It’s not like Toronto Blue Jays starter Roy Halladay has to audition for anyone as the trade deadline approaches. But today he showed teams just what he can do.
Halladay threw a complete game 6-hitter as his Blue Jays went on to a 3-1 win over the Boston Red Sox in front of 36,534 at Rogers Centre.
It’s the second straight loss to the Jays for the Red Sox (55-36) and they see their lead shrink to 1.5 games pending the outcome of the Yankees/Tigers game currently being played. The Jays improve to one game below .500 at 46-47.
Jon Lester didn’t pitch all that badly. He got squeezed a lot from home plate umpire Eric Cooper. In the end though, it was the 4 walks that killed him, especially the two in the 2nd inning that led to two runs. Lester went 7 innings and threw 112 pitches. He gave up 3 runs on 5 hits and the 4 walks while recording 6 strikeouts.
Manny Delcarmen worked the 8th giving up a hit.
The Red Sox had their chances early against Halladay but never got the big hit they needed to put him away. He allowed one run in the 1st inning and gave up 6 hits while striking out 7. He needed just 105 pitches to throw his 4th complete game of the season.
Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia led the charge for the Red Sox with 2 hits each. David Ortiz drove in his 50th run of the season on a sacrifice fly and also added a hit. Mark Kotsay had the only other hit for the Red Sox. Nick Green had a rough afternoon as Halladay struck him out all three times he faced him.
Not a good start to this 6-game road trip for the Red Sox as it’s the first time since May they’ve lost a road series. Ironically enough, it was also against the Blue Jays.
The Red Sox now head to Texas for the final 3 games of the trip before returning back to Boston. It’ll be John Smoltz taking on Kevin Millwood tomorrow night.
