Roy Halladay looks great. Inducing four ground outs to one fly out and a strikeout of Scott Rolen, he’s only thrown 22 pitches thus far. While I doubt he’ll be on any sort of pitch count since he hasn’t been overworked lately, it’s good to see him keeping it down in the early going. You never know what to expect from starters in their first Postseason game, even guys who happen to be Roy Halladay.
Werth and Ibanez were retired after working decent at-bats from Volquez. Ruiz took four straight balls to bring Polanco-replacement Wilson Valdez to the plate in his first postseason at-bat. A ground-ball up the middle proved troublesome for Orlando Cabrera and the number one fielding team in the NL when a flip to Brandon Phillips went array and Ruiz slid in safely at second. Roy Halladay came up and hit a blooper to left that dropped in front of a flailing Jonny Gomes. Ruiz scored from second and runners are on first and third for the top of the order. Halladay, who has never appeared in a postseason game in all his career in the AL, proved that the NL is just a better time.
Volquez kept pitching Rollins down and in, working a full count before he took a walk to load the bases. Edinson has been around the plate so far, but hasn’t gotten the corners from umpire John Hirschbeck. Shane Victorino worked a full count as well (and a blown non-strike call) then poked an outside fastball into center field, scoring Valdez and Halladay.
Edinson Volquez has been ran from the game after 56 pitches and 1.2 innings of work. Bring on the bullpen!
Phillies lead 4-0.
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