Scott Carson

Stats man Scott Carson is now in his 18th season as "third man in the booth" during Blue Jays telecasts.

Ubaldo Jimenez of the Rockies is 12-1 with a 1.16 ERA.

The days of riding a potent offence are behind us. Now, pitching is the backbone of the best teams.

For as long as I can remember, the American League East -- with the broad shouldered and deep pocketed New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox standing at the top -- has been considered the toughest division in the majors. And it's hard to argue that sentiment.

Going all the way back to the 1992 season, nine times the World Series champion has come out of the A.L. East, with another three teams having won American League pennants. Factor in the Tampa Bay Rays and their great play over the last three seasons and you can see why this division has had so much success.

But there's a funny thing going on out west, the National League West to be precise. Through the end of play on Tuesday night, the combined records of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants is at par with those beasts from the A.L. East.

Unfortunately for the Blue Jays, who have never played well during the Interleague portion of the schedule, they play all of those N.L. West teams, save for the Dodgers. And so far, the results have not been pretty, with the Jays having won just two of eight games heading into their Wednesday afternoon series finale in San Diego. As usual, it seems that the schedule maker isn't doing the Jays any favours.

For the most part, the Jays have been dominated by some great pitching. Some of those pitchers, we don't really know too much about due to the fact that they toil out here on the west coast where the majority of their games begin when most of us in the east are heading off to bed. So far on this trip, they have been dominated by a trio of pitchers who are at the starts of some long and successful careers. Ubaldo Jimenez and Jason Hammel of the Rockies and Mat Latos of the Padres completely shut down the major league's most-powerful offence, holding the Blue Jays to a combined five runs in 20.2 innings with just a single home run.

It seems that throughout the game, the days of high-octane offences leading the way are over and pitching and defence are of paramount importance. In the post-strike, mid-steroid era, the phrase "chicks the dig the long ball" really summed up the way the game was played, especially when chemically-altered sluggers were attacking some of the game's most-sacred records and drawing record crowds in the process. But with the cheaters having finally been outed due to the stringent drug policies, finding and keeping pitching is the backbone of the best teams.

Over the last five seasons, statistics show that pitching is on the rise. In 2006, the league ERAs were 4.49 in the A.L. and 4.56 in the N.L. So far this season, those numbers have dropped to 4.12 and 4.26 respectively.

And it's not hard to see why.

Colorado's Jimenez is currently the darling of the majors this season, having thrown an April 17th no-hitter against the Braves while compiling a 12-1 record and microscopic 1.16 ERA that has many comparing him to the great Bob Gibson. There have already been two perfect games by Oakland's Dallas Braden and Philadelphia's Roy Halladay. And a third if you count Detroit's Armando Galarraga, who had one taken away by a botched umpiring call.

There are currently nine different N.L. starters who have won 75 per cent of their decisions while posting ERAs below three. In the A.L., the one to watch is Tampa Bay's David Price who has won 10 of his first 13 starts while posting a league-best 2.31 ERA. It's no surprise that the Rays are dead-even with the Yankees atop the A.L. East. They have, arguably, the game's best, young rotation.

The Blue Jays have also been receiving some solid starting pitching from a pair of left-handers in Ricky Romero and Brett Cecil. They have combined to go 12-6 and given the Jays a chance to win every time they toe the rubber. Combine them with Shaun Marcum, fully recovered from 'Tommy John' surgery, and converted reliever Brandon Morrow and the Jays have the makings of a solid rotation for the near future.

The return to pitching prominence is undoubtedly why the Blue Jays made it a priority on draft day when they took 33 pitchers among their 50 picks, including their first five. Offence can be bought or traded for, pitching has to be found, mined and developed. General manager Alex Anthopoulos and his people believe that and have made it a priority.

As Tom Petty said, the waiting is the hardest part.

Whole lotta shakin' going on

I've seen and experienced a lot in my 18 seasons in the booth. I rode out a hurricane that hit Florida in September of 2004, witnessed some unbelievable thunderstorms in Texas and the mid-western United States. But when a rolling earthquake hit the San Diego region during the eighth inning of Monday night's Jays-Padres games at the beautiful Petco Park, I have to admit it was quite unnerving.

To describe it is quite simple: It was like being on an airplane in heavy turbulence with the TV booth lurching forward and back for about 10 seconds. I'm glad I witnessed it, but I hope it doesn't happen again before we can get out of town. After the game I went onto the U.S. Geological Survey website, which list each and every seismic anomaly and it seems that beside the 5.7 magnitude earthquake that we felt at the ballpark, which originated along the US-Mexico border about 60 km east of San Diego, there were 35 after-shocks within 24 hours, although we only felt the main one at the ballpark. All I can say is, San Diego is a beautiful place to visit, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to live here.