Roy Halladay's perfect game

Roy Halladay pitched his perfect game at Sun Life Stadium.

The Philadelphia Phillies–Florida Marlins game began at 7:13 p.m. on May 29, 2010, to a crowd of 25,086 at Sun Life Stadium in Miami.[3] The home plate umpire was Mike DiMuro, the first base umpire was Tim Welke, the second base umpire was Jim Reynolds, and the third base umpire was Bill Welke.[4] Roy Halladay pitched the 20th perfect game in MLB history, retiring all 27 batters, and allowing no hits, no runs, and no errors.[3] Although he is known as a ground ball pitcher, he struck out 11,[1] his most of the year and the most by a Phillies pitcher at that point in the season. The opposing pitcher, Josh Johnson, allowed seven hits, one walk, and an unearned run in seven innings. The unearned run came in the top of the third, when Chase Utley's line drive bounced off the glove of Florida center fielder Cameron Maybin, allowing Wilson Valdez to score from first.[3] This was the only run scored in the game.

Halladay's first pitch came at 7:17 pm, a called strike to Chris Coghlan off a 92 m.p.h. fastball on the outside corner. He threw 19 pitches in the first inning, his most of the night, and needed no more than 12 in any other inning except the seventh. In total, he threw 115 pitches, 72 for strikes.[5] Halladay worked his way out of seven three-ball counts and six full counts, and credited the effectiveness of his sinker for his success.[3] Of his 11 strikeouts, four came by way of sinkers.[5]

In the bottom of the ninth, pinch hitter Mike Lamb flied out deep to Shane Victorino in center field for the first out. The ball would have been a home run in many other ballparks, but did not carry out of Sun Life Stadium's cavernous center field. Halladay thought he had lost the perfect game when the ball was initially struck. Victorino later commented on flagging the ball down, "I was going to do whatever it took." For the second out, Wes Helms, another pinch hitter, struck out looking – the sixth batter to do so. In the game-ending play, Ronny Paulino was thrown a 1-2 curveball and hit a hard chopper to Juan Castro at third base; Castro reached wide to his left to grab the ball, spun and threw to first base to preserve the perfect game. It was the second such play made by Castro in the game.[3] Castro had been chosen to start at third base over Greg Dobbs at the start of the game due to Dobbs's two-run error in Halladay's previous start.[5]

Halladay praised catcher Carlos Ruiz:

I can't say enough about the job that Ruiz did tonight, really. I felt like he was calling a great game up until the fourth or fifth, and at that point, I just felt like I'd let him take over and go with him. He did a great job. Like I said, it was kind of a no-brainer for me. I'd just go out, see the glove and hit it.[3]

Halladay only shrugged off Ruiz once the entire game.[5]

Halladay became the 10th pitcher in Phillies history to hurl a no-hitter; Jim Bunning's perfect game in 1964 was the only other time a Phillies pitcher tossed a perfect game. In addition, this was the eighth perfect game in National League history, the last being Randy Johnson's in 2004.[3] This was the first time in the modern era that two pitchers—Dallas Braden and Halladay—had thrown perfect games in the same month and that multiple perfect games had been achieved in the same season.[2] The twenty days between Braden's perfect game and Halladay's was the shortest span between two perfect games since 1880.[6]

Unfortunately, it came at a bad time for the Phillies and for Philadelphia sports fans; Halladay pitched his perfect game on the same night the Philadelphia Flyers played the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals.[7][8] The opening face-off at the United Center in Chicago took place an hour after the Phillies-Marlins game began,[9] resulting in many Phillies fans and media there missing the perfect game due to the hockey game,[7] which the Flyers lost 6–5.[10]

The Phillies' play-by-play announcer Tom McCarthy did the television broadcast, on Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia.[11] He did what he could to uphold the tradition of not mentioning a perfect game until it was over, frequently alluding to the fact that Halladay was "pitching a masterpiece", but he broke the tradition in the 9th inning, mentioning the perfect game right before the 27th batter. Scott Franzke did the radio broadcast of the game for WPHT-AM.[5][11]

While the game was being played, many Phillies fans were also following the first game of the 2010 Stanley Cup Finals between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Chicago Blackhawks on NBC, or had chosen to watch the hockey game instead of the baseball game.[7] They came to know about the perfect game from Mike Emrick, Eddie Olczyk, and Pierre McGuire when the network replayed the final out during the second period.[9][12] As a result of the timing, Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia decided to rebroadcast the game two nights later, though it happened on the same day the Flyers played Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals.[7]

For the Marlins, Rich Waltz called the play on FS Florida, while radio broadcaster Glenn Geffner called the play on WAXY, the Marlins radio station.[11]