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BY SCOTT LAUBER
So, I appeared on a radio show this afternoon on WIP and was asked if the Phillies would consider pulling Brad Lidge from the closer spot, especially after J.C. Romero returns from his 50-game suspension next week. My answer: "Absolutely not."
Turns out, Charlie Manuel had the same answer.
"I want Lidge to feel like we've got all the confidence in the world in him because I do," Manuel said about an hour ago in the Phillies' dugout. "People are going to voice opinions and all that and say, 'Sit him' and all this stuff. What's sitting going to do for him? Sooner or later, he's got to get back out there and pitch and get somebody out. What's going to be good for him is when he goes out and throws a good inning. He does that a couple days in a row, and then, I think you'll see a huge difference. Once he gets his command, he'll be off to the races. Sitting is just kind of prolonging it. That's how I'd look at it if I was a player. If I say to him, 'After the last two days, I'm going to give you a break or slide you into the seventh inning,' how would you feel? I'd say, 'Chuck don't like me too good.' Believe me, that's how I look at it.
"I think his stuff is there, and I think it's just a matter of him making more quality pitches and cutting down on his walks. That's what I think. His stuff will play out over 162 games. That's what makes him a good closer. Will he blow some games? Sure. He had a perfect year last year. He wasn't going to top that. He had to have some letdown this season. And that's baseball."
Asked if he would consider using setup man Ryan Madson as the closer until Lidge gets his stuff together, Manuel said, "No. That's worse. What kind of message is that? That's really worse. That's what Houston did. They used to slide him in the sixth and seventh. What good did that do?"
The answer: It didn't do any good. In 2007, Lidge allowed six runs (three earned) and blew one save in his first two appearances and was removed from the closer role. If anything, then-Astros manager Phil Garner shook Lidge's confidence, and it took a trade to the Phillies after the '07 season for him to regain it.
More on Lidge in tomorrow's News Journal.
***
Tonight's lineup against Marlins RHP Chris Volstad (3-3, 3.64):
SS Jimmy Rollins
2B Chase Utley
LF Raul Ibanez
1B Ryan Howard
RF Jayson Werth
CF Shane Victorino
3B Pedro Feliz
C Carlos Ruiz
LHP Jamie Moyer
BY SCOTT LAUBER
FORT LAUDERDALE -- Hello from Gate E3 at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. It's 4:57 a.m., and like the rest of the Phillies' traveling press corps, I'm awaiting a 6 a.m. flight home.
Talk about having a case of the Mondays.
Anyway, a few bleary-eyed thoughts on what went down here yesterday:
1. Neither Jamie Moyer nor Chad Durbin nor J.A. Happ allowed a home run in the 13-2 drubbing over the Marlins, marking the first time in 17 games to open the season that the Phillies didn't give up a long ball. That was a major-league record, by the way, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. "Woooo-hoooo!" Moyer said. "Now I can sleep tonight."
2. Moyer's seemingly hypnotic mastery of the Marlins continued. In 13 career starts against Florida, he's 12-1 with a 3.17 ERA. And every time he beats the Marlins, I -- or another of the reporters who covers the game -- inevitably asks Moyer about why he dominates the Fish. His answer is always the same: No clue. But as long as it keeps going, he doesn't really care either.
3. For me, though, the biggest thing that came out of the postgame conversation was a noticeable change in Charlie Manuel's mood. It was only a week ago, before a rainout at the Bank, that Manuel said he had noticed "some difference in guys" after the Phillies won the World Series. He didn't name names, but he wondered if some players were getting "too big for their britches." Told about Manuel's comments, several players either flat-out disagreed with his assessment or didn't know what he was talking about.
But after a sweep of the Marlins, Manuel couldn't be happier with the Phillies.
"I like the attitude on our team," he said yesterday, rocking back in a chair behind his desk at Dolphin Stadium.
So, what changed? Was it simply a matter of winning three straight games?
"Some good self-evaluation sometimes takes care of that," Manuel said. "Also, all you've got to do is have some 0-for-4s, or have your pitchers get banged around a little bit. That'll wake you up."
***
Here's a preview of the series that starts tonight at the Bank.
NATIONALS (4-13) at PHILLIES (9-8)
Tonight, 7:05: RHP Shairon Martis (2-0, 4.11) vs. RHP Joe Blanton (0-2, 7.31)
Tuesday, 7:05: LHP John Lannan (0-2, 4.43) vs. LHP Cole Hamels (0-2, 9.69)
Wednesday, 7:05: LHP Scott Olsen (0-3, 7.29) vs. RHP Brett Myers (1-1, 4.91)
Hot: Nationals 3B Ryan Zimmerman is batting .308 (20-for-65) with 10 RBIs during his 15-game hitting streak, the majors’ longest; Nationals C Jesus Flores is 11-for-27 (.407) with nine RBIs in his last eight games; Phillies 1B Ryan Howard is 5-for-15 (.333) in his last three games; Phillies RF Jayson Werth is batting .333 (17-for-54) with two home runs and nine RBIs after starting the season 1-for-11.
