Yankee manager Joe Girardi’s three-man rotation may prove to be his downfall, and the Phillies finally seemed to overcome his childish stall tactics last night, but he’s still out-managing Charlie Manuel in the games. Or rather, Manuel is out-managing Manuel and handing the Yankees free runs with curious decisions like pulling Shane Victorino from the game in the top of the eighth for Ben Francisco instead of having Francisco replace Raul Ibanez.

With a six-run lead, does it matter if Victorino can’t throw very well from his finger injury in the first inning? If it was that bad, what was he doing in there from innings two through seven? And if it only became an issue to start the eighth, why not move Victorino to left field where throwing doesn’t matter as much? After all, you’re trying to collect six outs the old-fashioned way if possible. Either Francisco or Victorino could have camped under that ball Ibanez dove for and missed, and it cost the Phillies two runs.

It was almost Black Friday all over again.

Fortunately, Chase Utley is absolutely on fire. His two home runs not only tied Reggie Jackson’s single World Series record, they provided the spark and the cushion the Phillies needed to stay alive on a night when Cliff Lee gutted out a tough seven-plus innings in which he did not have his best stuff.

So the Phillies live to fight another day, and they’ve more than a puncher’s chance of seeing game seven. The Yankees send Old Man Pettite to the hill on three days’ rest and the Phils counter with Old Man Martinez on normal rest. Believe it or not, I think game six could hinge on the home plate umpire. A consistently liberal strike zone could mean a pitcher’s duel; a tight strike zone could spell Pettite’s doom. But if the ump feels pressure from the Yankee Stadium crowd and gives Pettite more slack than Martinez, he’ll hang the Phillies with it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 8:05 am and is filed under Baseball, Ben Francisco, Charlie Manuel, Chase Utley, Cliff Lee, Pedro Martinez, Phillies, Shane Victorino, World Series, Yankees. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.