Jays' Romero not getting run support
Earlier this season, Ricky Romero was not pitching as well as his results showed.
Now he is pitching better than his results.
He has gone from 8-1 with a 4.34 ERA when he received massive run support to 8-9 with a 5.32 ERA and has
been receiving minimal support from the hitters.
He dropped his eighth consecutive decision in Friday's 10-4 loss to the Yankees but only gave up three
runs, two earned, in seven innings. The Blue Jays scored two runs on his behalf.
But he is pitching better. He is pitching more of his fastball than he was earlier in the season and he
is pitching better even if the results don't show it.
"I've gone back to the basics in my last three starts, which is just using my heater and working off of
that," he said. "That's one of the things I wanted to get back to doing was challenge the hitters with my
heater. I felt like at times before I got away from it and tried to trick guys a little too much. But I
know my heater is pretty good enough to get guys out, I proved that again (Friday), I had a little inning
where I had a little hiccup I was able to pick myself up."
He gave up two runs in the second -- one earned -- and one run in the third against the Yankees and was
falling behind in the count. He was 3-0 in the count to four of his first seven batters.
But he got better as the game progressed and gave credit to pitching coach Bruce Walton.
"I can't say enough about Bruce Walton, Papi," Romero said. "He's helped me a lot. He's been one of the
guys who stuck with me through all this. He just kind of said a little thing between innings and it kind of
stuck with me and I kind of used it out there. I've gone back to the basics in my last three starts, which
is just using my heater and working off of that.
"Just a little bit of mechanical stuff and a little reminder that just kind of clicked."
