He went from “Furious George” to “Happy George” in almost the blink of an eye. But the moment called for it on Monday night for George Kirby, who emphatically cleared the eighth inning with a strikeout on his 100th pitch, then went through a human-formed tunnel among teammates in the home dugout at T-Mobile Park -- with the Mariners on the cusp of a 6-2 win. “I was just trying to get real pissed off at the end there, just kind of give it all I had,” Kirby said postgame, unable to help himself from breaking into a big smile, much like he did just a short while earlier. Buoyed by the first career multihomer game from Cole Young, a 428-foot blast from Dominic Canzone on a hurt hamstring, and some RISP-y production from Cal Raleigh, Kirby and the Mariners cruised in this one over the Angels. “A little bit of everything tonight,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said, one day removed from a brutal finish in Cleveland. Indeed, the Mariners put together the type of well-rounded win they’ve been seeking for much of the past few weeks. **Kirby the capstone** For as much as the Mariners have needed more offense, the night’s most promising development might’ve been Kirby. And this was the type of outing that’d been brewing for the Mariners’ uber-competitive righty for some time. Kirby took five straight losses as the pitcher of record over a full month beginning in mid-May, but had begun to turn things towards the end of that stretch -- yet without results to show for it. And then on Monday, he had to earn it from the get-go. Just six pitches and two batters in, the Angels were on the board via a leadoff double from Zach Neto and an RBI single from Denzer Guzman that nicked off Josh Naylor’s glove. It was the type of maddening moment that could’ve sunk Kirby in years past, compounded by a solo homer by Neto in the second. But once the Mariners handed him a 3-2 lead in the fourth, Kirby was completely dialed in, retiring 12 of his final 15 batters. “The runs are nice, but for me, it doesn't affect me,” Kirby said. “I've just got to keep going out there and just finish the job.”
