Major League Baseball

Paul Hagen: Could be just like old times for Phillies

Published Oct. 13, 2010 10:14 a.m. ET

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WHAT WE HAVE here is a playoff series that should be played in black-and-white. Listened to on a staticky old Philco in your grandparents' parlor. Seen, if at all, in person or a few days later on a grainy Movietone newsreel playing down at the neighborhood theater.

Can't you just see Wee Willie Keeler stepping up to the plate? Isn't that John McGraw in the dugout?

What we have here in the National League Championship Series between Your Philadelphia Phillies and the San Francisco Giants, which opens Saturday night at The Bank, is a playoff that seems to have somehow time-traveled from the deadball era to the present, a matchup in which pitching figures to rule and each run will be as treasured as a gold ingot at Fort Knox.

The exact rotations haven't been announced. But the first three games will assuredly feature some combination of Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt for the Phillies and Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Jonathan Sanchez for the Giants, probably in that order.

"Those could be the three best pitching matchups the world has ever seen," San Francisco first baseman Aubrey Huff told reporters during the NLDS-clinching celebration in Atlanta on Monday night.

Hyperbole aside, this presents an interesting set of considerations for Charlie Manuel. He's a hitting guy. He has confidence in his team's offense. But he also has to anticipate the possibility of having to win 2-1 or 3-2.

It also would be different if the Phillies came into these games on a roll offensively. They don't. They hit .212 against the Reds in the Division Series. They also batted just .226 as a team against the Giants this season, including .175 at AT & T Park.

"We can score runs and we can score runs on the Giants. Will we? I don't know. I can't look in a crystal ball," Manuel said. "I used to have a saying, 'Just enough as long as you win the game.' And I always look at the next day as we're going to come out tomorrow and score a lot of runs. We sometimes score a low amount of runs. At the same time, if we pitch and play defense and hit at the right time, more than likely we're going to win. That's how I look at it."

Look, Manuel is always going to be closer to Earl Weaver's philosophy of playing for the three-run homer than McGraw's small ball. And it's possible that form won't hold and tons of runs will be scored.

At the same time, San Francisco's pitching led the majors in ERA; from Sept. 1 until they clinched, the Phillies lost just once with one of their Big Three starting. Offensively, the Phillies had a higher on-base percentage than slugging percentage in their DS series against the Reds; the Giants struck out 43 times in four games against the Braves while averaging two earned runs a game. So you probably wouldn't want to bet the ranch on it.

That means Manuel has an array of decisions to make. Whether to play for one run early. Whether to lift his starting pitcher if there's a runner in scoring position. And how to deploy his defense.

He indicated yesterday that while there may be subtle early changes, they probably won't be overt at the outset.

"You've definitely got to get a feel. Five or six innings. You never want to do things early. I don't know how much I'm going to play for one run in the first inning or the second inning," he said while standing beside the batting cage before yesterday's workout. "You know why? Because we've got guys in the middle of our lineup who definitely can knock him in. We'll see. I don't think it will change very much, but that's basically our strategy.

"If we want to move a runner, we might bunt for a basehit. That's not actually a sacrifice, but if the guy don't get a hit we get the guy over. It's very important that you get a lead. But it's also important that we play good situational baseball, that we move runners early in the game when we bat instead of trying to pull the ball no matter what."

It's possible that the Phils will hit-and-run more than they normally do.

Since pitching is a strength, Manuel said he also expects his starters to go deep into the game. Again, though, the situation will dictate.

"We'll make adjustments off how good the guy is going and where he's at. Pitch count, innings, things like that," he said.

Defensively, it's unlikely the Phillies would consider pulling the infield up in the first inning like the Reds did with Shane Victorino on third base in Game 1.

"I've never liked to do those things. I brought my infield up against Arizona 3 or 4 or 5 years ago in the first inning or something like that," he said, shaking his head. "And we got burned. And ever since then . . . "

It should be fascinating to watch. It should also be the kind of series when fans who don't own a horseless carriage take the trolley home after they leave the ballpark. *

Send e-mail to hagenp@phillynews.com

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