Celebrating Halladay
Traditionally, this ace is dominating
TORONTO - When Josh Beckett is forced out before the end of the fifth inning, it's accompanied by a collective "Yippee!" from the opposition. Teams don't want to see the best money pitcher in baseball around in the seventh or eighth, because it is usually a sign he's dominating.
But when he's off the hill with two outs in the fifth, the bases loaded in a tie game, that's an optimal position for the opposition.
The Roy Halladay-Beckett matchup didn't live up to its billing yesterday because Beckett tired in the fifth. Halladay, the ace of Toronto's staff, pitched eight innings in the 7-4 Blue Jays win.
"Four out of six [wins] against the Big Two [the Yankees and Red Sox] in the division, we'll take it," said Halladay. "In the New York series and this series, we pitched really well. While we haven't really broken out with our hitting, we had some good at-bats and we had timely hits when they really counted and that's really important for this team."
Even though Frank Thomas had taken Beckett to the left-field wall in the fourth inning, robbed of extra bases on a nice leaping catch by Manny Ramírez, the sight of Manny Delcarmen was a welcome one for the Jays after Beckett walked Alex Rios and Vernon Wells and had thrown 92 pitches in his first outing after recovering from back and hip injuries.
The Big Hurt, who is watching video for the first time in his career, has been studying Delcarmen's tendencies. On Friday night he perfectly timed Delcarmen's 81-mile-per-hour changeup and turned it into a game-winning double in the seventh. Yesterday, Thomas knew a 95-mile-per-hour heater was coming on the first pitch and he got all of it, breaking a 2-2 tie with his 11th career grand slam and helping the Jays complete a weekend sweep.
"Any time you can have quality at-bats against Josh Beckett, that's doing something. We had good at-bats and were very patient against him," said Thomas. "He's a great pitcher. You're not going to face a better pitcher than Beckett during the course of the year. That was his first time out there. I'm sure the next time we see him he's going to be on a roll."
Neither Beckett nor Halladay, two of the toughest pitchers in the game, ever had fared well against yesterday's opponent. When Beckett is completely back, he won't be leaving games in the fifth or walking back-to-back hitters. But now the Jays took full advantage of the situation, while workhorse Halladay isn't about to give up a four or five-run lead, even though he surrendered solo homers to Jacoby Ellsbury, Jason Varitek, and J.D. Drew, all lefthanded hitters.
"I felt good health-wise," Beckett said. "It wasn't the results we wanted."
Halladay is one of a handful of great all-effort pitchers, right there with Beckett, Johan Santana, and Jake Peavy. Since 2003 when he won the Cy Young, he has 26 complete games, more than any active pitcher and more than the team totals of the Angels, Braves, Red Sox, Yankees, Royals, Tigers, Mets, Pirates, and Rockies. This guy is old school.
With a 7-3 lead, Halladay came out for the eighth. On most teams, the Red Sox included, he would have been hitting the showers. The Blue Jays have been trying to manage Halladay's innings better, but he's so competitive it's been nearly impossible to get him to buy into the notion that he should come out after seven. Halladay has agreed not to throw as much between starts to stay fresh, but that's as far as he'll go.
A perfectionist, Halladay was irked by the home runs he allowed.
"They were solos so I was OK as long as I'm not making it worse by walking batters," Halladay said. "This isn't about me anyway. It's about getting out of the series with a win. This was a good three games for us. We'll take this and hopefully build on it."
Second baseman Aaron Hill felt the Jays may have caught the Red Sox at the right time.
"They looked tired," Hill said. "Their players were telling me they've been on the road for 20 days and all those countries. They looked tired. But even though they're tired, we still had to go out there and try to beat them and take advantage of it. It was a good way to start the homestand."
The Red Sox were hoping for a boost from Beckett, but that didn't happen. In May or June, Beckett likely will be sharper. Although he was throwing 96-97 miles per hour, it's not like him to allow walks. Beckett said he went through "normal fatigue" and added, "It's not something I'm used to going through. I just have to get better with normal day-to-day stuff."
While Beckett was unable to stop Boston's slide, he likely will pay big dividends in the long term.
"He's a great pitcher," Thomas said. "[When] they have that guy back throwing like he does, they're going to have an ace to lead their staff. We saw what he did last year in the regular season and the postseason. He's nasty. There isn't a hitter in the game who wants to see him out there. The important thing is he's healthy. It's just like our team. If we can keep our top pitchers healthy and get B.J. [Ryan] back to our bullpen, that's going to go far. I wouldn't worry about the Red Sox."
Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com.
