Philadelphia, Nov 1 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Phillies are resting their chances of the World Series 2009 on Joe Blanton. He is 6 foot 3, 250 pounds, a former first-round draft pick who is built like a beer-leaguer, only with high stirrups and quite a sharp curveball. He pitched wonderfully in last year’s World Series too.

Joe Blanton is pitted against Sabathia, so the Phillies are basically matching a No. 4 starter against a No. 1 in the most important game of the World Series 2009 season. And if they lose unfortunately, then they would fall behind 3-1.

“I think you’re taking a chance on really pushing him,” Manuel said. “He’s the kind of guy that gets into the game, and with his adrenaline going and everything, definitely we don’t want to hurt him. But at the same time we want him to stay strong when he does pitch.”

“It was just one bad inning in that game,” Blanton said. “That’s kind of the way the game goes sometimes. I could throw exactly the same way against the same team the next time and it might be seven innings, one run.”