It would have never happened to Halladay, and it should never have happened to Oswalt.

In the top of the ninth inning on Friday night, with the Phillies leading the San Diego Padres 2-1, Charlie Manuel pinch hit for Roy Oswalt.

After the game, Charlie argued that the Phillies needed more offense and that Oswalt had already “done his job”. Domonic Brown pinch hit and popped out.

We know how the rest went. The Phillies didn’t score those extra runs that Manuel wanted so badly and Brad Lidge blew his first save in weeks. Even he has found new ways to cough up leads – this time with a bases loaded, two out balk.

The Phillies won the game in 12 innings on a highlight reel slide by Jimmy Rollins that prevented Padres catcher Yorvit Torrealba from tagging the Phils’ shortstop before he smacked his hand on home plate.

There has been plenty of hand wringing over Lidge’s latest meltdown, but this really has nothing to do with Brad. He is going to blow saves and we know what we have with him at this point.

The issue is Manuel’s thought process regarding yanking Oswalt. His argument was that the Phillies needed more runs. That’s good logic were the Phillies LOSING at the time. In fact, they were winning, and Oswalt was dealing. There was no reason to believe that Lidge gave the Phillies a better chance than Oswalt to protect a one run lead. Has Charlie let Oswalt hit for himself, the Phillies would have gone into the bottom of the ninth with no less than a one run lead and one of their aces drilling the outer limits of the strike zone.

Oswalt, for his part, said all the right things after the game – he wanted to go back out there but understood.

Should he have, though? How would Roy Halladay have taken this news? It’s purely academic though, since Manuel would leave Halladay in even if his arm was falling off so long as Doc said, “I got this next guy, Charlie.”

The Phillies are in the midst of a grueling stretch with 23 games in 22 days. Three unnecessary innings of bullpen relief was required due to Charlie’s reluctance to keep Roy Oswalt in the game with the lead to pitch the ninth.

Manuel has done a fine job this year in managing through a slew of injuries and teamwide offensive slumps. The Phillies lead the wildcard and still have a great chance to win a fourth consecutive NL East crown. Still, some of Charlie’s in-game decisions are truly head-scratching.

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Don’t look now, but Phils ace Roy Halladay is having the most complete season in the National League amongst all pitchers and should be the favorite at this point for the Cy Young award. Sure, the Marlins’ Josh Johnson and Rockies’ Ubaldo Jimenez are having fine season, as are Mat Latos of the Padres and the Braves’ Tim Hudson.

Still, Halladay’s numbers are hard to argue with:

1st in the NL in ERA, Innings Pitched, Strikeout to Walk ratio, Walks per 9 IP, Strikeouts, Shutouts, Complete Games, and ERA+. He’s 3rd in WHIP. He’s third in wins with 16 heading into tomorrow night’s game in Los Angeles, but is only 1 win behind Adan Wainwright and Ubaldo Jimenez, who both appear to be stalled at 17 wins.

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Is there any legitimate argument that Chase Utley and Ryan Howard were not rushed back too soon from the disabled list? I get that both of these guys are very important to the Phillies’ chances to three-peat as NL Champs, but the Phillies were practically on crush control before they came back. They are 6-6 since Utley returned to the rotation, but were a scorching 18-5 in the 23 games before Utley’s return. Howard has looked completely lost at the plate since coming back, and his 1 game rehab stint was woefully inadequate for a team with a viable replacement in Mike Sweeney, who would be able to hold down the fort until Howard actually had his timing back and felt well enough.

Bringing Chase and Ryan back too quickly smells of desperation for a team that doesn’t need to act that way.