SEATTLE — It took a little time, some tribulation, a few injury stints, some fingernail hardener, a new arm slot and a newfound nasty streak. But the James Paxton that the Mariners and their fans once dreamily projected following the brilliant outings in September of 2013 may have finally arrived in April of 2017.
Paxton delivered his third scoreless outing of the season, shutting down the Rangers for eight innings and leading the Mariners to an easy 5-0 win on Saturday night.
For the first time this season, Seattle (4-8) has won back-to-back games and it guarantees the team’s first series win.
Paxton dominated, allowing just two hits while striking out nine and walking just one batter to improve to 2-0.
The big left-hander carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning before Joey Gallo broke up the bid with a one-out double into right field. Paxton’s only other hit came with one out in the eighth inning.
Over the course of his 114 pitches (79 strikes), he never allowed much in the way of hard contact. Using a fastball that sat around 97 mph and nasty breaking pitches, Rangers hitters looked uncomfortable and out of sorts.
But really, all hitters have looked that way this season. Paxton hasn’t allowed a run in 21 innings, which broke a record of 172/3 scoreless innings to start a season held by Mark Lowe.
After squandering scoring opportunities and stranding base runners in the second, third and fifth inning against Rangers starter Andrew Cashner, the Mariners finally came through in the sixth inning.
With one out, Seattle loaded the bases on a Mitch Haniger single, a botched double play attempt by the Rangers allowing Robinson Cano to reach on a fielder’s choice and a walk from Nelson Cruz.
Rangers’ manager Jeff Bannister had lefty specialist Alex Claudio warm and ready in the bullpen, but he opted to stay with Cashner to face Kyle Seager.
A notorious Rangers’ pitching killer in his career, Seager added to his reputation, lacing a single through the right side on a 3-2 changeup, allowing two runs to score.
Following the Seager hit, Bannister decided to go to his bullpen, bringing in right-hander Mike Hauschild to face Taylor Motter. That move didn’t work out so well either.
Motter sat on a 0-1 breaking ball, hammering it deep into left field off the stairs leading down into the bullpen area. The three-run homer made it 5-0.
That was all Paxton would need.
He worked a smooth 1-2-3 inning in the seventh. And with his pitch count nearing 100, he pitched a scoreless eighth, despite allowing his second hit of the game. He notched strikeouts for all three of the outs in the inning.
