SEATTLE -- He went from “Furious George” to “Happy George” in almost the blink of an eye.
But the moment called for it on Monday night for George Kirby, who emphatically cleared the eighth inning with a strikeout on his 100th pitch, then went through a human-formed tunnel among teammates in the home dugout at T-Mobile Park -- with the Mariners on the cusp of a 6-2 win.
“I was just trying to get real pissed off at the end there, just kind of give it all I had,” Kirby said postgame, unable to help himself from breaking into a big smile, much like he did just a short while earlier.
Buoyed by the first career multihomer game from Cole Young, a 428-foot blast from Dominic Canzone on a hurt hamstring, and some RISP-y production from Cal Raleigh, Kirby and the Mariners cruised in this one over the Angels.
“A little bit of everything tonight,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said, one day removed from a brutal finish in Cleveland.
Indeed, the Mariners put together the type of well-rounded win they’ve been seeking for much of the past few weeks.
Kirby the capstone
For as much as the Mariners have needed more offense, the night’s most promising development might’ve been Kirby. And this was the type of outing that’d been brewing for the Mariners’ uber-competitive righty for some time.
Kirby took five straight losses as the pitcher of record over a full month beginning in mid-May, but had begun to turn things towards the end of that stretch -- yet without results to show for it.
And then on Monday, he had to earn it from the get-go.
Just six pitches and two batters in, the Angels were on the board via a leadoff double from Zach Neto and an RBI single from Denzer Guzman that nicked off Josh Naylor’s glove. It was the type of maddening moment that could’ve sunk Kirby in years past, compounded by a solo homer by Neto in the second.
But once the Mariners handed him a 3-2 lead in the fourth, Kirby was completely dialed in, retiring 12 of his final 15 batters.
“The runs are nice, but for me, it doesn't affect me,” Kirby said. “I've just got to keep going out there and just finish the job.”
At only 79 pitches, Wilson sent Kirby back out for the eighth but had the bullpen stirring. Kirby then surrendered a leadoff double to Josh Lowe and a one-out walk to Neto, in the rare fourth time through the lineup. But Wilson rode with his guy, and it paid off -- with consecutive punchouts to punctuate the outing.
“It shows you how much he cares and how much he wants it,” Wilson said.
Left-on-left pop
The three homers from Canzone and Young traveled a combined 1,246 feet. But what was more telling was that two of them were against a lefty, reliever Mitch Farris, in the sixth.
Canzone grinded into a 2-2 count then pummeled a bread-basket fastball 108.4 mph off the bat and into The J-Rod Squad beyond center field. And he did so one day after sitting due to the lingering right hamstring soreness that first surfaced on June 21.
“Any time you're playing with an injury, there’s something in the back of your mind,” Wilson said. “But he's able to go out right now and compete, and his willingness to do that is tremendous.”
Canzone now has a .953 OPS vs. lefties this year, albeit in only 28 plate appearances. But he’s consistently earned more starts against them, underscoring his emergence as a true everyday player.
As for Young, no one has been more everyday than the 22-year-old, who’s played every inning in all 86 games. Young crushed his first homer off righty starter Ryan Johnson then demolished one off the second-deck facade of the Hit It Here Cafe off Farris.
Cal delivers on candid comments
Raleigh embodied all of his own messaging from one day earlier -- to calm things down with runners in scoring position -- when he pushed the Mariners ahead for good in the fourth.
He inside-outted a 73.8 mph single into shallow left-center, immediately after Randy Arozarena drew a hit-by-pitch and Josh Naylor capitalized on a fielding error that put both men in scoring position.
And it was all manufactured with two outs.
“He hit the nail on the head yesterday,” Wilson said, later adding: “That’s the approach, is not getting too big to where you swing and miss on that pitch, or you take a swing where you're out in front. But instead, he stayed on it, stayed through it.”