SerpApi.Org
I am not sure if the Baseball Gods put their heads together and orchestrated tonight’s matchup and lineups between the Cincinnati Reds and Seattle Mariners, but there sure seem to be some stars aligning in making it happen.
Luis Castillo, former ace and All Star for the Reds, will start against the club that traded him to Seattle back in 2022. Noelvi Marte and Edwin Arroyo – the two headliners that returned to Cincinnati on the other half of that deal – are both in the lineup to face him, with Spencer Steer getting a break after a conveniently timed bean-ball to the ribs last night.
Facing Castillo will be the burgeoning new ace of the Reds in Chase Burns, who’s doing everything he can to show the world he’s the next great right-handed fireballer on the club. Burns is fresh off signing a $105 million contract extension with the Reds that (service time qualifiers and time value of money aside) looks akin to the $108 million outlay Castillo scored from Seattle after the Reds found themselves unwilling to commit to that era of slightly more than mediocre baseball from their team’s recent history.
There’s a lot of overlapping history between these two clubs, including each’s own foibles when it comes to actually making pushes deep into the playoffs in the era of cable television. Shit, we’ve already passed the era of cable television into the streaming age, and both are still in search of any sort of relevance in terms of pennants and banners with their current situations still very much not there yet.
The Mariners, of course, are still in a much, much better spot than the Reds, who just gave them last night’s game in epic-fail fashion and are sure sellers at the trade deadline in two weeks. So, I can’t even point to Burns tonight and claim he can help save the season anymore since this season is as dead as Jimmy Hoffa.
Anyway, first pitch is set for 9:40 PM ET if you’re willing to stay up for that. Here’s how both clubs will line up to begin things:
