ST. LOUIS - The idea coming into the postseason was that the Phillies starters would pitch deep into games, taking pressure off the relievers.
That blueprint is a little tattered already.
For the second straight NLDS game, Charlie Manuel had to go to his bullpen with nobody out in the seventh inning. The relievers bent. They didn't break. And the manager could finally exhale after a tense, 3-2 win at Busch Stadium.
Or, as closer Ryan Madson put it, "I wish I was better, but I was good enough."
Adding to the drama, Madson came into the game with the bases loaded and one out in the eighth. Before that, he's had only two saves in his career that required getting five outs or more, and he didn't pitch more than an inning in any outing this season.
But the playoffs are different, as has been pointed out countless times. So he came in to face Allen Craig with the tying run on second. Craig scalded a grounder toward rightfield, but second baseman Chase Utley scooped it up, sprinted to second for the force, then quickly pivoted and threw to first to retire Craig.
"That was the biggest play of the game," Manuel said. "That's the first time I've used Madson for four or five outs [this year], but I figured the game was right there on the line and we had to stop them."
Said Madson: "That was a lot of fun. They have a tough lineup. They swing early and often, but one good pitch can get you out of an inning. And it did."
Part of the reason the Phillies found themselves in such a jam, though, was because Brad Lidge came into the game in the eighth inning, faced two batters and gave up hits to both, creating the mess Madson and Utley were able to clean up.
Lidge's velocity was down noticeably, but he shrugged that off.
"I was happy with how I threw the ball," he said. "Obviously, they got two hits, but both were off-balance swings. One of the things I've learned is that if you throw a good pitch, you can't control what happens afterward. I feel good about the execution of the pitches."
How could it be anybody but Ben Francisco?
The decision was understandable, but, with hindsight, letting Jaime Garcia pitch to Ben Francisco in the seventh instead of bringing in righthander Octavio Dotel was a mistake. "Well, it didn't work, so that's bad managing," Tony La Russa said.
