Kuzul

Roy Halladay’s no-hitter in Game 1 of the NLDS is without question the greatest starting performance in Phillies’ playoff history. But it certainly isn’t the only great one.

Here are the 10 best postseason starting pitching performances in Phillies’ history.

Keep in mind that the following rankings are not just based on the excellence of the pitching line itself, but also on the relative magnitude of the game in which the performance came (basically, World Series performances counts for extra).

Enjoy this trip through Phillies’ history!

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C’mon Philadelphia, please put down the Michael Vick Kool-Aid…just for a second. We’re talkin’ baseball right now.

For years, the Phillies have relied heavily on their “Big Three” to win games; the “Big Three,” of course, being the trio of homegrown studs (Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, and Ryan Howard) the Phillies have featured in their daily lineup for the past several years .

Sure, that “Big Three” is still pretty good. But over the final two months of the 2010 campaign, the Phillies have made it to the brink of the postseason on the strength of a different kind of big three: the kind of big three that occupies their starting rotation.

Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels, and Roy Oswalt.  Game-set-match.

That three-man rotation is pretty good. But is it the greatest 1-2-3 rotation punch in Phillies history? Let’s count down and find out.

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On this date in 1982, Pete Rose passed Hank Aaron to move into second place on the all-time hits list.

Baseball, like no other sport, is a game of statistic with literally hundreds of categories that we keep track of.

The following list will take a look at the 10 most impressive second bests in baseball history. Many of these players once held the most revered records in the sport, while some came just short of the top spot. So here are the 10 best.

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Sunday was just weird and frankly after not watching  much but listening to the Flyers game (my ESP telling me we would lose, drat) following a day outside with Darren Daulton with kids learning the art of batting , as well as customers all starry eyed because they met him and talked some sports (including Flyers), I was beat. This blog is now 18 hours late!

Darren “Dutch” Daulton  –  what a mensch (look it up if you have no idea what it means).  He worked with all the children and they loved it.  There were three kids who were particularly talented and he was wonderful with them. It was his patience with the others who love the sport but need work that was amazing.

Parents were catchers and fielders, enjoying the experience with their kids.  Balls were broken in half and quarters, landing in trees and bushes. Talk about passion for the sport! Jeff (our cancer survivor) pitched for an hour with the biggest grin on his face.  Dutch signed one of the balls he used with a special inscription and told him he had a good arm.  He also told him he could give the “Old Man” a run for his money if he were 10 years younger. Sure he could!

Yesterday was about passion for all sports. All the Phillies and Flyers were discussed.  We Philadelphians are all about our teams and favorite players!

Parents, kids and fans crowded around Dutch, applauding him as he entered the café.  He in turn treated each of them with gratitude and humility, a rare quality today. I cannot say enough good things about the day and about Darren Daulton.  Go to Facebook JJ Elephant Fan Page to see all the photos.

The visit to JJ Elephant made every one of us fans of Daulton and the game.  Wouldn’t it be grand if instead of sitting at a bar with kids for hours or waiting in line at the mall  for an athlete to sign something in 3 seconds, kids had a chance to play a sport and learn from an athlete? 

I am hoping more athletes follow Dutch and come to meet and greet customers, work with kids and have a real (non alcoholic) lunch sitting and chatting with people.

Now the switch.  At 2 pm I quickly took off my Phillies’ jersey and switched to my Flyers Giroux tee shit and Stanley Cup playoff hat. 

I predicted the Flyers in 7 but was told it must be six.  I had that “eeky” feeling so I  worked on editing Dutch photos rather than watch the blowout.  I did actually break down and watch moments here and there. Since I was exhausted and knew the outcome, why expend the energy cheering for the(measly) four goals? I clapped though. 

The Chicago Machine fought dirty – we needed the Flyers to be the Broad Street Bullies of old.  I am still puzzled as to why they pulled the goalie so early. Isn’t that damn Amstel Light song they do after each goal annoying?  I will never pick up that beer again as long as I live.

The refs missed some penalties on Chicago and there was the home ice advantage.  Flyers played a much cleaner series thus far and overcame more odds to get to the Cup finals.  The buzz is that they will win at home and still win in Chicago.

