NEW YORK – The Toronto Blue Jays failed to reward one of Ricky Romero’s finest performances of a brutally difficult season with a victory Tuesday night.
Instead, their grinding left-hander could only take solace in once again pitching the way he’s capable of in a 2-1 loss to the New York Yankees, throwing strikes, routinely getting ahead, and going after hitters aggressively without nibbling around the strike zone.
“I felt aggressive, I definitely did. I felt like I was out there and I put everything away that I’ve worked on and let it come naturally,” said Romero. “When I’m ahead I know I’m as good as anyone.”
It was a far cry from the way Romero (8-12) pitched in a 5-3 loss against Detroit last week, when he became just the ninth pitcher to walk at least eight batters without a strikeout since 1969.
There was none of that against the Yankees, allowing two runs on five hits and two walks in seven strong innings, with six strikeouts.
While that wasn’t enough to keep him from a club record 11th straight loss — the Blue Jays have scored only 17 runs in his last 10 starts — if he can keep pitching like this that streak won’t last for much longer.
“Strike one, throwing strikes and getting deep in that game,” Romero said when asked what he’d like to bottle for his next start. “I was able to do that really good. That’s a tough Yankees lineup every time, they take their pitches and they work the count as good as anybody in this league.
“I was in the zone and making them swing the bats, when you’re able to do that against a team like this and keep the ball down, they get themselves out.”
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THE BIG PICTURE: A night after rallying to victory in extra innings, the Blue Jays (57-71) fell back into their funk with an eighth loss in nine outings before a Yankee Stadium crowd of 42,472. Still, their showing in this series has been far better than many of their other efforts of late, pestering the AL-East leading Yankees (75-54).
“I don’t know if you want to call it spoiler, but you know, unfortunately as a player that you’re going up against teams that you know are competing for something that we’re not. Honestly, that sucks,” manager John Farrell said before the game. “But you can have an effect on the rest of the division so you’re playing in a game that has meaning even if that meaning may be more tangible for your opponent. More importantly, it’s how you view yourself as a major-league player.
“Spoiler or not, damn, I hope our guys are ready to grind it out and win every night we take the field. Guys are playing to the best of their capability but sometimes that’s been a little bit less than enough.”
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THE BATS: Once again offence was hard to come by for the Blue Jays, who collected their lone run via Adeiny Hechavarria’s first career homer.
The Cuban infielder poked a 1-2 offering from Phil Hughes (13-11) over the wall in right to make it a 2-1 contest in the fifth, the ball retrieved for him by stadium security and sent to the clubhouse.
“He put up a great at-bat,” Farrell said of Hechavarria. “Not even pinpointing the home run he drove out of the ballpark to right field, but he fouled off some tough pitches, he stays balanced and he slows the game down in the box.”
Hurting the Jays was a promising rally that came undone in the sixth when Colby Rasmus was doubled off at third base on Yunel Escobar’s liner to Robinson Cano at second.
“It was clear, he read that soft liner, thought it was going to be a base hit,” said Farrell. “But even after he caught the ball I think he was a little surprised that Cano threw the ball basically from his hip and makes a heck of a play. I don’t know if there are many second basemen that are even going to attempt the throw but he did and unfortunately got doubled off.”
Moises Sierra went 2-for-3, his sixth multi-hit effort in 22 games.
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THE ARMS: Romero would have been the last man standing for the Blue Jays had they needed him in Monday’s 8-7, 11-inning win. He was down in the bullpen waiting to warm up and was the next pitcher in had Brandon Lyon entered the contest and thrown two innings.
That never happened, leaving Romero to work his way against a Yankees team he’s now lost his last five starts against. He surrendered a run in the third on Nick Swisher’s base hit and another in the fourth when Steve Pearce walked, advanced to second on a wild pitch, moved to third on Russ Martin’s groundout and scored on Curtis Granderson’s fly ball to centre.
“The only blemish was that walk,” said Romero. “When you look back at it, they didn’t really get a hit to get that run in and that was the difference.”
Lyon did pitch in this one, throwing a clean eighth after Romero left the game.
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PITCHERS OK: Henderson Alvarez and Aaron Laffey, who both left Monday’s game after being struck on the leg by comebackers, reported for duty Tuesday with some swelling but no new issues.
“No one will miss time,” said Farrell.
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TORREALBA TIME: Yorvit Torrealba caught Romero for the first time but it likely won’t be the last. Farrell wants to keep Jeff Mathis catching Carlos Villanueva and J.A. Happ, so depending on how the schedule plays out, Torrealba should be seeing more of Romero.
“I thought he did an outstanding job, particularly when (Romero) missed with the changeup, he doubled up with it, came back with it and Ricky would make an adjustment with the next pitch,” said Farrell. “I thought they mixed very well, used his curveball somewhat sparingly tonight, and used it in good spots.”
