Halladay throws no-hitter in first postseason appearance
Roy Halladay had been waiting his whole life to pitch in the postseason.
When the opportunity finally came in his 13th MLB campaign, he didn’t let it slip away.
In Game 1 of the NLDS against the Cincinnati Reds on Oct. 6, 2010, the Phillies ace had worked 8.2 innings of no-hit ball when the count ran to 0-2 against Brandon Phillips in the top of the ninth.
Halladay delivered the 0-2 pitch, and Phillips hit a dribbler just a few feet in front of the plate, his bat dropping inches in front of the ball as he ran toward first. It was going to be a tough play for catcher Carlos Ruiz – and it couldn’t have come at a more important moment.
“I was definitely panicking because it was the big out,” Ruiz told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
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With the weight of history on his shoulders, Ruiz made the play, scooping the ball up and throwing it to first baseman Ryan Howard just in time for the out to complete the no-hitter and the 4-0 win over Cincinnati.
“I was lucky,” Ruiz said. “It was hard. He’s a fast runner. I had to throw it hard.”
Once the final out was recorded, even the stoic Halladay cracked a smile as his teammates mobbed the mound and the crowd of 46,411 at Citizens Bank Park erupted.
Not only had the Phillies just taken a 1-0 lead in the series, but Halladay had also etched his name in history in more ways than one while appearing in his first postseason game. The future Hall of Famer became just the second pitcher ever to throw a no-hitter in the postseason, following Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series. The no-hitter also marked Halladay’s second no-no of the season – the right-hander had thrown a perfect game against the Marlins on May 29.
“I think you try to disconnect yourself from the emotions a little bit,” Halladay said. “Knowing that you’ve prepared yourself, you’re ready, and you try to go out and execute your plan.”
And execute he did – Halladay’s nine innings of work that night demonstrated sheer dominance. He allowed just one baserunner via a six-pitch walk to Jay Bruce in the fifth. He threw first-pitch strikes to 25 of the 28 batters he faced, and of the 104 pitches he threw, only 25 were balls.
“It was like a situation where you’re almost helpless because the guy was dealing,” Reds manager Dusty Baker said.
And if anything, he seemed to get better as the night went on, needing only 17 pitches to get through the final two innings.
“Everything was pinpoint marksmanship,” Phillies third baseman Greg Dobbs said. “He was hitting his spots. He was changing speeds. I thought to myself, ‘It’s almost unfair with the stuff he has tonight.’”
The Phillies, meanwhile, got their scoring done early, plating one in the first on a sacrifice fly by Chase Utley and three in the second on a pair of RBI singles by Halladay and Shane Victorino.
When he returned to his locker after the game, Halladay was greeted with a bottle of Dom Perignon on ice and a printed out article taped to his locker, with the headline, “Phillies’ Roy Halladay throws playoff no-hitter” – an ample reward for a pitcher who had shown he was every bit the dominant postseason pitcher everyone had expected him to be.
To the Phillies, who had watched him dominate all season, his success was no surprise.
“He’s been the same ever since I first saw him in Spring Training,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. “He goes about his work the same way. He’s like a boxer that’s got a 10-round fight and he’s going to train for 20-25 rounds. That’s who he is.”
Janey Murray was the digital content specialist at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
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