All-star catcher Alejandro Kirk hit a tie-breaking, two-run homer in the eighth inning and freshman all-star Jordan Romano earned the save as the Blue Jays defeated the Kansas City Royals 4-2 in front of 36,681 at the Rogers Centre. The win allowed the Blue Jays to close out their first half at 50-43, which is an improvement over last season’s 45-42 record at this time. Although things haven’t seemed to go so smoothly over the past four months, 50 represents a nice, strong number. With Sunday’s win, the Blue Jays took three of four from the Royals, though it’s hard to read too much into that since this was the last Kansas City team that was missing 10 players — including outfielders Andrew Benintendi, Michael A. Taylor and Kyle Isbel — who did not meet Canada’s vaccination requirements against COVID-19. This led to a roster that saw many players make their major league debuts during the series. Still, the Blue Jays did what they needed to do and improved to 4-1 under interim manager John Schneider. Blue Jays shortstop Jose Berrios continued his strong July with a stellar outing. Royals second baseman Nicky Lopez led off the game with a single to center, then walked and scored on back-to-back soft contact bloops by Vinnie Pasquantino and Edward Olivares to put the Royals up 1-0. However, Berrios bounced back from that by using his curveball to get back-to-back strikeouts. He allowed a home run to first baseman Nick Pratto in the second inning to put the Royals up 2-0, but settled in well from that point on, facing the minimum over the next four innings. He topped out at 95.9 mph and relied on a curveball that looked downright lethal at times, accounting for six of the seven strikeouts he produced. Overall, Berrios allowed one walk and two runs on seven hits over 6.1 innings and 90 pitches. It’s a nice sight for the Blue Jays to see the right-hander return to form this month. After his worst start of the season — against Milwaukee on June 26, when he allowed eight runs over 2.2 innings — he was solid. Including Sunday, in his last four starts, he has allowed eight earned runs over 23.1 innings (3.09 ERA). While he hasn’t been dominant this year, at least he’s closer to looking like the stabilizing pitcher the Blue Jays hoped they’d get when they traded for him last July and signed him to a seven-year, $131 million contract in December. . He was one of just four pitchers to post an ERA under 4.00 in each of the last five seasons (at least 10 starts each season), joining the elite company of Jacob deGrom, Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer. Meanwhile, Berrios faced Royals starter Kris Bubic. The left-hander kept the Blue Jays offense idle and off balance for most of his seven innings using an effective combination of fastball, changeup and curveball. Santiago Espinal and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. they got infield hits in the third inning, then came around to score on an error by Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., and a sacrifice fly by Bo Bichette. That tied the game at 2 and was the only offense the Blue Jays had until Kirk’s homer. A half inning later, Romano was on the mound and made quick work of the Royals, retiring three in a row. Before the game, he got a nice surprise when he was told he was named to the American League roster for Tuesday’s all-star game at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. He will replace New York Yankees starter Gerrit Cole and join teammates Kirk, Guerrero Jr., Alek Manoah and Santiago Espinal – who was named to the team on Saturday – in Los Angeles. George Springer was also selected but opted out to rest a right elbow soreness that had been bothering him since late June. “It’s really special,” said Romano, who is from Markham, Ont. “The coaches did a lot of work with me. [Bullpen coach Matt] Buschman, [pitching coach] Pit [Walker], Schneider and all the staff. To see their hard work and my hard work pay off together is really special.” Romano, 29, entered Sunday tied for the AL lead with 19 saves. He has posted a 2.73 ERA with 37 strikeouts in 33 innings. “I’ve always wanted to go to an all-star game,” he said. “It wasn’t the ultimate goal, but that was one of my goals.” With six all stars, the Blue Jays are tied with the Yankees and Atlanta Braves for the most by any major league club.
