Six Years Ago Today Roy Halladay Threw A No-Hitter In Game 1 Of The NLDS
By Jeremiah Delgado
The second no-hitter ever thrown in the MLB Playoffs came from a guy making his postseason debut. On Oct. 6, 2010, Phillies ace Roy "Doc" Halladay hurled a no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds in Game 1 of the NLDS.
If not for a walk in the 4th inning, it would have been the only other perfect game thrown since Don Larsen. Halladay was dealing all game long, working the corners and changing speeds with ease while putting together the best game he has ever pitched, especially when you consider the stage.
Reds hitters were only able to hit the ball out of the infield four times throughout the entire night. Every other out recorded was either a strikeout, a ground ball or a pop-up. He struck out eight batters and did it against a good hitting baseball team.
Out of his 104 pitches thrown, 79 were for strikes and that includes batters swinging at a pitch out of the zone. "Doc" threw for 25 first-pitch strikes out of the 28 batters he faced.
It was one of the greatest performances in playoff history and even his teammates knew it.
"He was filthy," Jimmy Rollins said after the game, according to MLB.com. "Filthy, like just completely filthy."
"Was that a video game out there or what?" teammate Domonic Brown said.
The Reds simply had no answer for Halladay. Even their best hitter and one of the best hitters in baseball for that matter, Joey Votto, knew it was going to be Halladay's night.
"I don't think anything we did would have mattered," Votto said. "He just pitched so well. When you're trying to thread a needle at the plate, it's miserable. It's not fun being up there trying to hit nothing."
Halladay's was just the second no-hitter thrown in MLB Playoff history. The only other one came from Yankees great Larsen, who threw his historic perfect game in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Halladay was one of the most dominant pitchers of his era and his no-hitter against the Reds only further endeared him to Phillies fans and immortalized him in MLB history.
