Although the team says it was merely a precautionary measure, Phillies right-hander Roy Halladay was forced to depart his start against the Cardinals on Sunday after just 2.0 innings of work because of shoulder soreness. In those 2.0 frames, Halladay surrendered four runs on four hits and one walk. Joe Savery relieved him. MLB.com's Todd Zolecki tweets that Halladay will be re-evaluated later this week.
Perhaps, though, there's more to this than the Phillies are letting on. As Bob Brookover of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports, Halladay's shoulder injuries predate his last start. "Yeah, it's been an issue," pitching coach Rich Dubee said. "It's been there. It's been lingering. Some days it's better than others. Chicago was better than others. Even the start of the last game it was better and then got cranky. Today, warming up he felt fine, but as he got into the game and sat down and even before the first inning, it was just hard to get it going again."
Given Halladay's diminished velocity and loss of command this season, an underlying injury isn't a surprise. Now the severity must be determined.
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