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PHILADELPHIA - It's a wonder what two homers can do for a manager - like make people forget you nearly blew Game 1 of the NLCS, right at the start. There it was in the very first inning Thursday night, an opportunity for Charlie Manuel to demonstrate he was smarter than the dugout bench supporting his weight. All he had to do was order his starter, Cole Hamels, to walk Manny Ramirez or at least to pitch around him carefully with one out, a runner on second and first base open. Considering Ramirez has been batting around five zillion with quadrillion homers since coming to the Dodgers, the decision was not a stumper. But Manuel felt the need to do the macho thing, to prove early in this series that Hamels and his guys were not going to shape their entire game strategy around the awesome powers of Super-Manny. Strikes were... [read full story]
