Battle of the Aces: Josh Johnson and Roy Halladay - Part 2
When two ace pitchers get down on the mound to face off each other, it always equates to a thoroughly entertaining match that would quench any baseball fans thirst for on field rivalry.
That is what the fans got to see when Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies and Josh Johnson of the Florida Marlins pitched against each other. It seemed like there were more people interested in the pitching duel than the match itself.
Like predicted, it was an explosive match. This match marked the third time that the Halladay and Johnson faced off against each other. Halladay is one of the best pitchers around in Major League Baseball and is the reigning two times Cy Young winner. Johnson
on the other hand is someone who has potential to become as great as Halladay with ease.
In the third inning of the match, trouble found Johnson as both Raul Ibanez and Shane Victorino belted out singles and Ben Francisco walked on a 3-2 slider. Pete Orr the swung at the first pitch and the bases were left loaded. As fate would have it, when
Halladay was pitching, it was Johnson that he walked. Ironically this walk was the first walk that Halladay had allowed to a pitcher of the opposing team. A mistake, but it could be forgiven since in total this was Halladay’s eighth walk since the season started.
Chris Coghlan then went on to hit a double towards right centre-field and Johnson succeeded in scoring on Emilio Bonifacio’s fly to the middle of centre-field.
The fourth inning wasn’t anything much as both the pitchers settled down with 1-2-3 innings and Halladay managed to strike-out on the side.
The fifth inning saw Johnson blow a fastball by Placido Polanco and this marked the eighth time he had struck-out all season. Halladay got into form as well as he got two ground balls and struck-out Johnson.
The sixth inning there was one out as Francisco belted out a hit to Coghlan in the centre of the field that bounced off his glove to mark a base hit. The groundout moved Francisco to the second base and Dane Sardinha walked intentionally so that Halladay
could be brought out.
When Halladay came out he got Bonacio, Ramirez and Gaby Sanchez easily. He was flawless and anyone could see why he is known as the ace that he is. The secret to his effectiveness might lie in the fact that he threw fastballs early in the game, relying on
movement and location but he kept everything down in the strike zone. After that he started mixing up his speeds with the progression of the game.
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