TORONTO (AP) -At the ripe old age of 32, Roy Halladay is becoming “more crafty” on the mound. Opposing batters won’t like the results.
Halladay struck out a career-high 14 to win his major league-leading ninth game, Alex Rios backed him with a home run and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Los Angeles Angels 6-4 on Tuesday night.
The 2003 Cy Young Award winner and a two-time 20-game winner, Halladay has changed up his pitching style and is getting more strikeouts.
“We’re doing different things now, kind of throwing everything to both sides which at times will give you a lot more takes and swings and misses,” Halladay said. “That probably has more to do with it than anything.
Halladay (9-1) threw his second complete game of the season, allowing four runs, no walks and seven hits to win his sixth straight decision. Working on an extra day of rest, he threw a career-high 133 pitches.
“He was a good as we’ve seen a pitcher in years, on both sides of the plate with good movement,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said.
Angels outfielder Torii Hunter called Halladay “the best there is in the game right now” and said the man known as Doc lived up to his nickname.
“He was a doctor today,” Hunter said. “You have got to give it to him. He had surgery on all of us.”
ltimore on Sept. 21, 1998.
The right-hander, whose only defeat this season was an April 21 loss to Texas, moved ahead of Kansas City’s Zack Greinke for the major league lead in wins.
Halladay faced just one batter over the minimum through six innings but ran into trouble in the seventh, when Bobby Abreu and Vladimir Guerrero led off with singles. After Halladay loaded the bases with a four-pitch walk to Hunter, Kendry Morales followed with an RBI single. Guerrero scored on a wild pitch before Maicer Izturis and Mike Napoli both hit sacrifice flies.
“Then he just turned off the faucet again and finished the game,” Scioscia said. “He does so many things well out there on mound and finished his own ball game. That was impressive.”
Rays 6, Royals 2
At St. Petersburg, Fla., Matt Joyce hit a tiebreaking two-run double and added a two-run homer, and Andy Sonnanstine allowed two runs in 6 2-3 innings.
Joyce made it 4-2 on his two-out double during the sixth off reliever Horacio Ramirez. He extended the Tampa Bay advantage to 6-2 on his third homer of the season in the eighth.
Sonnanstine (4-5) gave up six hits and had three strikeouts for Tampa Bay, which won for the third time in nine games.
Kyle Davies (2-5) took the loss.
Yankees 12, Rangers 3
, Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada hit three-run homers and the Yankees took over the best record in the AL.
Derek Jeter became the fourth active player with 1,500 runs – and just the fourth in Yankees history – when Teixeira sent rookie shortstop Elvis Andrus tumbling on Alex Rodriguez’s fourth-inning grounder. A-Rod beat out the relay to avoid an inning-ending double play as Jeter scored for a 4-3 lead, keeping alive what would turn into a seven-run inning.
Red Sox 5, Tigers 1
At Detroit, Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched five strong innings to win for the first time this season and Boston manager Terry Francona earned his 500th victory.
Francona became the third Boston manager to reach that plateau with the Red Sox, joining Joe Cronin (1,071) and Mike Higgins (560).
Matsuzaka (1-3) came into the game with a 8.82 ERA in four starts, but allowed just one run and six hits with three walks. He matched a season-high with six strikeouts.
Twins 4, Indians 3
At Minneapolis, Joe Mauer homered and had three RBIs and Kevin Slowey (8-1) won his fourth consecutive start with six strong innings.
Joe Nathan recorded four outs for his 10th save in 12 chances.
Rookie David Huff (0-2) allowed all four Twins runs over five innings.
Athletics 5, White Sox 0
double.
Mazzaro allowed three hits and Jack Cust homered for Oakland, which won for just the second time in seven games.
Chicago’s season-high, four-game winning streak ended with its fourth loss in 14 games.
Bartolo Colon (3-5) gave up five runs, two earned, and six hits in 5 1-3 innings for the White Sox.
Mariners 8, Orioles 2
At Seattle, Erik Bedard pitched like an ace against his former team, and Ichiro Suzuki extended his hitting streak to a Mariners-record 26 games.
Bedard (4-2) allowed one run and four hits while striking out seven in 6 1-3 innings to lower his ERA to 2.37, fourth-best in the AL.
Ken Griffey Jr. and new No. 2 hitter Russell Branyan homered for Seattle, which busted out for 16 hits.
David Hernandez (1-1) allowed five runs and 10 hits over 5 1-3 innings in his second major league start for Baltimore.
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