TORONTO – A weekend without Jordan Romano was far from an ideal scenario coming out of the all-star break for the Toronto Blue Jays. The left lower back tightness that cut short his inning at the Midsummer Classic is “way better,” said the Canadian closer, but it lingered enough to shelve him for all three games in a sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Each day, “we were weighing, is it smart to maybe pitch through it and maybe have a setback or what’s the best action?” Romano said before a 7-5 win Sunday, in which Danny Jansen’s three-run double in the eighth opened up a tight game, although Mitch White’s messy ninth still forced Erik Swanson in to close out the contest. “Maybe just take a couple of days and then we’re good to go for the rest of the year. And it's pretty much based on how I’m feeling day-to-day.”
The club’s hope is after Monday’s day off essentially makes it a week of recovery, Romano will be ready for Tuesday’s series opener against the San Diego Padres, when Alek Manoah starts followed by Jose Berrios and Chris Bassitt as Kevin Gausman rests his left side discomfort.
For Romano, the last couple of days “have been trending upward, so I’m pretty happy with the progress and today was the best day so far.”
Making the downtime less painful for Romano and the Blue Jays is the way his fellow leverage relievers — in particular Yimi Garcia, who saved Saturday’s 5-2 win and rolled through the heart of the Arizona order to preserve a 3-2 lead in the eighth Sunday, and Swanson — got key outs when needed.
A goal for the Blue Jays is to have enough leverage depth to cover in tight spots when the primary options are at risk of overwork.
“It sucks that we were without (Romano) but he has to take care of himself and make sure he's ready for the long haul,” said Swanson. “I feel like the bullpen that we have is set up pretty well to cover something like that … the amount of guys able to throw leverage innings, the trust this coaching staff has in each and every one of us down there, you've seen it as the season has unfolded. You have guys able to throw in any situation and I think every single one of us down there are comfortable with whoever going in any situation. The type of diversity we have in that bullpen is a real positive.”
They showed that this weekend as Nate Pearson pitched both Friday and Saturday, Swanson got three key outs in the eighth Saturday and took over after White left two on with two out in the ninth Sunday, Tim Mayza got Corbin Carroll to end the sixth in the finale, Trevor Richards logged 1.2 innings Friday and another Sunday, while Jay Jackson mopped up in Friday’s 7-2 win and threw a pivotal bridge inning in relief of Yusei Kikuchi, beginning with the final out of the fifth.
But Romano’s absence was felt, forcing relievers into higher leverage points and thinning manager John Schneider’s options.
“Other guys had to step up a little bit this series and they did,” said Schneider.
The offence padded things out in all three games, a five-spot in the seventh inning Friday breaking open a 2-2 contest, two runs in the eighth Saturday fleshing out a one-run lead and Jansen’s blow, plus Daulton Varsho’s RBI single in the eighth Sunday, before a Rogers Centre crowd of 41,794, coming in handy during the ninth.
Kikuchi, who lasted 4.2 innings, gifted the Diamondbacks a pair of runs early, one on an errant pickoff throw in the first and another on a wild pitch in the second, but the Blue Jays dug out of that on Santiago Espinal’s RBI double and Kevin Kiermaier’s run-scoring single.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s sacrifice fly in the fifth made it 3-2, setting the Blue Jays up to complete their sixth sweep of the season and improve to 53-41 with their eighth win in the last nine games.
“I thought our approach was great this whole series,” said Schneider. “Some tough pitching and they made those guys work. You get leverage dudes in two out of the three days and guys had really good at-bats. Bo (Bichette) with the homer (in the eighth Saturday), Jano with the double today, I just think it comes down to approach. When you can add on and use the bullpen accordingly, it just gives them a lot of confidence.”
And for Romano, it provides more runway to get back at his best.
“I think I'm going to be used a lot down the stretch,” he said, “so we're just trying to be smart with that, you know what I mean?”
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