2022 Game Eight-Four: Mariners 8, Blue Jays 3

 

we needed more like this

Though I welcome all instances of "the opener," as it manifests strategies previously known only to the cloistered realms of simulation baseball (Baseball Mogul, Out of the Park, etc) into the primary world of our experience, it would be hard to characterize Thursday night's pairing of the recently-waivered Anthony Banda (the opener) and the recently-recalled Casey Lawrence (the bulk guy) as anything other than a low-key seven-run disaster ("low-key" in the sense that it is a baseball game, which mitigates the risk of true disaster significantly). The worst part, aside from all the runs, is that Banda and Lawrence combined for only three innings, leaving five for Romo, Richards, and above all young Max Castillo, who has actually looked pretty promising, if you set aside how the first two batters he faced in the Major Leagues both hit home runs (it was the Yankees; it was a dark time). Roughly a zillion Blue Jays fans in the stands at the lovely Seattle ballpark, which I still think of as "the new one," but which even the most cursory internet searching reveals to have opened in 1999. They were pretty stoked! Despite it all! 

KS