Music: {allcanada} Romero steps up again for Jays

TORONTO – Ricky Romero is very much the glue holding together a Toronto Blue Jays starting rotation that's endured some tumultuous times, and struggled to consistently pitch deep into games this season.

In 10 of his 14 starts so far, including Wednesday night's eight brilliant innings in a 4-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles, the 26-year-old left-hander has pitched seven innings or more. Only twice has he gone fewer than six frames. And despite a paltry run-support average of 3.79, he still leads the staff in wins with a 6-6 record.

How valuable has that been?

"He's been our most consistent starter, that goes without saying," said manager John Farrell. "Every time he walks to the mound we have a feeling that we're going to win that given night. Of late that hasn't quite worked out, a total team effort is what's needed, but he has certainly done his part.

"He's been outstanding."

Consider that heading into Wednesday's contest the Blue Jays ranked 13th of 14 teams in the American League with 383.2 innings from their starters, a single frame more than the last place Kansas City Royals.

That covered just 63 per cent of the team's 609.2 innings, leaving a lot of heavy lifting for the bullpen. In contrast Romero has eaten up 95.2 innings, or 78 per cent, of the 122 frames in his 14 outings.

Such stability has been crucial with three-fifths of the starting rotation from opening day no longer on the staff. Brett Cecil and Kyle Drabek are both at triple-A Las Vegas to refine their games while Jesse Litsch is on the disabled list with a shoulder impingement. Brandon Morrow has been inconsistent after opening the season on the DL, while the oft-maligned Jo-Jo Reyes is the only other starter to have taken every turn.

Romero has been the stabilizing force.

"No doubt, it's something I take a lot of pride in," said Romero. "It's something I've been looking forward to, having that opportunity to be the guy they rely on. I work hard off the field to get ready for games like this and I expect a lot of myself every time I'm out there.

"Whenever I don't get the job done I take it really hard."

His performance Wednesday was a tour de force, as he allowed just three hits and four walks while matching a career-high with 12 strikeouts in leading the Blue Jays (34-34) to a second consecutive win.

Romero left to a standing ovation from the crowd of 14,541 after walking the first two batters of the ninth, and Frank Francisco got Vladimir Guerrero on a pop up and surrendered an RBI single to Matt Wieters before Derrek Lee hit into a 5-4-3 double play to end it for his sixth save.

"I felt like I had a good curveball going, a good changeup going and I could locate my fastball wherever I wanted," said Romero, who was beaten 5-3 by the Orioles on June 4, his big mistake a grand slam to Mark Reynolds. "Those are the nights you have to take advantage of as a starter, you can't take it for granted because these days don't come very often.

"When you're feeling good you definitely have to take full advantage of it."

The Blue Jays have now won 16 in a row at Rogers Centre against the Orioles (30-35), who are losers of four straight overall.

Romero's only real trouble came in the fourth, when J.J. Hardy picked up Baltimore's first hit of the evening on a double down the third-base line. Nick Markakis followed with a walk but Romero escaped unscathed by striking out Adam Jones and inducing a 4-6-3 double play from Guerrero.

"He dealt," said Jones, who was 0-for-3 with a walk. "He had that changeup and every count he threw it. He had me off balance. He had a lot of people off balance."

Yunel Escobar opened the scoring with a leadoff homer in the first, and Juan Rivera extended the advantage to 2-0 with a solo blast in the sixth of Jake Arrieta (8-4), who left with two out in the seventh and Jose Bautista aboard via a walk.

Lefty Clay Rapada came on to face Adam Lind, who blasted a 1-2 pitch over the wall in left-centre for a 4-0 edge.

The score might have been even more lopsided had the Blue Jays made more of some earlier chances to score. They were 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position, the lone hit a generously scored infield single by Rajai Davis that didn't drive in a run.

It didn't matter the way Romero pitched.

"He was terrific," said Lind. "They didn't know what he was going to throw, changeups, curveballs, fastballs, first pitch, he was in a rhythm and he made them get out of rhythm."

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STEWART TIME: A 12:37 start time for his big-league debut suits Toronto Blue Jays prospect Zach Stewart just fine.

"I'm happy that I have less time," he said in the Jays clubhouse after Wednesday's 4-1 win over the Orioles. "I don't know what my routine is going to be, I probably should have had that planned out. I'll just, I guess, do what I normally do as far as going into a start except for this is obviously a bigger stage. Other than that I'm going to try and keep it simple."

Stewart learned of his promotion from double-A New Hampshire on Tuesday but only made it to the Blue Jays clubhouse around 6:45 p.m. Wednesday. He's replacing close friend Kyle Drabek in the rotation after the right-hander was sent down to triple-A Las Vegas.

"He called me (Tuesday) and told me congratulations," said Stewart. "He told me he was happy for me, I told him that obviously I wish it was under different circumstances, but he was awesome about it, he said don't even worry about it, you deserve to be here, just go out and play.

"I told him you're a hell of a player, don't worry about it, things happen, you'll be right back here in no time. He seemed to be in good spirits about it and he was cool talking to me. He actually called me which was cool."

Stewart has a tough act to follow after Ricky Romero's gem, but he just wants to pitch his game. He'll face Orioles ace Jeremy Guthrie (2-8, 3.77) as the Blue Jays look to finish off the sweep.

"Very excited," he said. "This is obviously a dream come true since I was a kid, always wanting to do this. Getting the opportunity is awesome."