Call to Madson opens closer questions

Phils manager Manuel gives Lidge 'break' in Game 5

Jenifer Langosch / MLB.com

PHILADELPHIA -- Ladies and gentlemen, it looks like we might just have baseball's first closer controversy in November.

Phillies manager Charlie Manuel most certainly didn't want to spin it that way after his club claimed an 8-6 victory over the Yankees in a must-win Game 5 on Monday. And his postgame comments sidestepped the inquiries quite well.

But as true as the old adage states: Actions speak louder than words.

Brad Lidge didn't get the call in Monday's save situation. In fact, he was never summoned to warm up. Not when his team led by four runs. Not when that lead was shaved to three. Not when the Yankees sent the tying run to the plate -- twice.

Nope. There Lidge sat on the Phillies' bullpen bench, watching Ryan Madson wiggle through some ninth-inning trouble and in the end do what Lidge couldn't 24 hours earlier.

"I wanted to bring Madson in," Manuel said afterward. "I wanted to see how he goes, and I kind of wanted to just give Lidge a break tonight if I could."

What Manuel did not clarify was exactly what prompted the need for such a break. Was it motivated by a physical issue, with Manuel concerned by the fact that Lidge needed 30 pitches to finish one inning on Sunday? Was it a mental break that was in order for a closer whose already nightmarish season somehow managed to find a way to spiral into even further depths with his Game 4 breakdown?

And then the biggie: Is this break for Lidge a permanent one?

To the latter question, Manuel hedged. However, by the time the Phillies' skipper got to the end of a 168-word, roundabout answer to the question, it sounded as if he had not entirely lost his faith in Lidge.

"He's been our closer for ... this is his second year, and I don't see us moving him out of that if you want to know the truth," Manuel said.