NLDS, Game 1: Roy Halladay Throws Second No-Hitter In MLB Playoff History As Phillies Beat Reds 4-0

Roy Halladay no-hit the Reds tonight to give the Phillies a 1-0 lead in their NLDS series. Here’s some views from crowd as the Phils seal the deal and the game.

What do you say when you're fresh off getting no-hit in the first game of the playoffs, looking totally helpless all the while? The classy approach would be to give total credit to the opposing pitcher for being at the top of his game and shutting you down as an offense. The alternate approach would be that taken by Reds shortstop Orlando Cabrera. Cabrera, on Roy Halladay's performance:

"he and the umpire pitched a no-hitter. He gave him every pitch. Basically, we had no chance."

One look at the strike zone map for the game shows that Halladay wasn't really getting much more help from umpire John Hirschbeck than the Reds were. Halladay was just doing a phenomenal job of pitching to the edges, as he always does, and that's what makes him so damn effective.

For other postgame quotes, we turn to Halladay himself:

"It’s surreal, it really is," Halladay said. "I just wanted to pitch here, to pitch in the postseason. To go out and have a game like that, it’s a dream come true."

"This is what you come here for," Halladay said. "It’s a good team, they know how to win. … It’s been a great year, a fun year, we obviously have a ways to go."

"I felt like we got in a groove early," Halladay said. "Carlos has been great all year, he helps me get into a rhythm early, throwing strikes."

The immediate response after you see a performance like Roy Halladay's tonight is to wonder where it ranks among performances all-time. Sometimes, it turns out the performances you watch don't measure up. Halladay's does.

You could debate something like this for ages - and some people most certainly will - but for the sake of keeping things simple, let's use a statistic called 'Game Score', which I will allow Wikipedia to define:

Game Score is a metric devised by Bill James to determine the strength of a pitcher in any particular baseball game.

Game score is based on a number of things, from strikeouts to runs allowed. Halladay's no-hitter racked up a game score of 94. Where does that place when you look at all other starts throughout playoff baseball history?

Turns out it places pretty high. Here's the list, courtesy of Baseball-Reference:

1. 98. Roger Clemens, 10/14/2000
2. 97. Dave McNally, 10/5/1969
3. 97. Babe Ruth, 10/9/1916
4. 94. Roy Halladay, 10/6/2010
5. 94. Don Larsen, 10/8/1956
6. 94. Ed Walsh, 10/11/1906
7. 93. Josh Beckett, 10/12/2003
8. 93. Ken Holtzman, 10/9/1973
9. 93. Bob Gibson, 10/2/1968
10. 92. Kevin Brown, 9/29/1998

You might be surprised to see baseball's only playoff no-hitters (and one perfect game) tied for fourth, rather than first. Clemens struck out 15 batters in a nine-inning shutout, while McNally struck out 11 in an 11-inning shutout, and Ruth struck out four while allowing one run over 14 frames.

Of course, this doesn't definitively prove anything. Based on Cincinnati's weak contact and lack of line drives, Halladay's start very well might've been better than those starts in front of him. You also have to consider the quality of competition. But I don't have an answer to that. There's no right or wrong answer to this. All that matters is that Roy Halladay is now in the argument. Because of his effort tonight, Roy Halladay is in the argument for having thrown the best start in MLB playoff history.

There are a lot of angles you could use to kick off a recap about Roy Halladay's playoff no-hitter, but for me, the most compelling thing was how easy he made it look.

It was the fourth inning. It was in the top of the fourth that the TBS announcers started talking about Halladay's perfect game in Florida from earlier this year, and about Don Larsen's World Series perfect game in 1956. Ordinarily, you'd chastise a broadcast for making those kinds of allusions so early in a game, but truth be told, there was a vibe, there. As Roy Halladay went to work, there was a feeling. He always throws great stuff. He always has great location. Today, he was extra-great. Extra-him.

It says something that the hardest-hit ball against Halladay all game long came off the bat of pitcher Travis Wood. It wasn't that Wood necessarily hit the ball with tremendous force. It was more that Halladay just wasn't even giving Reds hitters a chance. Everybody was on the defensive. Everybody was guessing. Nobody owned the batter's box. Nobody, that is, except Roy Halladay.

It's worth noting that Halladay wouldn't have won in nine innings were it not for some offensive support, and the Phillies certainly did a good job of knocking Cincinnati starter Edinson Volquez out of the game early on. Shane Victorino doubled and scored on a sac fly in the bottom of the first, and in the bottom of the second, Halladay himself came through with an RBI line drive before Victorino came up again and laced a two-run, bases-loaded single to center. Victorino's base hit gave the Phillies a 4-0 lead, and it sent Volquez to the dugout.

