WASHINGTON — There is no early in this condensed baseball season. No time to ease into things. In a normal schedule the page turned feels like a feather. Now it is a bank safe.
James Paxton, who had lower back surgery in early February and wouldn’t have been ready by the original Opening Day in late March, got his walk year underway Saturday night with a stinker that placed the Yankees in a ditch they weren’t able to climb out of on the way to a 9-2 beating by the defensively challenged Nationals at Nationals Park.
“I am not happy with it, not how I wanted to start the season,’’ said Paxton, who didn’t retire any of the five batters he faced in the second inning. “That being said I have to put this one behind me and focus on what is next.’’
A year ago Paxton’s fastball was clocked between 93 and 97 mph. Saturday it was in the 91-to-93 neighborhood. In one-plus frames the Yankees’ No. 2 starter gave up three runs, five hits, walked one and whiffed one.
The good news for Paxton and the Yankees is that he says physically he is fine. The bad news is the margin for error in a 60-game schedule is paper thin.
“No pain at all when throwing,’’ Paxton said. “I felt a little sluggish tonight.’’
One day after stud outfielder Juan Soto was sidelined by COVID-19 the Nationals scratched right-hander Stephen Strasburg, last year’s World Series MVP, with a nerve issue in his right hand.
Erick Fedde replaced Strasburg and watched the Nationals make four errors in the first three innings. Two of them came in the fourth when Fedde fed Giancarlo Stanton an inning-ending double-play ball. They made a fifth error in the ninth.
For the second straight game Stanton, who with Aaron Hicks took a knee for the National Anthem, flexed his considerable muscles by sending a home run 483 feet to left that nearly left the building in the fourth.
Mike King replaced Paxton and retired the first five batters but gave up a two-run homer to Victor Robles in the fourth and Jonathan Holder surrendered a RBI double to Howie Kendrick in the fifth. Former Met Asdrubal Cabrera homered off Ben Heller in the seventh for an 8-2 advantage. Michael Taylor’s homer off Luis Avilan in the eighth made it 9-2.
Paxton’s miserable outing and dip in velocity which existed during spring training 2.0 didn’t send worry waves into Aaron Boone’s head from a health standpoint.
“I am not alarmed. I feel like physically he is sound,’’ Boone said. “Just a matter of really getting his delivery and finding that click extending through the ball. That has been what he has been searching for these last few weeks.’’
Outside of Stanton, who also smoked a double in the eighth inning, the Yankees didn’t do much against five Nationals pitchers, none of whom will ever by confused for Strasburg.
The Yankees went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position. The hit was DJ LeMahieu’s RBI single in the third. They also stranded nine baserunners. Aaron Judge and Gleyber Torres, the No. 2 and 3 hitters, went a combined 0-for-9 and Luke Voit and Gary Sanchez went hitless in eight at-bats.
“We got to score runs,’’ Hicks said. “Tried everything to score runs and just didn’t get it done.’’
As for Paxton, he didn’t come close to getting it done. If it happens in the second game of the season and him not coming off back surgery the page gets turned easily.
Yet, with every game having the feel of a wild-card contest, Paxton’s brief outing and lack of velocity can’t be ignored because as the No. 2 starter behind Gerrit Cole he needs to be a lot better than he was Saturday.
And quickly.