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Romero pitches Blue Jays over struggling Twins

May 14, 2011 - 4:02 AM Minneapolis, MN (Sports Network) - Ricky Romero was an out away from his fifth career complete game, but was still good enough to help the Toronto Blue Jays slip past the reeling Minnesota Twins, 2-0, in the start of a three-game series.

Romero (3-4) scattered four hits and fanned eight batters through 8 2/3 frames in the Blue Jays' third win in a row.

"Any time you're a starter, you want to finish what you started," Romero said. "I felt good. Obviously you want to complete it in that situation, but they don't want to keep you in a situation where you could lose the game."

Juan Rivera drove in the go-ahead run in the seventh inning, while Jose Bautista added a solo shot in the ninth for Toronto, which stranded 14 runners on base.

Alex Burnett (0-2) surrendered a run in the seventh to get the loss, the Twins' sixth in a row. Delmon Young, who was reinstated from the disabled list with a left oblique strain before the game, had one of Minnesota's four hits in the game.

"I didn't have much out there," said Twins starter Carl Pavano, who went 5 1/3 shutout innings but threw 115 pitches. "I feel like I had one pitch. I had 75 pitches out of three innings. That's not how you want to start the ballgame and I think it affected the team. They had to battle out of it."

Romero, whose no-hit bid was broken up in the sixth inning, got into trouble in the ninth.

He walked Trevor Plouffe to lead off the inning, but struck out Jason Kubel and Justin Morneau, before Delmon Young singled into right to put the winning run at the plate. Toronto manager John Farrell then decided to bring in Frank Francisco.

Michael Cuddyer worked Francisco to a full count before a check-swing third strike to end the game.

Toronto's all-important first run of the game was set up by Corey Patterson's lead-off single. He then swiped second before Bautista drew a walk. That chased reliever Jim Hoey off the mound and Alex Burnett served up Rivera's broken- bat single into shallow left to bring Patterson home for a 1-0 lead.

Bautista added an insurance run in the ninth when he blasted the ball deep over the left-field fence.

While the Blue Jays had plenty of opportunities to score early on, leaving 10 runners on base through five innings, Romero failed to yield a hit until serving back-to-back two-out hits by Denard Span and Plouffe in the sixth.

However, the game stayed scoreless after Romero got Kubel to ground out to end the threat.

Game Notes

Toronto's Adam Lind was scratched before the game feeling soreness in his back. He has not played since May 7...Francisco recorded his third save this season. In a corresponding move to Young's return, the Twins optioned outfielder Rene Tosoni to Triple-A Rochester...Bautista has reached base safely in 29 of the 30 games he has played this season.