Furious George punches out 9 in gem -- and wants more

SEATTLE -- Cal Raleigh homered again on Tuesday night, making it four over his past two games and five on the homestand.

And it wasn’t even the Mariners' most critical performance in a 4-1 win over the Phillies.

No, this one was a George Kirby special -- featuring the utter brilliance, efficiency and overpowering stuff that shows just how high of a ceiling the uber competitive right-hander reaches on his very best days.

"He kind of strangled us tonight,” Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly said.

Kirby was backed by his batterymate early, as Raleigh yanked a solo homer off Phils workhorse Aaron Nola in the second inning. It was his fourth deep fly in a span of five plate appearances, coupled with his first career three-homer night in the series opener.

Raleigh also homered on Friday, bringing his total for the homestand to five. Up to that point, through the season’s first four months, he had just 13.

No. 18 of the season erased a run that Philly manufactured -- on three straight singles in the top of the frame -- and sent Kirby cruising toward one of the most effective outings of his season.

His velocity was way up, touching 99 mph three times in the first inning and averaging a 1.3 mph overall uptick among the 37 fastballs he unleashed, to 97.9 mph.

His secondaries kept the Phils’ loaded lineup off the barrel, with 17 of the 20 batted balls against him under Statcast’s hard-hit threshold (95 mph).

He was as efficient as ever, never throwing more than 16 pitches in an inning and three times throwing fewer than 10.

“Just a lot of work during the week of getting my mechanics where I need to be,” Kirby said. “And then kind of going in the game, just not thinking about and just let it flow and just be free -- and just let it eat the whole game.”

Tuesday night also featured “Furious George” -- the alter-ego that surfaced throughout his early seasons but has mostly been on the backburner in 2026.

Back then, the persona was personified by tertiary things like walks or cheap hits.

But on Monday, it was upon being relieved with two outs in the eighth inning, just after surrendering a Bryce Harper single past the outstretched glove of a diving Brock Rodden.

That ended a stretch of 15 straight retired, brought Kirby’s pitch count to 92 and Mariners manager Dan Wilson out from the dugout, who quickly turned to José A. Ferrer for a left-on-left matchup against Luis Arraez.

It was difficult to discern who was more upset about it all -- Kirby, who surged into the home dugout, or the ticketed 37,600 at T-Mobile Park, who let Wilson hear it.

“Those decisions are difficult,” Wilson said. “But George, he still was seemingly fairly strong. But we just felt like that was a good opportunity there.”

Even after a cool-down period, Kirby was still amped up about it.

“Yeah, I totally get it,” Kirby said. “But just the compete mode in me, I'm never going to accept it. So it is what it is."

Such are the stakes for Seattle these days, which has been under .500 since July 22, is seeing the schedule shrink -- yet firmly remains in both the American League West and Wild Card races.

In clinching their second straight series on this homestand, and against another National League contender, the Mariners pulled to within 2 1/2 games of the division lead and 3 games of final Wild Card spot.

It’s likely that Kirby would’ve been pulled even earlier, at just 79 pitches through the seventh, had it not been for Dominic Canzone ripping a two-run single in the bottom of the frame. That pushed Seattle’s lead from 2-1 to 4-1 and gave Wilson more extension on Kirby’s leash.

Ferrer wound up generating a quick groundout to Arraez to escape that mini jam, then Andrés Muñoz worked around a single and walk in the ninth, pitching for the first time since Friday, when he surrendered a game-tying homer to Alex Bregman that pushed that eventual Mariners win to extras.

But the headliner was Kirby, who might’ve unearthed something with his mechanics for this final stretch -- while bringing back the angry alter-ego that this region knows well.