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Halladay dominant as Blue Jays shut down Mariners

Jul 1, 2008 - 6:23 AM By Paul Lowenberg PA SportsTicker Staff Writer

SEATTLE (Ticker) -- Roy Halladay gave up just four hits and pitched his major league-leading sixth complete game, helping the Toronto Blue Jays shut out the Seattle Mariners, 2-0, on Monday night.

It was the righthander's first shutout of the year and 10th of his career. Halladay (9-6) did not surrender a walk and struck out six as he pitched his 32nd career complete game.

"Doc (Halladay) was outstanding tonight," Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said. "What more can you ask from your starter? He was on tonight and I told the guys in the dugout if we could just get a couple, I thought Doc could hold it for us."

Seattle manager Jim Riggleman, who was making his first appearance in Safeco field as the new Mariners manager, was in complete agreement with his rival skipper. It was all Halladay.

"Guys who went down and looked at some pitches in the video room just said the ball was moving all over the place," Riggleman said. "It was a credit to our guys that as good as he was throwing, we did threaten in the seventh, but he made the necessary pitches to get out of it."

The struggling Mariners mounted only one serious scoring threat against Halladay, advancing a runner past first base for the only time in the seventh.

The Blue Jays, who shut out the Atlanta Braves, 1-0, on Sunday to end their homestand, had trouble scoring despite hammering 10 hits.

The loss spoiled Riggleman's home managerial debut . He took over for John McLaren, who was fired June 19 prior to the Mariners' nine-game road trip that concluded Sunday.

Despite going 6-3 on the trip, Seattle has baseball's worst record at 31-51. The loss snapped a three-game Mariners winning streak, which had tied their longest of the year.

Halladay survived a threat in the seventh when, leading 2-0, he gave up consecutive one-out singles to Jeremy Reed and Richie Sexson. Reed hustled to third and just beat a throw from left fielder Brad Wilkerson to third baseman Scott Rolen.

But Halladay struck out Jeff Clement looking for the third time and got Kenji Johjima to ground out to short to end the threat.

"I felt collected," Halladay said. "There's just that feeling of being together. It's hard to explain."

"This was the best game I've caught," Blue Jays catcher Rod Barajas said. "Everything was knees and below. He limited the mistakes and that's what you have to do."

R.A. Dickey (2-4), making his fifth start of the year, held the Blue Jays scoreless through the first four innings, but Toronto broke through for a run in the fifth on David Eckstein's double and Marco Scutaro's RBI single.

The Jays added a run in the sixth, but the damage could have been much worse. Toronto loaded the bases with one out and pushed a run across on Rod Barajas' groundout. Dickey got Wilkerson on a grounder to second to keep the score at 2-0.

Dickey, who pitched seven shutout innings in his previous start against the New York Mets, gave way to reliever Mark Lowe with one out in the seventh and a runner on third. Lowe needed only eight pitches to strike out the final two batters of the inning and keep the game close.

The knuckleballer Dickey departed after giving up two runs on nine hits, walking one and striking out three.

"Dickey was outstanding," Riggleman said. "It was a classic ballgame. It was a very well-pitched game on both sides. We just couldn't get anything going against Halladay."

Following the game, the Mariners placed righthander Felix Hernandez on the 15-day disabled list with a sprained left ankle and called up lefthander Cesar Jimenez from AAA Tacoma.