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MinuteMaid Park has been a house of horrors for the Seattle Mariners over the last few years, so the M's 5-1 win over the Astros on Thursday was much-needed.
The Astros have 32 wins against the M's in Houston since 2019 and beat the Mariners twice there in the playoffs in 2022.
Enter George Kirby.
The emerging ace, who was just named to the All-Star team as a replacement, went 6.2 innings against the World Champions, surrendering just one run on six hits. He walked one and struck out three. With the win, he is now 8-7 on the year and owns a 3.09 ERA.
He also moved into a tie for the league-lead in quality starts, per the Mariners PR team.
All-Star pitcher @gkirb98 leads the American League in quality starts (14) and is tied with Marcus Stroman-CHC for the Major League lead this season.
Since being brought up in 2022, Kirby is 16-12 in his career with a 3.26 ERA.
He's been a stabilizing force for a Mariners rotation that has lost Robbie Ray for the season (Tommy John surgery) and has been without Marco Gonzales.
After the win, the M's are now back at .500 at 43-43. They are still in fourth place in the American League West, seven games back of the Texas Rangers, but they have climbed back into the wild card race, where they trail by four games.
The M's will play the Astros again on Friday night. First pitch is 8:10 p.m. ET as Luis Castillo pitches against Hunter Brown.
More must-reads:
- Mets share worrisome Kodai Senga update
- Pirates' Paul Skenes impressed but doesn't make list of top five debuts
- The 'No. 1 overall pick in the MLB Draft' quiz
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