Canadian Paxton throws no-hitter in home country
James Paxton looked up at the 20,000 Canadian fans cheering for him and pointed to the giant maple leaf tattoo on his right forearm.
The Big Maple picked the perfect place for the game of his life. Paxton became the first Canadian to throw a no-hitter in his home country, pitching the Seattle Mariners over the Toronto Blue Jays 5-0 Tuesday night.
“You couldn’t write this stuff,” Paxton said. “Pretty amazing to have it happen against the Blue Jays, at home in Canada.” Not bad, eh? The 29-year-old lefty from British Columbia got a standing ovation at Rogers Centre. The crowd rooted for him in the late innings, realizing he was one of their own — his tattoo of Canada’s national symbol includes an image of a family home near Vancouver.
“The fans were great,” he said. “They were giving me some trouble in the seventh inning, but once I got past that, they started kind of cheering me on. It was cool.”
Paxton joined Dick Fowler of the 1945 Philadelphia Athletics as the only Canadians to throw a no-hitter.
Paxton threw the third no-hitter in the majors this year — all three have come in different countries.
Oakland’s Sean Manaea pitched one against Boston on April 21 in California. Four Los Angeles Dodgers combined to no-hit San Diego in Mexico last Friday.
Coming off a career-high 16 strikeouts in his last start, Paxton (2-1) was electric once again, hitting 100 mph with his fastball while retiring Josh Donaldson on a grounder to end it.
Paxton struck out seven, walked three, threw 99 pitches and benefited from an outstanding play by third baseman Kyle Seager. With two outs in the seventh, the former Gold Glover made a full-length diving stop on speedy Kevin Pillar’s grounder down the line, then slung an off-balance throw that first baseman Ryon Healy snagged on one hop.
“If that ball gets by you, it’s going to be hard to get any sleep tonight,” Seager said. “It may be hard anyway.”
Russell Martin led off the Toronto eighth with a long drive that left fielder Ben Gamel caught near the wall.
“What a defense tonight. That was amazing. Those guys were making every play,” Paxton said.
Anthony Alford fouled out on the first pitch to begin the ninth and Teoscar Hernandez struck out swinging. Donaldson ended it with a hard one-hopper to Seager.
Healy pumped his fist after catching Seager’s throw, and the Mariners streamed out of the dugout, dousing their pitcher with a cooler as the crowd of 20,513 cheered.
Red Sox: Left-hander David Price was diagnosed Wednesday with carpal tunnel syndrome after twice experiencing numbness in his pitching hand this season.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora confirmed the diagnosis prior to a game at Yankee Stadium, which Price was supposed to start.
“For me this is quote-unquote good news compared to anything else,” said Cora, who hasn’t ruled out Price pitching Saturday’s game at Toronto. beat runner-up Texas by 11 strokes.
Six of the 18 schools advanced to the NCAA championship May 18-23 at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla. — Arkansas, Texas Auburn, Florida, Baylor and Oklahoma. The top three players from non-qualifying teams also advanced — Szeryk, Houston’s Leonie Harm and BYU’s Rose Huang.
Fassi won the tournament, her sixth victory this season, by making birdie on four of the final eight holes. She avoided a tie with Szeryk by holing an 8-foot downhill putt on No. 18.
“I was shaking,” said Fassi, out of Hidalgo, Mexico. “But I just thought of all the 8-footers I had made today, this tournament, last week, last month, and I was just committed to my stroke.”
Fassi made birdie on No. 15 with a 10-foot putt, and followed that with a threefooter on the par-3 16th.
“She’s really putted well,” Arkansas coach Shauna Taylor said. “Making this 8-footer here to win, she’s converted a lot of those this year. She’s been able to manage her length and play disciplined golf, and she’s gotten some putts to drop.”
Four Arkansas players finished among the top 11, including Dylan Kim alone in third place at 5-under. Alana Uriell and Kaylee Benton were in an eight-player tie for fourth place at 4-under that included Longhorns Sophia Schubert and Emilee Hoffman.
Texas matched Arkansas for best score on Wednesday, 5-under 283. The top four scores from the five golfers are included in the total each day.
Perhaps the best news for Texas was that all five Longhorns finished in the top 25. Agathe Laisne tied for 16th and Kaitlyn Papp finished 23rd. Both players are freshmen.
Schubert, a senior, figures that’s a good sign for the Longhorns with the NCAA championship approaching.
“That’s really rare to have every girl place that well,” Schubert said. “It should give everyone confidence. I think it will.”
While Arkansas had four golfers in the top 11, a fifth — Cara Gorlie — finished in a tie for 38th. Then again, Gorlie played with a stomach virus that prevented some players, including three from East Carolina, from competing on Tuesday.
“We Lysol-ed everything,” Fassi said. “We are all just being really careful about where we are eating and hoping we would not get sick.”
Taylor said she does not know what caused the illness.
“We got (Gorlie) some IVs and tried to keep her hydrated,” Taylor said. “And we tried to keep everybody else away and healthy so we could complete the round today.”
A spokesperson for Austin Public Health, Carole Barasch, said 17 people from the tournament, including players, coaches and others, contracted the virus, but no cause has been determined.
“This type of investigation is challenging,” Barasch said.
“They apparently ate at different places, complicating everything. They suspect food-borne, and person-to-person transmission. We won’t collect stool samples because (most) reside out of state, outside our jurisdiction.”