Roy Halladay

In order for a team to be successful in the playoffs, it is imperative that it has at least one dominant starting pitcher.

Each year, the winner of the World Series features one, if not a few starting pitchers who are capable of tossing eight innings of shutout ball on any given night.

Halladay did one better last night.

With his electrifying performance in Game 1 of the National League Division Series came visions of postseason dominance gone by. Here are the five greatest postseason pitching performances of all time.

Roy Halladay and Don Larsen are two pitchers who couldn’t be more different, but after Halladay tossed his no-hitter against last night, the two will forever be linked.

How can today's slate of games possibly compare to the events of yesterday? Roy Halladay's first career playoff start was beyond exceptional and resulted in only the second no-hitter in playoff history!

Meanwhile, the Yankees yet again overcame an early deficit and stole home field advantage away from the wins. Lost in the shuffle will be Cliff Lee's terrific start against a potent Rays offense. Lee was lights out, giving up five hits and one run over seven innings while striking out ten.

Roy Halladay has already had a pretty impressive career, he's won a Cy Young award, thrown a perfect game, and played in seven All Star games. The only thing that Halladay didn't have on his resume was playoff experience. Coming into today Halladay had pitched in more games (320) than any other active pitcher who had never pitched in the postseason.

Today Halladay finally got to pitch in the playoffs, and he made the most of it to say the least....

There's certainly going to be an influx of Roy Halladay articles popping up in the next day or so, and it's easy to see why.

Halladay is only the second pitcher in MLB playoff history to throw a no-hitter and the first in over 50 years since Yankee Don Larsen pitched his perfect game against the Dodgers in the 1956 World Series.

He's also thrown his second no-hitter of the season, the first being a perfect game.

Earlier today, Roy Halladay of the Toro... Philadelphia Phillies just pitched the second no-hitter in Major League Baseball playoff history.

As a life-long Torontonian and die hard Blue Jay fan this was, to say the least, bittersweet.

Amid the early months of autumn, baseball keeps getting better and better. The tone is dazzling. The words are beautiful. The unhittable ace accomplished the unthinkable on the mound, and the city of Philly screamed with delight, enough to widen the crack in the Liberty Bell.

Roy Halladay's performance on Wednesday was masterful.  The Doc was indeed surgical.   

In his first career playoff game, Roy Halladay may have pitched the best game of his life against the Cincinnati Reds.  

The only other performance that is comparable is his perfect game earlier this season against the Florida Marlins.  

However, he was only one walk shy of pitching another perfect game.  

Roy "Doc" Halladay had to wait 12-plus years to get his first taste of the postseason.  He'll have to wait a little longer to give up his first hit.  One doesn't think that he'll mind the wait.

With Roy Halladay becoming the fourth pitcher in baseball history to throw two no-hitters in the same season, I thought it would be interesting to see how his playoff no-hitter compared to his perfect game on May 29 against the Florida Marlins.

Here is the tail of the tape: