There's plenty of credit to go around, but the most important factor was that right from the chute, you could see that Roy Halladay had great life and good sink.
Beerleaguer: Halladay was never straight with a single pitch. He lived on the outside corners, and home plate umpire Mike DiMuro was happy to oblige. DiMuro established a liberal strikezone early and stayed consistent with it; once this game moved into the later stages, DiMuro's eyes must have been as wide as golf balls. Early on, Doc ran a number of three-ball counts and nearly hit Jorge Cantu, coming about five centimeters from clipping his uniform. Luckily, he was hitting the flat side of a dime and made easy work of the late innings. He struck out 11 and almost none of the balls hit were hit hard.
Afterward, Doc credited his handler, Carlos Ruiz, who gains entry into an elite club for having called a perfect game, only the 20th time one has occurred in baseball history. Halladay said that as soon as he reached the sixth, he followed Chooch's lead, so the catcher's role cannot be overstated.
Credit Charlie Manuel for going with the glove of Juan Castro over his allegiance to Greg Dobbs against a right-handed pitcher. Castro became the defensive star of the game, making three very good plays and the play of the game on a one-hop bullet to his left. Fellow reservist Wilson Valdez, who scored the game's only run, also stepped up at short by gunning down fleet-footed Cameron Maybin.
The most amazing part is that the dreadful offense, quite fittingly, gets the bare minimum amount of credit as the game's only run was unearned. But at least they scored.
An unearned run, a bunch of 3 ball counts, amazing defensive plays, etc...Lost in all of this was also a really well pitched game by Josh Johnson. I expected a fantastic duel and got something ten times better. Ironically enough, one of the moments I waited my whole life for I didn't see in it's entirety until I watched the replay. But I saw the end live and I'll always remember it. As a pitching connoissuer who enjoys these sort of games, it may go down as my all time favorite.
Posted by: Greg V. | Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 10:32 AM
Chooch has also caught the last out of the World Series too. not bad for a kid from panama...
Posted by: HammRadio | Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 10:49 AM
I don't think Yogi ever said it, but he should have: You can't get much better than perfect.
That being said, Halladay probably won't be satisfied until he figures out a way to throw a 26 pitch perfect game.
Posted by: Scott | Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 10:54 AM
Can these powerful, free-swinging Phils actually go an entire WEEK without hitting a HR? That might be a bigger shock then Halladay throwing a perfecto.
Hamels, Kendrick and Halladay have given the team 3 strong starts in a row.
The offense continues to produce literally nothing.
Its time for the offense to do its part again. WAY past time.
Posted by: denny b. | Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 10:59 AM
Great day to be a Phillies fan. I guess NBC answered the age-old question of which sport dominates Philly, by interrupting the Flyers first Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 13 years with news of Halladay's perfection. My DirecTV went on the fritz earlier in the day, so I did not get to see it, but hopefully the smart people in the Phillies marketing department will make it available for us out-of-towners to catch in the future.
I love that this team is proving it can win defensively as well as with the big sticks, now we just need the left-side of our infield back....
Posted by: Verdeforce | Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 11:00 AM
For now I'd be content to get the right side of our infield back...
Posted by: curt | Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 11:04 AM
Noted.
Posted by: Verdeforce | Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 11:11 AM
It was a great night for Philadelphia sports. Good of NBC to break in during the Finals, although I admit I had already flipped over to CSN (and hit record on the DVR) a while before that.
Would love to have seen video of the NBC cut away to the Phillies.
Posted by: Kevin from Macho Row | Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 11:12 AM
I'll trade a week of offensive futility for a perfect game any season.
And if the season is one where we are still in first place in our division and only a game out of the best record in the league despite that slump, a bevy of injuries, and a team history of playing better post AS-break, well, then things really aren't so bad.
It's gonna be a good year.
Posted by: Lincoln Hawkes | Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 11:16 AM
Interesting that 30% of the perfect games pitched have been 1-0.
Even more amazing -freakish, really - is that in all five of the other 1-0 perfect games, as well as Doc's, the run that was scored was unearned.
Posted by: phlipper | Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 11:19 AM
I think this is just such a great effort...I loved that it was 1-0, that we really needed him to be perfect for us the whole game and he did.
Posted by: Frozen_barbie | Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 11:37 AM
phlipper: Plus, there are the two "unofficial" perfect games -- one by Harvey Haddix, and one by Pedro -- in which the scores were 0-0 through 9.
I don't think it's coincidental that there have been so many low-scoring perfect games. If a pitcher has to sit through a long inning in which 9 batters come to the plate, there's a good chance he'll lose some sharpness. Plus there's a mental factor. If the score is 8-0, there's not much sense of urgency, and it would be easy to have a break in concentration. Not to mention that pitchers are more likely to pitch over the center of the plate when they've got a big lead to work with.
The Phillies' offense certainly did its part to make sure that Halladay didn't have to worry about pitching with a big lead.
Posted by: bay_area_phan | Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 11:43 AM
I'm still awaiting the "Somebody's gonna pay" offense that LA keeps saying is coming one of these days...That will be fun. Woulda been nice to have at least earned that one solitary run last night.
But wow! Terrific! I don't know that I've ever seen Ryan Howard smile so big (although surely he must have when the '08 WS ended)! It was really cool to see the joy with which the team all greeted Roy after that rare performance! Also to see the fans behind him, Phillies fans aplenty and even Marlins fans. And I thought it was just great that Doc credited Chooch and also cited Jamie Moyer's help in making adjustments during his work leading up to last night's PERFECT game!
Posted by: GBrettfan | Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 11:58 AM
Others have mentioned it, but some real class shown by the Marlins org (for the rubber) and fans (for the cheering). Despite the pain they caused us earlier in the century, I'm beginning to like them a lot more than the Braves.
Posted by: Unikruk | Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 12:12 PM
Half the fans were Phillies fans
Posted by: fljerry | Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 12:53 PM