Rickey Romero took a step backward on Thursday and, in a way, so did Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos.
Just a few weeks ago Anthopoulos stated unequivocally there was no way that Romero wouldn’t open the season in the Jays’ rotation but after his performance against a high A-Ball club from Pittsburgh. Now Anthopoulos has hedged a bit on that same issue.
In 2.1 innings, Romero threw 64 pitches, just 29 for strikes, allowed four runs on five hits, walked five and didn’t record a strikeout.
Romero has been working in his bullpen sessions on tweaking his delivery, concentrating on squaring up his hips and getting in line to the plate on his delivery, which prevents him from throwing across his body.
In Thursday’s outing, Romero was able to accomplish that in his first inning (just two outs and 21 pitches), but the next three times he went out, he was wild and out of the strike zone.
