Duke outduels Halladay as Pirates topple Phillies

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA

On a chilly night in Philadelphia, the Pittsburgh Pirates took down the National League’s best team and the one of the game’s best pitchers.

Zach Duke outdueled Roy Halladay with six strong innings, and the Pirates bullpen held on for a 2-1 win over the Phillies on Tuesday night.

A night after the Pirates gave up 12 runs to the National League’s most potent offense, Duke (3-4) limited Philadelphia to one run in six innings. Evan Meek, Joel Hanrahan and Octavio Dotel retired nine of the final 10 batters. Dotel recorded his eighth save in 10 chances.

“It’s a challenge,” said Duke, who ended Philadelphia’s four-game winning streak. “It makes you focus that much more and take every precaution. The margin for errors is very small.”

Almost miniscule against Halladay (6-2), who leads the major leagues in innings pitched. He gave up nine hits in his fourth complete game of the season. He walked one and struck out six.

The Phillies entered the game with the NL’s best record (24-13) and had won 10 of their past 12, but struggled to solve Duke, who won for the first time since April 10. Despite a 5.56 ERA, the lefty kept Philadelphia guessing.

“We never really had any momentum,” Shane Victorino said. “He pitched well.”

Pittsburgh scored in the second on back-to-back, two-out doubles by Ryan Doumit and Andy LaRoche, who entered the game in a 3-for-34 slump.