Charlie Manuel Nearly Manages to Kill Phillies’ Season

Joe Girardi can never catch a break with the New York media and fans. Every decision he makes is dissected, questioned and ultimately ruled to be an awful choice – but only after it doesn't work out.

And while the decision to start A.J. Burnett on short rest on Monday night came back to haunt him (as could Andy Pettitte on Wednesday), it was the manager in the opposite dugout who nearly lost the game.

Though managerial decisions are often questioned, rarely do all of those decisions manifest themselves almost immediately. Such was the case, however, for Charlie Manuel in Game 5.

One of the more puzzling decisions made by the Phillies' skipper was the one to pull Shane Victorino from the game before the eighth inning. Removing the starting center fielder, who was hit by a pitch on his right index finger in the first inning and was clearly affected, wasn't the issue. The problem was the timing.

Victorino was in pain at the plate, and following his first-inning plate appearance, he went 0-for-3 with two runners left on base. If Victorino should have been pulled for any reason, it should have been his lack of offense. That's even the reason Manuel elected to remove Victorino from the game, according to USA Today.

Yet Manuel waited until Victorino had cost the Phillies with this three at-bats before removing him from the game for … defensive purposes?

Yes, Victorino's throwing hand was injured, but his legs looked to be just fine. He had gotten to every ball hit his way all night, but Manuel opted to send Ben Francisco into center and keep Raul Ibanez in left.

Of course, the Yankees made the decision look awful when Ibanez couldn't track a liner off the bat of Alex Rodriguez — a ball that either Francisco or Victorino could have gotten to if Ibanez had been lifted. Two runs scored on the play, and Rodriguez later scored on a sacrifice fly to Francisco. The center fielder's throw could have been matched by Victorino, even if the Hawaiian needed to throw lefty.

Manuel removed Victorino, a decision that can be blamed nearly 100 percent for the Yanks' three-run rally in the eighth. The fact that Manuel didn't even deliver the message to Victorino makes it that much more puzzling.

But the Phils still stood in good position in the ninth, holding a three-run lead. In comes Brad Lidge, right?

Well, no. Manuel opted for Ryan Madson, who hadn't allowed an earned run since Oct. 15 against the Dodgers (a fairly disastrous appearance that nearly cost the Phillies the game).

Lidge had pitched the night before — throwing 30 pitches and getting rocked, in fact. So if Manuel's decision to go to Madson was due to Lidge's tired arm, nobody could blame the manager.

Yet two batters into the inning, after a Jorge Posada double and a Hideki Matsui pinch-hit single, there was Lidge, warming up as quickly as he could in the Phillies' bullpen.

Manuel's thought process seemed to be Lidge wasn't strong enough to enter the game with a three-run cushion, but he was good enough to enter a one-run game with the tying or go-ahead runs on base.

Manuel and the Phillies were bailed out by a Derek Jeter double play, and Madson struck out Mark Teixeira to end the game, but had it turned out any differently, the futures of both Manuel and Lidge would be talking points in Philly throughout the entire offseason.

Through five games of this World Series, a few things are obvious. First, the Phillies can't match the Yankees' bullpen. Neither has been stellar, but the combination of Chan Ho Park, Madson and Lidge means the Phillies will need to get some offense to have a chance to win the series.

But if Monday night's Game 5 is any indication, the Phillies don't have the managing to win, either. It was said when the Phillies fell behind 3-1 that they would need a miracle to win the series. Now, it's clear that they'll need more than one.