BY SHI DAVIDI
sportsnet.ca
BOSTON – As they approach the tail-end of a grueling 20-game stretch against some of the best teams baseball has to offer, the Toronto Blue Jays are firmly in grind mode.
Wednesday night’s 6-4 loss to the Boston Red Sox left them with a 6-10 mark so far on the pre-all-star-break test, with only four games against the AL-Central leading Indians remaining before they get three days off for the Midsummer Classic.
The Blue Jays (42-46) head for Cleveland with plans to re-evaluate catcher J.P. Arencibia – who was hit on the left wrist by Jonathan Papelbon in the ninth – and in a foul mood after a mostly unpleasant stay at Fenway Park, where they dropped two in a row, one of them controversially, after winning the series opener Monday.
Ace Ricky Romero (7-8) – a prospective replacement for the AL all-star team – continued to struggle against the Red Sox (51-35), who knocked him around for six runs on nine hits over 4.1 innings.
None of their hits were cheapies, either – at times it almost looked like they knew what was coming.
"I don’t know if they see the ball well off me, if I tip something … I’m about as lost as I can be against this team," said Romero, now 2-6 with an 8.08 ERA in career starts versus Boston. "I’ve done everything, I’ve tried everything.
"It’s just getting back on my own side against these guys and making quality pitches. I’ll be fine."
Things were pretty much decided in the fourth, when Romero was scorched for four runs on five consecutive two-out hits: J.D. Drew doubled, Darnell McDonald singled him home, Jarrod Saltalamacchia singled, Yamaico Navarro doubled in a run and Jacoby Ellsbury doubled in two more to cap the scoring.
Ellsbury also opened the first with a solo blast and Kevin Youkilis did the same thing in the second, both on 1-0 fastballs.
"I’m not going to say he’s tipping his pitches by any means, but there might have been a little bit of a pattern early on," said Blue Jays manager John Farrell. "They got into fastball counts and put some good swings on some pitches."
Knuckleballer Tim Wakefield (5-3) did the rest, allowing an RBI single to Jose Bautista in the first and two more runs in the third on Bautista’s sacrifice fly and Adam Lind’s run-scoring single. But he avoided trouble from there on going seven innings, allowing nine hits and a walk while striking out nine.
Play was interrupted by a 40-minute rain delay in the top of the eighth inning and Papelbon finished things off in the ninth for his 19th save – allowing an RBI single by Yunel Escobar first after hitting Arencibia.
Strength tests on the field suggested he had avoided significant injury to his troubled hand – he dislocated his left thumb in May and re-aggravated it last month – but that will need to be confirmed in Cleveland.
"We’ll re-evaluate him in the morning if there needs to be any further imaging, but at this point that wouldn’t be the case," said Farrell.
That aside, this game ended much more routinely than Tuesday’s affair, when Edwin Encarnacion was called out at home by ump Brian Knight for the final out even though replays showed otherwise.
Farrell said the call was wrong afterwards, and before Wednesday’s contest he said umpires should have to answer for their decisions the way players and coaches do.
Umpires rarely get criticized publicly for fear of reprisals and there may have been some evidence of that Wednesday, as Wakefield got three clearly borderline pitches for called third strikes while the Blue Jays didn’t get a single hitter looking.
Despite the result, the Blue Jays still continued to show the renewed life they’ve played with since a dismal three-game sweep in Atlanta at the start of the current 20-game stretch.
They responded by sweeping the NL-Central leading Cardinals, then lost a makeup game in Detroit, and dropped two of three against each of Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Boston.
While the results haven’t been ideal, Farrell has liked the way his team has played.
"Whether it’s the level of opponent that has raised our level of play, the energy in the ballparks has been outstanding, we’ve responded very favourably to that," Farrell said before the game.
"Our won-loss record isn’t where we’d like it to be in this stretch … but I think the intensity with which we’re playing with is not only encouraging, but I would hope all in this uniform would take note that this is what we’re capable of every single night."
They’ll need to be capable of a sweep in Cleveland to hit the break at .500.
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ALL-STAR-SUB?: With several of the AL all-star pitchers schedule to start Sunday – making them unavailable for the game Tuesday – replacements will be needed and Romero may be one of them.
"He was in strong consideration for the group that’s been selected," said Farrell. "If there are those who can’t go because of proper rest or injury, I’m sure he would garner a lot of strong consideration again. That’s based on his merit and what he’s done up to date."
Farrell is headed to the game as a coach on manager Ron Washington’s staff.
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NOTES: The Blue Jays have yet to hear from Major League Baseball on any discipline for reliever Jon Rauch and Farrell for Saturday’s incident with umpire Alfonso Marquez in Toronto. "There’s been nothing yet," said Farrell. "We’re fully anticipating something, but we’ve not received any word yet." … Right-hander Dustin McGowan made his second rehab start for single-A Dunedin against Lakeland, throwing two hitless innings with two walks and two strikeouts. He’ll likely be bumped up to three innings in his next start. … Escobar returned after missing four games with a sore left hand and had a career-high four hits. … The Blue Jays’ big-league best run of 13 games with a homer was stopped.
