Good bye LA game thread

[Donn Beach]

Kirby has a new sinker grip, this could be interesting

Of importance to Mariners fans: George Kirby got off to a blazing start, looking like his old self over the first couple of innings. He opened the game by striking out the side, touching 98.4 on his four-seamer while working in his slider. He had a similarly great second inning, again mowing down the middle of the Dodgers lineup 1-2-3. Kirby threw all four of his pitches—sinker, four-seam, slider, and curve—tonight, and was able to produce swing and miss on all of them, getting at least one of his 10 strikeouts on each type of the pitch. The hot new bombshell in the villa was his sinker, which Kirby said he’s made a tweak on in the grip after watching Bryan Woo throw his sinker in a bullpen a couple of weeks ago.

“I was like, dude, how do you throw that? And then he just showed me and I threw it the next day in my game and I had 14 punchies,” he grinned, referring to his outing against the Angels on September 14th.

“It’s been a great pitch the last couple weeks. I knew I wanted to make a little adjustment with it…It was as simple as just turning my fingers a little bit,” said Kirby, who said he felt like he’d lost the feel for the pitch some, especially the back-door sinker. “Sometimes all it takes is a new grip. You see one move and you’re like, okay, I’m back, and you have confidence with it.”