Roy Halladay hurled a two-hit shutout as Toronto blanked the listless New York Yankees, 5-0, in the opener of a three- game set at Rogers Centre.

New York was only able to muster an Alex Rodriguez single in the fourth inning and a Derek Jeter double in the ninth off the veteran right-hander, who threw his seventh complete game of the season and his second shutout.

Halladay (11-6), who walked just one in the game and struck out eight, has won eight of nine decisions since a May 9 loss at Cleveland dropped him to 3-5 on the year.

It was the fourth career two-hitter by Halladay, who last turned the trick in May of 2005 against Minnesota.

“I felt good,” Halladay said. “It’s always a challenge to pitch against that team. There is a lot of challenges in that lineup and I had a lot of fun.”

Matt Stairs had a two-run home run for the Blue Jays, who have won four straight games. Rod Barajas added a solo shot and Lyle Overbay was 3-for-4 and drove in a run.

Joba Chamberlain (2-3) allowed three runs on seven hits in 6 2/3 innings en route to the loss for the Yankees, who have dropped two straight after winning the previous four. The flame-thrower did not walk a batter and tied a career- high by fanning nine in the game.

The Blue Jays jumped on top with a pair of runs thanks to some sloppy New York defense in the third. Adam Lind led off the frame with a single up the middle and quickly advanced to second when Jorge Posada was charged with a passed ball, his second of the game. Posada exacerbated his mistake with an embarrassing throwing error on Joe Inglett’s sacrifice attempt. The miscue put runners on the corners and, after David Eckstein fanned, Overbay slapped an RBI single up the middle.

Further damage should have been averted by New York since Melky Cabrera had Inglett dead to rights at third with a strong throw on Overbay’s hit. But, Rodriguez was slow to get the tag down, enabling the Blue Jays right fielder to slide in safely. Stairs then capped the frame with an RBI grounder.

The Jays added a run in the sixth when Barajas turned on a Chamberlain fastball and drove it over the wall in left for a two-out solo homer, his eighth of the year.

The Blue Jays tacked on a pair of insurance runs off Billy Traber in the eighth. Overbay blooped a one-out double in front of Brett Gardner in left before Stairs crushed his ninth homer of the year over the fence in right to make it a 5-0 game.

The Yankees never seriously threatened against Halladay and hit just five balls out of the infield in the game. New York’s best scoring opportunity actually came in the first inning. Halladay plunked Gardner to start the game and the speedy outfielder quickly swiped second. But, Jeter grounded out before Halladay punched out Bobby Abreu and Rodriguez to end the threat.

New York didn’t get another runner in scoring position until Jeter sliced a one-out double to right in the ninth. Halladay settled down to fan Abreu before inducing Rodriguez to end the game by lining out to first.

 

Game Notes

The only no-hitter in Blue Jays history took place on September 2, 1990 when Dave Steib shut down the Cleveland Indians…The Jays have had 17 one-hitters in their history, including one by Halladay in his second major league start against Detroit in 1998. In that game, the Tigers’ Bobby Higginson hit a two- out home run in the ninth to spoil Halladay’s no-hit bid…The Yankees signed veteran pitcher Eric Milton, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery. Milton was assigned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre and placed on the DL…Blue Jays outfielder Alex Rios missed the game to be with his girlfriend, who is having a baby.

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