Slight adjustment in mechanics helping Romano bring more heat

Reliever Jordan Romano (Markham, Ont.) delivers a pitch against the Angels in his lone appearance on Canadian soil before being optioned back to triple-A Buffalo on Sunday to make room for starting pitcher Sean Reid-Foley. Photo: J.P. Antonacci

June 26, 2019

By J.P. Antonacci

Canadian Baseball Network

Jordan Romano knows that baseball is a game of inches. Over the weekend, he was reminded that it’s a numbers game too.

A slight adjustment to his mechanics helped the relief pitcher from Markham, Ont. add several miles per hour to his fastball, ushering in a dominant stretch at triple-A Buffalo that led to his promotion to the major leagues on June 12.

And it was a roster crunch that resulted in Romano’s demotion 11 days later, despite impressing his manager and the Blue Jays front office during his brief but memorable stint with Toronto.

In a recent interview, Romano told Canadian Baseball Network that it was Bisons pitching coach Doug Mathis who suggested that he try pulling his arm tighter to his body, bending his elbow rather than fully extending his arm through the release.

“I was struggling for a little bit, and he came to me and said, hey, I think if we clean up your arm path a little bit, if we do a few drills to help it, I think we can get you throwing a bit harder,” said Romano.

“I tried that for a week or so, and I slowly felt the uptick in velocity. Definitely felt more powerful and more comfortable.”

That small tweak added three to four miles per hour to Romano’s fastball, which jumped to the high 90s. Leaning on the fastball and a slider in the high 80s, he was suddenly untouchable. The pitcher who’d begun the year with several rough starts thrived out of the bullpen, rattling off a string of nine outings where he allowed just one earned run on six hits, striking out 18 in 12 1/3 innings.

“Just felt really natural, like my body was clicking,” Romano said. “That little adjustment’s helped me a whole lot.”

It helped him all the way to the major leagues.

An injury to Blue Jays closer Ken Giles created an opening on the 25-man roster, and Romano’s strong work in Buffalo earned him the call-up. He made his major league debut in Baltimore, suiting up for the team he cheered for as a kid.

“When I got called up to when I actually pitched in a game was less than 24 hours, so there was a lot going on,” he recalled.

“I went from pitching in Buffalo to going to Baltimore to pitch with a whole new team, so it definitely was a lot of nerves, adrenaline. Really anxious to get into that game.

“It’s an experience you think about a lot, but you don’t know how you’re going to act when it’s finally the time. I feel like my years in the minor leagues kind of prepared me for this. I was real nervous, but I was pretty confident in what I was doing up there.”

That confidence shone through as the big righthander trotted to the mound at Camden Yards in the bottom of the seventh, steadied his nerves, and struck out the first batter of his big league career, freezing Pedro Severino with a slider.

He struck out the next batter, Rio Ruiz, for good measure, and coaxed a ground ball from hot-hitting Hanser Alberto for a perfect debut.

“It doesn’t really matter who’s in the box. I just stick with my plan,” Romano said.

He had fewer butterflies for his second appearance on the road three days later against the Houston Astros. With Sean Snedeker, his pitching coach at Oral Roberts University, in the stands, Romano tossed another scoreless inning.

“I was a little less nervous and more worried about executing my pitches instead of having this whirlwind of emotions,” he said. “I felt a little more collected.”

His next two appearances – in Toronto versus the Angels and at Fenway Park against the Red Sox – were no easy assignments. Romano struck out some of the game’s best hitters – Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, Andrew Benintendi and J.D. Martinez among them – while also allowing a home run in each outing.

“The biggest adjustment I’ve made from starting to relieving is every pitch I throw now is with full intent. Because I might only have 20 pitches that day, so every pitch is full intent, max effort, kinda letting loose a little bit more. As opposed to starting, I had to go seven innings, so I would conserve,” Romano explained.

“Another thing is, I feel like I’ll be coming in in some closer games. With starting, first inning if you walk a guy, it’s not a big deal, you can work around that. But here, if you walk a guy, that might be the winning run in the eighth inning. So I feel like it helps me focus a bit more too. Every pitch really matters, so my mind’s locked in on that pitch.”

Blue Jays reliever Sam Gaviglio, Romano’s Team Italy teammate at the 2017 World Baseball Classic, likes what he’s seen from the 26-year-old rookie, who was Toronto’s 10th round pick in the 2014 draft.

“I’ve seen explosiveness. His fastball is coming out real well and guys aren’t seeing it very well, so that’s a good sign. Also his offspeed’s been pretty good,” Gaviglio said, adding that Romano’s experience in the WBC likely sped up his development.

“Especially in Romano’s situation, he’s a younger kid playing against some better competition. I think it kind of sets the stage a little bit and makes you learn how to deal with it,” Gaviglio said.

“It’s pretty cool to see how much he’s developed since then. He’s been very focused since he’s been up here, but he also has a good sense of humour. He’s fit right in with us.”

Romano was encouraged by his first taste of MLB action, which saw him ring up 11 strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings.

“It’s definitely nice to see these last couple outings, just knowing that I can get guys out. We’re just going to try to make the right pitches from now on,” Romano said at Rogers Centre, shortly after fulfilling his lifelong dream by pitching on the same mound as his childhood idol, Roy Halladay.

Blue Jays assistant GM Joe Sheehan told reporters that Romano’s demotion on Sunday had more to do with protecting other pitchers on the roster who do not have minor league options available.

“This is not any indictment of how he’s pitching. We still think he’s really good,” Sheehan told Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling. “He pitched really well. He got it and understood. And he’ll be back.”