Manuel Labor

I couldn't see the Phils' game tonight, but I was following along on the Internet. Ryan Howard walks with two outs and no one on base in the bottom of the 9th, the Phils down by a run. I immediately check to see who is on the bench, and guess that logic will dictate sending Endy Chavez in to pinch run, a task well-suited to the .216 hitter. Instead, Charlie Manuel sends in Matt Kata (who attended Vanderbilt, so he has a special place in my heart, just not my head) to pinch run, and he fails to score from first on a Jimmy Rollins double. Again, I didn't see it, so I don't know why he didn't score, but my, how I would love to have had Endy Chavez doing the only thing he does well: run.

Instead, Endy "Mendoza Line" Chavez is sent up there as a pinch-hitter, to strike out and end the game.

Again, I have to be a bit cautious in my criticism, not having seen what happened, but I still have to wonder why Endy was not the pinch-runner, and almost anybody but Endy the pinch-hitter in the 9th. Frustrating.