Battle of the Aces: Josh Johnson and Roy Halladay - Part 3
The pitching duel between two times Cy Young winner, Roy Halladay and Josh Johnson was something everyone had waited for since the regular season series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Florida Marlins began. There is a chance that in the second
game of the series, it was the pitching duel that was much more anticipated than the match itself.
Halladay is one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball and he has dominated the pitching scene. While Johnson maybe young, he has the potential that no one can deny could make him into something like Halladay. Obviously when two pitchers par excellence
got down to face each other on the mound and things could not have gotten any better for the fans of either team.
Johnson started off the seventh inning with 101 pitches. Jimmy Rollins kicked it off with a bouncer that went towards the right for a base hit. Shane Victorino took three balls and it seemed like Johnson was struggling. Something familiar has happened in
one of his previous starts against the St. Louis Cardinals where he was leading 3-2 into the eighth inning but there he gave up three singles, one after the other and finished off with a loss. Victorino took a hit and the ball flew towards left-field. Polanco
grounded into a 6-4 forced play and by this time Johnson was at 110 pitches. Johnson stayed on the mound and Howard fouled off a 1-1 fastball, as Ryan Howard just kept staring at for strike three.
As for Halladay, he retired Greg Dobbs as he threw a fly ball. Mike Stanton and John Buck were the next two players to be struck-out on grounders by the ace. Since Halladay joined the Phillies, he has made 44 starts and has pitched seven innings in 36 of
those at the very least. This is just another fact that proves the greatness of Halladay.
By the time the eighth inning rolled around Johnson was done which wasn’t very surprising. After him Mike Dunn tossed a 1-2-3 and Omar Infante hit a groundball to Rollins who threw it away for error. Ozzie Martinez hit Dunn and squared around to bunt but
unfortunately for him Halladay threw a fastball his way that glanced off Dane Sardinha’s glove to mark a wild pitch. Halladay later fell behind Coghlan by 2-0 who fouled on the very next pitch.
The ninth inning saw Leo Nunez come in and he managed to get the save. By the end of it all, the Marlins won over the Phillies. Halladay deserved better run support from his team for a match that could have been easily won by the Phillies. Philadelphia left
ten runners on bases and that is something they came to regret by the end of the game.
All in all, it was a thoroughly entertaining match and one hopes to see more of these duels that will go down in the books.
Tags: