YONG KIM / Staff photographer
Charlie Manuel has three lefthanded starters at his disposal when the Phillies face the Rockies, who have plenty of lefty hitters.
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Phillies not showing their pitching-rotation hand
IF THEY DO care - and, knowing baseball players, there is a good chance they probably have their druthers - the potential members of the Phillies' NLDS starting rotation are not letting on.
Cliff Lee said it does not matter if he pitches Game 1, 2, 3 or 4.
J.A. Happ said it does not matter if he is a starter or a reliever, or both.
Cole Hamels, Pedro Martinez and Joe Blanton have echoed similar sentiments over the last week.
"Hopefully," said Happ, who was lifted after just two innings and 39 pitches in yesterday's 7-6 win over the Marlins, "when they know, I'll know."
Publicly, the Phillies say they don't know. But in his news conference yesterday, which came after Paul Hoover's RBI single in the 10th lifted the Phillies to the walkoff win, manager Charlie Manuel sounded as if he is leaning toward keeping Happ in the rotation and starting Lee in Game 1 and Hamels in Game 2.
On the surface, those are obvious decisions.
The Rockies do most of their offensive damage from the left side of the plate, where hitters like Todd Helton (.325, 15 home runs, 86 RBI), Seth Smith (.293, 15, 55), Brad Hawpe (.285, 23, 86) and Ian Stewart (.228, 25, 70) reside. The Rockies entered yesterday hitting .253 with 56 home runs in 1,585 at-bats against lefties and .264 with 133 home runs in 3,780 at-bats against righties. Furthermore, Happ pitched a shutout against them in early August.
Lee and Hamels are both in line to start Games 1 and 2 on full rest. Lee would be on 5 days' rest for Game 1. Hamels would be on 4 days' rest, but he pitched just three innings on Saturday and could conceivably be ready. Both pitchers will be available to pitch Game 5, if necessary.
But Manuel also said he believes that Happ had the capability of pitching Game 1 or 2.
"We have three lefthanded starters, and I think actually all three of them are very capable of being the No. 1 starter," Manuel said.
But, Manuel insisted, he was not ready to announce that Happ is in the rotation. The Phillies will enter the playoffs with just one experienced lefthanded reliever, Scott Eyre. Although Eyre has thrown two scoreless innings in three outings since returning from an elbow injury, and although he said yesterday that he felt ready to resume a normal workload, the Phillies would like to have another lefthanded arm in the bullpen. But if they decide that Happ is likely to pitch deep into his start - and it sounds as if they do - they won't feel compelled to make him a reliever.
Who the odd man out is (Joe Blanton or Pedro Martinez) and what his role will be (a long reliever and emergency starter or a nonroster player whose job is to stay sharp for the NLCS) remains to be seen.
"I think when I think about it, there's a part of me that tells me Happ can definitely come out of the bullpen," Manuel said. "But also I've always looked at him as a starter and I think that his success this year has been as a starter. I'm not ready to reveal what we are going to do yet, because I don't know exactly what we are going to do."
For more Phillies coverage and opinion, read David Murphy's blog, High Cheese, at http://go.philly.com/highcheese.
