How many levels of irony can be found in the fact that James Paxton of the Seattle Mariners threw a no-hitter at the Toronto Blue Jays Tuesday night in Toronto?
First, as everybody in Canada knows by now, Paxton is Canadian, born in Ladner, British Columbia. (This was, by the way, the second no-hitter by a Canadian in MLB history. The first was by Phillies pitcher Dick Fowler in September 1945, in Fowler’s first game after returning to the Phillies from duty with the Canadian Army during the Second World War.)
Second, though it never came close to a signing, in 2009 Paxton was drafted by the Blue Jays a year before he joined the Seattle organization.
Third, though it was very nice indeed that Paxton pitched his no-hitter in Toronto, had he done it at home in Seattle against the Blue Jays, there would have been a lot more Canadians in the stands to cheer him on, as only 20,513 fans turned out for Tuesday’s game in Toronto, a significantly lower number than the typical Toronto fan draw for a game in Seattle.
On top of all of this, Paxton may felt just the tiniest bit of vindication after victimizing the Blue Jays, since it had been a slip of the tongue by a young Blue Jays general manager, Alex Anthopoulos, in 2009 that had cost Paxton his senior year of baseball eligibility at the University of Kentucky.*
So there was a lot of baggage to set aside when Paxton took the ball for Seattle against the Jays Tuesday night.
But once he started wheeling and dealing, it was all real baseball, right in the here-and-now, no room for back stories, what ifs, or whatevers.
Paxton fanned Teoscar Hernandez and Josh Donaldson to lead off the game, and breezed through the first two innings on 20 pitches.
But after three batters in the third, Paxton found himself face to face with pitching coach Mel Stottlemyer Jr. He had just walked Kendrys Morales on four pitches, given up a very long and loud fly ball to centre to Lourdes Gurriel Jr. , and walked Anthony Alford on a 3-1 pitch.
Whatever Stottlemyer said to Paxton was pretty effective, because he quickly got the last two outs of the inning, and only gave up a one-out walk to Justin Smoak in the fourth, and never allowed another baserunner.
In Paxton’s last start on May second against Oakland, he went seven shutout innings, gave up five hits, walked one, struck out sixteen, and threw 105 pitches. He left the game with a 2-0 lead, and then watched his bullpen cough up a win for the Athletics.
Tuesday I guess he decided that he needed to do it all himself. I mean, if you go scoreless and hitless for nine innings, the odds are pretty good you’re going to snag a win for yourself, right?
Besides the fact that he chalked up a W with the no-hitter, he was significantly more efficient, needing only 99 pitches to navigate the 27 outs. It’s an interesting study in the difference between power pitching and effective pitching. Sure, it’s effective to strike out sixteen, but if Oakland had been able to bunch their five hits, they might’ve scored a run or two.
On the other hand, if you throw outs without building up a high strikeout total, you obviously can maintain an energy reserve to call on when needed. Paxton’s ninth inning, when he could smell the oats in the barn, is illustrative of this. Anthony Alford fouled out to right on one pitch. Teoscar Hernandez fanned on three pitches. Josh Donaldson grounded out sharply to Kyle Seager on the third pitch, an 0-2 count, to finish things off.
This took seven pitches, and the amazing thing is that he never threw a ball, and he cranked up the velocity for each batter. The one pitch to Alford was clocked at 95.5. The three pitches to Hernandez ranged from 96.4 to 97. The three pitches to Donaldson came in at 98.3, 99, and 99.5. That’s right, he increased the gas on each of the last three batters.
I mentioned that Donaldson grounded sharply to Seager at third for the final out. Another significant aspect in any no-hitter has to be the defence behind the pitcher. As a general note, Paxton, who likes to take the ball and serve it up without a lot of fuss, is the kind of pitcher who keeps his defence on their toes.
Good thing for that, because they made some great plays behind him. Naturally, as the game progresses and the possibility of a no-hitter grows, the pressure grows on the defence. It’s just not the same that somebody made a great play in the second inning, when the pressure was minimal, as when he has to really pull one out in the late innings.
In that framework, we have to highlight three plays that were made, four, really, that helped bring the no-hitter to fruition. The seventh inning was show time for Seattle’s infield. Yangervis Solarte led off with a tough grounder to short which Jean Segura handled but threw low to first. Ryon Healy made a terrific scoop to secure the out.
After Justin Smoak flew out to centre, Kevin Pillar came to the plate. If I was going to bet on anyone to break up this one, it would have been Pillar, not because of his good numbers, but because he’s been even better in the late innings and in the clutch. This time was no different. On a 2-2 pitch, Pillar hit a trademark double down the line into the left-field corner . . . except that Kyle Seager dove instinctively, snagged it when it was already past him, leapt to his feet, spun, and threw almost without looking. The throw was low, but once again Healy dug it out, and came off the bag with a huge fist pump. And he wasn’t even pitching.
There was only last sparkler in the eighth, when Kendrys Morales spiked one into left centre but Dee Gordon was up for it, racing over to cut it off, skidding on his knees, and picking it off for the out.