Niemi was truly amazing so despite my bias, kudos to him.  Leighton was pulled but it seemed there was little defense helping the goalies during the game.

Flyers are a team that seems destined to win, but who knows?  I will wear my orange and black and pray to the hockey god (s) for the win on Wednesday at home.  They cannot lose the most important game of the series!  Guess that means no TV for me (my gift to the Flyers).

Now to stop the Chicago Machine…

Shoot——————————–>Score   Go Flyers!

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With his latest loss on Thursday, the Kansas City Royals’ Zack Greinke has fallen to 1-7 on the season with a 3.60 ERA.

Greinke, of course, is the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner, having gone 16-8 with a sparkling 2.16 ERA and 242 strikeouts a year ago.

So, is Greinke having the worst follow-up to a Cy Young Award season in baseball history?

Maybe, but at this point, he isn’t close.

One of the major sub-plots of Greinke’s season has been the loss of his catcher from his amazing 2009 season. As we take a look at these Top 20 Worst Cy Young Follow Up Seasons, we’ll also take a look at the catchers involved to determine whether a catcher change was a factor each time.

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For once, Jamie Moyer knows what it takes to pitch well and lose. Oh, the irony.

Moyer was brilliant for the Phillies as they faced the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday night, allowing only two earned runs on four hits and one walk in seven innings, while striking out seven and lowering his ERA to 4.30, in the rematch of the teams that faced each other back in 1986 when Moyer made his major league debut against Steve Carlton.

Moyer, who has spent the vast majority of his Phillies career collecting wins despite giving up four to six runs per game, found himself on the losing end of a pitchers’ duel with Tom Gorzelanny of the Cubs. 

Gorzelanny scattered three hits and two walks over six and two-thirds scoreless innings while striking out five.  The Phillies failed to capitalize on an inning and a third of John Grabow and Carlos Zambrano, two of the worst performing Cubs of the 2010 season, scoring only one run off of Grabow.  Carlos Marmol pitched a scoreless ninth for his seven save.

This marks the second night in a row that the usually high-powered Phillies offense failed to take advantage of a gem from one of their starting pitchers; on Tuesday night, Roy Halladay took the loss against the Pittsburgh Pirates despite a complete game effort during which he allowed only two runs.

Meanwhile, both the Florida Marlins and Washington Nationals won tonight, picking up a game each in the standings. The Phils now lead the Marlins by three games and the Nationals by four. 

The Nationals also got good news from Triple-A Syracuse, as Stephen Strasburg pitched six and a third scoreless innings, striking out nine, walking two and allowing three hits.  Strasburg has yet to give up a run at Triple-A in 18 and a third innings.

Meanwhile, this was the Phillies third game since the return of Jimmy Rollins, and the Phils are now 1-2 in those games. 

In Rollins’ first game back, the Phillies won 12-2, but they have scored only three runs in the two games since then. 

Curiously, Rollins has batted third in two of these games and tonight he batted sixth.  During the last two games, Shane Victorino has batted leadoff and gone 1-for-8.

The ability of the Philadelphia Phillies to annually be one of the elite offensive teams in baseball despite having a leadoff man in Rollins with a .330 on-base percentage has always been befuddling, but for whatever reason, it has always worked.  So, here’s an idea – why don’t we move Rollins back to the top of the order, move Victorino back to seventh, and enjoy the rest of the season?

The Phillies play the Cubs in a business man’s special tomorrow at Citizens’ Bank Park at 1:05pm. 

The Phils will send Joe Blanton to the mound to face off against Ryan Dempster.  Hopefully Blanton can get some run support and avoid the same fate as Roy Halladay and—as odd as this is to say—Jamie Moyer by losing a well-pitched game.

Asher B. Chancey is the co-founder of BaseballEvolution.com.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

When Roy Halladay joined the Philadelphia Phillies, I made a comment on local sports-talk radio that Halladay immediately joins the Phillies’ Mount Rushmore of starting pitchers. Was this hyperbole?

Could a guy in his first season with the Phillies ( a team founded in 1883) possibly be one of the top four starting pitchers in the team’s history?

Let’s take a look at the All Time Phillies pitching staff.

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