Halladay enters final home start in a funk
Ace pitcher's future with Blue Jays up in air as season nears end
Last Updated: Friday, September 25, 2009 | 11:53 AM ET
CBC Sports
Roy Halladay shown here saluting the Blue Jays faithful in a July 19 game against Boston, will start his 286th career game and perhaps his last at home as a member of the team on Friday. (Darren Calabrese/Canadian Press)After a near no-hitter in his second major-league start, a half-season spent rebuilding his delivery in the minors and 146 wins, could it all be over for Roy Halladay in Toronto?
Halladay, the subject of rampant rumours leading up to the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, will make his last start of the season at home — and perhaps final appearance at Rogers Centre as a Blue Jay — on Friday against the Seattle Mariners, starting at 7:07 pm. ET.
"I just hope that it's not," Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston told reporters Thursday in reference to Halladay's potential final start for the club in Toronto. "If it is, Doc's been great in this organization. He's done everything he could here.
"It's going to be a special night either way, because it's the last time [fans] see him pitch this year."
Should Halladay get dealt in the off-season, how many people will have witnessed his last start at Rogers Centre?
Just 11,159 fans — the smallest crowd in the stadium's 20-year history — showed up for Halladay's most recent home start, a 4-1 loss to the Minnesota Twins.
The turnout wasn't much better earlier this week when fewer than 12,000 walked through the turnstiles with the Baltimore Orioles in town.
Sure, the Blue Jays are 28 games out of a playoff spot in the American League East Division, but there has been an average of only 20,782 fans at Halladay's last five starts in Toronto.
This for a six-time all-star who has been the face of the franchise for the past eight years, has won 20-plus games twice, reached 220 innings pitched six times, tossed 47 complete games and won the Cy Young Award in 2003 as the AL's top pitcher.
Little run support ails Doc
Of late, the good doctor has struggled and has been victorious five times in the previous 16 starts dating back to June 29. He sports a 15-10 record and 3.01 earned-run average this season.
A right groin injury in June might be one reason for a pair of uncharacteristic Halladay performances this month against the New York Yankees (11 hits over six innings) and Tampa Bay Rays (10 hits, three walks in seven innings).
But in fairness to Halladay, Toronto's offence has only scored a combined 22 runs over the right-hander's 10 losses this season.
"Everybody expects Doc to be perfect all the time," said Gaston of Halladay, who is 2-5 with a 4.31 ERA in his last seven starts. "When he's not, we always look at him and see if there's something wrong with him. … We just don't get runs for him for some reason."
Halladay looks to help Toronto (69-84) bounce back after having its three-game winning streak snapped with a 5-4 loss in Thursday's series opener.
Franklin Gutierrez hit a two-run homer and Josh Wilson added a tiebreaking two-run triple in the eighth inning for Seattle (80-73), which has won six of eight and improved to 3-1 against the Blue Jays this year.
Wells hits 15th HR
Centre-fielder Vernon Wells hit his 15th homer and drove in all four runs Thursday for Toronto, which was coming off a three-game sweep of Baltimore.
Wells and the Blue Jays will get their first look at Seattle's Doug Fister (2-3, 4.37), who'll try to avoid losing his third consecutive start in this contest.
The Blue Jays could have a formidable starting rotation if general manager J.P. Ricciardi chooses to keep Halladay on board.
Shaun Marcum, who had elbow surgery last year, threw out of the bullpen yesterday while Dustin McGowan (shoulder surgery) is expected to do the same next week. Jesse Litsch is scheduled to throw on Oct. 2, nearly four months after undergoing elbow surgery.
