Wednesday, June 3, 2009

It's just Halladay being Halladay

What a phenomenal performance by Roy Halladay against the Angels on Tuesday! The best pitcher in baseball displayed why he's such an incredible workhorse, willing his team to victory on the strength of a new career milestone.

It's just Halladay being Halladay.

For a guy who is supposed to be a "ground ball" pitcher, he sure isn't producing like one, entering the game 5th in the American League in strikeouts. He wound up with a new career high of 14 punch outs in this contest, doing so in a whopping 133 pitches, notching a complete game victory! He is such an incredible specimen that he can gear back and dominate like he did tonight. Despite the fact he was working on a high pitch count late in the game, there was absolutely no way he was being taken out of this contest.

Doc cruised through the first 6 innings, after being handed a comfy 6-0 lead. Game over right? Wrong. Halladay uncharacteristically scuffled, loaded the bases after 2 singles and a walk, then proceeded to allow a run to score on another base rap and a wild pitch. The Angels followed with two sacrifice flies to trim the lead to just 2. Could the Jays lose after huge leads in consecutive starts by Halladay? Not on his watch. 6 of the final 7 outs came via the strike out, including all three outs in the 9th inning, as Halladay lifted his win total to a Major League Baseball best total of 9 games.

It's just Halladay being Halladay.