Halladay’s win: Sheer perfection
In 2010, ace pitcher killed Tuesday threw Phillies’ first perfect game since ’64.
MIAMI GARDENS — On Tuesday, former major league pitcher Roy Halladay died in a small plane crash in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida. This is the game story written by Palm Beach Post staff writer Joe Capozzi after Halladay threw a perfect game against the Marlins on May 29, 2010.
After throwing his 115th and final pitch of the night, Roy Halladay casually tugged at his belt and adjusted his pants as he watched third baseman Juan Castro field Ronny Paulino’s ground ball and throw to first.
The Phillies ace known as “Doc” almost looked bored, had no real expression as Castro’s throw sailed across the diamond. But after first baseman Ryan Howard caught the ball for the final
out, Halladay let out a yell and pounded his fist into his glove.
Catcher Carlos Ruiz jumped into his arms as Halladay celebrated throwing baseball’s 20th perfect game Saturday night before 25,086 at Sun Life Stadium.
Halladay struck out 11 batters and never gave the Marlins a real chance as he retired 27 in a row in a sparkling 1-0 win over Florida ace Josh Johnson.
“To be on the road and hear those fans, baseball fans at the end of the game, it’s special. It made it a lot of fun for me,” Halladay said, thanking Marlins fans for cheering him on in the final three innings of the Phillies’ first perfect game since Jim Bunning’s on June 21, 1964, against the Mets.
The Marlins sent up three veteran pinch-hitters in the ninth inning, and Halladay sent them down in order for the second perfect game of the season, 20 days after Oakland’s Dallas Braden turned the trick against Tampa Bay.
“Is it embarrassing?” Marlins outfielder Cody Ross said, repeating a reporter’s question. “Look who was pitching: It’s Roy Halladay. He’s the best pitcher in baseball. It’s not embarrassing.”
It was the first time in the modern era that pitchers threw two perfect games in the same year. Colorado’s Ubaldo Jimenez also threw a no-hitter in April.
It was the second time the Marlins were no-hit, the first since the Dodgers’ Ramon Martinez on July 14, 1995.
The Marlins didn’t come close to a hit until the sixth inning, when Cameron Maybin swung at a 3-1 pitch and hit a grounder to deep short. He was thrown out by Wilson Valdez on a close play.
With two outs in the bot- tom of the seventh, Hanley Ramirez had a 3-1 count, then swung and missed for strike two. Halladay’s next pitch looked to be a bit inside, and Ramirez started for first base, but home-plate umpire Mike DiMuro rung up the strikeout.
While saluting Halladay, the Marlins did say they thought he benefited from a favorable strike zone by DiMuro that was evident from the first inning.
Chris Coghlan led off the game by striking out on a 3-2 count.
“I thought it was close, a ball, but obviously it was a strike to the umpire tonight,” Coghlan said.
Halladay had seven three- ball counts, and all but one were full counts.
“I don’t want to talk about the strike zone, because that discredits what he did,” Coghlan said. “But there were some pitches that were close, but you can’t do nothing about it now.”
Jorge Cantu led off the eight with a hard smash to third, where Juan Castro snagged the ball and made a strong throw to get Cantu.
“I’ve got nothing to say,” Cantu said. “Hats off to Halladay.”
Mike Lamb, who led off the ninth with a long pinch- hit fly out to the edge of the warning track in cen- ter field, said he thought his teammates could’ve been more patient with Halladay.
“When a guy throws a no-hitter, there’s usually a l ittle luck involved. I thought, (watching) from the side, there were pitches up in the zone that we fouled off,” Lamb said.
“When you’re facing a guy of that caliber, you can’t miss those pitches. I don’t want to sit here and crit- icize my teammates, but that’s what it looked like. There looked like there were opportunities, and we fouled them off.”
Johnson was the hardluck loser, allowing just an unearned run on seven hits in seven innings.
The Phillies scored the game’s only run on a badly misplayed ball by Maybin in center field.
With one out and a runner at first, Chase Utley lined a ball to center. Maybin took a few steps in, then ran back and reached for the ball, which skipped off the top of his glove. Valdez scored from first and Utley wound up at third on the error.
The unearned run was the first run scored off Johnson since May 13, snapping a string of 20 scoreless innings. But Johnson got out of the jam. Howard was intentionally walked, and Johnson struck out Jayson Werth and Raul Ibanez.
“Deep down inside, we should still be out there. We make an error, and they score a run. That’s what hurts,” manager Fredi Gonzalez said.
“You’ve got to take your hat off to Doc — that’s why he is who is he is. Maybe five, 10 years from now I’ll sit back and enjoy this one. But right now, you still wish we could’ve scored a run or had a base hit.”
Halladay was coming off his worst start of the season. He was roughed up for six earned runs in 5⅔ innings last Sunday in an 8-3 loss to the Red Sox.
“To beable to do that with a one-run lead, hats off to him. He threw an amazing game,” Ross said.
Halladay came close to a no-hitter in his second career start. Pitching for Toronto on Sept. 27, 1998, he was one out from a no-hitter when Detroit’s Bobby Higginson hit a home run.
Halladay admitted he recalled that game as he was on the mound Saturday in the ninth inning. “It was more a sense of relief,” he said. “Knowing I am that close and to actually have it happen, it’s just a good feeling. It’s hard to explain.”
Halladay saluted the Marlins one more time for fetching an important memento for him.
As he spoke in a postgame press conference, the fans were listening to a postgame concert by Latin Grammy winners Luis Enrique and Jerry Rivera. The stage was set up behind second base, with fans dancing on the basepaths and the grass.
But on the p itcher’s mound, the Sun Life Stadium grounds crew was busy digging out the pitcher’s rubber (which owner Jeffrey Loria had presented to Halladay).
“That’s kind of cool,” he said. “I know that they’re not supporting me and rooting for me, but to have the organization acknowledge it is a great, great compliment.”
Editors note: The Marlins, as was often the case under Loria, managed to turn a positive headline into a negative one very quickly. The day after Halladay’s masterpiece, the team announced it was selling unused tickets from the game on eBay, a move mocked by many fans and members of the media — but one Halladay endorsed by acknowledging: “Baseball is a business.” Nearly 8,000 tickets were sold in less than a week.