Halladay is first to 10 wins

Blue Jays ace blanks Royals on seven hits

June 08, 2009|Associated Press

Lyle Overbay hears about how great Roy Halladay is every time an opposing batter happens to make it to first against the Toronto ace.

"Day in and day out, everybody that gets on first base says he's the best," Overbay said. "The Yankees, the Red Sox, they're like, 'It's not fair.' "

Halladay pitched a seven-hitter to become the first 10-game winner in the major leagues and the Blue Jays beat the Kansas City Royals, 4-0, yesterday.

Aaron Hill and Overbay homered for Toronto, which won the rubber game of the weekend series at Rogers Centre.

Halladay (10-1) needed just 97 pitches to record his 43d career complete game and 12th career shutout. He was coming off a career-high 133 pitches in a complete-game victory over the Angels in his last start.

The righthander allowed just seven singles while winning his seventh straight decision. He struck out six and walked none to win back-to-back complete games for the first time since May 8 and 13, 2006.

Halladay's only trouble came in the seventh, when the Royals loaded the bases with one out. But he fanned Miguel Olivo on three pitches and retired Mitch Maier on a first-pitch grounder.

Diamondbacks 9, Padres 6 - Mark Reynolds hit a three-run homer off infielder Josh Wilson with two outs in the top of the 18th, lifting Arizona in the longest major league game this season. It took 5 hours 45 minutes.

San Diego was held hitless through nine extra innings by four relievers. The Padres' only runners in extras came on three walks. The Padres tied it at 6-6 on David Eckstein's first career pinch-hit homer, a three-run shot with two outs in the ninth.

Braves 8, Brewers 7 - Chipper Jones homered twice and drove in five runs, and Atlanta scored three times in the bottom of the eighth to deny Milwaukee a sweep.

Top Braves prospect Tommy Hanson faded after a strong start to his major league debut. The righthander retired his first 10 batters before giving up seven runs, six earned, in six innings.

Athletics 3, Orioles 0 - Host Oakland got seven sharp innings from rookie Vin Mazzaro (2-0) and swept a three-game set from Baltimore to extend its season-best winning streak to six games.

Indians 8, White Sox 4 - Visiting Cleveland twice hit back-to-back homers off Chicago starter Bartolo Colon - by rookies Chris Gimenez and Luis Valbuena in the second, and by Victor Martinez and Shin-Soo Choo in the fifth.

Tigers 9, Angels 6 - Clete Thomas's first career grand slam broke a 5-5 tie in the bottom of the eighth as Detroit took advantage of a wild Los Angeles bullpen.

Mariners 4, Twins 2 - Jose Lopez hit a tiebreaking homer in the bottom of the fifth and Seattle's bullpen followed up five good innings by Erik Bedard (5-2) with four scoreless frames.

Rockies 7, Cardinals 2 - Ubaldo Jimenez (4-6) settled in after a shaky first to finish with eight innings of four-hit ball, and Paul Phillips drove in three runs for visiting Colorado, including his first homer since 2006.

Mets 7, Nationals 0 - Staked to a five-run lead in the first, Livan Hernandez (5-1) sailed through seven innings as New York wrapped up a 2-4 trip through Pittsburgh and Washington.

Phillies 7, Dodgers 2 - Ryan Howard, Carlos Ruiz, and Shane Victorino homered as Philadelphia earned a split of the four-game series in Los Angeles.

Cubs 6, Reds 3 - Alfonso Soriano led off the top of the 14th with his 14th homer, and Chicago took the rubber game of the weekend series in Cincinnati.

Giants 3, Marlins 2 - Tim Lincecum (5-1) pitched three-hit ball into the eighth to win his fifth consecutive decision for visiting San Francisco.

Astros 6, Pirates 4 - Matt Kata scored from second base on Miguel Tejada's infield single to snap a seventh-inning tie and propel Houston at home.

Advertisement
Advertisement
|
|
|
|