Rays beat Halladay, win sixth straight
June 30, 2009
TORONTO (AP)—In his first game back from the disabled list, Toronto ace RoyHalladay(notes) was outpitched by a rookie.
Carl Crawford(notes) and Pat Burrell(notes) homered, Jeff Niemann(notes) pitched 7 1-3 stronginnings and the Tampa Bays Rays ruined Halladay’s return with their sixthstraight victory, 4-1 over the Blue Jays on Monday night.
“You’ve got to pitch well to beat Doc,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said.“That’s what we did and that’s why we came out on top.”
Halladay (10-2) came in having won his past seven decisions, the longeststreak in the majors, but lost for the first time since April 21, against Texas.The Blue Jays have lost three straight.
He was starting for the first time since June 12, against Florida, when heleft two pitches into the fourth inning with a sore groin that landed him on thedisabled list. Halladay allowed two runs and five hits in six innings. Theright-hander, who walked two and struck out seven, failed to pitch at leastseven innings for only the second time in 15 starts.
Series at a Glance Tampa Bay 4 Toronto 1 Mon, Jun 29 – Final Tampa Bay at Toronto Tue, Jun 30 – 7:07 pm ET Tampa Bay at Toronto Wed, Jul 1 – 1:07 pm ET
“Thank God he’s been out for two weeks because they’d have left him inlonger,” Maddon said. “He would have probably finished that thing off.”
Niemann (7-4) won his third straight decision and is unbeaten in five startsin June. He allowed one run and four hits, walked two and struck out one.
“He had a lot of late life on his pitches,” Maddon said. “I saw a lot oflate life on the fastball and some really good depth on the curveball.”
Randy Choate(notes) got the last out for his fourth save in as many chances.
The long layoff seemed to affect Halladay’s control and limited him to 88pitches, 57 strikes.
“It wasn’t too bad,” Halladay said. “Location there in the second andthird inning was kind of hit and miss a little bit. For the most part I feltpretty good with everything.”
Crawford didn’t notice too much of a drop off with Halladay.
“He didn’t look bad,” Crawford said. “He still looked kind of sharp, hewas hitting his spots. He didn’t look terrible. It wasn’t like you saw a bigdifference. He probably wasn’t at his best but it wasn’t a big difference.”
Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Ma… AP – Jun 29, 10:32 pm EDT
The Rays touched Halladay for two runs in the third. B.J. Upton(notes) drew aleadoff walk, stole second and went to third when catcher Rod Barajas’(notes) throwsailed into center field. On the next pitch, Crawford drilled a curveball intothe second deck in right, his seventh homer.
“We’re on a good roll right now,” Crawford said. “Hopefully we can keepit up. We’re still climbing back up the standings. We’re just trying to get intoa groove and stay there.”
Crawford’s homer helped the 26-year-old Niemann breathe a little easier.
“Against a guy like Halladay, to get the early run kind of takes thepressure of you that much more,” the right-hander said. “You just go out thereand pitch and not really try to be so fine with things.”
Halladay responded to Crawford’s homer by retiring 11 of the final 12batters he faced. The only one who reached was Gabe Gross(notes), who was thrown outtrying to stretch a single into a double in the fourth.
Tampa Bay Rays catcher Dioner … AP – Jun 29, 10:30 pm EDT
Tampa Bay tacked on two runs in the seventh against right-hander JeremyAccardo(notes). Burrell led off with a homer to left, his third, and Upton hit asacrifice fly.
The Rays have hit 38 homers this month, matching a team record set twicepreviously. They also hit 38 in Aug. 2005 and Aug. 2008.
The Blue Jays chased Niemann in the eighth when Jose Bautista(notes) led off with awalk, took second on a groundout and scored on a double by Barajas.
Blue Jays third baseman Scott Rolen(notes) extended his hitting streak to acareer-high 17 games with a leadoff double in the second.
The Rays stole three bases, boosting their major league-leading total to121, but were caught stealing twice.
NOTES: Toronto OF Alex Rios(notes), who is 2 for 21 in his past six games, got theday off. … Barajas played for the first time since leaving in the secondinning of Friday’s game with a strained right hamstring. His throwing error inthe third was Toronto’s first in 11 games. … Tampa Bay RF/2B Ben Zobrist(notes), whois in a 6-for-40 slump, was held out of the starting lineup but came on as adefensive replacement in the ninth.
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