Halladay throws a perfecto…

A Florida team became the victim of another perfect game, which makes three in less than a year.  Thankfully for the Tampa Bay Rays they didn’t claim the third one.  Philadelphia ace Roy Halladay threw a perfect game today against the Florida Marlins in a thrilling 1-0 win.

Halladay’s perfect game was the 2oth perfect game in Major League History, the second this season and the third in less than a calender year.  July 23 last season Mark Buehrle threw a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays in a 5-0 win.  Earlier this month on May 9th a fairly unknown pitcher Dallas Braden until an incident with Alex Rodriguez earlier this season  threw a perfect game against the Rays in Oakland on  4-0 win.

Out of the two previous perfect games thrown, nothing against Buehrle or Braden, but neither are quite as prolific as Roy Halladay. Buehrle is an above average starting pitcher currently holding a career record of 138-102 with a 3.82 ERA.  Braden is fairly early in his career currently holding a record of 18-25 with a 4.19 ERA.

Halladay on the other hand has only a few more wins than Buehrle with154, but has 23 less losses with a winning percentage of .512.  The only reason Halladay’s numbers are not far more greater is because he spent his first 12 seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays and he has never seen postseason play.

He currently has a record of 6-3 with a 2.2 ERA for the season, which is significantly lower than his career ERA at 3.39.  So no matter if you hate the Phillies, you have to tip your cap for Roy Halladay for throwing the Perfect Game, but you have to feel some sense of happiness considering he deserved this more than anybody because of his talent and the fact he has never seen postseason play.

Well…I know this article did not really relate to the Rangers at all, but in a round-about way it does considering the Rangers would love to pick up Roy Oswalt, the current ace of the Astros  before the trade deadline.  Oswalt has made it all the way to the World Series, but was swept by the Chicago White Sox in 2005.

Since the playoffs of 2005 the Astros have also not seen any postseason play.  Last off season when Halladay was traded to a contender I am sure it got Oswaltto thinking about demanding the same thing.  Since you can only play the game for so long before it ends and you want to end with at least one World Series ring.  So maybe Oswalt will look at Halladay’s record since joining the Phillies and decide its time for him to move on also and I really hope he comes to the Rangers.

The late 90’s to early 2000’s were considered the hitters era, the steroids era by some.  Maybe in a decade or so we will look back and consider the late 2000’s, early 2010’s as the era of the pitcher.  The game is evolving and I believe teams are focusing more on quality pitching and superb defense instead of power hitters to win games and championships, although home runs are still nice.