Everyone Loves Ricky Romero, Jays Beat Phillies

Phillies 1 Blue Jays 6

JP Riccardi has taken a lot of grief for his drafting, but let me say JP thank you for picking Ricky Romero. Except for a couple of starts after he came on the DL, he had been just great. And tonight was likely his best start going 7 innnigs allowing only 2 hits, both in the 7th inning, walking just 1 and striking out 7. He was helped out by some great defense. If you missed the double play turned by Aaron Hill in the 7th, you have to watch the highlights tonight. Anyway, 10 starts into his major league career, Ricky is 5-3 with a 3.20 ERA. 

Offensively we got 8 hits and 4 runs off the best Philly starter Cole Hamels and 2 more of each off Brad Lidge, who's just off the DL. He had the same injury BJ Ryan had, Crappy Pitching Disease (CPD). Every Jay starter had at least one hit expect for Jose Bautista, who, surprise, surprise, took a walk. All the others had 1 hit, except for Adam Lind who had 2. Even Kevin Millar had a hit, though it was almost caught by a leaping Pedro Felix (Rolen would have caught it).

Jays of the Day are Romero (.354 WPA) and Alex Rios (.114). Honorable mention to Hill for a double and a great DP, Rolen and Scoot. No Suckage Jays, Millar come closest (-.081).

The bad news out of the game was that Rod Barajas left with a strained hamstring and is going onto the DL. Apparently the Jays are calling up Kyle Phillips from Vegas, Kyle is hitting .338/.404/.451. He has the best batting average on the 51s and is Jason Phillips younger brother, who played with the Jays in 2006-07, the less said about his play the better. I'm not sure how he is defensively, but I hope he gets to play some because I don't want to watch Raul Chavez play everyday.

Other good news, Roy Halladay has been cleared to pitch Monday. YAY. We do need him. Case in point, tomorrow Brad Mills starts for the Jays. J.A. Happ, another lefty (please Cito we really don't need to see both Bautista and Millar tomorrow) starts for the Phllies. You can read more about Happ in this post by Jessef.

If you are interested in reading more of my Blue Jay opinions (I can't imagine why you would be), I answered some questions for The Good Phight here. He had some interesting questions, can't say I had intersting answers but they came in the middle of a busy afternoon. Yeah I know, excuses, excuses.

The Gamethread was fun tonight, again. It looks like a few of us are going to Seattle for the Jays series at the end of July. So if you can work it out, it will be great fun and Hugo will take us all out for Chinese food one night. If he can make it. We also said we'd each buy a round of drinks after one of the games.