The Toronto Blue Jays all-star closer has gone down a second time with a lower back issue, the first time when he left the All-Star Game in the 7th inning with lower back tightness after only throwing five pitches. In last night’s game against the Los Angeles Angels Romano would throw 25 pitches and face 6 batters before being pulled for Yimi García to get the final out of the game. Of the 6 batters, 5 saw at least 5 pitches from Romano.

Starting off the 9th for the Angels was Hunter Renfroe, who Romano was able to get fly out to right field for the first out. Both Trey Cabbage and Eduardo Escobar would single, Cabbage to center field and Escobar to right field. Romano would then walk Luis Rengifo, which would have brought the very dangerous Shohei Ohtani to the plate, but he was pinch hit for Michael Stefanic as Ohtani was having an issue with cramping. Romano was able to strike Stefanic out and then was taken out of the game. 

The Blue Jays closer has 28 saves this season and he is on pace to pass his career high of 36 saves from last season. Interestingly enough, Romano is having a bit of a regression year as his ERA has gone up from 2.11 of last season to 2.79 this season. Opponents are batting .223 against Romano compared to .190 last season and his WHIP has increased from 1.02 to 1.19 now. Now having compared stats, it has to be said that those stats are still very good and they allow Romano to be the very efficient closer that he is.

The Blue Jays have recalled Nate Pearson from Triple-A Buffalo in place of Romano. Manager John Schneider when asked about who he plans to be the closer in Romano’s absence said, “I think we’d probably mix and match based on where we are in the lineup. You look at guys who pitch at the back end between Yimi García, Tim Mayza and Erik Swanson, obviously. I think you just mix and match based on where we are in the lineup.” Another bright spot for the Blue Jays is that reliever Chad Green can soon make his debut with the team. Green, a veteran pitcher who spent 7 seasons with the New York Yankees, has been recovering from Tommy John surgery that he received in June 2022. He will pitch for Single-A Dunedin today and will look to move up to Triple-A shortly after.