Some years later, the finer details of that game elude Brandon Morrow, which isn’t so unusual for him. A lot of games come back to him smeared around the edges, blurry in the middle, boxed up and put away on the day they’re here and gone. So this wouldn’t be any different. It’s not like he tries not to think about that game. He’s simply not one of those reflective souls who recall this pitch on this day to this hitter, except maybe for that backup slider to John Jaso in the eighth inning he got away with, the middle-middle mistake in mechanics or concentration or something that very nearly had him convinced he was going to throw a no-hitter.

He walked the day of that game to the ballpark along Front Street and Blue Jays Way, over the railroad tracks, like always. No one recognized him as the guy who would pitch for the Blue Jays that afternoon. No one ever did, not ever. When he considered that, which wasn’t often, because frankly he preferred it that way and there’d be no sense overthinking a good thing, he’d muse he must have one of those generic faces, is all. So the guy on the sidewalk on a mild Sunday afternoon who was just a guy on a walk or going for breakfast or a newspaper continued past the security guards and toward the silent hellos from the other nice folks at Rogers Centre.

Morrow was 26 years old on Aug. 8, 2010. He was new to Toronto, new to the Blue Jays, having made 21 starts for them since the trade from Seattle. It was going fine, too. After some previous conversations about him and his body and whether they’d be suited long term for the rotation or the bullpen, Morrow was a regular starter with Ricky Romero and Shaun Marcum and Brett Cecil. The Blue Jays were pretty good, only assigned to a division in which three teams won 89 games or better, so they’d be fourth. But, still, they were pretty good. That rotation was young and on some days breathed fire, so this was whom the Blue Jays would be for a while, Brandon Morrow up near the front.

He’d pitch that afternoon against the Tampa Bay Rays, the best team in the AL East who the day before had put 11 runs on the Blue Jays. And lost by six. Morrow was a big fellow who could push a fastball toward a hundred on some days. He struck out a lot of batters and walked his share too. Just four years out of Cal, the fifth pick in the 2006 draft (behind Luke Hochevar and Evan Longoria, ahead of Andrew Miller, Clayton Kershaw, Tim Lincecum and Max Scherzer), Morrow was finding his place between health and infirm, between power and grace, between this pitch and that, and when and where, and gaining on it.

“I think Brandon always had a good ear,” said his catcher on Aug. 8, 2010, Jose Molina. “He was so good at listening. I’d just come out of New York, winning the World Series, and he had a lot of questions. He really wanted to learn to pitch. He wanted to learn how to set up hitters. He didn’t say much, but he was open to me. We had a lot of good talks.”

View photos Brandon Morrow’s final line on Aug. 8, 2010: Nine innings, one hit, two walks, 17 strikeouts, 137 pitches, 97 strikes. (Photo by Abelimages/Getty Images) More

Morrow began that game with a fastball to Ben Zobrist, a foul ball, the first of what would be 137 pitches. He struck out Zobrist on the fourth pitch, the first of what would be 17 strikeouts. Then he struck out Carl Crawford. Then he struck out Evan Longoria.

Going on seven years later, Morrow sat in a hotel room in New York. He’d pitched an inning for the Los Angeles Dodgers a couple hours before. Across 24 appearances for a team that hardly loses anymore, Morrow has a 1.82 ERA, 31 strikeouts, four walks and a fastball that’s a hundred again. Against 94 batters he’s allowed 14 hits, three of them for extra bases, none of them for home runs. He’s tucked inside a bullpen that has the best ERA – 2.92 – in baseball, so after a rotation that has the best ERA – 3.15 – in baseball and in front of Kenley Jansen. After several years of injuries (forearm, shoulder, oblique, finger) and ailments (Valley Fever) and the usual challenges (diabetes) and role questions, he’d signed a minor-league contract with the Dodgers in late January, reported to the bullpen, been promoted in late May, narrowed his pitch options to fastballs, sliders and cutters, and become one of those million tiny reasons teams go on to win 100 or 110 games.

Story continues