The best part of Mariners' rise to 1st place in AL West is hiding in plain sight

For the first time since June 1, fans in the Pacific Northwest can call the Seattle Mariners a first-place team without having to note the asterisk that they are merely tied. The lead in the American League West is all theirs after they won their ninth game in a row on Sunday.

And even if he did tie Mickey Mantle's single-season record for home runs by a switch-hitter, Cal Raleigh wasn't even the star of the show.

It was George Kirby's day, really. The right-hander took the hill against the Los Angeles Angels in need of a pick-me-up after consecutive rough outings, and he walked away with 14 strikeouts and no walks over 6.1 innings of two-run ball. The Mariners offense did the rest, resulting in an 11-2 rout to complete a four-game sweep of the Halos.

Suddenly, Mariners starters are racking up strikeouts

Sunday marked the second time this season that Kirby has had a 14-strikeout, zero-walk game, which makes him one of a kind among pitchers in 2025 and for any Mariner in any season ever.

It was clear early on that the 27-year-old was feeling it. He fanned nine batters as he set down each of the first 12 he faced. His fastball peaked at 99 mph on a swinging strikeout against the eternal Mariner tormenter known as Mike Trout, setting the tone for a day in which he averaged 96.1 mph on the heater.

Kirby had come into the game with a 4.56 ERA, up more than a run from the 3.53 ERA he had posted last season. Though he missed the first six weeks of the year with a shoulder injury, the quality of his stuff wasn't the problem. He just didn't have his usual command or confidence, both of which came back with a vengeance on Sunday.

You can credit Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo for giving Kirby fine examples to follow. They also enjoyed starts of double-digit strikeouts in the series, with Miller fanning 11 batters on Thursday and Woo punching out a career-high 13 on Saturday.

This brings us to a tidbit that ought to have Mariners fans feeling pumped, which concerns 10-strikeout games by starters not named Logan Gilbert:

• Through September 10: 1 (Kirby)
• Since September 11: 3 (Miller, Woo, Kirby)

Before Kirby followed suit with his velo-fueled shutdown of the Angels on Sunday, Miller and Woo each notched season highs for swings-and-misses in their outings. As with his strikeouts, Woo's 23 whiffs set a new personal best.

Granted, the Angels lead MLB in strikeouts and the lineup they're running out these days is replete with no-names alongside known quantities like Trout and Jo Adell. The Mariners should have been expected to dominate the series with elite starting pitching.

That's just the thing, though. Expecting elite starting pitching and not getting it has been the theme of the Mariners' 2025 season from Day 1. So much so, in fact, that we were airing our unease with the rotation's playoff outlook just a few days ago.

It's a nice change of pace to look back on a series in which the rotation not only handled itself, but shoved. Heck, it's only now that we're mentioning the six innings of one-run ball that Luis Castillo gave the Mariners on Friday, in which he struck out five and allowed only three hits.

The question now is if Gilbert can keep the momentum going on Tuesday, when the Mariners begin their final road trip of the regular season in Kansas City against the Royals. The road has been unwelcome to him, as it has been to all Mariners starters.

Yet if the Mariners can hold onto first place, this will be relegated to more of a secondary concern. Whereas they wouldn't be guaranteed home-field advantage at any step of the journey as the AL's third wild card, they would get it right off the bat in the Wild Card Series as the AL West champions.

Between that and the whole "no division titles since 2001" thing, the Mariners have every reason to stay right where they are.