At almost no point in Ricky Romero's career did anyone see this coming. Perfect through three, until he walked Carlos Quentin in the fourth. He ended up with a career high in strikeouts with twelve. It all came crashing down in the eighth inning, thanks to a brilliant acting performance and a former teammate.In that ominous eighth inning, Romero hit A.J. Pierzynski. Or did he? Replays show that the ball was very close to A.J.'s foot, but did not actually hit it. Like most players, Pierzynski did his best to sell it. A.J. hopped up and down and headed to first. About a third of the way to first base, A.J. looked back at home plate umpire Tim McClelland to make sure his ruse was working. It was and he was awarded his base.
That may have been enough to rattle the young pitcher because the next batter launched a two run homer to cut the Jays lead in half. That batter? Former teammate, Alex Rios. The very same batter that Steve Stone had predicted to break up the no-hitter, earlier in the game.
I'm sure that Ricky is feeling bad about the outing as evidenced by the photo below, but it still takes something special to throw eight innings of one-hit ball. I was glued to my seat during the game. Be proud of your accomplishments on the field in this game. Like I said on Twitter, when the no-hitter was still a possibility, "This Romero kid is pitching the game of his life!" Indeed he was.
Romero pitched a great gm vs the Phils last yr as a rookie. He has bee on my radar ever since. In April the pitchers are a little ahead of the hitters and these things can happen. I think Romero might be one of the those mid-level prospects that turns out to be a gem.
ReplyDeleteIn respect to his draft class, I wouldn't exactly call him a mid-level prospect. We took him over Troy Tulowitzki, and for the past 3-4 years fans were really upset since Tulo was raking in the bigs. It took him a while to establish himself, but he is the ace of our Blue Jays.
ReplyDeleteI think everyone watching the game knew it would be Rios. Jays fans, at least. We dealt with Rios' lack of interest in playing in Toronto for years. He was booed unmercifully every time he touched the ball (even by me, here in NY where he sure couldn't hear me.)
Maybe Romero's stock will be rising this year.
ReplyDeleteRios was the only Sox hitter that seemed to get good cuts off of him before the eighth inning, so I was thinking that he would be the one to break up the no-hitter.
The only thing that concerns me is that Gregg came out to pitch the ninth. Was that because Romero hit his pitch count or because of his psyche?