Debby Wong-US PRESSWIRE
Couple of arguable misnomers here, to start. First, Ricky Romero didn’t actually lose last night, but rather drew a no-decision, which did not snap his personal 13-game losing streak (you have to win to do that); secondly, while he did technically put up a quality start, it was one of those quality starts that makes you wonder about the definition of the term.
Still, he deserved better, didn’t he? The Toronto Blue Jays couldn’t give the lefty more than one measly run’s worth of support all night, dropping the nightcap of a double header against the New York Yankees when Ichiro Suzuki (who was ridiculous yesterday, with a 7-hit, 4-steal performance between both games) put the Blue Jays behind 1-2 late in the game. Yeah, Edwin Encarnacion didn’t end up playing, so that might have had something to do with it, but still, the Blue Jays aren’t going to win on 3 hits and 3 walks on most days, regardless of what kind of starting pitching they end up getting.
The pitching they got last night from Romero was a mixed bag. On one hand, he gutted out a 6-inning, 99-pitch performance in which he only allowed a single run while striking out 5. On the other hand, Romero gave up 7 hits and walked 5 during that span, and was in trouble the entire night, as the Yankees had runners in scoring position in every inning that Romero pitched. Was he a bit lucky to get out of it with just one ER allowed? Sure, but full credit to him for keeping the team in the game when the situations got tough.
Either way, it’s not the most emphatic display of confidence on the mound the Blue Jays would have liked to see from Romero; but at this point of the season, the team will probably take any above-50 game score start as a positive.
