Jays make it close but Romero digs too deep a hole

Jays v Twins. Game 4. Series finale. End of the longest road trip this season for the Jays. Looking to take three from the Twins with Romero pitching. Whatever happens today one thing is sure, that Jose Bautista is back or at least his swing and timing are. Three home runs in the last two games as well as the opposite field hit last night, have given him and all the Jays fans much hope. Not least this week on their return to Rogers Centre and facing the Rays and Yankees. Now if only Lind could get it going but we have been saying that now for almost a year. June 2011 he hit nine home runs, can we dream? Romero today but he did not have such a great outing last start so nothing is certain at all. Have to mention Jays bullpen last night but especially work of Casey Janssen. One run game is hardly an easy assignment but he came through perfectly and I for one was happy to see him and not Cordero pitching in the ninth. They need the win today because tomorrow they start a long series of games against tough winning teams. Some changes in the Jays lineup today. Lineups: Jays: Johnson, Escobar, Bautista, Encarnacion, Francisco, Lawrie, Rasmus, Arencibia, Davis and Romero pitching. Lefty matchup with Diamond thus no Lind and Thames is also out of the lineup. Edwin playing at first, Francisco DH and Rajai Davis in left. Twins: Span, Dozier, Mauer, Willingham, Doumit, Plouffe, Komatsu, Butera, Carroll, and Canadian Scott Diamond pitching. Diamond second start of the season after blanking the Angels in his last game. Top 1st: Johnson, drives this very hard but right at right fielder Komatsu today. Escobar, grounds to second, throw to first, two down for Bautista. Grounds to third but off the glove of Plouffe into shallow left. Jose at first. Error to Plouffe. Encarnacion, two down one on. Singles into centre, Jose running on the play easily to third. Two on for Francisco. There goes Encarnacion and safe at second, two in scoring position. 2-2 count, strikes out swinging. Pitch count 19. Bottom 1st: Span, nice play, lines it to left and Rajai Davis uses his great speed to make running catch. I don’t think Thames or many others would have got to that one. One down for Dozier. Grounds to Lawrie, throw to Encarnacion two down for Mauer. Full count, lines it into left field corner for stand up double as the ball rattles around down there for Davis. Willingham, full count, OH WOW !!! lines it high to right and Jose makes a great leaping catch at the wall, times it perfectly. Excellent, highlight reel. Pitch count 19, but he had first two outs in six. Top 2nd: Lawrie, grounds to short, throw to Mauer at first for the out. Rasmus, grounds to first takes it himself for second out. Arencibia, lines it hard back at Diamond, off his left shoulder but able to recover and throw to Mauer to get Arencibia. Diamond shrugs it off but that must have hurt. Pitch count 27. This could be a long afternoon for Jays hitters. Bottom 2nd: Doumit, singles to shallow centre, one on for Plouffe. YES grounds to Johnson, Doumit stops but Kelly tags him and throw to Edwin just gets Plouffe, nice play double play. Komatsu, this is a guy they do not want on base with his speed. Full count, high ball four. Butera, grounds to Johnson, throw to Edwin for the third out. 33 pitches. Will need to get that down if he hopes to pitch into the later innings. Top 3rd: Rajai Davis leading off. Perfect bounces over head of Diamond and beats it out as unable to make the barehand play only option for him. Safe at first, now let’s see what havoc Rajai can cause. Johnson, there he goes, Johnson lines it to right but great catch by Komatsu and bangs up against the wall, Rajai retreats in time to beat throw to Mauer at first. Escobar, there goes Rajai again and beats the throw. Stolen base. Is he going to third? Escobar strikes out. One down. Bautista with runner at second. Great jump, a third of the way to the base there he goes and not even a throw. Safe at third. Two stolen bases for Rajai. Jose lines this on to left but right at Willingham for the third out. 41 pitch count. Jays are getting runners on third but unable to crack Diamond so far at least. Bottom 3rd: Carroll, lines it past Escobar into left. Top of the order Span, nice, grounds to Johnson, to Escobar over to Edwin double play to help out Romero here. Nice play. Dozier, not this time Ricky, this is left up and Dozier