Ricky Romero Takes a No Hitter into the 8th, Strikes Out 12, Jays Beat White Sox
by Tom Dakers on Apr 13, 2010 11:32 PM EDT
in Toronto Blue Jays Game Recaps
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PrintDidn't we just have the debate about whether Ricky Romero was any good? I think he answered that one. 8 innings, one hit, 12 K, 10 ground outs to 2 fly outs. It is unfortunate that the one hit was a Alex Rios homer but such is life. Kevin Gregg pitched the 9th to get the save, he struck out 2 in his perfect inning. He is pitching a lot better than he did last year. I'm not sure what the change is, but I like it.
Offensively we did enough. Two hits each for Adam Lind, Vernon Wells, John Buck and Edwin Encarnacion. Vernon's were both doubles. One for Alex Gonzalez and Lyle Overbay. Jose Bautista and Travis Snider each took a walk. Mike McCoy was 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts. Edwin had 2 RBI, Wells and Overbay had 1 each.
Truly I think booing Rios back fires. He's generally not very interested in what's going on, giving him a reason to get interested is a mistake.
Jays of the Day are Romero (.315 WPA), Encarnacion (.105) and Wells (.093). No Suckage Jays, McCoy came closest at -.073.
Something we learned? A.J. Pierzynski is a good actor. Or a jerk, one or the other.
Cito talking about Rios:
The more we boo him, the better he swings. Maybe we should leave him alone the next two nights and let him get out of town.
Great game. Romero really is a good pitcher. That makes us 6-2 on the season and still in first place.
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I agree that the booing should stop
Yeah yeah, you have the right as a fan and all that, but it’s not working. Worst, it’s having the opposite effect. Just stop so we can take the rest of the games, please.
Ball.
Me too
I’ve never been a fan of booing players for no reason, particularly former Jays. There were good times and bad times when Rios was here, as with many players, but to me that’s all in the past and I wish him well in the rest of his career. So unless he actually does something now to warrant booing, I wouldn’t. To me it’s classless, bad karma and only inspire Rios to perform better against us.
yep, plus, Rios never asked to leave, it was the Jays that dropped him. So really there is no reason to boo him. Folks should be giving him applause of recognition.
It's not that I'm for booing, but...
C’mon! Assuming that it’s going to make the team lose is under-estimating the team. Let alone over-estimating Rios. He’s just one player.
Pujols, without being booed, hits a lot better than Rios. Does that mean that the Cardinals are bound to beat us every time? No.
As for the booing itself: Being born and raised outside Canada, let me tell you that that’s the norm in Europe and much the rest of the world. And they use much worse than “Rios S**k!”. Players are so used to the insinuations regarding their mother’s profession that they don’t hear it anymore.
As much as I like the “cultured” atmosphere in north american sports ( don’t wave Hockey at me. These are choirboys when compared to Europe), too much restraint kills the atmosphere altogether.
Like in the Raptors’ game – You can’t get a crowd which is more indifferent…
Festina Lente
yea, but it is hard to yell at a Raptors game. They play so much music and background sound. Every time I started yelling, some music or sound would start up and drown me out. It is a big frustrating. However, they do have great show. I love all the different raptors mascots they have and the cheerleaders are nice. Just too much sound blasted in, that it overwhelms the audience.
He is an overpaid underachiever
Get off the band wagon ,
he deserves every boo he gets !
YouTube – Alex Rios and you will understand -
lucas
by TorontoBluejays10 on Apr 14, 2010 11:21 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
He is an overpaid underachiever
Get off the band wagon ,
he deserves every boo he gets !
YouTube – Alex Rios and you will understand -
lucas
by TorontoBluejays10 on Apr 14, 2010 11:21 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Yep...
It is terrible he did not sign an autograph for some kid, who was sent up to him by some autograph collector. Then did not take in good humor being sworn at by someone whose life is so terrible that it makes him feel more important to yell at someone else.
I have not seen anyone on his bandwagon. I suggested booing him seems to be motivating him. I could be wrong, maybe without the booing he would have hit two homers yesterday.
I have no problem with the booing, except it motivates Rios
Sad, really, that he needs motivation to play to his abilities, but that’s exactly why he’s getting booed.
Although he hasn’t admitted it like Vince did, I have almost no doubt that Rios quit on the team and never took baseball nearly seriously enough once awarded that contract. If Rios came out later this year and said “yeah, I didn’t give 100% during my time in Toronto”, I would not be surprised at all. And that gives justification to boo.
Regrettably, booing him seems to be the only thing that motivates him.
Knights, Canucks, Dolphins, Jays and Raptors all the way.
