Paxton on no-hitter: ‘You couldn’t write this stuff ’
TORONTO — James Paxton lifted his arms in triumph and hugged each of his Seattle teammates after no-hitting the Blue Jays on Tuesday night.
And, as he left the field, he held up his forearm — tattooed with a large Maple Leaf — to make sure everyone remembered where he came from.
Paxton, a 29-year-old left-hander from Ladner, B.C., became just the second Canadian (and first in 73 years) to pitch a nohitter in Major League Baseball.
“Pretty amazing. To have it happen in Canada, what are the odds?” an elated Paxton said after the 5-0 Mariners victory.
“It’s pretty amazing and it’s very special. And against the Blue Jays, yeah, you couldn’t write this stuff.”
Paxton’s tattoo, which covers a large portion of the forearm on his right arm, depicts a landscape of B.C.’s Bowyer Island within a maple leaf. His family has a cabin on the island, where he spent a lot of his summers growing up.
“(It) just is a place that reminds me of family,” said Paxton. “It’s a special thing for me, having not lived in Canada for the past 10 years or so, it just reminds me of home.”
Paxton, nicknamed The Big Maple, looked at home Tuesday night, striking out seven and walking three over a masterful 99-pitch performance.
The last Canadian to throw a complete no-hitter in majors was Toronto-born Dick Fowler, who threw one for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1945 in his first start in three years after serving for the Canadian army in the Second World War.
Paxton hadn’t heard of Fowler until Tuesday night, but he was happy to join him in Canadian history. “There have been some great pitchers who are Canadian to have come through the major leagues,” he said. “I’m very honoured to be the next guy.”
Greg Hamilton, who coached Paxton on Canada’s junior team in 2005 and ’06, including the ’06 world junior championships in Cuba, called the no-hitter “incredibly special.”
“A Canadian kid that’s born and raised in Canada and comes through the programs in Canada to pitch against Canada’s major league team and have him throw a no-hitter ... (it’s) incredibly impactful for the nation, certainly for generations for young, aspiring baseball players in Canada,” he said.