Playoff Pulse: It's in the Manuel

Playoff Pulse is our morning rundown of the night that was and the night that will be during the MLB postseason.

Looking Forward ...

Much will be made in the lead-up to Game 6 of another Yankees starter -- Andy Pettitte -- going on three days' rest, assuming of course that that is officially announced Tuesday. Of course, there wasn't much of a choice for Joe Girardi.

The Phillies do have some interesting options as they head back to New York. Game 6 starter Pedro Martinez was the easy part, but you can't expect him to go all nine innings, so, especially if the Phillies have a lead, what happens then?

Ryan Madson apparently supplanted Brad Lidge in Game 5 after Lidge's meltdown in Game 4, but even though he closed out a win, Madson hardly inspired a ton of confidence, allowing three hits and an earned run.

And what happens if Philadelphia gets beyond that? Cliff Lee on two days' rest seems like the longest of shots. Cole Hamels -- the guy who is ready for the season to be over and has a 7.58 ERA in the playoffs -- hardly seems like the best option. Joe Blanton? J.A. Happ? That could be Charlie Manuel's toughest choice of all, one we're sure he'd gladly make.

In Their Own Words
"If I can steal signs, I will. I mean, if I can. That means we're definitely not. I mean, or if they do, I don't know nothing about it. Usually I do. No, we're definitely not stealing. We don't have their signs and we're not stealing their signs. But we are trying." -- Phillies manager Charlie Manuel clearing up (we think) the accusation that his club is stealing the Yankees' signs.
By the Numbers
2 Home runs allowed by Phil Coke in 2/3 of a inning of work in Game 5. Coke is the first pitcher in World Series history to allow that many homers in an appearance and not record at least three outs. -- Ed Price
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Looking Back ...

It looks like fans aren't the only ones who have noticed the numerous mound meetings between Yankee catchers and pitchers throughout the course of the postseason.

Major League Baseball is planning to discuss the near-constant mound meetings, which are unlimited as long as a coach or manager isn't involved, during the offseason. MLB has, at times, made a point of trying to speed up the game.

The Yankees naturally defended all the meetings, with Jorge Posada pointing out the gravity of every at-bat in the playoffs and pitching coach Dave Eiland pointing out MLB's hypocrisy on the matter.

"Don't take three minutes between innings," he said, referring to the extended commercial breaks that come with baseball in primetime on network television. "You know how many times a pitcher is standing on the mound waiting for an umpire's call to throw the first pitch?"

That's well taken, but Eiland went on to admit that the Yankees sometimes use mound conferences as a "momentum-breaker" and that while it might upset fans it's -- that old standby -- "part of the game."

Well, OK, the Yankees may care mostly about winning and being able to employ whatever methods they can to do so, but it's Major League Baseball's job to, in most facets, serve the fans. You'll be hard-pressed to find any who would miss all those strategy sessions/time-wasters.

Scout's Eye View ...

Chase Utley has, for the most part, been pitched away by the Yankees in this World Series. One has to wonder when that strategy will change as the Phillies' second baseman continues to tear apart Yankee pitching. Utley likes to crowd the plate and has the ability to lean out and hook any mistakes on the outer third of the plate. Unfortunately for the Yankees, he has not been missing even the slightest mistake.

While they have occassionally gone inside to keep him honest, New York is going to need to establish the fastball in there if they plan to slow him down. However, that will be a tough task for Andy Pettitte, a pitcher who usually lives on the outside part of the plate against left-handed hitters. To Utley's credit, the Yankees have made good pitches on him early in some counts but he just doesn't seem to be missing that one mistake. Right now, it's taking perfect pitches to put him away.

-- Frankie Piliere

Wednesday's Tale of the Tape ...

Phillies (Pedro Martinez) at Yankees (Andy Pettitte?), 7:57 PM ET: Martinez lost Game 2, but he was terrific in doing so, pitching backwards and using every ounce of guile he had to limit the powerful Yankees. Virtually every corner of Martinez's history against New York has been scoured, so what about this year's Pedro? This will be only the third time he's facing a team for the second time in 2009. In the previous two -- against the Braves and Mets -- he went 1-1 with a 2.46 ERA, so it doesn't appear he'll suffer from overexposure based on that limited sample. Pettitte will become the third straight Yankee starter to start on three days' rest. He's done it before, with success in the postseason (2.80 ERA) and hardly any at all in the regular season (4.70 ERA), but as FanHouse's Ed Price points out, the most important number of all is 29. That was the 37-year-old Pettitte's age the last time he started on short rest after throwing 100-plus pitches in his previous start.