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Before we get into considering tonight's game, please allow me a point of personal privilege in celebration of the call-up of former UMBC product, undrafted free agent, and long-time farm system grinder Zach Clark.
Stand up and cheer, UMBC
Forward we go, to another victory
Retrievers, be bold, we back you as we stand
Black and gold, the best in Maryland!
Clark may not even appear in a game before he's optioned back to Norfolk, probably when the rotation spot of failure that has been occupied to date by Jake Arrieta and Zach Britton comes up again. But it's cool that he gets to be there for a few days.
I'm left speechless about these guys sometimes, and getting complete-gamed by Joe Saunders is one of those times. How does that even happen? I do not know. Today, it's Brandon Maurer for the Mariners. He'll probably do one better and throw a perfect game with 27 groundouts to Robert Andino or something.
Actually, Andino isn't in the starting lineup tonight, so none of that. Maurer has never faced anyone on the Orioles at the MLB level, probably because this is his sixth-ever start. He has a 5.61 ERA through the five starts he's made, but he's also working on three consecutive quality starts after getting completely bombed in his first two starts. Maurer is 22.
Chris Dickerson gets a little playing time for the Orioles in right field tonight, making Nick Markakis the DH tonight. Given how the season has gone so far, that means that Markakis will mysteriously be unable to hit tonight. The fart of the order returns: Wieters (batting lefty), Hardy, Flaherty, Dickerson. The goggles, they do nothing.
Jason Hammel gets the start for the Orioles. He's been the model of consistency so far, going at least six innings in all five of his starts. No one in tonight's Mariners lineup has had more than six plate appearances against Hammel. Jason Bay hit a home run off of him once, in 2008. Hammel was a different pitcher then, and Bay a different hitter, as all of us were different people, changed in every moment by the flowing of the river of time, and this is why batter-pitcher matchups are irrelevant. If you get down to it, everything is irrelevant, but that takes a lot of the fun out of blogging and also life to really dwell on that.
Go O's!