Series changed Romo’s career
Series-clinching pitch to Cabrera transformed pitcher’s career path
There is nothing intimate about a Zoom call, but Sergio Romo has a knack for warming even the coldest human interactions.
Romo’s goofy personality was on full display as he re-introduced himself to the Bay Area on a call with reporters.
“Hey guys, I’m wearing green this year,” Romo said in that February call. “It’s gnarly. So gnarly.”
The 38-year-old was both giggly and candid and he explained with a masked grin why Oakland was his preferred destination. He wanted to win again. And the A’s were one of a few contending teams in dire need of some bullpen help. Romo has called San Francisco home since 2008 — with his fifth son on the way, a short drive across the Bay Bridge to compete for a World Series was a nobrainer.
On paper, Romo complements this A’s bullpen perfectly. The A’s saw the Tampa Bay Rays and Los Angeles Dodgers bullpens go head-to-head with a variety of arm angles, speeds and looks in the World Series. Sideslinging right-hander Romo would be the right piece to help diversify the ‘pen.
But more than the technical fit, the A’s were signing experience. Not on paper is the guidance of a threetime World Series champion and experience of a veteran headed into his 13th MLB season. Out on the latter half of his career, Romo has learned that, to be a leader, it was essential to stay loose. Silly. He made that impression quickly when he joined the A’s and hopped on Zoom.
“He seems to be a bit of a free spirit, and that should play well here and fit in well here,” manager Bob Melvin said. “But boy, you look at his track record and he’s still getting guys out. He’s really, really difficult on right-handed batters and it’s a really good pickup for us, we’re really excited. And doubly because of the personality he brings, too.”
Romo’s slider got him into the league. But he’ll tell you that coming to terms with himself, his role as a closer, is what’s kept him in bullpens all these years. One single pitch proved to be a career turning point for Romo.
Romo has a calling card. Ask any Giants fan where they were for it, and they’ll tell you.
In Game 4 of the 2012 World Series, Romo froze Detroit Tigers superstar Miguel Cabrera looking at a fastball right down the middle. The moment it hit catcher Buster Posey’s glove was the moment the Giants clinched the four-game sweep and their second title in three years.
Cabrera wasn’t the only one frozen; the entire ballpark and the Giants dugout were stunned. A closer known for his slider threw a fastball to the game’s most dangerous fastball hitter. And it worked.
“Buster and I were the only ones that knew a fastball was coming,” Romo said in a call this week. “I was so sure Cabrera did not know it was coming.”
That fastball down the middle wasn’t a spur-ofthe-moment choice. The decision to throw it tracked back to Game 1 of the series. Romo, sitting on the top step of the Giants dugout, caught eyes with Cabrera as he chased a Marco Scutaro foul ball.
“I’m ready for your slider,” Cabrera said after he blew a kiss to Romo and walked away.
Giants reliever George Kontos whipped his head around. “Did he just tell you he’s ready for your slider?” he asked.
Romo couldn’t even process the smack talk.
“Whoa, Miguel Cabrera knows who I am,” Romo said to Kontos.
Everyone knew Romo in 2012. He was the closer who, really, only threw sliders, and unhittable ones at that. He was San Francisco’s closer who replaced Brian Wilson when the bearded pitcher had to undergo his second Tommy John surgery in the season’s first week. Who finished that year with a 1.79 ERA and 14 saves.
Romo recorded two more saves in that World Series before that pitch, and Cabrera was on deck for both. Of course, the match-up came to fruition with the sweep on the line in extra innings. The Giants up a single run and Cabrera fully capable of turning the entire series on its head with one swing.
Romo threw him five sliders. He fouled a few off. Shook the next slider, went fastball. With eight days off, Cabrera wasn’t as fastball ready as he usually is and Romo’s slider had a weird break, Cabrera could have just let it ride and hit opposite field. Romo came set and his mind raced.
Just hit the glove. Just hit the glove. Just hit the glove. It hit glove.
“When you see it after everything, it’s right down the middle, man,” former Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt said.
In celebration, Romo regrets one thing. He turned to Cabrera and yelled, “slider!” as he joined his teammates in a scrum. He didn’t want to show him up. But in the cold rain with adrenaline pumping, all he could think about was what he’d accomplished.
“I’m not as small as I stand,” he said. “It was a big ‘told ya so’ moment for me. For my dad, told you I’d do this. That promise I made you at 11, I did it. I learned a lot about myself. I feel like that was a big moment for me based on the fact that I wasn’t nervous. I wasn’t afraid. I was conscious of who was batting, but not of who was in the box.”
For Romo’s teammates, it was the moment they’d seen Romo transform from a pitcher who doubted his own abilities to a bonafide closer.
“He threw it with such conviction that Cabrera couldn’t even pull the trigger on it,” Affeldt said. “That’s what makes Romo so good. Because he has enough confidence where he can throw a fastball. He didn’t throw it tentatively — and that’s not his best pitch.”
“I didn’t beat him in that moment. It was just my moment,” Romo said. “I had finally believed my teammates, what they saw.”
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Romo wasn’t always that confident pitcher, throwing fastballs to Triple Crown winners to clinch World Series games.
“That one particular pitch, it was an example of how I’ve been able to surpass certain obstacles that have come my way and persevere,” Romo said. He had issues off the field — family illness and loss, his wife, Chelsea, miscarried. That 2012 year, having to replace a beloved character like Wilson, Romo was having an identity crisis on the field, too.
“A lot of people don’t know this, that particular year, I was one of the most afraid guys in the big leagues,” he said. “I was afraid of who I was becoming, afraid of not having control, afraid of what I was doing.”
Until that 2012 season as the closer, Romo was a back-end reliever with a nasty slider. Drafted by the Giants in 2005, Romo made his debut in 2008 and steadily earned more innings as he proved he could topple more big righthanded hitters.
“I went from being one of the best invisible players to be a guy everyone was preparing for,” he said. “I wasn’t coming out of left field and surprising anyone, they know who I was. It’s an accomplishment, but the tricky part was accepting I could be that guy.”
Romo was the goofy guy he is now with the A’s, but he used it as a defense mechanism. When the red camera light popped up, Romo didn’t know how to be himself under the spotlight. He wanted to punch the air after a punch out, but couldn’t deal with the opposing player getting angry. He would get hot over missed calls. He’d overthink how manager Bruce Bochy would use him. He’d get fumed over the questions media asked, and what was written. He wanted to control what he couldn’t control.
Luckily, he had Affeldt and Javier Lopez to guide him. Romo remembers asking them what they wanted from life, and was struck by how little they talked about themselves. Lopez was the dubbed the “sports psychologist,” and would counsel Romo not to let the uncontrollables control him. They both told him not to think about results.
That self-discovery and confidence came on the mound, too. The three pitchers, along with Santiago Casilla, formed the “Core Four.” The group held together throughout the Giants’ postseason glory years.
“We had that thing down to a science,” Affeldt said. “We were good pitchers, but we all had more success because we knew the rhythm of those four guys… It ran so smooth. You were comfortable pitching, you were never in a tough situation if you didn’t have your stuff because you knew who was coming up behind you.”