Just when we thought things were going so well for Roy Halladay, he goes out and gets utterly shellacked by the Cleveland Indians, allowing eight runs Tuesday night in his worst outing of the season.
It takes a certain kind of talent to have a start even worse than either of the first two starts of Roy's season (five runs in 3.1 innings in his first start, and seven runs in four innings), but he had very little trouble in making that happen on Tuesday, when he gave up three home runs and nine hits in less than four innings of work.
The right-hander, who put together three straight good starts before taking the hill on Tuesday, had a lot of folks thinking that he had it all figured out after his early season struggles. And while that still might be the case, he's got a bit more convincing to do after tonight's performance.
Things were rough from the get-go for Doc, whose high point of the night occurred after he struck out the leadoff hitter in the first inning. Things only went downhill from there, as he would allowed a pair of two-out, two-run homers: one to Indians catchers Carlos Santana, and another to DH Jason Giambi.
He appeared to settle down with easy innings in the second and third, but he went right back to throwing batting practice in the fourth, where he allowed another two-run homer – this one to first baseman Mark Reynolds – before giving up three more hits and two more runs.
That was all she wrote for Halladay, who exited the game (and the month of April) with an ERA of 6.75. The last time he finished the month of April with an ERA that high was in 2000, when he had an ERA of 10.57 in six starts before being demoted to Single-A in an effort to rebuild himself.
Unfortunately, there will be no reclamation project for Halladay this time around, as all he can do is try to figure out how to exist on the hill without the use of his cut fastball. He appeared to have little trouble doing that his last three times out, but that was not the case on Tuesday in Cleveland.
On the bright side, new Phillie Delmon Young homered in his first at-bat – an opposite field shot to give the Phillies their first run of the game – and went 2-for-3 with on the night. But that was little consolation for Phillies fans, who are now back to wondering what the future is going to hold for Roy Halladay.
