Mariners blank the Royals 1-0 for their seventh straight win

SEATTLE — Was there any doubt James Paxton would mow down the Kansas City Royals on Sunday at Safeco Field?

After all, it was Canada Day — Paxton is from Ladner, British Columbia — and it was James Paxton Bobblehead Day.

No way was the left-hander going to let the cellar-dwelling Royals spoil this celebration.

Paxton soared through eight shutout innings, striking out 11 and allowing just two hits in the Mariners’ 1-0 victory, their seventh straight win.

“It was really cool pitching on Canada Day,” Paxton said with a smile. “The bobblehead also. That was a lot of fun. I had a good fastball and the curveball and cutter both working. So we had stuff to go to late in the count to get strikeouts and Mike (Zunino) did a great job calling the game behind the plate.”

Paxton earned his eighth win and the Mariners (54-31) improved to a season-high 23 wins above .500 as they swept the three-game series from the Royals (25-58).

Oh, and the reigning World Series champion Houston Astros lost to the Tampa Bay Rays earlier in the day, so the Mariners find themselves just a half game out of first place in the AL West.

Paxton threw 100 pitches through seven innings, but Mariners manager Scott Servais elected to let Paxton keep going into the eighth with the bottom of the Royals’ order due up.

Paxton quickly got Alcides Escobar to fly out and then struck out Drew Butera on a 97-mph fastball. He cranked that up to 99-mph on the final pitch of his outing, getting Whit Merrifield to fly out to left field, ending Paxton’s day after 110 pitches.

“It’s just adrenaline,” Paxton said. “It felt really good, and at that point I was letting it rip, trying to empty the tank there.”

Letting it rip. That’s a term Servais and pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. have emphasized with Paxton this season, to flash his near 100-mph stuff and make hitters catch up to him.

Servais was asked how rare it is for pitchers to get stronger throughout the game as Paxton seems to do.

“Those guys are top-of-the-rotation guys,” he said. “Those are the best 5-10 guys in the league and we’re lucky to have one. It says something about his talent, but also the preparation and what he does in between starts. When he gets to the point when he has the ability to take over and lets it rip, as I like to call it, we see good things.”

It was Paxton Day, but it’s Edwin Diaz Season.

Diaz closed out the ninth by striking out the side to earn his major-league leading 32nd save, which is already three more than Kazuhiro Sasaki’s previous Mariners record for saves before the All-Star break.

Diaz is one of two pitchers in MLB history — joining former Los Angeles Dodgers closer Eric Gagne — to have at least 30 saves and 70 strikeouts before the All-Star break. And we still have two weeks until the Midsummer Classic.

Offensively, Seattle had six hits against Royals starter Bradley Keller but the only one that went for extra bases was Kyle Seager’s two-out double in the seventh inning. Seager scored the only run of the game in the second. He beat the shift with a single to right field, Ryon Healy followed with a single and Ben Gamel blooped a single into center field to score Seager.

Jean Segura singled with two out in the third inning, but Keller retired 11 consecutive batters after that.

Paxton dialed his fastball up to 98 mph on three consecutive pitches before striking out Hunter Dozier to end the fourth inning.

He was one strike away from striking out the side in the fifth inning. Paxton settled for two Ks and he had eight of those entering the sixth inning.

But Paxton kept rolling. He didn’t strike out a batter in the sixth, but followed with back-to-back strikeouts in the seventh to reach double digits — and got Dozier to swing through another 98-mph fastball.

“I was happy to see him in the eighth — it was one of those I know he was at 100 pitches but he’s one of those guys who builds up steam as he gets going,” Zunino said. “The guys I’ve caught for, there haven’t been too many like that. But you see the greats who have been doing it for a while. The Verlanders, the Sales, Scherzers — those guys get stronger throughout the game and Paxton has been showing that.”

This is the seventh time this season Paxton has struck out at least 10 batters in a game, and it’s the ninth such outing of his career.

Before this season, Paxton’s career-high was 10 strikeouts, which he’d reached three times. Now he’s done that in back-to-back starts after fanning 10 in seven innings in last week’s win in Baltimore.

“Obviously late in the game he dialed it up with the fastball and emptied the tank,” Servais said. “He knows where he’s at pitch-count wise and lets it go. He had an overpowering fastball.”