Sizzling Mariners earn eighth consecutive win as George Kirby shuts down Orioles

Tim Booth, The Seattle Times on Aug 12, 2025

Published in Baseball

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BALTIMORE — By this point of his career, George Kirby has made enough starts and amassed enough evidence that conclusions can start to be drawn.

And one of those conclusions is that the Baltimore Orioles have proved to be rather bothersome to the Mariners right-hander. Each of the last six times Kirby had pitched against the Orioles, the Mariners ended up losing the game.

That’s not entirely on Kirby as the Mariners’ offense has gone missing in many of those six games. Kirby even tossed nine shutout innings against the Orioles two years ago to the day Monday and the M’s still ended up losing 1-0 in 10 innings.

Whatever the reason, the Orioles have proved a troublesome team for Kirby to topple.

Perhaps Tuesday night will erase the taste from some of those previous starts against Baltimore. Because Kirby was spectacular on a night he needed to be.

Kirby threw seven shutout innings, Eduard Bazardo and Gabe Speier bridged the eighth and Andrés Muñoz worked through trouble — and a brief break due to dizziness in the Baltimore heat — in the ninth to give the Mariners a 1-0 win over the Orioles before 19,356 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

The M’s won their eighth straight game to kick off their nine-game East Coast swing. The eight consecutive wins is their longest win streak since also winning eight straight in early August of 2023.

Kirby was entirely the reason this road trip started off on a winning note. He allowed only three hits — two singles and a hustle double by Gunnar Henderson. He walked none for the first time in his last six starts, the stat that might please Kirby the most. He struck out six.

Kirby was electric in the same way as his 14-strikeout performance against the Angels earlier this season, which coincidentally was the only other time he finished seven innings this season.

And it was Kirby throwing his best stuff. This wasn’t the version that dabbled with the splitter or the change-up. This was Kirby pumping 97-mph sinkers and four-seam fastballs and plenty of sliders off that.

Kirby bookended his start with nearly perfect efficiency. He needed just nine pitches to get through the first inning and when the seventh rolled around, Kirby mowed through the middle of the Orioles order on just five pitches. Henderson and Adley Rutschman both were out on the first and Kirby finished out by pumping three fastballs past Ryan Mountcastle, the last at 97.2 mph, the fourth-fastest pitch of the 87 he threw.

Over his past 12 starts, Kirby has a 2.78 ERA, 79 strikeouts and 16 walks. Opponents are hitting just .195 during that span.

Bazardo allowed a single in the eighth but struck out Dylan Carlson and Gabe Speier got Jeremiah Jackson to hit a line drive right at Julio Rodríguez.

Muñoz was tasked with the top of the Baltimore order in the ninth and ran into trouble with two outs. Henderson walked and Rutschman followed with a single after a lengthy mound visit from manager Dan Wilson and an athletic trainer.

Mountcastle nearly ended it with a walk-off three-run homer but pulled it foul and eventually grounded out to end it.

The M’s won their fourth 1-0 game this season — all coming after July 4 — and posted their ninth shutout.

The M’s offense was mostly absent on this night putting even more stress on Kirby and the pitching staff to be flawless. Randy Arozarena led off the game with a single on the first pitch from Baltimore’s Dean Kremer, stole second base for his 23rd steal of the season and scored on Josh Naylor’s two-out RBI single.

And that was it. After Rodríguez walked to open the fourth inning, the M’s managed just two baserunners over the next five innings against Kremer on singles from Dominic Canzone in the fifth and J.P. Crawford in the eighth.

Kremer retired 12 of the final 14 batters he faced and produced a stark turnaround after he allowed 12 earned runs over his last three starts combined.