George Kirby roughed up again; Nationals hand Mariners worst loss of year

Adam Jude, The Seattle Times on May 29, 2025

Published in Baseball

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

The bullpen door sprang open at 6:35 p.m. Wednesday, and immediately the sounds of dubstep electronic dance music began blaring through the T-Mobile Park speakers.

Dubstep, you ask? It’s George Kirby’s favorite, all dark and ominous and irritating. It’s fingers scratching a chalkboard, the kind of music you’d blast into your sibling’s bedroom early on a Sunday morning as a prank.

It’s not pleasant.

And there was nothing pleasant about what came next for Kirby and the Mariners.

The Washington Nationals blasted Kirby to the tune of three loud homers and six runs, spoiling the right-hander’s return to Seattle in the Mariners’ 9-0 loss Wednesday night.

It was the Mariners’ most lopsided defeat of the season, and it was a rare noncompetitive game for them of late.

“A tough one tonight,” manager Dan Wilson said. “One to move on from.”

The Mariners (30-24) managed just three hits — all singles — off Nationals veteran right-hander Trevor Williams, who threw six shutout innings in his first quality start of the season. He’d entered the day with a 6.39 ERA.

The Nats’ bats, meanwhile, were popping against Kirby, who surrendered seven hits and six earned runs in five innings in his second start of the season. He issued two walks with four strikeouts.

Shut down in early March because of shoulder inflammation, Kirby made his delayed season debut last week in Houston, allowing five runs in 3.2 innings.

The results weren’t any better Wednesday, the same day the Mariners announced the demotion of rookie Logan Evans following his eight-inning gem against this Nationals lineup Tuesday night.

Kirby has allowed 11 earned runs in his first 8.2 innings of the season.

“It’s not, obviously, what I wanted to have with results,” Kirby said. “But I’m super glad to be back in the rotation, healthy. I got my work in these two games. I’ve just got to do better.”

In the second inning, Kirby left a 2-1 slider hanging over the middle of the plate and Luis Garcia Jr. mashed it out to right-center field for a solo homer, 110.4 mph off the bat.

The next batter, Josh Bell, sent a well-placed 3-2 fastball on the outside corner out the opposite way for a home run to left field, giving the Nats a 2-0 lead.

Kirby got two quick outs in the fourth inning before walking Garcia. His 3-2 sinker was a borderline pitch at the bottom of the strike zone and Kirby did not get the call from plate umpire Malachi Moore.

That began a string of five consecutive batters reaching base for the Nats.

Kirby was again one strike away from getting out of the inning unscathed until rookie Robert Hassell III, playing in his sixth major-league game, sent a 2-2 splitter softly to left field for an opposite-field single.

That drove in Garcia to make it 3-0.

On the next pitch, Jose Tena drove a hanging curveball the other way down the left-field line, driving in two more runs. The relay throw home from J.P. Crawford was off-target.

“I’m confident the more and more I keep pitching that a lot of this stuff’s going to, you know, start to hash out a little bit,” Kirby said. “I’ll start to hit spots more, get back into counts. I think it was just a little bit of that tonight. Just two-strike execution, two outs — just got to finish guys.”

James Wood, Washington’s emerging young star, hit his 15th homer of the season way out to right field — 435 feet, with a 113.3 mph exit velocity — in the fifth inning to make it 6-0.

Kirby said he’ll try to take some positives out of the start. He got his pitch count up to 78 and he said physically his arm is strong.

“I feel good. Feel great, actually,” he said. “Recovering great. I’m in a good spot. Just hoping to put up a zero [on the scoreboard].”

Jackson Kowar threw a scoreless seventh inning in his Mariners debut, 14 months after having Tommy John surgery.

Hassell added his first career homer in the eighth off Mariners rookie reliever Blas Castaño, making his MLB debut, extending the Nats’ lead to 7-0. Wood added a two-run double to make it 9-0.

Only once did the Mariners get a runner past second base. That was in the sixth, after Miles Mastrobuoni hit his second single off Williams and eventually moved to third. But he was stranded there.

The Mariners are 2-12 when they don’t hit a homer, and their lead in the AL West shrunk to a half game after Houston’s victory over the Athletics earlier Wednesday.