PHILADELPHIA — Mike Pelfrey can barely find his way out of the fifth inning for the Mets and Johan Santana is still in Port St. Lucie, attempting to comeback from shoulder surgery and regain his form.
And then there’s the Phillies Roy Halladay, who just keeps rolling along.
The Phillies’ ace shut down the Mets again yesterday, throwing a complete game in a 2-1 win at Citizens Bank Park. Halladay now is 7-0 with a 2.29 ERA in his last seven starts against the Mets.
“I’m not sure there are too many other pitchers who you’d rather compete behind,” Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard said. “You know he expects to go nine [innings] and I don’t know how many other guys you can say that about.”
Halladay was in vintage form.
Despite not feeling sharp in the bullpen before the game, he threw 18 strikes before missing the strike zone. He didn’t walk a batter until the ninth inning. Of his 107 pitches, 80 of them were strikes.
Halladay improved to 4-1 with a 2.14 ERA, one start after he threw a whopping 130 pitches in 82⁄3 innings in a win over the Padres. At this point, however, it seems almost pointless to discuss how many pitches he throws, because it seems to have no impact on his performance.
“I never heard of a pitch count until I got into minor league baseball,” Halladay said. “I never heard about how many pitches Nolan [Ryan] had in the seventh inning.”
Of course, you have to be able to be good enough to last that long, and no Met this season has been able to pitch a complete game.
Pelfrey, who the Mets had hoped would emerge as a No. 1 pitcher this year in Santana’s absence, hasn’t lasted more than seven innings in any of his starts. Halladay had to go back to the minors early on before he righted his career.
“I was a lot farther away than I think he is,” Halladay said. “I had a little bit of success. . . . I just had a bad stretch and couldn’t get out of it.”
So how does a pitcher who has done well and has fallen on hard times turn things around?
“It’s tough,” Halladay said. “It’s just learning how to leave stuff at the field and on a five-day basis starting from scratch.”
That hasn’t been Pelfrey’s strong point and the Mets are left waiting for him to figure it out, like Halladay did.
“It’s just fun to be a part of,” Howard said of playing behind Halladay. “It’s fun to watch him work.”
Not for the Mets.
dan.martin@nypost.com