Orioles feast on Romero's cookies

As his first big league start in more than a month drew closer rookie pitcher Ricky Romero huddled in a corner of the Jays clubhouse, chatting in Spanish with Jose Bautista and Marco Scutaro. Minutes later he headed over to a laptop computer, where he analyzed the Baltimore batters he'd face two hours later. And finally he found his way to fellow lefty Brian Tallet, who had started Monday afternoon's loss to the Orioles. Romero, back in the Blue Jays' lineup after two weeks on the disabled list and two more rehabbing in the minors, wanted advice on how to handle the hottest bats in Baltimore's lineup - Brian Roberts, Adam Jones and Nick Markakis - he says Tallet gave him simple advice. Keep the ball low. But Romero, now 2-1 in the majors, says he couldn't always follow through. The pitches that missed the targets were the ones Baltimore turned into runs, which in turn led to the Jays' 7-2 loss. He had allowed one home run in 21 innings before last night but gave up three against the Orioles, including a two-run blast to Jones that he says gave the Orioles momentum for good in the fifth inning. "I just left the fastball up and they made me pay for it," said Romero, whose ERA rose from 1.71 to 3.08. "It's disappointing when you want to get a win for your team and you come up short." Last night's defeat makes eight straight losses for the Jays , one longer than the streak that got John Gibbons fired last June, and it sets them up for a couple of ignominious firsts. A Baltimore win today would give the last-place Orioles their first series sweep of 2009, while a Toronto loss would make them winless on their nine-game road trip. It would also mark the first time they were swept in three consecutive series since May 2008. What frustrates manager Cito Gaston most about the current losing streak is that the Jays haven't stopped hitting. They've simply stopped scoring. Heading into last night's game they still led the American League in batting (.284) and hits (483), but even when facing an Orioles pitcher making his big league debut they struggled to convert base runners into runs. Marco Scutaro welcomed pitcher Jason Berken to the show by slapping a double to left field. Two batters later Adam Lind doubled to left to score Scutaro before Berken wriggled out of the inning with a strikeout from Vernon Wells and a groundout from DH Kevin Millar. They scored once more the following inning when Rod Barajas' single drove in Scott Rolen, but even with two runners on and none out the Jays failed to pile on more runs. Joe Inglett struck out before a double play ended the inning. Overall the Jays had 10 base hits last night, but went just 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position. Gaston has stressed throughout this losing streak that it's too early to panic over poor situational hitting, but even he acknowledged last night's numbers won't cut it. "We've had some chances over the last eight days (but) we just haven't capitalized on them," he said. "You average 10 hits a night, you should be able to score five or six runs." The Jays offence stalled even after Gaston re-jigged the starting lineup, sitting Alex Rios for the first time this season. Gaston said he simply decided to give Rios a rest. "It's just a day off," he said. "I might give somebody (else) the day off tomorrow." mcampbell @ thestar.ca