Good, Bad and Ugly: George Kirby Improves, But Inept Mariners Offense Prevents Win vs. Orioles
To those who have watched the Seattle Mariners over the last couple of seasons, Tuesday’s game looked all-too-familiar to fans of the hometown nine.
The Mariners fell 5-1 in the opening game of their series with the last place Orioles, and now must win both Wednesday and Thursday to not only avoid a series loss, but to prevent a second consecutive losing homestand.
As we always do, let’s take a look at the good, bad and ugly from Tuesday’s latest defeat:
Good Adjacent: George Kirby
Maybe it’s damning with faint praise, but this was certainly the best Kirby has looked in his three starts since returning from the injured list. He went five innings for the first time, and he held the Baltimore lineup to just two runs.
And while that line isn’t exactly awe inspiring, Kirby looked better than those results indicate, and it’s not like five innings of two-run baseball is terrible. On the contrary, most of the hits he gave up were ground balls that found a hole, and he shouldn’t have given up a run in the first. Or at the very least it shouldn’t have been earned; that’s a play J.P. Crawford needs to make, and it’s fortunate that the hometown scorekeeper gave him the break instead of Kirby.
The fifth inning was more of the same, but it is worth noting that Kirby took a ball right off the kisser before exiting. He may need to go to the dentist to get those pearly whites checked out, but the good news is it does appear he’s avoided a significant injury.
Long story short, this was not Kirby at his best, but it was certainly his most encouraging outing of 2025.
Bad: Eduard Bazardo and Collin Snider
First, a quick little shout out to Jackson Kowar, who did pitch well with two innings of scoreless relief. The reliever before and after, however, were flat-out not good enough. Bazardo gave up an opposite-field homer to Colton Cowser in the sixth that extended Baltmore’s lead to 3-1, and that was a relatively high-leverage situation. Snider came in to pitch the ninth and gave up another pair of runs that turned what could’ve been a bloop and a blast game - aka a two-run cushion - into a four-run game.
Seattle’s bullpen looked good outside of Andres Munoz over the weekend. This is a rough start, even with Koward giving Seattle two scoreless frames.
Good: J.P. Crawford
Crawford made what should’ve been an error in the first, in my humble estimation, but he was easily Seattle’s best offensive player, even with Rowdy Tellez hitting a solo homer. He picked up three hits and appears to be back on track after scuffling for a couple of weeks last month. The Mariners offense is just so much better when Crawford can get on at the top of the lineup. Obvious point is obvious, but it needs to be said.
And yet it didn’t matter, because…
Ugly: The rest of the offense
I am a proponent of giving credit where credit is due, and Tomoyuki Sugano definitely deserves credit. He threw the entire kitchen sink at the Mariners, pounded the strike zone, and kept the Seattle offense off-balance with an excellent start for Baltimore.
Ok, enough of that. This offense stunk tonight. Jorge Polanco and Julio Rodriguez both got hits, but their other at-bats were ugly. Cal Raleigh had one of his worst offensive games of the season, and it just goes to show you how much this offense is being carried by Big Dumper right now. Randy Arozarena didn’t carry anything over from his walk-off hit Sunday and went hitless. Everyone in this offense outside of Crawford and Tellez - and Tellez was bad after his homer - deserves admonishment.
The Mariners offense is improved from 2024, and it’d be hard to argue otherwise. There are still too many games like this for me to believe they’re truly a World Series contender, and that’s disappointing. It’s far from too late to prove me wrong, but right now, I’m disappointed.
