The Seattle Mariners beat the Cincinnati Reds 8-0 on Monday night at T-Mobile Park to improve to 51-50 on the season. With that, the M's are now back in front in the American League West, where they lead the Texas Rangers by 0.5 games.

Though the final score shows the game as a blowout, it was not that for most of the night.

George Kirby and Andrew Abbott dueled to a scoreless tie through four innings before the Mariners scored one run in the bottom of the fifth.

It was still 1-0 in the top of the seventh when Kirby was pulled after just 80 pitches, raising questions from M's fans on social media.

Nick Davila navigated the seventh and the Mariners added six runs in the bottom half of the inning to push the game out of reach, but before that, the Kirby decision generated a ton of reaction. Fans couldn't understand why manager Dan Wilson was going away from Kirby after just 80 pitches, especially when the bullpen was thin enough to leave Davila in that leverage spot.

After the game, Wilson said they got Kirby out earlier because of the long layoff (he hadn't pitched since July 8).

That is likely a very fair reason to get him out early, but it feels like something else is at play, as I discussed on the most recent 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast.

"Now, George Kirby threw an absolute gem, I believe, eight innings against the Los Angeles Angels on June 29th, as I recall. And then he had nine days off, and we didn't see him again until the Marlins game on July 8th, I believe...

Look, off days were in there, and the Mariners used a six-man rotation, so that inherently is going to push back the amount of time in which you pitch, right? That's going to increase your layoff kind of no matter what. So that's not inherently weird in any way.

But the Mariners did re-slot Bryan Woo in front of him, right? Bryan Woo pitched after George Kirby in that Angels series, but before George Kirby in that Miami series. I took note of it then and said, "Hmm, that's interesting."

So we didn't see Kirby from June 29 until July 8. He pitched July 8 against the Marlins. That would have put him on track to start right out of the All-Star break. Like, he would have been kind of in line to start game one or two out of the All-Star break.

And yet, he ended up getting Game four out of the All-Star break.

So it has been a long layoff for George Kirby, but the Mariners have built in those long layoffs, right? We didn't see him for basically 10 days between the Angels and Marlins starts, and now it's 12 days between the Marlins and Reds starts.

And the Mariners didn't have to do that. Regardless of off days, regardless of the six-man rotation, George Kirby is getting longer rest than he has been on schedule for, and I am curious as to why. I do not know the answer.

So Dan Wilson is right. He has had long layoffs. Maybe you understand not pushing a guy who's kind of been out of his rhythm or out of his routine or hasn't been on the mound all that recently. That does seem fair.

But my question is, why is he in that position? Why is George Kirby getting those long layoffs?"

For what it's worth, there's been no mention of Kirby dealing with an injury, but when you factor in the long layoffs - and the shortened pitch count - it is all noteworthy.

The Mariners will take on the Reds again on Tuesday at 6:40 p.m. PT.

The newest edition of the 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast is out. You can listen here, or watch in the YouTube player below.

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