Mathis pitches ninth to help save bullpen

TORONTO -- For the second time in less than two months, the Blue Jays were forced to use catcher Jeff Mathis as a pitcher.

Mathis was called on to pitch the ninth inning of Wednesday night's lopsided 16-0 loss to the A's. The veteran backstop was charged with two runs on three hits after pitching a scoreless inning earlier this year at Texas.

The decision to use Mathis as a pitcher was made to limit the number of innings required from the bullpen. With a day game looming on Thursday afternoon, manager John Farrell wanted to stay away from using setup men Brandon Lyon and Darren Oliver along with closer Casey Janssen.

Mathis consistently threw in the 82-84 mph range and topped out at 85 on a couple of pitches. He also mixed in a few changeups but surrendered a pair of doubles and a single in the two-run frame.

Toronto had been required to use the bullpen for 7 2/3 innings on Wednesday night after starter Ricky Romero was removed in the second frame. That left several pitchers unavailable for the series finale and as a result right-hander Joel Carreno and left-hander Evan Crawford will be promoted from Triple-A Las Vegas on Thursday.

To make room on the 25-man roster for Carreno and Crawford, catcher J.P. Arencibia was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a fractured right hand and right-hander Chad Beck was optioned to Las Vegas.