Charlie Manuel's use of the bullpen this year has never been shakier, and tonight's game with Halladay (still going on as I write this, btw) provided another questionable moment.
An obviously tiring Doc was struggling through more bum's luck in the seventh inning, after a couple of lucky, weak hits. With two outs the Reds' hottest hitter, Jay Bruce, was due up. Charlie had already been out to talk to his star, and one gets the feeling that Chuck doesn't really lead in these situations, he takes the easy way out and "let's his players play," rather than making a hard, possibly conventional wisdom-flauting move (Charlie is nothing if not consistent in his willingness to be conventional). Bruce is a lefty, there were two outs, and Halladay was done after this inning, no matter what happened. Why not bring in Romero or Bastardo--two very tough pitchers against lefties--for the final out?
Will Halladay get upset by this? I don't care. His job is to do what's best for the team. Charlie's job is to make the tough decisions, not be everyone's BFF. I've always wondered if someone is keeping track of the number of mid-inning pitching changes, because I've always suspected that the Phillies are pretty much last in the league in that category. It's as if Charlie doesn't want to upset or insult his pitchers by making them walk off the field all alone.
As I was writing the above, Bruce hit a home run in the 10th inning off of Bastardo. While that doesn't invalidate what I wrote at all, it does show how this is all about playing the percentages, reducing risk, and avoiding the strengths of your opponents. And then someone just does something damned impressive, because he's damned good--like Jay Bruce.
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