Halladay pitches shutout as Phillies beat Atlanta

ATLANTA - When analyzing sports, the tendency is to compartmentalize, to isolate and then evaluate, to focus on the parts instead of their sum. Some nights, though, there is only the whole, and the Phillies' 2-0 victory over the Braves at Turner Field last night would appear to be one of them.

The energy started on the mound and then extended to the plate and then manifested itself in the field, leaving Roy Halladay with his fourth victory in four games, Jayson Werth with two more important doubles and an entire cast of fielders looking more like the Flying Wallendas dressed in Phillies clothing.

Most notably, it left the Phillies back by themselves in first place in the National League East, their three-game losing streak having vanished into the warm Georgia night.

"It's always good to play behind a guy that gives you a good tempo out there," first baseman Ryan Howard said. "Roy went out there and pitched and we tried to make plays."

Both parties succeeded - Halladay pitching like a human metronome and his teammates inhaling most balls that escaped the batter's box. The veteran righthander won for the fourth time in four starts as a Phillie, allowing five hits and one walk and striking out seven in his first shutout since . . . well, since the two he tossed in his last two starts of 2009. He retired the first 11 batters he faced, threw 71 of his 113 pitches for strikes, and pretty much looked exactly like the man who took the mound in his first three starts of the year.

"So far, he's been everything he's been built up to be," manager Charlie Manuel said of Halladay, who improved to 4-0 and lowered his ERA to 0.82. "He's pretty good."

While the Phillies still need to figure out the other four-fifths of their schedule - no other starter has recorded a victory in the last seven games - if they go 34-0 in Halladay's starts, they will need to post just a .438 winning percentage in their other 128 games to win 90. For comparison's sake, the Diamondbacks and Mets finished last season with a .432 winning percentage.

Granted, banking on such a scenario probably isn't the safest of strategies. But if Howard and Chase Utley and Shane Victorino back Halladay the way they did last night, the Phillies might find themselves with a once-every-5-days monopoly on scoring.

In the second inning, Victorino stole extra bases, and probably a home run, from Troy Glaus, chasing down his long fly ball and leaping at the wall in centerfield to grab the ball as it was about to sail over the yellow line.

A few minutes earlier, Werth led off the top of the second with his eighth double in 14 games, setting up a run-scoring double by Raul Ibanez that gave him his first RBI in five games and first extra-base hit in seven.

Werth would add another run in the sixth with an RBI double that drove home Howard, who had reached base by check-swinging a ball that bounced harmlessly through the backdoor of the shift. But one run is all they would need.

In the fifth inning, shortstop Juan Castro chased down a grounder up the middle by Jason Heyward and made a tough throw to first, where Howard nearly split his pants stretching for and snapping up the one-hopper.

"I thought you guys were going to come out there and pick me up," the gargantuan first baseman said.

Perhaps the most crucial play came in the seventh, when Halladay allowed back-to-back singles to Chipper Jones and Brian McCann and then issued a one-out walk to Heyward to load the bases.

Yunel Escobar sent a soft grounder bounding up the middle, but Utley dived to his right to field it and flipped to Castro at second; the shortstop then relayed to first for the inning-ending doubleplay.

In the ninth, Howard capped it off with a diving stop of a chopper off the bat of Jones, then flipped to Halladay covering.

"That doubleplay was huge, and Ryan made a great play in the ninth," Halladay said. "Keeping guys off base with that part of the lineup up is huge. There were a lot of great plays. I got a lot of good help."

Third baseman Placido Polanco left the game in the seventh inning with a bruised elbow, thanks to a pitch from Tim Hudson that he took on the left arm in the first inning. Polanco likely will be out of the lineup tonight, but isn't expected to miss much time . . . Lefthander J.A. Happ is scheduled to test his sore elbow in a bullpen session today, although pitching coach Rich Dubee would not say how many pitches Happ is expected to throw . . . Righthander Brad Lidge (elbow, knee) is scheduled to pitch one inning tonight for Triple A Lehigh Valley . . . Shortstop Jimmy Rollins (calf) took some swings in batting practice prior to the start of last night's game . . . Righthander Joe Blanton, who threw 13 pitches in two scoreless innings for Class A Lakewood Tuesday, will make his next rehab appearance tomorrow for Double A Reading.

For more Phillies coverage and opinion, read David Murphy's blog, High Cheese, at http://go.philly.com/highcheese.