does not miss it, high fly ball to left and into the seats, home run Dozier and Twins go out ahead 1-0. Mauer, with two down, 3-0 count, Romero rattled as he was last game, ball four on four pitches. One on two down for Willingham. Ball one, cannot find the strike zone, 2-0, six straight balls since the home run. 3-0, finally a strike, but right now more balls than strikes, full count. Grounds to Johnson, throw to Encarnacion for the final out but Romero is not the pitcher he usually is. 51 pitches may just get through the sixth inning at this rate. Top 4th: Encarnacion, full count, lines it down the line in left, stand up double as throw to second off the mark. Francisco, NO, lines it to short, Dozier a great leaping catch robs Francisco of a hit and almost certainly a run but throw to second gets Edwin off the bag, double play. Lawrie, full count, singles into left. Two down one on for Rasmus. 0-2 count, Lawrie trying his best to distract Diamond. There goes Lawrie and safe on the throw, they are running wild on Butara today number four by Jays already today. Full count to Rasmus. Fly ball to Span for the out. 64 pitches. Bottom 4th: Doumit leading off. Grounds to Lawrie in front of Escobar, throw to Encarnacion for first down. Plouffe, 3-0 not his best stuff today. Inside ball four, nowhere near the plate. Singles to Bautista in right, Plouffe all the way to third. One down but runner at third. Romero needs a prayer. Butera, ball one, very nice, bunting up the line to third but Lawrie makes a great play, running in for the bunt, diving and throwing ball to Arencibia to tag the runner Plouffe. WOW great play. Highlight reel play, Lawrie was off the grass when that play started. Two down. Carroll, fly ball to Davis in left. 65 pitch count. Top 5th: Arencibia grounds to short Dozier throw to first for the out. Davis grounds to short, throw first two down. Johnson, two out on three pitches. Hate that. 2-2 count, strikes out. Three up and down far too quickly. 72 pitch count. Bottom 5th: So far Romero has been saved bigtime by defensive plays behind him. 65 pitches with 33 strikes is awful, he has been very lucky the score is not a lot higher. Top of the order Span, 2-2 count, singles back up the middle. He had Span at 0-2 count. Dozier, singles to left, two on and nobody out. Farrell needs to get bullpen working and fast here. He won’t because it is Romero. Mauer, 2-0 count, high ball three and on it goes, someone get warming up, pleeeease. Inside ball four, bases loaded and nobody out, finally Bruce Walton out there, four innings too late Bruce. 79 pitches 39 balls, there is your problem. Willingham, almost hits him way inside, horrors, full count, take or swing? he takes ball four and gets the RBI, why would he swing with the way this guy is pitching today? 2-0 Twins bases still loaded. Finally Farrell calls the bullpen, much much too late today John. Doumit, 0-2 count. Singles up the middle two runs score 4-0 Twins. Romero is getting pounded out there, rescue the guy John. Two on and still nobody out. Plouffe, ball one, grounds back to Romero throw to second on to first double play, finally Romero helps himself, but too little too late today. Two down runner Willingham at third, Komatsu, grounds to Johnson, throw to Edwin for the out. 93 pitches. Romero for the showers. Top 6th: It will be interesting to see how Diamond fares now after that (very) lengthy inning by Romero. It might be the only way Jays hitters are going to score anything today. Escobar leading off. Full count on Yunel. Grounds to Dozier at short, throw to Mauer at first, one down. Bautista, singles back up the middle. One on for Encarnacion, 2-2 takes strike three, two down. Francisco unlucky Ben, has been robbed this series with two excellent hits ad nothing to show for it. Grounds to third, throw to second to force on Bautista. 