Halladay hits his mark early

David Ortiz had to know it was coming.

Roy Halladay drilled the Boston Red Sox’ designated hitter with the first pitch of the second inning Wednesday night in Fenway Park. Just the way he was supposed to.

Earlier Wednesday, in the leadoff post of Pros and Cons, it said here that Halladay was due to return the favour of Tuesday night, when Jonathan Papelbon hit Adam Lind on the elbow with a no-doubts fastball in the ninth inning after Lind had smacked three home runs to power the Jays’ eventual 8-7 win. (Lind missed Wednesday night’s game with elbow soreness, which is easily understandable.)

Circumstances prevented the Jays from retaliating right away. You don’t hit batters on purpose with a one-run lead. So it was up to Halladay, one day later, to stand up for his team and his teammates and, once again, he didn’t let them down. It might not sound like a big deal, but it surely is appreciated throughout the clubhouse and by manager Cito Gaston.

Ortiz was the only candidate for a bruising, really. Like Lind, he is a designated hitter. He also was pretty much the only regular in the lineup. Manager Terry Francona gave most of the front-liners the evening off, Boston having clinched its post-season berth late Tuesday when Texas lost.

Halladay didn’t throw at Ortiz’s head. He threw at the same height that Papelbon hit Lind – and that’s a pretty good definition of control, too.

The umpires, who didn’t have it in them to react in any way to the first plunking Tuesday, figured it out and warned both teams after Halladay acted. But perhaps there was no need to. The score was as settled as these things tend to be. Besides, knuckleballer Tim Wakefield and his 64-mile-an-hour floater was the opposing starter and nobody tries to hit anybody with a knuckleball.

Will Halladay leave with a plunk?

This may or may not be Roy Halladay's final appearance as a Blue Jay, Wednesday night in Fenway Park. That's a decision that will be up to the next general manager and his boss, the next president, to say nothing of the Rogers money men and Halladay himself. That’s all for sorting out down the road. In the meantime, I will be greatly surprised if Halladay, always a good and loyal soldier, does not let a pitch get away and plunk one of Boston's big hitters tonight.

That’s the old-fashioned way the game is played by Cito Gaston and after Jonathan Papelbon drilled Adam Lind in the ninth inning Tuesday night, running a 94-mile-an-hour fastball in on his elbow after Lind had clubbed three home runs, it seemed inevitable that someone was going down on the other side.

The umpires did nothing, not even issue a warning, but that’s typical; umpires often are intimidated in Fenway Park. (Remember the time Pedro Martinez, during a Yankee-Red Sox brawl, pointed to his head and told Jorge Posada, “You’re next,’’ and not only didn’t get suspended, he didn’t even get ejected.)

Papelbon made the usual excuses about the pitch getting away and how there was no intent and so on. For the record, Lind said he bought the explanation. Off the record, I doubt many Jays did. Because the the score was 8-7 for the Jays, they couldn’t return fire immediately. But someone – and it should be Halladay – will act tonight and surely the Red Sox know this.

That’s the question: Why would the Red Sox go out of their way to drill Lind, figuring one of their guys will get it tonight? What if a brushback pitch gets away and breaks somebody’s hand? The Red Sox, a post-season team, have plenty to lose if somebody gets hurt at this point in a meaningless game. They likely will sit out a couple of stars anyway, having clinched the wild-card spot by virtue of Texas losing Tuesday night to Anaheim. But one or two of the regulars might be up there wondering who is wearing the target.

You recall how it went recently against the Yankees. New York pitchers hit one Blue Jay through the two teams’ first 12 meetings, but in that 12th game, the Jays hit both Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez. That seemed to flip a switch; in the next five games, eight Jays were hit by Yankee pitchers and finally, Jesse Carlson said enough is enough and threw behind Posada, eventually setting off that a fight. Carlson handled that correctly, sending a cease-and-desist message without hurting anyone with a pitch. Let’s see how the Jays, starting with Halladay, deal with this situation tonight.