Yeah, that 2008 team blew me away too. A dominant starter and three solid starters gave them depth in the rotation (obviously Halladay at the top, with solid contributions from Shaun Marcum, Jesse Litsch, and A.J. Burnett) along with a quartet of lefty relievers in Scott Downs (who was completely filthy that year), Jesse Carlson, B.J. Ryan, and Brian Tallet (Carlson and Tallet were absolutely found money), with excellent contributions in limited innings from Brandon League and Brian Wolfe. Amongst the position players Rios (as you noted) was spectacular. Marco Scutaro had the first of two unexpectedly great seasons in Toronto (still one of my favourite all-time Blue Jays). Scott Rolen was on the decline, but still put up a very good season at the hot corner. Joe Inglett was an absolute revelation, as he came out of nowhere to have a career year, while playing every position except P and 1B. He never played 1B in his career, but he would make an appearance as a P in 2010 for the Brewers. Lyle Overbay, while not a great hitter, provided very good defense at 1B. Vernon Wells was great with the bat, but clearly should've been moved out of CF in favour of Rios, and Rod Barajas and Gregg Zaun combined to form a surprisingly good catching tandem.
It was one of those teams that outside of Halladay, Rios, and possibly Scutaro (defensive wizard that year primarily at SS, 2B, and 3B) had no contributors in the superstar category, but plenty of solid (and some extremely surprising) contributions up and down the roster, which after all is what teams need in order to compete. They were just overmatched in that behemoth of a division (Tampa 97-65, Boston 95-67, New York 89-73, and Toronto 86-76...ugh). For the second time in his managerial career, Cito Gaston (ver 2.0) provided a huge boost to a team that was seemingly dead in the water after taking over in late June (1989 being the other year after taking over for Jimy Williams) under John Gibbons (ver 1.0).
My favourite memory from that year came in Cito Gaston's first game back in Pittsburgh. There were two outs in the home half of the seventh inning when Nyjer Morgan hit an absolute screamer of a line drive back through the box that caromed off Roy Halladay's head, and into the glove of Scott Rolen for the third out. We all thought he was dead, but Halladay sprang to his feet, and you could see him mouth the words "Did we get the out?". Obviously he was removed from the game for pre-cautionary reasons, but five days (four games) later, there he was taking his turn in the rotation without missing a start against the Reds in Toronto. He wasn't very Halladay-like that night, but at least he was still alive. What. The. Hell?
That's one of many moments in his illustrious career that made us realize that he was no mere mortal, and is the inspiration to this day for my avatar, which I stole from a Blue Jays' blog that I used to post on. The blog was dissolved long ago and has seen a few iterations since its dissolution, but a ragtag bunch of us have migrated over to another blog that we all absolutely love, so I guess in that way, the original blog lives on.
Other moments that stand out on the eve of his induction to Cooperstown?...May 31, 2007. Halladay pitches on May 10, 2007, and in between the two starts has an appendectomy, so he probably came back a bit quickly. The opponent is the White Sox' Mark Buehrle, and the two go toe to toe in a classic pitchers duel. Buehrle gives up two hits, with no walks and six strikeouts in a CG...and loses (therefore an 8-inning CG), throwing 91 pitches. Halladay throws seven shutout innings allowing six hits (one double, five singles) with no walks and seven strikeouts (throwing 96 pitches). Casey Janssen and Jeremy Accardo shut the White Sox down the rest of the way allowing just one walk and one strikeout combined. Final score: 2-0 Blue Jays on HR by Aaron Hill and Frank Thomas. Game time: 1 hour and 50 minutes. Final team LOB: White Sox 4, Blue Jays 0. With RISP: White Sox 0 for 4, Blue Jays 0 for 0. I would not have believed it if I hadn't been watching it, but I watched it incredulously, having had an appendectomy less than four years earlier.
Then there was the second start of his career on September 27, 1998 against the Tigers. As he entered the ninth inning that day, all that stood between him and perfection was a 5th inning lead-off ground ball fielding error by 2B Felipe Crespo that allowed current MLBPA head Tony Clark to reach second. That's it. Current Phillies manager Gabe Kapler lined out to LF for the first out. Pinch hitter Paul Bako grounded out Crespo to Kevin Witt (last home game of the year, so all the regulars were long gone) for the second out. Pinch hitter Bobby Higginson was the next hitter, and he took the first pitch out to deep LF to break up the no-no and the shutout with one out to get. Full credit to Halladay for not losing his mind, and retiring Frank Catalanotto for the final out of the 95 pitch CG, 2-1 victory. Time of game: 1 hour and 45 minutes. Detroit team LOB: 1, Toronto team LOB: 5. Detroit with RISP: 0 for 3, Toronto with RISP: 0 for 0. All the runs scored on longballs by Alex Gonzalez, Shawn Green, and that prick Higginson. The kicker was that my mother (who knows nothing about baseball) went to the game with a friend who had amazing front row seats for it. She could not possibly have understood what was happening, and what came within an eyelash of happening.
Then there was the agony of 2000. A 10.64 ERA in 67.2 IP in 19 G and 13 GS. It got worse. Following spring training in 2001, he was busted all the way down to A-ball, and became a huge project for Mel Queen. Queen completely broke him down. They chucked out his over the top delivery, and went with the three quarters arm slot that everyone is now so familiar with. Also, I believe it was Halladay's wife Brandy, who stumbled across Harvey Dorfman's "The ABCs of pitching" in a discount bin at a book store. Between the tinkering with arm angles, the book, and Halladay's insane work ethic, his career not only came back from the dead. It became a HoF career.
He was recalled on July 2nd, 2001, and...things got off to a horrible start as he was shelled by the Red Sox for 6 runs in 2.1 IP in relief of Esteban Loaiza, who had given up 5 runs in 0.1 IP. His heart must've sank after that savage 16-4 beat down. Five days later, he got the start against the Expos, and finished the year going 5-3, with a 2.71 ERA in 16 GS including that one the rest of the way. To get a HoF career out of a career that was almost destroyed before it could get started is remarkable. Use whatever metric you want to measure pitchers between 2001 and 2011, and invariably you'll find that Halladay was the best and nobody else was all that close in that time frame. Johan Santana hung with him for about five of those eleven seasons (Santana was better than Halladay between 2004 and 2008 I think), and then, like the teammates that tried to keep up with his in between starts routine (mentioned below), Santana fell away, while Halladay kept on truckin'.
I'm sure I could find other examples in a Blue Jays uniform, but the perfect game in 2010 for the Phillies is another one. Then of course in the first exposure to the postseason of his career, he goes out and no-hits the Reds. There are no words. Only sadness that he won't be there to enjoy with his family what he worked so hard for. His work ethic speaks for itself. Seemingly every season, some young buck or newcomer would claim they were going to keep up with his routine all season, and invariably they would collapse and cry uncle a short distance into the season.
Wow that turned into a novel didn't it? Hyperbole? Absolutely, but here in Blue Jay fandom we feel entitled to a little hyperbole given the horrible end to his life. I can't imagine how his family feels on the eve of the Cooperstown call. Ugh.
Speaking of his family, his son Braden (who looks so much like him) pitched a 1-2-3 inning against the Jays for the Canadian National Team in Spring Training, 2018. Granted it was only Spring Training, but despite that...
Absolute chills. Ok...Really...That's it...I promise.
EDIT: Sorry to get so off topic. Such a bittersweet time to be a Blue Jays fan I guess.