Keeping Score The Parallel Paths of Halladay and

As a 23-year-old in 2000,DC Hats, Halladay posted a staggeringly high 10.64 E.R.A.,Houston Astros Hats, the worst in major league history among pitchers with at least 40 innings in a season, and was demoted to the minors. It was there that he made the necessary adjustment to recover his career: before his meltdown, Halladay was allowing 4.5 walks per 9 innings — well worse than the league average — but he remade himself into a control pitcher, allowing just 1.9 walks per 9 innings pitched ever since (a rate that ranks second only to Greg Maddux over the past decade).
Despite his transformation into arguably the best pitcher in baseball over the past 10 years, Halladay never enjoyed team success as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays. Occupying the same division as the Yankees, Boston Red Sox and, more recently, Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto never won more than 87 games in a season during Halladay’s tenure there, nor did they ever finish higher than second place. Until he was dealt to Philadelphia this past winter, it wasn’t clear whether Halladay would ever have an opportunity to pitch in the postseason.
Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay will always be linked through the Philadelphia Phillies, who essentially swapped one ace for the other last December. But their connection goes deeper than that, especially in light of their stellar performances on Wednesday.
Because of their long and winding paths to stardom,cheap Fox Racing Hats, the playoff careers of both Halladay and Lee have bloomed late. Lee never played in the postseason until he made his debut last October at age 31, while Halladay is 33. With performances like the ones they orchestrated Wednesday, look for the historic connection between Halladay and Lee to only deepen as the playoffs go on.
While Halladay was making baseball history with his no-hitter over the Reds on Wednesday,Red Bull New Era hat, Lee quietly continued to make his own. His 5-1 victory over the Rays improved his lifetime playoff performance to 5-0 with a 1.53 earned run average. Only three other pitchers in the World Series era, which dates to 1903, have ever started their postseason careers 5-0: Lefty Gomez, Livan Hernandez, and Herb Pennock. Gomez eventually pushed his all-time record to 6-0 — still the most playoff wins by a pitcher with no career postseason losses — but Lee could have a chance to join him this month, provided the Rangers’ playoff run continues long enough for him to start another game.
Simply put, the beginning of Lee’s playoff career has placed him among the most dominant postseason pitchers ever.
Tim Shaffer/Reuters Roy Halladay made baseball history with his no-hitter over the Reds on Wednesday.
Like Lee, Halladay took an arduous path, overcoming a nightmare season in 2000 before he could establish himself as one of the game’s best starters.
Lee has taken those impressive peripheral statistics to an even greater level come playoff time. His postseason career 0.807 walks plus hits per inning pitched, known has WHIP, ranks as the fourth-best mark ever among pitchers with 30 or more career playoff innings,Cheap Tapout Hats, and his 1.146 walks per 9 innings ranks eighth-best in major league history, more evidence of his pinpoint control.
But as amazing as Lee’s October performances have been, Halladay surpassed all of them in his first start of the 2010 postseason, spinning a no-hitter as the Phillies beat the Reds, 4-0, on Wednesday night. The accomplishment instantly put Halladay in the same sentence with Don Larsen, who pitched the perfect game in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series. At the time of his masterpiece, Larsen had two previous postseason starts under his belt — including one earlier in the Yankees’ series versus Brooklyn — but for Halladay Wednesday was the first time he had taken the mound in a playoff game, after pitching in 346 career regular-season games.
Yankees and Twins, Best of Rivals
Game 1 of the Yankees-Twins division series marked the fourth time the two teams have faced each other in the last eight postseasons, only the eighth such instance in the World Series era. This decade alone, they joined the Red Sox-Angels (four matchups from 2004 to 2009) and Braves-Astros (five matchups from 1997 to 2005). You can read about the other familiar playoff matchups at the Baseball-Reference.com blog.
That Lee would rank so highly among the playoff greats was far from a foregone conclusion early in his career. He won 46 combined regular-season games for Cleveland from 2004 to 2006, an average of 15 a season, but his 4.50 E.R.A. over that span suggested he was an average starting pitcher at best. Then, in 2007, Lee endured an injury-plagued season in which he went to the disabled list, struggled to a 6.29 E.R.A., and was even demoted to the minor leagues at one point.
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Neil Paine is an analyst at Baseball-Reference.com,Brands Snapback Hats Sale, an online baseball encyclopedia of players,cheap The Hundreds Hats, teams and box scores in the major and minor leagues.
Scott Audette/Reuters Cliff Lee’s 5-1 victory over the Rays improved his lifetime playoff performance to 5-0 with a 1.53 earned run average.
But Lee salvaged his career in 2008 with one of baseball’s greatest comeback seasons. Despite pitching for a mediocre Indians team, Lee tied for the major league lead in wins,cheap Transformers Hats, going 22-3, and his 2.24 E.R.A. led all American League pitchers with at least 162 innings. Lee took home the 2008 American League Cy Young award, and ever since,Detroit Tigers Hats, his career has taken off. Over the past two years, only Halladay has a better regular-season strikeout-to-walk ratio — and has allowed fewer walks per 9 innings — than Lee.

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