Halladay too much for Mets

PHILADELPHIA -- Roy Halladay wasn't perfect Saturday against the Mets. With two outs in the third inning, he actually threw a pitch out of the strike zone.

"I was standing at the plate," said Jose Reyes, who took the four-seam fastball that umpire Lance Barksdale finally called a ball. "Everybody booed."

To say that Halladay has created impossibly high standards among the sellout crowds at Citizens Bank Park would be an understatement. The two-time Cy Young Award winner further spoiled the 45,598 fans by opening the game with 18 consecutive strikes, the first time anyone has done that since Sid Fernandez in 1991.

The Mets knew he was going to throw strikes. Figuring out the break, speed and location of those pitches, however, is the difficult part. That's why the best they could muster was Carlos Beltran's RBI single in the fourth inning in a 2-1 loss to the Phillies that featured Halladay's second complete game of the season.

If not for the amazing Halladay, maybe the Mets could have made a winner of Jonathon Niese, who protected a 1-0 lead until the seventh inning. Then he made one of his few miscues, hanging a 3-and-2 curveball to John Mayberry Jr., who pulled it into the leftfield seats.

"With a guy like [Halladay] on the mound, you've got to minimize your mistakes," Niese said. "He sat back on it, put a good swing on it and squared it up."

Niese began to lose his grip on the game at that point. Wilson Valdez followed with a single, and after a walk to Dane Sardinha, Niese got his first out when Halladay bunted foul for a third strike. That was it for Niese, as manager Terry Collins called on Taylor Buchholz.

"Niese was tremendous," Collins said. "He just ran out of gas, I think."

Buchholz immediately gave up a single to Shane Victorino to load the bases and Placido Polanco followed with a sacrifice fly to give the Phillies a 2-1 lead. Daniel Murphy made a diving stop up the middle to save a run and end the inning, but that was all Halladay needed.

He got a double play to erase Reyes' one-out single in the eighth inning and stranded David Wright after a leadoff walk in the ninth. Halladay allowed seven hits, struck out eight and walked one in improving to 7-0 with a 2.29 ERA against the Mets in seven starts dating to his last loss in 2001.

Halladay has won 12 straight starts against NL East opponents since June 10 of last season. He threw 107 pitches Saturday -- 80 for strikes -- and worked so efficiently that the game took only 2 hours, 25 minutes.

"He really went out there and dominated," Wright said. "Today I don't think we lost that game. They went out and won it. And Halladay was Halladay."

Not that the Mets didn't have some chances. With the Philly crowd anticipating a no-hitter every time Halladay takes the mound, Beltran ended the suspense with a leadoff single in the second. But it wasn't until the fourth that the Mets scored.

Murphy opened with a single and Wright followed with an infield hit, as Polanco gloved his grounder deep behind third base but threw too late to second to get Murphy.

Next up was Beltran, whose earlier single had lifted his career batting average against Halladay to an impressive .333 (13-for-39). Beltran fouled off a first-pitch cutter before smacking a splitter for the RBI single.

"It was a hanging splitter," Beltran said. "It gave me time to recognize it because it was up."

The Mets' three consecutive singles against the Phillies' ace were a bit unnerving for the home crowd, but Halladay wasn't shaken by it. Jason Bay, who has started to cool off, got Wright to third base with a flyout to deep center, but Ike Davis popped up foul and Josh Thole grounded out to kill the rally.

The Mets did have the seven hits off Halladay, which is a pretty good day against him. Said Reyes, "Not that many runs, though."