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Halladay, Blue Jays hand Royals fifth straight loss

May 24, 2008 - 4:18 AM TORONTO (Ticker) -- Roy Halladay tossed his major league-leading fifth complete game of the season and Marco Scutaro drove in four runs as the Toronto Blue Jays handed the Kansas City Royals their fifth straight loss with a 7-1 victory in the opener of a three-game series Friday.

Lyle Overbay had three hits and an RBI and Alex Rios and Scott Rolen each added a pair of hits for the Blue Jays, who have won eight of their last 11 contests.

Jose Guillen drove in the only run for the Royals, who have been outscored by a 31-13 margin during their current skid.

Halladay (5-5) yielded just one run and four hits, striking out five without a walk in his 102-pitch outing. It was his first complete game this month after recording four straight to finish April.

"Halladay kicked it into gear," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "It's just what the team needed, a couple of nice wins after a couple of tough losses."

Halladay retired the last 15 batters he faced after Miguel Olivo singled to lead off the fifth inning.

"I don't feel like I was as sharp as I've ever been," Halladay said. "But I was able to be aggressive because of the runs we scored. They played great defense behind me, so it's nice to win games like that and have things go the right way."

Halladay's only struggles came in the first, when Guillen delivered an RBI single to give the Royals an early 1-0 advantage. The righthander allowed just two hits over the final eight innings.

Toronto responded in the second as Scutaro hit a two-run single. The Blue Jays rallied for four more runs in the third for a 6-1 lead.

"I'm just happy we scored runs for Halladay," Scutaro said. "He's been pitching great. It's always nice to get runs for that guy."

"To have that kind of player step in after you lose two guys is a credit to the people up front," Halladay said of Scutaro. "We have a lot of the right guys in here and guys who can fill in spots for us. He's been huge for us, keeping us afloat, and he's come through in some big spots."

Rios started the rally, stroking a run-scoring double to deep right field before scoring on Overbay's base hit. Scutaro struck again two batters later, delivering another two-run single that plated Rolen and Overbay.

"A couple of two-out, two-run hits from Scutaro, that wasn't expected," Kansas City starter Zach Greinke said.

Greinke (5-2) was roughed up for six runs and nine hits with two walks and two strikeouts in five innings.