Major League Baseball

A Mesmerizing Mound master;Phillies' Halladay can beguile a hitter like no one else

Published Oct. 15, 2010 10:10 a.m. ET

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- Managers see a different game than the common folk. As Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay was no-hitting Cincinnati in Game 1 of their Division Series, fans oohed and aahed the balls he threw past hitters, but not Charlie Manuel.

The Phillies' skipper was marveling at the way Halladay forced Joey Votto to do exactly what the right-hander wanted him to do, like a skilled puppeteer. This was not some down-order hitter. Votto is favored to win the National League Most Valuable Player Award.

"He made Votto hit the ball to the left side of the diamond. That's good pitching," Manuel said Thursday after a rainstorm washed out a Phillies workout.

The left-handed hitting Votto batted three times against Halladay in that game and grounded out to second, short and third in that order. He did not see a pitch he could pull.

That example symbolizes the obstacle that Giants hitters must tackle when they face Halladay in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series in Philadelphia on Saturday night - and maybe in Games 4 and 7 as well.

Halladay is Greg Maddux with better stuff. Maddux was one of the game's most intelligent and studious pitchers. He could sit in the dugout, note where a catcher was setting up and, knowing who was pitching and hitting, predict exactly where a ball would go.

Maddux could force a batter to hit the ball a certain way because he was so good at getting ahead in the count with unhittable strikes. Down in the count, the hitter would go on the defensive and became putty in Maddux's hands. Halladay has the same effect. He is mesmerizing to watch.

"I've seen him pitch a perfect game and a no-hitter," Manuel said. "If it gets better, I damn sure want to see it."

On April 26 in San Francisco, Manuel and the rest of the Phillies saw a rarity: Halladay getting throttled. He was 4-0 with four runs allowed over four starts when he walked into AT&T Park. The Giants got him for five runs in seven innings.

If the Giants want a repeat, all they need do is activate Mark DeRosa and stick him in left field. He hit a two-run single in the first inning. Have Eli Whiteside start behind the plate. He had an RBI double that scored John Bowker and finished the onslaught against Halladay with a homer off the left-field foul pole.

Oh, and stick Pablo Sandoval back at third base. The Panda had two hits and scored two runs. The only current Giants starter with a scoring hit that night was Aubrey Huff.

"You can throw that game out the window," Manuel said. "That game is gone. We're talking about a new setting and a new event. The next time will be a lot different."

Halladay's stats over his first season in the National League are striking, though not so much the league-leading 21 wins or the 2.44 ERA, or even the 250 2/3 innings, which also led the NL.

It's the nine complete games and four shutouts, same as he had with Toronto in 2009. He has led his league in complete games each of the last four seasons and in shutouts each of the last three. He is a throwback to the days when pitchers finished what they started. In 2010, that has included two no-hitters.

Halladay was no slouch during 11 full seasons with Toronto. He went 22-7 and struck out 204 in winning the 2003 American League Cy Young Award. Only now that he has left Canada and reached the playoffs has he gotten a star's acclaim.

Phillies left fielder Raul Ibañez, the former Seattle Mariner, had 32 plate appearances against Halladay with some success. Though Ibañez had only seven hits, they included a double, triple and home run.

Asked Thursday if Halladay is any different now than he was as a Blue Jay, Ibañez said, "I don't know if he has changed. He attacks the zone, both sides of the plate. He'll throw a cutter in, a sinker in, a sinker away. He'll throw a backdoor cutter to a left-handed hitter. He might use the changeup more than he did."

On Oct. 6, Ibañez had a more comfortable view of Halladay. From left field he watched the 33-year-old Coloradan come within a Jay Bruce walk of throwing his second perfect game this year.

"As I was watching it, as we got into the seventh inning, I was thinking, 'He's going to do this,' " Ibañez said. "At the same time, as a player, what you're really thinking is, 'Catch the freaking ball.' "

No pitcher threw a postseason no-hitter until Don Larsen's perfect game for the Yankees in the 1956 World Series. Nobody else did it until Halladay's gem against the Reds. How does a man go into his first postseason start and do such a thing?

"Talent," Manuel said as he began a list, "determination, focus, conditioning, heart - heart takes care of some of the things I just mentioned - and want-to."

All seasons with Toronto except 2010, with Philadelphia. Bold face - led league.

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