Scott Carson

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

J.P. Arencibia comes out for a curtain call in his big-league debut.

Arencibia and Morrow gave Jays fans the greatest regular-season weekend in franchise history.

I hope that J.P. Arencibia and Brandon Morrow both had the foresight to PVR their breakout performances this weekend at Rogers Centre.

That's because it's unlikely (unless they are part of the Blue Jays teams that take the franchise back to the playoffs) either player will ever top what they did in the last two games of the Jays' three-game sweep of a wilting Tampa Bay Rays team.

Arencibia's first-pitch home run in his major league debut on Saturday and Morrow's 17-strikeout, one-hitter on Sunday were the top performances in baseball this weekend. And it has certainly created a buzz on the Fan 590 all day long on Monday.

Arencibia's much-anticipated debut could not have gone better (unless he went 5-for-5 with a third home run). Sportsnet had an iso-camera on his mother Irene during that magical first at-bat and the replay of her reaction was one of the best in the televised history of Toronto pro sports. Three more hits, including a second home run, and two shots at the cycle made this, arguably, the greatest debut, this side of Doug Ault's in the team's first game in franchise history.

The next morning, upon returning to the Rogers Centre after accompanying my wife to see Juliette Lewis at Lee's Palace, the stadium was still abuzz with talk of Arencibia's performance and the fact that Jose Molina would be catching the series finale. With Morrow on the mound, Molina has turned into his personal catcher as he continues his metamorphosis from Seattle Mariners reliever to Blue Jays starter. All involved knew of this on Saturday, and veteran manager Cito Gaston isn't one to go back on his word. In the end, it was the best decision. Heck, Molina was feeling so frisky about it that he stole his first base of the season -- standing up!

No, Sunday was one of the most dominating pitching performances in Jays’ history. Right there with Stieb's no-hitter, Roy Halladay and Dustin McGowan's one-hitters, and Roger Clemens' return to Fenway in which he struck out 16 Boston Red Sox hitters in eight innings.

It became apparent quite early that Morrow's stuff looked unhittable. After he struck out Ben Zobrist, Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria in the top of the first, Sam Cosentino, Pat Tabler and I all looked at each other and shook our heads in amazement. He blazed through the Rays with ease, striking out at least one hitter in each inning. The closest thing to a hit occurred in the sixth when Ben Zobrist's long fly to the gap in left-centre was tracked down, full bore, by Vernon Wells as he crashed into the wall, dislocating the big toe on his right foot.

As for the breaking up of the no-hitter with two out in the ninth, Longoria didn't get great wood on it, but placed it just far enough from Aaron Hill that the second baseman couldn't get to it without leaving his feet. Even if Hill had fielded it cleanly, he likely couldn't have gotten enough on his throw to get Longoria out. Disappointing? Yes, but Cito made the right move leaving Morrow to finish it off. His going to the mound to give his young starter a powder just added to the drama.

I've been known to be a man who makes bold statements. So here's one for you: This weekend was the greatest in the regular season history of the franchise. And of not for the World Series being won on the third weekend in October in 1992 & '93, it was the greatest ever.

Now if the juvenile post-game pie-ing would just go away, the last left-over from A.J. Burnett's forgettable years in Toronto, then I would have had a perfect weekend.

Red-hot rotation

Since the All-Star break, four-fifths of the Blue Jays' young and evolving rotation -- Shaun Marcum, Ricky Romero, Morrow and Brett Cecil -- have combined to go 11-2, 2.67 ERA, averaging 6 2/3 innings per start while striking out 8.8 hitters per 9 innings. While the Jays' hitters have been getting all the ink with their nightly home run barrage, it's 80 per cent of the rotation that keeps this team sitting right on the edge of the wild card race and a major thorn in the side of the team's ahead of them A.L. East.

It's been close to a decade since the Jays could run out a high-quality of starters that gives the team a chance to win every night. And then there’s Kyle Drabek (12-9, 2.92 in 23 starts) and Zach Stewart (8-2, 3.67 in 21 starts) -- both acquired from outside the organization -- winding up their Double-A seasons with New Hampshire, and Chad Jenkins (7-8, 4.01 in 22 starts between low-A Lansing and high-A Dunedin) in his first professional season after being drafted 20th overall in 2009.

Alex Anthopoulos' plan to rebuild this franchise through depth is certainly coming to fruition a lot quicker than many thought possible.