ANAHEIM — A pretty nice offensive week for the Angels came to a quiet end, thanks to George Kirby.
The Angels went down easily, except for a Taylor Ward two-run homer, in a 3-2 loss to Kirby and the Seattle Mariners on Sunday afternoon.
“He’s one of the top young elite pitchers in the game,” Manager Ron Washington said. “What I noticed out there tonight is that he can put you away. And that’s what you want to see out of your starting pitchers when they get ahead of hitters, being able to put them away. He was able to put us away, but we stayed in the ball game with him.”
The Angels (30-34) had scored 33 runs in the first five games of the week, winning four of them. They were going for a sweep of the Mariners on Sunday.
Kirby brought a misleading 8.56 ERA into the game. He had been out for most of the first two months with a shoulder injury. Kirby returned to form slowly through his first three starts, getting a little better each time.
He was dominant against the Angels.
Kirby struck out eight of the first 11 hitters. He didn’t allow a baserunner until Mike Trout poked a single into right in the fourth. A few pitches later, Ward hit a homer, his 18th of the season.
After that, Kirby retired the next 10 hitters he faced, striking out six more through his seven innings. His 14 strikeouts equaled the most in the majors this season.
“George is always a tough at bat,” catcher Logan O’Hoppe said. “But today was especially tough. He didn’t make any mistakes, really. I mean, even the pitch that Wardo hit, was still inner half and credit to (Ward), that’s a really impressive swing off of a guy with that stuff that day. Ran into a good performance by him today, for sure.”
The Angels went down in order in the eighth and against Matt Brash, and they wasted a leadoff walk against closer Andrés Muñoz in the ninth. Trout struck out to end the game.
The game was close because Angels starter Tyler Anderson avoided serious damage on a day that he had to work through plenty of traffic.
Anderson needed 95 pitches to grind his way through 4⅔ innings, allowing three runs.
He cost himself a run and a handful of extra pitches with a defensive mistake in the first inning.
After he issued a leadoff walk to J.P. Crawford, Anderson got Julio Rodriguez to hit a comebacker. Anderson’s throw to second was wide. Scott Kingery was able to stretch for the out at second, but he couldn’t convert what should have been a double play. That ended up leading to a run in an inning that took Anderson 29 pitches to complete.
Anderson did well to give up just three runs on a day that he allowed eight hits and walked a batter. The Mariners had 14 at-bats with a runner in scoring position against Anderson.
“I actually feel like I threw the ball better than I had my last few, just not very efficient,” Anderson said. “Not getting a lot of quick outs. A lot of foul balls. But for the most part, in the strike zone more making better pitches. It’s on me, just not giving us any length. Obviously being short already in the bullpen going into today’s game is tough. But overall, in terms of making better pitches, which was my goal, felt like, for the most part, it was better.”