SEATTLE — All-Star. Is that the most apt description?
It will almost certainly be a true description if George Kirby maintains this pace. The second-year Mariners starting pitcher has posted a 2.62 ERA through nine starts/58 1/3 innings while leading all of baseball in walks per nine innings (0.77) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (9.4).
It’s been the opposite of a sophomore slump — more like a sophomore surge. And that’s coming off a season in which Kirby finished sixth in the American League Rookie of the Year vote.