So that’s how Canadian James Paxton, Big Maple, threw a no-hitter at the TV-Dome on Tuesday night.
Wait, what?
There was another team out there? It was a ball game?
Oh, right, unlike the May second start against Oakland, Paxton needed some run support to make this no-hitter happen.
And for this part of the story we have to highlight not the Mariners hitters, but the other starting pitcher, Marcus Stroman.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and make a prediction: at some point, maybe sooner rather than later, we are going to find out that there is in fact something wrong with Marcus Stroman. It’s more likely to be physical, given his injury-slowed spring training, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t rule out some other mental/emotional or stress-related issue.
Because ever since Marcus Stroman was the pitching star of the U.S.A. in the 2017 World Baseball Classic, he’s never truly gotten his mojo back. Last night was one of the clearest examples of how this Marcus Stroman is not the Marcus Stroman of 2016 or earlier.
Even in the first inning Tuesday night, when the bare record would suggest vintage Stroman, three ground ball outs on twelve pitches, the signs were there. He went 2-0 on Dee Gordon before he grounded out on a 2-2 pitch. Jean Segura grounded out on a 2-0 pitch. Stroman only pitched ahead on Robinson Cano, who grounded out on an 0-2 pitch.
Stroman kept Seattle off the board in the second inning, but this time at the cost of 21 pitches. He walked Nelson Cruz on four pitches. He struck out Kyle Seager on three beautiful pitches on the inside corner. He went to 2-1 and then to a full count on Mitch Haniger before he hit into a forceout. Healy hit an infield chopper to Josh Donaldson who couldn’t make the barehanded play, on a 3-1 pitch. Finally, Mike Zunino grounded out on a 1-1 pitch.
Here’s a way to visualize Stroman’s problem: first inning, 12 pitches, second inning, 21 pitches, third inning, 26 pitches and two runs.
In the third he walked the leadoff hitter, Ben Gamel, on a 3-1 pitch. Dee Gordon missed a bunt attempt for strike one, then Stroman fell behind 2-1, and Gordon ripped one past Smoak down the line for a double with Gamel stopping at third. He rallied to fan Segura on three pitches, but Cano scored the run with a grounder to first. With two outs and a runner on third, he had a chance of getting out with only one run and fewer pitches.
But he fell behind Nelson Cruz 2-1 and had to come in with a fast ball that Cruz fought off and laid out as a single to right to score Gordon with the second run. Finally, Kyle Seager flew out to centre but hit the ball hard. After three innings Stroman was at 59 pitches and down 2-0.
That would have been enough for Paxton, but with one out in the fourth Ryon Healy flared a single the wrong way to right centre, and then Mike Zunino went the wrong way as well, right over the wall to give Paxton two more runs to play with. Stroman still had to pitch around an infield single/error on throw reaches second by Gamel, and after four innings he was at 73 pitches.
Stroman’s meagre hope of lasting past five innings did not survive the first three batters of the fifth, all of whom reached on singles to load the bases. He was lucky to give up only the run knocked in by Haniger on a sacrifice fly, and ended up down 5-0 to a guy throwing a no-hitter. He had thrown 88 pitches, which in the end wouldn’t have been too bad, except that way too many of them were either out of the strike zone or fall-behind cripples.
The past and better version of Marcus Stroman would have relished a one-on-one battle with James Paxton, but the 2018 version gave up the ghost way too early.
After his weak start, it didn’t really matter, except for the stats, that Tim Mayza, Jake Petricka, Aaron Loup, and John Axford all kept the Mariners scoreless for the last four innings of the game.
That cleared away all the distractions, and we could concentrate on watching James Paxton wrap up his brilliant, well-deserved, no-hit game.
*At some point during the ultimately unsuccessful negotiations between Paxton and the Blue Jays, Anthopoulos had made the mistake of referring to powerful players’ agent Scott Boras as Paxton’s “agent”, rather than his “representative”. When Paxton tried to return to Kentucky for his senior year, some stiff-neck at the NCAA heard about the reference to an “agent”, and started the process that resulted in his losing his last year of college ball.
Paxton even filed a lawsuit against the university and the NCAA, but the suit did not proceed, and Paxton ended up pitching briefly for the independent-league Grand Prairie AirHogs in 2010 before being drafted by Seattle.
Note from yer humble scribe: I have chosen not to mention the other major development in Toronto baseball on Tuesday, so as not to diminish the accord given to the great achievement of James Paxton in no-hitting the Blue Jays.
I’m referring, of course, to the terribly sad and shocking news that early Tuesday Roberto Osuna was arrested and charged with an assault, which sources have indicated was an instance of domestic violence. He has been placed on administrative leave by MLB while it conducts an investigation independent of the police investigation. Osuna is likely facing a significant suspension under the league’s domestic violence protocol. Aroldis Chapman received a 50-game suspension for an incident that never came to court.
My heart aches for the shame that Osuna must be feeling, but more so for the pain that the victim must be suffering, and I can only hope that he will be able to resolve this issue in a way that is fair and just for the victim.
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