Yankees GM Brian Cashman called Sox third baseman Kevin Youkilis his favorite player to watch. (AP)

RANDOLPH, Vermont — One of the most interesting exchanges of the Batting for Vermont roundtable came when the four participants in the panel were asked to identify their favorite players to watch from another team.

For Pirates GM Neal Huntington, it was Albert Pujols – the simple, direct, ferocious approach and the ability to murder a baseball no matter where it is in the strike zone.

Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein identified Phillies ace Roy Halladay, knowing the relentless preparation that goes into each outing, knowing the different ways he can carve up the strike zone, seeing the ability to dominate time after time on the mound.

Red Sox pro scout Galen Carr suggested that for him, it was Yankees captain Derek Jeter, given the “conviction in his actions, an unyielding belief in his abilities to get the job done and to succeed and to lead his team to a victory.”

Yankees GM Brian Cashman likewise looked across his AL East rivalry and identified a player who is perhaps less glamorous than the other three who were mentioned.

“Kevin Youkilis probably. He really grinds out an at-bat and just kills you. He is so determined,” said Cashman. “You can pitch him in. You can hit him. Whatever. He just gets back in there and it’s sheer determination. It’s never a comfortable at-bat when you’re watching this guy try to do damage against your pitchers. He just finds a way to do it. I appreciate watching how he goes about his business and just how tenacious he is. A lot of these guys are very controlled in this sport, unlike football. But he’s got a tenaciousness that just oozes right through his bat, right there at the plate, and it’s pretty special to watch.”

CLEARWATER, Fla. — At first, Jon Lester said pitching against Roy Halladay in a spring training game didn’t mean anything extra special.

Then the Red Sox 2011 Opening Day starter thought about what he and the rest of the 10,912 on hand at Bright House Field watched from the Phillies starter.

“I’m not pitching against him but it is fun to watch him pitch,” said Lester, who actually not only pitched against Halladay but surrendered his first hit of the day to the Phillies ace after Halladay a pitch earlier fouled a ball off his face.

Halladay pitched into the eighth for Philadelphia, throwing nearly 100 pitches over 7 2/3 innings, allowing five hits and one run, walking three and striking out six.

Lester was dominant for five innings but came unraveled in the sixth as the Phillies beat the Red Sox, 4-1, Monday afternoon at Bright House Field in Clearwater. The game was a match-up of aces as Lester opposed Philadelphia’s Halladay.

[Red Sox-Phillies boxscore.]

[Lester speaks about his final extending spring outing of 2011.]

Lester allowed five hits, four runs, three earned over 5 1/3 innings. He walked four and struck out six while throwing 98 pitches, 56 for strikes. Despite allowing six walks over 10 1/3 innings over his last two starts, Lester feels ready for April 1 in Texas.

“I’ve walked plenty of guys before,” said Lester, who will have a final tuneup this Sunday in Sarasota against the Orioles. “It’s not a big deal. Obviously, it’s not something I want to do. It’s something I’m trying to work on but at the same time, it is what it is. I didn’t really get a whole lot of ground balls today. I don’t know what that means as far as the way my stuff played out.

“Sometimes just being stupid, trying to throw the perfect pitch,” Lester added. “I came out of my delivery a couple of times. I don’t know if that’s fatigue or if it’s just me trying to do too much. I had a pretty good five innings as far as efficiency. I don’t know if I just wanted that sixth inning to be over with and in my mind, just put it to the wayside but obviously, not what I wanted.”
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FORT MYERS, Fla. — Daisuke Matsuzaka was effective and efficient on Sunday but his two-out walk with none on in the 6th opened the door for a 10-run sixth as the Cardinals routed the Red Sox, 10-3, Sunday afternoon at City of Palms Park.

[Red Sox-Cardinals boxscore].

Matsuzaka allowed three hits and two earned runs over 5 2/3 innings, walking two and striking out four. He threw 79 pitches, 50 for strikes, in his longest outing of the spring. Matsuzaka, who is now 0-2 with a 6.05 ERA this spring, needed just 64 pitches to get through five innings.

“I thought he had good tempo, threw strikes,” manager Terry Francona said. “That’s two in a row now so he’s starting to get geared up. He probably could’ve gone a hitter or two more. I wanted to see Andrew face a lefty and it kind of fell apart from there.”

[Francona explains why he was happy with Matsuzaka's outing Sunday vs. the Cardinals.]

Matsuzaka was coming off a start last Tuesday in Lakeland against the Tigers in which he allowed just two hits over five shutout innings, walking one and striking out five.

“I thought the last outing he had pretty good life too,” Francona said. “Again, you’re getting to that point in spring training where they’re probably gotten through the dead-arm period and they’re starting to get built up now where we’re getting pretty close to the start of the season.”

