George Kirby shows why he’s an All-Star, pitching Mariners past Astros
HOUSTON — The last time George Kirby faced the Houston Astros, he walked off the mound after tossing seven brilliant innings, holding the potent Astros lineup scoreless and leaving them shaking their heads in frustration. He was rewarded with a raucous standing ovation from more than 47,000 people at T-Mobile Park.
The date was Oct. 15 of last season, and it was Game 3 of the American League Division Series. As a wunderkind rookie, Kirby’s first career postseason start gave his team and city hope for at least one more game in the magical playoff run.
Of course, the game would feature another 11 innings of baseball — 10 more without a run scored and an eventual heartbreaking loss.
On Thursday, Kirby finally faced the Mariners’ AL West rivals for the first time this season. He delivered a start similar to that postseason performance, and unlike that playoff outing, his teammates gave him an actual run of support. Four to be exact.
With Eugenio Suarez hitting a pair of homers and J.P. Crawford also going deep, Kirby stymied the Astros for six innings, finally giving up a run with two outs in the seventh, much to his displeasure, and the Mariners cruised to a decisive 5-1 victory.
“That’s the perfect recipe for a win when you get in at 5 a.m. in the morning,” manager Scott Servais said.
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Kirby wasn’t part of the early morning arrival from San Francisco. With the Mariners playing a night game in the Bay Area on Wednesday, the Mariners had him fly out that morning, so he could get a normal night of rest.
“George was not the sharpest we’ve seen him,” Servais said. “He came out with pretty good stuff. He got a little tired inn the end, but again an awesome outing by him.”
Named to the All-Star team on Wednesday, Kirby offered another reminder to Astros manager Dusty Baker, who will manage the American League All-Star team and choose the starting pitcher, of his outstanding command and relentless nature. Admittedly, it was a little different with Jose Altuve and Yordan Alvarez injured and not playing.
“I was glad Yordan and Altuve weren’t in the lineup,” he said. “I just tried to stay in on them and make them uncomfortable, and I used the slider more from the third inning on.”
It was Kirby’s 14th quality start of the season, which is the most in the American League and tied with Marcos Stroman of the Cubs for the most in MLB. He improved to 8-7, lowering his ERA to 3.09.
With the Astros looking to hit his fastball, Kirby turned to his slider and got a lot of weak contact. He had three six-pitch innings.
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“Strikeouts are cool, but three- or four-pitch innings and double plays are awesome too,” he said. “So I’m just gonna keep pitching to contact, get inside on guys and use my sinker to make them uncomfortable.”
Of course, Kirby wasn’t happy about giving up a run in the seventh with two outs. He allowed a leadoff single to Yainer Diaz. It appeared like he might get out of the inning unscathed after retiring Chas McCormick and Jeremy Pena. But Corey Julks, who had two hits already, doubled into the left-field corner to score Diaz.
With Kirby at 94 pitches, Servais went to Matt Brash to finish the inning. Kirby was less than enthused about being removed from the game. He stalked off the mound to the dugout and into the clubhouse.
How much did he want to finish that inning?
“Really bad,” he said before asking how many pitches he’d thrown.
When he was told 94 pitches, he paused and gave it some thought.
“I wanted it really bad,” he said. “But it’s no biggie. Brash came in and did his job.”
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The Mariners offense did its job against Ronel Blanco, who was given the start with Framber Valdez pushed back to Saturday.
With one out and Jarred Kelenic on first base, Suarez reached double figures in homers this season, sending a blast into the Crawford Boxes in left field for a 2-0 lead.
It was Suarez’s 86th game this season. A year ago, he hit his 10th homer on June 3 in his 51st game of the season.
In the third inning, Crawford led off with a solo blast to right field for his eighth homer of the season.
The Mariners tacked on another run in the seventh inning. In Suarez’s 5,000th career plate appearance, he looped a double into right field and scored on Cal Raleigh’s single down the first-base line.
So what does 5,000 plate appearances mean to him?
“He’s old,” said Teoscar Hernandez.
Suarez didn’t disagree.
“It’s a lot, and for me it’s a pleasure,” he said. “I stay in the game. I play the game. I’ll do what I like to do — play the most games I can. Every year, that’s my goal to stay in the game and play the most games I can.”
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In the eighth, Suarez unleashed a mammoth blast to deep left-center that hit off the Phillips 66 gas pump in the second level. Statcast measured the blast at 420 feet.
“Home runs work and we saw it tonight,” Servais said. “Geno had a big night. You know we were talking about it the other day about guys we are looking at to have a big second half. My pick to click was Geno. I’m gonna give myself credit on that one. He’s had a lot of bad luck. This year he probably should have six or seven more homers, but he swung the bat great tonight.”
The big night felt good for Suarez because his wife and two daughters were sitting right behind the dugout. They stay in Miami during the season, so he doesn’t get to see them every day and they don’t get to see him play in person as often as he’d like.
“It was a very special moment,” he said. “I hit those homers and I got to see them right there for cheering for me.”
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Source: The Seattle Times
