Mariners still struggling but being helped by other teams … for now

The Seattle Mariners just can’t shake out of their road funk, as George Kirby struggles and the team is swept in Tampa Bay by the Rays.

With all the grace in the world, this is just getting plain ugly now and almost out of control. The Mariners lost 9-4 on Wednesday evening and as a result suffered a three-game sweep in Tampa Bay at the hands of the Rays.

The Mariners’ road struggles have been well documented of late, with seemingly no solution by anyone associated with the team. They are now 1-5 on this particular road trip, 2-12 in their last 14 games away from home and 6-16 overall on their travels since the All-Star break.

There have been some unlucky results along the way for the Mariners, but Wednesday evening was not one of them as the Rays dominated from the word go. It only took three pitches to retire the M’s in the top of the first, while the home side poured on four runs in the bottom of the inning and it was already all but over.

George Kirby has the shortest outing of his career

Those four runs came off George Kirby, who suffered an absolute nightmare on the evening. He allowed another four runs in the bottom of the second and there was no choice but to remove him from the game. The 2.0 innings represented a career-low for the righty, as he allowed 10 hits and eight runs (seven earned) on 54 pitches.

It’s been a disastrous 2025 for Kirby, who began the season on the injured list with shoulder inflammation. There’s been glimpses of what he’s capable of since he’s returned, but overall he’s on course for the worst statistical campaign of his four years in the majors.

The 27-year-old acknowledged afterwards that it was just one of those games. He said:

“I wasn’t really missing. I probably missed like two pitches, but they found every hole tonight. Yeah, I could have been better, but they just found every hole and I couldn’t really put an end to it.”

Kirby is the ultimate competitor and no one is harder on themselves then he is, but he refuses to lose belief in his abilities. He said:

“It just sucks. I don’t know how else to describe it, to be honest. But I will try to not let it discourage me for my next outing. I know I’m good and my stuff’s good.”

There was some controversy surrounding Kirby’s outing after he hit the Rays’ Josh Lowe on the right shoulder with a fastball in the second inning, but the pitcher insisted it was an accident. He said:

“It’s baseball. (Mitch Garver) called an inside heater. I tried to throw it in, and I hit (Lowe). Whoops. I mean, you can say it’s on purpose or whatever, but I just tried to execute a heater inside.”

Mariners put together a short-lived rally

Following a scoreless third by Eduard Bazardo, Emerson Hancock entered the game in his new role as a reliever and allowed the Rays’ ninth run during his two innings of action. The Mariners finally got on the board with four runs in the top of the sixth highlighted by Julio Rodríguez’s three-run bomb, but at 9-4 that was as close as they would get in yet another frustrating team effort.

This is not to imply the players aren’t trying – they clearly are, but little is working or going right at the moment. Speaking to the media afterwards, M’s manager Dan Wilson said:

“Not much to say tonight. They came out early and were able to get to George in those first couple innings, and it seemed like everything they hit was finding a spot.”

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Teams close to Mariners failing to take advantage of slump

The only thing saving the Mariners at the moment is that the teams just below them in the standings are also losing just enough to help them maintain a tenuous 1.5 game lead for the third and final AL wild card spot. However, make no mistake that the Rangers, Royals, Guardians and now Rays are all lurking and waiting to pounce.

This seemed to be the season when the Astros were finally there for the taking. However, since recently catching up with them in the AL West standings the Mariners are fading at the worst possible time and now sit 4.0 games back, with just 22 games remaining in the regular season.

Let’s be clear in stating that this is still an extremely talented baseball team, but it doesn’t mean a thing if you don’t translate said talent into actually winning consistently on the field. The Mariners at least still hold their fate in their own hands, but they urgently need to turn things around.

The M’s will now have a day off on Thursday before playing again on Friday, with Wilson remaining confident that things are going to improve soon. He said:

“It’s going to turn. We have a chance tomorrow to regroup a little bit, and then go from there. We all know it’s going to turn and it’s going to turn quick. We’ve just got to keep grinding away at it.”

Photos court​‌esy of Tim Rodgers Photography

How do you see things playing out in Atlanta before the Mariners return home to Seattle? How many games do you predict they will take from the three-game series versus the Braves? Let us know in the comments section below.