After getting two quick outs in the sixth, Matsuzaka walked Albert Pujols and then surrendered a long run-scoring double to right-center by Matt Holliday.

Francona pulled Matsuzaka for lefty reliever Andrew Miller, who struggled badly. The former No. 1 pick of the Tigers in 2006 faced six batters and didn’t retire a batter, allowing four hits and six runs while walking two.

“He walked the first hitter and that’s kind of a reminder when coming out of the bullpen of how important it is to attack the strike zone,” Francona said of Miller. “He had an infield single and a bloop and it kind of fell apart from there.”

Scott Atchison came in and allowed a bases-loaded double to Pujols to make it, 9-0, before Holiday followed with another run-scoring double. The Cardinals had 11 consecutive batters reach in the sixth with two outs.

The Red Sox travel to Clearwater Monday as Jon Lester matches up against Philadelphia ace Roy Halladay.

Be-Lee-ve it or not, ace Cliff Lee has passed up monster deals with both the Yankees and Rangers to return to the Phillies – a team that he helped take to the World Series in 2009 and where his post-season dominance was first truly recognized. The free agent left-hander reached a preliminary agreement on a contract with the Phillies late Monday nigh a deal reportedly worth $120 million over five years, with a sixth-year option for another $27.5 million. The Yankees offered Lee around $150 million for seven years, and the Rangers offered around $120 million for six years.

Here is a look at how the multiple cities involved in the race for Lee are reacting to the decision:

Lee decided to return to the Phillies because he sincerely enjoyed playing there, so much so, that he was willing to pass on an extra few million dollars to do it. Andy Martino of the New York Daily News writes that while this decision “is a nice narrative, even a noble impulse,” it is “fraught with risk and potential disappointment.” Martino points out how the Phillies lineup has changed since Lee was with the team in 2009, as well as the possibility for more shakeups after the first year of his deal is complete. “The Yankees would have given Lee not just more money, but the security of knowing he would not ever be stuck for long on an irrelevant team,” Martino said.

While Philadelphia is ecstatic over a 2011 rotation that will include Roy Halladay, Lee, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt, the club is, at the same time, slightly concerned with payroll issues. Details of how the Phillies will make things work are “sketchy,” writes Paul Hagen of the Philadelphia Daily News, but some scenarios include shopping right-hander Joe Blanton, outfielder Raul Ibanez and right-hander Kyle Kendrick.

General manager Brian Cashman disputed the idea that the Yankees were desperate for Lee, saying they have a “pretty good one-two punch to start the season” behind C.C. Sabathia and Phil Hughes. “It doesn’t mean we’re not going to get someone,” Cashman said, “but it means we’re not desperate.” Tyler Kepner and Michael S. Schmidt of The New York Times attempt to sort through the Yankees prospects and some of the remaining free agents to figure out where the club should to turn its attention to now.

The Yankees really have no plan B for healing their rotation since losing out on Lee, and must now “move forward without having filled the most obvious need for next season,” Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes. Sherman says that while the Yankees might benefit more in the long run from not having another high-paid, aging player such as Lee on their roster, the 2011 season could be a painful one in his absence.

In the Philadelphia Inquirer, Phil Sheridan debates which Philadelphia Lee story is more shocking -the deal that sent Lee to the Mariners last December, or the deal that brought him back to the Phillies in the middle of Monday night.

With the Lee era over in Texas, Tim Cowlishaw of The Dallas Morning News writes that the Rangers will have to look for new and creative ways to upgrade their rotation before the 2011 season begins. One of Cowlishaw’s ideas includes “finding a way to get Matt Garza from the cash-strapped Tampa Bay franchise.”

PHILADELPHIA — Dusty Baker has seen a lot of history in his days as a major league manager.

Baker was on-deck when Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth‘s home run record on April 8, 1974. He watched his San Francisco Giants experience heartbreak in the 2002 World Series when they lost a 5-0 lead in Game 6. And he was in the dugout the next year managing the Chicago Cubs in 2003 when Steve Bartman – not Moises Alou – caught a foul pop near the left field wall at Wrigley Field in Game 6 of the NLCS, just five outs away from Chicago’s first trip to the World Series since 1945.

So he’s certainly seen both sides of history before. That should help as he readies his team for Friday night’s Game 2 in South Philly. What he saw Wednesday in Philadelphia certainly qualifies as Roy Halladay became the second pitcher in MLB postseason history to throw a no-hitter with a 4-0 gem over his Cincinnati Reds.

Get over it? Baker thinks his team certainly can.

