Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay throws to the Toronto Blue Jays during the second inning of their interleague MLB baseball game in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 25, 2010. REUTERS/Tim ShafferTIM SHAFFER/Reuters
The phrase "pitch to contact" has become part of Roy Halladay's mantra but Friday night at Citizens Bank Park he added another element.
"You try to avoid eye contact," Halladay said, smiling, after carving up his former team, the Toronto Blue Jays, in a 9-0 Philadelphia Phillies win.
"I did the best I could to take the emotions out of it and go and pitch. For me, it was really important to put all of that in hindsight tonight and the only way to do it is disconnect as much as possible," said Halladay, who was making his first regular season appearance against the Blue Jays in an interleague series that was originally scheduled to be played at the Rogers Centre but was moved to Philadelphia because of security concerns arising from the G-20 summit.
"In a lot of respects, pitching here made it easier. Going back there (Toronto) would have made it more- I don't know about emotional - but bring out more memories and, yeah, more media. Being away from there and being here it seems like a regular game for me. Being up there would have brought it home a lot more."
Halladay didn't say much in the week leading up to the start - favouring the Toronto Sun with an interview, dodging the Star man and spending three days avoiding a reporter and cameraman from Rogers Sportsnet, owned by the same company that used to sign his pay-cheque. Business as usual? Apparently.
"It was pretty much a normal meeting," Phillies catcher Brian Schneider said after Halladay avoided a fourth consecutive loss - in what would have been a first for his career. The two men sat down to go over the Blue Jays lineup and when it was all said and done Halladay had told Schneider how he was going to pitch each hitter. "He used a boatload of cutters," Schneider said.
Staked to an early lead, Halladay was sent into the clear completely when the Phillies erupted for a six-run fifth inning, in front of a sell-out crowd of 43,076 at Citizens Bank Park.
Stone-faced and in full metronome mode, there was none of the sly acknowledgments of his former teammates as was the case when the teams met in spring training. No winks or nods. Halladay had lost three consecutive games and has been shackled by spotty run support - the Phillies have scored just nine runs in his six losses - so there was serious work to be done.
As far as Major League Baseball's official statistician, the Elias Sports Bureau, is concerned, the attendance will count toward the Blue Jays home total - yes, all you cynics out there: last night's crowd was the Blue Jays biggest "home" crowd since the Home Opener - but the total will not count toward the Phillies consecutive sell-out streak together at 77 home games. The Phillies statistics will, however, count as "home team" statistics while the Blue Jays stats will count as "road" statistics.
It was strange to see the Phillies in road greys and batting first and using the designated hitter in their own park. "Two anthems tonight, too," said Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, whose team doesn't get to hear 'O Canada' any more. The Blue Jays players and Phillies players heard their usual walk-up music when the strolled to the plate and the Phillies mascot, the Phanatic, led a group of faux Mounties in 'Take Me Out To The Ball Game' and YMCA.
No, the Mounties were not wearing helmets and brandishing riot shields.
Anecdotally, there was evidence of a significant number of Blue Jays fans coming down here. And there was an abortive pro-Jays chant early, a few of the usually tacky 'U-S-A!" chants in the eighth .. but that was it.
Truth be told, there was little in the way of atmosphere or, well, fun. Halladay did his best killjoy: scattering six hits over seven shut-out innings, striking out four and walking one. Two of the hits were singles by Lyle Overbay while Jose Bautisa, batting in the third spot for the second consecutive game after manager Cito Gaston blew up his lineup, had a ground-rule double.
With the DH in effect, Manuel used Ryan Howard in the role to "get him off his feet for a couple days," and went with Ross Gload at first base for the first time this season.
The move worked: Gload had a run-scoring single in the second off starter Jesse Litsch (0-2) and cleared the bases with a two-out double in the fifth. Vernon Wells' break on the ball into the gap was textbook but the ball bounced out of the palm of his glove.
Shane Victorino homered off Brian Tallet in the eighth to push the Phillies lead to 9-0 but Manuel had already decided to take out Halladay, who threw 106 pitches, 68 for strikes.
Manuel elected to keep Halladay on his five-day schedule even with an off-day in order to get him as many starts as possible before the All-Star Break. Halladay said the decision to pitch Friday instead of Saturday had nothing to do with him. In a post-game interview on the Phillies radio network, Halladay was asked if he thought finally facing the Blue Jays was yet another thread being severed and another step toward putting the Blue Jays in the past. Like, that perfect game didn't do it?
"I think once you go to the post-season … that's when you really become a part of things," Halladay responded.
Halladay said pitching on the first day will mean he now doesn't have to spend the next two days "dodging people." So he will hold a formal news conference Saturday with the Toronto media and then see his former teammates bit by bit over the remaining two days. That's what it's like around Roy Halladay - you're on his clock. In his time-zone. It's a pain but, my goodness: nights like Friday's reminded us all what we used to take for granted every fifth day. A topsy-turvy day - home team batting first, road team batting last. Uniforms. Batting practice - it was all mixed up. But then Roy Halladay took the mound and the metronome started. Home was away and away was home and it simply didn't matter.