It appears as if Charlie Manuel finally heard the rest of us. I find it admirable that he stated Lidge was his guy a few months ago when the closer first started to struggle and was staying with him to the bitter end. I can appreciate his attempt at loyalty and integrity. But at a certain point, even Manuel had to recognize as manager of the defending World Series champions, his primary objective should be to win games. Lidge’s difficulties this season were dangerously close to infecting the rest of the team.

Tonight Cole Hamel’s evened his record at .500 by pitching 6+ strong innings of 1 run ball. Manuel then brought Chan Ho Park and Brett Myers in for middle relief. After that, for the second night in a row, he brought in Ryan Madsen to close. Now here is the strange thing, the last two games Madsen has earned the save, but he is also giving up hits and runs !

What is it this year about this pitching staff. If you pitch in middle relief or long relief, you are effective but the moment they place a “closer” designation on you, the balls start to fly off the bat ? Madsen gave up a double and a single and allowed a run on a fielders choice before completing the save. He came in with a three run cushion though. If he only had a one or two run cushion, tonight could have gotten interesting really quick. He still has an ERA near 3, but he hasn’t been in that many save opportunities yet.

A lot of people don’t realize just how difficult it is to close a game. You only face a couple of batters, but they are generally warmed up and in a do or die situation with a lot more on the line. The managers are manipulating the lineup for all they are worth, trying to bring about the perfect mismatch. At that point traditionally, it has always been a relatively thankless job, except for the rare times like Lidge had last year when he was perfect from start to finish and his team won it all. Those seasons come around sometimes only once in a career for a closer. It is much more common for a closer to throw one bad ball out over the plate and become the goat, frequently when he is not solely to blame for the teams loss.

That being said, getting Lidge out of that role is the right thing to do. I feel bad he is in that position, but the same thing happened to Jamie Moyer earlier this year when he was pulled from the starting lineup. Moyer has pitched as well or better since the manager made that move, so maybe Lidge will find a better role to finish out the season and help this team repeat as champions. This is a team that can do it. Tonight they won on defense, solid hitting in the clutch, and a little bit of luck. I admire Manuel more for admitting by his actions that he had backed the wrong horse. Like I said before, it is his job to manage this team so they win ballgames, not to win a popularity contest.

This team will be in the spotlight the rest of the way. The Rockies are on a tear, as are the Cardinals, with their potential triple crown contender in Albert Pujols. The Angels are better hitters statistically, the Dodgers and Giants are better pitching statistically. It is possible the Phillies are only the fourth or fifth choice to win the World Series this year. The fact they were 2008 champions actually hurts them a bit with the pundits and sportswriters. Take the Yankees out of the picture, and only one other team has won double World Series since the Phillies last title, way back in 1980. I speak of the Toronto Blue Jays. Where are they now ? Near the cellar in their division.

It is no longer an easy thing to do in a league with a lot of parity considering there is no payroll equality, and the Phillies did spend some money this year to add to their World Series defending squad to see if they could be the first to do it in the 21st century. For a team in the spotlight, it is time to settle down, play ball, and everybody do what they do best. At this particular moment, Manuel seems to be coaching, which is what he does, and Lidge is NOT closing which at this point is what he needs to do.

Tagged with: Albert Pujols, Brad Lidge, Brett Myers, Chan Ho Park, Charlie Manuel, Cole Hamels, Jamie Moyer

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