediately suppress all memory of the games played in the Midwest after having to recap a few real clunkers there, including what remains the second-worst game I’ve ever recapped.)

Game time: 11:10 AM PT, because Midwest

How to tune in: 710 ESPN, ROOTNW, MLB.tv if you’re outside either area