Halladay first to win 12 as Jays overpower Royals

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The Toronto Blue Jays like their chances with Roy Halladay pitching. When they get Halladay an early lead, they feel even more comfortable.

Elias Says
Halladay Roy Halladay's major-league-leading 12 victories represent the fourth time in the last 10 seasons that a Blue Jays pitcher has been the sole major-league leader in victories at the All-Star break. Halladay had 13 wins by the 2003 break. The two other Jays? For more Elias Says, click here.

Halladay became the majors' first 12-game winner, Aaron Hill had four hits for the second consecutive game and the Blue Jays beat the Kansas City Royals 11-3 Sunday.

"Even scoring three runs in the first, it is a comfortable feeling with him pitching," Vernon Wells said. "It allows him to go out and do what he does. He's fun to watch cause that's pretty much all we're doing in the outfield is watching. I sat out there and played with my glove."

Wells in center and Reed Johnson in left did not record a putout in the game.

Troy Glaus, Eric Hinske and Bengie Molina homered for the Blue Jays, who finished with 16 hits. John McDonald went 3-for-4 and scored two runs.

Halladay (12-2) held the Royals to one run and four hits in seven innings. The All-Star right-hander struck out six, walked one and lowered his ERA to 2.92. He allowed just one run and 10 hits in 14 2/3 innings in wins over Texas and Kansas City in his final two starts before the All-Star break.

"Hopefully we've righted the ship a little bit here after coming in here and not playing well the first couple of days," Halladay said. "At least we salvaged the last two and get out on a good note, which I think is important."

The Blue Jays enter the break in third place in the AL East, behind Boston and New York.The Blue Jays will play their next 10 games at home.

"We're going to have to come back and start playing well real quick," Halladay said. "The last four series of our season is New York, Boston, Detroit and New York. It's going to be important for us to come back and play well right away, so we hopefully can go into those last series having it mean something."

Glaus hit his 23rd homer in the first with Johnson and Hill on base to provide Halladay all the runs he would need.

"He's a No. 1 pitcher for a reason," Glaus said. "When you give him a lead, he knows how to pitch with it. That was vintage Doc."

The Blue Jays collected 31 hits in the final two games after getting just 10 hits in the first two of the series.

"The biggest difference is offensively," Halladay said. "It's a lot easier to go out and pitch, knowing we can score a lot of runs, whether it be early like we did today or later in the game. It's nice being able to go out there and knowing that. It's nice to have those runs early, but you still attack the game the same way."

Hill, who has raised his average 22 points from .275 to .297 with three straight multihit games, had hits in six consecutive at-bats before Emil Brown made a diving catch in right field to rob him of another hit in the eighth inning. Hill went 4-for-5 for the second straight game.

Hill had RBI singles in the fourth and sixth. He also scored in the sixth on Shea Hillenbrand's double.

"Just getting two runs for Halladay is good for him," Hill said. "That guy is our horse. He's a great pitcher and he's going to be a great pitcher for a long time."

The Royals had won 14 of 20 before losing the past two games to Toronto.

"Today was similar to games we lost earlier in the year," Royals manager Buddy Bell said. "We didn't get enough pitching early in the game. It made for a tough situation to comeback, going against a guy like Halladay."

Molina hit a two-run drive off Joe Nelson in the Blue Jays' six-run sixth, his seventh homer of the season. Hinske led off the sixth with his eighth home run off Todd Wellemeyer.

Tony Graffanino singled and scored on Brown's groundout in the fourth. Doug Mientkiewicz and Angel Berroa also had RBI singles for Kansas City.

Left-hander Jimmy Gobble (3-2) was pulled after 3 1/3 innings, the second straight game the Royals starter lasted only 3 1/3 innings. Gobble, who was making his third start, gave up five runs and eight hits. He struck out four and walked two.

"My pitches were elevated a little," Gobble said. "Glaus hit a pitch I was trying to throw. I was trying to get the count back to even and didn't think he's be looking for a ball in. That was my mistake. I looked at the tape and it was a pitch I wanted to make."

Game notes
Royals 2B Mark Grudzielanek, who left the game Saturday with tightness in his lower back, did not play Sunday. ... The Blue Jays went 3-4 on this trip to Texas and Kansas City. ... The Royals have doubled in 31 straight games, the longest streak in the majors this season. ... Rain delayed the start of the game for 15 minutes.