-- Joe Blanton, always looking on the bright side of life.
That came from Jeff Passan’s postgame article over at Yahoo! More interesting than Blanton’s take was Passan’s. After calling the use of Oswalt in relief desperate -- and I kinda agree -- he says this:
Yowza.
I’ll go with Jeff on the tone here -- there is definitely a sense that the big Russian has been cut and doesn’t quite know what to do -- but I think the take on the pitching is a bit off. I don’t view Oswalt’s volunteering to pitch yesterday and subsequent failure to be his problem nearly as much as it was Charlie Manuel’s. If I were a manager I’d want any of my pitchers to want to go out in any game. It’d be up to me to tell them no, and Manuel didn’t do that.
More broadly speaking, the big three haven’t really failed here. Halladay didn’t have his best game in Game 1, but he pitched well enough. He made a couple of key mistakes and his offense didn’t help him out facing a pitcher just about as good as he is. Oswalt certainly did his job in Game 2. A team with Philly’s offensive tools shouldn’t be resigned to defeat simply because Cole Hamels gives up three runs. Matt Cain just whupped them.
I think Charlie’s moves were regrettable in Game 4, but ultimately, I view this as less as the Phillies choking or being frightened or running out of innings or however else it’s being described than them simply gettin’ beat. I’m not alone in this, by the way:
That’s Shane Victorino, saying pretty much all that needs to be said.
