Mariners’ George Kirby joins extremely exclusive Seattle pitching club after taming Astros

The Seattle Mariners took down the Houston Astros 3-1 on Monday night, thanks in large part to right-hander George Kirby’s steady outing, which placed him in a highly exclusive group of Seattle pitchers.

The 28-year-old improved to 5-2 after working five innings, allowing one run on seven hits and two walks while striking out seven. He generated 12 whiffs and reached a season-high 99 pitches in a start that became his shortest appearance of the season, despite keeping Houston’s lineup mostly in check. Kirby became the 12th pitcher in franchise history to reach 50 career wins with the Mariners.

The performance came against an Astros lineup that managed seven singles off him, with Jose Altuve collecting multiple hits and Isaac Paredes going 3-for-3 with an RBI single in the fifth inning that accounted for Houston’s only run. Kirby also worked through traffic in every inning he pitched but prevented the Astros from producing a multi-run frame. Across nine starts this season, he now owns a 2.84 ERA with a 1.16 WHIP and a 46:14 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 57 innings.

Seattle provided early run support in the second inning, when Dominic Canzone and Cole Young lined up back-to-back RBI singles with two outs, driving in Randy Arozarena and Luke Raley to give the Mariners a 2-0 lead. Julio Rodriguez extended the advantage in the third inning, launching an 0-2 pitch 414 feet for his seventh home run of the season to make it 3-0.

Houston starter Peter Lambert matched a career high by pitching seven innings but allowed three runs on six hits while striking out six. The Astros offense was held to a single run despite collecting multiple hits from Altuve and Paredes.

Seattle’s bullpen preserved the lead, with Andres Munoz recording his eighth save by striking out Yordan Alvarez to end the game after allowing a ninth-inning single to Altuve. The win was the Mariners’ franchise-record eighth consecutive win over Houston.

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