Phillies' Halladay Throws Second Postseason No-Hitter
Roy Halladay made his playoff debut by throwing the second no-hitter in Major League
Baseball postseason history as the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Cincinnati Reds 4-0.Halladay, acquired by the Phillies during the offseason after 12 years with the Toronto Blue Jays, allowed only one baserunner on a fifth-inning walk at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. He also had a run-scoring single as the Phillies took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five National League Division Series.
"It's surreal," Halladay said in a televised interview. "I just wanted to pitch in the postseason. To be able to go out and have a game like that, it's a dream come true."
Halladay, 33, pitched almost 2,300 career innings over 346 games before making his first playoff appearance. He joins Don Larsen as the only pitchers to throw a postseason no-hitter. Larsen had a perfect game in the 1956 World Series for the New York Yankees against the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Cliff Lee, who the Phillies traded to acquire Halladay, improved his postseason record to 5-0 as the Texas Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 5-1 in today's first game in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The Yankees visit the Minnesota Twins tonight in the other American League Division Series.
The Phillies scored one run in the first inning and three in the second, and Halladay dominated a Reds lineup that scored the most runs in the NL this season. He had eight strikeouts and only a two-out walk to Jay Bruce in the fifth prevented a perfect game.
Halladay's Perfect Game
Halladay threw a perfect game during the regular season, winning 1-0 against the Florida Marlins in Miami on May 29. It was one of two perfect games this year, the first time that had happened in a season since 1880.
Dallas Braden of the Oakland Athletics had a perfect game on May 9 against the Tampa Bay Rays, and there were three other no-hitters this season -- by Ubaldo Jimenez of the Colorado Rockies, Edwin Jackson of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Matt Garza of the Rays.
Halladay is the first pitcher to throw two no-hitters in a year since Nolan Ryan had two of his major league record seven no-hitters two months apart in 1973.
In Tampa, the Rangers snapped a nine-game postseason losing streak behind Lee, who had gone 4-0 for the Phillies in last year's playoffs.
Lee struck out 10 batters over seven innings and Texas got home runs from Nelson Cruz and Bengie Molina in taking a 1-0 lead in the NL first-round series.
Rangers Strike Early
The Rangers struck first, scoring two second-inning runs off Tampa starter David Price on a run-scoring double by Jeff Francoeur and Molina's looping single to right.
Cruz hit a home run to center field in the third inning, Molina added a solo shot in the fourth and Vladimir Guerrero had a run-scoring double in the fifth inning for Texas.
Lee gave up three hits and also had three strikeouts in the first inning. He allowed a double to Ben Zobrist to open the second inning before retiring the next 12 batters.
"When I got out of the first inning, I knew things were going to go well," Lee said in a televised interview.
Zobrist's seventh-inning homer was the only run Lee surrendered. He threw 104 pitches over seven innings, allowing five hits without a walk.
Price gave up four earned runs over 6 2/3 innings to take the loss, allowing nine hits while striking out eight.
The Rangers' Neftali Feliz walked his first two batters in the ninth inning before retiring the next three to close out the game.
Phillies' Halladay Throws Second Postseason No-Hitter
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