George Kirby spoke out on Saturday, a day after throwing his manager under the bus.
Kirby’s Seattle Mariners were leading the Tampa Bay Rays 4-2 through six and a half innings on Friday night. Kirby had thrown 93 pitches through six innings but was asked to continue into the seventh inning. Things started to unravel for the Mariners ace, who got one out but then allowed a double and home run to tie the game at four.
Kirby was removed after allowing the home run, which cost him a win. His Mariners ended up losing 7-4.
After the game, Kirby criticized manager Scott Servais for leaving him in to pitch the seventh.
Kirby’s complaint and criticism of Servais did not go over well with many former pitchers who couldn’t believe Kirby wanted to be yanked after just six innings.
Given a night to reflect on what transpired, Kirby decided to apologize. He recognized how bad the comments made him look.
“I just wanted to address what happened yesterday. Obviously I screwed up. That’s not me. [Servais] always gotta pry that ball out of my hands. It’s super uncharacteristic of me as a player and who I am out on the mound. I love competing. I screwed up and am really looking forward to next week,” Kirby said.
George Kirby just spoke with us here at the Trop. Said he apologized to Scott Servais and productive conversations have come out of his ‘emotional’ comments last night. pic.twitter.com/1gNe2xDXcR
— Adam Jude (@A_Jude) September 9, 2023
In addition to the incredulous response from former All-Star Jered Weaver, Roger Clemens couldn’t believe what Kirby had said, describing the remarks as “tough to hear.”
This is tough to hear… would not fly in the old days! Unfortunately this is how players are being taught with modern analytics…. What are y’all’s thoughts? https://t.co/C1JWrLvAVC
— Roger Clemens (@rogerclemens) September 9, 2023
Kirby recognizes he was wrong and said so a day later. The 25-year-old is in his second big-league season. He is 10-9 with a 3.48 ERA this season.
