Good Start for Ricky Romero But Jays Lose to Yankees.

Yankees 10 Blue Jays 4

Amazingly enough, there were some good parts:

• Ricky Romero looked good. He was a bit shaky in the 2nd, giving up a couple of walks and a couple of runs (only 1 earned) and another run in the 3rd on a couple of ground ball singles. But he retired the last 10 batters he faced and looked in control. Likely his best start in a long time. I thought he could have gone another inning, he came out at 98 pitches, but no reason not to take him out while the going is good. 7 innings, 4 hits, 3 runs, 2 earned, 3 walks and 2 k. Pretty good, considering it was the Yankees.
• Kelly Johnson homered and drove in another with a double. The best he's looked at the plate in a long time.
• David Cooper had 2 hits.
• Anthony Gose singled and stole 2nd and 3rd.

On the bad side, oh there was a lot of bad.

First, our defense. Man it was bad. 2 official errors. In the 2nd, after 2 walks, the Yankees bunt (what a dumb idea that is, but it worked out), Jeff Mathis jumped on it quick but threw it into left field, trying to hit Omar Vizquel who was back peddling to the bag. Bad choice, don't throw to the fielder running backwards to the bag. It is a bunt, take the easy out.

Then the next inning, runner on 2nd, 1 out. Robinson Cano singles to Anthony Gose, and I'm thinking 'oh good, we get to see his arm'. Well, we did see it, he threw it about 10 yards wide of the plate. It didn't help that Romero didn't back up the play.

In the unofficial errors: In the 7th Russell Martin popped one over the infield. Kelly Johnson got back on the ball nicely and then just missed it, and it hit his head an bounced away. Ruled a single, should have been an error. The in the 9th, a line drive hit in front of Rajai Davis, he got to the ball fine but missed it. Maybe he lost it in the lights. Again, not ruled an error. Good thing, Rajai already leads the league in outfield errors. Is this the place to note that Travis Snider hit a 3 run home tonight?

Also bad was our bullpen. Steve Delabar pitched the 8th and gave up a lead off homer to Mark Teixeira, but then he's hit a bunch of home runs. But then he gave up 3 consecutive 2 out singles to give up another run (one was Johnson's header). As well we got our first look at David Carpenter. If first impressions are important, David has a long way to go to become a fan favorite. He gave up 3 hits. a walk and 4 earned (helped by Rajai's miss).

Jay of the Day is Kelly Johnson (.223 WPA) though I'm tempted to take it back for the flub. Suckage goes to Delabar (-.215), Vizquel (-.118, 0 for 2, k. Why was he playing over Hechavarria?), Mathis (-.116, 1 for 4, and the error), Rasmus (-.113) and Edwin (-.099, 0 for 4).

Colby left the game with 'groin tighteness' and is day-to-day. I wish they would have brought up McCoy.

In the dumb moves book, 9th inning, we are down by 7, 2 outs, bases loaded and John Farrell pulls Carpenter. Why? Why tire another arm in a lost cause with 2 out in the 9th. Carpenter wasn't good but who cares. Oh well. Maybe he is paid by the pitching change?

Jays are now 53-59 (how did they win 53?), 6 games under .500 for the first time this year.

Tomorrow we have an afternoon game (public service announcement for TFSML), 1:00 Eastern start. Ivan Nova (10-6, 4.81) and Aaron Laffey (3-2, 4.39) are the starts. I'm wondering if this is getting to Laffey's last start, with Brandon Morrow almost ready to come back.

Fun GameThread again guys and gals, thanks for joining in. Misery loves company and all.