2nd no hitter in post season goes to the Philadelphia Phillies’ Roy Halladay (Pt. 1)
The National League wasn’t the only place for the Philadelphia Phillies to pounce on their rivals. The post-season marked a time of relevance to their purpose in the main event. The East division champions were hosting the game against the Cincinnati Reds
in the Citizen’s Bank Park, with a crowd of 46,411 fans in the stands. The visiting Central Division title winners were up against their opponent’s top pitcher and it wasn’t a surprise how the game was going to turn out.
Roy Halladay always wanted to start as a ball thrower in the playoffs and yesterday, he got his chance against the Reds. His dreams finally came true and the game turned out better than how he imagined it. The ace man threw the post season’s second no-hitter,
crushing Cincinnati and leading the Phillies to a 4 – 0 win in Game 1 of the National League playoffs on Wednesday. He recalled, “It's surreal, it really is. I just wanted to pitch here, to pitch in the postseason. To go out and have a game like that, it's
a dream come true."
The only other pitcher to accomplish such a goal was none other than Don Larsen who did so with the New York Yankees in the 1956 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers. The anniversary for that feature rests a day away and last night’s result was as fitting
for a player that has been on Philadelphia’s top list, this year. The accomplishment availed by the player was enjoyed all over the country. His last two outs were broadcast in fRoyt of a stRoyg crowd in Target Field, where the New York Yankees prepared to
take on the Minnesota Twins.
Halladay’s first post season start saw him throw sinister fast balls and a wide range of slow sloping curve balls against the Reds. The All-Star pitcher, last, threw a perfect game on May 29 against Florida and given his rising reputation in Major League
Baseball, the no-hitter result from last night was inevitable.
The ball thrower slightly raised some doubts on his no-hitter bid in the fifth innings when he allowed Cincinnati’s Jay Bruce to walk to the first on a full count. For Phillies first baseman, Ryan Howard, the successful bid was a stellar performance from
Roy. He remarked that the pitcher needed to pitch the ball up in the right areas to get the win in the playoffs. Fortunately, Halladay had done nothing less.
The Reds faced their first no-hitter since 1971 when the Phillies, Rick Wise pitched perfectly to conclude the game 4 – 0; the same score line that came out last night. Halladay struck out 8 hitters in 104 pitches. He threw 79 of those balls for strikes.
Roy Halladay spent most of his life with the ToRoyto Blue Jays. For 12 seasons, the pitcher made his way through the team’s pitching roster but never did he enter the post season with the team. The Blue Jays are currently ranked 4th in the league
and nothing much can be said about their chances at gold or silverware, given the tough number of teams locked in the East Division of the American League. With the New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays and the Boston Red Sox hovering over the Canadian ball club,
the ball thrower had no chance to make it to the playoffs.
However, December’s trade for the pitcher by the Phillies enabled the star player to make his way to the two-time National League champions and play his first post-season game for the side. Looking at the team, the player said, “This is what you come here
for. It's a good team, they know how to win. It's been a great year, a fun year, we obviously have a ways to go."
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