Last night, Philadelphia Phillies ace Roy Halladay threw the 20th perfect game in major league history, facing the minimum number of 27 Florida Marlins batters and retiring all of them in order in a 1-0 win. He struck out eleven of them.
It was without a doubt, the best performance of his All-Star career.
Halladay struck out 11, then got pinch-hitter Ronny Paulino to ground out to end it, and even though there were a couple of good plays behind him, Halladay didn’t need any great defensive work in this gem, it was pure perfection from baseball’s best pitcher.
I always thought the Mets would finally get that no-hitter, the one that has eluded the franchise for 48 years, after they traded for and the signed current ace Johan Santana. However, that would be kind of difficult to do considering the Mets reluctance to have him throw more than 100 pitches, pulling him even when he’s hurling a shutout like they did on Friday in a 0-0 game. It’s a topic I already spent too much time delving into yesterday.
Maybe, one day this year, God willing, we might get treated to a complete game shutout, or heck just a complete game. But given the hard stance of current management on pitch counts, don’t hold your breaths.
Remember when the big question during spring training was who was the better pitcher, Johan Santana or Doc Halladay? Last night we got our answer.
