Lots of hands have been wrung this week about the one game that separated the Phillies from the postseason this year. But everyone's fixated on the wrong game. Sure, Billy Wagner giving up the three-run bomb to Houston's Craig Biggio on Sept. 7, thus cementing the 'Stros' season sweep of the Phils, was enough to trigger a citywide E-A-G-L-E-S chant. But at least in that situation the Phils got beat with their best guy in the game. If you had it to do over a million times, you'd bring in the trip-digit fireballer each and every one of them.

The real reason the local nine are making golf reservations right now can be boiled down to this: The manager blew it. In the final week alone, skipper Charlie Manuel blatantly threw one game away (a win that would have meant a one-game play-in game with Houston Monday), and severely decreased their chances of coming back to win a second (a victory that could have made that play-in moot) all because they didn't have the right personnel in the game — decisions that rest squarely on the manager's shoulders.

The game they gave away: Monday, Sept. 26 vs. the Mets. The Phils hold a 5-2 lead going into the eighth. Ugueth Urbina relieves Brett Myers, who has pitched exceptionally and, despite having thrown 110 pitches, does not appear to be tiring. Defensible move. Urbina has been the man in the eighth. But then this: double, walk, double. One run scores. Lead cut to 5-3 with no outs, runners on second and third and the heart of the Mets lineup up. Conventional wisdom says a team's closer, generally its best reliever (the Phils' is Wagner), pitches only the ninth inning, nailing down wins and racking up oh-so-valuable (to him and his agent) "saves." But why doesn't conventional wisdom say this: With the opponent's best hitters up, the tying runs on and your entire season on the line, you should bring in your $9-million closer, the guy with the sick strikeout rate, regardless of the inning.

But only after a fielding error ties the game does Manuel make a move, bringing in the terrible twosome of Aaron Fultz and Ryan Madson (who'd been hit hard in three of his last five outings). The lead is surrendered, Wagner never gets into the game, Phils lose.

The following day, with the Phils down by a run in the eighth, David Bell draws a one-out walk and represents the tying run. The lead-footed Bell should be replaced with a pinch runner. The Phils have a guy on their bench, Endy Chavez, for just such a situation (the only thing he does well is run). But on the bench Chavez sits, and when Shane Victorino singles to center and Bell is humorously gunned down by 10 feet, one has to wonder just what more important situation Manuel was saving Chavez for.

Two games squandered because the Phils didn't have the right people in the game. Should Charlie Manuel be fired for this? That's not my call. Will the Phillies learn from this? Like most things Phillies-related, we can only hope.