Since I first-guessed Charlie Manuel the other day about something no one else seemed to notice, I wanted to defend him from some particularly stupid grief he got recently.
This is from the Adam Eaton game with the Reds Saturday. Eaton enters the eighth inning with a 3-2 lead, his pitch count in the 70s. He gets the first two outs and then Corey Patterson of the Reds hits a fly ball that clears the fence by about two feet, so of course the talk-radio simps are murdering Charlie for leaving Eaton in that long.
Manuel’s alternatives to Eaton, at the time, were Brad Lidge, who hadn’t thrown an important pitch since last fall, and Tom Gordon, whose last meaningful pitches comprised perhaps the worst outing of his career.
And that isn’t even the big problem. Taking Eaton out in that situation because, hey, we have a guy for the eighth inning, and we have another one for the ninth inning, is what’s wrong with baseball. When you start taking pitchers out of the game when they’re pitching effectively, you end up with things like 12- or 13-man pitching staffs (this just in: MLB is over 120 years old, and no team, ever, has had 13 good pitchers. It doesn’t exist), your ninth-best pitcher on the mound with the game on the line, and Clay Condrey on your payroll.
So Eaton leaves with then game tied, having allowed three runs in eight innings, and this is evidence that Manuel cost the Phillies the game? This is absolute proof that the duncetariat is going to kill Charlie about everything, whether it makes sense or not.
