PHILADELPHIA -- After one of the worst games of his long career, Roy Halladay admitted Sunday he's been pitching hurt.
The two-time Cy Young Award winner allowed nine runs in only 2 1/3 innings in the Philadelphia Phillies' 14-2 loss to the Miami Marlins on Sunday, then said afterward that he's been experiencing right-shoulder "discomfort" since the morning after his April 24 start against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Halladay said he plans to fly to Los Angeles to see renowned orthopedist Lewis Yocum and hopes to have more answers "in the next few days."
The 35-year-old right-hander said the shoulder issues "started the morning after the game I pitched against Pittsburgh. I woke up, didn't really think anything of it. Kind of regular soreness." But he said that after that, the soreness "just kind of progressed over the last two weeks or so."
In his two starts since then, Halladay has allowed 17 earned runs in only six innings. He gave up eight runs in 3 2/3 innings in Cleveland on Tuesday, then was rocked for nine runs on just four hits Sunday. He walked four of the 17 hitters he faced and hit two others.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, he joined CC Sabathia as the only former Cy Young Award winner to allow eight-plus earned runs in back-to-back starts. And his ERA over the last calendar year (5.76) is the highest of any active pitcher who has thrown as many innings as he has (148.1) in that span.
Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said Halladay didn't inform the team he was hurt until after he left Sunday's game.
"He hasn't been on our injury report. ... Now he is," Amaro said.
After the game, Halladay told the media he would take no questions, but spent the next two and a half minutes explaining his condition.
"It's not something that I had before," he said. "It's something new this year. I felt good all spring, felt good all year. Just got up after that start against Pittsburgh and had soreness in there and just wasn't able to get ready."
After he left the game, Halladay had the shoulder examined by Phillies team physician Michael Ciccotti but said Ciccotti's initial tests didn't provide anything "completely conclusive as to what it is."
Halladay is in the midst of his second consecutive difficult season. He had a 4.49 ERA last season, and spent time on the disabled list with a strained lat muscle. He admitted this spring he also had issues last year with his shoulder and lower back.
He spent the offseason reworking his delivery to take strain off his back and shoulder, but was hit hard all spring and had uncharacteristic problems with command. He then went 0-2 with a 14.73 ERA in his first two starts of the regular season before spinning off three consecutive outings of six or more innings and no more than two runs.
But by the end of the day Sunday, his face was drawn, his eyes were empty, his ERA for the season stood at 8.65 and his future was in doubt.
"As far as going forward, I really don't have much for you," he said. "We'll see how it plays out here in the next couple of days. As soon as I can get in to see [Yocum], we'll get that done and try and get you guys some information as soon as we can."