YONG KIM / Staff photographer
Charlie Manuel makes pitching change in eighth inning.
- The Phillies Zone: Phillies NLCS rotation takes shape
- Gonzo: No respect for Ryan Howard?
- Time, patience helped Phils' Lidge return to form
- Phil Sheridan: Phillies at home and holding advantage
- Inside the Phillies: Werth finds himself in a valued position
- Phillies Notes: Phillies tap Blanton for Game 4 start
- Timing is everything for Phillies' Lee
- Phils' Manuel doesn't always go by book
- Buy Phillies jerseys, playoff t-shirts, hats, and more
- Purchase Phillies playoff photos & reprints
- Photos: 2009 Phillies
- Relive the memories: Coverage of the World Series run
RELATED STORIES
Dick Jerardi: Managers manage to confound with early hooks for starters
LOS ANGELES - It is one of those mysteries of the modern game. No matter how well a starting pitcher is throwing (and this goes triple for the postseason) or how few pitches he has thrown, that pitcher almost never is allowed to finish a game, especially if it is close.
Dodgers manager Joe Torre removed Vicente Padilla from yesterday's Game 2 of the National League Championship Series after he walked Carlos Ruiz with one out in the eighth inning. He had allowed one run. Moments later, Charlie Manuel removed Pedro Martinez. He had allowed no runs.
It worked out fine for the Dodgers, not so fine for the Phillies. What the managers did it is not at all unusual. In fact, it is commonplace.
The pair had combined to throw 182 pitches (or seven fewer than Phils pitchers threw in Game 1). Still, both had to go.
Charlie will get second-guessed, because the Phils lost 2-1. Joe will be hailed as a genius, because the Dodgers won.
Regardless, it begs the question: Why remove someone who is pitching great and insert someone who might have it or might now?
"I'm glad they took Pedro out of the game," one Dodgers fan said in the stairwell heading down after the game. "We were getting nothing off him. We never should have traded him."
The amazing Pedro
Not sure why there was so much consternation about Martinez starting Game 2.
Yes, he is older. Yes, he had not pitched in a while. But he is a big-game guy who is, by far, the best pitcher of his generation and one of the best of any generation.
Check out his peak numbers. They would have been great in the dead-ball era, and he was doing it in the steroid era.
He was an inspired, no-risk/high-reward signing. He was a cult hero in Philadelphia from the moment he was mobbed while wandering around Center City, and reveled in it.
In an era when more and more athletes say less and less that is remotely interesting, Pedro is funny, insightful and holds no secrets. And he can still pitch.
Through seven innings, Pedro was a bloop, an infield hit and a hit batter (on a 76-mph changeup) from a perfect game. He was throwing a lot of pitches early, but never walked anybody. Which tells you he was a man with a plan, a very good plan. The Dodgers hitters were alternately confused and frustrated, flailing at changeups, sending soft fly balls to the outfield, rarely getting any solid contact.
Phils reliever Scott Eyre wished he had a better view of the show than he had from the bullpen. But he was not at all surprised by what transpired.
"You think you don't know what you're going to get today," Eyre said of Martinez' layoff between starts. "Then, you take a step back and say, 'Pedro Martinez is pitching today. We don't know what we're going to get. We're getting a Hall of Famer.' He's always come through in a big game. Wish we could have scored a couple more runs for him."
The Phils are 8-2 in games Pedro has started. And they surely should be 9-1.
Pedro was a forgotten man until the Phils remembered who he was and who he could still be. And this might not be his last run.
"I'm considering coming back next year if I don't win the World Series," Martinez said. "If I win the World Series, I will take a little bit more time and I will have to ask my mom."
