Roy Halladay

NEW YORK - The Phillies on Tuesday placed star righthander Roy Halladay on the disabled list retroactive to Monday with a strained muscle in his right shoulder and back. The injury could keep him out of the lineup for up to two months. Halladay strained his latissimus dorsi, the team said. That muscle is defined by the Oxford Dictionary of Sports Science and Medicine as the broad back muscle that swings the arm backward and rotates it inward. Phillies assistant general manager Scott Proefrock said that Halladay will be shut down a minimum of three weeks and that the team hopes to have him back pitching in six to eight weeks.

Bruce Springsteen blared on the sound system at the end of the sixth inning Monday night at Citizens Bank Park. I had a friend who was a big baseball player . . . He could throw that speedball by you, make you look like a fool, boy . . . Glory days, well, they'll pass you by . . . Roy Halladay wasn't around to hear it. His latest ominous outing had ended after three consecutive batters reached base in the top of the fifth inning....

CLEARWATER, Fla. - The only eyes watching Roy Halladay on Wednesday morning belonged to a half-dozen coaches, Ruben Amaro Jr., Dallas Green, and a reporter or two. It was 8:30 a.m. when Halladay took a ball and completed his final shrouded acts of 2013. The 35-year-old pitcher fired a strike. "Atta boy, Doc," one of the coaches said. He threw for about 10 minutes on a side mound and wiped his red face with an equally red towel. Four hours later, Halladay sat in a cafeteria and disclosed that he suffered lower-back pain last spring that damaged his mechanics and, ultimately, his shoulder.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - The T-shirts and jerseys that engulfed the ballpark on a St. Patrick's Day Sunday afternoon were greener than the freshly cut grass at Bright House Field. But when Roy Halladay didn't return to his perch on the mound in the middle of the field for the second inning of the Phillies' game against the Baltimore Orioles, those green tops might as well have turned into blinking red lights. Panic. Halladay, whose right arm is the biggest key to the Phillies' rebounding from a .500 season to return the postseason, has had a bit of a bad week.

Roy Halladay did not watch his 89-m.p.h. fastball fly Saturday when everything crumbled. An 8-2 Phillies loss to Atlanta was five batters old at crestfallen Citizens Bank Park. The silence was interrupted when that fastball, now a three-run Braves homer, smacked a large advertisement in right field. Bang. Only then did Halladay turn his head. It was difficult not to stare. Halladay threw 51 pitches, recorded five outs, and was charged with seven runs. Those images were later replaced by a somber Halladay verbalizing failure inside the Phillies clubhouse.

When Roy Halladay was named the winner of the National League Cy Young Award on Tuesday, he was golfing in Mexico with Mike Sweeney, Chris Carpenter, and Chris Young. Yes, even Halladay knows how to take a vacation and find a foursome somewhere. In a few weeks, Halladay will once again beat just about everyone to the Phillies' spring training complex in Clearwater, Fla. (After realizing this could be a problem, they gave the man his own key.) He has already begun an arm-strengthening program.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - The new reality for Roy Halladay started well before 10:59 a.m. Saturday, when he launched an 89 m.p.h. fastball on a back field at the Carpenter Complex. Each time Halladay threw, pitching prospect Jonathan Pettibone clicked the radar-gun trigger. He tilted it so pitching coach Rich Dubee could see the two digits. This happened 81 times Saturday while Blue Jays minor-leaguers smashed Halladay's sinkers and cutters. The first digit of the velocity reading was nine just once or twice.

LAKELAND, Fla. - The Phillies went into spring training hoping they would have a potent combination at the top of the rotation. After Wednesday, they know they at least are leaving Florida with their No. 1 starter still packing a nasty left uppercut that can take apart any team in baseball, with the possible exception of the Dominican Republic all-star team that won the World Baseball Classic. "That lineup was ridiculous," Cole Hamels said after making his final Grapefruit League start Wednesday against another loaded batting order.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Roy Halladay talked for quite some time after his turbulent 2 2/3 innings Tuesday against the Detroit Tigers. He insisted that his lack of velocity and loss of command could all be dismissed as by-products of a tired arm and body. He had a different workout routine this offseason and threw two bullpens between his March 6 start against Washington and his infamous March 12 assignment against the Tigers. He was overcome by lethargy. Manager Charlie Manuel and pitching coach Rich Dubee weighed in, too. In expressing his concern, Manuel also said he still had to keep sending Halladay out there because the pitcher insisted he was healthy.