Mariners fall to Padres, miss opportunity to gain on Astros in AL West race
George Kirby stood board stiff on the mound, staring at the center-field wall with a mixture of disgust and disbelief.
This is how his outing would end?
The 97-mph fastball that he’d tried to blow past Manny Machado had just been turned into a laser beam to dead center for a two-run homer, ending Kirby’s night.
He’d just thrown Machado three straight sliders before that pitch, getting lunging swings on the last two for foul balls. The fastball up in the zone was supposed to rip past him for a swinging strike three or perhaps a flyout.
Instead, it turned the Mariners’ workable one-run deficit and the somewhat realistic hope of a comeback victory into an impossible ordeal to overcome, even in the sixth inning.
When Kirby handed the ball off to manager Dan Wilson and trudged off the mound in frustration, it was difficult for anyone at T-Mobile Park on Tuesday night, including the 25,012 fans, many of them cheering for the Padres, to think the Mariners would overcome a three-run deficit over the final four innings and pull out a win.
And that learned reaction based on past results proved correct, the Mariners didn’t come back against the Padres, losing 7-3.
It was yet another failure to gain ground for a spot in the postseason with three weeks left to play in the season. The A’s were able to beat the Astros in 12 innings in Houston, meaning Mariners remain 4.5 games back in the American League West. After moving within three games of the Twins for the third wild-card spot despite not playing on Monday, the Mariners dropped a further game back as Minnesota snapped a four-game losing streak.
The Padres’ lead actually ballooned to five runs with Machado’s two-run single in the seventh inning with the bases loaded that grazed the rear end of reliever Austin Voth and got past Jorge Polanco.
Seattle scored just one run over the final four innings despite having plenty of opportunities and base runners.
Kirby’s reaction does speak to the minimal margin of error that the pitching staff has been operating under this season. They know that the seasonlong inability to consistently score at least four runs in a game means that their mistakes are magnified. Though they will never admit it publicly, they realize each time they step on the mound they have to deliver at least a quality start of six-plus innings and three runs or fewer for the Mariners to have a realistic chance of victory.
It was an uneven outing for Kirby, who had seemed to right some struggles with a strong start in his previous outing in Oakland.
But the Padres lineup is a little more formidable than the A’s.
After working two scoreless frames and getting some early run support in solo homers from Cal Raleigh and Luke Raley off Padres starter Yu Darvish, Kirby found trouble in the third inning.
He gave up a looping single to Donovan Solano to start the inning. He retired No. 9 hitter Kyle Higashioka with a fly ball to center, but hit machine Luis Arraez singled to right field to bring up Fernando Tatis Jr.
Looking to get ahead, Kirby attacked Tatis with a first-pitch sinker. Looking to put his team ahead by destroying a fastball, Tatis pounced on the first pitch that was intended to be on the inside corner, but stayed in the middle of the plate. He smashed the ball to deep right field. The ball was a homer off the bat.
Kirby worked out of the inning without allowing any further damage. He worked the fourth and fifth inning scoreless and seemed poised to pick up his 18th quality start of the season.
Instead, he didn’t record an out in the sixth. He gave up a leadoff double to Jurickson Profar and then the homer to Machado.
Darvish, who was making his second start after a lengthy absence of almost four months, worked five inning, allowing the two runs on seven hits with no walks and five strikeouts.