James Paxton now owns the season-high mark for strikeouts in Major League Baseball.
The Seattle Mariners southpaw fanned 16 Oakland Athletics over seven innings of work Wednesday night. With that, he now has the fourth-most strikeouts in Mariners history. Only Hall of Famer Randy Johnson is ahead of him with outings of 19, 19 and 18 Ks, per Greg Johns of MLB.com.
Paxton was taken out of the game after he concluded the seventh inning with his 16th strikeout with runners on first and second base to keep the 2-0 lead Seattle had intact.
He threw 105 pitches, including 80 for strikes, while inducing 30 swinging strikes, passing the Los Angeles Angels’ Shohei Ohtani and New York Mets’ Noah Syndergaard for the most swinging strikes this season.
Even after a dominant performance, Paxton didn’t get the win for Seattle after the bullpen surrendered the two-run lead in the eighth inning. The A’s went on to win 3-2 after a ninth-inning Mark Canha home run.
