SEATTLE — On a night where the Seattle Mariners celebrated the 1990s, George Kirby, who was born in 1998, delivered a brilliant pitching performance, featuring pinpoint command and thread-the-needle accuracy that was reminiscent of the greatest pitcher of that decade.

Only Greg Maddux wasn’t pumping 99-mph four-seam fastballs and 96-mph sinkers.

In a season full of strong outings from the Mariners’ talented starting rotation, Kirby delivered the most dominant performance in this young season Saturday night. He tossed seven shutout innings, allowing two hits, issuing one walk and striking out a career-high 12 batters to lead the Mariners to a 3-1 victory.

The Mariners improved to 15-12 on the season and secured their fourth straight series win. They will go for a sweep Sunday with Logan Gilbert on the mound.

Facing a team that strikes out only 18%, the second lowest in all of MLB, Kirby overwhelmed the Diamondbacks with fastballs. He didn’t trick them or fool them. He pitched to his oft-used mantra: “I believe I can beat anybody within the strike zone.”

He beat them in the strike zone, out of the strike zone and lived on the edges of the strike zone where productive approaches and quality at-bats go to die.

Kirby did it with his power stuff and precise location. He threw 48 four-seam fastballs, generating 18 whiffs, 13 foul balls and two called strikes. He tossed in 18 two-seam fastballs, getting one whiff and three called strikes with six foul balls. Of his 17 sliders, he got nine called strikes and two whiffs.

It helped that he rarely pitched from behind. He fired first-pitch strikes on 17 of the 24 batters he faced. And of those seven 1-0 counts, only twice did he go to 2-0. He had just four counts that reached three balls.

After feeling some soreness in his arm in his previous outing in Colorado, but still working five scoreless innings, Kirby showed no signs of soreness.

His first pitch was 97 mph. His third pitch was 98 mph. His sixth pitch was 99 mph. He threw 11 fastballs in that first inning, and all were 97 mph or higher.

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