Former Kentucky Baseball star James Paxton hit by line drive

Former Kentucky star Pitcher James Paxton only got to face three batters Tuesday night in the Mariners loss to Oakland.

The Seattle Mariners entering Tuesday night trailed the Oakland A’s by two and a half games for the second American League Wild Card Spot. In a huge matchup Tuesday night, they sent their Ace former Kentucky Star James Paxton to the mound.

Unfortunately for Paxton, his night was short lived.

The third batter of the game Jed Lowrie hit a blistering line drive that hit Paxton directly in his throwing shoulder.

Paxton was unable to finish the play as rather than fielding the line drive he held his arm in pain. He was promptly removed from the game leaving Mariners fans to fear the worst.

Paxton’s early exit left M’s fans panicking. Luckily they can breathe.

According to the Mariners’ Twitter page, x-ray’s on Paxton all came back negative. The star pitcher has been diagnosed with a left forearm contusion and is listed as day to day.

At worst Paxton will miss one start. A huge relief for Seattle as they try to run down the red hot A’s.

Paxton pitched for the Wildcats from 2006-09. At Kentucky, he had three winning seasons and was named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll all three seasons at the school.

He was a fourth-round pick of the Mariners in the 2010 MLB first-year player draft.

In 2018, the former Kentucky star had already been dealing with a bad back that kept him off the mound for a few weeks in July.

However, when healthy this season Paxton had been as good as anyone. The lefty has pitched to a 10-5 record, an ERA of 3.68 and even tossed a no-hitter in his homeland of Canada against the Toronto Blue Jays on May 8th.

Paxton is a huge reason why Seattle (69-52) is just three and a half games out of a playoff spot.

Luckily it seems that Paxton dodged a bullet. In this case a bullet in the form of a baseball.

University Of Kentucky Athletics