Yankees pound three homers to beat Phils' Halladay

No, the Yankees weren't ready to declare that they had solved Roy Halladay. Even though evidence exists that they're not nearly as helpless against him as they once were.

For all the talk of Halladay's past dominance of the Yankees - and there has been plenty - a few chinks in the ace's armor have appeared the last two seasons, including last night in the Yankees' 8-3 victory over the Phillies at the Stadium.

The former Blue Jay, who had allowed only three home runs all season, gave up three, to Curtis Granderson, Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira. It was the ninth time Halladay (8-5) has given up three homers in a game, and the Yankees have done it three times against him in the last two seasons.

Halladay, who was 18-6 with a 2.84 ERA against the Yankees coming in, allowed six runs and eight hits in six innings as his ERA climbed to 2.36 from 1.96.

The Yankees (41-23) have won nine straight at home and are 7-1 overall in their last eight.

But even with the Phillies continuing to struggle and the likelihood of seeing Halladay again this season remote, the Yankees were mostly humble.

"He doesn't make a lot of mistakes and if he makes a mistake, you better not miss it, because you may not get another one that at-bat," Joe Girardi said. "Our guys put some good swings on some balls that maybe weren't quite where he wanted them."

Hitting coach Kevin Long said Halladay "wasn't as sharp and as crisp" as he'd seen him, but also credited the Yankees' ability to avoid "chases" - swinging at pitches out of the strike zone. Long said they had only four chases when usually against Halladay, they might have 12 to 20.

"We really were disciplined," Long said. "We really swung at strikes and we didn't miss a whole lot when he made pitches in the middle of the plate."

Swisher's two-run homer in the third, following Granderson's shot to lead off the inning and Robinson Cano's team-high 20th double, made it 5-0.

Brett Gardner's two-run triple in the second put the Yankees up 2-0 against Halladay, who threw a perfect game May 29.

"We didn't swing at balls, we didn't swing at stuff in the dirt, we didn't swing at balls off the plate," Swisher said. "We got him in the middle of the plate."

CC Sabathia (7-3) was, in Girardi's words, "as sharp as we've seen him all season," as he held the Phillies hitless for three innings.

He ran into problems in a 29-pitch fourth, which started when Chase Utley hit a ball up the middle that glanced off Sabathia's pitching hand for an infield hit. Trainer Steve Donohue and Girardi came out to check on Sabathia.

Girardi said it probably affected Sabathia, though the lefty disagreed. He allowed three runs in the inning as the Phillies pulled to within 5-3, but kept the damage there. Sabathia loaded the bases with two outs in the fifth but ended the threat by getting Raul Ibañez, who had an RBI single in the fourth, to ground out.

Teixeira gave the Yankees a 6-3 lead that inning, popping Halladay's 1-and-2 pitch about two rows beyond the 314-foot sign in right for his 10th home run.

Francisco Cervelli made it 8-3 in the seventh with a two-out, two-run single off David Herndon, making the catcher 17-for-37 this season with runners in scoring position.

Sabathia wasn't surprised at the offensive outburst, despite Halladay's resume.

"We have a good offense," Sabathia said. "He's pitched well against us a lot in the past, but guys have been swinging the bat well. Alex [Rodriguez] has been out but Swish has picked up the slack, Curtis hit a big home run. So we have a pretty good team."