Halladay Just Too Good for Yankees

The New York Yankees hardly had a chance against Roy Halladay. In their last few games, they haven’t mustered much offense no matter who’s pitching.

Both Halladay and the Yankees’ Randy Johnson went nine innings Friday, but the Toronto starter had the edge with a three-hitter in the Blue Jays’ 2-0 victory at Yankee Stadium.

Halladay, who struck out nine, got support from Eric Hinske’s two-run home run in the seventh inning.

“For me, it’s a challenge going against a team like this and an opposing pitcher like that. I look forward to it,� Halladay said. “It was a special game for us.�

The Blue Jays won for the fourth consecutive time after a five-game skid and sent New York (9-14) to its third consecutive loss.

The Yankees have managed only two runs since Tuesday and are five games under .500 for only the second time in Manager Joe Torre’s tenure. They were 5-10 after losing to Milwaukee on April 17, 1997.

“Halladay was outstanding. I don’t care how we’ve been swinging the bats. He was better than us today,� Derek Jeter said. “He’s nasty, that’s just the bottom line. He’s as good as they come.�

Pitching was the showcase from the beginning, with the starters’ accounting for six Cy Young Awards, five of them belonging to Johnson.

Using a sharp curveball, Halladay (4-1) walked one in the seventh shutout of his career. Johnson (2-2) gave up seven hits and also struck out nine in a game that lasted only 2 hours 8 minutes.

“We’re not hitting, but you can’t diminish what that kid did,� Torre said of Halladay.

Gregg Zaun drew a one-out walk from Johnson in the seventh, and Hinske -- the lone left-handed hitter in Toronto’s lineup -- pulled an 0-2 pitch over the right-field wall for the only runs of the game.

“Obviously, that one mistake cost us,� Johnson said. “When I go out there I want to be perfect.�

Texas 7, Boston 2 -- Chan Ho Park (3-1) limited the Red Sox to three hits over seven innings at Arlington, Texas. Except for a rough fourth inning, the right-hander had little trouble.

Tim Wakefield (2-1) retired 12 in a row until David Dellucci led off the sixth inning with a single. He scored on Hank Blalock’s single to tie the score at 2-2, and Alfonso Soriano followed with his fifth homer.

Cleveland 6, Kansas City 0 -- C.C. Sabathia (2-0) pitched seven shutout innings at Cleveland in his first start since signing a two-year, $17.75 million contract extension to help hand the Royals their ninth consecutive loss. He was never in trouble in limiting the Royals (5-18) to three hits.

Baltimore 5, Tampa Bay 0 -- Erik Bedard (2-1) pitched five-hit ball for eighth innings at Baltimore to lead the Orioles to their sixth consecutive victory. Bedard retired 14 of the first 15 batters he faced, yielding only a two-out single to Nick Green in the third. He walked none for the first time in 31 starts and struck out seven.

Detroit 3, Chicago 2 -- Nook Logan tripled in the go-ahead run in the top of the 11th inning to give the Tigers their fifth win in a row.

Carlos Pena led off the 11th against Shingo Takatsu (0-1) with a walk and moved up to second on a sacrifice before Logan drove a pitch to right-center.

The Tigers took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth, but Troy Percival blew the save. He gave up an infield single to Tadahito Iguchi, walked Carl Everett and hit Paul Konerko to load the bases before Aaron Rowand hit a sacrifice fly to center.

Seattle 4, Oakland 2 -- Ichiro Suzuki had three hits, including a triple, and two RBIs in his league-leading 13th multihit game, helping the Mariners win at Oakland.

Bret Boone led off the eighth with a solo home run off Ricardo Rincon for his 999th RBI, and former Angel Aaron Sele (2-2) outdueled Danny Haren (1-3), working out of trouble in six solid innings for one of his best starts since rejoining his former club.