Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - MARINERS POSTCAST: George Kirby DOMINATES Los Angeles Angels as Seattle Mariners avoid sweep

Episode Date: June 8, 2025

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This is the Mariners Postcast. Your instant game reaction for the Seattle Mariners. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Okay, just imagine me with a top hat and a British accent in the Harry Potter universe. He's back. He's back. Because George Kirby is back, ladies and gentlemen. It's officially marks the beginning of his season.

This is his first start in my book. I just kind of throw the other three out there. Like one other three. Yeah, exactly. Mariners, avoid the sweep, end of five game losing streak. George Kirby might have had the best start of any Mariner this season. And I'm trying to think of a better start besides the Houston game in the ALDS that George Kirby has had. I don't think of one right now because he was absolutely dominant.

That was vintage George Kirby. command just dotting his everything. Man, I think it was the, was it the Taylor Ward strikeout in the seventh inning where he comes back with the two seamer backdoor? Are you kidding me? That is vintage George Kirby right there, just vintage.

And boy, did we need it. And I kind of forgot what an ace starting performance looked like. And boy, did we show it today. Yeah, we did talk about yesterday. Hey, so two days ago we talked about needing to see more. from Cole Young and then he has a good day yesterday. And then yesterday we said, all right, we need a kind of an ace like performance. And then we get it today.

We should just say, hey, you know what we need a 69 game winning streak? I need Anna DeArmus to move to Shelton, Washington. Like, if we're just going on a heater, like, why not go on a real heater? No, this was fun. And this is, Anders, you know, I've been recapping Seattle Mariner games for the last three years. this is the best part about daily recaps because it doesn't erase the fact that the Mariners went one in five over their last six. It doesn't erase the fact that they are playing catch up in the division. It doesn't erase that still some players who aren't performing up to their best of their abilities.

No, we just could appreciate this one game. And this one game was an awesome game. It was a game that featured great pitching. It featured timely hits. It featured outstanding defense. It featured your closer looking like your closer. Yes. It featured everything.

And that's the best part about doing these daily recaps. The worst part is that we have to, you know what, and moan when they lose a game when they're playing really well too. Like we don't get to do the aw shucks. This is, no, we just have to react to what we see every single game. And it's a lot of fun. But it's especially fun on days today, like today, where we can just flat out ignore what happened over the weekend what happened in Seattle against Baltimore and we can just focus on today

and today was awesome. Oh, real quick, I told you I was going to give my stat. This is the big one, guys. The Mariners are 2 and 0 when Cal Raleigh doesn't start. Is he an albatross? Do we need to trade him? I'd be looking to move him for, you know, a couple prospects. Just restart everything. Yeah, I mean, not my MVP. If you win games when he's not playing. hashtag not my MVP. Guys, it's a joke. Yes. It's a joke. Please do not clip this and put it all over the internet saying, oh my God, they hate Cal Raleigh. They're haters. If you guys are going to clip me, wait until I'm wearing a hat. By the way, no hat day because it is just too dang hot. It is 88, but feels like 103 right now. It's muggy. The whole reason I moved back here was so we could avoid days like this.

Yes. And now they're a constant part of my life. Thank you, Mariners, for making it a little bit, a little bit okay. Your boy's HVAC doesn't work right now. And so he is just struggling. And you know he's struggling because he's talking in the third person. When Chris Robert is struggling, he starts talking in the third person. Oh, and he's struggling. But George Kirby sure didn't.

No, he did not. Owen, yes, we did need this. We really did. Like, oh, my God, I can't tell you how relieving it is to talk about a winning baseball game. And this is the formula for Mariners baseball. Yeah. He leads starting pitching. They had 11 hits today.

The offense should not go overlooked. No. In a day again where Calioli doesn't play. So having other guys step up is going to be a huge part of the rest of the season as we start to move forward. So, yeah, I mean, let's just talk about George Kirby's start. Sure. Like, what can you say? He had one bad pitch the entire day, one bad pitch.

And, you know, he gets tattered for it. Taylor Ward, he'll hit those. He'll hit mistake pitches. As you said, a couple days ago, he's one of the hottest guys when he's hot and he's not when he's not. So, but everything else, man, like his stuff, like elite, like 96, 97 in the seventh inning. Just complete command. Complete command.

He was throwing it exactly where Mitch Garver was showing it today. I like this call right here from my buddy, Jack, where you that these George Kirby will throw perfect game at one point in his career. I'll be kind of stunned if he doesn't. I will be kind of stunned if he doesn't throw. And look, that is insane to say because it's so hard. The last one was 2012. I'm not counting Domingo Herman.

I'm just not. Totally fine with not counting it because of the pitcher and because of the person. We do not have to count Domingo. And the team is playing against. It was against the worst A's team, right? Ever. It's fair. Yeah.

