ARLINGTON -- Mariners right-hander George Kirby had so thoroughly mastered the Rangers over their first 10 meetings that even his complete-game quality start on Tuesday might look like a relative disappointment on paper.
The Mariners dropped their fourth in a row and sixth of the past seven games in a 3-2 loss at Globe Life Field. But it wasn’t all on Kirby, who efficiently went the distance in just 90 pitches. Despite losing for the first time in 11 starts against Texas, he was relentless with his four-seam fastball, staying in the strike zone and keeping the Rangers off balance for all but a few moments.
“He pitched his heart out,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “Eight innings, gave us a chance to win that one -- and really, at the end of the ballgame, was throwing just as well as he was at the beginning of the ballgame. The velo was there, the stuff was there. What we’ve seen from George so far has been outstanding.”
Through three-plus innings and 25 pitches on Tuesday, Kirby had thrown only two balls, scattering a couple of hits but escaping any damage. He allowed a leadoff single in the fourth but quickly got a strikeout and induced a double play.
Kirby’s only glaring mistake was a fifth-inning sinker to Rangers catcher Kyle Higashioka; Kirby left it in the upper-middle of the zone and Higashioka quickly lined the ball over the left-field wall for a decisive two-run homer.
“I was aggressive with my heaters in the zone pretty much all day, so I knew they were swinging,” Kirby said. “I just tried to make quality strikes at that point, got a lot of ground balls, which was great. Just the one home run ... it is what it is.”
After that, Kirby retired the next 12 hitters he faced to log his second career complete game. He did not issue a walk for the first time this season (three starts), and struck out four.
Kirby had set a remarkably high bar for himself the first 10 times he saw the Rangers, going 8-0 with a 1.04 ERA over 60 2/3 innings. He tossed at least five innings in all 10 of those meetings and went six innings or more in eight of them, and held the Rangers scoreless in six of them. Entering Tuesday, the Mariners had won all 10 of the games Kirby started against Texas.
The Rangers can’t say they’ve ever truly gotten to Kirby, but Tuesday was the closest they have come.
“He’s just pumping fastballs [and] we're just a tick late, it felt like the whole night,” Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said. “He went complete game. He was just really, really good tonight. ... He's dominated a lot of teams. I've watched him for a couple years now. He is one of the better pitchers that we have, so it's not just against us, although, yeah, we do have trouble against him. I've seen the numbers. I've seen the matchups against our some of our really good hitters. ... He's just a complete pitcher, and always a tough matchup."
Kirby threw 49 pitches at 95 mph or faster Tuesday, according to Statcast, and was still throwing 97-plus to the last batter he faced.
“What was coming out of his hand was still electric ... It was just a outstanding night for George,” Wilson said. “We’ve seen this from him, he stays focused. He was locked in tonight.”
The Mariners’ offense, which failed to put a runner in scoring position in Monday’s loss, fared better on Tuesday but still couldn’t produce a game-changing hit when it needed one. Brendan Donovan gave the Mariners a 1-0 lead with a homer on the game’s first pitch, and Seattle tacked on another run in the fifth, but its ninth-inning rally attempt fizzled.
Luke Raley led off the ninth with a liner to left but was held to a single. Raley said he missed the bag rounding first and had no choice but to retreat.
“I was just trying to make too too tight of a turn,” Raley said. “I knew I had to go try and get in scoring position. And then, yeah, the realization hit me -- if someone saw it, it's better me being on first base than not on base at all. So, stupid mistake ... it just can’t happen.”
The same could have been said about Kirby losing to the Rangers, until Tuesday.