Life on the west coast isn’t all that bad especially when we get to “toy around” with various sports while other parts of the country are hounded with snow and that’s just the way we like it.

We play golf, hockey, tennis, fish then we go to the mountains and ski or simply relax, but for the true sports athlete such as Delta’s James Paxton there’s no such thing as taking time off.

He works out on a regular basis and when he hit’s camp in Peoria Arizona early spring he’s ready and for the 2017 Mariners home opener he was in fine form.

Last week was a write-off for the club and they were looking at rebounding at Safeco Field in a mid-monday afternoon contest against Houston.

Paxton took to the mound knowing his role and performed to perfection shutting down the  Astros for the second time in a week which helped the Mariners bounce-back from a terrible ninth-inning debacle against the Angels that saw them give up seven runs and lost by a narrow score of 10-9.

Paxton worked each pitch keeping the Aeros  quiet giving the Mariners time to set the alarm eventually managing to score with runners in scoring position.

He (Paxton) managed to strike out eight giving up only two walks in what was his second start on opening day at Safeco Field, with the last being when Delta TV covered the game.

Following the game Paxton told the media “I feel really confident  in what I’m doing and focusing on the process of what I need to do out there – and so far getting the good results we need.”

In 13 innings against the Astros this season he (Paxton) has not allowed a run and managed only six hits, one of which saw Aeros Carlos Correa had the first three of which two never left the infield.

“Paxton was really tough. We didn’t really put a ton of stress on him, except for the two innings — in the fourth and then his last inning, the seventh,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “You don’t get a lot of opportunities against him; we haven’t, at least in the last two games we faced him. And then obviously we got out of a few jams of our own until they started to break it open a little bit.”

Paxton managed to get Evan Gattis to foul out, striking out Marwin Gonzalez, with help from Martin to run down Aeros Josh Reddick wrapping up the inning.

Mariners Manager Scott Servais mentioned that they hit the reset button and got what they needed heading forward.

Mariners SS Jean Segura left the game after the bottom of the third after straining his right hamstring, which first began to bother him in the early stages of the game and appeared to be more of a concern after he dove back to first trying to avoid a tag.

Mariners will send LHP Ariel Miranda to the mound for tomorrow’s contest which will be only his second start of the season as he gave up two runs over five innings in his first start earlier in the season.

Look for more great ball from south of the 49th!!