Roy Halladay to Punish Dodgers for Thinking Maybe They Wouldn’t Have to Face Him

Ryan Howard knocked his first home run, Chase Utley fielded a grounder to his right without kicking it, and so naturally, the third piece of the Triforce is assembling itself in Los Angeles.

Roy Halladay returns tonight for game two of this three-game set in L.A., according to every other web site that reported that before this one.  His timing couldn’t be better, as a fourth consecutive win feels like it would need a miracle to occur, and Doc is about as close to a miracle as we can get around here.  Except for maybe Chooch, who I’ve been told cannot pitch, no matter how adorable it would be.

Obviously, things aren’t as “Roy Halladay-ish” as they’ve been before.  His departure was amidst a series of poor starts that, sure, we’ll blame on the injury that took him off the roster for a short time.  But this is a transition back to throwing off the mound to non Single-A hitters, so expecting instant perfection is, as always, not the best idea.  In light of that, I think it’s only fair for us to expect that everything will go great because it definitely will.

As usual, all talk of a “pitch count” ended when Rich Dubee brought it up and Doc set his hair on fire with his mind.  With how openly the coaching staff admits to letting Roy do whatever the hell he wants, this isn’t a surprise.

"“He probably knows himself a lot better than we do. He said he didn’t think he needed [another rehab start], and I trust him.”—Charlie Manuel"

Of course, this move doesn’t come without the predictable roster casualties, but what can you do.

NOOOOOOOOOOwait which awful guy from the bullpen is that again.

Any sort of Phillies surge here would be not quite too late but pretty much, yeah, completely too late.  The analysts don’t really know how to talk about a team that isn’t barreling toward the playoffs (Tom McCarthy and Chris Wheeler do not possess the grim sarcasm needed to broadcast a last place team), so for their sake, I hope the Phillies give them something to talk about outside of the short term.

Tonight, the return of Doc could carry the win streak that much further.  Or maybe it won’t.  But hey, maybe Ryan will hit another home run.  Those are fun.