Halladay, Blue Jays humbled by Rays

Roy Halladay isn't often outpitched, but Matt Garza was the better man on the mound Tuesday night.

Garza scattered five hits as the Tampa Bay Rays blanked the Toronto Blue Jays 3-0 before a crowd of 26,791 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

"I was able to find a rhythm early and get a lot of quick outs," he said.

Garza (9-6) struck out five batters and walked one in posting his first major-league shutout.

The right-hander yielded just two hits in 7 2/3 shutout innings in a 6-4 victory over Toronto — and Halladay — on July 19.

"He doesn't surprise me," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "I think he is going to get better."

Eric Hinske, named the American League's rookie of the year with Toronto in 2002, provided the decisive run with a solo home run to centre field off Halladay in the top of the third inning.

Halladay complained that the ball bounced off the wall and back onto the diamond, but television replays confirmed that it hit the top of the wall for a solo home run, Hinske's 15th this season and 100th in the majors.

"That was the fastest home run trot I have seen," Garza said. "I was like 'Man, slow down!'"

"I kept going because the second-base umpire was ruling it safe," Hinske said. "I thought I saw it hit the facade over the fence and [outfielders Alex] Rios and [Brad] Wilkerson just stopped, but I wanted to make sure so I kept running."

Evan Longoria completed the scoring with a two-run triple in the eighth inning.

B.J. Upton walked with out and Carl Crawford singled to left field to bring up Longoria, who delivered both runners with a double off the right-field wall to make it 3-0.  

"They have always had good hitters, they have always made you work," Halladay said. "But usually we got to their pitching."

Tampa Bay has beaten Halladay three times this season, with Longoria driving in eight runs off him in just 11 at-bats.

Halladay (12-8) was charged with three runs on six hits and three walks with six strikeouts over eight innings.

"When you face Halladay, you're not going to beat him up ever, so you have to pitch well," Maddon said.

"I told him [Garza] after the game how hard it is to beat Halladay at home," Hinske said. "We only scored him one run for the first seven innings and he just kept shutting them down and shutting them down."

Rookie reliever Jesse Carlson struck out two in a spotless ninth, and Lyle Overbay singled twice for two of Toronto's five hits.

Adam Lind, whose .388 average in July leads the American League, doubled to right field with two out in the bottom of the eighth to extend his hitting streak to eight games.

Marco Scutaro and Rod Barajas had the remaining hits for the Blue Jays (54-53), who trail the front-running Rays (62-44) by 8½ games in the AL East.

Tampa Bay leads the division by two games over the Boston Red Sox, 6-2 losers to the Los Angeles Angels.