Mets bullpen might be dicey but they have the advantage with guys named "Manuel" making decisions

In the last month or so, I've watched a lot of NL East baseball as the Phillies and the Mets duke it out for divisional supremacy. Obviously, the bullpen is a major question mark for the Mets but that being said, it has performed well for the most part.

The Mets have been in sole possession of first place since wresting it from the Phillies on August 27 in a 6-3 win at Citizens Bank Ballpark. That victory came a night after blowing a seven-run lead.

Since the 13-inning loss, New York's bullpen has performed to a 2.38 ERA and that is inflated after they gave up five in Wednesday's 13-10 loss. As a team, the Mets have won nine of the 12 games since.

The Phillies have a closer in Brad Lidge, who has yet to have blow a save this season. They also have a 5.36 ERA from their bullpen in that same span and has lost eight of the 14 games.

Bullpens go through peaks and valleys over the season. During a marathon it's a cyclical thing but this has to be an alarming trend for the Phillies.

Back to the title of the post, I went down to Philadelphia firsthand to check out the Phillies in their own turf after seeing them win twice at Shea Stadium. What I saw was Charlie Manuel let Brett Myers go into the eighth well over 100 pitches. Myers also did that Friday but was dominating, he was not doing that today, just getting outs when he had to and catching some breaks.

Before the critical juncture in a 3-3 game, Myers had retired 10 in a row since giving up an RBI single to Ricky Nolasco with two outs in the fourth. That single was on his 68th pitch and the 18th batter he faced. So considering the way he had pitched since that point, you could kind of understand.

But Myers gave up a single to left to Luis Gonzalez and a one-out single to Mike Jacobs. All of this while lefthander J.C. Romero was warming up. Presumably it was for Jacobs but when Manuel finally came out it was to bring in Chad Durbin and his 4.55 second half ERA. Durbin gives up an RBI double and a leadoff single in the ninth and then Romero comes in and he gives up a two-run double to Dan Uggla on a 3-0 count.

By then it was too late and so did the Phillies fans. If the Phillies don't come back from their 3 1/2 game deficit, there will be a lot of reasons and scenarios like what I described fall into that category.

"We've had a lot of trouble here the last two weeks, at least, in the eighth inning," Manuel said. "I don't know exactly what the numbers are, but we've been giving up some runs in the eighth."

Now I will never count anyone out after seeing last year's Mets collapse and Phillies comeback but this type of managing is hardly a convincing case for a repeat performance.

Durbin is similar to Aaron Heilman and we haven't been seeing much of him in the eighth inning of late. Heilman hasn't made an appearance in the eighth or later in his last six appearances and probably won't unless it's well into extra innings and he hasn't come into a game yet.

Can the Mets pull this out? They certainly have better options. There's no Brian Lawrences and Orlando Hernandez of the world to trot out there and plus they have Johan Santana.