Tonight the Phillies defeated the New York Mets 4 - 2 in a game that was played in a drizzle. Despite the soggy field conditions, both teams did fairly well defensively. As in the recent past, the Phillies stranded a lot of base runners before finally getting 2 insurance runs in the later innings. Cole Hamels pitched well for six and two-thirds innings; Chan Ho Park got the third out in the seventh inning. Charley Manual brought in Brett Myers for the eighth inning, and he really looked sharp, retiring the Mets with ease on just six pitches. I was pretty sure he would let Myers pitch the ninth inning too, but I was wrong. Charley apparently still believes that he MUST bring a "Closer" into the ninth inning of every game if it is a "save" situation.

Thank heaven he didn't bring in Brad Lidge! Maybe Charley woke up to the fact that nearly everyone has known for quite a while - Brad Lidge is having a really bad season and is not reliable as a "Closer".

No, Charley didn't bring in Lidge. Maybe he did wake up, at least a little. He called upon Ryan Madson, who got off to a shaky start by surrendering base hits to the first 2 Met batters. Luckily, Madson bore down and got a double-play grounder (one run scored) and then retired the final batter to get the "save".

I'm glad Madson got out of the inning, but I'm still wondering why Brett Myers didn't come out for the ninth after throwing only six pitches in the eighth. Hey Charley! Relievers are allowed to pitch more than one inning! You don't ALWAYS have to bring in a "Closer" to pitch the ninth. It's in the rule book. Check it out!