The Marlins were out for a bit of revenge Thursday night at Citizen's Bank Park as Josh Johnson and Roy Halladay took the mound for a rematch of Doc's perfect game back on May 29th.
Let's just be honest; who wasn't hoping JJ would toss a perfecto of his own? (Oh, that many of you, huh? Just call me a dreamer.)
Well, Josh didn't throw a perfect game, or a no-hitter, but he did shut out the Phillies through eight innings. JJ gave up just three hits and a walk, while striking out five, and lowered his ERA to 1.91
While Josh handled the Philths, the Marlins lineup sought vengeance against Roy Halladay. Chris Coghlan took away any chance of perfection on the first at-bat of the game, when he singled to center field. The Marlins would go on to load the bases with nobody out, but could only manage to push one run across the plate, courtesy of an RBI sac fly from Jorge Cantu.
Halladay held the score at 1-0 through eight innings, as he gave up six hits and one walk, while striking out eight.
Danys Baez took over for Doc in the ninth, and gave up a solo home run to Dan Uggla, but thanks to JJ's stellar performance, the game had already been won in the first inning.
Leo Nunez gave up a double to Placido Polanco to make things interesting in the bottom of the ninth, but struck out Ryan Howard swinging to end the game, and preserve JJ's shutout.
Now if only we could get all of our starters to go as deep in the game as JJ. That would certainly cure our seventh-inning woes.