Romerto superb performance as Jays beat Twins 2-0

Jays v Twins. Game one of three.

Sad news for the Jay to hear in Minnesota of the death of Mel Queen, Jays ex-pitching coach and also interim manager for several games. Mel worked with many of the Jays pitchers and Pat Hentgen current bullpen coach was talking about his mentor today, but Mel was the one who worked with Halladay when he was sent down to the minors to rebuild his pitching, and that might well be the work that he would like to be remembered for as a fitting epitaph for him.

Jays on a two game win streak and playing against a battered Twins lineup. Still without Joe Mauer but Young is back off the DL for first time tonight.
Romero v Pavano a rematch of opening day where Jays hitter ran amok with 13 runs. Maybe again but not likely. Plus Romero is in real need of a win after several lousy performances. If he is to be numero uno in the rotation then he has to show it.

Line-ups: Jays: Escobar, Patterson Bautista, Rivera, Hill, Arencibia, Encarnacion, McDonald, Davis and Romero pitching. Lind was pencilled in but late scratch as Jay di not want to take chance on his back. Plus rain is forecast and it is cold, not the ideal time to return. Encarnacion is in not Cooper, as Edwin has lit up this stadium. Mmm we shall see.
Twins: Span, Plouffe, Kubel, Morneau, Young, Cuddyer, Valencia, Hughes, Butera, and Pavano pitching.

This game is divided into three.

Jays start off well and get runner after runner on base, the problem is they could not bring them in until Rivera bloop single into shallow left brings in Patterson from second to make it 1-0. Bautista of course would add to this with huge home run in the ninth into left where the wind was blowing in. If there had been no wind this one would have been top deck no doubt, it was a Jose special to make it 2-0.

The other was an exceptional outing by Ricky Romero who went 8.2 innings and was on a no-hitter into the sixth, as Ricky was overpowering Pavano was giving up the hits. To my mind Ricky was left sitting too long in the top of the ninth when Joe Nathan took for ever to get through his inning, 33 pitchers for one inning with very slow and deliberate pitching. Ricky was trying to keep loose throughout that and add in the cold and rain it is not surprising that he could not finish.

The third part was Pavano who gave up so many hits was continually in trouble and his pitch count was more than double Ricky’s, the only problem was Jays were leaving runners on base all night long and Pavano was Houdini, escaping trouble in almost every inning that he pitched.
Everybody had hits except for Arencibia, Bautista went 3-4 and a walk, Johnny Mac had another good night with two hits. Aaron Hill had a double into left, slowly getting that left field rhythm. Stolen base tonight for Patterson. Jays get 13 hits and 4 walks but only two runs.

The other good news is that Jays only used two pitchers, gave the bullpen another day off after yesterday’s day off, and also managed to get into Twins bullpen. Twins used five pitchers tonight which might be a factor by Sunday if Jays can continue their hitting.

A great win, good to see Romero pitch like Halladay for a change. The downside tonight was the runners in scoring position. 2-15 with runners in scoring position and they leave 14, ouch bigtime, out there. Arencibia 6 and Patterson 5 were the biggest offenders tonight. Frank Francisco got the save but not without the winning run at the plate.

Tomorrow JoJo Reyes and he will be in great need of the hitters to help him out. Maybe Lind will be back at first and perhaps by Sunday we will see Jason Nix back with the club.