Mariners Waste George Kirby Masterclass As Rangers Hand Them Fourth Straight Loss

George Kirby gave the Mariners exactly the kind of start that is supposed to stop a skid. Instead, Seattle wasted it anyway. In a 3-2 loss to Texas on April 7, Kirby went the distance in an eight-inning complete game, allowing six hits, three earned runs, no walks, and four strikeouts on just 90 pitches.

Brendan Donovan gave Seattle an immediate lead with a leadoff homer, Cal Raleigh later drove in Cole Young to make it 2-0 in the fifth, and that still was not enough. Kyle Higashioka’s two-run homer flipped the game for Texas, while Nathan Eovaldi settled in for six innings of two-run ball before Jacob Latz and Jakob Junis closed it out. The loss dropped Seattle to 4-8 and extended this slide to four straight while also securing another frustrating series loss in Texas.

Brendan Donovan is the 2nd player to hit multiple leadoff home runs within his first 10 games with the @Mariners, joining Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson (3 HR, 5/20/2000 vs. TB, 5/21/2000 vs. TB and 5/26/2000 at TB). https://t.co/AvbOsqTbt0
— Mariners PR (@MarinersPR) April 8, 2026

Mariners Waste Complete-Game Effort In Frustrating Loss To Rangers

Kirby gave them the kind of outing this roster is supposedly built to support. This was their guy handing them a very winnable game on a silver platter, and the Mariners still found a way to turn it into another one of those grim April losses that everyone pretends not to remember later in the season.

The fifth inning was the whole game in miniature. Donovan’s errant throw on Joc Pederson’s infield single opened the door, Evan Carter cashed in one run, and then Kirby made the one loud mistake he really could not afford when Higashioka got a 96 mph fastball over too much of the plate and sent it out to left-center.

Into the Higgy Bank! #AllForTX pic.twitter.com/kEyRQrGeR0
— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) April 8, 2026

That is what makes this one sting a little more than your standard low-scoring Mariners loss. Eovaldi still shoved. And Texas has enough arms to make two runs feel like a mountain. But Seattle had already proven it could get to him early. Donovan’s leadoff homer should have been the start of pressure, not the entire personality of the offense for the night.

And that is the larger issue here. The Mariners keep asking their pitching staff to live in absurdly tight margins while the lineup treats two runs like a full evening’s work. That is not sustainable, and it is definitely not a fair way to evaluate a rotation that has already had to carry too much. Kirby deserved better than to leave this game wearing a complete-game loss because the defense got sloppy for five minutes and the offense could not find one more meaningful swing.

We have seen this script before, which is probably why it already feels heavier than “it is still early” is supposed to cover. The Mariners are not getting run off the field. In some ways, that almost makes it worse. They keep hanging around, getting just enough from their pitching to win, and then finding new ways to waste it. Tuesday was just the cleanest example yet. George Kirby gave them a stopper’s outing. The Mariners gave him another reminder that right now, being good is not the same thing as being supported.