Doc No-No!

FROM CBS 3:

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — This was supposed to be all new to Roy Halladay, yet you wouldn’t know it by the same stoic expression he wore each time he took the mound for the Phillies during the regular season. You wouldn’t know it by the way he poured over his copious notes on the Cincinnati Reds in the spiral notebook that he keeps for each team, sharing his pre-game thoughts as he always does with Phils’ catcher Carlos Ruiz.

Postseason baseball is supposed to be played with a heightened intensity, a greater anxiety is supposed to course through the players, consumed by the glut of media and eyeballs attached to every pitch and swing. Postseason baseball can unglue even the brightest of stars.

Apparently not Roy Halladay. Pitching in his first-career playoff game, Halladay made history in throwing the second no-hitter in Major League postseaosn play, mowing down the Reds to the tune of a 4-0 victory Wednesday at soldout Citizens Bank Park to propel the Phillies to a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five National League Division series against the Reds.

Halladay joins Don Larsen as the only other pitcher to throw a no-hitter in the postseason, when Larsen tossed his gem for the New York Yankees in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers, on October 8, 1956. His perfect game had been the only no-hitter ever pitched in Major League postseason play. Larsen’s no-hitter was a perfect game, and Dodgers’ lead-off hitter Pee Wee Reese was the only Brooklyn batter to draw a three-ball count.

Halladay was almost as impressive. The only baserunner he allowed was a two-out, fifth-inning walk to Jay Bruce. He had only three three-ball counts throughout the game.

Otherwise, Halladay was simply Doc Dominant. He threw a mere 104 pitches, striking out eight and giving up the fifth-inning walk. He stayed ahead of the Reds’ hitters all night, with 10 0-2 counts.

Brandon Phillips stood in the way of Halladay and immortality, but a dribbler in front of the plate was easily fielded by catcher Carlos Ruiz, who tossed Phillips out, completing the first no-hitter in Major League Baseball since Larsen’s perfect game 956.

The Phillies scored three of their runs in the second innings—all coming with two outs. The inning was prolonged in part to a fielding decision by Phillips, who opted to go to second base on a ground ball by Wilson Valdez, which was followed by an RBI, two-out single from Halladay. Shane Victorino upped the Phils’ lead to 4-0 with single to center and that’s all the Phillies really needed with Halladay working his magic.

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2010/10/06/doc-no-no/