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MLB playoffs: James Paxton solving experience problem even before taking mound

If you didn’t already find James Paxton accessible and likable, perhaps this will help:

He finds baseball just as unwatchable as you do.

OK, that’s a purposely malicious misinterpretation of something the Big Maple shared with his audience Thursday afternoon at Yankee Stadium, minutes after Aaron Boone announced he would launch the Yankees’ 2019 postseason run by handing the ball to Paxton in Friday night’s ALDS Game 1. Yet Paxton’s revelation of his TV viewing habits this week shed an encouraging window into his frame of mind:

He knows what he can’t know, and he’s doing his best to make up the difference as he becomes the third Yankees pitcher in five years to make his major league postseason debut in the club’s playoff opener.