Roy Halladay Makes Playoff No-Hitter Look Easy In Gem Against Reds

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: