He wasn't.

Romero had thrown a combined 77 pitches in three consecutive days earlier in the week, so the Phillies rested him. Had he been rested, manager Charlie Manuel would have used him against Mets first baseman Carlos Delgado in the eighth inning of Wednesday's 6-3 loss at Citizens Bank Park.

Delgado had just three hits in 19 at-bats (.158) against Romero, while he was 3 for 6 (.500) with two home runs against Rudy Seanez, who faced Delgado and served up a game-tying home run.

"I didn't know I had a day off until I saw the situation taking place," Romero said before last night's loss to the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. "In my mind, I thought I was going to face somebody in the eighth. But I just work here. They know what they're doing. Hopefully, in September we'll have extra bullets in our arms.

"Sometimes they are smarter than we are. We just go with our energy and adrenaline. I'm never going to second-guess my manager. He's the boss. If he feels I need a day off, so be it. But as athletes, we like to be out there every day. But we still have a few days before September. I'm pretty sure once September arrives, you might not see that happen."

This is the tightrope that Manuel and pitching coach Rich Dubee are walking at the moment.

They want to win, but is one win worth risking injury or ineffectiveness for Romero or Chad Durbin or Ryan Madson down the stretch? The Phillies had a game similar to Wednesday's on Sept. 17 last season against St. Louis at Busch Stadium. Brett Myers, Tom Gordon and Romero were unavailable because of heavy use, and the Phillies almost blew an 11-0 lead after the sixth inning.

They won, 13-11.

Manuel said he is concerned about Durbin's durability because he already has made a career-high 56 appearances and thrown 732/3 innings, which rank second in the National League among relief pitchers. Madson, who is sixth in the league with 681/3 innings pitched, spent time on the disabled list last season with a strained right shoulder. That shoulder still gets sore at times, so when Madson threw two innings Tuesday, that basically made him unavailable Wednesday.

"Hopefully, I'll be able to finish up strong for them," Madson said. "They've been doing a perfect job all year long."

Romero is tied for eighth in the league with 65 appearances. Manuel said his concern with Romero is pitches thrown, not necessarily appearances. He said the same holds true for Brad Lidge. The Phillies' closer could start pitching more than one inning if needed, the manager added.

"I might start this series here," Manuel said of the four-game series against the Cubs that began last night.

Welcome back

But he's not much of a spy for the Phillies.

He said he doesn't remember any of the signs the Cubs use. He doesn't know how pitchers might throw to Chase Utley or Jimmy Rollins or Ryan Howard. He also doesn't have any secrets for getting out Cubs hitters Aramis Ramirez or Derrek Lee.

"I don't know. I looked in the stands the whole time," he said. "Dubee already told me, 'Are you ready to lead the [pitchers'] meeting?' . . . I'm not a whole lot of help. A couple of the hitters asked how this guy is going to pitch them. 'How is this pitcher going to try to strike me out?' 'Try to get you to swing and miss three times, Chase.' That's what I told Chase last night."

Hey, buddy

Castro called up

They thought he would be better served returning to his starter's role in Reading.

"Bouncing back was the big thing," Manuel said.

Bring on replay

Obama who?

Comcast SportsNet reported that Wednesday's 6-3 loss to the Mets picked up a 9.1 rating (271,000 households), making it the most-watched program in the Philadelphia market and the second-most-watched Phillies game on Comcast SportsNet this season.

So much for the Democratic National Convention.

The 9.1 rating was a 72 percent increase over the season average of 5.3.

Phillies Notes:

Cubs 6

Next: Phillies (Blanton, 6-12) at Cubs (Harden, 9-2), today at 2:20 (CSN)

NL East

Phillies 1