San Jose Mercury News
A slumping lineup against the hottest pitcher in baseball turned out to be quite a mismatch Monday night, just not the one you would expect.
Roy Halladay was no match for the suddenly hard-hitting Giants.
San Francisco handed Halladay his first loss of the season, tagging the Phillies ace with 10 hits in a 5-1 victory at AT&T Park. Halladay, Philadelphia's prized offseason acquisition, had not lost as a National League pitcher and entered the night with a minuscule 0.82 ERA.
The Giants, on the other hand, had scored 11 runs over their previous seven games, five of them losses. All of that went out the window in the first inning, when the Giants jumped on Halladay (4-1) with three loud singles and two runs.
It was all the support Jonathan Sanchez (2-1) would need.
The left-hander struggled with his command, walking five, but sprinkled six strikeouts throughout five innings to get out of several jams.
Halladay had not given up more than two runs in a game since September, but Mark DeRosa got to him early with a two-run single that energized a lineup that had gone 5 for 54 with runners in scoring position over the previous seven games.
"We've been missing that, and it seemed like it loosened the guys up and sent some confidence through the lineup," said Giants manager Bruce Bochy, who called DeRosa's at-bat one of the best of the season.
Sanchez matched Halladay, but not in the way he had hoped. Philadelphia put runners in scoring position in the first, third and fifth innings, but Sanchez escaped major damage and allowed just one earned run. "He really didn't have his best stuff. That's the first time all year he didn't have all three pitches working," catcher Eli Whiteside said. "They had their opportunities, but he battled. He kept us in it." An early season scapegoat for fans dreaming of the Buster Posey era, Whiteside continues to thrive in his role as Sanchez's primary catcher. He added a run in the seventh when he golfed a Halladay offering off the left-field foul pole, and he has five extra-base hits and five RBIs while catching Sanchez's past three starts. With Whiteside behind the plate this season, Sanchez has given up just seven hits and two earned runs in 20 innings. Sanchez got plenty of help from his defense too, particularly center fielder Andres Torres, who fought the swirling wind to rob Ryan Howard of extra bases with two runners on in the first. Howard, who signed a $125 million contract extension earlier in the day, went 0 for 3 and struck out in the fifth inning with runners on second and third. "He got all that money, so I thought he's got to be happy out there and he'll be ready to swing the bat," Sanchez said. Sanchez's early fortitude with runners on base was all the more important once Halladay finally got in a groove. After John Bowker and Whiteside made it 3-0 with back-to-back doubles in the second, Halladay retired 10 straight, showing why he is considered the leading threat to Tim Lincecum's bid for a Cy Young Award three-peat. Pablo Sandoval broke through in the sixth, smoking a double down the line in right and scoring a pitch later when Aubrey Huff broke a 0-for-13 slump with an RBI single. Facing Halladay for the first time, Sandoval had two hits to raise his average to .365. Relievers Guillermo Mota, Jeremy Affeldt and Sergio Romo combined to give up one hit and strike out five over four shutout innings, moving the Giants (11-8) into a tie for first in the National League West with the San Diego Padres.
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