Any seat in the park last night was a good seat. I liked mine just fine but, seriously, I would love to sit behind home plate for one of Roy Halladay's games.Unbelievable. At the start of the 8th inning, the man two seats next to me hugged his daughter, who looked to be about 13 and was wearing a softball jacket. I smiled at the guy and mouthed over the girl's head: Unbelievable. He echoed the comment and hugged his daughter again. At that point everyone was standing for every Halladay pitch. With each strike, each out, the roar of the crowd got, unbelievably, louder and louder. When Ruiz got the final out, the most frazzling out of the night, we all could have gone spinning off into space. It was an unbelievable night at the ballpark.
So this is what Roy Halladay did in his post-season debut, after starting 320 games in the majors. He faced 28 batters, walked one, on a close call at that, gave up only one hard hit ball, to pitcher Travis Wood, threw 104 pitches, 79 for strikes, (25 of them for first-pitch strikes), struck out eight, and made it all look effortless from start to finish. And he did it all against the Cincinnati Reds, who led the National League this year in all offensive categories. He made them look feeble.
Driving down to Philadelphia, I was thinking about Cliff Lee's postseason debut in last year's NLDS, an electrifying performance that ended in the 9th with the whole park chanting, Let's go, Lee! And thinking about Hamels' dominating performance in the 2008 NLDS against the Brewers. Then I heard that Polanco had been scratched for the day's game with a back problem and hoped it was not an omen.
After the 1st inning, though, you had to have the feeling that the Phillies had the game. Halladay retired the first three Reds on 10 pitches, and I thought, hey, he could do that another 24 times. But it was Shane Victorino who sealed it. With one out in the 1st, he doubled, stole 3rd, then scored on an Utley sac fly. Shane was obviously in his post-season form. Little did we know that it was ball game over right there. However, with two outs, the Phillies added three more in the 2nd, one coming on a Halladay RBI single. Gosh.
Reds' starter Edinson Volquez didn't make it through the 2nd. The Reds bullpen came in and did a sterling job but it was too late. The Phillies had a 4-0 lead and that indeed was the game.
In the 4th, I wondered briefly if Halladay would pitch another perfect game. After he walked Bruce in the 5th, on a full count, I thought, OK, the perfect game is gone, it's a no-hitter. By the 6th, the no-no was on everyone's mind. In the 8th it was standing room only while Doc was on the mound. In the 9th, the joint was rocking to chants of Let's go, Doc! Pretty soon it was all over and the park erupted. An unbelievable game, an unbelievable postseason debut.
Yet, until the weird little dribbler off the bat of Brandon Phillips in the 9th, I never thought it was in doubt. But Ruiz made a quick recovery and threw Phillips out at 1st. I was at the Millwood no-hitter at the Vet and remember feeling as nervous as a cat till the last out, and that was against the offensively-challenged Giants.
Memorable as that game was, last night's was awesome to the nth degree.
Friday will be the 54th anniversary of the only other no-hitter in baseball post-season history, Don Larsen's perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers. That happened in the World Series, in the days when the WS was the play-offs. Another big difference, while Larsen was a journeyman pitcher, Halladay is an ace.
One of the best quotes afterward came from Scott Rolen, "I never thought I would look forward to facing Roy Oswalt." Oswalt and Hamels have their work cut out for them. Halladay, meanwhile, is proving Ruben Amaro to be a genius. Red Doctober, indeed.
