BOSTON — Four consecutive complete games, the last three of them losses. C'mon, make it stop. Yet there was no meltdown, no anger and not even resignation.
"Just one of those you have to deal with over the course of a career," Roy Halladay said last night, shrugging.
Was that a smile? No, more like a rueful grin. What else could the guy do? Without even a whiff of offence from his Toronto Blue Jays teammates, another Halladay gem was spoiled when Kevin Youkilis singled in gimpy-kneed David Ortiz from second base with two out in the ninth inning to give the Boston Red Sox 1-0 win at Fenway Park.
Dustin Pedroia popped out his shoulder making a diving catch of Vernon Wells's screaming liner up the box in the top of the ninth inning, Jacoby Ellsbury was unavailable because of a groin pull and Brandon Moss had already been used as a defensive replacement for J.D. Drew after Drew experienced tightness in his quadriceps and left after the third inning.
Kevin Youkilis of the Boston Red Sox celebrates with teammate Alex Cora after Youkilis hit a game winning RBI single Tuesday night. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)
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So Red Sox manager Terry Francona elected to keep backup Jed Lowrie in the dugout in case he needed him to replace Pedroia if the game went into extra innings. That meant he couldn't pinch run for Ortiz, who missed two games last weekend with a bruised knee. It was a gift waiting for the Blue Jays, but Wells couldn't come up with the ball on Halladay's 112th pitch of the game.
"I went back to look at the replay and I probably could have had a play at the plate," Wells said. "I didn't have any handle on the ball. I thought I had a pretty good read on it."
So this forgettable yet unforgivable trip has the Blue Jays with a 1-6 record. They aren't hitting worth a lick (49-for-230, .213) with just 13 extra-base hits.
Four of those extra-base hits have come off the bat of Scott Rolen, who hit his third double last night and has played only four games since returning from the 15-day disabled list.
The Jays have scored a total of 20 runs on the trip.
Last night was cool and damp, and the game was delayed at the start by 15 minutes because of rain.
The Jays were held to one hit over eight innings by Red Sox starter Jon Lester. Rolen's double came against reliever Jonathan Papelbon, who was on the mound when Wells sent a bullet back over his shoulder, only to have Pedroia dive flat out, then scramble to his feet to make the throw.
"Superman at second base," said Wells, who is 4-for-27 on this trip.
Papelbon, 1-0, picked up the win. With the loss, Halladay fell to 2-4 and became the first Blue Jays pitcher since Jim Clancy (1980) to lose three consecutive complete games. Dave Stieb tossed seven consecutive complete games in 1980 and since then Halladay has done it twice, 2003 and now this season. Nobody else is close. Halladay gave up five hits last night, including a single to Manny Ramirez after Ortiz drew a base on balls with two out.
"He [Halladay] throws everything and every pitch is great," Pedroia said. "That's why he throws a complete game every time out. We were trying to find a way to go inside on him all night … and I guess the last three guys were the ones to finally figure it out."
The Red Sox, who were swept in three games by the Tampa Bay Rays last weekend, had gone 21 innings without scoring until Youkilis's single and they've scored just twice in their past 32 innings.
"Sometimes you give up a run in the first and it's different," Halladay said. "There's just something about having to walk off the field like that that is tough."
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