That is totally fair. It's very hard. But like, George Kirby had perfect game stuff in command today. He really did. Minus, I believe he walks the hitter before the home run. I could be wrong on that.

No, no, no. It was, I think it was a single. It was a single. Okay. Okay. So puts a guy on and then just leaves a pitch right down the middle of the plate.

And I'll be honest, just the way things are going, my first thought was, oh my God, they're going to lose this game. Yeah. This game where George Kirby is pitching. Because that took the lead.

that point. It was two to one. Yep. It was two to one. Yeah. And thank goodness it doesn't. Because you could talk about wins and losses being an overrated stat for the pitcher. It's not an overrated start for a ball club. It's not an overrated staff for a ball club whatsoever. It's the ultimate goal. Obvious point is obvious. Losing today would have been devastating. Yes. So behind the scenes, I was not supposed to do this video, but stuff got changed around. If we would have lost, I would just would have stuck with it. And I would have just, and Anders, you know, we were already planning on you going solo. Yeah, thanks.

I would have really appreciated that. Oh, you're very welcome. I am not a very great person. I'm an okay person sometimes, but there are some real petty, petty. I listen to a lot of rap battle. That's why I'm a petty person. But to be able to get that W and not waste that, I'll be honest, too. I had no idea he had 14 strikeouts.

And that is the ultimate compliment to how efficient George Kirby was today. Because, you know, you take a look at the pitch counter. in the corner, you know, every once in a while while I'm, you know, watching the game and getting ready for some stuff and like, okay, he's at like 84, you know, and he's only given up those two runs. And then you take a look at the box score and you see 14 strikeouts. He was dominant. The big thing for me today, I thought Kirby's stuff looked fine in the other couple of starts. The stuff looked fine. The command wasn't there. The control was okay, but the command was not there. Oh, the command was good today. In particular, he was dotting that two seamer

to the outside corner to left handers and in on right handers. He just dotted that corner. If he pitches like he does today, and I'm not asking for it every start, obviously. Right. The Seattle Mariners may have a new ace because that's how good he was today. And we can only talk about today. That was special stuff, man. That was special. And it comes right on the heel of me talking about the Mariners not getting those, even though they're starting pitching is far from the problem with this roster right now, not getting those ace-like performances.

Folks, he struck out more than any pitcher in the American League this year today. Yeah, any pitcher in the American League. Only my buddy R.J. Anderson calls him the murder horn at Max Myers, the only guy who has struck out 14 until today. This was special. This was special command, special, special. stuff, some good defense behind them too. We can talk about that. But for the most part, it was just George Kirby willing this team to a win.

And let me point this out real quick. Anybody who doubts the competitive nature of George Kirby after watching this one should just shut the heck up for the rest of their lives. Because if you don't think George Kirby took it personally, how he pitched, and if you don't think George Kirby isn't aware of what people were saying about those first three starts, is George Kirby ever going to get back? Oh, George Kirby's back, guys. George Kirby's back. George Kirby's back for real. He's back and he's back in Voldemort fashion as I, because he's coming for, he's the Grim Reaper.

He's coming for everyone at this point. So, no, he was special today. So fun to watch. It was crazy, crazy to kind of think like, wait, this is what an elite starting pitching performance looks like because it really had been a while. Like you've had some good ones from Castillo. Oh, sure.

Woo's been good for the most part of the year. but it always is like Brian Will will give you that B plus a minus start. You know, where he gets through six. A lot of six and two run starts. You never just mows through a lineup. And like that's good. You need that. And your starting pitcher, but like George, man, this is how special he can be.

We saw it during the playoffs in 22. We saw it all of most of the year in 23. He struggled a little bit. I'm going to, all right, I'm going to kind of spoil a little. a little bit here. We saw it a little bit in 24. And do you remember what the change was and making him kind of switch to being the George Curve we know and love last year? Remind me. It was when Mitch Garver started catching for him. It was a really weird shift. And that was like the one day, every five days that Mitch Garver would be in the lineup. And that's when George Kirby looked good again.

And you know what happened again today? Yeah. Mitch Garver was catching for him. So I'm going to, I'm going to go ahead and stay my unsung hero right now before we get to, uh, you know, talking about some game time. It's Mitch Garver. I don't know if there's any sort of correlation. I don't know if there's any sort of causation. Um, I don't know if that's the reason why George Kirby is as good as he was today, but he called a good game. That's all I know. Uh, he called a great game and there seems to be some sort of chemistry when George Kirby pitches to, uh, to Mitch Garver. And that battery just, just works. It just works. It certainly worked today. There's no question about it. I also want to talk about something with Mitch Garver offensively today, too, that really encouraged me in the ninth inning on a

strikeout, which is weird. Okay. I finally saw Mitch Garver swing like Mitch Garber normally swings. There have been such defensive hacks from Mitch Garver over the past three weeks, maybe full month, most of the year, maybe even. I'm just trying to remember the last time I saw Mitch Garver actually rip at a baseball. And the reason Jose Fermin is a favorite of a lot of scouts, that guy's stuff is electric. Command isn't very good, but that guy can pitch.

