Atlanta, GA (Sports Network) - Roy Halladay was outstanding in tossing the 16th shutout of his career, and Philadelphia's defense was just as stellar as the Phillies pulled out a 2-0 win over National League East rival Atlanta.
Roy Halladay Is Really, Really Good: Phils Pitcher Shuts Out Braves
Halladay (4-0) struck out seven and scattered five hits and one walk while throwing 71 of his 113 pitches for strikes. The right-hander has made the transition to the NL quite nicely, hurling at least seven innings in each of his four starts with his new club and pitching to an 0.82 earned-run average.
Jayson Werth highlighted the Phillies' offense with two doubles, a run scored and an RBI, helping the club snap a three-game slide.
Tim Hudson (1-1), making his first home start of the young season, gave up two runs on six hits and a pair of walks for the Braves, whose only other loss in the previous six games came when they were no-hit by Colorado's Ubaldo Jimenez last Saturday. Chipper Jones went 2-for-4 in defeat.
Atlanta recorded just two hits in the first six frames, but consecutive singles by Jones and Brian McCann to open the seventh had the hosts on the verge of cutting into a 2-0 deficit.
A one-out walk to Jason Heyward loaded the bases, but Chase Utley made a nice stop on a hard grounder up the middle from Yunel Escobar to start an inning- ending double play.
After the Phillies’ bullpen squandered a three-run lead in the ninth inning in the opener of this three-game set on Tuesday, Halladay took the reins and finished off the shutout.
The former American League Cy Young winner stranded a runner on third in the eighth via a groundout from Martin Prado, and used a pair of nice pickups from Ryan Howard at first to retire the side in order in the ninth.
The Phillies got on the board in the second when Werth doubled high off the left field wall and trotted home on Raul Ibanez's ground-rule double.
Halladay was perfect through three, thanks in part to a tremendous catch by Shane Victorino, as the center fielder took away a possible home run off the bat of Troy Glaus in the home second.
Jones was the only Atlanta baserunner in the first five innings, doubling with two outs in the fourth.
Halladay stranded Jones there by striking out McCann, and got another run to back his superb outing in the sixth, when Werth doubled to the left-field gap to score Howard from first.
This was the 51st complete game of Halladay's career. He has thrown 16 shutout innings in his career at Atlanta...The Phillies' Wilson Valdez entered the game in the seventh inning in place of Placido Polanco, who suffered a left elbow contusion after getting hit by a pitch in the first frame...Wednesday was J.A. Happ's turn in Philadelphia's rotation, but the lefty was skipped due to a sore elbow. Halladay was still on normal rest.
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