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 [...]

The formula to beating the St. Louis Cardinals always used to be simple: Pitch around Albert Pujols and make the rest of the lineup beat you. Pujols was the Cardinals lineup. Hold him without an RBI for a game and a win is yours.

Those Cardinals were an OK team. When healthy the pitching was good and the lineup managed to do just enough to keep the team competitive.

Those Cardinals disappeared just before the All-Star break. The current group in St. Louis is the hottest team in baseball and threat No. 1 to the Philadelphia Phillies returning to the World Series.

Why the Cardinals could beat the Phillies: No team in baseball had a better August than the Cardinals, storming through the [...]