Ricky Romero’s pitching helps Toronto Blue Jays defeat Tampa Bay Rays 3-1 – MLB Update
Ricky Romero pitched eight strong innings on Tuesday, August 2 to help the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-1 at Tropicana Field.
Faced by David Price on the mound, the Blue Jays’ starter – imbued with confidence, pitched effective innings to prevail over his rival.
As the two take pride in friendship as well, for Romero the sportsman spirit is key. "It's fun pitching against him," Romero said. "We're good friends. We have talked about it. It was definitely fun going out there to battle against him and I'm happy we
came out in front."
But Romero did not indeed have a smooth ride. He had to put in extra effort to be the dominant one at the end. Having played 22 games in this season, Romero has so far won 9 and has lost as many games while representing the Blue Jays.
"He had a tough first couple innings," Farrell said. "He created a jam in the second that he found a way to pitch out of it. He used his curveball really effectively against Joyce, against Shoppach to get a couple key strikeouts. He didn't let the early
frustration linger too long."
Tuesday’s game was – since its start – a pitcher dominated encounter. Price was the first one to pitch as the Tampa Bay Rays’ starter. His inning was strong enough, giving up no hit and allowing no run to the Blue Jays’ offence.
Tampa Bay Rays could not score any run either as Ricky Romero came down hard on the offence, adding to the strength of his team to take the lead in the coming innings. His strategy ultimately bore fruit.
Jose Bautista homered in the fourth inning against Price to formally open the Blue Jays’ run account. The 1-0 lead in the 2-hit fourth inning was good enough for the Blue Jays’ Ricky Romero to defend. Romero pitched the following innings shut-out to have
the lead intact.
Yunel Escobar homered in the sixth to double the lead for the Toronto Blue Jays as Price was unable to contain the Jays’ offence.
However, Desmond Jennings homered in the sixth inning against Romero to bring the lead down to 2-1, something that was not allowed to hit the Blue Jays’ lead. Rajai Davis’s RBI single in the seventh inning took the Blue Jays’ lead to 3-1.
Romero then pitched the seventh and eighth as shut-out innings to be wonderful in the winning seat for the team. Jon Rauch who came as a closer in the ninth pitched a scoreless inning to turn the lead into a 3-1 victory for the Toronto Blue Jays.
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