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Halladay wins 20th game as Blue Jays down Yankees

Sep 26, 2008 - 3:54 AM TORONTO (Ticker) -- Roy Halladay did it all by himself for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Halladay earned his 20th win by pitching his major league-leading ninth complete game of the season as the Blue Jays posted an 8-2 victory over the New York Yankees on Thursday.

The 2003 Cy Young Award winner and perennially one of the top pitchers in baseball, Halladay (20-11) reached the 20-win plateau for the second time in his career. The righthander posted a 22-7 mark in 2003.

"It is exciting for me," Halladay said. "I have a lot of great teammates. It was a fun season. Obviously, we want to improve on it. We want to get to that postseason - that's our goal, but I enjoyed the season."

Halladay allowed two runs and six hits while striking out five and walking one to stymie the Yankees, who had their seven-game winning streak snapped.

Vernon Wells homered and drove in four runs for the Blue Jays, who pounded out 13 hits.

But it was Halladay who lifted Toronto, which had lost four of five, including the first two games of this series.

The ace righthander fell behind in the third inning, when he allowed an RBI single to Robinson Cano that scored rookie Brett Gardner, who went 3-for-4.

Gardner, however, still was impressed with Halladay's performance.

"He's phenomenal every time out," Gardner said. "I was fortunate as he went 1-0 on me in every at-bat. Obviously, as a hitter, it's always good to try and get ahead, especially against a guy like that. Once you get behind, you are in trouble."

Wells responded in the bottom of the frame by drilling a poorly located changeup from Carl Pavano over the left-field fence for a two-run homer. The Blue Jays added three more in the fourth to make it 5-1 on Joe Inglett's RBI single and a two-run base hit from Wells.

It would be more than enough for Halladay, who threw just 89 pitches - many of which were located deftly on either corner to keep the Yankees off-balance.

"It was a great night to be here," Wells said. "Guys obviously gave (Halladay) enough runs. He didn't need too many ... that's the way with him. When you score a few, you give him a chance to win each and every night."

Travis Snider, Gregg Zaun and Marco Scutaro also added RBI hits for the Blue Jays, who will close their season with a three-game series against the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards.

Pavano (4-2) allowed five runs and eight hits while striking out one and walking two. The righthander started seven games this season for the Yankees after battling injuries for more than two years.

"On a personal note, my goal was to finish healthy," Pavano said. "I feel great and my arm feels great. Rhythm-wise and stuff-wise (I was) very sporadic, but I think that was what was expected coming off the surgery. It has been a long year for me."

Five more pitchers appeared for New York, including rookie Humberto Sanchez, who was the key prospect in the trade that sent Gary Sheffield to the Detroit Tigers after the 2006 season. Sanchez allowed one run, one hit and two walks in his lone inning.

With the team out of playoff contention, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez did not play for the Yankees, who will finish their disappointing campaign with a three-game series against the rival Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park this weekend.

Closer Mariano Rivera was not with the team and will not be available for the rest of the season. He traveled back to New York and had an MRI on his pitching shoulder, something Yankees manager Joe Girardi deemed as fairly routine for a pitcher at the end of a campaign.

"Mo's shoulder or body has been cranky before like every year," Girardi said. "We had to shut him down a little bit this year. He had some back spasms in the back of his shoulder. He had some minor discomfort. To me, I'm not concerned."