"That's a good question," said assistant general manager, scouting and player development Mike Arbuckle, with a laugh. "Because there are certain baseball absolutes. 'Win with pitching' is one of them and what we've been able to do this year goes against that.
"To be honest, we were sort of cringing all year. Those of us sitting upstairs were well aware that pitching was a concern, to be polite about it. We were as aware as anybody."
So let's attempt an explanation of how the Phillies have pulled this off.
1The overall numbers may be a little misleading.
That four-seven-three obviously includes all 28 pitchers who appeared in games this year. That skews the stats to an extent since some of those guys, like Freddy Garcia (5.90) and Matt Smith (11.25), disappeared early. Some, like J.D. Durbin (6.06) and Jose Mesa (5.54), were little-used down the stretch.
And some just pitched better than the cold numbers would suggest. Antonio Alfonseca, for example, had a 5.44 ERA . . . but he had eight crucial saves at midseason when Tom Gordon and Brett Myers were hurt. Clay Condrey's was 5.04 . . . but much of that was accumulated in blowouts; when the game was close, he actually pitched well. Subtract four of those and his ERA was 1.62.
"In some cases, even though their overall numbers might not have been what we wanted, we had pitchers who showed the ability to make a pitch in a certain situation."
It's also worth mentioning that if Cole Hamels hadn't missed time with a tender elbow and if Kyle Kendrick and J.C. Romero had been with them all season, the numbers might have been better as well.
2When the season was on the line, manager Charlie Manuel changed the way he used the bullpen. He went to the whip with his top three relievers and Romero, Gordon and Myers responded.
