TORONTO — Struggling to keep pace with the AL wild card leaders the Toronto Blue Jays needed a big start Wednesday from Ricky Romero.
What they got instead was the shortest outing of Romero’s career and the worst shutout defeat in Blue Jays franchise history.
The 27-year-old left-hander continued his season-long search for the strike zone, walking six and surrendering eight runs in just 1.1 innings as the Oakland Athletics crushed the Blue Jays 16-0 before 23,948 at Rogers Centre.
The loss was Toronto’s largest of the season in terms of run differential, eclipsing a 12-2 drubbing at the hands of the Tampa Bay Rays back on April 18, and sent them further back of the leading pack for one of the American League’s two wild card spots.
“Embarassed,” is how Romero described his feelings following the game. “This team plays their asses off every night, and for me to come out and have (this) type of performance, it’s kind of tough to look my teammates in the eye right now. Just embarrassment for my performance, the way I performed.”
Unfortunately for the Blue Jays, Romero wasn’t the only Toronto starter not to take the field for the top of the third, as catcher J.P. Arencibia exited the game in the second inning after suffering a broken right hand on a foul tip. The injury will not require surgery but Arencibia is expected to miss six weeks.
After dropping the series opener on Tuesday, Toronto began the night trailing Oakland by four games for the second AL wild card spot, but with a handful of teams between them.
Romero entered the game having lost his past five starts. Following Wednesday’s performance, his ERA over his past six starts ballooned to 10.57. Over that time opponents have pounded out 44 hits and earned 24 walks against Romero in just 28.1 innings. His ERA on the season now stands at 5.75.
On Tuesday, Blue Jays manager John Farrell was asked whether Romero’s spot in the rotation is among those GM Alex Anthopoulos labeled as “start-to-start,” following last week’s acquisition of J.A. Happ from Houston. Farrell answered certain players deserve “a longer stay,” based on their track record.
Following Wednesday’s game, Farrell said he has no plans to remove Romero from the rotation, but he did acknowledge it is something he might now ponder.
“Could it be considered? Sure,” said Farrell. “But we haven’t had those discussions yet.”
In the meantime, the Blue Jays and Romero will go back to the drawing board as they seek an answer to one of their season’s biggest question marks.
“To sit here tonight and give you here is A ,B and C, with what we are going to execute next time out and he will be back to normal — this isn’t like flipping on a switch,” said Farrell. “This is going to take some time.”
THE BIG PICTURE: With the loss the Blue Jays dropped their second straight to the visiting A’s to fall a game below .500 at 48-49. The win was the seventh-straight for the red-hot A’s (53-44) as they improved their MLB-best mark in July to 16-2 and 10-1 post all-star break.
THE BATS: For the second straight night, the Blue Jays offence was stymied by one of Oakland’s unheralded young arms. This time it was A.J. Griffin, making just his sixth start of the season after being recalled from triple-A Sacramento on June 24.
The 24-year-old right-hander struck out nine and held the Blue Jays off the scoreboard over his six innings. Two Oakland relievers combined with Griffin on the shutout. The closest the Blue Jays came to scoring was in the bottom of the eighth with Adam Lind at the plate with two out and runners on the corners, but he struck out. Three Blue Jays — Colby Rasmus, Travis Snider and Kelly Johnson — struck out twice.
THE ARMS: Romero’s short outing not only dug the Blue Jays a huge hole to climb out of, but it forced the bullpen to log some major innings, including an inning of mop-up duty from catcher Jeff Mathis. Chad Beck came on in relief of Romero to record the final two outs of the second inning. Drew Carpenter opened the third and left after the sixth having surrendered three solo home runs. Aaron Loup gave up two runs over his two innings of work while Mathis coughed up a pair of runs in the ninth.
Following the game, the Blue Jays placed J.P. Arencibia on the 15-day DL and called for pitching reinforcementrs from Las Vegas.
Roster Moves: Blue Jays option Chad Beck and place Arencibia on 15-5ay DL. Crawford and Carreno recalled
— Blue Jays-Official(@BlueJays) July 26, 2012
THE OTHER GUYS: The A’s continued to roll, pounding out 14 hits, including a pair of home runs (Nos. 5, 6) from leadoff hitter Coco Crisp. Jonny Gomes, who went 2 for 3 with two walks, Yoenis Cespedes and Derek Norris also had multiple hits for Oakland, while Chris Carter hit his sixth home run of the year and drove in three.
ESCOBAR LATE SCRATCH: Shortstop Yunel Escobar was pulled from the Blue Jays lineup shortly before game time with “back stiffness.” He was replaced in the lineup by Omar Vizquel. Farrell explained Escobar experienced some discomfort in his back following batting practice and he was scratched as a precaution. Escobar has been one of the most talked about Blue Jays leading up to the July 31 trade deadline.
REDDICK ROBS SNIDER: In the bottom of the second Blue Jays left fielder Travis Snider sent a ball deep to right field that appeared on its way toward leaving the yard when A’s right fielder Josh Reddick climbed the chain link bullpen fence, clinging to it for a second before catching Snider’s drive for a spectacular third out. The play caught everyone by surprise, including the Rogers Centre stadium operations staff who prematurely sounded the home run horn as Reddick was coming down with the catch.
UP NEXT: Toronto’s Aaron Laffey (2-1, 2.77 ERA) vs. Oakland’s Tommy Milone (9-6, 3.34) at 12:37 p.m. ET on Thursday.
