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Fri, Oct 24th 2008, 16:58

Seeking spark, Phils may adjust lineup

For six months, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel never hesitated to tweak his starting lineup from day to day, series to series, week to week. The time may have come for him to resume tinkering.

The Phillies, as you no doubt know by now, have not played efficient offense through two games of the World Series. They’ve gone 1-for-28 with runners in scoring position and stranded 22 runners.

One or two — or six — lineup changes won’t fix that, of course. Performance like that gets fixed by execution, not managerial maneuvering. But Manuel could make a couple of moves to put his players in the best position to succeed, and he’s at least pondering the possibility for Saturday night’s Game 3.

In particular, he’s considering splitting his two left-handed sluggers, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard. They typically bat third and fourth, leaving the Phils vulnerable to left-handed relief specialists. Utley has a minimal platoon split, but Howard becomes a much less effective hitter against southpaws.

“I think about that,” Manuel said on Friday, in light of rookie lefty David Price’s strong relief effort in Game 2.

“But also, if you sit there and think, the right-hand hitters have to get him, too. We have big right-hand hitters standing in there, too. They’re the ones that have to take the slack off the left-hand hitters. When you balance out your lineup and you look for balance, that’s the way I look at it. Howard and Utley, when I split them up, sometimes it works.”

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