Another non-A's triple-header is coming your way, and I am trying to figure out what to do for an encore after yesterday. Wow.
Some historical footnotes on Roy Halladay's masterpiece:
- Allie Reynolds, Nolan Ryan, Virgil Trucks, and Johnny Van der Meer are the only other pitchers to toss multiple no-hitters in the same season, but Halladay is the first to do so in which one of his gems was a Perfect Game.
- If you are wondering how many other pitchers have a perfecto and at least one additional no-no to their name in their entire careers, there are six: Cy Young, Addie Joss, Jim Bunning, Sandy Koufax, Randy Johnson, and Mark Buehrle. The first four are Hall-of-Fame hurlers, and the fifth will join them in Cooperstown in the near future.
- The last time Cincinnati went without a hit was on June 23, 1971. Rick Wise was the pitcher, and for good measure, he hit two homeruns that day.
As I mentioned, we have three games on the schedule; the first one is Texas at Tampa Bay. With yesterday's 5-1 victory, the Rangers earned their first playoff win in 16 years, and only their second one in club history. To put that in perspective, Will Clark was the first baseman when Texas beat New York at Yankee Stadium on October 1, 1996. The Rangers are the last of the current big-league clubs to have never appeared in a League Championship Series.
Today's second game features the World Champion Yankees against the host Minnesota Twins. Ron Gardenhire's team is mired in a ten-game post-season losing streak, having dropped the last three games of their series with New York in 2004, getting swept by Oakland in 2006 (sigh) and the Yankees in 2009, and then falling in last night's opener, 6-4.
The Atlanta Braves are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2005, and they travel to San Francisco to face the Giants, who haven't been to the dance in seven seasons, back when a guy named Barry was hitting balls into the Bay in 2003.
I will return this evening with an update of the first two games, and take you into the third contest.
Enjoy.
Oh, and if you haven't seen this yet, take a peek at the AN year in review. You might need FB to view it.