The Phillies didn't score after that, and really didn't threaten, but it didn't matter. Not with Halladay on the mound. Every passing inning just felt easier than the inning before, and that feeling that it was too early to think about a no-hitter disappeared completely somewhere around the fifth or the sixth, at which point it became clear just how well Halladay was pitching. Sure, he walked Jay Bruce. Halladay actually had a perfect game going through his first 14 hitters before the base on balls. But the neat thing about perfect games is that even a walk doesn't ruin them, because you get to fall back on a no-hitter. Halladay had perfect game stuff, but he'll probably settle for this instead.

104 pitches. 79 strikes. You know what's remarkable? After 2297.1 regular season innings, this was the first playoff appearance of Roy Halladay's career. I don't know that this proves that playoff experience is irrelevant, but it certainly proves that Roy Halladay is impervious to circumstances that might make a lesser man weak in the knees. Roy Halladay looked like Roy Halladay. Roy Halladay looked like a better Roy Halladay. I guess maybe he'd been saving his strength for this.

Ultimately, this was one game. One win. Halladay could've thrown a no-hitter, or a four-hitter, or a twelve-hitter, and the only true significance is that the Phillies are up in the series 1-0. You have to figure this sends a message, though. The Reds came in knowing they were considered underdogs, and they came in knowing that everyone figured they'd buckle against the Phillies' Big Three. The Reds probably fed off that and came in feeling confident. But now what? The Reds led the NL in home runs and OPS, and they just got no-hit in the first game of the playoffs. You wonder about the mood in that clubhouse. You wonder about how well they'll come out swinging the bats on Friday. Roy Oswalt isn't Roy Halladay, but Roy Oswalt's damn good, and he won't make it easy.

We'll see how the Reds respond. In the meantime, we'll all get to reflect on arguably the greatest postseason start ever thrown. Said Tigers infielder Will Rhymes earlier this evening:

baseball looks very easy on tv. I can assure you it is not.

Roy Halladay could've fooled me.

(Sports Network event page)

There was an interesting twist to the final out of Roy Halladay's no-hitter: Brandon Phillips' weak groundball in front of the plate struck his own bat in the field of play.

It was surely an accident, as Phillips threw the bat down and sprinted off to first as soon as he made contact. The bat, though, still landed in front of the ball, and the ball rolled forward and hit it before catcher Carlos Ruiz picked it up and threw to first from his knees for the final out.

The official rule in a situation like this is that it's up to umpire judgment as to whether or not the act was intentional. Had John Hirschbeck decided that Phillips dropped his bat in the ball's path on purpose, he could've called him out right there. It's better this way, though. This way, there's no controversy.

The ninth was almost as easy as the eighth. Roy Halladay got Ramon Hernandez to pop out on two pitches, got Miguel Cairo to foul out on five, and got Brandon Phillips to tap weakly in front of the plate on three. The end result? A playoff no-hitter - the second no-hitter of Halladay's 2010 season, and the only postseason no-hitter in MLB history other than Don Larsen's perfect game in 1956.

We will have much more in this stream shortly.

In the words of my editor: "That was as easy as it gets." Roy Halladay's no-hitter is very much alive and well, and we're now through eight innings of work. The top of the eighth was so simple that you might've missed it if you got up for a glass of water. There were seven pitches. All of them strikes. Two of them for strikeouts. I mean, for real?

-J. Gomes strkeout

-J. Bruce ground out

-D. Stubbs strikeout

That's eight innings and 94 pitches, 71 of them for strikes. For those of you wondering, yes, Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series is the only no-hitter thrown in playoff history. Roy Halladay is now three outs away from doubling the group's number of members.

And this train keeps rolling. Roy Halladay needed a full 18 pitches to get through the top of the seventh, but the end result was the same - three batters, three outs, and a continued no-hitter. The inning:

-O. Cabrera ground out

-J. Votto ground out

-S. Rolen strikeout

Halladay's at 87 pitches through seven frames, and he's got Jonny Gomes, Jay Bruce, and Drew Stubbs due up in the eighth. Given how he's pitching, the feeling is such that it would be an upset if he didn't finish the job. The Reds have a tall task ahead of them if they want to avoid a most embarrassing achievement.

Did I mention it's been raining?

