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Phils have just announced that Halladay will pitch Games 2 and 3.
In related news, the Reds have reportedly ordered a white flag.
On a more serious note, I'll be interested to see how the Reds team reacts to being no-hit. Most of the Reds players lack postseason experience, and some of the guys who do, like Scott Rolen, are laid back, lead-by-example types. The extra day between Games 1 and 2 doesn't help the Reds IMO. A big key to how the Reds react will be how well Roy Oswalt pitches at the beginning of Game 2.
On a more serious note, I'll be interested to see how the Reds team reacts to being no-hit. Most of the Reds players lack postseason experience, and some of the guys who do, like Scott Rolen, are laid back, lead-by-example types. The extra day between Games 1 and 2 doesn't help the Reds IMO. A big key to how the Reds react will be how well Roy Oswalt pitches at the beginning of Game 2.
If the Reds lose the next two games, the conventional wisdom will explain it as the product of their having been no hit in Game One, they somehow or other had the whammy put on em by Halladay and thus were zapped for the next games as well.
Of course there would be no actual way to distinguish coincidence and cause in such circumstances. It is possible that the Reds might have been swept in three games even if the first one had been a more competitive game for them.
The day after Don Larsen was perfect against the Dodgers in game Five of the '56 Series, Brooklyn came back to win Game Six 1-0 in ten innings. The Dodgers then lost Game Seven 9-0, so it must have been a delayed effect from being no hit.
That something happens does not mean that everything which follows is a consequence of that something.
If the Reds lose the next two games, the conventional wisdom will explain it as the product of their having been no hit in Game One, they somehow or other had the whammy put on em by Halladay and thus were zapped for the next games as well.
Of course there would be no actual way to distinguish coincidence and cause in such circumstances. It is possible that the Reds might have been swept in three games even if the first one had been a more competitive game for them.
The day after Don Larsen was perfect against the Dodgers in game Five of the '56 Series, Brooklyn came back to win Game Six 1-0 in ten innings. The Dodgers then lost Game Seven 9-0, so it must have been a delayed effect from being no hit.
That something happens does not mean that everything which follows is a consequence of that something.
Well no duh. Why do you think I said how Roy Oswalt pitches at the beginning of Game 2 would be a key factor for the Reds? If Oswalt pitches well early in the game, he further puts the Reds into a hole and may get them thinking "what do we need to do?". By contrast, if Oswalt struggles early with his command and the Reds get some early runs, they probably get a boost in confidence, play "normally" (i.e. hit like they hit all season), and start thinking Game 1 was an anomaly. Obviously a solid start by Bronson Arroyo can also get the Reds pointed in the direction they want too.
One factor you are totally dismissing above when discussing the 1956 Dodgers post-Don Larsen's perfect game is the Dodgers were an experienced postseason team and in fact were defending World Series champions, having gotten rid of a much bigger monkey off their backs when they won Game 7 of the 1955 World Series against the Yankees after they had lost to the Yanks in the 1947, 1949, 1952, and 1953 World Series with a lot of the same players. By contrast, this Reds team is fairly young and inexperienced in postseason play. In their first postseason game for many of the Reds' players, they were no-hit. That may have no impact on the Reds in the rest of this NLDS at all, but you'd have to think it is a little more likely that will stick with them than say a 6-3 loss would have. Baseball players are human beings after all.
I have one other thought - above you say "of course there would be no actual way to distinguish coincidence and cause in such circumstances" (the circumstance being the Reds no-hit in this case). That's a reasonable logic, one that has held true in some, though by no means all, situations in MLB history. With that being the case, why are you so quick to imply guys who have a jump in performance (i.e. Jose Bautista) are taking performance-enhancing drugs? How can we distinguish between coincidence and cause in those circumstances without further evidence? For that matter, how can we even know that performance-enhancing drugs actually enhance performance? A lot of the guys who have been suspended for drug use over the last few years weren't exactly household names outside their own households.
(For the record RE: Jose Bautista, I'm not saying he did or did not do something to try to enhance his performance - I don't know. The thing I would say that's a little odd is how offense around MLB declined from 2009 to 2010 and was distinctly below late 1990s/early 2000s levels, yet the 2010 Toronto Blue Jays, as a team, had one of the highest home run totals in MLB history. You need to have more than one guy having a huge season to have a huge team home run total.)
And it doesn't get better for the Reds....Oswalt, then Hamels...then IF there's a game 4, back to Doc.
Anyone whining about the Cliff Lee trade now?
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