"How hot was it Monday afternoon at Nationals Park?

Well, the game time temperature just after 1 p.m. was 92 degrees, and the humidity was oppressive.

By the middle of the game, it was 95 with a heat index of 99, according the Washington Nationals media relations staff.

Roy Halladay had no trouble believing that. In the top of the fifth inning he retreated to clubhouse where he hurriedly changed his entire sweat-soaked uniform right down to the socks.

"Good thing we had a pretty long half-inning," the Phillies ace said. "Everything was soaked."

As tempting as it was to stay in the air-conditioned clubhouse, Halladay, wearing a new uniform, made it out in time for the bottom of the fifth inning. He was still in the game when teammates Ryan Howard and Raul Ibanez drove in the tying and go-ahead runs in the top of the seventh, and he came up huge in the field and on the mound in the bottom of that inning.

When it was time to go to the clubhouse for good, the Phillies had a 5-4 victory and Halladay had his seventh, and possibly most arduous, win of the season.

"It was a grind," the parched pitcher admitted afterward.

The 34-year-old righthander chugged water, Gatorade and Pedialyte between innings as he battled to stay hydrated. He may have done his best work in the bottom of the seventh. Pitching with a one-run lead, he knocked down a hard-hit comebacker from Rick Ankiel and helped cut down the potential tying run at the plate. He then got the final two outs of the inning with two men on base. For his final out, he pumped a high fastball by Jayson Werth. The strikeout came on Halladay's 111th pitch and it elicited a huge roar from the pro-Phillies crowd. In a rare show of emotion, Halladay punched his glove after the strikeout and walked from the mound, in search of some air conditioning."