Who will Phillies' Game 3 starter be?

SOMETIMES THE manager dictates the situation. And sometimes the situation dictates the manager.

As Charlie Manuel trudged out of Citizens Bank Park last night, following the 5-4 loss to Colorado that evened the Phillies' best-of-five National League Division Series against the Rockies at a game apiece, his options for a Game 3 starter tomorrow night at Coors Field were considerably more limited than they'd been a few hours earlier.

In fact, Pedro Martinez believes he's down to only one choice.

"I guess I'm the only one standing," he said.

So does he think he'll get the ball?

"I think so. I believe so. I've been in this game long enough to understand that it's my spot," he said.

The 37-year-old reached that conclusion after watching Joe Blanton be pressed into service for an inning of relief and then have J.A. Happ follow him to the mound ... only to leave after one batter, when pinch-hitter Seth Smith hit a shot that struck the lefthander just under his left knee.

During his postgame postmortem, Manuel said he was undecided and probably would announce his choice at today's workout. In fact, he specifically said Blanton was a possibility.

That would surprise Martinez. And it probably would surprise those who recall that one of the rationales for signing him in the first place was his reputation for being a big-game pitcher.

"I'll tell you one thing. I'm not scared," he said. "And I'm going to go and try to do it. You never know. You've got to go and play the game and then start talking about it after the game.

"We were never told specifically what we were going to be doing. But I wasn't sent to the bullpen [as Blanton and Happ were]. So that pretty much left me with the idea that I was probably going to be used as a starter."

There are some counterarguments, though. On Sept. 8, Martinez threw 119 pitches in 6 2/3 innings at Washington. His next time out, he threw a staggering 130 pitches in eight shutout innings against the Mets. And since then he hasn't been the same.

On Sept. 19, he labored through three innings and then left with a stiff neck. His next start was skipped because he wasn't fully recovered. And on Sept. 30 he needed 84 pitches just to get through four innings.

He hopes his experience will make up for that.

"I have a lot of situations under my belt," he said. "Been there, done that. But that has nothing to do with the next game. That's all paid off. It's a new day. So now it's a new challenge, it's a new game. So I'm just going to try to do what I have to do one more time."

- Paul Hagen

AFTER WARMING UP yesterday and throwing 19 pitches out of the bullpen, Joe Blanton easily raised his arm to volunteer to pitch Game 3 of the Phillies-Rockies series tomorrow.

"I haven't heard anything yet," he said. "Whatever they want me to do, I'll do."

Asked whether he would seek out manager Charlie Manuel to ask for the start, Blanton said: "I think he knows I will be [ready]. It's not my position to go see him. I think he knows I recover quick and I can do whatever. Whatever his decision is, I'm ready."

A starter all season, Blanton was thrown into the bullpen breach by Manuel in an all-hands-on-deck effort to win Game 2 and gain a 2-0 stranglehold on this best-of-five National League Division Series. That it didn't exactly work out as scripted - the Phils lost, Blanton was used, J.A. Happ got hurt - is fairly obvious.

But Blanton insisted that yesterday's work was little more than the glorified bullpen session that every pitcher throws between starts, and that it would not disqualify him from doing anything in the rest of the series.

"It's probably actually a few less pitches [than a bullpen session] but it's more intensity," he said. "I don't figure it being any problem, one way or another."

Blanton acknowledged that he wasn't sure he had ever done what he would be doing if asked to start Game 3. He did pitch out of the bullpen in 2006 for Oakland in the postseason.

"I know I had one outing and then I warmed up about four different times in another game, and I never had any problems," he said. "It doesn't really make a difference. I'm pretty much ready to go at any time."

Blanton says he has gotten extra rest lately - he received an extra day's rest twice in September and hasn't started a game since Oct. 2. He said he could throw 100 or 110 pitches tomorrow, "without a doubt."

"I do take pride in getting myself physically ready," he said. "At the same time, God's blessed me with the ability to recover quickly. I've never really had any arm issues of any kind. Physically, I definitely feel like I'll be up to it."

Let the record show that Blanton knocked on the wooden edge of his locker in the middle of that answer. And also let it show that, when asked what made more sense for Game 3, Blanton ducked.

"That's why [Manuel] gets paid to make the decisions," he said.

- Rich Hofmann

PHILLIES MANAGER Charlie Manuel said immediately after yesterday's game that tomorrow's Game 3 starter was a choice between Joe Blanton and Pedro Martinez.

An hour later, J.A. Happ was in his office trying to talk him out of that, or at least trying to make it a three-pitcher race again.

"I've failed twice so far out there," the affable lefthander said. "In Atlanta and today.

"Hopefully, the third time, I'll have a little luck when I talk to Charlie."

Happ lost his first case when he grimaced on the mound after returning from his late-season oblique muscle injury. He lost his case yesterday after the fourth pitch he threw in the 5-4 loss to Colorado ricocheted off his left leg just under his knee when he was inserted with two runners on in the seventh inning.

X-rays were negative, and Happ, who walked around the clubhouse without a limp afterward, called it bruised, "not that swollen." He said he "didn't anticipate it being much of an issue [going forward]." But the injury did prevent him from pushing off when throwing some test pitches afterward, even as he argued with Manuel to let him stay in the game.

He lost. And with temperatures possibly in the 20s tomorrow in Denver, he could lose this case, too.

Or win a postponement to Sunday's Game 4.

The Rockies, who struggle against lefthanded pitching, did not score on Happ either time they faced him this season. An extra day, especially if the Phillies lose Game 3, might be beneficial.

Then again, Happ is from cold-weather Illinois, threw only 25 warmups yesterday, and had been the Phillies' most consistent starter this season before his oblique problems.

He also was one of the better middle relievers this season, before he was returned to the rotation. That said, his postseason résumé before yesterday consists of one appearance, in relief, last year against the Dodgers. He allowed one run in three innings pitched.

"I don't think inexperience should be an issue," he said. "I feel like I've had enough right now. Hopefully, I'll be able to go."

Happ said he should know that by today. Will he have to audition again? Buy Charlie flowers?

Or just make his case?

"I should probably go in there," he said of the manager's office. "Did he really say that?"

- Sam Donnellon