Confident Lidge has confidence of Manuel, Dubee

What if we told you the Phillies had a guy in their bullpen who has converted 18 of his last 19 save opportunities and has a 0.89 ERA in his last 46 appearances?

Would you want them to use him in the postseason? Would you trust him with the game on the line? Even if you knew his name was Brad Lidge?

The Phillies insist that they trust their former closer, and there is no good reason not to.

With Antonio Bastardo and Mike Stutes struggling as we approach the regular-season finish line, manager Charlie Manuel was asked last week how he'll line up his bullpen in front of closer Ryan Madson during the playoffs. The questioner mentioned Stutes and Bastardo, but omitted Lidge's name.

"I think Lidge has worked his way in there," Manuel said. "I think it would be Stutes, Lidge, Bastardo, and Madson right now."

The follow-up question - what has Lidge shown you? - suggested that Manuel is seeing things that aren't there.

"He has shown me that he can definitely get his slider over against righthanded hitters," Manuel said. "There are types of lefthanded hitters I like him on, but he has shown consistency coming out of the bullpen by throwing sliders for strikes."

Since last August, Lidge has allowed 24 hits and struck out 44 batters in 401/3 innings. His WHIP - walks and hits per inning - is 1.140, which is better than the 1.226 number he posted during his magical 2008 season.

In 2008, when Lidge converted all 48 of his save opportunities and registered the strikeout that triggered a World Series title celebration, the crowd went crazy when the bullpen door in center field opened and No. 54 started toward the mound.

There was little reaction when Lidge entered in the eighth inning of Saturday night's NL East clincher against St. Louis with two on and two out in a one-run game. Lidge calmly threw one pitch and induced an inning-ending grounder to escape the jam created by Stutes.

The fact that Lidge has regained the confidence of his manager and pitching coach, Rich Dubee, means he has accomplished the goal he set out for himself when he began a long, arduous rehab from a strained rotator cuff at the end of spring training.

During his second rehab outing at single-A Lakewood in early July, Lidge said he wanted to reach the point where Manuel knew that he was "still capable of throwing the innings where we have a small lead toward the end of the game."

Lidge is not delusional. He knows he is not the same pitcher now as he was in 2008. His fastball does not have nearly the same life, and he relies much more on his slider.

"To be honest, right now I'm pretty much throwing the way I did at the end of last year," Lidge said. "The transformation kind of happened last year, and I've been able to get back to that. . . .

"I have to make [the slider] a very precise pitch for me. I feel like even if a hitter is looking for it, my slider is still a very difficult pitch to hit. I know if I can control that pitch, I can control the at-bat. I know when I first came back that it was a little bit erratic, but it's starting to get to the point again where I can throw it in, out, up, down, not for a strike or for a strike whenever I need to."

Those are the words of a confident man, and anybody who has watched or listened to Lidge since his enchanted 2008 season knows that the former closer's confidence has not always been high.

Dubee truly admires what Lidge has done since losing considerable velocity from his fastball.

"It's one thing to have that big arm and another thing to learn to pitch without that big fastball," Dubee said. "Brad has been a great pitcher, but he has faced adversity, too. . . . It seems like every year he has had an elbow or shoulder or knee and he keeps battling back."

This has not been a perfect season for Lidge, and he's still hoping that he can be a closer again in the future.

"The way I feel is that I could go out and close games down right now," Lidge said. "I feel like I did at the end of last season when I was doing that."

Given that he has a $12.5 million option for 2012, it's highly unlikely Lidge will be either closing games or pitching for the Phillies next season. Come October, however, he likely will get another chance to record some more big postseason outs, and that's quite an accomplishment for a man whose future was questionable at best a few months ago.