HOUSTON -- The first of many gut punches for the Mariners on Thursday night came 35 minutes before first pitch, when Julio Rodríguez was scratched with back tightness. The final blow was a scary off-the-field injury scare, when Bryan Woo was hit on his lower leg by an errant foul ball into the visitors' dugout in the eighth inning.
And in between, George Kirby took his share of hits, too, when making his much-anticipated season debut after being activated off the injured list.
Sans their talented center fielder, and with their All-Star starting pitcher getting tagged for five earned runs, the Mariners were unable to recover from a mid-innings Astros rally and dropped the opener of their four-game series at Daikin Park, 9-2.
The longer-term concerns for first-place Seattle, however, is the status of Rodríguez, who has been on an upward trend all month, and Woo, who’s been their best starter and is scheduled to take the mound on Saturday.
But Mariners manager Dan Wilson said postgame that Rodríguez is day to day and that Woo was “was up and walking around” and is expected to remain on turn in the rotation:
• On Woo: “I think it was around his knee area, shin area, something like that. But I think he's fine. Not concerned.”
• On Rodríguez: “It kind of tightened up on him during batting practice today. So we just wanted to be precautious with it.”
As for Kirby, there were expected kinks as he made his first big league start since pitching in this very venue last September, having spent the past 11 weeks recovering from right shoulder inflammation. But they compounded quicker than he’d hoped when navigating Houston’s lineup the second time through while also throwing his highest-stress pitches in eight months.
The dagger for the right-hander was a three-run sequence in the fourth inning, when he nearly escaped a two-out jam. But he caught too much plate on consecutive pitches -- an RBI single to Maurico Dubón down the right-field line in a 1-2 count, then a two-run triple to Jeremy Peña that one-hopped the left-field wall on the very next pitch -- that sent Houston off and running.
With his workload approaching the 75-pitch threshold that the Mariners forecasted, the fourth inning likely would’ve been Kirby’s final frame anyway. But instead of departing with a 2-2 tie, the snowballed production created a stinging end to his night and the start to his season.
“The Dubón one, I executed exactly the way I wanted; he just kind of poked it down the line,” Kirby said. “And then the Peña one, yeah, I kind of left it up the middle. I just didn't quite get inside as much as I wanted to today. But I know for a fact that'll come.”
Entering Thursday, Kirby was 3-0 with a 1.32 ERA in eight career starts against the Astros, including the postseason.
In total, nine of the 19 batters that Kirby faced reached base (six hits, one walk and one hit-by-pitch) and five eventually scored. But there were also times on Thursday when Kirby was in peak form.
His fastball topped out at 98.8 mph and averaged just above 96 mph for the outing. He was consistently ahead in counts, going 13-for-19 on first-pitch strikes. Even when he fell behind, other than the one walk, there were times where he was able to recover, no moment clearer than when he painted a 95.9 mph sinker to Jake Meyers low-and-away for a called strikeout in a full count that stranded a runner in the second inning.
“It was a little sporadic, but yeah, it felt great to be back out there,” Kirby said. “My body feels good. It just didn't go the way I wanted to tonight, but it's a great step.”
Things started to turn in the third, when Kirby surrendered consecutive singles to Cam Smith and Dubón before hitting Peña for the second time of the night. (He also got him on his very first pitch of the game.)
With no outs and laboring against contact specialist Isaac Paredes, Kirby generated a ground ball, but third baseman Ben Williamson committed an uncharacteristic error on a would-be double play and was only able to get one out. Jose Altuve followed with a sacrifice fly that otherwise would’ve been the third out and preserved a one-run Seattle lead.
Kirby will be on a six-day routine for the immediate future, putting him in line to start next Wednesday back home against the Nationals.