ANAHEIM, Calif. - Meet Brandon Morrow, groundball pitcher.
The Toronto Blue Jays right-hander continued his renaissance into a more complete pitcher with an outing of sheer brilliance Thursday night, facing one batter over the minimum in his second career complete game, a three-hit shutout of the Los Angeles Angels in a 5-0 victory.
Coming in with a streak of 10.2 consecutive scoreless innings after victories at Kansas City and at home versus Seattle, Morrow (3-1) was in control from start to finish, helping the Blue Jays (15-11) move four games over .500 for first time since completing a four-game sweep of the Royals on April 23.
Predominantly a fly-ball/strikeout pitcher in the past, perhaps most impressive was the way he induced nine ground balls leading to outs, including two double plays. The last time he had multiple twin-kills in the same game was May 31, 2010, when he finished the season with nine.
Last year, he induced just one double play, in his penultimate start of the campaign at that. This year, he's already got five.
Taken as a whole, the performance was the latest indication that Morrow is finding the right balance between blowing away his opposition and pitching to contact. He struck out eight and only allowed a handful of hard-hit balls, one of them by Bobby Wilson chased down in left field by Eric Thames on the run, another from Albert Pujols impressively stabbed by a diving Brett Lawrie.
An opportunistic offence provided Morrow with all the support needed to end a three-game win streak for the Angels (10-16) before a crowd of 28,359.
Looking to build momentum off Jered Weaver's no-hitter Wednesday, Dan Haren (1-2) didn't allow a base-runner through two but then had L.A.'s streak of 17.1 hitless innings stopped by Lawrie's single to open the third.
Colby Rasmus followed with a bunt single before J.P. Arencibia ripped Haren's first offering to left to open up a 3-0 edge. It was Arencibia's second homer of the year and first since opening day.
The Blue Jays added two more in the fifth when third baseman Mark Trumbo threw away Edwin Encarnacion's two-out groundball into the outfield to allow both Kelly Johnson and Yunel Escobar to score. The count had been full and the runners moving on the play.
The victory came despite the club's 3-6 hitters going a combined 0-for-16 with six strikeouts.
Notes: Blue Jays OF Rajai Davis is day-to-day with a hip-flexor strain suffered during Wednesday's win against Texas. Manager John Farrell said Davis felt better than expected before the game and the hope is the injury isn't as serious as first expected. … The Angels acquired right-handed reliever Ernesto Frieri from San Diego before the game for infielder Alexi Amarista and minor-league righty Donn Roach.
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