88 pitches. Jays unable to solve Diamond today. They may get their chance when he is not pitching the end of this game. Bottom 6th: Who will it be ? I do not believe it, he has sent Romero out there... wow,. And why ? does not make any sense. Pitchers manager is the only, only answer. Butera, grounds to Lawrie, throw to Encarnacion for the out. Now the bullpen is working Carreno. Wow... decisions by Managers. Carroll, Singles to left and the beat goes on, Carroll is number nine hitter and now here comes Farrell, this Manager makes some crazy decisions. There was no rhyme or reason to send Romero out there, he had nothing all afternoon and had been rescued by defensive plays throughout the game. It also places Carreno in this position as opposed to starting an inning fresh. Makes one wish for Cito !!! he always yanked the pitchers fast when they were in a mess. Not Farrell, a pitchers pitcher which may well turn out to be his downfall. Carreno now facing Span. Not sure why Romero is having a tantrum in the dugout now, he has been awful all the game. 99 pitches 51 strikes 48 balls. WOW that is not good. And this is the Twins not the Yankees or Tampa lineup. Span, there goes Carroll and throw is high, safe at second. Full count on Span. Ball four. Two on and one down for Dozier. Fly ball to Davis in left for the second out. Mauer with two on. Wild pitch and runners move up. 3-1 count, inside ball four to load them up. Not a bad situation actually as they only need one out, gallows humour. Willingham, 0-2 count, Carreno agrees, Willingham grounds to Lawrie takes it to the bag himself for the force. Top 7th: Diamond should be well rested this afternoon after the last two very lengthy innings. Five hits for the Jays but nothing to show for it. Lawrie leading off. Pops it up to Span in centre for the out. Rasmus, 0-2 count, lines to centre but Span runs it down for second out. Arencibia, 1-2 count, grounds to Dozier throw to first. Diamond may yet get another complete game shutout. 101 pitch count, good enough for two more? Bottom 7th: Doumit leading off. Grounds to first, nice backhand play by Edwin diving to his right. Throw to Carreno for the out. Plouffe, lines to left, Davis throw in to second, nobody there ? weird and Plouffe all the way to third on the relay. Error to Davis. Komatsu, perfect pops it up to Escobar for second out. Butera, runner still at third, 3-0 count, ball four. Two on for Carroll. 1-2 count, grounds to Escobar flips to Johnson to get Butera at second. Top 8th: Jays running out of chances here. No more Diamond though, they get a break because it looked as if he could pitch shutout all day. Jared Burton now pitching. This guy is very good 0-34. Rajai Davis leading off. 1-2 count, singles back up the middle, should be fun. Only the fourth hit allowed by Burton all season. WOW. Top of the order Johnson. Another single back up the middle, Davis all the way to third with that speed. Two on nobody out. Escobar, another hit and same up the middle, here comes Davis to score 4-1 Twins. Two on nobody out for Bautista. 2-2 count, pops it up to Mauer in foul ground. One down for Encarnacion, lifts it into shallow right, runners hold to see if it is caught, now Johnson held at third as bases are loaded. That is it for Burton. Glen Perkins now pitching. Thames pinch hitting for Francisco.2-2 count, grounds to Mauer at first steps on the bag but Johnson scores 4-2 Twins. Mauer makes nice save to stop that ball going into right and two runs scoring. Lawrie, wild pitch and here comes Escobar to score 4-3 Twins. Edwin at third, Lawrie grounds to second throw to Mauer for third out, Jays get close but not enough. Bottom 8th: Darren Oliver pitching. Span leading off. 2-2 count, grounds to Escobar, throw to Encarnacion one down. Dozier, grounds to Escobar, throw to Edwin for second out. Mauer, pops it up to left for Davis to make the out. Romero could learn something from Oliver. Top 9th: Matt Capps trying to close this one out. Rasmus leading off. Pops it up to Plouffe at third. One down for Arencibia, 2-2 count, lines it into right for a single, Mathis to pinch run. Lind pinch hitting for Davis. Drives it to left, out in the corner. Mathis tags and takes second. Two down for Johnson, 2-2 count, strikes out swinging. Romero had put them too far behind. Jays end the road trip 5-5. Could and should have been 7-3. The excellent. Jose with the glove for the out on Willingham in the first. Double play by Johnson in the second. Rajai Davis speed, for the catch in first inning and two stolen bases in the third inning. Lawrie play to get Poloiffe in the fourth. Bullpen shuts them down but too late. Jays hitters get to Burton. The lousy: How about the eight walks to start with. Romero should not have lasted as long as he did. Unable to throw strikes as with his last game. Much too inconsistent to be a number one in the rotation. Jays 2-11 with runners in scoring position. The believe it or not category. John Farrell and his decisions with Romero,