Doesn’t it always seem that every no-hitter has at least one amazing piece of fielding that without which, the feat couldn’t have been completed? That is a really tough throw that some people may not recognize. Amazing.
The worst part? I had all day off. I have TONS of free time these days, and I’m going to watch a bunch of baseball. Guess who had to volunteer tonight between 6:00 and 9:00?
Yeah, that pick up of the ball next to the bat and the throw was one of the very few tough defensive plays of the entire game. Awesomely fun game to watch. And, so neat to see how happy Ruiz was. He was just gleeful about the whole thing. Halladay put in an amazing game. Made even better by the fact that the Reds have been such a great hitting team this year, so it wasn’t a cheapie.
Sorry to hear that man - I’m in the same boat. We should start a Doper support group that checks in on everyone to make sure they’re keeping busy.
Yup - best hitting team in the NL. Heard Beano Cook on ESPN radio comparing this to Larson’s perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers. As friggin’ amazing as this was, Larson did it in the World Series against Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Roy Campenella, Gil Hodges and Pee Wee Reese.
One telling moment, for me, even in a game which ended in such an historically rare outcome, was in that first inning after Victorino stole 3rd. In the first inning of a scoreless game one of the postseason, the Reds, who scored 790 runs this year, more than any team in baseball not in the American League East, with the 3rd highest team OPS in either league, played the infield in. Just an amazing reflection of how much respect Halladay commands.
That was a great play by Ruiz. The ball hit the knob of the bat on the ground, leaving Ruiz completely out of position. He grabbed the ball, fell to his knees, and looked up to see the runner in his line to first base. He had to throw it over the runner, but not by too much or it goes over Howard’s glove. And from his knees. As a catcher, I can’t say enough good things about that play.
What’s weird is that, unlike most no-hitters I’ve watched or heard on the radio live, I KNEW he was going to do it. Once he got through 7, I just knew it. Usually, there’s tension, but Halladay was so on, it was unavoidable.
Prior to this year, I had never seen a Phillie throw a no-hitter. (Missed Kevin Millwood’s and whoever was before that, Tommy Greene?). Now I can say I’ve seen two (including the perfect game). For as big as a Phillies fan as I am, this was always a thorn in my side; not seeing a Phillies no-hitter. I can still remember bitterly Eric Milton losing his in the 9th a few years ago because Doug Glanville completely misread a popup.
Even if he gets blown out in the rest of games and Phillies blow it, I can always thank Halladay for giving me something I’ve never seen before.
I remember seeing the end of Milwood, not Greene. Halladay gave us BB fans history. Will I see another post season no hitter in my lifetime?? Probably not. If so, probably be Doc again!
I’m not really a fan of either the Phillies or the Reds. Got home from work yesterday and thought about turning the game on, but I had stuff to do and figured, “eh, it’s just game one of the first round. No big deal.”
I was thinking this was no-hitter from about the fourth inning. Halladay threw probably the best game I’ve ever seen. Every pitch seemed to go where he wanted it to go, he was getting ahead in the count consistently, he seemed to put every other batter in an 0-2 hole, he was constantly getting the hitters to guess wrong. This Inside Edge Scouting Report (pdf) says it all: A+ ratings on every measure of pitcher performance except one he got an A- on. He never reached a 2-0 count even once!
Damn what has happened to my Phillies? What happened to that team I used to follow that threatened to lose 100 games every year?
I heard this an interesting stat this morning on ESPN’s Mike and Mike show. IIRC, the source was the Elias Sports Bureau.
There have only been 2 no-hitters in MLB postseason history and 220 in MLB regular season history. With over 100 years of modern baseball history, there is no doubt that post-season no-hitters are exceptionally rare: One every 50 years or so.
On the one hand this seems intuitive, since the only teams that play in the postseason are the best teams (with relatively strong lineups that hit well enough to make it to the postseason).
On the other hand, playoff teams also have the best starting pitchers, and good pitching can disarm good hitting most of the time.
On the third hand, no-hitters during the regular season mostly occur in non-important games and the victimized team usually stinks (2010 is an exception) and consists of players that may lose interest in the game once they’re facing a dominant pitcher. In the playoffs, lack of hitter motivation isn’t an issue. Thus, it seems that 2 of the 3 hands suggest that no-hitters should be rarer in the postseason. No need to point out that we now have more hands than postseason no-hitters.
Well, it turns out that postseason no-hitters are not rarer than regular season no-hitters. With Halladay’s performance yesterday, no-hitters have occurred in 0.02% of playoff games, while they’ve only occurred in 0.01% of regular season games. I wish they would have provided at least one more decimal point, since rounding could have a significant impact on the true ratio.
And I think it’s safe to say that that postseason perfect games have been far more common in the postseason.
I understand that there have not been enough postseason no-hitters for any of this to have any statistical significance. But I just thought the numbers were interesting.
