Roy Halladay has long been one of the best pitchers in baseball, yet hasn’t played on the playoff stage as the Blue Jays have consistently been below multiple teams in the AL East.

His highly anticipated playoff debut went smoother than anyone could have hoped, as he threw just the second no-hitter in playoff history (Don Larsen’s perfect game was the other) against the Cincinnati Reds.

Halladay, who threw a perfect game in the regular season, was nearly perfect tonight against the NL Central Champion. In just 104 pitches, Halladay retired 27 of the 28 batters that he faced. On the night, Halladay reach three ball counts against only three batters, which allowed him to keep his pitch count low despite eight strikeouts.

Cincinnati right fielder Jay Bruce drew a two out walk in the fifth inning; he was the only Reds batter to reach base all night.

Offensively, The Phillies scored four runs early in the game (one in the first and three in the second) and let Doc take over. The other two members of Philadelphia’s “H2O” pitching staff have postseason experience, but Halladay looked like he had been out there 100 times before and didn’t show any nerves.

Counting his regular season perfecto, Halladay became just the fifth pitcher in MLB history to toss two no-hitters in the same season (and first since Nolan Ryan back in 1973) and is the only player with one in the regular and post-season.

And don’t think that the Reds were a team that got to the postseason on pitching and defense alone. They led the NL in runs scored, batting average and homeruns during the regular season. Add the fact that this was in the postseason and in hitter friendly Citizens Bank Park and Halladay’s effort immediately gets some consideration for most impressive no-hitter of all time (perfect games excluded).

The Reds and Phillies don’t play again until Saturday, when Roy Oswalt (PHI) will face Bronson Arroyo (CIN) as the Reds look to wake their bats up.

Used with permission of the author.

Along with contributing to Sports Climax, Brett Kettyle is the Atlanta Braves Community Leader on Bleacher Report and maintains a Braves column for MTR Media. Follow Brett on Twitter.

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