Halladay Is on a Roll

Roy Halladay made the most of an opportunity to speed up the pace of his winning streak.

Halladay won his 11th consecutive start and Vernon Wells homered for the fourth consecutive game to lead the Toronto Blue Jays to a 4-2 victory over the Montreal Expos on Sunday.

Pitching on three days’ rest for the first time in his 100 career starts, Halladay (11-2) extended his team-record streak and the longest in the majors in six years.

“I felt the same,” said Halladay, who pitched into the ninth inning. “We backed off on some of the work we do in between starts and some of the throwing, I think that might have had something to do with it, but I felt really good. I felt locked in and physically I felt as good as normal.”

He gave up two unearned and four hits, leaving after the first two batters reached in the ninth. Cliff Politte bounced back a night after blowing the lead in an 8-5 loss to get three outs for his 11th save. He allowed a sacrifice fly to Orlando Cabrera.

“They told me before the inning if I got anybody on, or if I threw over 10 pitches, they were going to take me out so I kind of understood,” Halladay said. “You’d like to stay in and get yourself out but I’m glad Cliff did it.”

Halladay, who retired 16 in a row between Cabrera’s RBI double in the first and Jamey Carroll’s two-out triple in the sixth, is the first pitcher to win 11 consecutive starts since Minnesota’s Brad Radke won 12 in a row in 1997.

“He just keeps rolling along,” Blue Jay Manager Carlos Tosca said. “He’s a big strong horse. He’s having a phenomenal year for us and we got a real find in this guy because whatever we ask him to do, he’s able to do it.”

Mike Bordick also homered for Toronto, which has won 10 of 12. The Blue Jays won two of three against their Canadian counterparts, becoming just the second visiting team to win a series in Montreal this season.