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Halladay masterful as Blue Jays down Yankees

Jul 12, 2008 - 4:29 AM TORONTO (Ticker) -- While Joba Chamberlain continues his transition from dominating reliever to starter, Roy Halladay just keeps on rolling.

Halladay fired a two-hitter Friday, sending the Toronto Blue Jays to a 5-0 win over the New York Yankees.

In posting his eighth victory in nine decisions, Halladay (11-6) helped Toronto to its sixth straight home win and continued his campaign to be the starter for the American League in Tuesday's All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium.

The five-time All-Star allowed only a fourth-inning single by Alex Rodriguez and a ninth-inning double by Derek Jeter in recording his second shutout and seventh complete game of the season, yielding just one walk while striking out nine in his 113-pitch outing.

"That's as good as anyone has ever been that I ever caught," Toronto catcher Rod Barajas said. "He was incredible today, it was fun. He was absolutely amazing tonight."

Including Friday's shutout, the Yankees have scored a mere 20 runs over their last eight games.

"I don't think you can say we've been struggling," Jeter said. "You could have thrown an All-Star team out there today against Halladay and it wouldn't have made a difference."

Halladay, whose 33 complete games since 2003 is the most in the major leagues, credited his defense for its stellar performance.

"It was fun to get plays like that behind you," Halladay said. "It's exciting and guys are into it."

Chamberlain (2-3), on the other hand, worked 6 2/3 innings but took his first loss in eight starts this season despite not issuing a walk. The portly righthander, who made 20 relief appearances for the Yankees in 2008 before making the transition to the rotation, allowed three runs and seven hits, striking out nine to match his career high.

"I think I did an OK job of attacking the zone. I didn't walk anybody," Chamberlain said. "I tried my best to keep the team in the game. At the end of the day, it wasn't good enough."

This was the second matchup between Halladay and Chamberlain, with the first meeting coming on June 3 - Chamberlain's starting debut.

"You can't be mad at somebody that does their job very well. It's frustrating that you give up those runs," Chamberlain said. "You can be mad and all, but there's nothing you can change about (Halladay) throwing strikes and the stuff that he has."

The Blue Jays manufactured all the offense their ace needed in the third, thanks to one of Chamberlain's few mistakes. Adam Lind led off the inning with a single and moved to second on Chamberlain's first offering to Joe Inglett, which went for a wild pitch.

Inglett moved Lind to third with a bunt, reaching safely himself by beating catcher Jorge Posada's throw to first. Two batters later, Lyle Overbay lined Chamberlain's high fastball up the middle for an RBI single.

Matt Stairs followed with a groundout that plated Inglett for a 2-0 lead.

Barajas added an insurance run in the sixth, when he belted Chamberlain's only other major mistake - a 1-1 fastball down the middle - into the seats in left-center field for his eighth homer of the season.

After Chamberlain departed in favor of Billy Traber, the lefthander surrendered Stairs' 250th career home run - a two-run shot in the eighth that capped the scoring.