Notes from camp: Romero feeling fine
Ricky Romero ran his record to 3-0 with five solid innings, throwing 73 pitches. He used his entire repertoire and was happy with his progress towards the opening of the season.
“Everything feels really, really sharp coming off my hand,” Romero said. “A couple of pitches go away from me, but other than that, everything feels fine. We were more focused on working on some pitches. The curveball was one. The slider was another.”
Dana Evaland pitched the last four innings for his first save.
HITS: Left fielder Travis Snider homered in his first two at-bats, giving him three straight homers over two days and for the spring, raising his average to .290...catcher John Buck homered twice and drove in three...Aaron Hill smacked his first roundtripper of the spring and added his ninth walk, against no strikeouts.
MISSES: Third baseman Jose Bautista started to cool off, going hitless in four at-bats as his average dropped to .524...Adam Lind was hitless in four at-bats.
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In a freak sequence of events in the fifth inning, the O's lost their catcher and then their pitcher on freak injuries on consecutive batters. First it was catcher Craig Tatum leaving with a lefthand contusion followed one batter later by pitcher Koji Uehara with a strained left hamstring.
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Third baseman Edwin Encarnacion is recovering nicely from his injured hand.
“He's really starting to turn the corner,” Jays' GM Alex Anthopoulos said. “We talked to Edwin the other day. He's a guy who wants to play every day. A very hard worker.
“He played with his hand bothering him last year. We said we know you can play through this thing but let's get this 100-percent. If that means missing a week or two weeks, so be it. Let's strengthen the thing and when you're ready to go, you're ready to go. He was fine with it and now (trainer) George (Poulis) says he's really optimistic about the way he's feeling, the way he looks. It's definitely not out of the question that he breaks with us Opening Day. We still have time.”
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Righthander Merkin Valdez has jumped into the Jays' bullpen picture due to a combination of factors. The hard-throwing reliever, acquired from the Giants, has no options remaining, meaning if the Jays want to send him to the minors he must clear waivers.
“I think Bruce Walton, Rick Langford have done a great job with him,” Anthopoulos said. “From what I understad talking to Bruce, they made some small changes with his land leg and he's keeping the ball down in the zone a little bit more and is throwing strikes.
“He's got a great arm and he's still relatively young. He's only got two years of service, so, again, that's a good example of a guy that broke last season as a setup guy for the Giants, the first month or two then fell out of favour, lost his job. Great arm, 28-years-old, controllable for four more years, out of options, so he's a guy that could be an asset for us. We have to continue to evaluate.”
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Shortstop John McDonald was in the lineup at shortstop Thursday after returning to camp from Connecticut where he attended to his ill father, diagnosed with advanced liver cancer. Johnny Mac was 2-for-2 with a base-on-balls in his return.
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The Jays gave a second straight day off to third base coach Brian Butterfield. Manning third for the Jays against the O's was Omar Malave. Taking over from Malave at first base was Las Vegas manager Dan Rohn.
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Two days after being outrighted to AAA-Las Vegas pitcher Casey Fien was released by the Jays. On Thursday, Rule 5 selection, righthander Zech Zinicola was returned to the Washington Nationals from whom he was claimed at the Winter Meetings in December.
The Jays made five additional roster moves. Sent to minor-league camp for reassignment were pitchers Lance Broadway and Zach Jackson and catcher Kyle Phillips. The club optioned first baseman Brian Dopirak and infielder Jarrett Hoffpauir.
Thursday's moves leave the Jays with 41 players in camp, including eight non-roster.
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