You Can’t Win If You Don’t Score Runs

It’s funny how Ricky Romero’s supposed “call-out” of his teammates on Monday evening drew so much attention, because the first time I read about it I totally glossed over it.

Maybe it was because I was still shocked a pitcher single-handedly beat the Blue Jays with his arm and bat, but I didn’t think anything of Romero’s comments at the time.

If anything, the club drew more attention to the situation with Romero calling a meeting to clarify his statement to his teammates.Had Ricky Romero and the Blue Jays just gone on their merry way, there wouldn’t have been nearly the amount of buzz about it, and yours truly probably wouldn’t even have mentioned it otherwise.

Given what happened in that game and the subsequent results last night, I’d say it was perfectly reasonable for Ricky to say what he did, and he didn’t need to apologize for it either.

When your team scores a combined two runs in the past three games, there should definitely be some finger-pointing going on. Romero didn’t have to name names, but somebody had to say something. If it wasn’t going to be the ever diplomatic John Farrell, then somebody needed to speak out on the lack of run production.

The Blue Jays starting pitchers have received so little run support lately that the margin of error for the pitching staff is so paper-thin, it makes it nearly impossible for them to have a chance to win the ball game. In two of three of the past games, it’s been just one mistake (a home run) that’s been the difference maker.

As impressive as the starting rotation has been, it’s extremely unfair to ask them and the bullpen to put a goose egg up on the scoreboard every game. Prior to last night, the starting rotation had posted seven straight quality starts with an ERA of 2.25.

Zach Stewart wasn’t exactly on the ball in his second big league start, but frankly it didn’t matter if the Braves scored one run or five runs because he would’ve been charged with the loss anyway if things played out as they did.

Simply put, you can’t win ball games if you don’t put runs on the board.