Halladay vs. Carpenter is a historical rarity

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Halladay vs. Carpenterwho ya got?

Billed as the two former teammates, close friends and Cy Young Award winners, Roy Halladay and Chris Carpenter are squaring off in a rarity in a winner-take-all postseason game. Talk about pressure and drama two of the best pitchers in the game going after each other in a game to determine which team gets to continue the season.

How can the managers handle it?

I love good baseball and I like challenges, Phils skipper Charlie Manuel said on Thursday. I look at tomorrows game as, yeah, weve got two great pitchers pitching against one another and theres two good teams, and I look at that as thats kind of what it should be. Thats what playoff baseball should be. And thats where its at.

I said it the second game there, just because I'm a baseball fan as much as anybody, what a thrill it would be to go back to Philadelphia and see Carp and Halladay go at each other, Cards manager Tony La Russa said. They've got so much common history and they're both great pitchers, great competitors, and now we're going to do it. It's going to be as good as it gets. We're looking forward to being there and trying our best. And they are so close, they both have a lot of weapons. You can see each of those guys four times and they'll give you something different all four times."

Going into Friday nights showdown, there have been 72 series stretched to the limit, but past Cy Young Award winners have squared off against each other just twice.

Pedro Martinez was involved in both of them.

2003 ALCS Game 7: Pedro Martinez vs. Roger Clemens
Remember this one? Pedro Martinez held the Yankees in check for seven innings until he reached the 100-pitch plateau. That's when he got into a bit of trouble, but rather than turn to the bullpen, Martinez talked manager Grady Little into leaving him in.

The rest is history. The Yankees rallied to tie the game against the tiring Martinez, Mariano Rivera came on for the Yankees and went three innings until Aaron Boone homered to lead off the 11th to win it.

Afterwards, Little was the scapegoat and was fired, essentially, for leaving Martinez in for too long.

2003 ALDS Game 5: Barry Zito vs. Pedro Martinez
Another typical Martinez outing in which he was solid for seven innings. In the sixth inning, the Red Sox scored four runs on Barry Zito on homers from Jason Varitek and Manny Ramirez to rally from the 0-2 series deficit.

Cy Young Award winners have matched up in other postseason games, but not as frequently as expected.

In the 2009 World Series, Cliff Lee and C.C. Sabathia went toe-to-toe in a showdown between the previous two AL Cy Young Award winners. That was the one where Lee matched a feat that only ever occurred in the very first World Series game in history when he gave up zero earned runs with 10 strikeouts in a complete game in a World Series debut.

Meanwhile, there was the 2001 NLCS duel between Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux where the starters combined for nine Cy Young Awards. Johnson and the Diamondbacks won, 2-0.

In postseason play, the past and future Cy Young Award winners have been paired in a game just four times. The last one came 19 years ago when Tom Glavine and the Braves lost Game 1 of the 1991 NLCS to Doug Drabek and the Pirates.

Drabek faced John Smoltz in Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS in Atlanta. In this one, Drabek took a 2-0 lead and a five-hitter into the ninth inning. But after a double, an error and a walk, he was out of the game and four hitters later, the Braves won on Francisco Cabreras walk-off hit that scored a slow-as-mud Sid Bream from second base.

Before that, Mike Scott of the Astros used his splitter to beat Dwight Gooden and the Mets, 1-0, in Game 1 of the 1986 NLCS. Later in that same series, Gooden faced Nolan Ryan, a pitcher who never won the Cy Young, but is in the Hall of Fame. Neither pitcher figured in the decision, though Phillies super scout Charlie Kerfeld was tagged with the loss for the Astros when Gary Carters single won it for the Mets in the 12th inning.

Otherwise, 1970 Cy Young Award winner Jim Perry of the Twins and 1969 winner Mike Cuellar of the Orioles matched up in a 10-6 slug-fest in Game 1 of the 70 ALCS, though neither pitcher was around by the fifth inning.

A small, but notable moment of that game was that there was a 26-year-old lefty pinch-hitter on the bench for the Twins in that game named Chuck Manuel.
E-mail John R. Finger at jfinger@comcastsportsnet.com.

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