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Q.  What did the Mainframe like best about Zeus' lightning storm?

A.  Some very kind amigo on D-O-V referred to the idea that it's fun to see a game through somebody else's eyes.  For some reason that just pinned me to the back of my seat.  At this point, it's not always necessarily the case that we can tell you anything you don't know about this roster.  But it can be info-taining to compare points of reference.

I'll remember that!  :- )  Thanks Gentle Denizen.

...

Paxton came out with casually dominant body language, the "Ain't No Thang" feel that we've been longing for.  Usually, even when K-Pax wins a game, he's teetering and tentative, as though he could suddenly run off the rails at any moment - Randy Johnson, 1991-1992.  His CG always looks uncertain, even timid.

He wasn't throwing the ball his best; the pitch speeds were 94-96, even dipping to 92 where it became a little tough to differentiate between foshball and fastball.  BUT!  Whether he wound up for a fastball, or a curve, or a "slider"/slashball, he pushed forward into a confident extension, and accelerated the CG through confidently and smoothly.  

No, not confidently; he accelerated the CG easily, in a Zen-positive way.  Dr. D can't paint a word picture to express his joy.  The curveballs were crackling in to BOOM thunder at the knees, or else they barely missed, too far inside.  Almost never high.  The foshball hit its spot or it came in shin high, or popped a cloud of dirt into Zuumball's mask.

99 MPH or not, THAT is what we're looking for in Paxton.  Three pitches, one foot plant, one release point, total command of himself, of his own three pitches, and therefore total command of the Toronto Blue Jays.

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Q.  What then was the pitch mix?

A.  60-25-15.

But it was a Moyer 60-25-15, not a Paxton 60-25-15 in which the 25-15 are for show (except for two strikes; then ONE of the offspeed pitches is used as a putaway).  The Moyer 60-25-15, the pitcher reaches back for any pitch at any time.

Zeus was 15-for-23 on the curve ball, and the other 8 were mostly inside, back foot to righties.  It was beautiful, man.

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Q.  How much of a luck factor in the no-hitter?  Was it a defensive masterpiece by Seager and the gang?

A.  There's no such thing as a no-hitter the pitcher didn't deserve.

But to answer the question, I thought the luck factor was about average for a no-hitter.

.....

There were 'only' 7 strikeouts (and 15 whiffs), but the Jays hit very few balls hard in the first 6-7 innings.  There was Gordon's weird, circular route to take away a short single, and a nice play by Seager.

In the 7th-9th, there were two or three great plays.  Kyle Seager laid out down the 3B line for a ball and then one-hopped it to 1B; very nice, but let's not make it the end of the world.  He's protecting the line with a 5-run lead late.  It was a good play; Luis Aparicio performing a miracle, maybe not.  Not to be pusallanimous, I give the play a 7-8 on a scale of 10.

Ben Gamel caught a ball running against the fence; if he doesn't catch it, he's ..... well, he's Ichiro.  Gordon caught a 105 MPH knuckleball right at him on the next play.  For some reason on the M's website you can catch the alternative theory that the M's awesome defense turned a 4-run, 8-hit game into a no-no.  :: shrug ::  to each his own.  Fangraphs has the Jays for 10 grounders (mostly fungo balls right at infielders), 7 flyouts (all skied and only Gamel's near the wall), and 2 line drives.

But Paxton humped up in the 9th, hitting 97, then 98, then 99, and then 100 on his 99th pitch of the game.  When Seager smothered the last out, Paxton had taken one more step towards believing that he is a great pitcher.

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Q.  Anything else?

A.  ESPN had a junk stat.  Only 2 pitchers have thrown back-to-back 15K, no-hit games.  Paxton and Scherzer.  Dipoto pointed out that in the 16K game, the spin rate on Paxton's fastball was the highest of his career.  In other words, Pax was snapping the fingers with extra 'elan, and we were hoping to see that again yesterday.  Alas, no.  What we did see was the attitude carry through.

It's a new point of reference to watch in every Paxton start, whether he gets that vicious fingersnap, ergo that ferocious spin and life and ergo that high fastball that cannot be touched.

For some reason Sully missed that point in this long article on the 16K game, but it's still a great read.  The Baseball Savant graph is worth the clickthrough alone.

Dr. D refers to Paxton as a "young pitcher" because K-Pax continues to remind so much of Randy Johnson, just before the Unit.

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BABVA,

Dr D