SEATTLE -- Mariners left-handed pitcher James Paxton is ready for his scheduled start Tuesday after testing his fingernail injury in a bullpen session Saturday.
"Today, actually, the pain was pretty much gone where it started ripping off," Paxton said after playing catch before Sunday's game. "Yesterday I could still feel it a little bit, but today was much better. So I think its just going to be a thing that gets better every day."
Paxton has a fake fingernail over the torn nail on the middle finger of his pitching hand that cut his last start, on Aug. 30 in Texas, short after five innings. The fake nail evens out the pressure on his finger, keeping the half of his nail that is still attached from pulling off. The injury is not as severe as last year when he lost almost his entire nail.
"There was nothing to put a fake nail on because there was nothing hanging on," Paxton said. "So this year what happened is it grew back, but there was a little dead piece on this inside half. So I basically had half a nail. And all of that pressure was going to one side, and it was just too much pressure so it started lifting up off of my nail bed. "
Paxton was originally scheduled to start Monday, but the Mariners opted to push him back a day to give him six days between starts to address the injury. Félix Hernández will start Monday against the Rangers.