Canada, your champion awaits you.
If James Paxton wasn’t mentioned in a conversation among the best left-handers in baseball, he made a maple-sized case to be last week against the Oakland Athletics.
And that conversation should probably include the word “Eh” 16 times – as in a career-high 16 strikeouts for Paxton.
It’s a start that will be the benchmark for the rest of Paxton’s season, starting with his next start for the Seattle Mariners in Paxton’s Canadian homeland on Tuesday against the Toronto Blue Jays.