Grayson Rodriguez and George Kirby each threw a dominant 6 ⅓ innings, but Orioles hitters were just a bit better, and they took the series opener.
The 2024 Orioles and Mariners are both good teams, but they’re built differently. Seattle has a superlative stable of pitchers, but these days their offense is ice-cold. The Orioles hit home runs in bunches, but lately their injury-plagued pitching staff hasn’t been quite as sharp: a 3.73 June ERA isn’t bad, but it’s nearly a run higher than their excellent 2.82 mark in May.
Despite that, for most of Tuesday’s series opener these two teams looked almost like mirror images. Each trotted out a onetime top pitching prospect in Grayson Rodriguez and George Kirby, respectively, each of whom threw 6 1/3 innings, flashing an overwhelming fastball, sneaky breaking stuff and good command. Neither lineup could really do much with them.
This game could have gone either way, but in the end it came down to offensive approach, and the Orioles’ was better. They never blew the doors off of Seattle pitching at any point, but several O’s hitters—Anthony Santander and Cedric Mullins standouts here—turned in fantastic at-bats to push along small-ball rallies. Baltimore plated one run in the fourth and another in the seventh. Despite a really ugly outing by Craig Kimbrel in the ninth inning, two runs was enough to win.
Back to the starters. George Kirby was as good as advertised, tough to square up and stingy with the walks. Rarely is Gunnar Henderson late on fastballs, but he was late several times on Tuesday after Kirby slowed down his bat with sinister knuckle curves. Adley Rutschman went 0-for-3 with a bunch of weak contact. Heston Kjerstad, who’s already flashed crazy bat speed, struck out three times.
Despite a few signs of early Oriole life (an Anthony Santander looper, a 101-mph Colton Cowser groundout, Cedric Mullins working a rare walk off Kirby), there were only zeroes on the scoreboard for the first three innings.
But come the fourth, the starter’s brilliance flickered. Again, credit the O’s with several tough at-bats. One was from Henderson, who stung a 1-1 sinker to center and advanced to second on a fielder’s choice. Anthony Santander turned in the game’s grittiest AB, hitting foul after foul until he singled the tenth pitch up the middle to score Henderson.
The Birds would do it once more off Kirby in the seventh. Jordan Westburg singled the other way and scampered to third on a Cowser single, the Milkman’s third well-hit ball of the day. Seattle skipper Scott Servais trundled to the mound, but Kirby waved him off. Kirby has earned that confidence, but Cedric Mullins made him pay, waiting out a curveball and singling home Westburg. Now 2-0 Orioles, Kirby was given the hook.
Kirby’s final line: 6.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 5 K. Pretty darn good. It’s just that Grayson Rodriguez was better.
This isn’t the scariest offense Grayson Rodriguez has faced and will face this year, but the youngster’s stuff looked really good. Matching Kirby pitch-for-pitch, Rodriguez barreled through the first three innings on just 35 pitches.
As it sometimes does, the righty’s command faltered later in the game, as in a fourth and fifth inning where Rodriguez allowed a bunch of traffic. That included two walks in the fourth, erased when Jorge Polanco bounced into a tailor-made double play. Two more Mariners were stranded in the fifth when Rodriguez drew a squibber to the mound, then struck out the catcher Cal Raleigh.
Rodriguez came back out in the seventh to get one more strikeout, his eighth, plus a career-high 19th swing-and-miss. His night ended on a slight off note, a nine-pitch walk of outfielder Dominic Canzone that necessitated turning to Yennier Cano for two outs. But unlike Kirby that inning, Rodriguez’s perfect line was protected, as the sinkerballer delivered a weak ground ball and a swinging strikeout.
About the only nit to pick with the 24-year-old Rodriguez’s outing tonight is that he could have been more pitch-efficient, throwing 104 pitches, walking four and failing to get out of the seventh. Whatever. It’s hard to be mad about six-plus scoreless innings with two hits allowed and eight strikeouts, to go with the six scoreless he threw against the Mariners earlier this year.
The pitchers’ duel continued as we proceeded to the bullpens. The O’s couldn’t tack on more insurance, despite old friends Austin Voth and Mike Baumann showing various degrees of shakiness.
Meanwhile Cano, Cionel Pérez and the Orioles defense preserved the lead while racking up abundant style points. On a one-out dribbler, Pérez made a barehanded scoop-and-throw to Ryan O’Hearn at first like it was no big deal. That same inning, Seattle first baseman Ty France hit an arcing ball down the line that a running Colton Cowser tracked down without breaking stride.
Then there was that ninth inning. Craig Kimbrel has built up a Hall of Fame resume, but this season he doesn’t seem to like to make anything easy. Tuesday night’s save was about as ugly a scoreless outing as you’ll ever see. Kimbrel hit the leadoff man with a sideways-moving knuckle curve that narrowly grazed a knee. Seattle catcher Raleigh crushed a sphincter-clenching ball 434 feet, just wide of the foul pole, then struck out. Wow. Another Kimbrel curve hit the lackluster Polanco, just the second time in Kimbrel’s career he’s hit two batters in one inning. But somehow, somehow, he managed to whiff a slumping Julio Rodríguez and close this game out.
“Talk about drama,” offered Jim Palmer, making a very happy return to the MASN booth tonight, despite what he’d just seen. Asked in the postgame interview if he’d been nervous in the ninth, Anthony Santander told a brazen lie (“Not at all, not at all”).
Well, good enough for government work. Especially after another brilliant starter outing and just enough offense. Also, the Yankees lost to Cincinnati! Back to work for the Orioles tomorrow. The starter matchup doesn’t get any easier, as Logan Gilbert will face a newly activated Dean Kremer. Let’s see what the Birds bats can do against him.