Has the Phillies closer situation taken a turn for the better with Charlie Manuel deciding to take the ball from Brad Lidge, who had let the Astros load the bases, and give it to Ryan Madsen?
Madsen was able to get the two outs needed without surrendering a run and by throwing only six pitches. The Phils hung onto a 5-3 victory, but all is not well.
“That was a tough thing for me to do,”Charlie said afterwards. “I have all the respect in the world for Brad and, believe me, I
know how good a closer he is and I know how great he can be, and I’ve
still got all the confidence in the world in him”.
“But I’m sitting there and I didn’t have a real good feeling about
the game and I made up my mind I wanted to try [Ryan] Madson. It was
real tough.”
Still Charlie says that Brad Lidge is his closer regardless of what he had to do last night. I think actions speak louder than words.
“When I say he’s my closer, I don’t tell lies. And I don’t like to
go back on nothing,” Manuel said. “But the team and the game is bigger
than my heart, and bigger than anything else. Winning a game is what
comes first and that’s why I manage. That was real tough for me to do”
“But I’m definitely not going to get away from him. We’re going to
work with him and get him back to where he becomes consistent and he
can save games. I look at him as a closer. Not a seventh-inning guy or
eighth-inning guy.”
I give Charlie credit for standing behind his players but if he got that bad feeling last night, what’s going to prevent him from getting that bad feeling on another night, only earlier.
I think we might hear about that bad feeling again.
