Swing and a Miss

Baseball, the pundits are forever reminding us, is a game of inches and yesterday's Phillies-Reds installment was no different.

Adam Eaton, everybody's favorite whipping boy (pitching division), threw his best game in a very long while and nearly won it save for a then game-tying home run he allowed in the eighth inning on a slightly high and outside fastball to Corey Patterson. After a disastrous Spring during which Eaton fooled no one but himself, Eaton was in danger of being dropped from the last spot in the starting rotation. A few inches further up or away yesterday and he's the hero. For the record he threw 95 pitches yesterday and 2/3 of them were strikes.

If there was a goat yesterday it had to be manager Charlie Manuel, whose use of certain players in certain situations can only be construed as an attempt to give everyone a chance to play. Why Greg Dobbs would get the start at third base in the fifth game of the season after Pedro Feliz looked like he was finally getting untracked at the plate with three hits in his last eight AB's is completely beyond me. It isn't as if Dobbs got the start for his glove! While Manuel deserves credit for having worked every player into action on a regular basis last season, some of those moves were dictated by need not magnanimity. What need was Dobbs fulfilling yesterday?

The other questionable move was to use Tom Gordon in the eighth inning and Chad Durbin in the ninth. Durbin, who gave up a hit and two walks, took the heartbreaking loss. If Charlie wants to give Durbin some work and save the rest of his pen, the closer job is not a good place to start, especially on the road. If he had enough confidence in Gordon to use him in the eighth, he should have used him in the ninth instead.