Halladay

BOSTON –– Roy Halladay doesn’t remember sleeper cars, flannel uniforms or scheduled doubleheaders.

But he sure pitches like he does.

It is not yet May, and Halladay has four complete games. That’s more than some staffs will record for the season and as many as the Red Sox registered in 2007.

Did we mention that Halladay’s four have come in succession?

Unfortunately for the Toronto Blue Jays, three of those — including the one last night — have ended in losses.

Halladay came within a few pitches of forcing last night’s game into extra innings before a ninth-inning two-out walk to David Ortiz, a bloop single to Manny Ramirez and a game-winning line-drive single by Kevin Youkilis accounted for the only run in a 1-0 Sox victory.

“He gives you a chance to win every night he goes out there,” said Toronto manager John Gibbons. “He lays it on the line, man, he bleeds. That’s why he’s the best.”

Certainly, he’s the most durable. Since 2003, Halladay has 30 complete games; the next closest pitcher (Livan Hernandez) has 20. Heck, Halladay has more complete games in that span than 19 franchises.

His string of four straight complete games is the longest for a major-league starter since 2003 when Halladay himself had another run of four complete games in a row.

This is a guy who finishes what he starts.

It’s not something he sets out to do. If every journey begins with a single step, then every Halladay outing begins with an out. Then another, and another, until he arrives in the ninth inning.

It would be nice if, once he gets there, he had some support. Instead, the Jays have scored a total of four runs in his last three starts, all defeats.

“Unfortunately,” said teammate Vernon Wells,” this is one of those years when he isn’t getting anything from us. He’s such a bulldog. He puts so much into every start. You’d like to get something for him.”

Wells wasn’t talking about a gift or a keepsake; he was talking about a win.

The frustration was evident last night. As Halladay watched Wells juggle Youkilis’ single, negating a play at the plate on the slow-moving Ortiz, he unleashed a string of expletives from the middle of the infield.

Later, in a more contemplative mood, he acknowledged that last night’s setback — and circumstances that surrounded it — left him exasperated.

“It’s tough … real tough,” he admitted. “Sometimes you give up a run in the first and it ends up being 1-0. It’s different to have to walk off the field (in a walk-off loss) like that.”

None of which detracts from his artistry. At a time when the complete game has been virtually outlawed by baseball’s obsession with pitch counts, Halladay goes about his work like he has been studying tape of Bob Gibson, circa 1968.

In six starts this season, Halladay has pitched seven innings, eight innings, nine innings, nine innings, eight innings and, last night, eight and two-thirds. Since the last two have come on the road, with his team trailing, he has left exactly two (2) innings for the bullpen this season.

He works quickly, ensuring that his fielders are into the game. Last night, his cut fastball and sinker resulted in 15 groundouts through the first seven innings. At one point, it seemed as though shortstop David Eckstein — whose throwing mechanics are unorthodox to begin with — was going to collapse from overwork. In one particular stretch, Eckstein recorded assists on 10 of 15 outs from the second inning through the seventh.

Halladay habitually throws strikes. He didn’t issue a walk until the one to Ortiz in the ninth and he went to three-ball counts only three times.

Above all else, he’s astonishingly efficient. Through the first eight innings, he threw 12 pitches or fewer in every inning but one. His goal isn’t strikeouts, though he had six last night. Instead, he’s after outs — and the sooner, the better. If he can induce a groundout on the second pitch of the at-bat, he’s more than content. More often than not, he succeeds, as his 2.85-1 groundout-flyout ratio before last night attests.

In his current string of four complete games in a row, Halladay has averaged 111.5 pitches, or the same number that Daisuke Matsuzaka sometimes needs to get through six innings of work.

smcadam@projo.com