Roy Halladay is the pitching equivalent of a metronome. When the Blue Jays' ace is at his best, he can use an array of pitches, slicing and cutting their way through the lower reaches of the strike zone, to completely control the tempo of a game.
On Saturday night, Halladay settled into his typical swift pace, making quick work of the Red Sox in a 4-1 victory at Fenway Park. On evenings that Halladay dominates, his workmanlike approach might not create the same awe as a pitcher who overpowers batters with a high volume of strikeouts.
What Halladay does is give hitters fits, forcing more than a few head shakes as they retreat back to the bench after an out. Such was the case in Boston, where the Red Sox were tempted early in counts, wearing out the infield with a wave of groundouts during another complete-game gem from Halladay.
"He should make a pitching video. He's pretty tough," Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia said. "It's tough to get into a rhythm on him, because he's creating his own rhythm for himself. We didn't get anything going."
A pair of home runs by the Blue Jays (63-60) provided more than enough support on this night for Halladay, who notched his Major League-leading eighth complete effort of the season. Halladay scattered seven hits, including six singles, and didn't flinch until the bottom of the ninth inning.
Halladay's first offering of that frame rocketed off Pedroia's bat and sailed deep to left field, where it cleared the 37-foot-high Green Monster for a solo home run. The blast might have staved off a third shutout of the season for Halladay, but he breezed through the next three batters to seal the win.
"That was Doc being Doc," said Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston. "If he's not the best, he's one of the best in baseball. I would say he's the best, for me."
Halladay has the numbers to back up that claim.
His performance against Boston (71-52) lowered the right-hander's season ERA to 2.64, representing the third-lowest mark in the American League. Halladay leads the Majors with 191 innings pitched, and he ranks second in the league with 159 strikeouts. The win improved Halladay's record to 14-9, tying him for the third-most wins in the AL.
Saturday marked the 12th time this season that Halladay has logged at least eight innings, and he's allowed one run or fewer in 13 of his appearances. The one walk he issued gave Halladay 19 games with one free pass or less, and the 12 Red Sox groundouts represented the 11th time this season he's induced at least that many.
Then, there's the pace.
Halladay paired up against Boston right-hander Paul Byrd, who also tends to work fast. The game ended in two hours and 18 minutes, marking the ninth time this season that one of Halladay's games concluded in under 2 1/2 hours. Halladay needed just 66 pitches to work through the first six innings this time around.
Ever the perfectionist, though, Halladay didn't seem satisfied. After all, he walked a batter in the first inning to put runners on first and second base with two outs for the Red Sox. Nevermind that no Boston runner advanced beyond first again until Pedroia trotted around the bags in the ninth.
"The big key is, try not to walk guys with their lineup," Halladay said. "I did it early. Fortunately, it was two outs and I was able to work out of it. It's a team you want to be aggressive with and try and do things as early as you can in the count.
"I had a lot of leadoff guys getting on, and I pitched out of the stretch a lot early. So it's never easy here. I had some balls hit right at guys, too. I had a lot of things go my way."
Halladay, who had received an average of 3.8 runs of support coming into this start, also received a handful of runs to work with. In the first inning, Alex Rios launched a 1-1 pitch from Byrd (7-11) to left for a two-run homer that gave Toronto an early 2-0 advantage. Adam Lind added a solo shot in the sixth to up the Jays' lead to 3-0.
When it was all said and done, Byrd had allowed four runs on 10 hits hits over 7 1/3 innings in his debut for the Red Sox, who acquired him in a trade with the Indians earlier in the week. Had Halladay not been on the hill for Toronto, Byrd's showing might've netted a win for Boston.
"On a lot of nights, that was probably good enough," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said of Byrd's start. "Not tonight. Halladay was too much for us -- cutting it, sinking it, throwing a lot of strikes with good stuff down in the zone."
Like clockwork.
http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/news/gamed...t=.jsp&c_id=torWhen is this guy a f/a, after 2009?