Halladay continues winning ways against Twins
Last Updated: Thursday, May 15, 2008 | 1:25 AM ET
CBC Sports
Toronto Blue Jays' Roy Halladay celebrated his 31st birthday in style with a win over the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday. (Paul Battaglia/Associated Press) The start to the season has been filled with bad breaks for Toronto Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay but on his 31st birthday, he received the gift of run support to stay perfect against the Minnesota Twins.
A first-inning grand slam from Fredericton native Matt Stairs and some head's up base running from Scott Rolen helped Halladay and the visiting Jays to a 6-5 win at the Metrodome on Wednesday.
Halladay allowed four runs on nine hits with eight strikeouts and no walks in 6 2/3 innings of work to earn the win and run his career record against the Twins to a perfect 7-0.
Boof Bonser (2-5) took the loss for the Twins, allowing five earned runs on five hits with three walks and three strikeouts in six innings of work. Bonser has allowed 17 runs in his last three starts and has twice allowed four or more runs in the first inning.
"It's brutal. We put up a bunch of runs off their ace, and I can't go out and shut them down," Bonser said. "That grand slam, I don't want to say it killed me, but it gives them a 4-0 lead right out of the gate, which isn't fun. Especially for my teammates to have to come up and put up a bunch of runs. It's very frustrating."
Toronto third baseman Scott Rolen put himself in position to score the game-winning run by hitting a one-out double off Jesse Crain in the eight inning. Crain had Scott Rolen picked off of second base as he attempted to steal, but he overthrew third base which allowed Rolen to lumber home and put the Jays (20-22) ahead for good.
"You got to get some breaks. There's no questions about that," said Toronto manager John Gibbons. "More importantly, you need to take advantage of them."
With closer B.J. Ryan unable to work on Wednesday for a second consecutive game, Scott Downs pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning to earn his fifth save of the season for Toronto, which has won three straight games.
Stairs makes early impact
Stairs first-inning blast was set up by some timely hitting by the Jays in the first inning.
Brad Wilkerson led off the game with a single to centre field and then advanced to third after Aaron Hill hit a line drive single to right in the next at-bat.
After Rolen drew a walk to load the bases, Stairs came to the plate and tattooed a first-pitch fastball from Bonser into the upper deck for the 11th grand slam of his career to put the Jays ahead 4-0.
"Scotty had a great at-bat before me," Stairs said. "(Bonser) was trying to go fastball away and I think he missed his spot. I just happened to put a good swing on it and barrel it."
That big lead bode well for Halladay (4-5), who's received an average of just 3.14 runs per outing entering Wednesday. But the right-hander needed every one of those runs as the Twins (20-19) came back with three runs in the bottom half of the first.
With Matt Tolbert on base after hitting a single to centre, Justin Morneau of New Westminster, B.C., hit his seventh home run to centre off Halladay to cut the lead to 4-2.
Michael Cuddyer followed with a two-out single and was then able to score on an RBI double from Jason Kubel to pull the Twins to within a run.
"It would've been nice to keep it 4-0 the whole time, but you have those where you've got to grind through," Halladay said. "You know they're not going to give up in the first inning."
The Twins then went on to tie the game at 4-4 in the third. Tolbert hit another single to lead off the inning and then advanced to third on Joe Mauer single to right.
After Morneau struck out, Tolbert then scored as Cuddyer hit into a fielder's choice to Jays shortstop Marco Scutaro.
But the Jays regained the lead in the fourth inning. With one out, Shannon Stewart reached first on a single then advanced to second after a Scutaro single to right.
Wilkerson then cashed in Stewart from second with a line drive single to left to put Toronto up 5-4.
After Halladay was pulled and Rolen gave the Jays a 6-4 lead, Morneau led off the seventh with a single on reliever Jesse Carlson.
Toronto's Shawn Camp then entered the game and allowed an RBI double to centre from Kubel which scored Morneau to pull Minnesota to 6-5.
But Camp induced a ground out from Delmon Young while Jays reliever Brian Tallet came in and struck out pinch-hitter Bredan Harris to end the Twins' threat in the eighth.
With files from the Associated Press
