[Biggp07]

👑 Saturday, June 14 • Game 2 👑

We couldn't start a rally, couldn't change the rhythm.

Seattle Mariners at Kansas City Royals | Kaufmann Stadium
Weather: Partly Cloudy, 84° | Wind: Out to CF, 10 mph | Attendance: 37,052 | First pitch: 3:10 PM CT
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Pregame Memo (Manager's Desk)

Bobby Witt Jr. stayed down today — day-to-day with the ankle sprain — and we kept the same conservative lane we talked through last night: no hero stuff in mid-June, not with the Yankees series sitting on the horizon and the division grind tightening every week. Our 26-man depth is built for this exact moment, and if we have to win games without our engine for a few days, so be it.

Coming off Cleveland, I was also watching the bullpen meters closely. Turnbull took some lumps in Game 1 but held the rope long enough for Ferguson and Topa to bridge it. Today's ask was similar: keep innings from getting away, and give us a chance to win it late. That plan didn't survive the first hour.

Seattle Mariners Series Snapshot

Seattle arrived dragging a skid, but they didn't play like a club searching for a win. They played like a club with a plan: line drives early, pressure with extra bases, and let Kirby turn the game into a quiet room. We were trying to take the series lead without Witt, and instead we walked into a buzzsaw.

Series Matchup Board — Game 2

• LHP Jordan Montgomery vs. RHP George Kirby

It tilted fast. Kirby had one of those no-breath, no-wiggle outings: 9.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 11 K (102 pitches). Montgomery never found a clean lane; Seattle stacked doubles and singles early, then broke it open in the 5th.
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Game Day Log — Royals vs. Mariners (Game 2)

Inning-by-Inning Beats (Dugout View)

1st (Immediate damage):
Seattle came out hunting. Leo Jiménez doubled, Justin Foscue doubled to score him, and Julio Rodríguez doubled in another run. Two doubles, then another — and we're down 2–0 before we can settle our feet. Kirby took the mound and immediately looked comfortable, living in the zone and getting early-count outs.

2nd (Kirby sets the tone):
Our at-bats started leaning defensive. He wasn't giving free passes, and the contact we did make wasn't loud enough to shift momentum. This felt like one of those games where you need a break or a mistake. Neither came.

3rd (Seattle adds on with pressure):
Jiménez got hit, Foscue singled, and Rodríguez doubled again to make it 3–0. It wasn't chaos — it was execution. On our side, Kirby was already stacking strikeouts and keeping our barrel count low.

4th (Quiet, but the game is slipping):
We kept taking outs, and Kirby kept collecting them. This is where you can feel the dugout start searching for a single loud swing… and there just wasn't one.

5th (The inning that buried it):
Seattle turned the screws: two singles, then Rodríguez doubled for the third time, and everything snowballed into a four-run inning. When you're already down three, and you give up a crooked inning like that, the game turns from “compete” to “survive.” Score jumped to 7–0.

6th (Our one clean extra-base note — still no run):
Nick Loftin tripled to lead off the 6th — the rare moment where we created real traffic. But we couldn't cash it, and Kirby walked back to the mound with the same calm pulse. That was the gut-check: even our best spark died at third.

7th (Seattle twists the knife):
Rodríguez homered to make it 8–0. Kirby, meanwhile, stayed on autopilot — strikeouts, weak contact, no walks.

8th (Klein sighting in the middle of the storm):
We brought in Will Klein, and he showed why we made the roster move: 2.0 IP, 4 K, power stuff, even with the scoreboard ugly. Seattle still plated one more in the 8th to make it 9–0, but the takeaway for me was Klein's punchouts — a small positive in a game with very few.

9th (No comeback story):
We finally strung two hits — Renfroe doubled, Dingler reached on an infield hit — but even that ended with frustration (runner erased after being hit by a batted ball). Kirby finished the shutout clean.
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Final

Royals 0, Mariners 9
Royals (3 H, 0 E) | Mariners (15 H, 0 E)

Seattle headline: George Kirby — complete-game shutout, 11 K / 0 BB

Kansas City bright spots (thin, but real): Loftin triple; Renfroe double; Klein's four punchouts in two innings

Kansas City Pitching Scoreline
Pitcher             Dec            IP    H   R   ER   BB    K   HR    PI    ERA
Montgomery, J.     L (9-5)        6.0   12   8    8    1    6    0    83   4.59
Klein, W.                         2.0    3   1    1    1    4    0    34   3.86
Hernandez, C.                     1.0    0   0    0    0    0    0     7   3.09

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Front Office Note / Takeaways

This one is a hard flush. Kirby didn't just beat us — he controlled us. No walks, no breathing room, and we never made him carry stress. On our side, Montgomery's line (and that 5th inning) is the warning sign: when we're not sharp early, quality opponents don't let you “settle in.”

Two organizational notes I'm logging before tomorrow:

1. Stay disciplined with Witt. A week of patience is cheaper than a month of regret.

2. Klein's outing matters. In a game that got away, he still showed swing-and-miss and attacked. That's a usable building block for the bullpen lanes we're trying to define as we head into the summer squeeze.

Around the League

Seattle's clubhouse quote fit the day: their staff framed Kirby as a guy who simply “goes about his business,” pitch after pitch, no matter the moment. We saw exactly what that looks like when it's rolling — and it's the standard we've got to answer when the next ace comes into our yard.
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👑 FOR THE CROWN — ALWAYS 👑

Kansas City Royals | Regular Season 2025 - Game 66



(OOTP25 Royals Journey — GM/Manager's Dual Log)