Cholly Chooses

When Charlie Manuel brought Joe Blanton in to pitch the sixth inning (then left him in to start the seventh), I assumed that meant that Cholly had decided Blanton would not be starting Game Three, still scheduled to take place tomorrow. Then when Cholly brought in J.A. Happ, who promptly took a Seth Smith liner off his knee, I assumed that meant Happ wouldn't be starting tomorrow either. I guessed we'd be getting Pedro Martinez, which leaves me with mixed feelings. Of course, like all real baseball fans, I love Pedro, but I still want to see the Rockies smack him around.

But now, as Friday dawns, we find out that Cholly still hasn't figured out who his starter is going to be tomorrow. According to the morning paper, he's going to talk about it on the plane ride to Denver.

Exsqueeze me? Good heavens, Manuel, don't you realize that it's kind of important who starts a playoff game for you? Wouldn't you want to have a plan in place starting, oh, sometime around the beginning of the series?

The only thing that would make sense is if Manuel is betting on a snowout tomorrow night, and wants to bring back Cliff Lee on Sunday. This way, no one's feathers are ruffled by not starting after being announced as a starter. But that's a mighty small reward.

I still think we're going to see Pedro in Game Three. Neither Blanton nor Happ pitched a lot yesterday, but you'd still be bringing one of them back on one day's rest. And Happ might be hurt.

I also think we're going to see Game Three on Sunday.