This gripe focused on closer Brad Lidge. As his blown saves mounted, so did a steadily escalating chorus of complaints that Manuel was blindly following him down the rabbit hole and taking the entire season along with him.
The thing about caricatures, of course, is that they are to fully grasping an issue as Twitter is to a Don DeLillo novel. A quick hit, a bulletin, a 140-character fragment that is just as likely to mislead as it is to illuminate.
So, wrong again. In a stunning fall from grace, at least until further notice, the automatic (48-for-48) closer of 2008 will no longer automatically get the ball in save situations.
Sure enough, with the Phillies holding a 6-5 lead going into the ninth inning last night at Nationals Park, it was Ryan Madson - not Lidge - who started warming up in the bullpen.
And for the second straight game, it was Madson - not Lidge - who earned the save, pitching out of trouble but getting it done.
Manuel never has been as one-dimensional as he has been depicted. Anybody who has been paying attention would have understood a couple of things. That winning is paramount. And that he's not scared to do what he thinks is best to reach that goal.
Those who don't believe that must have skipped class last year when he benched reigning MVP Jimmy Rollins twice, once for not running out a pop fly and once for arriving late for a game. Or earlier this season, when he took sentimental favorite Jamie Moyer out of the rotation.
You could practically fill a lineup card with reasons why giving Lidge a loooong chance to right himself made sense, including but not limited to: They're a much better team if he can come close to pitching as he did last year; a comfortable lead in the division eliminated the need to panic; and, until Brett Myers came off the disabled list last week, there really wasn't an obvious alternative.
