Jays pitcher tosses a one-hitter, K's 17 in win

TORONTO - Brandon Morrow came a foot short of throwing just the second no-hitter in Toronto Blue Jays history.

Evan Longoria spoiled the right-hander's bid for the sixth no-no in the majors this season with a ground ball that deflected off second baseman Aaron Hill's glove as he dove to his left. Morrow shook off the disappointment to strike out Dan Johnson with his 137th pitch and seal a 1-0 victory against the Tampa Bay Rays.

With a slider that made all-stars look like chumps and a fastball sitting at 94-to-95 miles an hour, Morrow was in total command from start to finish. But he just missed joining Dave Stieb as the only Blue Jays pitchers to accomplish the feat.

His only blemishes were walks to Dan Johnson in the second and Ben Zobrist in the ninth until Longoria's base hit.

He struck out 17, one shy of Roger Clemens' franchise record 18 set Aug. 25, 1998.

To say he was masterful would be an understatement.

There were a couple of nervous moments before the ninth.

One came in the sixth, when home-plate umpire Jason Kellogg awarded Jason Bartlett first base when he felt the ball struck him on the arm during a check-swing. Catcher Jose Molina argued immediately and eventually Kellogg huddled with the rest of crew and ruled it a foul ball.

Rays manager Joe Maddon then came out for a lengthy argument, likely with some gamesmanship in mind to get Morrow off his rhythm. Instead, Bartlett struck out on the next pitch and Zobrist followed with a drive to deep centre that Vernon Wells chased down and caught while jumping into the wall.

The crowd of 22,313 stood was on its feet after the catch and nearly the entire Jays dugout greeted him on the field as he hobbled off afterwards. Travis Snider took over from him in the bottom half.

Morrow had more trouble in the seventh when Johnson's two-out grounder slipped through Lyle Overbay at first base. Fans immediately booed but then cheered when "error, first base" was flashed on the scoreboard. Matt Joyce then struck out to end the inning.

After a clean eighth, Bartlett opened the ninth with a fly-out to centre, Zobrist walked on four pitches, Carl Crawford hit a soft liner to Snider in left before Longoria snuck one just by Hill. The crowd erupted after Johnson's strikeout and chanted Morrow's name, and he tipped his cap as he walked to the dugout.

Stieb's no-hitter came on Sept. 2, 1990, breaking through after several agonizing near misses. Dustin McGowan had the team's most recent close call, giving up a leadoff single in the ninth to Jeff Baker in a one-hitter against Colorado on June 24, 2007.

For the Rays, nearly getting no-hit was all too familiar.

They were on the right side of baseball's most recent no-no, when Matt Garza ripped through Detroit on July 26. Oakland's Dallas Braden threw a perfect game against them May 9, while Edwin Jackson, then of Arizona, no-hit his former team June 25.

Colorado's Ubaldo Jimenez got it all started April 17 with his no-no against Atlanta while former Toronto ace Roy Halladay achieved perfection for Philadelphia on May 29 against Florida.

The Rays were also victim of White Sox lefty Mark Buehrle's prefect game last July 23.

Morrow (9-6), acquired last November from Seattle for Brandon League and a prospect, had never even thrown a complete game in the majors, let alone a shutout.

But he's made tremendous progress as a starter this season, particularly with Molina behind the plate. Coming in, he was 7-4 with a 3.32 earned-run average in 14 games with Molina catching, and 1-2 with an 8.81 ERA over seven games throwing to all-star.

Manager Cito Gaston has mused about breaking up the pairing. That will be tough to do now.

The victory also gave the Blue Jays (59-52) a three-game sweep of the Rays (67-44) on a tremendous weekend of baseball. They also improved to 6-6 against the AL wild card leaders this season.

The Blue Jays scored the game's only run on an RBI single by Wells off Andy Sonnanstine (2-1), who was starting in place of the injured Jeff Niemann.

That was set up by Yunel Escobar's alert base-running a batter earlier. The shortstop went first to third on Jose Bautista's groundout to third, putting him in position to score easily.

The RBI was only the 24th for Wells since May 30th, when he knocked in his 36th run.

Notes: OF Fred Lewis and Travis Snider were both the odd men out of Gaston's starting lineup Sunday. Snider's return has made for a crowded outfield and Gaston is having trouble keeping everyone happy. "It's real tough to do that," said Gaston. "It's hard to get (Jose) Bautista out of there and it's hard to get Vernon (Wells) out of there sometimes. But we'll work it some kind of way, we're doing the best we can with it." He says he hasn't had much conversation with his players about it. "I've told them they're going to get days off here and there," he said. "That's enough." ... Gaston said he wasn't tempted to use rookie J.P. Arencibia behind the plate after his spectacular debut Saturday. "If (John) Buck had hit two home runs yesterday, Molina would still be catching," he said. ... GM Alex Anthopoulos said Buck (right thumb) should be ready as soon as his DL stint is over. "We're expecting him to be ready before the two weeks are up," he said. "It's great that J.P.'s come up, he had a nice first game ... but at the same time, John Buck is an all-star and he's a big part of the reason some of the starters are performing the way they are." ... Anthopoulos added talks continue with first-round pick Deck McGuire and that a general offer has been extended to him. "A lot of first-round picks seem to be signing later and later every single year," he said. "We've also agreed to see how some of the other signings would come in. There's not a lot of substantial dialogue just because there's not that many signings."