PHILADELPHIA — Left-handers Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels will start the first two games of the National League division series against the Rockies. After that? If Phillies manager Charlie Manuel knows, he wasn’t saying Tuesday.
The candidates for Games 3 and 4 are right-hander Joe Blanton and lefty J.A. Happ, with Pedro Martinez looming as a longshot possibility for Game 4. Manuel said he wanted to leave open the possibility of using Blanton and/or Happ out of the bullpen in Wednesday’s series opener at Citizens Bank Park before announcing his Game 3 starter.
“In some order,” said Manuel, when asked if he envisioned Blanton and Happ as his Game 3 and 4 starters. “I definitely look at them as starters. There’s a big chance they’ll start. It just depends on how things go.”
Lee, the American League Cy Young winner last season, was acquired by the Phillies just before the July 31 trading deadline. He got off to a meteoric start in the National League, winning his first five starts with a 0.68 ERA. He has struggled at times since then, finishing 2-4, 6.13 in his first seven outings.
Blanton said he could pitch an inning or two in Game 1 and still be able to start Game 3 at Coors Field.
“It all kind of goes out the window in the postseason,” Blanton said. “You might be seven or eight days between starts when you’re used to every fifth day. It doesn’t make any difference. You just go out and throw. I’m a pretty durable guy. I don’t get sore or anything a lot. Whatever they need from me, I’ll be ready to go.”
As for the Phillies’ bullpen, which has been a disaster, what with Denver native Brad Lidge having blown 11 saves on his way to a 0-8, 7.21 season, Manuel wouldn’t give any specifics of his plans.
Said Manuel, when asked who his closer would be in Game 1: “Hard to tell. I’ll answer that when we get there. Whoever you see walking out there.”
