Pirates make Mariners walk the plank in 11-6 loss to open series
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – In a battle of the maritime teams, the Seattle Mariners were sent out to Sea in a blowout loss against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Mariners starting pitcher George Kirby struggled in his outing, as things went downhill immediately as Andrew McCutcheon hit a leadoff homer just two pitches into the game. While Seattle star Julio Rodriguez hit a solo-shot to answer back and the game seemed to stay on the side of the Mariners from there, Kirby failed to get out of the inning and ended his night having given up seven runs on the night. It’s an ugly loss to stomach for Seattle, who was coming off a satisfying four-game sweep of the Athletics, but it’s largely inflated but the five-run fifth inning by Pittsburgh.
“They came out swinging it. They were on George and, you know, just got some balls up on the middle of the plate. They certainly have power within their lineup, and they took advantage of it tonight. They just swung the bat. Hit seven home runs against us, with the warm weather the ball is carrying better. We left too many balls up to a team hits the high fastball. That’s probably the story for tonight’s game. I think offensively we did some things early against Keller. You know, the game got away from us a little bit after that.”
Seattle Mariners starter George Kirby struggled heavily in this game, tying his worst outing of his career (Photos by Bryan Saldana)
Kirby finds rough tides
Following the last two outings from young starters Bryce Miller and Logan Gilbert, Seattle had George Kirby on the mound looking to continue their stretch of good pitching. Kirby has been excellent to begin the year, fighting his way into some All-Star level consideration, but tonight matched the worst outing of his young career. Pittsburgh was able to jump all over Kirby and his attack the zone approach, hitting four homers against him and racking up nine hits in total. The Pirates, who had scored the lowest amount of runs in all of baseball to this point in the month of May, found their groove and ran with it in the big fifth inning to take a lead and really pull away from Seattle. Pittsburgh was able to chase the second-year starter out of the game in the fifth inning, forcing him to throw 92 pitches before his day was done. It’s a tough bounce for Kirby, considering how crucial attacking the zone is to his approach, but he should be just fine going forward.
“You have to. yeah. He’s been so good. He just has not gotten banged around like that. He is the epitome of precision command. He’s always on the edges and locating the ball where he wants to get it, and executing in big spots. He just wasn’t able to do it tonight. You got to give credit to their guys, they put good swings on the ball. Suwinsky was on it. They had good at bats, they really did. We don’t see this team a lot. We saw tonight, we need to make an adjustment here for the rest of the series, which we’re very capable of doing.”
Seattle Mariners center fielder Julio Rodriguez had a big game, but it wouldn’t end up being enough (Photos by Bryan Saldana)
Some solid offense, but it isn’t enough to get over
In many of the Mariners losses, it’s been a case of the bats not being able to step up to the plate (literally) for Seattle to keep up with their starting pitching. It wasn’t the case tonight, as putting up six-runs in any game should be enough to give your team a winning chance. Julio Rodriguez answered the McCutcheon homer with one of his own, an opposite field blast to tie things up with two outs. Following a Cal Raleigh double, Taylor Trammell got his team the lead with a single into center field that bounced off Pittsburgh’s Jack Suwinski, allowing Cal to score from second. Seattle was able to somewhat answer the Pirates big fifth inning, as Julio Rodriguez hit a two-run single with the bases loaded to claw back slightly, but Pittsburgh continued to slowly add throughout the game. A two-run blast by JP Crawford cut into the Pirates lead again, but their opposition continued to tack runs on and a solid offensive night was wasted.
Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh and shortstop JP Crawford provided strong offense for the team as well, with Raleigh hitting two doubles and Crawford slamming a towering homer (Photos by Bryan Saldana)
Quick notes
The Mariners fell to the Pirates 11-6 to open the 3-game series. Their record remains over .500 at 26-25.
Julio Rodríguez went 2-for-4 with 1 home run and 3 RBI.
Tonight marks the 8th time in his career and 3rd time this season Rodríguez has had a 3+ RBI night (last: 5/12/23 @ DET).
His home in the 1st inning run gave the Mariners their first run of the night. It was his 5th home run at T-Mobile Park this season and first home run since 5/12/23 @ DET.
After his home run, Rodríguez has now hit safely in the last 5 consecutive games (5/22-c). During that span he is batting .476 (10x21) with 3 doubles, 3 RBI, 1 home run and 1 hit by pitch.
J.P. Crawford went 2-for-5 with 1 home run, 2 runs and 2 RBI in tonight’s game.
Tonight’s 393-foot home run was the longest home run Crawford has hit at T-Mobile Park this season.
Cal Raleigh went 2-for-3 with 2 doubles, 1 walk and 1 run.
Tonight was Raleigh’s 1st multi-double game of the 2023 season. He has had 4 other games with 2-or-more doubles in his career, most recently on 8/21/22 @ OAK.
Taylor Trammell picked up a single and an RBI on the night.
He has reached base safely in 4 out of his last 5 starts and driven in 5 runs during that span.
Ty France was hit by a pitch in the 5th inning. He has 9 HBP on the year so far, tied for 2nd most in the Majors (also: Andrés Giménez-CLE) trailing only Esteury Ruiz of the A’s with 11.
In his 10th of the year, George Kirby 4.2 innings, 9 hits, 7 runs (7ER), 1 walk, 4 strikeouts, 4 home runs, 1 wild pitch.
Kirby has allowed no more than 1 walk in each of his starts this season. He is the only starting pitcher in the Majors this year with a 10-game streak of starts allowing 1-or-fewer walks.
He is only the 3rd starting pitcher in franchise history to begin the season with 6 or fewer walks in their first 10 starts. Kirby joins only Marco Gonzales (7/24/20-9/21/20) and Cliff Lee (4/20/10-6/18/10).
In the 2023 season, Kirby is the only the only starter in the Major Leagues to allow 6-or-fewer walks in their first 10 starts.
Entering tonight, Kirby held the longest streak of quality starts in all the Majors this season with 8, dating back to 4/9/23.
Kirby allowed 4 home runs in tonight’s game, tying a career high (also: 6/27/22 vs. BAL). Entering tonight’s matchup, he had allowed no more than 1 home run in any of his past starts this season.
The Mariners pitching staff allowed 7 home runs. It was the 2nd most home runs by a visiting team at T-Mobile Park.
What’s next?
Following tonight’s five-run loss, the Mariners will look to bounce back in the second game of the series, the first of two-day games to round out this three-game set against the Pirates. First pitch for game two on Saturday, May 27th will take place at 1:10PM PST as the Mariners will have ace Luis Castillo on the mound to face off against Vince Velasquez of the Pirates. The first 20,000 fans into the ballpark tomorrow will receive a JP Crawford Funko pop.