Phillies Notes

- Charlie Manuel went and got Brad Lidge as he unravelled on the mound against the Nationals last night. Lidge had shown signs of turning it around lately, but a bad outing in Houston on Saturday and another implosion in DC forced Manuel's hand.

- It hurt Manuel going to the mound to take Lidge out, as you could easily tell by his post-game remarks and expression. But, as Manuel said, winning is "bigger than my heart, or anything else."

- After getting swept in a four-game set in Houston, Manuel really did have to do whatever he had to in order to get a win last night.

- I'd expect the Phillies to now use a closer by committe system using Lidge, Ryan Madson and Brett Myers.

- Lost in everything about the Brad Lidge situation is that Pedro Martinez pitched pretty well again. He's been better than I thought he would be, and I thought he could help the Phils.

- The Phillies hit five solo home runs last night, now making it 13 of their last 14 home runs with no one on base.

- Jayson Werth has one RBI on non-home runs since August 1st. ONE. Hit a sacrifice fly once in awhile, geez.

- The Phils have to get their pitching healthy. Madson had an oblique strain, J.A. Happ has a forearm issue that caused him to miss a start, J.C. Romero just had a cortisone injection, which he said he didn't want to do, Scott Eyre got shut down for a few days with a tender elbow, Clay Condrey is still out... Wow, Pedro Martinez and 79 year old Jamie Moyer might be the healthiest pitchers they have now.

- Tyler Walker has done a nice job this season, and could even make the playoff roster. He's gone from "Isn't putting Tyler Walker in the game the universal signal for surrender?" to "Wow, Tyler Walker just struck out Hanley Ramirez to get out of a bases loaded jam." You really never can have too much pitching.

- Carlos Ruiz and Pedro Feliz need to be better at situational baseball. If a pitcher has walked the previous hitter on four pitches, you don't need to swing at the first pitch he throws to you.

- The bench is a black hole right now. Matt Stairs hasn't had a hit since mid-July, Greg Dobbs is hurt, Eric Bruntlett and Miguel Cairo stink, John Mayberry isn't ready to hit major league pitching, and Ben Francisco is hitting .217 since arriving in Philadelphia (but to be fair, he does have a few big hits). Some options on that bench, Charlie Manuel. Unless you want to use 'Big Knock' Bako.

- Apparently I'm annoyed by the Phightin' Phils right now.