David Murphy: Halladay turns in a clutch effort

YOU GET HOME from a game like Wednesday night's, and you might talk about the two-run double by the 22-year-old rookie. You might talk about the heads-up baserunning by the new leadoff hitter. You might talk about the two runs scored by the new three-hole hitter. But you will not talk about Roy Halladay. At least not at first. And that's OK with him. When Halladay pitches, nights like Wednesday night, 7-1 victories that snap three-game losing streaks, are the expectation.

At some point, though, some member of a future generation will ask you what it was like to watch Roy Halladay pitch. And when that happens, you will remember nights like Wednesday night. Because they are the ones that make a pitcher great.

They are the nights when the wind blows cold, and the opponent looms large, and the pitches do not obey their mechanical commands. They are the nights when the laces don't seem to mold to the skin and the rhythm feels as if it is a half-step behind. Every major league starter has them. Halladay? He wins them.

When the Phillies arrived at Citizens Bank Park Wednesday afternoon, they did so facing the proverbial must-win. In reality, there are no such games in April, particularly not in the opening weeks of the season. But manager Charlie Manuel came close to labeling it that way, so it is fair to say that there was legitimate concern about his team's 1-3 start.

The Phillies' pursuit of Roy Halladay three offseasons ago was born of such trepidation. They have based their organizational game plan on a desire to build consistent success, and no starter in the last decade-plus has displayed more sustainability. Wednesday night, he showed why.

Early on, it was clear that the outing would be a grind. As a cold April wind blew through Citizens Bank Park, the no-hit command was nowhere to be found. After Emilio Bonifacio legged out a one-out swinging bunt to give the Marlins an early runner, Halladay struggled to find the strike zone. Everything was up, except for his curveball, which was in the dirt. After one pitch that missed its mark, Carlos Ruiz trotted out to the mound for an early conference. Halladay kicked dirt and listened to his catcher speak. They had a plan. Soft stuff early. Save the fastball for later.

Halladay got ahead of Logan Morrison 1-2, then threw three straight balls to walk the bases loaded. The second inning brought more of the same. He threw first-pitch balls to all four batters he faced, including three straight to Omar Infante, who pounded a leadoff double off the wall in left-center. By the start of the third inning, Halladay was at 37 pitches and seemed destined for an early night. Baseball is a sport of scuttled plans.

"The biggest thing is just keeping it simple," Halladay said. "Just trying to go pitch to pitch. Anytime you go out and you have runners on base and all of a sudden you are thinking about what could happen or how you need to strike three guys out to get out of the inning, you're in trouble. Regardless of what's happened or what might happen, it can't affect you. You really have to be in the moment."

By now, it goes without saying that the onslaught that looked so imminent never materialized. With the bases loaded in the first, Halladay got Gaby Sanchez to ground out to end the frame. In the second, he retired three straight batters after Infante's double, allowing his only run of the night in the process. By the time he walked off the mound at the end of the seventh, Halladay had retired 18 of 20 batters. In the first two innings, he went to three balls on three batters. In the final five innings, he went to three balls on one.

The ability to battle through the first couple of innings enabled the Phillies to enter the bottom of the third with a 1-0 deficit. By the time that frame was over, they had a 5-1 lead, thanks to some opportunistic baserunning by Juan Pierre and a made-for-TV moment that saw rookie Freddy Galvis hit a two-run double as an entire stadium chanted his name.

The amazing thing about Halladay is that he has bad nights - you just don't notice them. Major league baseball is filled with pitchers who have the stuff to be great for one night. The thing that eludes them is the ability to be great every night.

"Sometimes it takes him awhile to gain control of his command," Manuel said, "but he'll keep working at it. Usually, he's going to keep you in the game. I haven't seen too many get away from him."

When all is said and done, the one run and five hits that Halladay allowed over seven innings won't make his Hall of Fame plaque. But nights like those are the reason he will belong.