Halladay Throws Another Complete Game

So, Roy Halladay threw another complete game today.  During the game, the announcers were talking about the active major league leaders in the art of pitching nine innings.  At the start of today’s game Roy was leading the way with 59 complete games with Livan Hernandez trailing by ten games (Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt rank 10th and 13th respectively).  The first 18 pitches Roy threw went over the plate and 80 of his 106 pitches were strikes.  Who the hell can do that to major league hitters?  Apparently the answer is Roy Halladay.  Apparently he has done it 60 times.

The Mets may not be the ’27 Yankees, but there are few real major league hitters in their line-up.  They surely did not look like it today as the only blemish on Doc’s gem was a trio of singles to start the fourth inning culminating in a Carlos Beltran RBI.  Doc ended Ike Davis’s career best eleven game hitting streak and made Jason Bay look like he had never seen a change up before.  After winning six straight, the Mets have now dropped the series finale to Washington as well as the first two games of this series.  I only wish that Billy Wagner was on the team to so that we all could point and laugh at him.  I suppose we could find out where Billy is right now and point and laugh, but it wouldn’t be the same.

For all Doc’s heroics, the Phillies still found themselves in a 1-0 hole through six innings.  Jon Niese kept the Phils off balance and off the scoreboard until John Mayberry stepped to the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning.  Many Phillies fans have been clamoring for Mayberry to platoon with the struggling Raul Ibanez against left handed pitching.  Niese happens to be left handed and Mayberry got the start today (maybe Charlie is listening to you).  Mayberry crushed a 3-2 curveball into the left field bleachers to tie the game.  Wilson Valdez followed with a single to right center (he actually hit a ball out of the infield) and Dane Sardinha walked.  Shane Victorino singled after Halladay struck out on a bunt attempt.  Placido Polanco set a new career high in hits (not to mention a Phillies record for April) and RBI for the month.  The former was accomplished by his sixth inning single and the latter was achieved with his game winning SAC fly scoring Wilson Valdez making the score 2-1.

We have learned that Doc is good at pitching, Polly is good at hitting and John Mayberry should start against left handers.  We have also learned that Mets fans continue to be insipid even when their team is awful.  Cram it Mets fans.

The Phils go for the sweep tomorrow with Cliff Lee on the hill.  He will be opposed by Chris Young who is fresh off of his most recent stay on the disabled list.