Toronto Star
Minnesota Twins beat Toronto Blue Jays 4-3 to split series
After a 4-3 loss to the Twins here Sunday, though, Romero left the sense that something isn’t right with his delivery and command.
Five walks against the leagues worst offensive club. One of those walks forced a runner home on a bases loaded situation.
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Canadian Scott Diamond, a native of Guelph, Ont., didn’t walk a batter in outdueling Romero. It was a nice piece of work for the Canuck, who worked seven shutout innings in picking up his second win. The lefty now has 15 consecutive shutout innings under his belt.
Romero walked five in his previous start (in Oakland) and left the game with one out in the sixth Sunday. The 10 walks combined put him in a tie with Cleveland’s Justin Masterson in second place in the American League, each with 26 walks.
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“Right now, from the view from the dugout, it seems his arm is not catching up,” Farrell said.
“He’s missing to his arm side. It’s a matter of staying over the rubber longer so he has a more consistent release.”
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“Just mechanics,” he said. “I’m rushing through my delivery. I worked on it all this week. This game challenges you mentally, but you stay strong and work hard on it. It’s letting my arm catch up and not pushing the ball.
“This is embarrassing to me to walk guys,” he added. “I pitch to contact, and I didn’t feel I had control of the outer half of the plate today. But no one feels sorry for you, you come back and work at it.”
Blue Jays’ Brandon Morrow embraces being a role model for diabetics
When Blue Jays starting pitcher Brandon Morrow threw a brilliant three-hit complete game against the Los Angeles Angels on May 3, earning his second career shutout, he couldn’t just focus on searing fastballs and wipeout sliders.
The 27-year-old right-hander is a Type I diabetic who has risen to play with the best in the game despite a constant need to balance and monitor his blood sugar levels. Letting diabetic kids know that their dreams are possible is one of Morrow’s personal missions.
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“In my life, that’s what I need to take care of because if I don’t take care of the diabetes first, I’m not going to be pitching for very long,” Morrow said from Oakland last week a day before beating the Athletics to win his fourth straight start.
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Morrow says baseball’s meticulous, almost Ground Hog Day-like routines help him keep his health in check as he pricks fingers on his left hand several times a day to test his blood sugars.
“I have all these reference points of when I check: after batting practice, before the game, after the game,” he said. “And diabetes forced me to be more regimented in my workouts.”
On game days, Morrow is careful to check his blood sugars after throwing the first and second innings, and may have to adjust with some Gatorade, a bit of an energy bar or some insulin the deeper he pitches into a game.
Blue Jays skipper John Farrell records 100th win as manager
There was a surprise waiting for Blue Jays manager John Farrell when he walked into his office at Target Field following Saturday’s 2-1 win over the Twins.
A bottle of bubbly was perched on his desk. The occasion was his 100th win as the Jays skipper.
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“I didn’t know anything about it until I came into my office,” said Farrell, whose record as manager sits at 100-96 (he went 81-81 in his managerial debut last season). “There was a bottle of champagne on my desk courtesy of Jose Bautista, and that shows the kind of class person he is.”
Globe and Mail
Blue Jays gamble Guerrero still has that remarkable plate coverage
The Blue Jays signed the 37-year-old to a minor-league contract on Thursday and Guerrero will report to the team’s extended spring-training camp in Dunedin, Fla., where it will get a chance to see whether Guerrero can bring some depth to an offence that has often foundered during the first six weeks of the season.
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Guerrero is a .322 lifetime hitter against lefty pitching, and he likes hitting at the Rogers Centre; he has a .359 career average there as well as a career on-base plus slugging number of 1.011. He’s hit 12 homers as a visiting player, including a homer and two doubles last year.
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The Blue Jays had interest in Guerrero all winter, but were stymied by an apparent reluctance on the part of his agent, Fern Cuza, to consider a minor-league deal. Tired of biding his time, Guerrero switched agents, hooking up with Bean Stringfellow, who represents the Blue Jays’ Jose Bautista and Francisco Cordero.
Twins' Diamond shuts down Blue Jays
Scott Diamond has been with the Minnesota Twins for less than a week, and he already has accounted for one-fifth of the team’s wins.
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Called up from triple-A Rochester on Monday, he threw seven shutout innings Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Angels. Just as he did then, Diamond worked ahead in the count, moved the ball in and out and primarily kept the ball down in the zone. He allowed five hits and struck out four without a walk.
“I was getting hit hard, but our defence came up big for me,” he said. “I’m not a strikeout guy, so I just want them to keep hitting the ball in play and we were able to get some outs.” Diamond was hit with a line drive on his pitching shoulder in the second inning, but he kept stretching in the dugout between innings.
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“We faced a very good pitcher, Romero’s going to make you work,” said Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire. “We made him work pretty hard and we got his pitch, so it says a lot about the way we had at-bats, we made him throw pitches, but we couldn’t finish him off. We had an opportunity to open it up.”
Toronto Sun
Fallout follows Farrell's pinch-hits
With runners on the corners in the top of the ninth, he called back J.P. Arencibia against Oakland A’s Grant Balfour on Monday. Balfour, a hard throwing right-hander, has the ability to elevate the ball and scouts say Arencibia’s weakness is high fastballs.
So, Farrell went with Omar Vizquel, who had better bat control, providing more options Farrell explained.
And on Friday night in Minneapolis, with the Jays down a run, he pinch-hit Ben Francisco for Adam Lind against lefty Glen Perkins with two out in the eighth and the tying run on third.
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What Farrell, unlike Gaston, had to deal with was the fallout from the pinch-hitting. Arencibia was angry. And he had a right to be, being in the batter’s box and being called back.
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Another baseball man watched Henderson Alvarez on Thursday: “He opens throwing 94-96 mph in the first two innings and the last four innings he’s throwing 90-92, including one fastball at 89. That’s a concern for me. Now I understand why his strikeouts are low.”
Bautista, Hutchison have Twins seeing double
“He doesn’t pitch like a guy with a six (6.65) ERA,” Anthopoulos said of Hutchison before the game. “I’m not trying to run from the stats, obviously those runs have been put on the board. But he’s shown very good stuff at times, he’s up to 94 (mph). He’s flashed a very good slider at times.
"The big key is that he’s flashed certain things. His command has come and gone but he’s a guy that is going to throw strikes," he added. "So from that standpoint, he’s only going to improve and I think you’re going to see him continue to get better each time out. He’s battled and he’s been able to keep us in games.”
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“Just make a pitch and get out out of it,” he said of his mindset after he walked in the run. “So far this year I’ve had some big innings and I didn’t want that to happen again. Just one pitch away, make a quality pitch.”
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“He attacks the strike zone and he pitches aggressively and more times than not he’s pitching ahead in the count,” Farrell said of his interim closer. “He keeps the ball down and he’s going to force the opponent to beat him rather than issuing a walk.
"He’s been aggressive and he’s taken to the role very well.”
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