The Phillies will be a handful come playoff time, as they underscored again Tuesday night. They launched five homers in a 5-3 victory over the Nationals and got another strong outing from late-season addition Pedro Martinez.

But what will manager Charlie Manuel do about closer Brad Lidge?

Manuel yanked him in the ninth inning of this game after Lidge retired just one of the four batters he faced. Ryan Madson finished up instead, working out of a bases-loaded jam.

After the game, Manuel met with Albert Pujols’ favorite reliever and (sort of) reassured him.

“I’m not saying that he’ll close tomorrow, the next day or whatever, but I look at him as a closer,” Manuel said.

“If there’s a save situation tomorrow, he said he was going to bring me in,” Lidge said.

“When I say he’s my closer, I don’t tell lies and I don’t like to go back on nothing,” Manuel told the Philadelphia Daily News. “But the team and the game is bigger than my heart, and it’s bigger than anything else, if you want to know the truth. Winning the game is what it’s all about - that’s baseball and that’s why I manage and that’s what comes first.”

Translation: Madson could assume the closer’s role if Lidge doesn’t pull himself together between now and the start of postseason play.

WHY ARE THE BREWERS SO HAPPY?

The Brewers are something like 117 games out of first place. So, naturally, their excessive celebration of Prince Fielder’s game-winning homer Sunday has earned them wholesale ridicule.

MLB has swept all the good footage off You Tube, but here is a fan shot:

There is a reason why some franchises contend consistently and some don’t. Memo to Milwaukee:

Keep your shifts tucked in. Enjoy your homers, but act like you have hit them before. Save the over-the-top response to series-clinching victories.

Thank you.

THE JOYS OF NFL COACHING

The Rams face a difficult challenge this season. Their front half of their schedule is rugged. They lack proven depth at several positions. They lost 27 games the past two seasons.

Will first-year coach Steve Spagnuolo snap at some point? That would be OK, since about all the great coaches have.

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Questions to ponder while Matt Holliday’s free-agent stock continues climbing into the stratosphere:

• On the other hand, can Tony La Russa justify starting Rick Ankiel in the postseason with that .213 batting average with runners in scoring position?
• Are the Rams really prepared to enter the season with just four receivers on their roster?
• Why would anybody ever buy a ticket to another Pirates games, aside from the wonderful fireworks display?
• Isn’t it great that football offers opportunities to youngsters of all body types?
• Do Notre Dame fans even realize how skewed their world-view is? Should we make them all take this test?

QUIPS ‘R US

Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:

Greg Cote, Miami Herald: “Adam ‘Pacman’ Jones agreed to join the CFL’s Winnipeg team, which then rescinded the offer after he appeared shirtless on Ustream ranting about wanting NFL money and accidentally referring to the CFL as the ‘UFL.’ It qualified as a good week overall for Pacman, relative to being arrested again.”

Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle: “The recent firing of three NFL offensive coordinators - was that just an NFL ruse to fool us into believing that the preseason actually has some meaning?”

Jeff Schultz, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, on Drew Stafford starting for the Lions: “Understand, rookie starting quarterbacks almost never step into good situations. They are rookie starting quarterbacks because the guy who started before them either stunk or was at the end of his career, or stunk AND was at the end of his career. In either case, that usually means the team stunk and the fans were at the end of their rope. But this is worse. This is the Lions. This is a team that went 0-16 last season, and it would’ve been worse but the NFL hasn’t expanded schedules yet. Stafford has NFL talent. But he certainly didn’t show in the pre-season that he’s ready yet. Matt Ryan showed something. Joe Flacco showed something. Stafford has shown off his arm a couple of times but that’s about it. The Lions are going to use the Troy Aikman-took-his-lumps-and-turned-into-a-Hall-of-Famer excuse to rationalize this. Sorry. I like the Dallas Cowboys’ track record a little better, both in management and coaching.”

Mark Kriegel, FoxSports.com: “I know it’s early and things are subject to change, but I have it on pretty good authority that the Raiders are willing to trade up for LeGarrette Blount.”

David Whitley, FanHouse: “If you dream of becoming an NFL quarterback, take a look in the mirror. If you see Howard Stern, forget it. You might as well plan on a career as an offensive lineman or Tom Coughlin. So says a new study that found all NFL quarterbacks truly are beautiful people. This isn’t some In Touch magazine poll that factors in Mark Sanchez’s abs. It’s based on scientifically accepted facial-symmetry research. And the science suggests that Atlanta should win the Super Bowl since Matt Ryan is the handsomest of them all. He is followed by Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers. That ranking is rankling ‘em in Green Bay, where most fans now think Favre resembles the back end of a rhinoceros.”

MEGAPHONE

“It was a total morgue. It was a concern. I was a cheerleader for 10 minutes: ‘We’re winning. Open your eyes. Get a little spunk here. Let’s go! This is why we practice hard, for great games. Let’s go!’”

Oklahoma offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson, on the Sooners mood after losing quarterback Sam Bradford and tight end Jermaine Gresham to serious injuries against BYU Saturday night.