Seattle Mariners starter George Kirby was involved in a scary incident on Tuesday night. The right-hander was smoked with a 102.7 mph line drive off the bat of Ramon Urias. Luckily, it deflected off his thumb before hitting him in the face.
Despite the blood spewing from Kirby's mouth, he downplayed the incident, despite exiting at the end of the fifth inning due to the injury.
Via MLB.com:
“I didn't even see it coming,” Kirby said. “Just put my hand up. So, just glad it kind of missed any of the bad spots on my face.”
“I feel great right now,” Kirby continued. “Obviously, you don't want to throw that many pitches in five innings, but I'm glad I feel really good from it after it. So, that's a good sign.”
Kirby also admitted the injury didn't even hurt:
Article Continues Below“I didn't even hurt, honestly,” Kirby said. “It got my hand — like 50/50, hand/mouth, but we're good. There’s nothing wrong with it.”
It was only Kirby's third outing since coming off the IL, and although the Mariners did lose, he threw the ball well. The 2023 All-Star allowed two earned runs on eight hits while striking out three. That lowered his ERA to 8.56, but again, he hasn't been back long.
Mariners skipper Dan Wilson was thankful the injury wasn't worse and clarified that Kirby will have X-rays, just to be safe:
“You just don't know, sometimes, how those things go,” Wilson said. “Because you have a lot of adrenaline going at the same time. But was just glad, I'm really happy that and hoping things turn out OK. And it could have been something way worse.”
With Logan Gilbert still on the IL, the Mariners need the best version of Kirby. By the sounds of it, he's not going to miss any time, which is great news for Seattle.