Roy Halladay shines as Philadelphia Phillies defeat Washington Nationals 3-2 – MLB Update
Roy Halladay had a brilliant performance pitching as Philadelphia Phillies beat Washington Nationals 3-2 at Nationals Park, Washington on Wednesday, April 13.
The Nationals got their chance at winning the last time they went up against the Philadelphia Phillies. This time around Halladay made sure nothing like that happened. He is one of the top pitchers in Major League Baseball and has had fifty nine complete
games, which is the most out of the current players. Livan Hernandez comes second to him but Halladay takes the lead by a good ten games.
He was the only pitcher from the Phillies’ side to have pitched for the entire game and that is quite a feat on its own. Halladay did not let his performance falter though, he pitched eight flawless innings. In the ninth inning, he was a bit off so his manager
Charlie Manuel ambled to the mound.
Halladay struck-out the last two batters in the game to finish it off as the Phillies won 3-2, all within six pitches. This marked his first complete game since the year began.
"It may be naive, but I never felt in trouble. I felt like it was just a matter of making good pitches," said Halladay, who finished with nine strikeouts and two walks. "There was never like a panic or rush feeling."
In the previous eight shut-out innings, only Adam LaRoche managed a pair of singles. However, the ninth inning was not Halladay’s best as he allowed four hits and RBI singles by Danny Espinosa and Laynce Nix.
Even the Nationals’ manager, Jim Riggleman had to admit about Halladay that, "he's the real deal."
Matt Stairs and Ivan Rodriguez were beaten by the two times Cy Young winner with two on and one out. John Lannan fell to 0-9 when he went up against the Phillies even though he had displayed some solid pitching previously. "Going against a guy like Halladay,
you've got to match him, and I didn't do that," Lannan said. "I won't be happy until we beat them - and I pitch."
He allowed two runs and an unearned run along with six hits out of which five were singles. Ian Desmond had two errors which resulted in a run in the fourth inning. The Phillies added two more runs in the fifth inning.
The Phillies went on to beat the Nationals 3-2. It will be interesting to see how Philadelphia carry their winning momentum into their next match-up. The Nationals put in a decent effort, but it was not enough to contain the Phillies’ offence.
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