Philadelphia closer Brad Lidge blew his 11th save of the season last night, sucking up a storm in a 7-6 loss to the Marlins that could only add to Charlie Manuel’s anxiety with the post-season looming. The Sports Hernia has helpfully uncovered an alternative take on Lidge’s latest disaster, so enjoy it while you can before those killjoys at MLB Advanced Media quash a passionate man’s grieving process.
Of course this hindsight, but Phillies fans would feel a lot less queasy if Ruben Amaro had dipped into the farm a bit more and acquired George Sherrill at the trade deadline. It has gotten to the point where Brad Lidge is incapable of coming out in any situation and not allowing at least one run and he just can not be thrown into any high leverage situations. It looks to me being that Madson isnt that much better in the ninth inning, many folks, (including some of the press), feel that Jay Happ may be the best ninth inning option at this point, despite having no experience in that role. As far as Jason Cohens tweet about the importance of a defined closer being overstated, I cautiously hunch that he may be correct and that the Phillies should just go with a “all hands on deck” approach to late inning small leads in post-season play (presuming that the current magic # of 4 holds) and if the Phils are in a pivotal scenario, if they have to send Cole Hamels out for the ninth inning of a Game 6 of a series, than do it. As far as Lidge, if this season turns into ” Worse than 1964″ or if late-inning bullpen failure in the play-offs results in the end of the Phillies season, he is going to bear the full brunt of Phan ire, whether or not he even takes the hill in the playoffs, which will make the rest of his tenure as a Phil very difficult.