Mariners notes: George Kirby brilliant in big league debut as Seattle snaps losing streak
When Mariners starter George Kirby walked back to the dugout after an electric first inning Sunday afternoon, fans at T-Mobile Park were on their feet.
For good reason.
Kirby, the club’s top pitching prospect, struck out the first batter he faced in his big league debut against the reigning American League East champion Rays.
Then, after allowing a quick base hit, he answered with back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning, returning to the dugout as cheers echoed across the ballpark.
That energy never let up.
Kirby was brilliant in his debut on a chilly, but sunny afternoon in Seattle, completing six scoreless innings, and allowing four hits while striking out seven on 81 pitches.
“It’s great,” Kirby said of what he showcased during his first appearance. “For myself, and then just the guys believing in me, too, to go out there and do my job on the mound — I’m just happy.”
Even when the 24-year-old right-hander’s day was complete, a “George Kirby” chant broke out from a group of fans behind home plate.
Kirby’s parents and sisters, as well as more family and friends, were in attendance to share in the moment.
That group included a cheering section of about 15-20 friends from his playing days at Rye High School in New York and Elon University in North Carolina.
“They made a promise to me, they said, ‘The day you get called up, we’re going to be there,’ and they kept their promise,” Kirby said. “It was pretty awesome.”
“Those guys — his buddies — were up there making some noise, which is great,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “That’s exactly the way it should be, to have those people that have meant so much to him and his career and his life here and enjoy it with him — it was awesome.”
Kirby’s friends and family were joined by the rest of the 32,501 in attendance in cheering the rookie on.
The celebration continued on, too, when the Mariners closed out a 2-1 win in their series finale against the Rays on Ty France’s walk-off single in the 10th, snapping their six-game losing streak.
“It was just great to see all the fans out there,” Kirby said of the atmosphere in the ballpark. “Look up, and just a beautiful day, and couldn’t ask for a better outcome.”
It all started with his stellar arrival to baseball’s biggest stage.
Kirby was a first-round pick by the Mariners from Elon in 2019, and has quickly climbed the club’s minor league ranks in the years since.
He made nine appearances (eight starts) with Short-A Everett that summer, posting a solid 2.35 ERA.
When the minor league season was cancelled in 2020, Kirby trained alongside many of the club’s top prospects in Tacoma.
Last season, he opened with the AquaSox again (Everett is now the system’s High-A team), and went 4-2 with a 2.38 ERA in nine starts, and was promoted to Double-A Arkansas in August. There, he was 2-0 with a 1.82 ERA in five starts to end the summer.
He competed for the fifth spot in the rotation this spring before making five starts with the Double-A club, posting a 2-0 record and 1.82 ERA, striking out 32 while walking five.
Kirby — considered the No. 11 prospect in baseball by Baseball America and No. 30 by MLB Pipeline — was called up ahead of his start Sunday following two seasons of success in the minors, in which he struck out 137 batters while walking only 20 across 29 games (28 starts).
His first outing provided an captivating glimpse of what Kirby’s future could look like as a member of this Mariners rotation.
“For him to go out as calm and collected as it looked to everybody watching it, that’s how it felt being around him,” Servais said. “He just went out there and threw strikes.
“That’s what George Kirby does.”
That Kirby was able to work through a talented Rays lineup twice — and face each of their top three batters three times — without much threat is even more impressive.
“Obviously the nerves were flying,” he said. “It’s hard not to recognize them. But, I just stuck to what I’m used to.”
Striking out Lowe with an inside slider to begin his first major league start was only the beginning.
Former Rays top prospect Wander Franco collected an opposite-field base hit the next at-bat, but Kirby answered by getting reigning AL Rookie of the Year Randy Arozarena to chase a fastball, and Ji-Man Choi a sinker to end the inning.
Kirby worked around a leadoff base hit in the second, eventually striking out Brett Phillips to end the frame.
That started a string of eight consecutive retired batters for Kirby, who added 1-2-3 innings in both the third and fourth before Manuel Margot hit a one-out single in the fifth.
Margot later stole second after Kirby struck out Phillips for the second time — Margot was the first and only runner Kirby allowed to reach scoring position — and he responded by striking out Taylor Walls on the next pitch to retire the side.
Kirby got a pair of quick outs on fly balls in his final inning in the sixth, and after allowing a base hit to Arozarena, ended his outing by catching Arozarena in the base path on a 1-3-6 play.
“Really excited for him, and having him part of our rotation going forward,” Servais said.
LOSING STREAK SNAPPED
Sunday’s energizing walk-off win ended what was the Mariners’ longest losing streak of the season at six games.
Seattle had lost 10 of its past 11 — the club’s first such stretch since another early-season drought in April during the 2014 season — entering the day.
“We can definitely catch our breath now,” France said postgame Sunday. “It’s been a rough week. The pitchers have been throwing the ball well, the offense hasn’t been there, so hopefully this will help spark us a little bit.”
The Mariners’ bullpen added three scoreless innings behind Kirby from Andres Munoz, Drew Steckenrider and Paul Sewald.
The only run the Rays scored was on Margot’s solo home run to the Mariners’ bullpen off Erik Swanson in the eighth to take a 1-0 lead.
Seattle tied the game in the ninth on Abraham Toro’s one-out solo home run. Sewald then stranded a pair of Tampa Bay runners on base in the 10th.
France singled home Jarred Kelenic for the winning run not long after, lifting the Mariners to a win on Kirby’s debut day.
“We’re so good at committing to just dominating the strike zone, and we got back to it today,” Servais said. “I thought our pitching was tremendous today, on a day that we really needed it.
“So, heck of an outing by George. Really a shot in the arm. It’s exactly what we needed.”
INJURY UPDATES
▪ Shortstop J.P. Crawford is considered “day-to-day” after making an early exit from Saturday night’s game with back spasms, Servais updated pregame Sunday. He did not play in Sunday’s series finale against the Rays.
▪ Catcher Tom Murphy (dislocated left shoulder) was placed on the 10-day IL on Saturday.
▪ Reliever Matt Festa (right elbow tendinitis) was placed on the 15-day injured list Thursday, while reliever Ken Giles (right middle finger sprain) was transferred to the 60-day IL on Sunday.
▪ Outfielder Kyle Lewis — who had been out since last May with a knee injury — started a rehab assignment with Triple-A Tacoma on Tuesday and is hitting 6-for-17 (.353) with five runs scored, a double, two home runs, six RBI, one walk and one strikeout through four games. Lewis has appeared three times as Tacoma’s designated hitter and once in left field.
SHORT HOPS
▪ The weekend’s four-game series against the Rays included a return to Seattle for former Mariners catcher Mike Zunino.
Zunino — a first-round draft pick by the Mariners in 2012, who played for Seattle for six seasons before he was traded to Tampa Bay following the 2018 season — caught two games during the four-game series.
He went 1-for-6 with a three-run home run that lifted the Rays to a win Friday, two walks and two strikeouts in his first trip to T-Mobile Park this season.
▪ Mariners rookie outfielder Julio Rodriguez added to his major league-leading stolen base total Sunday afternoon, swiping his 10th bag of the season in the first inning against the Rays after drawing a two-out walk.
Rodriguez is 10-for-11 in stolen base attempts this season through 28 games played.
ON DECK
The Mariners (14-16) wrap up their homestand with a three-game series against the Phillies (12-16) beginning Monday.
They then leave for a 10-game road trip beginning Friday, and will play three-game series against the Mets and Blue Jays, and a four-game set against the Red Sox before returning home May 23.
