News
Jays unable to overcome early deficit
Romero struggles, offense stalls in loss to Tigers
By Mike Scott / Special to MLB.com
09/13/09 5:23 PM ET
DETROIT -- The battle of top rookie pitchers notwithstanding, the story in Toronto's 7-2 loss on Sunday afternoon was clutch hitting. Unlike Friday and Saturday, the Blue Jays didn't get any. The Tigers, meanwhile, had four two-out RBIs and were able to tack on three late runs to make the role of closer Fernando Rodney that much easier.Toronto managed just five hits against four Detroit pitchers, while Ricky Romero battled through six innings to at the very least give the Blue Jays a chance. Romero (12-8) wasn't particularly economical with his pitches early. In fact, there were too many times where the rookie left his pitches up in the hitting zone. His opponent and fellow American League Rookie of the Year Award candidate, Rick Porcello (13-8), picked up the win, going six innings and allowing two runs on four hits.
A walk and a hit batter allowed Detroit catcher Gerald Laird to drive in the Tigers' first run with a single in the second. Detroit scored three more times in the third inning on four hits and a walk. Miguel Cabrera and Laird had RBI singles and Marcus Thames drove in Placido Polanco with a hard infield grounder for a 4-0 Tigers lead.
But with the Blue Jays' bullpen worn down by the last few days of work, manager Cito Gaston elected to keep Romero in as long as possible. Before the game, Gaston wasn't even sure who might serve as closer if the need arose. Unfortunately for Toronto, it never did.
The Blue Jays got one back in the fourth when a rejuvenated Vernon Wells singled and stole his 17th base of the year. Wells has now reached base nine times in the first three games of this series. He came home on an Edwin Encarnacion double. The Blue Jays also added a run in the fifth when Aaron Hill drove in his 97th run of the year with a fielder's-choice groundout.
It was around this time that Romero began to settle down. He stranded two Tigers batters in the fourth and one in the fifth. And even though his in-game WHIP was well above two -- after allowing 10 hits, three walks and hitting one batter through six innings -- Romero was able to keep his team in the game. The rookie threw 105 pitches in those six innings, 66 for strikes. The last out he recorded was a shallow fly ball off the bat of Cabrera, who had reached base against Romero in each of his first three plate appearances.
"You try to rebound as much as you can from [long innings]," Romero said. "So I wanted to go out there and go as long as I could, even if I didn't always have my best stuff. Our bullpen appreciates it, and even after I came out, my teammates came up to me and [gave me credit]. It shows the maturity I've developed that has gotten me to this point in the year.
"Every time I'm on the mound and we lose, a lot of the responsibility falls on me. That's part of being a starter in this league."
That ability to battle through his outing gave Gaston a chance to limit his bullpen use, which will help for the next couple of games. Heading into the game, closer Jason Frasor and fellow relievers Jesse Carlson, Scott Downs and Brandon League were either unavailable because of recent workload, or at least would only be used in emergency situations, Gaston said.
Romero does need to cut down on his walks, Gaston added, as two of the batters he walked came around to score. Romero has issued the second-highest number of walks on the team this year (68 in 153 2/3 innings).
"At this level, you'll get beat if you issue too many walks," Gaston said. "Walks always seem to come around and score more than guys who got hits in this league."
Romero agreed: "I think I had just one bad inning [the third] that killed me today. After that, I seemed to get in a groove and get some quick outs, which allowed me to go six. Early in the game, I threw a lot of pitches, but I located better near the end. That's what I have to do -- make quality pitches. What got me into trouble early were those walks because they came in to score. They made the innings longer."
Romero did give his offense a chance to get back into the game by "grinding" through six innings, in his own words. Yet there were few Jays offensive threats throughout the game. Encarnacion's double was the only Toronto extra-base hit. And one day after the Blue Jays found the outfield seats four times, they didn't come close to hitting any home runs on Sunday.
Porcello was certainly sharper than he was in his Major League debut in Toronto earlier this year. And while he had good command, there wasn't a lot Porcello was doing differently than the first time around, Gaston said.
"[Porcello] threw strikes, which is important," Gaston said. "He didn't change speeds a lot until the third or fourth inning. But he's got a good fastball and he's a good looking young pitcher."
Detroit scored three more times in the eighth off Josh Roenicke to put the game out of reach. Pinch-hitter Aubrey Huff hit an RBI double and Brandon Inge's single drove in the final two more runs.
Romero isn't worried about whether he may or may not still be in the race for the Junior Circuit's rookie honors. He knows that Porcello may have as good of a shot as he does for the honor, but at this point, Romero hopes that his final three or four starts of the season are strong and leave him healthy going into the offseason.
"If I won the award, that would be great, but I've already been blessed getting through this year," Romero said. "I've already shown that I can pitch at this level, and I feel really good about what I've been able to do."
Mike Scott is a contributor to MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
