Giants will not panic over Sergio Romo

It was the bottom of the ninth and the San Francisco Giants were up 6-4. It was time to bring Sergio Romo into the game. He is, after all, their closer.

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There are only a handful of stress-free closers in the game and even those guys have suffered meltdowns and blown saves. Craig Kimbrel (blew one Thursday night), Joakim Soria (blew one Tuesday night), and Koji Uehara are all considered as “lock-down” as a closer can get. Whether it’s through “blow-it-by-you” fastballs, impeccable control, or devastating movement on their pitches, these closers are the ones that can be relied on to get the job done.

Does Giants closer Sergio Romo fall into that category? At one time, perhaps he did. He was the first face of the ninth inning for San Francisco after Brian Wilson ended up being shelved with Tommy John and then not re-signed. Over his last three appearances, he has allowed at least one run to score and has seen his ERA skyrocket from 2.21 (May 18th against Miami) to 3.52 after his debacle in the aforementioned scenario.

Romo had his slider working and displayed it as he struck out Jhonny Peralta. He allowed a single to Jon Jay, but got Peter Bourjos to pop out. Then he walked the pinch-hitting number 9 guy Daniel Descalso, which set the stage for a run-scoring single by Matt Carpenter which sent Descalso to third. The tying run was 90 feet away. Luckily, Romo got pinch hitter Shane Robinson to pop out to end the game, but it certainly brought to light a more disturbing trend of downward motion as far as performance goes for the 31-year old.

The time is not right, though, to pull the plug on Romo. Certainly they have a viable backup option in Jean Machi (who has a 0.33 ERA over 27 innings), but is displacing Romo the right move? The Giants want to try adjusting a mechanical issue they feel might exist in Romo’s delivery first. Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Gate writes that it’s not just the coaching staff that noticed the issue.

"As we were interviewing Ryan Vogelsong following tonight’s 6-5 win in St. Louis, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Matt Cain was talking to Sergio Romo. Cain had his right arm in the air and appeared to be discussing something mechanical with the closer. That was after manager Bruce Bochy said he and his coaches spotted something as well. They plan to discuss their observations with Romo on Friday."

Maybe the hiccup is a small hitch in his delivery. Maybe he’s tipping his pitches in a way he never knew before. Whatever it is, the Giants are determined to stick with Romo and do their best to fix him “on the job” as opposed to in a low-leverage situation.

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