9/7/21: Open Game Thread

Well, yesterday sucked, no real way around that, but the great thing about baseball is that there’s almost always another game the next day. The not-great thing about baseball is you have to play multiple games against a team that might have shellacked you in the first game of the series, which casts a certain pall, and the really not-great thing about baseball, and the AL West schedule this year, is the Mariners not only have to face the Astros again, and we are so so sick of their faces, but also, Jake Odorizzi, who turns into a strikeout machine when facing the Mariners and only the Mariners. Seriously. Odorizzi had 28 strikeouts combined in August and his first September start, and the Mariners accounted for 15 of those. Not great!

Here’s how the teams line up today:

Expectations are low, but it would sure be great if the Mariners didn’t make Literally Jake Odorizzi look like 2020 Shane Bieber. Again.

Even if this game sucks, which it likely will, at least today will be another feedback dump for Logan Gilbert. How will the secondaries look today? Will he continue to integrate his curveball more heavily? Will he be forced to go back to his fastball primarily if the picky picky Astros hitters spit on his slider? What adjustments will he have made since his last time facing the Astros, which was literally six days ago when we had this exact same matchup, fix yourself, MLB scheduling.

Some programming notes: today’s game begins at 5:10 PT on ROOT Sports NW (TV) and 710 ESPN (radio), as well as on MLB TV for those of you out-of-area. Tomorrow, however, beware, as MLB has decided to make that tilt a YouTube game, one of the more cursed phrases in the English language.