Kirby, Seattle offense can't find rhythm in loss to Giants

SEATTLE -- The Mariners had an army of baserunners throughout Saturday afternoon’s matinee vs. the Giants, but as has been a constant theme with their offense all season, they left most of them stranded.

A 4-3 loss to the Giants was theirs for the taking, after drawing nine walks -- including six from Seattle-area native Blake Snell in what was easily his most uneven start amid a late-summer resurgence. But the Mariners were only able to cash in three runs, as they left nine of their 12 stranded and went 4-for-31 with 12 strikeouts at the plate.

That left George Kirby -- who, like Snell, battled command and pitch-count challenges for most of the day -- with little wiggle room to work with, which became more compounded when operating with diminished velocity.

“I could feel it from the first pitch,” Kirby said. “I'm not looking at that, but I just know that when I'm down a little bit, I’ve got to work harder and execute. And I just didn't do that.”

Kirby’s four-seamer was down 0.8 mph from his season average and his two-seamer was down 1.3 mph. Each has sat at 96 mph all season. His slider, splitter and curve were down, too, which correlated to more contact and just five whiffs among the 48 swings he generated.

The Giants didn’t exactly tee off on him -- only four of their 20 balls in play were hard-hit (anything 95 mph or greater), and none left the yard -- but they consistently found open space, for nine hits in 25 batters faced.

“I didn't throw strikes,” Kirby said. “I didn't get ahead. So anyone is going to do that against me if I'm not getting ahead.”

Kirby said that his issues weren’t fatigue-related, as he reached 155 1/3 innings for the season, ninth-most in the Majors, and he learned the rigors of pitching down the stretch last year when reaching 190 2/3. His first real test, which he passed with flying colors, was in 2022, when his workload was a well-chronicled conversation as a rookie.

But he said that his latest issue has been ongoing for most of August, which would include the 11-run outing in Detroit on Aug. 13 (though only six of those were earned due to multiple defensive hiccups behind him).

“I don't want to change a whole lot,” Kirby said of his in-between-starts routine. “Like, it's the smallest thing that has to happen. So I'm not trying to find something drastic during the week, because I've dealt with this the last three starts. I haven't really located that well, so I’ve just got to bear down and just figure it out.”

Kirby’s next scheduled start will come after Thursday’s off-day, when the Mariners open a three-game series in Anaheim on Friday, giving him an extra day’s rest.

As for Seattle’s offense, the Mariners’ run-scoring moments came in a pair of bases-loaded sequences, in the second and seventh innings, but they also left them loaded with the chance to add on. Snell, who didn’t surrender a hit, walked a season-high six and needed 74 pitches to clear the third inning, after which he was replaced, but the San Francisco bullpen allowed just one run in six innings..

The Seattle-area native entered the day with a 1.03 ERA over eight starts since returning from the injured list on July 9, easily MLB’s best in that stretch among 111 pitchers with at least 30 innings.

“Any time you've got a guy like Snell and a bullpen like these guys [have], you've got to take advantage of your opportunities,” manager Dan Wilson said. “And we did -- to some degree.”

So, on a day where the Astros lost in Baltimore, Seattle was unable to gain ground in the American League West race, essentially keeping the club in a standstill as the schedule trims another day and down to 32 games.