George Kirby was coming off his worst start of the season when he took the mound to face the New York Yankees Wednesday night. The Seattle Mariners stud went out and did the polar opposite, tossing his best performance in 2023 so far, stifling Aaron Judge and the entirety of the Yankees lineup through eight scoreless innings.

Kirby allowed three hits and struck out seven in his second shutout of the season. Only one Yankee hitter reached second base.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the gem was that Kirby held Judge, who was 4-for-7 with three home runs across the previous two nights, hitless in four plate appearances.

Kirby talked about his approach when pitching to Judge.

“Try not to have him hit a home run. Just keep him off-balance. You've got to go in on him, you've just got to attack him,” Kirby said. “You've got to be super precise, live on the edges and spin down; something like that. But I'm glad I got him today a little bit.”

It was Kirby's ninth quality start this season for the Mariners and a fantastic turnaround from a seven-run outing in which he didn’t get out of the fifth inning in his last start. His ERA sits at 3.04 for a Mariners pitching staff that sports the third-best ERA in baseball.

More often than not, George Kirby pitches as he did on Wednesday. Anytime a pitcher tosses a shutout it has to feel good. When that includes shutting out the reigning AL MVP, it makes it that much sweeter. The Mariners walked off the Yankees for a 1-0 win.