Halladay throws 2nd postseason no-hitter in history to beat Reds in Game 1

[Brutus]

So much for OCab's "theory" about the umpire's expanded strike zone. The Pitch FX data on Fangraphs pretty much debunks that.

Good find.

From the blog:

[traderumor]

But it was pretty obvious they were going to have to win 5/6 or even 6/6 to have any chance at the 2 seed, and on Wednesday they came out with a lineup that made me want to cry.

And the players pretty much said that they would be celebrating too much to play the next day. Which is fine - I myself was not very productive at work the next day - but if they had been serious about trying to win in the post season I think they would have taken that Wednesday game seriously (instead of like a joke).

I would have to go with the consensus that understood the Wednesday lineup. Still don't have a problem with it. They got back to business Thursday. If...dog...rabbit...a game here, a game there, pick it apart. They still prob. get the 3rd seed.

[traderumor]

Good find.

From the blog:

Pardon my ignorance, but what is this showing?

[Brutus]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is this showing?

The red squares (Philadelphia batting) & triangles (Cincinnati batting) are all the strikes called tonight by John Hirschbeck. The green squares & trianlges are the balls called.

It's showing where the pitches were called relative to the zone. In other words, according to Pitch FX, not many were called outside the zone.

[REDblooded]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is this showing?

Pitch plots and where they actually landed as called strikes/balls... Big shock, Halladay worked an inverted "U"

[OnBaseMachine]

I really, really hope tonight isn't a sign of how this series is going to play out. That was bad. Awful defense, bad pitching by Volquez, and one of the worst offensive displays you will ever seen. I don't recall the Reds hitting a ball hard the whole game. But as bad as tonight was, if the Reds win on Friday night then I won't even care about tonight. My goal was to win one of two in Philly. The Reds still have a chance to do that.

[sivman17]

It's showing where the pitches were called relative to the zone. In other words, according to Pitch FX, not many were called outside the zone.

Except the pitch to Rolen which was 1.5 feet outside. That's a pretty terrible call.

[Cicero]

It's one game, whether they got 0 hits or 15 hits we are down 0-1. Get ready for Friday.

[deltachi8]

Please don't start with the "I'm proud of this team" stuff. We've got an entire offseason to do that.

We need to go out and kick some tail on Friday.

this.

I loathe that stuff almost as much as loser's parades.

[REDblooded]

Boy you want to talk about cherry picking a stat.

Sure he was -12 last year, but the two years before he was +13.

Then again... It could just show a guy making a massive regression due to age and mobility... It happens.

[Brutus]

Except the pitch to Rolen which was 1.5 feet outside. That's a pretty terrible call.

Out of 42-43 strikes called, if I counted correctly, that's 1 bad call. That's a darn (expletive avoided) good job by the umpire, don't you think? Only a few of those pitches called were even outside the black. If we were scoring a test in school, that's called acing it.

I'm amazed that over 80-90 percent of the calls can be correct, but people will look for the one or two that was wrong.

[sivman17]

The amazing thing to me is that it's the first postseason no-hitter since Don Larsen's perfecto in 1956 and Jamie Moyer was in the dugout for both.

[WVPacman]

People let me get this straight... you mean to tell me I waited 15 years to watch my Cincinnati Reds get no hit in the playoffs for the first time in my life?

I got to give Holliday his props b/c he pitched one of the best games I have ever seen a pitcher pitch.

[blumj]

There's another on the other side, but that's about as good a chart as you're going to find, they don't get too much closer than that.

Like, this is the Yanks-Twins game going on now: http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfxVB/...10/06/2010|New York Yankees @ Minnesota Twins

And Rangers-Rays from earlier: http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfxVB/...0/6/2010|Texas Rangers @ Tampa Bay Rays

[oneupper]

Six inches outside isn't "generous". its ridiculous. Plenty of bad calls inside too.

It's not just the calls. It's the expectation of those calls. Batters figured out early that the zone was six inches wider on each side and went up there hacking. There are hardly any close balls called.

This and my eyes confirm OCab's theory. Zone was wide. Very wide.

Perhaps in my lifetime we'll see an automatic ball/strike system, but I'm not counting on it. Here's where MLB can still exert influence for their "scripts". MLB wanted this no-hitter and it happened.