Still, Torre also clearly managed the latter stages of Game 3 with one eye firmly fixed on tonight's Game 4 after the Phillies took a 6-0 lead going into the third. When he was forced to bring Chad Billingsley into the game in the bottom of the second, Torre alrady was using his third pitcher. He clearly needed him to eat some innings.
He didn't double-switch even though the pitcher's spot was due up the next inning. And that preserved his pen when Billingsley went 3 1/3 innings and Ramon Troncoso went two. Nobody warmed up while Ronald Belisario was tagged for three runs mopping up in the eighth.
"You never want to get your rear end kicked," Torre said. "But these games, you don't toss and turn wondering [what would have happened] if I made this move or that move. This is one you can put away a lot quicker even though it's a lot uglier than most. But it's only one game and we're still in a position to tie the series [tonight] and that's basically what we need to do."
Here's the pitch
Before the NLCS, Joe Torre was asked if there were any hitters on the Phillies that caused the same angst as Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols had in the division series.
"Not that the Phillies aren't scary but Albert, I don't know if he has any holes that you try to exploit," he said. "Probably their best pure hitter is [Chase] Utley and he's in front of a guy [Ryan Howard] who's going to hit 40 to 50 homers a year. They're well-balanced with power and speed. I'm not saying we wouldn't walk Howard to get to [Jayson] Werth, but it's not something I'd be totally comfortable with. Albert is a special guy."
