Time to rest the doctor?

As Roy Halladay was racking up win after win there was little talk of a tired arm. The Phillies ace was a machine, logging tons of innings and often talking his manager into keeping him in games so he could finish what he started.

Not anymore.

Halladay (6-3, 2.22 ERA) was yanked after allowing six earned runs yesterday in 5 2/3 innings against the Red Sox. He gave up eight hits and threw 99 pitches.

“I felt good,” Halladay said. “I felt like a couple things didn’t really go the way I wanted to early.”

Charlie Manuel didn’t want to hear any talk that Halladay might be wearing down due to a supersized workload.

“Not a damn thing,” Manuel said, when asked if throwing a combined 253 pitches in his last two starts (prior to yesterday) had been a factor.

Manuel said that Halladay’s sinker was really good against the Red Sox, and reminded everyone that he was one groundball out away from escaping jams in both the fourth and sixth innings.

“His game was better than what it indicated,” Manuel said. “I felt like his stuff was good. He can pitch better. At the same time, his stuff was good.”

Even so, it’s hard not to blame fatigue when you look at the numbers. Halladay hasn’t recorded a win since May 6. During that stretch, he’s surrendered 10 earned runs on 27 hits.

“You heard it right from the horse’s mouth: It didn’t affect me,” Halladay said, referring to the heavy pitch counts. “I just didn’t make pitches, that’s the bottom line. It has nothing to do with anything before [yesterday].”