George Kirby tosses complete game, but Rangers hand Mariners 4th straight loss

Ryan Divish, The Seattle Times on Apr 7, 2026

Published in Baseball

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ARLINGTON, Texas — In seasons past, the Seattle Mariners found ways to win these close games. They believed they would win and they seemingly did enough to prevail in the end out of belief and execution.

But this season has been different. Belief must be earned through execution. And they simply aren’t executing when needed.

Down a run in the top of the ninth, the Mariners appeared to be on the verge of at least forcing extra innings when Luke Raley and J.P. Crawford started off the inning with back-to-back singles.

But the runners never moved from their spots. Dom Canzone flew out to left, which wasn’t enough to allow Raley to tag up and advance to third. Cole Young’s fly ball to center also wasn’t deep enough. Brendan Donovan, who had two hits in the game, couldn’t come up with a third. His swinging bunt was turned into the final out of the game in a 3-2 loss.

The Mariners have lost four in a row and five of their last six.

George Kirby gave the Mariners a quality start, working eight innings, allowing three runs on six hits with no walks and three strikeouts. It’s the deepest any Mariners starter has gone this season.

Of the eight innings pitched, Kirby held the Rangers scoreless in the seven of them, taking advantage of their aggressive approach and willingness to swing early in the counts for some quick outs and efficient innings.

Kirby pitched with a 1-0 lead that was provided before even taking the mound. Donovan hammered Nathan Eovaldi’s first pitch of the game — a 95-mph fastball out over the plate — into the seats in right field for his second leadoff homer of the season and fifth of his career.

Unlike the previous night’s game, the Mariners didn’t allow a first-inning solo homer to be their only offense for the game. Nope, they showed improvement, scoring one more run on the night instead.

In the fifth inning, they made it a 2-0 lead. With Young on second, Cal Raleigh dumped a single to right-center center off Eovaldi for some insurance.

Unfortunately, Kirby’s one bad inning of his outing came in the bottom of the fifth. Joc Pederson reached on an infield single and moved to second on Donovan’s throwing error on the play. He scored moments later on Evan Carter’s single to right-center. An irritated Kirby still had the lead, but it was clear he was bothered by giving up the run. His ire would only grow when he misplaced a sinker to Kyle Higashioka two pitches later. The mistake was turned into a two-run homer to left.

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