Booing is fine
and generally speaking and it can be funny. But it just seems that fans are motivated by booing more than cheering. (a behavioural phenomenon exploited by the WWE, LOL). I just thinking it might be cooler if folks put as much effort into cheering the good things as booing the bad. (wow, in re-read that sounds a bit milktoast).
Pierzynski didn't get hit right?
I’m pretty sure that just bounced off the ground and it didn’t hit him at all. That might have forced Romero to lose his concentration a little bit and made him serve a hittable ball to Rios.
Damn you Pierzynski!
"Low, and he walks the bases loaded on 12 straight pitches. How can these guys lay off pitches that close?"
Looked to me like it bounced between his feet
Knights, Canucks, Dolphins, Jays and Raptors all the way.
Yep
It hit right before his back foot, and skipped just in front of his shin. If you look at the instant replay, the ball doesn’t change paths either right before the foot or passing the back leg.
Pierzynski should be playing European football, not baseball, based on that acting performance.
Hey...
nothing against European Football ;)
"Without a catcher we´ll have a lot of passed balls!" Casey Stengel
by jaysfanfromeurope on Apr 14, 2010 9:45 AM EDT up reply actions
Sorry, but watching a player brushed by the opposing side suddenly jackknifing onto the turf, clutching his head and convulsing in ‘pain’ has to be the obviously most negative aspect of the game. It’s bush league that happens too much in the sport.
Depends on what countries of origin the players are from
The more their countries play contact sports, the less likely that is to happen. I remember our referee instructor telling us that exactly – South America, Asian and some of the European powerhouses (Spain, Italy for example) who haven’t any serious contact sports programs (ie – rugby, American football or hockey) prefer a more “finesse” game where contact is a no-no.
Guys who grew up hitting people for real in youth leagues are less likely to be wusses and dive as they get older.
"Don't tell me it's impossible. Be honest and tell me you can't do it. Tell me you don't know how."
Don’t take this the wrong way, but that sounds a lot like the dubious nationalistic bias you get in any sport. Sure, instituitional dynamics from individual groups are noticable, especially during early parts of integration, like early Dominician baseball players with the ‘you don’t walk off the island’ mindset in the early 80s when they really started to scout, but I believe that once a sport hits a certain level of integration, especially across training and athletic mobility, it doesn’t hold a lot of truth any longer. Brits like to talk about toughness against the namby Italians, but it’s not like the Brits train wearing 100lbs of chain on their shoulders over broken glass while the Italians strool about the park between hot stone rubs and spritzers.
Let’s be honest here, how many athletes that make the professional level in any sport play multiple sports past the high school level? You can’t tell me a 25 year old TFC local boy is tougher than his equivilant in Barcalona because he played hockey up to when he was twelve. I can see an arguement about the sports culture encouraging such shennaniagns as part of the game in a region, but childhood conditioning is pretty farfetched. I believe the effect is top down from the coaching and officials making it permissible, and not player up because they had rougher sports growing up.
Great game by Romero!
He REALLY opened my eyes with this gem. I finally realized what a superb changeup he has – it’s a beauty as Don Cherry would say. I may take flak for this, but it reminds me on Johan Santana’s changeup. Its got a nice 8-9 MPH change of pace from the fastball and screwball-like downward run to it. I’d say one of the best in the AL already for a lefty.
The key to his early success is no doubt he’s getting ahead of hitters and locating on the edges better. Once ahead, he can use that great changeup which misses righty bats with the aforementioned screwball-like action. Sox hitters had no chance against that tonight. Stunning performance to say the least.
If Romero can keep his control in tact throughout the season, he’s going to win a bunch of games and become the staff ace. Thanks for the legacy draft pick Riccardi :)
Not to mention he’s got a pretty tight slider and drop in curveball he was throwing for strikes all night. And check out the formerly unRomero-like control: 105 pitches – 65 strikes. He’s made a believer out of me if he can consistently locate well because he has enough velocity on the FB, a great changeup, and plus slider.
yep, that's always been the thing with Romero
why I never got why folks were so down on him during some temporary (largely injury-induced) struggles in the minors, and why he never dropped out of our top ten prospects. A lefty with a good, sinking fastball that induces tons of grounders and a bunch of quality secondary pitches is a great bet for success so long as he can keep the walks down, and clearly Romero has made that a priority. His fastball is plenty good enough that it keeps righties honest and sets them up for his excellent changeup, and his breaking stuff is too good for lefties. Perhaps best of all, although you can never say that a pitcher won’t get a long-term arm injury, I don’t see any major timing or other mechanical issues (unlike some other Jays’ starters!) which bodes well for the long-term. I can see him having a nice season and settling into the Jays rotation for a long time.
