The Toronto Blue Jays continued their three game home series at the Rogers Centre with the St.Louis Cardinals last night as a pitching matchup featuring impressive Blue Jays lefty Ricky Romero and Cardinals dominant ace Chris Carpenter took place.

Fans viewing the game knew prior to the 7:07pm EST start time that the pitching matchup was a good one and they were not let down.

Romero and Carpenter matched each other all night long with Romero pitching eight strong innings, allowing no earned runs on eight hits, walking one and striking out five, while Carpenter pitched eight innings as well, allowing no earned runs on three hits, walking four and striking out seven.

Romero dealt with some tough jams, including a bases loaded, no out situation in the top of the first inning, but handled himself very well stranding runners all night long.

Unfortunately for Romero the Jays came away without a victory in the contest despite his best efforts, falling to the Cardinals 1-0 after Jays closer Kevin Gregg was brought in to hold the game to a tie in the top of the ninth inning.

Gregg allowed three hits which included a game winning RBI single to Matt Holliday to blow the game for Toronto as the Jays could not score in the bottom half of the ninth, despite making it exciting getting two runners aboard against Cardinals closer Ryan Franklin.

The 1-0 defeat was a tough pill to swallow after receiving such an outstanding performance from Romero, but Carpenter was just too much yet again for the Jays as he has pitched very well against his former team.

Offensively the Jays did not receive much as noted by their zero runs scored on the night. Vernon Wells was two for four on the night, Jose Bautista reached base three times via a walk and Jarrett Hoffpauir recorded his first extra base hit as a Blue Jay, hitting a double in the bottom of the third inning.

Aside from Gregg recording the loss, the Blue Jays bullpen was non-existent in the game with Romero pitching the eight innings of work.

The Jays will close out their series with the Cardinals tonight as Brandon Morrow (4-5, 4.97ERA) squares off against the Cardinals Adam Wainwright (10-4, 2.23ERA).

The game is scheduled for a 7:07pm EST start time.

In other Jays news third baseman Edwin Encarnacion, who was recently designated for assignment by the team has cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple A Las Vegas.

The plan for Encarnacion is to revive his swing while working on his defense at third base in the minors.

Recent call-up Jarrett Hoffpauir will be playing the majority of third base for the Jays for the time being, with Jose Bautista certainly earning some playing time at the position as well.

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