5/1/21: Open Game Thread

Feels like April just flew by. Despite anemic hitting and several injuries to key players, the Mariners managed to finish the first month of the year with both a winning record and a positive run differential. I would not have guessed that when James Paxton went down. Tonight we hope that they can start a second straight month off on the right foot.

Mariners PR

Ljay Newsome gets his first start of the year, taking the injured Nick Margevicius’s spot in the rotation. Ljay impressed in his last outing, throwing four scoreless innings to finish out the game against the Red Sox on the 25th, and had some extra life on his fastball. I’m curious to see whether that will hold up tonight, and how he’ll deploy his changeup against a righty-heavy lineup. I can’t imagine he’ll go much longer than five innings or so, and depending on how tonight goes, we could see the big league debut of one Wyatt Mills, who was brought up earlier today. Jacob Nottingham, we hardly knew ye.

The Angels are running the same lineup they did last night, the only substitution being Max Stassi for Kurt Suzuki. Griffin Canning’s coming off a shellacking by the Astros his last time out, allowing six runs and two homers in just 2.2 innings pitched. It’s been a rough start to 2021 for him - going into tonight, he’s put up a FIP of just over 7, with six home runs allowed over fifteen innings. Don’t be too surprised if we see some balls leave the yard just like last night.

Game Time: 7:10pm PDT

TV: ROOT Sports NW, MLB.tv

Radio: 710 ESPN Seattle, MLB At Bat