Past tense not for Timlin

TORONTO -- For a few moments, anyway, the conversation about his future put Mike Timlin in the mood to reminisce.

"I don't know when Act II will end," he said, "but I know when Act I began -- it's pretty vivid," Timlin said before last night's 8-0 win over the Blue Jays.

"It was right here," he said. "This is where I got my first big-league win. It was against the Red Sox. The date was April 8, or maybe the 10th."

Timlin was a little fuzzy on some details. The date was April 10, 1991. He said he entered with the Jays down, 4-3. Actually, it was 3-2. He entered in the eighth and set down three batters in order. He struck out Tom Brunansky and Carlos Quintana, and Tony Pena grounded to third.

"We scored four in the bottom of the inning," Timlin said. They scored three. Two walks, then Pat Tabler hit a three-run home run off Joe Hesketh.

"Henke finished," Timlin said, referring to Tom Henke, Toronto's closer. "I was sitting next to Rance Mulliniks on the bench and he said, 'Congratulations,' and I said, "For what?' " Timlin said. "He said, 'Your first win.' I didn't even realize it."

Timlin was 25 years old. He won 11 games as a rookie. The next two years, he won World Series rings with the Blue Jays.

He is 41 now, and after pitching in 970 big-league games, he has a sore right shoulder for the second straight season. He has been on the disabled list twice this season, once after straining a muscle in his side during spring training, and when his shoulder acted up again last week. He was placed on the DL the second time May 3.

Today? He could play catch, he said, but the Sox want him to shut it down for now.

"My shoulder is structurally sound," he said. "But there's some inflammation in there and we have to find out the reason why."

The shoulder never really stopped hurting last season, Timlin said. Spring training, he felt better. "Everything was cool," he said. "It felt pretty good. But then it started hurting the other day."

Timlin's injuries this spring allowed Hideki Okajima to emerge as the team's primary setup man. Brendan Donnelly and J.C. Romero are also getting calls that would have gone to Timlin.

Timlin acknowledges the accumulated wear and tear of two decades of pro ball has taken its toll. "It's bothering me enough that I'm not able to pitch," he said. "And what really bothers me is that I told people I would be able to pitch, and I can't."

Still, it hasn't reached the point where he has thoughts of quitting. Not if there is a chance his shoulder rebounds. "Just pitch through it," he said. "I've talked to a lot of pitching coaches I've had over the years, and they've told me, not every day is going to be a great day.

"I still want to do this. I like playing this game. I'm good at it. God's blessed me with the ability to do this, so I want to do this for as long as I can."

He said he's already talked with his wife about coming back next year, if he's healthy. "End of the year, we'll see how I feel," he said. "It's been that way for the last four or five years."

And if he could write the closing scene of Act II? "I'd love to win it all again, win the World Series and retire," he said. "That'd be great."

But for now, Timlin waits to play catch.

Toronto's injury woes go well beyond a sore shoulder. Yesterday the Blue Jays announced that B.J. Ryan, the team's $47 million closer, will undergo Tommy John elbow reconstruction surgery and is out for the season, calamitous news for a team that considered its bullpen a strong suit. Righthander Victor Zambrano, who allowed four home runs in 2 2/3 innings Tuesday night, was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a forearm strain, which may be a euphemism for poor pitching. These are trying times for general manager J.P. Ricciardi, even as his boss, president Paul Godfrey, said earlier this week that no one's job is in jeopardy. "We're in last place," said Ricciardi, a Worcester native. "I put together the team. It's on me. What else can I say?"

David Ortiz did not talk to print reporters for publication yesterday, though he privately expressed anger and disappointment about published reports linking him to the ongoing debate over performance-enhancing substances . . . Jon Lester played catch from about 120 feet . . . Julian Tavarez faces the Orioles tonight in Fenway Park. The Sox beat the Orioles in all five games in which Tavarez appeared last season and in his 13 career outings against the Birds, the Sox are 11-2 . . . Julio Lugo, who stole second with the Sox ahead, 7-0, in the fourth, saw a brushback pitch from Jays pitcher Jamie Vermilyea the next time he batted, in the sixth. Vermilyea was in spring training with the Sox last year as a Rule 5 pick and was returned to the Jays in mid-March . . . Roger Clemens making his Yankees season debut at Fenway the first weekend in June? It's OK with manager Joe Torre. "It's going to be a circus anyway. It doesn't really matter," Torre said. "Wherever it falls, it's going to fall."

Nick Cafardo of the Globe staff and the Associated Press contributed to this report; Gordon Edes can be reached at edes@globe.com.