Ask and you shall receive!
I could come and pitch tomorrow #Rays
— Enny Romero (@EnnyRomeroTB) September 21, 2013
After Joe Maddon was forced to bring in Jeremy Hellickson on Friday night, the Rays were faced with starting Roberto Hernandez, skipping a starter (not gonna happen), or calling up a pitcher from Triple-A.
As it happens, there's a guy with one AAA start we are all wildly interested in.
The Rays are somewhat breaking protocol by bringing up Romero. The front office is notoriously slow at promoting their pitchers, but with Alex Colome on the sidelines with an elbow injury, the best pitcher available was a guy who greatly wanted to pitch.
Hernandez has been pitching out of the pen, and had done three days in a row Tuesday through Thursday, and let's all be honest, putting Romero on the mound will probably give the Rays their greatest chance at success.
Romero pitched with a 2.76 ERA over 27 games in Double-A this season, with his lone Triple-A start featuring eight scoreless innings. The young southpaw can hit 97 on the gun, and played in the Future's Game during the All-Star break.
It's worth mentioning that next in line might have been Durham rotation mainstay J.D. Martin, and a spot was cleared on the roster when the Rays announced they'd traded Frank De Los Santos from the 40-man roster to the Chicago White Sox, but the slot assumedly belongs to Jesse Crain.