“Well, I mean, you have no choice,” he said. “It still counts as a loss, but that was a very dramatic loss. That is the best pitched game I’ve seen since I’ve been going to the playoffs and the World Series. You have no choice but to bounce back. You’ve got to put that one behind us. Figure we got beat by a great performance tonight.

“The thing about it is, you know, I don’t think he threw anything down the heart of the plate, everything was on the corners and moving. I don’t know what his percentage was, but it looked like he threw 90 percent for first pitch strikes. Any time you do that with the stuff he has, then he can go to work on you after that.”

Baker managed his Reds to a 91-71 record and the NL Central Division title. He was rewarded Monday with a two-year contract extension.

Was Baker even thinking of this possibility before the game with Halladay on the mound?

“No, if I was thinking of this scenario, it would be like a nightmare, and I don’t like having nightmares. This is the last thing on my mind. You know, last time I think we hit him pretty good in Cincinnati. He made the proper adjustments. He was working very quickly. No, like I said, you don’t want to get beat, number one, and you hate getting shutout, number two, and even worse, no hits.

“One thing’s for sure, we’re due to get a lot of hits after this game.”

The flip side of the experience coin is Reds outfielder Jay Bruce, whose dramatic homer leading off the ninth inning eight days earlier gave his Reds the division title, feels the Reds can bounce back. But Bruce also admitted something else. The Reds were stunned by what hit them – or more to the point – what they didn’t hit on Wednesday.

“You have to have a short memory,” said Bruce, whose fifth-inning walk was the only thing between Halladay and a perfect game. “None of these guys are going to be easy. It’s the playoffs and we’re all here for a reason. There’s a little shock factor right now I think but I fully expect us to be ready to go the next game.”

Bruce – in only his second full season at the age of 23 – has become a true spokesman for one of the landmark franchises in the sport. And what he said after Wednesday night’s game spoke to why even teammates 10 and 15 years older respect him so much.

“Honestly I don’t think it’s going to be a problem,” Bruce said of the Reds’ psyche. “We’re all grown men here and we can be professional enough to move on and get ready for the next game ahead of us because, and I’m not discounting anything Roy did, at the end of the day, it’s just a loss.”

Roy Halladay became the second pitcher ever to throw a no-hitter in the MLB postseason. (AP)

PHILADELPHIA – Not bad for your first taste of postseason action ever.

After giving his all for 10 seasons with a mediocre Toronto Blue Jays club, Roy Halladay made the most of his major league postseason debut on Wednesday night.

“Just try and win,” Halladay said in just about as much of an understated manner as possible. “It was a lot of fun. It’s just one of those special things I think you’ll always remember. But the best part about it is the playoffs take priority, and that’s pretty neat for me to be able to go out and win a game like that and know there’s more to come for us and more to accomplish. So that makes it a lot of fun.”

The key to Halladay’s success over the year has been his pregame ritual of zoning in on the job at hand. And, in his first postseason start – that didn’t change on Wednesday night.

“It was pretty normal, really,” he said. “I think you try and disconnect yourself, I think, from the emotions a little bit. Knowing that you’ve prepared yourself, you’re ready, and you try to go out and execute your plan.

“I think once the game started, I got out there and I felt like I was able to do that. I wasn’t thinking about all that stuff, first playoffs or any of that. It was go out and try and execute a plan, and that made it a lot easier. But it’s been fun for me. It’s been a challenge that I look forward to. Excited, I guess, is a better word to describe it than nervous. I was excited. It was a lot of fun to look forward to pitching in this game.”

One of the stars of the 2004 postseason for the Red Sox, Orlando Cabrera thought Halladay was getting a generous strike zone all day.

“I thought it was good,” said Halladay, who threw 104 pitches, including 79 strikes. “Any time you’re getting strikes I think it’s good. That’s something that I’ve never tried to concern myself a lot with. There’s going to be pitches you’re going to get, there’s going to be pitches you don’t get. I think if you let that bother you one way or the other, I think it can cause you problems.

I felt like really it was a pretty fair zone. From what I saw in between innings, they were calling the same pitches that I was getting. It’s one of those things that I think there’s always going to be certain cases where people aren’t happy with what’s called, but that’s part of the game. It’s always been part of the game.

The very, very good Doctor on this night needed just 2 hours, 34 minutes to record the second no-hitter in MLB postseason history and the first since Don Larsen‘s perfect game in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series.

In striking out eight and allowing only a two-out walk to Jay Bruce with the bases loaded in the fifth, Halladay – a trade target of the Red Sox leading up to the 2009 trade deadline – jumped from great to legendary with his 4-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds at Citizens Bank Park.

