Five days after he started one of the most epic games in Mariners history, George Kirby will take the mound again Wednesday with a chance to take Seattle closer to the World Series than ever before.
“Just to be in front of the home crowd again is honestly huge for us,” Kirby said, looking ahead to an American League Championship Series Game 3 showdown against the Blue Jays at T-Mobile Park. “Everyone gets super excited being back home. The crowd energizes us.”
The Mariners took a commanding 2-0 lead in this best-of-seven ALCS with victories Sunday and Monday in Toronto, and they host three games over the next three days with a chance to close out the first AL championship in club history.
The Mariners had won two ALCS games in 1995 and 2000. They’ve never won three.
“Obviously, it’s a very advantageous position,” M’s manager Dan Wilson said Tuesday afternoon. “We’re excited about that. But there’s work to do here. I think the focus is (Wednesday) night. That’s where our focus goes. That’s how we’ve done this all along, is just we’re taking one day at a time. It sounds very cliché, but you take it one step at a time.
“Tomorrow night, we’re looking forward to getting back out there, taking in the atmosphere here at T-Mobile Park. We know it’s going to be an awesome atmosphere here for baseball. So that’s where our focus lies. We get back to work.”
Right-hander Shane Bieber is the Game 3 scheduled starter for Toronto.
Bieber, 30, was traded from Cleveland at the trade deadline, a year after he had Tommy John surgery. He made seven starts for the Blue Jays during the regular season, posting a 3.57 ERA over 40.1 innings, with 37 strikeouts, seven walks and eight home runs allowed.
In the ALDS, Bieber allowed three runs (two earned) over 2.2 innings to the Yankees on the road last week.
“I like our chances really any day, anywhere, against anyone,” Toronto manager John Schneider said at T-Mobile Park on Tuesday afternoon. “I think off day was good for us today to kind of reset. I think the guys are going to come out knowing exactly what they have to do. Not that we didn’t the first two games, but it’s a seven-game series, and I think they’re excited to play here tomorrow.”
Wednesday’s Game 3 will mark the Mariners’ first game in Seattle since closing out Detroit in a winner-take-all, 15-inning Game 5 of the AL Division Series on Friday, during which Kirby threw five-plus solid innings, allowing one run on three hits.
Over 18 career innings in the postseason, Kirby has allowed three runs (1.50 ERA) with a 20-to-2 strikeout-to-walk ratio. (The Mariners have gone into extra innings in all three of Kirby’s playoff starts: 18 innings vs. Houston in the 2022 ALDS; 11 innings vs. Detroit in Game 1 last week; and 15 innings in Game 5.)
Kirby, who missed the first two months of the season with inflammation in his shoulder, has a 3.29 in 14 starts (including playoffs) at home this season.
Mariners pitching has held the Blue Jays to four runs combined in the first two games of this series, after Toronto scored 34 runs in a four-game thumping of the Yankees in their ALDS.
“We’ve got to figure out ways to generate some more offense,” Schneider said after the Mariners’ 10-3 victory in Game 2.
The Blue Jays offense had the lowest strikeout rate in MLB during the regular season – and the highest batting average – and their aggressiveness early in counts has been a key storyline early on in this series.
Mariners pitchers needed just 100 pitches to close out their 3-1 victory in Game 1, the lowest total by an MLB team in a postseason game since 2018.
“These guys can pitch and they’re going to come right after you early,” Schneider said. “There’s ways to combat that. Again, you don’t want guys to sit there and wait a guy out and say he’s pitching on short rest. You’ve got to trust guys to make good swing decisions.”
In the ALDS Game 5 against Detroit, exactly half of the 66 pitches Kirby threw were sliders, the highest rate of slider use in any start in his career. And a lot of those came early in counts, to get hitters off his fastball.
“Sometimes that’s all you need to do, is just start with something else and kind of attack from there,” Kirby said. “So glad I did that.”
How Kirby uses that particular pitch – and how the Blue Jays adjust to it – will be a focal point in Game 3.