After shaky minor-league outing, Roy Halladay adjusts to new reality

This happened 81 times Saturday while Blue Jays minor-leaguers smashed Halladay's sinkers and cutters. The first digit of the velocity reading was nine just once or twice.

Afterward, Halladay spoke of "evolving with his body" and attacking hitters with a different approach. In this new reality, Halladay must reinvent himself, and one of the greatest pitchers of his generation is no longer hiding from it.

"It's not a boxing match," Halladay said. "It's not strength vs. strength. It's a chess match. It's competition of the mind and execution and being smarter and being more prepared."

Halladay said he felt strong. He wanted to pitch more. He expects to make one more spring-training start and take the ball April 3 in Atlanta.

This was a long way from the perfect game, postseason no-hitter, and countless moments that made Halladay one of the most revered figures in all of baseball. He blamed the three runs, seven hits, two walks, and one hit batter in four innings Saturday on a desire to throw more sinkers and cutters than usual. Those are the pitches he threw a combined 60 percent of the time in 2012, and they will decide his fate.

When asked to evaluate Halladay's performance, Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said he would not discuss it. He then added, "He was OK. He got his work in."

The Toronto farmhands were hardly fooled. They swung and missed a mere three times at 81 pitches. When they made contact it was solid - three of the seven hits were doubles. Halladay faced 18 batters and retired seven of them.

"Going in with the plan that we had, trying to go hard as much as we could against a minor-league team, probably isn't the best plan," Halladay said. "But that's kind of what we needed to do. It's going to be something that's going to be important for me during the season - to be able to go hard in soft counts."

With decreased velocity and altered mechanics, Halladay has struggled to unlock an effective cutter, his most frequently used pitch. He tinkered with the grip Saturday and said he found a solution later in the outing.

Whatever the case, Halladay must now outsmart the opposition. His pristine command is wavering. His fastball is slower. He talked of throwing hard stuff when hitters typically expect an off-speed pitch and vice versa.

Halladay thinks he can add a few clicks to his fastball's velocity. He was between 86 and 89 m.p.h. according to one scout's gun. But pitching to that speed, Halladay said, is "probably something I'll have to do more."

"The velocity for not having pitched was good," Dubee said. "He sat 88 to 90 consistently and finished the game at 89 almost 80 pitches into it. So arm-strength wise, that was good, and he feels like there is more there."

This was no ordinary minor-league appearance. Eight Phillies officials, including team president David Montgomery and Amaro, watched from a building above. Twenty-one Phillies minor-league pitchers gathered behind the backstop. Halladay took the field to a smattering of applause from the small crowd.

Halladay had thrown a total of 25 pitches in the previous 10 days. A stomach virus robbed him of 10 pounds, strength, and a normal routine. On Saturday, he did not look comfortable, but Halladay later disputed that notion.

"I didn't feel like I was laboring at all," Halladay said. "So that was good."

Extra bases

For the first time this spring, Manuel played Freddy Galvis in right field, a likely sign that the Phillies are trying to figure out how to keep infielder Yuniesky Betancourt, who hit a three-run home run in Saturday's 13-4 Phillies win over Baltimore. Galvis handled the only fly ball hit his way. . . . The Phillies homered five times. Chase Utley hit two of them. Domonic Brown's home run was his seventh of the spring and Ryan Howard's was his sixth. . . . Aaron Cook continued to make his case for a spot on the pitching staff. Cook, on a day the wind was howling to left field, retired the first six batters he faced and allowed just two runs on four hits in 42/3 innings.

Contact Matt Gelb at mgelb@phillynews.com. Follow @magelb on Twitter.