When Ibanez's batting average took another nose-dive in June, the decision to stick with him may have been equal parts loyalty and a lack of a viable alternative.
By August, however, when Ibanez's swing went south a third time, John Mayberry Jr. had returned from triple-A Lehigh Valley and was wielding the hottest bat on the team. At that point, nobody would have blamed Manuel if he decided Mayberry needed to be the main man in left field. In fact, most people wanted it to happen.
It never did. Sure, Mayberry did begin finding his name in the lineup a lot against lefties, but Manuel refused to call it a left-field platoon and always maintained he had confidence in Ibanez.
So when the Game 1 lineup for the Phillies' National League division series against the St. Louis Cardinals went up Saturday night, it was no surprise at all that Ibanez was in it.
Ibanez rewarded his manager's unyielding confidence Saturday night with a two-run home run off Kyle Lohse that provided the exclamation point during a game-changing, five-run sixth inning as the Phillies pounded the St. Louis Cardinals, 11-6, at Citizens Bank Park.
"I've seen him play probably his whole career, and he showed me signs that he definitely wasn't finished," Manuel said. "You look up at the end of the year and for him to have [84] RBIs and [20] homers after he got off to a slow start. He came a long ways, and his run production actually ended up pretty good.
"And tonight, he had a couple pretty good hits."
Ibanez, after going 2 for 4 with three RBIs, insisted that he only cared about Saturday night's game, and he'll show up Sunday entirely focused on Game 2.
He's certainly appreciative that Manuel stuck with him during a lot of turbulent times this season, but he is not a big believer in looking behind him.
