M’s waste brilliant outing from Kirby in loss to Phillies

By Ryan Divish / The Seattle Times

PHILADELPHIA – Somewhere in Miami, an otherwise normal afternoon in Felix Hernandez’s unofficial retirement was probably interrupted by an unexpected cold chill running across his skin and the deja vu of feeling disappointment despite dominance.

For so many years, he’d lived this sort out of outing and outcome in a Seattle Mariners uniform. The sort of treatment not fit for a King.

Now it was someone else’s turn to understand that feeling.

Thousands of miles away on overcast afternoon at Citizens Bank Park and with large group of friends and family making the trek from New York, George Kirby delivered one of his best outings as big league pitcher.

His reward: Not a run of support from his teammates, a blemish on his record and another one-run and series loss for the Mariners, who squandered Kirby’s effort and were shut out in a 1-0 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.

“We’ve got to do more offensively,” manager Scott Servais said. “Three hits ain’t gonna get it done, not in this ballpark, not against anybody. A couple line outs didn’t go our way with runners in scoring position, but other than that we didn’t do much offensively at all.”

With a heavily-used bullpen and a weekend series in Toronto looming, the Mariners needed Kirby to pitch deep into the series finale vs. the Phillies. He did that and more, throwing every pitch for the Mariners in a game that took just 2 hours and 4 minutes.

“Just a great performance by George Kirby,” manager Scott Servais said. “Obviously, it’s his first-ever complete game. Unfortunately, it was an eight-inning complete game so it usually means you’re on the bad side of things. It was an awesome job against that team in this ballpark.”

Kirby pitched a career-high eight innings, allowing one run on four hits with a walk and seven strikeouts, but took the loss to fall 2-2.

“I thought I pitched great,” Kirby said. “I threw a lot of good curveballs. I kept them off balance all day. I did my job and went as long as I could.”

It was something that happened to Hernandez far too often in his brilliant career with Seattle.

Hernandez had 66 starts where he pitched eight innings or more and allowed one run or fewer. He earned the win in 52 of them, took the loss in two and had no decisions in 12 of others.

In Kirby’s brief career and with the Mariners monitoring his usage, he now has three games where he’s pitched seven complete innings or more and allowed one run or fewer, but he’s never gotten a win. He’s taken two no-decisions and. now a loss. Seattle has actually lost two of those games.

“George was awesome and we can’t ask for much more,” Servais said. “He’s disappointed we didn’t win the ball game and feels bad, but he absolutely did his job.”

Kirby threw 89 pitches over eight innings with 65 strikes. He got 13 swings-and misses on pitches and 15 called strikes with 11 groundball outs.

“Some days it’s like you’re just unconscious and throwing out there, where everything just feels good and you go,” he said.

His one run allowed came in second inning when Nick Castellanos led off with a single and later scored on Kody Clemens single to center. Servais didn’t think the Phillies would’ve gotten a run had Julio Rodriguez hit the cutoff man.

With Castellanos stealing on the play, Clemens dumped the single into right-center. Rodriguez charged the ball, fielded it on the run, spun around and fired to home. The throw was lofted and bounced to Ty France by the pitchers mound instead.

“In these one-run games, you have to play clean,” Servais said. “We don’t hit the cut-off man, which then allowed the run to score. You have to do all the things right all the time and play clean. It doesn’t show up as an error, but it’s a mistake. It cost us a run, ultimately the game-winning run.”

That was all the Phillies would need as five pitchers combined to shut out Seattle. It was the second time Seattle has been held scoreless in a game this season. The first was on April 1 vs. Cleveland.

Lefty Matt Strahm held the Mariners scoreless over 5.1 innings pitched, allowing only two hits – both to Tom Murphy – while striking out five batters and walking none.

A former reliever with an awkward delivery and a sidearm release, Strahm flummoxed Mariners hitters. The Phillies bullpen was just as dominant, allowing just one hit — a pinch hit single from Tommy La Stella in the seventh inning.

Murphy led off with a double to left in the third inning. But was stranded there as Strahm struck out Jose Caballero and got J.P. Crawford to ground out to shortstop. With two outs, Julio Rodriguez hit a hard line drive to right field with a 105-mph exit velocity. But the hardest hit ball in the game was right at Castellanos, who made the catch to end the inning.

In the seventh inning, La Stella singled with two outs and Jarred Kelenic worked a tough walk against lefty Gregory Soto to put the tying run in scoring position. But Murphy’s sinking linedrive to right field was caught by a sliding Castellanos.