No Relief Part 2

Watching the game tonight on FSN and the Phillies were cruising through 6 innings with Wolf holding the Reds offense to 2 runs and the Phillies holding a 4-2 lead. Since Wolf reached the 100 pitch mark in the 6th inning, Manuel took him out of the game and put in Ryan Madson (more on this in a bit). Ryan gets Harang (the pitcher) out, then a hit-by-pitch, an infield single, then a solid single to plate 1 run, and 2 left-handers coming up in Griffey and Dunn. At this point, most baseball people would look at the book and go to a leftie specialist to face the Reds big left handed bats. That pitcher's name is Rheal Cormier and his job description is clear -- he's the one who is paid to get tough left handers out. But, Charlie Manuel apparently has not read that book and leaves Madson in the game. To Ryan's credit, the first 2 batters had a lot of luck getting on base, and he has been the most dependable arm out of the pen. But outs are at a premium for the Phillies in the middle innings, so why not switch to Cormier. Of course, Griffey hits a 3 run shot on a hanging breaking ball from Madson. Now the Phillies are down 6-4 with Dunn up to bat, surely Madson's night is done. Nope, he stays in and gives up a moon shot to Adam Dunn. Now Madson's night really has to be "Dunn" for sure, right...nope, like watching a boxing match that has gotten out of hand, Manuel leaves him in to face Austin Kearns who promtly laces a double down the line. Mercifully, Manuel trots out to a chorus of well deserved boos to replace Madson. What gives here? Did Charlie give up on the game once Griffey hit the home run? Can't we try and stop the bleading and get a couple of tough outs, then give the hitters a chance to get back into this game. It was inexplicable why Manuel left Madson in, and really inexcusable. The game ends in a 12-4 pounding.

Back to Wolf. His curve wasn't working, but he was mixing his pitches enough and getting key outs. So he hits the 100 pitch mark, and it is understandable they want to treat him carefully, after the injuries last year, but why not let him start the 7th and see if he can get through it with a low number of pitches. It's not like Randy has pitched many innings this year with the way he was throwing early on. Getting the starter through the 7th inning is really the way a baseball game is supposed to work, if the starter has a good night, he should go at least 7 innings. With the 9th belonging to Wagner, that means the Phillies relief staff only has to get through 3 outs. Let's see, 5 pitchers for 3 outs, that should be do-able. Playing matchups and the hot hand should get you through most of those innings really. There just is no reason to bring Wolf out of the game at this point. Ryan Howard pinch hit for him with 2 outs in the bottom of the 6th, but no one was on base. If the Phillies were in a scoring situation, then by all means pinch hit, but with no one on and 2 outs, what the heck? In contrast, the Reds let Aaron Harang lead off the 7th, recognizing that he was pitching fairly well and not wanting to dip into their bullpen too early. He ended up making the final out of the inning too, as the Reds batted around.

This strategy of pulling starters early is eerily similar to the Bowa led Phillies of the last couple of years. With the Phillies loaded with good relief arms, Bowa leaned heavily on the bullpen only to have them break down late in the year. This year, the relief is looking broken down in the early part of the year, so what chance do they have later if they are overworked now. The Phillies have to get 200 plus innings out of their startes to preserve the back-end of the staff. If you don't do that, you can't win late in the year (without a few trades that is).

Midway Phillies is trying to remain positive until the 40 game mark, but at this point, things look really really bad, and much of it has to fall on Manuel's shoulders at this point. The chants to replace Manuel are a little early to start, but this team has to come together quick, if it isn't already too late. But again, there are enough positive signs and talent with this team to believe they can pull off a miracle come-back to the season, so for now we maintain the glass is half-full optimism. It's the weekend again, so let's all tip back a few of those glasses and hope it can somehow turn around.