Mariners do little as they lose 8-0 in rubber match versus Guardians

The Mariners suffer a perfect storm as George Kirby struggles, the defense makes errors and the lineup does little in a poor loss.

George Kirby couldn’t have been much better in his first start of the 2024 season, when he allowed just two hits in 6.2 shutout innings to help the Mariners beat the Red Sox 1-0. On the flip side, he couldn’t have been much worse in his second outing on Wednesday afternoon.

Kirby allowed a career-high eight earned runs versus the Guardians in the series finale, while the 10 hits he gave up were tied for the second-most of his time in the Majors. As a result, he only lasted 3.2 innings.

In fairness — similar to a day earlier with Luis Castillo — it wasn’t all on the righty, as the defense made several errors which didn’t show up on the final stat sheet. Perhaps best highlighting the mistakes was a collision during the top of the fourth between J.P. Crawford and Jorge Polanco, when the latter looked well-placed to make the play.

There was some concern Crawford suffered an injury, but he was able to complete the game. Speaking about the incident postgame, Mariners manager Scott Servais said:

“You need to communicate it (better). I think J.P. thought the ball was a little bit harder and didn’t think he was going to get to it originally, and Polo is going to go after it. Somebody usually calls the other guy off. They were both trying to get there and they ran into each other.”

Mariners fall behind early and can’t recover

The wheels came off early, as the Guardians jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Kirby was looking flustered and his teammates weren’t backing him up well enough, and the game was almost over before it started.

The visitors scored two more runs in the second and after a scoreless third, added a trio of scores in fourth inning to provide the final scoreline of 8-0. Yes, the Mariners bullpen stopped the bleeding, but in the grand scheme of things it didn’t matter on the day.

Postgame, Kirby acknowledged the difficulties of facing the Guardians, while also vowing to keep doing what he does best. Speaking to the media, he said:

“Yeah it’s tough when you’ve got a team that you know really swings a lot and makes good contact. And for me, living in the zone a lot, I run into those types of games. So yeah, it was hard to get in a rhythm, (but) I’m not going to stray away from what I do well, filling up the zone.”

Servais was complimentary of the Guardians’ approach on the day. He said:

“They had a game plan, they were going to stay super aggressive, they were going to swing, they were going to put the ball in play — which they’re good at — and we didn’t make some plays behind (Kirby). Certainly it got away from us early and before you knew it, we were out of the ballgame.”

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Bats not getting it done yet

Perhaps the only solace for Kirby — and solace is really not an apt word — is that even an excellent outing would have likely done little to change the outcome. That’s because the Mariners could get little going offensively on the day, producing just five total hits and being struck out eight times.

Even at such an early stage of the 2024 campaign, it must be unnerving for fans to see the likes of Julio Rodríguez, Mitch Garver, Crawford and Polanco struggling. These are supposed to be among the better bats in the lineup.

While acknowledging the Mariners are only seven games into the season, combined with their bats often taking a while to heat up, the optics still aren’t good. Consider that as of Thursday morning, they rank fourth-worst in batting average, third-worst in OBP, second-worst in slugging percentage and dead last in OPS.

Overall, Servais for once did not have his usual glass-half-full outlook on what transpired. Summing up the game in general, he said:

“That was not any fun. We did not have a good effort today and you shouldn’t be in a game when you play like that. We just really from the get-go (didn’t have it).”

Finishing their first home-stand 3-4, you can make the case the Mariners need Thursday’s off-day to rest, recover and contemplate, in preparation for their first road trip of the 2024 season. The road trip will consist of six games with three in each of Milwaukee and Toronto, beginning with the Brewers on Friday evening.

We’ll keep repeating the mantra that it’s early, but this only helps to a certain extent. Do you have confidence in the Mariners repeating their annual trick of overcoming a slow start and finding their form as the season progresses? Let us know in the comments section below.