Phillies: Roy Halladay tops road/home Blue Jays 10 years ago
This summer will not be the first time the Phillies used the DH at home
As the saying goes, “you can’t predict baseball.” That surely was the case for future Hall of Fame pitcher RHP Roy Halladay and the Philadelphia Phillies on this day, June 25, 10 years ago.
Due to the security concerns surrounding G20 Summit in Toronto during the late June 2010 weekend, then-Commissioner Bud Selig relocated the interleague series between the Phillies and Halladay’s former team, the Toronto Blue Jays, to Philadelphia.
The game featured the Phillies wearing their road gray uniforms and the use of the designated hitter, as the Blue Jays acted as the home team, batted last, and even had their walk-up music played.
10 years ago today, the #BlueJays faced Roy Halladay for the first time. The series was supposed to take place in Toronto but was moved to Philadelphia due to security concerns raised as a result of the G20 Summit. Halladay threw 7 scoreless innings and the #Phillies won 9-0. pic.twitter.com/fNyWeVxM9N
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) June 25, 2020
To make his June 25, 2010, start even more interesting, Halladay was facing his former team of 12 seasons for the first of two-ever times in his career.
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Just five starts removed from his May perfect game against the Florida Marlins, Doc’s stat line that outing against the Blue Jays proved he treated it just like any other: tossing seven scoreless innings en route to a 9-0 Phillies victory.
“I did the best I could to take emotions out of it and go out and pitch,” Halladay told reporters. “It’s something you look back on down the road.”
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The winning decision was Halladay’s ninth and lowered his ERA to 2.29. Overall that year, he went 21-10 with a 2.44 ERA and won his second career Cy Young Award.
Thus, when manager Joe Girardi‘s team begins its 60-game season next month and the universal designated hitter comes into play for the first time in Major League Baseball history, it will not actually be the first time the DH was ever used at Citizens Bank Park.
Ryan Howard — not Jay Bruce, Alec Bohm, nor any other potential 2020 Phillie — will forever hold that record.