Canada’s Paxton no-hits Blue Jays
Stroman stumbles again to fall to 0-5
Earlier this season, before a start against the Minnesota Twins, a bald eagle landed on Seattle pitcher James Paxton. Paxton reacted with amazing calm.
The Ladner, B.C., native was amazingly calm again on Tuesday night — as well as deadly cool — methodically mowing down the Blue Jays down en route to a 5-0, no-hit victory at the Rogers Centre.
The big left-hander gave up three walks and struck out seven in his historic outing.
Third baseman Kyle Seager dove to his right to field a Kevin Pillar ground ball down the line to preserve Paxton’s no-hit bid in the seventh inning. Seager got to his feet and drilled a onebouncer to Ryon Healy at first for the out — the closest the Jays came to getting a hit. It was the fifth time the Jays have been no-hit, the last being Justin Verlander of Detroit on May 7, 2011, in a 9-0 Tigers win.
The only other Canadian to throw a no-hitter was Dick Fowler of the Philadelphia A’s against St. Louis Browns on Sept. 9, 1945.
In the final inning, with the Jays fans now cheering for the Canadian to get his no-no, Paxton got Anthony Alford to weakly foul out to right, struck out Teoscar Hernandez on a 97 mph four-seam fastball and enticed Josh Donaldson to ground out to third.
Afterwards he was mobbed on the mound by his teammates amid appreciate cheers from the Toronto crowd.
Members of the Mariners front office and baseball staff came on to the field to give the big Canadian a hug.
Paxton waved to the fans before heading into the clubhouse.
Meanwhile, the Jays were hoping that Marcus Stroman would lead them out of troubled waters this season as their top-of-rotation guy. Instead, he’s been an anchor.
After putting together his first quality start of the season last Wednesday in Minnesota, Stroman stumbled again on Tuesday lasting only five innings in picking up the loss and running his record to 0-5 with a 7.71 ERA. The Stro Show gave up five runs on nine hits, including a home run by Seattle catcher Mike Zunino in the fourth.
The Mariners drew first blood in the third. After Stroman walked Ben Gamel to lead off the inning, Dee Gordon smacked a double down the right field line. Gamel scored on a ground out to first by Robinson Cano. Nelson Cruz then rapped a single to right to score Gordon, 2-0 Seattle. The inning ended on a nice, running catch by Kevin Pillar near the wall in centre.
In the fourth, with Ryon Healy on base, Zunino planted a Stroman offering over the wall in right to put the Mariners up 4-0. The normally reliable first baseman Justin Smoak failed to cleanly field a couple of ground balls in the inning and was charged with a throwing error. The Mariners loaded the bases on Stroman with none out in the fifth. Mitch Haniger hit a line drive to centre to score Cano from third but that’s all Seattle could push across in the inning.
GURRIEL THE MAN AT SHORT
Jays manager John Gibbons said he’ll use rookie Lourdes Gurriel Jr. as the regular short stop with Aledmys Diaz out with a right ankle sprain. Gibbons said Gurriel is probably more comfortable at short than he is at second. “(And) I think he’s played better than his numbers indicate,” the manager said. “He continues to put up good at-bats, he does a lot of good things. He’s hit some breaking balls, he’s fouled off some breaking balls. Yeah, I like everything he’s doing, I really do. And he’s a confident kid.” Gurriel has (heading into Tuesday’s game) gone 13-for-55 (. 236) with two doubles, two home runs and seven RPI in his first 16 games. Diaz was put on the 10-day disabled list Monday and will be re-evaluated after that.