Blue Jays offence stymied by Justin Verlander

06The Toronto Blue Jays offence was stymied yesterday as Justin Verlander no-hit the club for the second time in his career.

I had the opportunity of making the trek down to the Rogers Centre for the Blue Jays afternoon affair in the series finale versus the Houston Astros. While I anticipated the upstart offence would be in tough versus Justin Verlander, I did not envision what unfolded before my eyes.

Verlander was on point from the get-go overpowering Blue Jays hitters with a fastball that hovered in the 93 MPH range for most the afternoon. The hurler mixed in his secondary stuff when the need arose but it was his fastball that crippled the Jays offence.

The future Hall of Famer was nearly perfect if it had not been for a one-out walk to Cavan Biggio in the first inning. Verlander would fan 14 enroute to his third career no-hitter and second versus the Jays, the last one being in 2011 when Verlander was a member of the Detroit Tigers.

The 2011 no-hitter was a 9-0 victory that saw Verlander whiff four batters on his way to a 9-0 victory. Ricky Romero started the contest opposite Verlander that day and his only blemish that time around was a walk to catcher J.P. Arencibia.

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Verlander is in some pretty nice company as only Nolan Ryan and Sandy Koufax have thrown more no-hitters than him in MLB history.

If the pitching performance wasn’t enough yesterday, the Astros offence came off the bat of rookie Abraham Toro who connected for a 2-run shot off closer Ken Giles in the ninth inning. Toro who is a Canadian hailing from Longueuil, Quebec hit his second career homer with family and friends in attendance above the visitor’s dugout.

The Jays faithful paid their respect to Verlander acknowledging his performance and even though I was one of the clapping fans, it seemed strange for an opposing player to receive such a loud reception.

All in all, it was a very special day on many fronts at 1 Blue Jays Way in Toronto.