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 Jays pitcher Ricky Romero appeared to have all his pitches working against the Rangers last night. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez) |
ARLINGTON, Tex. -- It was a good news-bad news sort of day for the Blue Jays.
The good news was that contrary to all the weather forecasts, last night's game was not rained out, avoiding back-to-back doubleheaders when the Jays return here at the end of August.
The bad news was that the Jays couldn't polish off the Rangers in an abbreviated three-game series as they were unable to take advantage of a fine pitching performance by rookie Ricky Romero in dropping a 1-0 decision, just the second time the Jays have been shut out this season.
It was Romero's seventh start, his fourth since coming off the disabled list, and one of his finest of the campaign.
"He pitched a great game for us. We just didn't get him any runs," manager Cito Gaston said. "It's nice to see him pitch that way."
Still, the Jays took two of three.
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"Two out of three is always good but you'd like to take the third one home because we had a chance to win," Gaston added. "It's a tough loss for us. Any loss is tough but when a guy pitches that well and we just need one hit (with runners in scoring position), we just didn't deliver."
Romero appeared to have all his pitches working as he mixed them in and kept a dangerous lineup off balance.
"Yeah, I made some progress, I got the changeup back and threw it in counts when we were behind and got some outs and the two-seam (fastball) was pretty good," Romero said.
For the first time since returning from his strained oblique, Romero kept the ball in the park. In his past three starts, he had given up a total of seven home runs.
"I think it's a credit to keeping the ball down and pitching down in the zone most of the game," Romero said.
The biggest obstacle for the Jays was Rangers right-hander Kevin Millwood.
Millwood came into the game with a poor 1-4 lifetime mark against the Jays but this game he blanked them on five over 72/3 innings and allowed just one baserunner as far as third.
The Rangers scored the game's lone run in the second inning on a sac fly by Marlon Byrd.
The Jays now return home for a brief three-game set against the Florida Marlins, a team they haven't played since 2006 but one that historically has caused them problems.
Lifetime, the Jays are 4-14 vs. the Fish.
However, Roy Halladay starts tonight in search of his 11th win.