Halladay wins career No.200
Roy Halladay held the Marlins to one run in eight innings to lead the Phils to a 2-1 win on Sunday.
Three years ago in the same city, Roy Halladay retreated to the clubhouse following a win over the Marlins and was greeted to a standing ovation from his teammates.
On Sunday, Halladay got a big bottle of champagne from the Phillies, with a congratulatory inscription following a 2-1 victory. Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins presented it to Halladay for the 200th win of his career.
Halladay smiled, thanked them, and then respectfully told them he'd rather have a World Series.
"I want to win a World Series, and that's why I'm here," Halladay said. "That's why I want to play. The personal milestones are great. My son, my wife, my family -- they are all excited about it. But to the ultimate goal is to get to the playoffs and win a World Series, and when that happens I'm going to go in the back room and yell."
But win No.200 of his storied career was also win No.1 of the 2013 season for Halladay, and it was an important win. He entered the day with a 14.73 ERA in his first two starts.
Halladay held the Marlins to one run on five hits in eight innings. He needed just 87 pitches.
Of course it was the Marlins, a team that had scored just 16 runs in 9 games entering the series. But Halladay sounded confident that if he continued to execute the way he did Sunday, the opponent wouldn't matter.
"The biggest thing is to throw strikes early in the count, get ahead, mix pitches and throw them for strikes," Halladay said. "That's something I hadn't do against either of the other two teams. You're right, they haven't scored as many runs and (Giancarlo) Stanton isn't in there offensively, so they haven't been as good. But I feel like if I can make pitches confidently and early in the count, I can be successful."