Mariners series opener: Best hitter, pitcher, and moment of the Red Sox series

Best Pitcher - George Kirby

6.2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K

After a less than ideal start from Luis Castillo the day before, Kirby showed up in a huge way and immediately let the world know that he's a serious Cy Young contender. After allowing some traffic in the first inning, Kirby locked in and allowed just two base runners for the rest of his start. He had three innings where he retired the Red Sox in order and the peak of his powers were on display in the sixth inning where he got three swinging strikeouts.

After a ridiculous walk rate of 0.9 per nine innings last year, starting the year off with two of them seemed out of character. Nonetheless, he's just as nasty as ever after getting warmed up and seems poised to have another stellar year.

Honorable Mention - Logan Gilbert

7.0 IP, 4 H, ER, R, BB, 8 K

The day after Kirby's phenomenal performance, Gilbert followed it up with a quality start of his own. A dark horse for the Cy Young award himself, Gilbert had 16 swings and misses, mostly on his slider and splitter. He saw some chaos in the fifth inning after a double by Ceddanne Rafaela turned into a run following a fly out and groundout. Things got worse after he had two runners in scoring position but was able to strike Masataka Yoshida out swinging to escape the jam and limit the damage.