By FRANK WARD
DailyPhiladelphian.com Editor

The Phillies had to win Sunday night’s game against the Cubs and their prized ace didn’t perform. There’s no other way to say it.

Roy Halladay, the man brought to Philly to be the stopper got tagged for six runs — five earned — in as many innings, including four in the second inning. He struck out an unusually low three batters.

The Phillies, who swept the Reds before the All-Star break, lost the first two games against the Cubs after the break before pulling out a dramatic win on Saturday. the team had to win Sunday to leave the Windy City with a split against a team they should have clobbered.

Unfortunately, Halladay was more Brett Myers than he was Halladay on Sunday. And, the Phillies fell even further back in the division and Wild Card races. With Atlanta and the Mets both winning, the team will slide back into third place in the NL East.

Roy Halladay failed when the Phillies needed a win on Sunday night.

Quite frankly, while Halladay has not received much in the way of run support, outings like Sunday night are far more common than many in Philly ever envisioned when the team swiped him from Toronto. This is the fourth time he’s been roughed up for more than five earned runs this year.

In a game the team needs to get a split from an inferior team far out of any playoff race, you’d expect Halladay to shut the door the way a Curt Schilling was known to do. Is the loss completely his fault? Not when he again gets piss poor run support from his supposed All-Star lineup. However, putting your team in a four run hole two innings into the game doesn’t help.

The only positive we see is that Halladay gets a chance to redeem himself in five days.

Suddenly, however, the Phillies will need Kyle Kendrick to be the stopper against the Cardinals on Monday. Let’s hope he steps up like he did against the Reds last week.