Sizzling Mariners get eighth straight win as George Kirby shuts down Orioles

BALTIMORE – By this point of his career, George Kirby has made enough starts and amassed enough evidence that conclusions can start to be drawn.

And one of those conclusions is that the Baltimore Orioles have proved to be rather bothersome to the Mariners right-hander. Each of the last six times Kirby had pitched against the Orioles, the Mariners ended up losing the game.

That’s not entirely on Kirby as the Mariners’ offense has gone missing in many of those six games. Kirby even tossed nine shutout innings against the Orioles two years ago to the day Tuesday and the M’s still ended up losing 1-0 in 10 innings.

Whatever the reason, the Orioles have proved a troublesome team for Kirby to topple.

Perhaps Tuesday night will erase the taste from some of those previous starts against Baltimore. Because Kirby was spectacular on a night he needed to be.

Kirby threw seven shutout innings, Eduard Bazardo and Gabe Speier bridged the eighth and Andrés Muñoz worked through trouble – and a brief break due to dizziness in the Baltimore heat and humidity – in the ninth to give the Mariners a 1-0 win over the Orioles before 19,356 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

“I felt like he was just in control all night long. And we’ve talked about him getting deeper into games, more and more comfortable as he’s gone here,” M’s manager Dan Wilson said. “That was outstanding.”

The M’s won their eighth straight game to kick off their nine-game East Coast swing. The eight consecutive wins is their longest win streak since also winning eight straight in early August 2023.

“We’re just playing good baseball. Vibes are good. We’re all having fun,” Kirby said. “And the more you do that the more you can stack some really good games.”

Kirby was entirely the reason this road trip started off on a winning note. He allowed only three hits – two singles and a hustle double by Gunnar Henderson. He walked none for the first time in his last six starts, the stat that might please Kirby the most. He struck out six.

Kirby was electric in the same way as his 14-strikeout performance against the Angels earlier this season, which coincidentally was the only other time he finished seven innings this season.

And it was Kirby throwing his best stuff. This wasn’t the version that dabbled with the splitter or the change-up. This was Kirby pumping 97 mph sinkers and four-seam fastballs and plenty of sliders off that.

“The (four-seam) and (two-seam) were working really well, up-and-in, up-and-out. Kind of used the curveball and slider to lefties a lot and sending the (four-seam) up-and-in,” Kirby said. “But I just feel like just kept them off balance. Quick outs and a little more efficient this week, which was nice.”

Kirby bookended his start with nearly perfect efficiency. He needed just nine pitches to get through the first inning and when the seventh rolled around, Kirby mowed through the middle of the Orioles order on just five pitches. Henderson and Adley Rutschman both were out on the first and Kirby finished out by pumping three fastballs past Ryan Mountcastle, the last at 97.2 mph, the fourth-fastest pitch of the 87 he threw.

Over his past 12 starts, Kirby has a 2.78 ERA, 79 strikeouts and 16 walks. Opponents are hitting just .195 during that span.

“As we’ve seen with all our guys, leaving it on the field, emptying the tank there in that last inning,” Wilson said. “I thought he looked really, really strong there in the seventh and was just a great outing for him from beginning to end.”

Bazardo allowed a single in the eighth but struck out Dylan Carlson and Speier got Jeremiah Jackson to hit a line drive right at Julio Rodríguez.

Muñoz was tasked with the top of the Baltimore order in the ninth and ran into trouble with two outs. Henderson walked and Rutschman followed with a single after a lengthy mound visit from Wilson and an athletic trainer. Muñoz said he was feeling lightheaded and was given salt tablets that quickly made him feel better.

Mountcastle nearly ended it with a walkoff three-run homer but pulled it foul and eventually grounded out to end it.

“The good thing was, they give me the right stuff to feel better and as soon as I start to be able to breathe a little bit more, because I wasn’t able to breathe too good, and as soon as I started to breathe a little bit more I was like, ‘OK, let’s keep going. I don’t want to delay the game anymore,’” Muñoz said.

The M’s won their fourth 1-0 game this season – all coming after July 4 – and posted their ninth shutout.

The M’s offense was mostly absent on this night putting even more stress on Kirby and the pitching staff to be flawless. Randy Arozarena led off the game with a single on the first pitch from Baltimore’s Dean Kremer, stole second base for his 23rd steal of the season and scored on Josh Naylor’s two-out RBI single.

And that was it. After Rodríguez walked to open the fourth inning, the M’s managed just two base runners over the next five innings against Kremer on singles from Dominic Canzone in the fifth and J.P. Crawford in the eighth.

Kremer retired 12 of the final 14 batters he faced and produced a stark turnaround after he allowed 12 earned runs over his last three starts combined.

“You don’t know, obviously, at that point that that’s going to stand as the only run in the game,” Wilson said. “But it’s a good piece of hitting. It was a situation we were able to get a guy in scoring position, get him in and you win a ballgame that way. Our pitching just was able to make it stand and that’s what is huge tonight.”