Rich Hofmann: Poor pitchers: Looks like a batty finish to World Series

NEW YORK - At times like these, great and historic and pivotal times for the Philadelphia National League Baseball Club, it is always wise to try to remember the acronym WWWS: What Would Whitey Say?

And you can be sure, somewhere, that Rich Ashburn is about to turn to the man sitting next to him and say, "Harry, it's time to get the married men off the field."

As the Phillies and Yankees careen toward Game 6 of the World Series, their pitching staffs are somewhere between stretched and splintered. The carnage is about to begin. It has been building toward this, hurtling toward the day when these two powerful, pugnacious offenses would gain the unequivocal advantage. Now, that time is upon us. This very well could be the 10-9 game.

"I think that we're starting to score more runs," said Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, who has predicted all along that this was going to be a slugging World Series.

"The offense is starting to pick up, actually on both teams, the way we've been starting to hit the ball. I think these next two games will really get interesting."

For the first time this postseason, Pedro Martinez will be pitching for the Phillies on 4 days' rest rather than three or four times that amount - and you naturally wonder how his 38-year-old arm will respond. For the first time since 2006, Andy Pettitte will be pitching for the Yankees on 3 days' rest, with all of the attendant concerns for a 37-year-old who doesn't throw very hard anymore, who is so reliant upon precision.

Behind them are bullpens that are frayed beyond reason - except for Yankees closer Mariano Rivera. Chan Ho Park has probably done the best for the Phillies, Damaso Marte the best for the Yankees, and pretty much everybody else on both teams, to varying degrees, falls into the question-mark category.

Through five games of the World Series, the Phillies' bullpen earned run average is 5.40 and the Yankees' - minus Rivera - is 6.17. (With Rivera, it is 4.70.) These numbers are not likely to improve. Relief pitchers are some of the game's really good soldiers, but the bullpens on both teams appear to have reached their limits. Just watching Phillies closer-of-the-day Ryan Madson so painfully wriggle his way out of the ninth inning in Game 5 tells you exactly where this thing stands, really for both teams.

The realistic goal now is damage control, nothing more. This World Series now seems destined to be decided by a bludgeoning.