Halladay Goes The Distance

Behind Roy Halladay's dominant complete game, the Phils beat the Mets today by a final of 2-1.

Roy was filthy today and he gave the bull pen a mini vacation as he pitched 9 innings to earn his 4th win of the season. The only run that Halladay gave up came in the 4th inning when Daniel Murphy singled and David Wright grounded to Placido Polanco who threw to second but was not in time to get Murphy. With runners on first and second Carlos Beltran singled to score Murphy from second. Aside from that Halladay was dealing and really got into a rhythm after the 4th inning. After the 4th Halladay allowed just 2 hits and the Mets couldn't generate any offense.

Although the Phils only scored 2 runs today I can't get too mad at them after their offensive explosion last night. But up until the 7th inning, the Phils had gotten just 4 hits and only 6 base runners and were unable to score a run off of Mets starter Jon Niese. The Phils were extremely impatient at the plate and had quick at-bats in which they didn't take many pitches. But in the bottom of the 7th John Mayberry whacked a curveball into the left field seats to tie the game at 1. Later in the inning Placido Polanco hit a sac fly to score Wilson Valdez to give the Phils a 2-1 lead.

With a slim 1 run lead Halladay pitched a scoreless 8th. After the Phils were unable to score in the bottom of the inning, Roy went into the 9th looking to pitch his 60th complete game.

Halladay came into the top of the ninth having thrown just 90 pitches all day. Roy had a look of determination on his face and you could tell he wanted to finish what he started. But Halladay uncharacteristically walked David Wright on 4 pitches and he pitched 2 more balls to the next batter Carlos Beltran. After starting the game with 18 straight strikes it was not a good sign to see Halladay pitch 6 consecutive balls. But Halladay fought back and eventually got Beltran to line out to left field. Halladay then struck out Jason Bay and got Ike Davis to ground out to end the game.

With today's victory the Phils have won the series and will look to sweep tomorrow when they send Cliff Lee to the mound. It would be huge for the Phils to win tomorrow as it will start this home stand and stretch of division games off on the right foot. Lee will be opposed by Chris Young and the game will be at 8:00 PM on ESPN.