Orioles light up Kirby as Mariners lose series opener 9-2
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – The beginning of this homestand was not at all what the Seattle Mariners wanted. The Orioles piled on seven runs in the first four innings, and never looked back. The fifth and sixth innings saw Seattle add a pair, but it would not be anywhere near enough. Following their five wins in six game road trip and the brawl on Sunday, the Mariners dropped a dud to begin their homestand. Following their successful road trip that saw them lose one game of six, Seattle starts a seven game homestand the wrong way and are looking at losing several key contributors due to suspensions from Sunday’s brawl.
Jessie Winker received loud applause every time he stepped to the plate, due to his involvement in Sunday’s brawl (Photo Fred Byrdwell)
Kirby’s Kryptonite
Mariners starter George Kirby, making his tenth start in his young career, got hammered by Baltimore. The Orioles, who have the second most extra base hits in June in the American league, got after Kirby early. While the first two runs were scored on plays that should have been made on the Seattle defense, Kirby would give up four home runs after that. The young starter has certainly had his ups and downs, but when you call a player up directly from AA, there will be snags. You cannot expect to throw a player that has not started at all in AAA to the pro level and think he can perform consistently from day one. The same happened with Matt Brash to begin the season, pros and cons.
Kirby never faced the minimum. He gave up nine hits, four homers, and seven runs. Granted, the Orioles have been on a solid run in the month of June. Baltimore sits at second in the American league in extra base hits this month, and are 7-3 in their last ten games. The Orioles have struggled for years, and this win gave them their first winning month since August of 2017. This Baltimore ball club has some offense to them, and they showed that at the expense of Kirby tonight.
George Kirby had a tough game for Seattle (Photo Fred Byrdwell)
Too little, but not necessarily too late
Seattle’s offense from the majority of the road trip did not travel back with them to Seattle. In four of their six games, the Mariners had scored four or more runs. Seattle was only able to plate half of that, with a run each in the fifth and sixth innings. Cal Raleigh launched a solo blast in the bottom of the fifth, but the Mariners streak of winning games when Raleigh homers would end. In the bottom of the sixth, Eugenio Suarez doubled to left field, scoring Julio Rodriguez from second.
That is all the Mariners could put together. In somewhat of a positive note, in today’s game the Mariners only stranded four runners on base. A hitch to this was that the Orioles had a perfect game going through five innings, until Cal Raleigh’s homer. Surprisingly enough, the Mariners pitching getting blown out of the game early hid the minimal offensive output.
Cal Raleigh blasted a solo homer in the bottom of the fifth (Photo Fred Byrdwell)
Quick notes
The Mariners winning streak when Cal Raleigh hits a home run would end at nine games.
Heading into this game, the Mariners had the longest streak of games allowing three or fewer earned runs in 2022 from starting pitchers in baseball, with 24. That streak obviously ended tonight.
The Mariners batters have been hit by pitches the third highest amount in all of baseball, now at 46 times. Funny enough, the team that is second in baseball is: Baltimore.
The Mariners have hit the fewest batters with their pitchers, ranked tied for fourth fewest in all of baseball.
The team traded for 1B/DH Carlos Santana prior to the game, and he is supposed to join the team the night of the game, or perhaps tomorrow.
The Mariners will look for a bounce back in game two of the series. They face the Orioles tomorrow, June 28th with another 7:10PM PST first pitch. Robbie Ray will be on the mound for Seattle, while Dean Kremer takes the mound for Baltimore.