Houston, TX (Sports Network) - Roy Halladay allowed one unearned run in his 50th career complete game, as the Phillies' new ace earned his 150th career win in a 2-1 victory over Houston.
Halladay’s Complete Game Leads Phillies Past Astros, 2-1
Halladay (2-0) needed 111 pitches, allowing seven hits without walking a batter while fanning eight for the Phillies, who have won five of six to begin their season. Halladay has now allowed just one earned run in 16 innings this season, and he failed to surrender an extra-base hit to the Astros on Sunday.
Jimmy Rollins led off the game with his first homer of the season and finished with two hits, while Carlos Ruiz also drove in a run as Philadelphia swept this three-game set.
The Phillies recorded only six hits in the game, marking the first time this season the team hadn’t notched at least 11 hits.
Michael Bourn and Pedro Feliz each had two hits to pace the Astros, who remain baseball's only winless team at 0-6. Roy Oswalt (0-2) received another hard- luck loss, having lost to two-time NL Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum on opening day. Sunday, he yielded only two runs, five hits and two walks in six frames while striking out eight.
Rollins opened up the game by blasting the second pitch he saw into the right field seats for a 1-0 lead, and the Phillies doubled their advantage in the second.
Raul Ibanez began the second inning with a double to the gap in right-center, and Shane Victorino followed with a single through the right side of the infield. Carlos Ruiz then scored Ibanez with a groundout to third.
Halladay allowed just three singles in the first five frames but ran into some trouble in the sixth.
Pinch-hitter Chris Johnson laced a leadoff single to left, and Bourn followed with a bunt single down the first base line. Jeff Keppinger also put down a bunt -- this one toward third base; Placido Polanco had rushed in to get the ball, but Halladay fielded it and threw to third before Polanco could get back and cover, leaving the bases loaded with nobody out on the error.
Halladay recovered, though, getting Cory Sullivan to bounce into a 6-3 double play, scoring Johnson, and inducing a pop out from Carlos Lee to end the inning with Philadelphia still ahead, 2-1.
The Astros threatened to tie or go in front in the seventh, but Halladay was up to the task. Geoff Blum and Feliz both singled to begin the inning, and each moved up a base on Kazuo Matsui's sacrifice bunt.
With the infield playing back, Halladay got J.R. Towles to ground the ball back to the pitcher's mound for the second out, then he struck out pinch- hitter Jason Michaels on three pitches to maintain the lead.
Halladay settled down from there, setting down the Astros in order in both the eighth and ninth to finish off the gem.
The Phillies, who came into the game with only 26 strikeouts in five games, struck out 10 times on Sunday, including three from Ryan Howard, who fanned only once prior...Houston is 0-6 for the first time since 1983, while Philadelphia is 5-1 for the first time since 1993...No Phillies team has ever started the season with six straight 10-hit games.
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