Roy Halladay's misery in one of the highest scoring and weirdest games of 2012 season - Part 1
If Roy Halladay knew before the game as to what lies ahead, he will budge the World from its bases to make sure that it will not happen. Pity, that nature operates in mystery ways and so Halladay stepped on the mound, thinking of the day as if just another
addition to his time in Baseball.
Even the wildest of aberrations that have happened to him in the past will not lend any credence to a magnitude of embarrassment he will be made to live with after the game.
In a breathtaking finish which saw the Atlanta Braves winning 15-13 through a walk off homer by Chipper Jones, the role of Halladay was the most depressing.
While one dreams of fetching a distinction in a historic game like this, Halladay had nothing of the sort. Instead the game is likely to become a perennial reminder of one of the worst days of his life. For even if he sees it disappearing in rambling of
thoughts in memory after a few years, a gimmick nature of the game will always keep it in an active conscious of the fans and so Halladay will be haunted time-and-again.
An ace like him gets six-run support and blows it. He will open the bottom of fifth and find Chipper Jones on the plate. A kind of jinx overwhelmed his fate following a single to Jones. He will then take a nosedive so unprecedented in his career that in
a flash of moments, he will be smashed six hits. Batters will appear and move to the bases. Hitters will come and send one base-runner after another across home plate, defying his much reputed repertoire of combating with bases-loaded scenarios.
Culmination of his misery came at the hand of Brian McCann. A homer to right (390), a grand slam, did enough to invoke in Halladay the feelings of pessimism and ensured for him a depression-riddled night later.
The game witnessed its most bizarre moment when, pumped by a surge of happiness at the sight of a grand slam, Michael Bourn kind of notched McCann’s eyes, in an honest attempt to embrace the celebration in an intimate fashion.
Thrusting a handful into his eyes, upon realisation that what he was up to, he later had a chit-chat with McCann, on the incident and funnily discussed un-intended repercussions of it.
While in high scoring game like this, starters from both sides are at fore-front of onslaught, the Braves were smart enough in having protected Tommy Hanson.
As Halladay stayed on the mound for little more than five innings, Hanson was taken off immediately after slightly more than three innings. It was his shortest stint on the mound since start of the season, something that shows how subtly he was helped by
his manager in escaping the danger.
After blowing up a six run lead in the fifth, Halladay assumed the mound again in the sixth and to his disappointment, hits did not stop. Had the manager taken him off, further aggravation of his woes could have been avoided.
The fact he entered during brutality of moments, not being able to set the senses right, made him slip further from his course. When he therefore went there, he was like a subjugated animal standing in ready to be exploited. Only a little push was enough
to send him down on his knees, similar to a villain late in the movie who is breathing penultimate moments of his life.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
Continued in part 2
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