Halladay Looks Like An Ace, Throws Two Perfect Innings

If first impressions are important to baseball fans in Philadelphia, new Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay aced his entry exam.

Halladay got the Grapefruit League schedule unde way with two near-perfect innings in the Phillies’ 3-2 win over the New York Yankees on Thursday.

The 32-year-old Halladay threw a pair of  innings while striking out three. As we all know, Halladay was at the front of a blockbuster four-team set of trades in December between the Phillies, Toronto Blue Jays, Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics.

“I was excited for it,” said Halladay, “You anticipate it, but once you get into the game, the game is always the same. Your approach is the same. I looked forward to it, especially early on. It’s as much fun for me as it is for everyone else.”

Halladay allowed just one baserunner in his first outing with the Phillies. New York’s Jamie Hoffmann, playing first base after Nick Johnson was scratched before the game with a back ailment, reached on an error by Philadelphia third baseman Placido Polanco with one out in the first.

Halladay struck out the next batter, Jorge Posada, before getting Robinson Cano out on a fly ball to end the inning. Halladay struck out Nick Swisher and Randy Winn to begin a 1-2-3 inning.

“He’s filthy,” said New York ace CC Sabathia.

I realize that this was Halladay’s first game of the spring and that he only pitched two innings so I’m not going to jump the gun and say that Halladay is going to pitch well when he plays the Mets, or that he will even have a good season because we don’t know that yet, but what I will say is that the Mets and the rest of the National League East will have their hands full with Roy Halladay, especially when the game is on the line.