New Phillies Lineup Needs To Come Up Big Versus Cardinals Today

Entering the NLDS match up with the St. Louis Cardinals, Charlie Manuel made some minor adjustments in his hitting line-up. One of the changes he made was moving Hunter Pence from fifth in the order to third and moving Chase Utley from third to second.

Your best hitter is supposed to bat third hitting average and power is supposed to bat in the 3rd spot. Utley is no longer that guy. He hit .259 with only 11 home runs and 44 RBI’s in 103 games. Pence hit .55 points higher at 314 with 22 home runs and 97 RBI’s on the year.

Originally when the Phillies acquired Pence he was going to play the role of ‘bodyguard’ to Ryan Howard by hitting fifth. This has proven to be an important spot in the order in recent years.

When the Phillies made the World Series in 2008 and 2009 Pat Burrell and Jayson Werth occupied the five spot, respectively. The 2011 Phillies are now relegating this role to the speedster Shane Victorino, who had a good year in 2011. Despite tailing off at the end of the year, Shane hit .279 with 17 home runs and 61 RBI’s.

The Phils will be counting on him to provide a threat to pitchers which will make them pitch to Howard, who has been the ultimate run producer during his time with the Phillies. This year was no different as he finished third in the National League with 118 RBI’s.

With the changes in the lineup, Manuel has broken up the two lefties hitting back to back with Howard following Utley. The new lineup should be able to put more pressure on Cardinals lefthander Jaime Garcia.

So far this post season, Howard has shown that it’s more important who hits in front of him rather than behind him. Through the first two games The Big Piece is 2-7 with 6 RBIs and a run scored.

With the way that Howard is knocking in runs, putting batters in front of him who can get on base very consistently helps to keep the table set the slugger. This is not to say that Victorino does not fit this description, but Pence just fits it better and he doesn ‘t have the resume of Utley for Manuel to put him in the second spot.

During the regular season Victorino posted a .355 OBP, however since joining the team in late July, Pence has a slightly better .370 OBP plus a .314 batting average.

There is also something that Victorino adds to the five spot that Pence does not. Victorino is a switch hitter, which will make a bigger impact later in games once teams have to start dipping into their bullpen. Victorino still adds a lead off quality bat in the middle of a line up as well.

The other Phillies outfielder in this equation that often gets forgotten about, Raul Ibanez has continued his solid play from the end of the regular season. In the first two games Raul is hitting .375 with four RBIs and a run scored. Ibanez also had a crucial assist from the outfield in game two.

Normally a player in Ibanez’s situation, high level of play at the end of a season in a contract year, many would say that he is playing for a contract. At 39 years old, Raul Ibanez is playing with a much more deadly motivation, a World Series championship.

The right handed hitting John Mayberry Jr. is likely to start this evening in leftfield in place of Ibanez. It will give the Phils another right handed bat to battle the lefthander Garcia.