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Pitcher Roy Halladay adjusts his ballcap in Thursday's 4-1 Blue Jays setback.
Toronto Blue Jays fans witnessed a rarity on Thursday night: Roy Halladay going the distance — and losing.
Halladay scattered 11 hits over nine solid innings, but the Blue Jays failed to muster much offensive support and lost 4-1 to the Texas Rangers at the Rogers Centre.
"We're getting some hits," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "But we cannot string anything together and push many runs across the plate."
Halladay (2-1) struck out six batters and walked one in pitching his second complete game in four starts.
He was 9-0 over his last 10 starts at the Rogers Centre, tying the franchise record set by Roger Clemens in 1998.
"You're not going to win every game, we know that," Halladay said. "But as the season goes on, we have got to start pushing series like this.
"I felt like the effort was there. But as a whole, we did not get everything done as we would have liked."
David Murphy hit three doubles and drove in a run for the Rangers (7-9), who took Wednesday's opener 7-5 in 14 innings to halt a five-game losing skid.
Gerald Laird had two runs batted in, Frank Catalanotto had an RBI, and Ian Kinsler whacked three hits and scored twice.
"A couple of mistakes, a couple of balls that found the right spots," Halladay said. "That is a tough combination in a close game."
Texas starter Vicente Padilla pitched seven innings for the win.
Padilla (2-1) permitted one run on seven hits and three walks with two strikeouts.
C.J. Wilson recorded the final three outs for his fifth save of the season.
"Padilla can be tough," Gibbons said. "He knows what he is doing, and those guys who got a good feel and can pick the plate apart have been the guys who have been giving us trouble all year."
Eckstein delivers for Blue Jays
David Eckstein had the lone RBI for the Blue Jays (8-8), winners in four of their previous six games, including a three-game sweep at Texas.
"Everyone says it is only April," Blue Jays first baseman Lyle Overbay said. "But those games are going to be just as important as the ones in September.
"We have had good at-bats. But there are other ones [games] where we have not and we have to get rid of those."
Texas took a 1-0 lead as Milton Bradley led off the second inning with a single and scored on Murphy's RBI double.
In the third, Kinsler stroked a one-out single, stole second base and scored on Catalanotto's RBI single.
It remained 2-0 until the seventh, when Murphy doubled and scored on Laird's broken bat single.
Toronto trimmed the deficit to 3-1 in the bottom of the inning as Eckstein singled home Gregg Zaun, who had doubled.
But in the ninth, Murphy cranked his third double and scored on Laird's RBI single to complete the scoring.
