Wells Leads Jays To Win Over Mets
Posted June 24, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The New York Mets have plenty high-priced star power. What they don’t have however, are Vernon Wells and Roy Halladay.
And those two were all the Toronto Blue Jays needed Saturday, as the Wells slugged two home runs and Halladay returned to form in a 7-4 win over the visiting National League club.
Wells hit a three-run jack in the second inning and went yard again in the seventh, bringing a Rogers Centre crowd of 31,327 to its feet on both occasions.
Meanwhile, after losing for the first time in 11 games his last start, Halladay (9-2) looked like his usual dominant self, allowing four runs on ten hits over 7 1-3 innings.
The Mets couldn’t get to the former Cy Young Award winner, but threatened late against Toronto’s bullpen. Justin Speier held strong however, getting Jose Valentin to pop out and striking out Xavier Nady with the bases loaded in the eighth.
From there it was a smooth finish as closer B.J. Ryan worked the ninth for his 21 st save.
In his second game back in Toronto since leaving the Jays, former slugger Carlos Delgado did do some damage at the plate, slapping three hits. Still, he couldn’t stop the Mets from losing for the first time in 10 games on the road.
As for Halladay’s counterpart, Orlando Hernandez (4-7) didn’t do so well, allowing six runs on four hits in just 1 2-3 innings. He was taken out in favour of reliever Darren Oliver after hitting two batters and going high and inside on Troy Glaus. Glaus took a step towards Hernandez and had words, resulting in a warning for both dugouts from home plate umpire C.B. Bucknor.
But other than Wells’ second blast there were no further fireworks, save a gasp from the crowd that came when outfielder Alex Rios broke a bat over his knee in frustration following an eighth inning strikeout.
The Jays will now look ahead to Sunday where they’ll try and secure yet another series win. To do that however, they’ll need a strong start from Josh Towers (1-8) who they’ll send to the mound in the finale against former Blue Jay Steve Trachsel (5-4).
