9/28/21: Open Scoreboard Watching/Game Thread

I mean, WOW. How could the Mariners possibly top the 13-4 beatdown they just laid on Oakland last night? Maybe another baker’s dozen of runs is a little much to ask for, but as long as they get enough to win, we should all be satisfied.

I have to say, the more I thought about starting Tyler Anderson on short rest, the more I liked it. Anderson will probably be good for around forty pitches or one time through Oakland’s righty-leaning lineup, with freshly-recalled Matt Brash likely next in line. After that, who knows! Paul Sewald, Drew Steckenrider, Diego Castillo, and Casey Sadler (he of the eight-pitch outing last night) should all be fresh and ready to be deployed as necessary. Chris Bassitt is making his second start since being struck in the head by a line drive, although this time around, I doubt he’ll be on much of a pitch count.

As a quick aside, if any of you are planning on heading to the game tonight, come to the Pen pregame! I - as well as a few other LL staffers, commenters, and M’s Twitter folks - will be there, and it would be lovely to meet you all and put faces to the usernames. I’m aiming to be there by around 5:45; hope to see you there!

Game Time: 7:10pm PDT

TV: ROOT Sports NW, MLB.tv

Radio: 710 ESPN Seattle, MLB At Bat

That all won’t be for another few hours, though! For now, some direly important games across the country are just about to get underway. In the Bronx, Jameson Taillon and the Yankees are squaring off against Hyun-jin Ryu’s Blue Jays, and while I think the hope here is that Toronto takes two of three, I’m more than willing to be convinced otherwise.

Further south in Baltimore, Chris Sale and the Red Sox are gearing up against Bruce Zimmermann and the 106-loss Orioles. This one is easy - with the ten-year anniversary of the O’s knocking Boston out of playoff contention coming up, all of us in Marinerland should call on the spirit of Robert Andino to make some magic happen.

If you are currently embroiled in the pipe dream of taking the division (which is amazingly still possible!), the Astros and Rays will get started in Houston in about an hour. It’ll be José Urquidy going against Michael Wacha, and here’s hoping Wander Franco and Nelson Cruz - back-to-back in the lineup with an age gap of over twenty years - can lead the charge to a Rays victory.