There were some who questioned Charlie Manuel’s decision to go with Cliff Lee instead of last year’s World Series MVP Cole Hamels in the first game of the divisional series and I was one of them.
But after the brilliant performance by Lee in his first playoff game, I would have to give Charllie credit for being right.
Lee was able to withstand some early game trouble, then he sailed through the rest of the contest with little damage at all. Once the fast-working lefthander got into his rhythm, he made easy work of a deep Rockies lineup.
Most of the time, I can’t understand what Charlie is saying and in this case, I couldn’t understand his reasoning but who cares as long as he’s right. The bottomline is he knows his players.
Maybe he made his decision based on which starter had a better chance of pitching a complete game. Maybe Charlie said to himself, which one of these guys can give me the best chance of not having to make a decision in the ninth inning.
He chose the right guy if that was the case but he’s probably not going to get any other free passes. You know what that means. Yes it means ninth inning roulette the rest of the way.
Going into the game, I expected a number of balls to wind up in the outfield stands. I was over at Citizen’s Bank Park about three hours before the game and the winds were blowing out of control.
Everybody expected the game to be a home run-filled contest with long flies going into the stands, but it wasn’t that type of game.
You’ve got to give the Phils credit for winning that type of game even though they’re team which relies on the long ball. They were able to win this one despite the absence of the long ball.
I guess that’s why they’re champions.