We're inching ever closer to history. Roy Halladay needed all of eight pitches to do the following in the top of the sixth:

-R. Hernandez fly out

-J. Francisco ground out

-B. Phillips fly out

Halladay's now at six innings and 69 pitches without allowing a hit. The Reds have replaced Travis Wood with reliever Logan Ondrusek, but at this point, hardly anybody is paying attention to what the Phillies do at the plate, since they're already armed with a fairly sizable lead. Bottom halves of innings just serve as delays before upper halves of innings can resume. This is the Roy Halladay show, and he's gunning for history.

After consecutive strikeouts, the Reds were able to pick up their first baserunner of the game when Jay Bruce worked a six-pitch walk. Drew Stubbs then stranded him with a grounder to short, and through five innings of work, Roy Halladay hasn't allowed a hit on 61 pitches. While sounding the alarm after five innings might seem a little hasty, Halladay's been that good. He has the right feel, if that means anything.

You'll recall, of course, that Halladay threw a perfect game against the Marlins on May 29th, and spun a two-hitter against the Nationals on September 27th in his most recent start. The Phillies got him for a reason, and he's showing what that reason is with every single pitch.

The good news for the Reds is that rookie Travis Wood has been very effective in relief of Edinson Volquez. Since inheriting Volquez's jam in the second, Wood has retired seven of the nine batters he's faced, with one of them drawing an intentional walk. Wood has two strikeouts and 21 strikes thrown out of 31 non-IBB pitches.

Here's the problem: Roy Halladay looks as good as he's ever looked. Halladay's line through four innings:

0 H
0 BB
3 K
81% strikes

He's hitting every spot and missing every fat part of every bat, and the focus for the Reds right now can't be trying to score a run - the focus should probably be on getting someone on base. Thus far, Halladay looks impossible.

Stop me if you've heard this before: Roy Halladay set his opponent down 1-2-3 in the top of the second. He needed just 12 pitches to strike out Scott Rolen, and then get Jonny Gomes and Jay Bruce to ground out. Halladay's perfect through two, with 22 pitches and 17 strikes.

That wouldn't be the end of the world for Cincinnati, were Edinson Volquez in turn able to keep the Phillies quiet. Unfortunately, Volquez ran into more trouble in the second. He issued a two-out, four-pitch walk to Carlos Ruiz. He then got Wilson Valdez to hit a weak grounder up the middle, but it was placed perfectly, and Orlando Cabrera was unable to make a flip to second base.

And then Roy Halladay stepped in.

Halladay jumped on a first-pitch heater and ripped a line drive to right, the ball coming down just in front of Jonny Gomes. The single scored Ruiz from second, putting the Phillies on top 2-0 and only breathing more life into an already frenzied ballpark atmosphere.

Volquez proceeded to walk Jimmy Rollins on eight pitches to load the bases, and he subsequently allowed a line drive single to center off the bat of Shane Victorino to score two more. At that point, Dusty Baker decided he'd had enough, and he went out to make a pitching change. In the bottom of the second inning, Travis Wood is on in relief of Edinson Volquez, and the Reds are trailing Roy Halladay and the Phillies by four.

Volquez got five outs while allowing six baserunners and throwing 56 pitches. If nothing else, this should help keep him fresh for his next start, should he make one.

It should come as little surprise that Roy Halladay made a breeze of the top of the first. Instantly sharp, Halladay induced a first-pitch groundout from Brandon Phillips, a harmless fly out from Orlando Cabrera, and a weak jammed grounder from Joey Votto. Halladay threw 10 pitches - seven strikes - and returned to the dugout without breaking a sweat.

Edinson Volquez didn't have it so easy. Volquez retired Jimmy Rollins to lead off, but Shane Victorino took a 1-2 outside changeup and laced it into left field for a double. Victorino promptly stole third, narrowly beating the throw from Ramon Hernandez, and scored on a sac fly off the bat of Chase Utley. The Phillies didn't do any more damage, but it took them all of one inning to take the lead, and Volquez missed enough spots to suggest that he might not have a great feel for the ball today.

Not the start the Reds wanted. Obviously, it could've been worse, but you don't want to be facing a deficit after 15 minutes.

Big news out of Philadelphia, where the Reds have caught something of a break - Placido Polanco is not in the lineup, and utility infielder Wilson Valdez will start at third base. Polanco is apparently dealing with a back injury, in addition to the bone spur in his elbow that he already had.

Valdez got a lot of playing time in 2010, on account of Jimmy Rollins' health problems, but he doesn't bring Polanco's bat, nor the defensive comfort at the hot corner.