George Kirby roughed up as Rangers extend lead over Mariners atop AL West

Adam Jude, The Seattle Times on Jul 27, 2026

Published in Baseball

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ARLINGTON, Texas — It was the worst time for George Kirby to have his worst start of the season.

As trade rumors intensify around him, Kirby surrendered four home runs in four innings to the Texas Rangers, who turned the tables on their longtime bully and stretched their lead over the Seattle Mariners atop the AL West with an emphatic 7-3 victory Monday afternoon at Globe Life Field.

The Rangers (54-52) took three of four games in this pivotal divisional showdown, and the Mariners (52-55) held a lead for just three of the 36 innings over the past four days here.

The M’s are 3-7 against the Rangers this season and lost six of seven games here at Globe Life Field.

It gets worse: The Mariners not only leave Texas trailing by 2.5 games in the division, but they now head to Los Angeles for a three-game series against the two-time reigning champion Dodgers, baseball’s behemoth.

“I think we had different aspirations coming in here, and it didn’t turn out that way,” M’s manager Dan Wilson said outside a silent visitors’ clubhouse Monday. “We’ve got to turn it up.”

They’re running out of time to do so.

The MLB trade deadline is quickly approaching next Monday, and the Mariners’ front office is steadfast in its desire to bolster this underperforming roster.

Industry sources with knowledge of the club’s plans say the Mariners are listening to offers for Luis Castillo and Emerson Hancock, but they do not intend to trade any of their other starters. That includes Kirby, who was the team’s hand-picked choice to start Game 7 of the AL Championship Series in Toronto last October and is under club control through the 2028 season.

That hasn’t stopped rampant speculation about potential trades involving Kirby ahead the MLB trade deadline next Monday.

Kirby said the rumors haven’t been a distraction for him.

“I don’t have Twitter,” he said. “So I don’t see it.”

Kirby’s four homers allowed match his career high in any game, and three of the homers Monday came in two-strike counts.

“It was a lot of just poor two-strike execution,” Kirby said. “I feel like I could get it to where I want to early in the count, and then two strikes — damage. Just left a lot of things (in the) middle. They’re a good team, so they’ll take advantage of it.”

The Rangers’ Joc Pederson led off the bottom of the first by belting a Kirby sweeper out to left-center field.

After a Randy Arozarena homer tied the score in the second, Pederson added a three-homer off Kirby in the second inning, turning on an elevated inside fastball and sending it just over the wall in right field to extend the Rangers lead to 4-1.

Ezequiel Duran crushed a home run to lead off the third inning to make it 5-2, and Jake Burger yanked an 0-2 sweeper that Kirby left over the heart of the plate for a two-run homer to make it 7-2.

He had allowed 11 homers in his first 19 starts this season, and just four in his previous nine starts.

And in 12 previous starts against the Rangers, Kirby had owned them, surrendering just four home runs in those 12 starts and posting a 9-1 record with a 1.33 ERA over 74 1/3 innings.

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