A near no-no

Dustin McGowan of the Blue Jays was three outs away from joining Mark Buehrle and Justin Verlander in the 2007 no hitters club, but he lost it on Rockies outfielder Jeff Baker with a single in the ninth. McGowan still went on to throw the complete game shutout.

While McGowan has been maddeningly inconsistent all season long, perhaps the most interesting part of this near no-no is the fact that he got roughed up big-time in his last outing as he faced the Dodgers but could only go 1.2 and gave up six runs on eight hits. Bizarre.

And truthfully, if I had to have guessed any Blue Jay who would have pitched a performance like this, it would have been McGowan’s fellow upstart Shaun Marcum who has been more consistent and has a solid 3.38 ERA. Shows what I know.

The Rockies can’t be too happy with the sweep at the hands of the Jays as they were riding a big high after taking the Yankees for a three game sweep at home earlier in the week. Matt Holliday’s 2 of 14 performance in the series didn’t help matters.