NewsHalladay loses fourth of year to Rays
First time ace has dropped four in one season vs. one team
By Jordan Bastian / MLB.com
09/20/09 6:46 PM ET
ST. PETERSBURG -- The only good thing to come out of the Blue Jays' trip to Tropicana Field this weekend is the fact that the club does not have to see the Rays again until 2010. Even Toronto's ace struggled to stop Tampa Bay from dominating this season's series between the two clubs.When Sunday's 3-1 loss to the Rays came to a merciful end, Roy Halladay was tagged with his fourth loss of the year to Tampa Bay. No team had ever chalked up as many wins in a single season against the horse of the Blue Jays' staff.
That's just the way it has gone this year for the Jays when they have matched up with the Rays.
"Beating him four times in your life is tough," said Tampa Bay's Gregg Zaun, who spent five years in Toronto as Halladay's catcher. "Four times in one year is pretty amazing. He's unbelievable. He's by far the best in the game."
How is it then that the Rays have found so much success against the good doctor?
In dropping Toronto's record against Tampa Bay to 4-14 this season, the Rays dealt Halladay his seventh loss to them over the past two years. A main obstacle for Halladay has been the offensive support he has received from the Blue Jays' lineup.
Rays manager Joe Maddon knows that as well as anyone.
"The only way to beat a real good pitcher with any kind of consistency is if you pitch well," Maddon said. "We're not going to beat these guys up."
On Sunday, it was Rays rookie David Price who silenced the Blue Jays' bats. With the exception of a solo home run from Edwin Encarnacion in the fourth inning, Toronto was not able to mount a formidable attack against Price. The young lefty logged 6 2/3 innings en route to the victory -- his second win over the Jays (66-83) this year.
Price's other win against Toronto came on July 9. On that day, Halladay also earned a hard-luck loss after allowing just three runs over seven frames. This time around, Halladay surrendered two runs across seven innings of work, limiting the damage between 10 Tampa Bay hits. The Rays' only two runs against the righty came six pitches into the first frame.
After Halladay issued a rare leadoff walk to Jason Bartlett, Rays left fielder Carl Crawford crushed the first offering he received for a two-run homer to right field, putting the Jays behind, 2-0. Over his career, Crawford has proved to be a pain in Halladay's side, posting a .345 average against the ace, with three homers and 12 RBIs.
"It was too much down," said Halladay, referring to the ill-fated pitch to Crawford. "I thought we'd start him off in early, off the plate. He's been killing all series with fastballs away, so we wanted to start him in. He kind of hacked at one down and in, and we wanted it more up."
Halladay added that the Rays' aggressive approach differs from the patient offensive style of the Yankees and Red Sox. He said that he does not prefer facing one type of offense over another, explaining that the key is simply to understand early on what the hitters are trying to do against him.
"The first three or four innings, they were swinging right away," Halladay said. "I think later in the game, that changes a little bit, but they're aggressive. There are other teams that will wait you out. Right from the beginning, they go up swinging, and sometimes you can use that to your favor if you recognize it early enough."
Crawford's early blast ended up being enough damage to drop Halladay's record to 15-10 this year. The Rays (77-73) added an insurance run in the eighth inning with a solo homer from Willy Aybar, who sent a pitch from Jays lefty Jesse Carlson over the wall in left field.
Within Halladay's 10 defeats, Toronto's lineup has produced just 22 runs, scoring three runs or fewer eight times. If Halladay had just a few more runs from the Jays' hitters, he might be looking at 20 wins and a possible American League Cy Young Award rather than a double-digit loss total.
"When the season started out, he was getting some run support," Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said. "But as of lately, he has had really poor run support. I know sometimes he has to be sitting there, when we do score runs, wondering why we can't score any when he's pitching."
In one of his losses to the Rays on Aug. 24, Halladay did suffer his worst outing of the year, allowing seven runs in a 12-7 home defeat. In his other three outings against Tampa Bay, though, Toronto managed only six runs combined on offense.
The lack of support can explain how a pitcher of Halladay's caliber can lose four times to the Rays in one season.
"He's really good, probably the best in the business," Crawford said. "It's good to come away with four wins against him."
Jordan Bastian is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
