Angels Recap: Ricky Romero Plays Money Ball Against The Angels

A pitching mound showdown between recently extended contract player Ricky Romero and Dan Haren.  On Saturday Ricky Romero Romero inked a 5 year, 30 plus million dollar deal.  Haren came into the game with a 1-2 record as an Angel hoping to slow down the incentive for Romero to outperform his new deal.

Adam Lind opened the scoring in the top of the second inning with a solo shot to right field on a hanging breaking ball from Dan Haren.  Strong pitching from that point kept the score the same through three innings as Romero racked his fourth strikeout against the recently struggling Erick Aybar. 

Blue Jay Yunel Escobar reached first on a base hit followed by an outfield bloop single from Jose Bautista with no outs in the fourth inning.  Haren rebounded by striking out Vernon Wells on three pitches off speed.  An Adam Lind walk loaded the bases for potential damage.  Hill blasted an RBI single off the center field wall thanks in part to the blazing speed of Peter Bourjas.  An infield fly to Callaspo helped ease the tension and Rivera caught an outfield fly to end the inning.

A grounder through the infield by Howie Kendrick moved Torii Hunter into scoring position for the first time for the Angels.  Romero responded by popping up Juan Rivera and Maicer Izturis consecutively to end the threat in the fourth still 2-0 Blue Jays.

Three long fly outs put the Blue Jays down in the fifth inning giving Haren a moment to collect himself and the offense to build a resistance.  Mike Napoli belted his 19th home run of the year to bring the game closer at 2-1 Toronto. 

Dan Haren pitched into danger again loading the bases in the sixth with no outs.  Two sacrifice outs advanced the score 4-1 Toronto.

Toronto was able to take the game and the series from the Angels who are still battling to reduce their deficit to the Texas Rangers in the AL West which would likely be at 8 1/2 games after a Ranger win over the Red Sox.