"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman
by hugo on Apr 14, 2010 11:04 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Good for Romero
Haven’t really understood people’s reservations about him – to me he’s shown great potential since breaking through with the big team and I think he’ll be a key part of the top of our rotation for years to come.
in the minors
Luis Perez took a no hitter into the 7th last night. He also didn’t let a ball out of the infield until the fourth inning. He finished with 7 IP, 1H, 0ER. Maybe something was in the air last night.
by NHfishercatsfan on Apr 14, 2010 5:53 AM EDT via mobile reply actions
Brad Mills had a great start yesterday as well.
I think Luis Perez is too old and without the strikeout numbers to be in consideration for our future rotation, because he’s probably behind Rzepczynski, Morrow, Cecil, Stewart, Drabek, Mills and even Reidier Gonzalez for the 3 spots behind Marcum and Romero, and then there’s Chad Jenkins and Henderson Alvarez waiting behind him with more potential. So, good performance, but too far from the majors to get excited about him.
What did you think of Bell, btw? He’s half a year younger and totally tore up High-A last year. 5 strikeouts in as many innings, can’t be too bad right?
bell
Pitched 2 nights ago and I wasn’t there. He didn’t fair too well. Ill give a review when I see him this weekend.
by NHfishercatsfan on Apr 14, 2010 10:27 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Booing Rios
I would much have preferred a deafening SILENCE to have greeted Rios. I think part of the booing was the ‘bat cave’ incident where he refused to sign an autograph for a kid – I think it got posted on YouTube (well, doesn’t every bloody thing get posted…LOL).
The guys in front of me were drunk when they arrived and the stupidness they were hollering at Rios really did not make the game enjoyable at all. And since when do Skydome staff let people return to their seats in the middle of an inning? /rant
MsC
Something we learned? A.J. Pierzynski is a good actor. Or a jerk, one or the other.
I said it in the game thread yesterday, we should all know by now (from at least 3 years ago) that AJ is a dick. I don’t think he’s that good of an actor either. Also, I have finally seen the play (my stream cut out last night sometime in the bottom of the 7th) and it did not hit AJ. I’m not sure what feed was used in the MLB recap for the play, but it sure as hell wasn’t Buck & Tabler; and those guys were pretty adamant that the only person the ball hit was the Umpire.
I am the commenter formerly known as Belligerent Burkie
Follow me on twitter @CoolJ90 or add me to XBox Live - CoolJ90
AJ
If there is nobody on base when AJ comes up for the first time tonight, I’m really hoping Morrow plants a 94 MPH in the middle of his back.
Make it clear to McClelland what a HBP is.
Knights, Canucks, Dolphins, Jays and Raptors all the way.
He’d probably miss and throw it into the batters box on the other side of the plate.
Life as a Toronto Sports Fan?... *sigh*... It is what it is...
Bazinga!
What’s more?
Ricky Romero Strikeouts yesterday or Brandon Morrow Walks tonight?
All aboard the Vernon Wells Bandwagon!
by craig in calgary on Apr 14, 2010 11:37 AM EDT up reply actions
My friends and I have always been excited about Romero. I am surprised people have had many doubts really. This kid will just get better and better.
i had a LOT of doubts
Not many guys need 3 seasons in double-a. He looked about ready to quit. Glad he didn’t.
by NHfishercatsfan on Apr 14, 2010 12:50 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Regardless of the homer by Rios, I agree that theres no reason to boo him, afterall, is not like he demand a trade or said he wasn’t giving his 100% when he was in toronto… like Vince Carter… matter in fact, Rios sucks last year after he left the jays, so we know is not an issue of lack of effort when he was with the jays.
Agree
I think it was a combination of a lapse of concentration by Romero following the “HBP”, a bit of revenge motivation by Rios against a team that essentially said “You’re worthless”, and a blind squirrel finding the HR nut.
I fully expect the “blissfully oblivious gazelle”* to revert to form following the Toronto series and continue to torment the Sox fans for the rest of the year and beyond.
- Not my invention but it so aptly describes Rios that I have to use it.
AJ
AJ shoud be hit until he doesn’t even dare getting into the batter’s box…. lol
MLB
On a more serious note, should this kind of cheat be punished??
by Collin Cheng on Apr 14, 2010 4:33 PM EDT up reply actions
Nope
Part of baseball. He didn’t break the actual rules.
However, the disrespect in faking a HBP to reach first in the 8th against the opposing pitcher throwing a no-no? He’ll be considered a punk by other players, and he’s likely going to get a fastball in the ribs by someone on the Jays staff for it, as it should be.
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