Seattle Mariners pitcher James Paxton gave a shining example of why we should fire pitcher win-loss record into the sun.
The left-hander struck out 16 batters in seven innings against the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday night, tying the MLB record for most-ever strikeouts in an outing of seven innings or less. It also set the MLB record for strikeouts by a Canadian pitcher.
.@James_Paxton’s 16 Ks are tied for the most-ever in an outing of 7 innings or less. pic.twitter.com/Gk18JtUa1C
— MLB Stats (@MLBStats) May 3, 2018
Ladner, BC native James Paxton was dealing for the @Mariners tonight, fanning 16 batters in only 7 innings to set a new high for Canadian pitchers on this list pic.twitter.com/1ZA20vwV8h
— StatsCentre (@StatsCentre) May 3, 2018
So that was all great. What wasn’t great, was the performance of the Mariners pitchers that followed Paxton, who left with a 2-0 lead.
Oakland’s Jed Lowrie hit a two-run homer off of Mariners reliever Juan Nicasio to tie the game in the eighth.
🗣 “THAT BABY IS GONE!” Jed Lowrie ties it up with his 8th home run of the season pic.twitter.com/oJHTrbl1UI
— A’s on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) May 3, 2018
And in the top of the ninth, Mark Canha cranked an Edwin Diaz fastball over the left field wall for a go-ahead homer (that turned out to be the game-winner):
Canha goes yard! A’s take a 3-2 lead in the 9th pic.twitter.com/RvFvXXWJJX
— A’s on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) May 3, 2018
Paxton threw seven shutout innings with 16 strikeouts, and came away with a no-decision in a 3-2 Mariners loss.
You may argue, “Well, he could’ve been more efficient,” but he walked just one batter and it’s not his fault his stuff was so good that the A’s couldn’t make some more quick outs. You want him missing bats; striking out 16 batters is a good thing!
And he only threw 105 pitches, so it’s entirely possible he could’ve gone one more inning (though it was probably the right move to remove him at 105 pitches on May 2).
It has to be equally as annoying for the Mariners to not win what will (almost surely) go down as their most dominating pitching performance of the season.