Not: Nationals OF Josh Willingham went hitless in seven at-bats over the weekend against the Mets; Nationals 2B Anderson Hernandez has three hits in his last 20 at-bats (.150); Phillies SS Jimmy Rollins is batting .162 (11-for-68) with a .205 on-base percentage; Phillies C Chris Coste is 5-for-30 (.167) with nine strikeouts since Carlos Ruiz went on the disabled list April 11.
***
Programming note: I'll be hosting another live chat at delawareonline.com at noon on Wednesday. Stop by. We'll talk. No big whoop.
Programming note II: Calling all Twitterers. Come Tweet with me. Also, Philled In is now on Facebook, too.
***
OK, about to board. More later from home.
BY SCOTT LAUBER
MIAMI GARDENS -- Meet Graham Taylor, a 24-year-old lefty making his major-league debut today for the Marlins.
Jimmy Rollins won't have a chance to introduce himself.
For the second time in seven games, J-Roll isn't in the Phillies' lineup. Yet again, his absence has to do with his early-season slump. Charlie Manuel said Rollins will take some swings in the cage again today, although not as many as last Sunday at the Bank. Through 16 games, Rollins is batting .162 (11-for-68) with one homer, five RBIs and a wretched .205 on-base percentage.
"He's not swinging good," Manuel said. "He doesn't have his timing."
Odds are, Rollins will play tomorrow night against the Nationals, Manuel said.
Here's the full lineup vs. Taylor, who was 2-1 with a 3.24 ERA at double-A Jacksonville:
CF Shane Victorino (.258/2/9)
SS Eric Bruntlett (.167/0/2)
2B Chase Utley (.322/5/14)
1B Ryan Howard (.281/3/10)
RF Jayson Werth (.292/2/10)
LF Raul Ibanez (.269/5/11)
3B Pedro Feliz (.269/1/9)
C Chris Coste (.207/0/5)
LHP Jamie Moyer (2-1, 6.35)
BY SCOTT LAUBER
FORT LAUDERDALE -- So, there I was, sitting in the Dolphin Stadium press box last night and getting ready to apply the finishing touches to my game story for The News Journal's first edition when first-year Marlins closer Matt Lindstrom entered in the ninth inning.
And, suddenly, I had flashbacks to 2005.
Allow me to explain. In 2005, I was covering the Mets' double-A, Eastern League affiliate for the Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y., and Lindstrom was a Mets prospect. He was a starter back then, and he threw a fastball that often pushed radar guns to triple digits and left scouts drooling. There was no denying Lindstrom had an electric right arm. Problem was, he had little control. In 73-1/3 innings for Binghamton that season, he walked 55 batters, and after 10 starts, the folks on the Mets' player-development staff decided he was best-suited to be a reliever. In fact, if he could ever harness his command, they were sure he could be a good late-inning reliever. And, lo and behold, after being traded to the Marlins in November 2006, that was he became. He did a nice job for the Marlins last year as a setup man, and after Kevin Gregg (the bespectacled reliever, not the Phillies' PR man) was sent to the Cubs in the offseason, Lindstrom ascended to the closer role.
But there he was in the ninth inning last night, allowing a one-out double to Jayson Werth, walking Raul Ibanez and giving up a pinch-hit RBI single to Matt Stairs. And there I was, thinking I had seen this all before. Lindstrom was struggling to locate his pitches, and all of a sudden, the Phillies had life. Sure, they had done absolutely nothing offensively in the previous 28 innings. (They were batting .153, 15-for-98, and had scored two runs since the seventh inning Tuesday night.) But the Phillies are nothing if not relentless, and I knew Lindstrom was in trouble. After he struck out pinch-hitting Eric Bruntlett, I thought he might get out of it. But when he walked struggling Jimmy Rollins with the bases loaded to cut the margin to 3-2, I began punching my delete key and rewriting my story.
Sure enough, Shane Victorino belted a grand slam -- not as memorable as his slam in Game 2 of the NLDS against CC Sabathia, but clutch nonetheless. The Phillies suddenly were leading 6-3, and Chase Utley made it 7-3 with a solo homer. It capped an improbable comeback for the Phillies and an absolutely ginormous win. They avoided a three-game losing streak, inched within 3-1/2 games of the suddenly shaky Marlins (several people said it was funereal in their clubhouse after the game) and may have finally found that elusive rhythm they have been talking about for the past two weeks.
And while we'll have plenty of time to analyze this particular Phillies victory, I found myself driving back to the hotel and thinking about Lindstrom. After Utley's homer, Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez walked to the mound and replaced his closer, who walked slowly to the dugout. At one point, they put the camera on Lindstrom, and he appeared shell-shocked.
I had seen him look that way before.
***
Within the notebook, more on Cole Hamels. Also, J.C. Romero is spending the weekend with the Phillies, and he had an emotional reaction to the Nick Adenhart tragedy.
***
Calling all Twitterers. Come Tweet with me. Also, Philled In is now on Facebook, too.
More in a bit from Dolphin Stadium.
