George Kirby knew he needed to throw at least once during his getaway over the All-Star break.
So he went to a sporting goods store, bought a $20 baseball mitt for his girlfriend to use and got in at least one light throwing session during his few days off.
Mariners stumble vs. Astros, unable to finish sweep of AL West rival
The throwing has been a little more intense over the past few days and will pick up even more Monday night when Kirby starts the opener of a three-game series with Milwaukee.
Kirby last threw July 12 in Detroit, but the M’s decided to give him and Logan Gilbert some extra rest coming out of the break and slotted them in against Milwaukee.
“I don’t really know what they wanted to do out of the break, but I’m grateful I get four days out of the break,” Kirby said.
The M’s and Brewers, who won their 10th straight with a sweep of the Dodgers, both announced their rotations for the upcoming series Sunday, with Kirby getting the call in the opener, followed by a tantalizing matchup Tuesday night with Gilbert facing off with Milwaukee rookie Jacob Misiorowski.
Luis Castillo, who started Friday against Houston, will go in the series finale Wednesday before the M’s embark on a seven-game road trip to California.
“More just kind of how they pitched in Detroit. It was George first and then Logan second so that was kind of the natural flow of that,” M’s manager Dan Wilson said.
Going into the break, Kirby appeared to be fully rounding into form after missing almost two months to begin the season due to shoulder soreness. In his final four starts, Kirby had a 2.31 ERA, pitching at least six innings in three of the four starts and struck out 23 while walking only four batters. His numbers would have been even better if not for Riley Greene’s three-run homer in Kirby’s final inning of work in the last start before the break in Detroit.
Kirby didn’t want the delayed start to his season to be a reason why it took until the past month before he started to look a bit more like the pitcher the Mariners have come to expect.
“It’s kind of how it goes sometimes. You really don’t start clicking with your body and everything until after the first month. You kind of get used to the five-day (rotation) and all that,” Kirby said. “Just the more reps I get out there, the better that I feel, just feel more comfortable. Kind of about time I started to put some games together.”
Kirby said one of the keys with improved results has been better command of his two-seam fastball and his slider. Better command has allowed him to work more ahead in counts.
“I feel like those four, just really been in control. I haven’t given the hitters a chance to get good counts, or kind of sit on something because I’m throwing it a lot,” Kirby said. “I’m trying to keep them off balance and all that. Just get ahead and when you do that you can control the game.”
Yes, that is a torpedo bat that Randy Arozarena has been using recently during his slugging surge at the plate.
It might have been out of necessity more than anything.
Arozarena said he tinkered with using the torpedo-style bat at the beginning of the season when attention was the highest on who was using them and who was trying them out. But then it went into his bat bag for quite a while in part because he couldn’t get a hit.
Via interpreter Freddy Llanos, Arozarena said Sunday that it was a couple of weeks ago he turned to the torpedo again in part because he’d broken several of his regular bats.
“I just tried to give it another opportunity. I liked the way it weighed — the base that it has — and went with it,” Arozarena said.
Arozarena failed to reach base Sunday, going 0 for 4 in the series finale against the Astros, but over the past 27 games he’s hitting .318 with an OPS over 1.000 and has reached safely in 22 of those 27.
