Jays v Tigers Game two of four.
Great win for Jays last night. Today Romero v Verlander much tougher opposition. Jays look forward to Sunday with anticipated return of Hill and Bautista. Roof will be open for first time this season.
Line-ups: Tigers: Jackson, Sizemore, Ordonez, Cabrera, Martinez, Peralta, Raburn, Avila, Inge and Verlander pitching.
Jays: Escobar, Patterson, Rivera, Lind, Arencibia, Encarnacion, Cooper, McDonald, Davis and Romero pitching.
This was one awful game from Jays perspective as Romero implodes after only two innings and leaves the game in the fourth with the score 6-0 and the game over. Verlander pitched a no hitter but was aided by very poor Jays offense which took the day off after last night’s 15 hit attack.
Romero started well for two innings retiring all six that he faced and then that was it. Walking in a run, hit batsmen, wild pitch run and two home runs summarises the outing for Romero and one that is sure to concern Jays management. At minimum they need to realise that he is by no means the number one guy in the rotation anymore, three losses in last three games. He would not the first promising talent that has let it go to his head. More hard work and effort and less bling Ricky.
Villanueva in relief had an excellent 4.2 one run outing and kept Jays in it but they were unable to break through Verlander who was helped by a couple of excellent defensive plays.
Casey Janssen in .2 of an inning after Villanueva was even wilder than Romero, walking three and giving up two runs on two hits. Dotel was able to clean up what was left to give Verlander an easy bottom of the ninth with the bottom third of the order offering nothing.
The good: Definitely the four innings of relief by Villanueva, shut down the Tigers after they ran all over Romero in first three. Romero the first two innings when he sent down the first six in order. Rivera and Arencibia approach to their at bats. Arencibia in particular an incredible twelve pitch at bat, including pitches around 100mph, to gain the walk to mess up the perfect game. If more Jays hitters had that approach Verlander would not have even lasted five or six innings.
Not so good: Lind going out of game with tightness in his back. Just as Jays were getting their line-up back with Hill and Bautista we could now lose Lind and just when he was in such a great hitting groove.
The bad: Only one guy today and that is Romero. Definitely not a performance from the number one in rotation. He has had far too many outings like this one to not deserve the number one spot in my book at least. Has now lost his last three starts. Morrow is far better and more consistent. Manager may have to look at changing this next season if only to put less pressure on Romero. Ever since he was named as opening day starter his performance has suffered. Lots of the season to go but he also has a long way to improve.
McCoy pinch hitting for Lind in eighth first pitch swing against a guy going for perfect game. He may have talent but he never ever seems to be able to sum up the situation and react accordingly. I for one have no problem with his return to Vegas. Similarly Cooper first pitch out in the eighth. At least he has the rookie excuse.
On the other hand I loved Rivera’s approach to all of his at bats. Invariably he has a multi-pitch at bat until he finds the pitch he is looking for, and he did the same today with Verlander. The hitters today were the opposite of what we saw last night. To go from 15 hits to none raises questions of the hitters as much as it does give credit to Verlander.
Tomorrow the regulars start to return and maybe we see fewer awful at bats. But if Lind is out it means that someone else has to protect Bautista and nobody today comes to mind.
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