He took aggressive swings against him. And that was very encouraging to see. It wasn't just trying to foul pitches off. It wasn't going up looking for a walk. It was going up there and looking like he is trying to hit the ball with authority over the fence,

into the gaps, whatever you have. I think that's a really good call on George Kirby, or George Kirby is not unsung. It's really good call on Mitch Carver being the unsung hero. Appreciate that. I get those every once in a while. We'll get a chance to get your guys as unsung hero, the chat's unsung hero. I wish we could do like a poll for like unsung heroes, maybe throw a couple guys up there. And then maybe that's something we explore during the future of the Mariners Postcast.

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because they should not go unnoticed. It's a day where your MVP candidate isn't playing. I was really worried that Julio wouldn't play, but he ends up being able to go out there today somehow. And once again, we see the difference in center field and what he brings defensively. so, so key to the Mariners moving forward and, you know, helped out George Kirby a couple times there as well. But the two guys I want to chat about are Randy and Jorge Polanco.

Because I think those are two guys that have a track record of showing that they can be good players at the major league level, especially offensively. And if this lineup is going to be what we hope this lineup is going to be and if we're going to be a playoff team moving forward, those two guys have to go. Randy with his second three-hit game in a row. Yeah. And then Jorge Polanco from the right side of the plate gets a two-hit game, including the game tying RBI. So Randy gets an RBI as well and a run scored. So two guys that I really want to highlight today, what did you see either from them or the rest of the offense, Chris Croft? It was just great to see Randy a Rosen Arena drive the baseball. And like a couple of

those balls, I think, leave other parks. I didn't see the actual Sivant stats on him. I also love that the single that he hits, you know, on a ball that I think he thought was going to get out. I love that when he, he didn't pimp it, you know, but, you know, maybe wasn't quite running out because I think he got a dinger. I love that he said, no, I'm getting to second base and stole second base after that hit, and it ended up being huge. It ended up being a massive play. Stolen bases are just so important in today's day. But it was great. And I saw Polanco get under a baseball today, even with the two hits. Yeah. that that's the most I've seen him drive a baseball in a while.

Like, it's nice to see him starting to feel confident. And I think you have to give some credit to Dan Wilson here that, you know, we've been kind of saying that Polanco needs to go on the injured list and like that. And I don't think we're wrong. But what I will say is if he's not on the injured list, it doesn't make sense to have him on the bench. Yeah.

He needs to play every day to get into that routine. And I think the last couple of games, you're starting to see him feel a little more comfortable with the routine. And this is just me guessing what I'm seeing there because I'm not in Jorge Polanco's mind. It would be the worst being John Malcovich sequel possible if I was being Jorge Polanco and Jorge Polanco had to deal with my crap. But I just kind of feel like he feels much more comfortable at the plate. Real quick on Julio, but you did not have a good offensive game whatsoever over five with a strikeout. Just great to see him in the lineup. You know, after that, that looked bad. That looked like a bad injury.

and I think he did have a really key moment in that game. Now, he grounds out very weakly on a pitch. He should have clobbered in the first inning. I don't think any other Seattle Mariners scores on that Randy or Rosarina double. I don't think any other player scores, and that's just what his athleticism can do. It also can frustrate you because, gosh, apply these gifts a little bit more consistently, you know,

and you could be as good as any player in baseball. But at the very least, what he's given you defensively. And then we just kind of underrate the scoring from first base on plays like that. Yeah. That is massive because how are you feeling if that Randy double puts Julio at third and all due respect to Mitch Garver and Polanco? Are you feeling super confident about those guys coming up in that situation? Absolutely not.

So by the way, great game today from Donovan Solano. Yeah. Great game today. He has the hit by pitch. He gets that big single in a massive moment, massive, massive, massive. moment basically guarantees that George Kirby's start won't go wasted. Right. So shout out to Donovan Solano.

I get it. I still probably wouldn't have him on the roster at this point, especially with Harry Ford just tearing up triple-1-hitching. That was the third RBI on the season. Three. Third R-B-I. And if you want to talk about how maybe that has some to do with the chances he's had, okay.

