Mariners' winning streak ends in a sloppy loss to Mets
The loud and sound brand of baseball that had defined the Mariners' resurgence over the past week?
Gone.
The thrilling winning streak?
Gone, too.
The New York Mets broke through with four runs off George Kirby during a funky fourth inning en route to a 7-1 victory Wednesday afternoon at T-Mobile Park, snapping the Mariners' eight-game winning streak.
From the perspective of the Mariners (33-30), it's hard to gripe too much about a 5-1 homestand that featured 16 home runs - tying a franchise record for the most homers during a six-game stand in this ballpark - and reaffirmed their foothold atop the AL West.
And, indeed, M's manager Dan Wilson struck an upbeat tone postgame.
Our guys played extremely well. Obviously, you want to take that one today, but I thought it was a great run and a lot to be proud of," Wilson said.
With a chance for a third straight series sweep, the Mariners were sloppy early on defense and couldn't muster any sort of offensive rally late. They committed two errors and allowed a run to score on a double steal in the fourth inning, the sort of unforced miscues they had largely avoided over the past week.
J.P. Crawford hit a leadoff home run against Mets ace Freddy Peralta for his third leadoff homer of the season and 17th of his career, and it looked like the Mariners' home-run surge would carry on another day.
Peralta, instead, shut the M's down the rest of the way. Crawford finished a triple shy of the cycle; the rest of the lineup had just three singles against Peralta, the former Mariners farmhand who completed six innings of one-run ball on 101 pitches.
The Mariners, after an off day Thursday, embark on a 10-day East Coast trip starting Friday in Detroit.
"It's a special group of players in there," Wilson said. "I know how strongly we as a coaching staff believe in them. They know how strongly they believe in themselves ... and we knew it was coming our way at some point.
"All good things must come to an end at some point. And we just start a new one on Friday."
A Josh Naylor throwing error in the first inning gifted the Mets an early lead, and Kirby couldn't limit the damage in the fourth inning in his third straight subpar start at home.
Kirby has a 7.23 ERA in last four starts, three of which have come at T-Mobile Park.
In general, Kirby has done well to limit hard contact. Of the nine hits he surrendered Wednesday, only one went for extra bases, and that came on the flukiest double you'll ever see - a groundball that hit the first-base bag and deflected past Naylor and into right field to bring in another Mets run.
Still, Kirby admonished himself postgame for not doing a better job of getting ahead of hitters.
"I just gotta get ahead. That's first off," he said. "I've been really bad with it over the last couple weeks. That'll allow me to get some opportunities to really go for that swing-and-miss once I get two strikes. So I think that's the biggest focus right now."
Over the past couple years, Kirby has talked openly about his work with Adam Bernero, the team's mental performance coach, and how important that relationship has been in his development.
"What has happened the last couple weeks, like, I know I'm so much better and more capable of getting these outs, getting ahead, whatever it may be," Kirby said. "I've just got to keep my head down and keep going to work and keep up with my mental stuff - all that good stuff during the week. Just keep believing in my stuff and it's going to turn around."
After issuing a leadoff walk, Kirby surrendered three straight singles in the fourth.
With the bases loaded, Bo Bichette delivered a two-run, broken-bat single up the middle - just past a diving Crawford - to give the Mets a 3-1 lead.
The Mets then executed a well-timed first-and-third double steal, with Juan Soto sliding in safely at second base and Cason Benge scoring easily from third base to make it 4-1.
Wilson challenged the tag from Crawford at second - it appeared Soto's foot might have popped off the base - but after a lengthy review, the call (and the run) stood.
The next batter, Jared Young, made it 5-1 when his routine ground ball hit the first-base bag and rolled into right field, driving in Soto from second. Naylor had been in position to make what would have been the easy third out to end the inning.
It was that kind of day for Kirby, who was charged with four earned runs in four innings.
"George has made such a great mental mind shift, and his mindset is so different," Wilson said. "I think that's something that you tackle with your mindset, and he's going to continue to go out and attack, and I think he's going to be just fine.
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This story was originally published June 3, 2026 at 5:01 PM.