The Toronto Blue Jays completed their three game series with the Tampa Bay Rays in Toronto at the Rogers Centre yesterday afternoon.

The game was highlighted by the impressive pitching performance of Brandon Morrow, who was one out away from throwing a no-hitter for the Jays before Rays third baseman Evan Longoria hit a two out single in the ninth inning.

Morrow completed the nine inning shutout of the Rays striking out Dan Johnson, who followed Longoria. The strikeout of Johnson was the seventeenth for Morrow on the afternoon.

Morrow and Jose Molina, who has become Morrow’s catcher for every start, certainly had the Rays fooled all afternoon as Morrow was locating both his two-seam and four-seam fastballs as well as making the Rays look ridiculous with his outstanding slider.

Morrow finished the afternoon pitching nine innings, allowing zero earned runs on one hit, walking two and striking out seventeen.

Morrow had the following to say about his pitching performance on the day:

“I was excited.”

“That’s my first complete game, first shutout. Those things combined are more than enough to overcome the missed no-hitter. That would’ve been a great feat, but I’ll start at a complete game, one-hit shutout with 17 strikeouts.”

The Jays were also held down offensively on the day by the Rays Andy Sonnanstine (5.1IP, 3H, 1R, 1ER, 3BB, 1K) and the bullpen combination of Randy Choate (0.2IP, 1H, 0R, 0ER, 1BB, 2K), Dan Wheeler (1.2IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 1BB, 2K) & Lance Cormier (0.1IP, 1H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 0K), but a first inning RBI single from Vernon Wells, which scored Yunel Escobar was enough to give the Jays a 1-0 victory.

Speaking of Wells, the team lost their everyday centre fielder in the bottom of the sixth inning of the game as Wells dislocated the big toe on his right foot after making an incredible running catch to preserve Morrow’s no-hit bid.

Wells is schedule to undergo an x-ray on his right foot today with the Jays having an off-day, but Wells will be day-day until more information about the injury is known.

Wells had the following to say about the catch and injury:

“I made the catch, hit the wall and I went down,”

“I told D-Wise (DeWayne Wise), ‘I think I broke my toe.’ He thought I was kidding. We were running in and I could feel that it was not in place anymore. I was hoping it would pop back in place as I was running in, but it didn’t. They told me I had to come out of the game.

“I think when I landed I hit the wall. I just hit the wall the wrong way and popped it out of place.”

The loss of Wells is a big one for the Jays as the team made up a ton of ground in the American League wildcard race with the weekend sweep of the wild card leading Rays.

The Jays currently sit eight games back of the Rays for the spot with a record of 59-52.

The Jays continue play on Tuesday with the Boston Red Sox coming to town. The Jays will send lefty Ricky Romero (9-7, 3.37ERA) to the mound to square off against the Red Sox Daisuke Matsuzaka (8-3, 3.96ERA).

In other Jays news from the weekend series the team and fans of the Jays witnessed quite possibly one of the greatest Major League debuts of all-time for their franchise as top catching prospect J.P Arencibia, who got the call-up when John Buck went on the disabled list with a finger laceration, went four for five with two home runs, a single, a double and three runs batted in during his Major League debut. Arencibia hit the first pitch he saw in his Major League career over the left field fence off of Rays starter James Shields.

The team has also announced that they plan to sign top 2010 draft pick Deck McGuire before the deadline to sign draft talent on August 16th 2010.

General manager Alex Anthopoulos has stated that there is no guarantee that McGuire will be signed, but discussions and the idea to get the player signed are going well and he is optimistic about getting him signed.

Toronto selected McGuire with the 12th overall pick in the 2010 draft out of Georgia Tech University.