8/2/19: Open Game Thread

After a brief and delightful respite against the spiraling Rangers, who are living the Mariners’ 2018 season, the Mariners are in for a cold dose of reality this weekend against a team that spent the trade deadline adding a few more gun towers and flaming guitar players to the rig they’ll be driving through the desert to the playoffs.

Photo by John Appleyard/Newspix/Getty Images

There are no crisp lineup graphics at the time of this writing, for which I apologize, so you’ll have to suffer through this handwritten business:

Wade Miley draws the start against the Mariners to open the series, and has a nice 69% chance of winning the game, which is a joke Wade Miley would not laugh at, because Wade Miley does not believe in the internet, and thinks that a computer is a box full of ghosts only suitable for playing Minesweeper.

Tonight’s game starts at 5:10 PM PT, and is available on ROOT/710 ESPN. It’s also MLB.TV’s Free Game of the Day, because I guess someone had to be.

The Mariners will send their best little soldiers out to do their best against the MechaAstros.

Kikuchi will again be caught by his buddy Tom Murphy, which has generally produced more positive results than Omar Narváez catching him, but this shapes up to be a tough row to hoe nonetheless. Perhaps we’ll get to see some bullpen debuts tonight from Zac Grotz, at one point released by two different organizations (obligatory lolmets) or Reggie McClain, who just earlier this season was joking he’d get his number retired in Modesto. No Chase DeJong flashbacks, please.

On a personal note: Of all the acquisitions the Astros made, I am personally most crushed about Joe Biagini, a child-like free spirit I have argued we should protect at all costs. It will certainly hurt to see a souped-up Biagini deal damage on the regular against my team. I just hope the glare of the spotlight in Houston, as opposed to the softer-focus lens up north, doesn’t prove too harsh for the soft-spoken jokester. And that his new teammates are nice to him and don’t bully him. Looking at YOU, Gerrit Cole.