Mariners try hitting home runs with runners on base, beat Cleveland 5-1

But the next batter flipped the vibes, as Cole Young went full extension to corral a hard-hit grounder from Jose Ramírez and get things back on track for Mariners starter George Kirby. View Link Kirby settled down from there, kicking off a run of retiring 11 of 12 batters with five strikeouts. In some ways, he looked like vintage Kirby, with pinpoint command and touching 98 at times.

In other ways, it was an unusual performance for him. He went to his four-seamer almost 50% of the time, about twice as much as last year. The fact that the Guardians’ major threats batted from the left side help explain why Kirby left his sinker on the shelf, and the DeLauter dinger coming on a terrible slider may explain Kirby’s hesitance to return to that pitch.

He’s also deliberately trying to use his curveball against opposite-handed hitters more this year. “[The curveball] is a great weapon, especially against the lefties to start the count or finish it,” he said after the game. “But we were aggressive with heaters, and using the curve just to kind of change their sights a little bit and then go back to the heat.

But yeah, the curveball is one pitch I really want to rely on to lefties. Good strike pitch, good strikeout pitch. And the more I throw it, the better it is.