Uncertain Roles Keep Phils' Relievers on Their Toes

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

By John R. Finger
CSNPhilly.com

LOS ANGELES — In less time than it took to play Monday night’s wildly dramatic clinching game at Coors Field, the traveling circus that is the Philadelphia Phillies took the big top to Hollywood.

Only there was a bit of a pit stop first. Shortly after Brad Lidge threw that slider to strike out Troy Tulowitzki, the Phillies had a little party in the visitors’ clubhouse at Coors Field, showered and boarded a charter flight back to Philadelphia to pick up enough clothes to last for a few more days.

Apparently the Phillies packed too many sweaters for Colorado and not enough cargo shorts. Oh, and they needed to pick up Cole Hamels, too.

But that means the team will turn around after spending less than 24 hours at home to fly cross country in order to have the mandatory workout day at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday followed by Game 1 on Thursday night.

Only then will the Phillies fall back into something of a normal routine — if there is such a thing — with the playoff baseball schedule. That’s pretty important considering baseball players are creatures of habit who thrive on normalcy.

But then again, maybe not.  In fact, the Phillies have done quite well lately without having any type of normalcy at all. That specifically relates to the relieving corps who really have no idea which pitcher is going to get the call and when.

Strangely enough, they like it that way.

When the phone rings out in the bullpen these days, the relievers have no idea who manager Charlie Manuel is calling for. In the Game 4 clincher against the Rockies, veteran lefty specialist Scott Eyre trotted out to take the mound before turning the game over to Lidge for the final out.

The interesting thing about that is Eyre has been the last pitcher in a game just six times over the past two seasons and has not recorded a save since 2004. In 636 Major League games in the regular season and the playoffs, Eyre has notched just four saves. Make that four saves in 13 seasons.

Yet Eyre found himself on the mound looking to close it out for the Phillies. He had a chance to do it, too, but ended up surrendering a two-out hit to Todd Helton before Manuel turned to Lidge.

“It’s every little kids’ dream,” Eyre said about taking the mound to start the ninth in a one-run game. “It wasn’t the World Series, but it was the biggest game of the year for us. It was fun. It’s nice to know that your manager has that much confidence in you when you have Brad Lidge behind you.”

Better yet, Eyre says the way the bullpen is set up with pitchers in undefined roles is kind of fun, too. In Game 3, Eyre came on with two outs in the sixth inning with the Phillies clinging to a one-run lead. When he quickly recorded an out to end the inning, Manuel sent the lefty back out for the seventh, where he ended up suffering a sprained ankle.

The next day, with a sprained ankle and a bone chip floating around in his left elbow, Eyre was attempting to close it out.

Fun? Absolutely.

“It’s very exciting,” Eyre said about the undefined roles in the Phillies’ bullpen. “It’s actually more exciting because when the phone rings we all go (turns head with wide-eyed expression). ‘Which one? I got it?’ It’s fun. It’s just fun. I don’t know any other words for it, but it’s just fun.”

Lidge agrees. Even though he was unceremoniously dumped from the closer’s spot during a game in Washington in mid-September and struggled through the season to record the worst ERA by a pitcher with at least 25 saves (Lidge got 31 in the regular season) in baseball history, the veteran closer is having a blast.

Oh, sometimes it’s pretty tense—maybe even more so for those watching Lidge pitch in tight games. But after not getting a save opportunity in nearly a month after taking his Major League-leading 11th blown save, Lidge has saved two straight one-run victories and has not allowed a run in two appearances.

Within a handful of days Lidge has gone from a league-worst 7.21 ERA to a clean slate.

“Sometimes it seems it doesn’t matter who is out there throwing because we know we’re going to get it done. We believe in ourselves,” Lidge said. “It could be a six-run deficit but we still have the audacity to believe we can come back and that’s what makes it so good and really fun to watch.”

Yet just like Eyre, Lidge doesn’t know when Manuel is going to call him into a game. When he nailed down the Game 3 save it was because Lidge was the Phils’ best option against the Rockies’ hitters. Ditto for Game 4 where he threw five straight slow-breaking sliders to Tulowitzki.

When the Phillies take on the Dodgers in the NLCS, Lidge knows he could get the call in the seventh or eighth inning and that’s OK, too.

“It’s kind of fun,” Lidge said. “Obviously, I wish that this year could have gone perfectly and everything went right and we had our set roles, but it didn’t and there’s nothing I can do now other than be ready when they want me to be ready. I feel fortunate that I had the opportunity to get in there the past two days, but I also feel that Eyre and (Ryan) Madson are awesome relief pitchers. Whether they are going to close games or not, they can get it done, too. We actually have a lot of options down there so we might sneak up on people.”

That’s right… call them the jokers’ wild gang of relievers ready to go in any situation. Better yet, call that as standard as playoff baseball can be with the gang the Phillies have out there.

For more on the Phillies from John Finger visit his blog, “Finger Food.”

E-mail John R. Finger at jfinger@comcastsportsnet.com