8/26/19: Open Game Thread

Fresh on the heels of the Blue Jays invasion come the thunderous steps of fans wearing judge’s robes and powdered wigs who believe that watching Michael Conforto at OSU gives them a lifetime pass to Yankee fandom. As annoying as the Blue Jays series is, when they seemingly leave their famous Canadian manners at the border crossing, I confess to being more annoyed by the Yankees/Red Sox fans who flood the ballpark, because I’m 99% sure the majority of the people turning up at the ballpark in pinstripes and Dirty Water tees have never crossed the Continental Divide (and if they have, they’re soulless transplants to our city, and screw ‘em). Also, does it feel like the Yankees are always visiting in September or late in the season? Is this an actual thing or recency bias? Once I ran a half-marathon that ended, cruelly, with a giant hill, and I’m not sure how the race organizers avoided jail time. That’s sort of the feeling of having to face the Yankees at the end of a long season. To quote from the series preview: “I am sure this comes as a huge shock to you all but the Yankees are better than the Mariners at literally everything.” Hello, big hill.

Matt Wisler will open, and then Tommy Milone will be tasked with keeping the Bronx Bombers from embarrassing the Mariners too badly. I hope the Yankees are bad at hitting changeups.

[INSERT LINEUP HERE ONCE THE STUPID YANKEES POST THEIRS]

Hey! Mike Ford! We know him! Also, Aaron Judge is today’s MLB Twitter Hitter, which means all his at-bats are streamed live on Twitter. Judge is sitting on 99 HR, so there will be plenty of eyes on him as he attempts to cross the century mark in this series.

Today’s game info:

Unlike yesterday, today’s isn’t a free game on MLB TV, and it’s also not a YouTube game, which is a bummer because apparently folks have been enjoying those. The mic’d up ump was especially enjoyable following Francisco Cervelli’s bizarre slide in today’s game:

But today’s game is on ESPN, because Yankees, and Ken Griffey Jr. will be on the broadcast for the entire game, so there is that. It’s also on ROOT, with pregame starting at 6:30, and MLB TV if you’re out of area.

Oh! In case you missed it, Cory Gearrin is a Yankee now. So there’s a chance we might see Cory Gearrin in pinstripes during this series. I’m just telling you this so you can ready your mind for the image.