James Paxton turned in his best start of the season as the Los Angeles Dodgers began their road trip with a 9-5 win over the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field.
The left-hander allowed just one run on two hits and collected a season-high eight strikeouts over seven innings of work. His only blemish of the night was a solo home run to Jacob Stallings in the second inning.
Paxton also showed excellent command of his pitches as he issued just one walk. It marked a fourth consecutive start that the left-hander walked two or fewer batters.
Paxton had a lot of things working in his favor against the Rockies but he was most pleased with his ability to generate swings and misses, via Dennis Georgatos of the Southern California News Group:
“We had the good fastball, and the curveball was good, getting swings and misses at the bottom, so that was big,” Paxton said. “Will (Smith) did a great job of pushing buttons back there and it worked out.”
In total, Paxton registered 15 swings and misses, and his 28% swing and miss rate was his second-highest mark of the season behind his first outing at 32% and up from his season average of 19%.
Paxton’s previous season high in strikeouts was five, which he set on April 1 against the San Francisco Giants. The 35-year-old has struck out 9.6 batters per nine over his 11-year big league career, but so far is managing only 5.8 this year.
While the strikeouts are down, Paxton has done an excellent job at preventing runs as his 3.65 ERA ranks among the top 30 National League pitchers with at least 60 innings.
James Paxton’s 2024 season
With his terrific outing against the Rockies, Paxton improved to 7-1 with a 3.65 ERA, 4.95 FIP and 1.31 WHIP in 66.2 innings pitched across 13 starts this season.
The Dodgers are now 10-3 in games started by Paxton this year.
It hasn’t always been pretty when Paxton is on the mound due to his high walk rate, but he has continued to get the job done regardless.
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