Major League Baseball

Blanton ready to go for Phillies as Game 4 starter, if needed

Published Oct. 14, 2010 10:15 a.m. ET

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BY THE TIME Joe Blanton takes the mound in the National League Championship Series, he is all but certain to have gone at least 20 days without starting a game.

The effect of that layoff is one of the big unknowns of this year's showdown between the Phillies and the Giants, which starts Saturday at Citizens Bank Park.

But ask Blanton about it, and he'll respond with a shrug.

"I did it last year," the veteran righthander said. "So, been there, done that."

Last year, Blanton went 16 days between his final start of the regular season and his first start of the postseason, pitching twice in relief in the National League Division Series before taking the mound against the Dodgers in Game 4 of the NLCS.

The result was a 5-4 win over the Dodgers in which he allowed three earned runs on six hits in six innings of work.

This time around, Blanton is not sure when he will be pitching. On Tuesday, when Blanton threw about 80 pitches against Phillies hitters at Citizens Bank Park, manager Charlie Manuel sounded like a man who was leaning toward using four starters against the Giants. Of course, a lot depends on how the series unfolds. Manuel has the option of starting Roy Halladay in Game 4 on 3 days' rest, which would line him up for a potential Game 7 start on 3 days' rest. If the Phillies find themselves down in the series, that option could become palatable.

But, for now, everybody seems to be operating under the assumption that Blanton will get a start at some point during this best-of-seven series. And nobody seems to mind the uncertainty.

"Having already done it, kind of knowing how to handle the situation, it makes it a little easier," Blanton said.

Last year, the Phillies moved Blanton to the bullpen along with fellow starter J.A. Happ for the NLDS against Colorado. Until his start in the NLCS, his status was essentially day-to-day. The weather-related postponement of NLDS Game 3 enabled Cliff Lee to start Game 4 on normal rest, and with Happ getting the eventual Game 3 start, Blanton was the odd man out.

In addition to Game 4 of the NLCS, Blanton started Game 4 of the World Series, allowing four runs in six innings to the Yankees, who later staged a three-run rally off Brad Lidge in the ninth inning to win, 7-4.

Getting Blanton back to where he was at the end of the regular season would pay big dividends for the Phillies. In his last 11 starts, the Phillies went 10-1. During that stretch, Blanton posted a 3.01 ERA. His 2010 campaign began in frustrating fashion, as he worked to come back from an oblique injury that sidelined him for the first month. Still, in his last 20 starts, he went 8-1 with a 3.81 ERA, which was the type of performance the Phillies had in mind when they signed him to a 3-year, $24 million contract extension over the offseason.

The process of assimilating Blanton back into a starting role began in earnest during Tuesday's simulated game, when he faced hitters for the first time since a brief relief appearance against the Braves in the season finale.

While Blanton said that nothing can replicate an actual game situation, facing live batters is still better than throwing to a catcher in the bullpen.

"Maybe a little bit more it kind of tones your concentration in," he said. "In a bullpen, sometimes you might zone out or throw a pitch, say you're throwing a changeup to arm side, you can just throw it and throw it and throw it, but you might throw it different to a righthanded hitter than a lefthanded hitter, so having a body in there helps you kind of get that down the way you are going to throw it to certain hitters. And also, throwing in the bullpen you might just go changeup, changeup and then go to something else, where having bodies in [the batter's box] you'll work on pitch sequences and going back and forth: sinker here, changeup there, cutter there, curveball there."

With all the hoopla surrounding the performances of Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels, it is easy to forget how valuable a pitcher Blanton has been over the last three postseasons. In four of his five postseason starts, he has pitched six innings and allowed three or fewer earned runs. The Phillies won all three of his starts in 2008. While Blanton is best remembered for the home run he hit off Tampa Bay's Edwin Jackson in Game 4 of that year's World Series, he also held the Rays to two runs on four hits with seven strikeouts in six innings that night (the Phillies won, 10-2).

Blanton has faced the Giants twice over the last two seasons, and he has pitched well both times. In an 8-2 win at Citizens Bank Park on Aug. 18, he held San Francisco to two runs on eight hits in 6 1/3 innings, struck out seven and walked none. Last August, he held them to two runs on seven hits with five strikeouts and no walks in seven innings of a 2-0 loss at AT & T Park.

"I feel comfortable with Joe Blanton," Manuel said, "but it is something that we'll definitely wait to see what happens."

If Blanton gets the call to start, he is confident he will be ready.

For more Phillies coverage and opinion, read David Murphy's blog, High Cheese, at http://go.philly.com/highcheese. Follow him on Twitter at

http://twitter.com/HighCheese

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