No matter where the road leads this off-season, Roy Halladay remains the face of the Blue Jays franchise. For now.
Perhaps 45 minutes after the Minnesota Twins had put the finishing touches on a 4-1 victory over Halladay and the Jays, that face was still reflecting the frustration, the anger and the pure, unadulterated abhorrence of losing.
Most nights after he pitches, Halladay's face is an inscrutable mask. Not last night. You could see every mistake, every missed opportunity, every unfettered emotion flickering behind those eyes.
"No, I'm not happy. It's frustrating. Another frustrating game. You learn from them and move on," he said.
"Losing. That's it. You win that game 6-4, you're happy. I know I made mistakes that cost me and that bothers me."
More often than not when Roy Halladay pitches these days, run support is in short supply. Last night, so was fan support.
Playing in front of the smallest announced crowd since the Blue Jays moved to the Rogers Centre in 1989, Halladay's teammates got him a run. Just one. Halladay's failure was that he couldn't make it hold up.
With 11,159 diehards looking on, the Twins got to Halladay for a pair of late solo homers and an even later pinch-hit two-run double. You could almost see the wisps of smoke curling from his ears as he spoke about those plays.
There was a solo homer in the top of the sixth by Orlando Cabrera; the solo home run in the eighth by Justin Morneau; and the capper, a two-run double by Michael Cuddyer to turn a one-run game into a three-run cushion.
"Bad pitches," he said. "Especially the one to Cabrera. Morneau wasn't as bad but he's a good hitter and if you leave the ball up, you're going to pay for it."
There was the matter of Toronto's anemic offence, which amounted to a leadoff triple in the fifth by Edwin Encarnacion, followed by Travis Snider's second double of the game that produced the Jays' only run.
"I can't worry about that," Halladay said. "I really can't. It's just not in my control. I have to worry about making pitches."
In the first half of the season, the Jays showered Halladay with run support, averaging better than seven runs per start. Since the all-star break, the Jays have scored just 37 runs in the Doc's 11 starts, for an average of just over three runs. Toronto did score first last night but it didn't take long for the Twins to tie it, then take the lead.
The Blue Jays threatened in the third and the fourth innings, and finally broke through in the fifth.
In the third, they failed to convert a Snider leadoff double. In the fourth, Vernon Wells singled with two outs. He stole second and then took third when the throw skidded into centre field. The opportunity fizzled when Rod Barajas popped out to short.
Cabrera's home run snapped a 16-inning scoreless streak for Halladay, stretching back to the fourth inning two starts ago in Boston. In his previous start, he pitched a one-hit, complete-game shutout over the Yankees.
Two innings later, with two out in the eighth, Morneau tattooed a Halladay offering for his 30th homer of the season to give the Twins the lead.
After the Jays failed twice to get Marco Scutaro home from second with the tying run in the bottom of the eighth, the Twins put it away in the top of the ninth, scoring two insurance runs on Cuddyer's double. As it turned out, the insurance was unnecessary as the Jays went meekly.
KEN.FIDLIN@SUNMEDIA.CA