The Blue Jays dangled Halladay as trade bait both at the 2009 trade deadline and again in the offseason. The Red Sox were among the many teams to express interest in the right-hander, but he ended up going to the Phillies in a three-team megadeal. Philadelphia received Halladay — whom it signed to a three-year, $60 million contract extension that includes a $20 million vesting option for a fourth season — and minor leaguers Phillippe Aumont, Tyson Gillies, Juan Ramirez and cash.

The Phillies gave up Cliff Lee along with minor league prospects Travis D’Arnaud, Kyle Drabek, and Michael Taylor.

On Wednesday night, it is safe to say that the Phillies felt no buyer’s remorse.

Halladay also came up with the game’s biggest hit, a two-out, RBI single in the second to make the score, 2-0. He was certainly taking care of business on Wednesday night.

Halladay needed just 104 pitches (79 strikes) to complete his historic feat. The longtime Blue Jays ace (and 2003 American League Cy Young Award winner) was making his first ever playoff start, after having never pitched in the playoffs during more than a decade in Toronto.

But this is hardly new territory for Halladay. Consider:

- Halladay threw a perfect game earlier this season when he retired all 27 Florida Marlins in South Florida on May 29. Halladay became the first pitcher since Nolan Ryan in 1973 to toss two no-hitters in the same calendar year.

- In Halladay’s second career start – against the Detroit Tigers on Sept. 27, 1998, he came within one out of tossing what would have been the third no-hitter ever pitched on the final day of a regular season.

Tim Wakefield recorded his first win of the 2010 season thanks to eight shutout innings against the Phillies.

When John Lackey got cuffed by the Phillies on Friday night, the weekend outlook for the Red Sox looked dark. With the inconsistent Daisuke Matsuzaka on the hill on Saturday night and rotation fill-in Tim Wakefield getting a start against Phillies ace (and longtime Sox nemesis) Roy Halladay, winning the series seemed like a tall task.

Yet Matsuzaka dazzled on Saturday, going 7 2/3 innings before conceding his first and only hit of the night in a 5-0 victory. And Wakefield enjoyed similarly exceptional results, delivering eight shutout innings of his own in the Red Sox’ 8-3 victory over the Phillies. With the win, the Sox took two of three in the series, and in what appeared to be a brutal stretch against the Yankees, Twins, Phillies and Rays, the Sox are now 5-2, allowing them to improve to three games over .500 (24-21) for the first time all year.

Meanwhile, the Sox roughed up Halladay in his worst start as a member of the Phillies. Kevin Youkilis led the charge, reaching base in all three of his at-bats (triple, homer, walk) against Halladay as the Sox plated seven runs (six earned) against the Phillies ace in his worst start as a member of the Philies. He is now 14-15 in his career against the Sox, making the Sox the only American League team against whom Halladay has a losing record.

WHAT WENT RIGHT FOR THE RED SOX

–Wakefield, in the rotation while Josh Beckett is on the disabled list, proved tremendous against the formidable Phillies lineup. Though he recorded just one strikeout, he permitted Philadelphia little solid contact, allowing just five hits in eight shutout innings of work. In the process, Wakefield finally earned his first victory since last July 8. The game marked the first time since Sept. 12, 2008, that Wakefield had thrown eight shutout innings in a game.

Wakefield is now 4-1 in his career against Halladay, and he continued to excel in his swing role. In his last three starts — spread out over four weeks — he has a 2.08 ERA.

–Youkilis furthered his case as the best hitter in the majors against Halladay. In three at-bats against the perennial Cy Young candidate, he had a homer (his team-leading ninth of the year), a triple (his team-leading second of the season) and a walk (his major league leading 24th of May).

His numbers against Halladay are outrageous: .375/.446/.661/1.107. Against players with at least 30 at-bats against Halladay, Youkilis ranks sixth in average, fourth in OBP, second in slugging and second in OPS.

He is now hitting .397 with a 1.391 OPS and six homers in May.

–Jacoby Ellsbury had a two-run single (his first hit in two games since coming off the disabled list) and also made a diving catch in center field to start the seventh inning. The defensive play, in particular, was promising for the Sox, since it represented a good test of Ellsbury’s ribs.

–Adrian Beltre went 2-for-4 with a sacrifice fly for his fourth multi-hit contest in the last five games. He is hitting .500 (9-for-18) in that span, and is now tied with Youkilis for the team lead in batting average at .325.

WHAT WENT WRONG FOR THE RED SOX

–The slump continued for Dustin Pedroia, who was 0-for-4 to run his hitless streak to 19 at-bats. He is now hitting .103 (4-for-39) in his last 10 games.

–Jeremy Hermida went 0-for-5 and left seven runners on base. He is now hitting .148 (4-for-27) in his last nine games.

–Ramon Ramirez got hammered in the ninth inning, allowing three runs on a pair of doubles and a homer. In fairness, he was pitching for the first time since May 18.