But there's no denying that Donovan Solano has been terrible. But Donovan Solano today deserves a ton of credit. and I would consider making my unsung hero, but it's Ben Williamson, baby. It's always going to be Ben Williamson. Commit to the bit, baby. Let's go. I will have one of these days

where he goes over five with three strikeouts and it'll actually make people mad. But I legitimately think he actually might be the unsung hero from this one. The two hits, his defense is just, like that's, I don't want to go too hyperbolic, because it's not Adrian Belcher.

Adrianine Beltrary is still the best defensive player at third base that the Seattle Mariners have ever had. It's better than Kyle Seeger. His defense is better than Kyle Segar. Kyle Segar was a really good defensive third baseman. A ton about him. It is saying so much. But also you see that double. You see that he's driving that ball into the gas.

That was the big thing for me. That looks like he's getting the ball in the air, similar to what we said about Palanco. Like he's starting to drive it a little bit. Exactly. It got all the way to the wall. Yeah. Yeah. The thing for me is if you take a look now, I haven't.

checked it in a couple of days. The hard hit percentage for Ben Williamson is fine. Hard hit percentage means jack crap if it's just ground balls. If it's just a bunch of ground balls, it means nothing. But if you can put those balls into the gap, as Godspeed puts here, Benes-Salle is a third base. It's great. If you get some slugging going, we got something going here. Somebody pointed out, he's basically less power David Bell. And you're too young to remember David Bell, but David Bell was a really solid player and was a huge part of 2001, which we promise will only mention like three times on this show. Root Sports might mention it at 163,000 times,

but we're only going to mention it three. We got two more. Let's save him for later. If you can get that type of production from him, if you get 20-grade-powered David Bell, you're going to be fine at third base. You are going to be just fine, because the outs he's taking away on top of not being,

a pitcher batting is worth it to me. I wish that you could do better. You know, I wish that Jorge Polanco was a third baseman. I wish Ben Williamson was in Tacoma and working on some stuff, but he's helping the Seattle Mariners a lot more than hurting him in my humble estimation. I agree with that total encapsulation. Like, yes, you could be getting more from the third base position, but he is not hurting your team at this point by being in the lineup. And I still, I stand by it, like, he's your eighth or ninth best hitter that's great that is a great person to have where you are getting elite defense but he's not your eighth or ninth best hitter right now so love that comment so much okay my unsung hero decision tends to be based on who did more sneaky

important contribes contributions than williamson nobody again ben williamson obviously is that what goes on your head yes and real quick shout out to cole young for probably his best offense one of the best offensive games that he's had. How about best offensive series? Yeah, for sure, his best offensive series without question. And look, we talked about whether or not the Mariners have to start talking about sending Cole Young down. Doesn't mean they have to now.

He struggled at every level to begin. He has struggled at every single one. If this is the best of Cole Young, the Mariners need to look it up here in a second base. I don't think there's any question about it. But if you get enough of these types of games from Cole Young and he makes the improve, that he's made at every other level later into the season. Mariner's going to be fine at second base, too. Yeah, completely agree.

We were starting to see the young guys, those eight and nine hitters, really starting to put it together a little bit, which is great to see. Mariners and the skid and the five-game losing streak, avoid the sweep against the Angels. Like, hopefully this turns things around. I really, really hope it does. I hope it's not a blip in the radar. Let's make it matter, guys.

That's all I'm going to keep saying. Let's make it matter. Make it matter, make it matter, make it matter. Really appreciate guys hanging out with us today. It's a Sunday. It's a beautiful day out if you're in Seattle. I'm sure it's a beautiful day in other places as well. I apologize if you heard my dog panting here,

because it is also very hot as well where I'm at, but really appreciate you guys hanging out with us. It's coming around. I think we've seen stuff in the last two games. Yeah, yesterday was sloppy. I think a lot of that had to do with the Julio injury, and him not being able to go back out in the center field. That changes the entire game.

Yeah. Kind of changes the whole series now that we look at it. Because he would have scored on the ground ball anyway. But also like, this is Mariners Baseball that we watch today. Elite starting pitching. You're getting hits and good at bats from up and down the lineup. You're not necessarily going to get MVP level performances, especially when your MVP candidate is out, take an arrest day.

Also, huge that he didn't have to come into the game. like so great that they actually gave him a day off. So he clearly didn't want to play and I question whether or not he even wants to be here. Yeah. Got the big contract and said peace out. Got the contract and said peace out. I got 26. I'm done.

You guys do whatever you want. I'll be back in 2026. Oh, yeah. All right. Well, we got Diamondbacks tomorrow. Really appreciate you guys hanging out with us. I think it's a 640 start time. So we'll be with you right after final pitch.

As always, Ty and Colby will have their episode. of Lockdown Mariners coming out tomorrow. Be sure to look out for that as well. But until then, go Mariners, and we'll talk to you late. Bye, bye. Good job.