When Ricky Romero argued against coming out of the game during the third inning of the Blue Jays’ 3-2 win over the New York Yankees on Saturday, Shawn Hill knew exactly how he felt.

The Georgetown, Ont., native, who went on to bail out Romero with three splendid innings of shutout relief, has defied injuries for six seasons and it’s that defiance that has given him hope for a major-league career next season.

On Saturday, Romero grimaced as he twisted his left leg while delivering a pitch with one out in the third inning. Manager John Farrell and the training staff ran out to consult with the struggling pitcher, but Romero would heed none of the urgings from the coaching staff to leave the game.

Romero did come out after finishing off the last two batters of the inning with what the Jays called tightness in his left leg. After the game, Romero visited with doctors for further testing on the quad muscles where they attach just above the knee.

“Even after the inning he didn’t want to come out,” Farrell said of Romero, who has likely made his last appearance of a personally disappointing 2012 season. “It was evident that after he threw a couple of warmup pitches (following the injury), he could throw, but it wasn’t something we wanted to push.”

Romero gave up a pair of first-inning runs, but Rajai Davis cranked a solo homer in the bottom of the inning and knocked in the tying run with an infield hit in the fifth.

Adeiny Hechavarria, who is looking more and more like a no-brainer to make the 2013 team, slapped an RBI double in the sixth for the winning run.

If this was Romero’s last appearance, he leaves with a 9-14 record and miserable memories of this season after pitching himself into elite company (15-11, 2.92) in the American League last year.

Romero never could right himself from a tailspin that began June 27 and saw him win only two of the next 17 starts he’d make to close the season.

He equalled a team record by losing 13 consecutive starts. That stunned the Jays, who tried every solution but failed to find an answer to the left-hander’s problems. Romero finished with a career-high 105 walks, a total that leads the AL.

He worked 180 innings this season, and allowed 302 baserunners. A year ago he logged 225 innings and saw 256 baserunners, 80 of them on walks.

Farrell said Romero “never made excuses, always pointed the finger at himself,” and that as a manager, he was fully confident Romero would “bounce back” next season.

Hill is familiar with the bounce-back scenario, having missed all of last season after undergoing surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome, a disorder that caused pain in his elbow when he threw. He managed an impressive 130 innings this summer between independent ball, Triple-A Las Vegas and Team Canada.

Only 10 days ago, he was facing British hitters for Canada at the World Baseball Classic qualifying tourney in Germany. He picked up the win Saturday against the Yankees with three hitless innings, which was not only a timely piece of pitching for the Jays, but a testament to his own perseverance through several years of injury trouble.

Hill, who has had two major elbow operations, fought for two years against a shoulder problem that proved elusive to medical experts.

“I never had shoulder problems, it was always the elbow, so no one could quite figure it out. It was like everything they found was the horse, the horse, the horse, and what I had was the zebra,” said Hill, who finally found a doctor in Tampa who diagnosed him “in about a half-hour” and sent him to a specialist for the thoracic outlet surgery.

That specialist was a vascular surgeon, which wasn’t even on the radar for Hill and other medical experts at first. He eventually had his first rib and part of his neck muscle removed, which restored normal blood flow to the nerves that pass into the arm from the neck.

Hill — the 54th player used by the Jays this season, a team record — is now a feel-good story for next season, though he is looking at more uncertainty over the winter.

“I can see them (Jays) non-tendering me, I’m arbitration eligible, so I can see that they might do that for financial reasons alone,” said Hill, adding this is the first time in six years that he is heading into an off-season without health concerns.

“I could sign right back after that. I’d be stupid to say I deserve a major-league deal. So, probably a minor-league deal, but I’d get to pitch my way back, and that’s all I can ask for.”

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