According to MLB.com, Ryan Madson laughed at his fellow Phillies hurler Brett Myers when he told him manager Charlie Manuel wanted him to go into the game in the seventh inning.
Phils left-handed reliever Scott Eyre had injured his ankle while allowing the Rockies to put runners on the corners with no outs. The Phils had a 5-4 lead and were in deseperate need of a strikeout.
The Phils had Chad Durbin warming up in the bullpen but Charlie decided he wanted Madson to come in before his normal eighth-inning entrance.
“Madson, you’re in,” Brett Myers told Madson.
“Yeah, right,” Madson replied. “Good one.”
“They’re calling for you, dude,” Myers said. “Really, it’s you.”
The flame throwing right hander went in there and did what Charlie was hoping for. He struck out the Rockies Todd Helton, got Troy Tulowitzki to fly out which drove in the tieing run then he struck out Yorvit Torrealba.
I thought it was the most important three outs of the game. You had the heart of the Rockies order coming up with no outs and runners on the corners.
Manuel had to work some magic last night with his pitchers because young lefthander J.A. Happ was able to last only three innings. He surrendered three runs and five hits during that span. The youngster was off his game.
Happ got the nod to start because Saturday’s game in Denver was snowed out when Pedro Martinez was supposed to start.
“I felt like J.A. had good stuff,” Manuel said. “I felt that he was having command problems, but every pitch he threw was around the plate. He definitely wasn’t wild. The reason I brought Blanton in the game, we had a chance to score. Once I got Blanton hot and the situation for us to score some runs, I felt I wanted Dobbs to hit.”
