8/7/20: Open Game Thread

this is not a coors-friendly game thread

For the first time in nearly five years, the Rockies are headed to Seattle. Interleague! Not as fun as years past - what with the universal DH and the pandemic and all - but interleague nonetheless!

After a dominant outing in which he generated twenty (2-0!) swinging strikes against the A’s, Yusei Kikuchi looks to keep rolling. His bump in velocity and increased deployment of his cutter worked wonderfully last week, and against a righty-heavy lineup, look to see plenty of cutters boring in on the Rockies’ hands. J.P. Crawford gets his first day off of the season, and Dylan Moore is again at the two-spot, this time covering first base for a mightily struggling Evan White. With a tough customer in Germán Marquez going for Colorado on Sunday and righty Ryan Castellani making big big league debut on the mound tomorrow, it wouldn’t surprise me to see White spend the series out of the starting lineup to clear his head a bit.

The Rockies have been off to a hot start, and while much of that can be attributed to the usual suspects of Trevor Story, Charlie Blackmon, and Nolan Arenado, Matt Kemp (!) has quietly been very productive, running a cool 155 wRC+ heading into tonight’s game. Even though they aren’t in Coors, this is still a potent offensive lineup. Antonio Senzatela is coming off a rough 2019 in which he put up a 5.44 FIP over 124.2 innings, but he’s been off to a nice start in 2020 thanks to some fly ball luck (0.0% HR/FB despite a twenty point drop in ground ball rate so far) and a strand rate that has jumped sixteen points from last year. He doesn’t get many whiffs, but can induce a healthy amount of grounders when he’s on. Here’s to elevating and celebrating!

Game Time: 6:40 PDT

TV: ROOT Sports Northwest, MLB.tv

Radio: 710 ESPN, MLB At Bat