Another One-Hitter?

Brings back memories. First, Halladay's bittersweet second ever Major League start. I couldn't stomach the thought of coming so close to history and just failing to see it happen. I remember just staring into the television wondering if time could somehow be reversed for a few minutes there, so that Shannon Stewart may have leaped 10 feet into the air to rob Bobby Higginson of his pinch-hit, 2-out ballbreaker of a home run. Never happened.

Then, Dustin McGowan, taking a no-hitter into the ninth and seeing it broken up by the first batter. It was, to me, a remarkably similar story. A young, right-handed fireballer coming up and shutting down the opposing team until the last second. The only difference that day for me, as a spectator, was that I remember calling my friends in the third inning to tell them that McGowan was going to pitch a no-hitter that day. Never happened.

And then there are all the near-no-hitters and perfect games that the incredible Blue Jays rotation has popped into the boxscores this year, including at least two other times in which Brandon Morrow took one into the 6th inning or later. The most painful of all, of course was seeing Ricky Romero lose his bid in the 8th inning against the White Sox. Alex Rios had been booed all series long and responded by going 4-8 in his first two games against his former team in the first two games. Although he only had one hit in the second game (the one in which Romero pitched), he made it count, by ending the no-hitter with a home run. What bothered me about that eight inning was a number of things. First of all, Rios has been known to not care about - excuse me - not give a f??k. I had the odd feeling that booing him and making him sad and angry inside would bring out his indisputable talent. It's sad that he had to end Romero's chance of being recorded in the history books like that. Second, and possibly worse, is what happened the batter before Rios. A.J. Pierzynski took a ball in the dirt a few inches away from his feet and acted like he was hit by a pitch. This put Ricky into the stretch and the rest is history (or, not history).

In any case, that sucked. I could go on for hours about how much of an asshole Pierzynski is and how much of a waste of talent Rios is, but that's not the point. With all of the no-hit teases we, as Blue Jays fans have been subjected to, it hurts to see such a magical start by Brandon Morrow ended because a weak dribbler found a hole (in the infield defense and, apparently, Aaron Hill's glove). Sportsnet said during the broadcast that there have been 18 one-hitters in Blue Jays history and just the one no-no by Dave Stieb. That's a rather unfortunate ratio, considering how many times in recent memory they have come to repeating the feat, not even including the one-hitters.

A few last thoughts before I finish the less happy part of my rant:

Evan Longoria is a damn good hitter. In fact, I think he's such a complete player, a true 5-tool talent, that if I could pick any one player in baseball, regardless of contract or age, to start off a team, I'd pick him first. For that reason, I was almost yelling at my TV after Ben Zobrist's walk, knowing that Carl Crawford would not hit into a double play, and knowing that Evan Longoria would be due up in the inning. It really, really sucks, however, because, with all his talent, "Don't call me Eva" Longoria had to hit a ball about as softly as he can muster and find a hole - OK, I've been there already.

Anyways, the positives. There are a lot of them and I'm finding it hard to accept them because of all the damn teasing:

1. Brandon Morrow recorded 17 strikeouts. That is by far the best non-PED-assisted strikeout total in Blue Jays history (Roger Clemens got between 15 and 18 on 4 separate occasions, I believe, according to Sportsnet).

2. The Blue Jays swept the Rays, winning the games by incredibly-varying-from-day-to-day scores of 2-1, 17-11 and 1-0. First time they've even taken a series from Tampa since 2008! They now sit 8.0 GB of the Wild Card. Still unlikely, but, you know, you never know.

3. The first guy I mentioned in this post, the one in 1998... he eventually got his no-hitter in perfect game format. Sure, that was bittersweet, because it happened just about right after he left the Jays, but the path he took to get to it was quite interesting. I can't count how many one-hitters he posted, but I can say without looking anything up that he's had a decent career since that heartbreaking no-hit bid.