George Kirby struggles on the mound as Mariners’ skid hits 4 with loss to Angels
A year ago, the Mariners were six games into their season when they found their first four-game losing streak.
This season, they’ve reached that point in just five games.
On a frigid Monday night at T-Mobile Park, the Mariners got a less-than-stellar start from George Kirby, scored only a handful of runs despite ample opportunities and allowed comeback-killing homer late in the game in a 7-3 loss to the Angels.
After opening the season with a win, Seattle has lost four straight games – all at home – and has looked bad doing so.
Even with all of the success of last season, which included the team’s first postseason appearance in more than two decades, digging yourself into an early hole is less than optimal.
In 2022, the Mariners won their first two games in Minnesota and then lost four straight games on the road – two versus the Twins and two versus the White Sox. They didn’t let that streak get to five games, winning in the series finale vs. the White Sox with a brilliant outing from Logan Gilbert.
Seattle’s best pitcher, Luis Castillo, who started in their only win thus far, will try to put an end to the losing on Tuesday night. It’s what an “ace” does for a team.
Given his talent, power stuff and competitive streak, the Mariners felt confident coming into the series opener against an improved Angels squad that took two of three vs. the A’s in Oakland in the previous series.
But Kirby’s first start didn’t quite go as expected. He struggled to keep Angels hitters off base, giving up more contact than usual and never making it out of the fifth inning.
The hardest of that contact came in the fifth inning. With the scored tied at 2, Kirby issued a leadoff walk to Mike Trout that left Kirby irritated on the mound. He abhors walks but leadoff walks are vastly more enraging.
It brought Shohei Ohtani to the plate. Kirby nearly hit Ohtani with a breaking ball, got a foul ball on a 94 mph to even the count.
A changeup that stayed in the middle of the plate was hammered over the wall in deep right-center for a 4-2 lead. Kirby’s outing ended two batters later with one out in the fifth inning.
It was a disappointing outing for the ultra-talented Kirby.
Still, the Mariners answered the Ohtani homer with a run in the bottom of the fifth on a two-out RBI single from Eugenio Suarez to cut the lead to 4-3.
Their comeback hopes ended in the eighth inning when right-hander Matt Festa allowed a two-run blast to Taylor Ward that put the game out of reach. The Angels tacked on another run off Festa in the ninth.
Seattle had just five hits in the game and yet still managed to be 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position while stranding seven runners on base.
His teammates gave him a 1-0 lead in the first inning against tough lefty starter Reid Detmers. Julio Rodriguez worked a leadoff walk, stole second and scored on Eugenio Suarez’s two-out double into the left field corner.
The Angels answered immediately in the top of the second. Kirby gave up a leadoff double to local product Jake Lamb, who played from the Mariners late last season. Luis Rengifo, a one-time minor leaguer in the Mariners system, tied the game with a soft single to left field.
The duo of Lamb and Rengifo again combined to erase a Mariners lead.
Ty France’s RBI double provided a short-lived 2-1 advantage in the third inning. Lamb led off the fourth inning with a single and later scored on Rengifo’s single through the right side to make it 2-2. The trio of Lamb, Rengifo and Brandon Drury combined to total six of the nine hits off Kirby.