Don’t look now, but the Phillies are looking like a brand-new team. True, it’s only four games, but the club finally looks like it has some life in it. What caused this? Apparently, bringing back Charlie Manuel as hitting coach did the trick.
After a dreadful weekend series loss to the Giants capping off a 4-7 start to August, the team finally had enough of hitting coach John Mallee. Mallee’s firing was announced Tuesday, possibly at the behest of owner John Middleton.
With just 44 games remaining, Philadelphia was going to hire an internal candidate to finish out the season.