9/17: Open Game Thread

National Talk Like a Pirate Day > National Hit Like a Pirate Day

After a strong homestand with back-to-back series wins against teams who are ostensibly better than them, the Mariners head out on their last road trip of the season, starting off things in Pittsburgh. As we noted in the series preview, the Pirates and Mariners have been vying for that sixth draft pick down the stretch, and the outcome of this series could loom large in determining who finishes where.

Lineups!

You couldn’t have combined these for us somewhere guys?

Tonight’s pitching matchup is one I’m keen to see. Mitch Keller has been the Pirates’ top prospect for a while, and was 14th overall on MLB’s Top-100 list last season. He slid into the 20s on this year’s list after being leapfrogged by some other prospects seen as having more than Keller’s mid-rotation starter ceiling. Keller is a strike-thrower whose raw arsenal isn’t overwhelming, but he has shown an ability to miss bats at the MLB level, with a 30% K rate and a 12% swinging strike rate.

On the Mariners side, Kyle Lewis moves up to the cleanup spot while Nola gets the nod over Vogey in the DH-free lineup.

Speaking of KLew, Breaking T has come out with a shirt (that I helped design!) celebrating the young slugger:

This was a real litmus test among our fairly young staff to see what the staying power/cultural impact of 2 Live Crew was. I have the image of that album’s cover art tattooed on my brain because the less Tipper Gore and co. wanted us to see it, the more I somehow saw it everywhere, even in a pre-Internet age.

News!

Game info:

Game time: 4:05 PT

TV: ROOT

Radio: 710 ESPN