"When it was over, Roy Halladay could finally tell himself the truth.

This was not just another game.

Halladay tried to dismiss it as that a week ago when the subject of his long-awaited return to Toronto came up. Over a year had passed since he was traded from the Blue Jays to the Phillies, enough time, he said, that there wouldn't be any significant emotion when he took the mound in the stadium he called home for more than a decade.

Halladay's return to Toronto came and went in a 5-3 Phillies victory on Saturday and only when the righthander's sixth complete game and 11th win were over could he admit that, yes, this day was different, and yes, it was special.

"I was definitely anxious warming up," Halladay admitted. "Walking onto the field was definitely different."

Halladay called the day "a cool experience for me." He went the distance on eight hits and a tidy 110 pitches. He got a little boost from the offense when Chase Utley erased a one-run deficit with a two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh.

"You definitely want to go as long as you can and do as well as you can, and it meant a lot to me to do it here," Halladay said. "I really felt like [the Blue Jays] battled. They weren't going to roll over and hand it to us. I felt like we had to work for it.""