There are two ways for a baseball team to improve its pitching - from the front end of the game and from the back.
The hope is that, when you're done, the talents of the starting rotation and those of the bullpen blend smoothly at some point beyond the middle of the game.
If the Phillies are going to make a run at a playoff spot, their pitching has to get better, and probably significantly better. Of the two ways to improve, the first choice would be to land a top-of-the-rotation starter before the non-waiver trade deadline expires Saturday afternoon.
"Probably a starter," Charlie Manuel said before Tuesday's 9-5 win over Arizona when asked which method he would prefer. "If we get the type of starter we want to see, then we'd have a strong top of the rotation, and going down the stretch and into the playoffs that comes into play big."
Adding a pitcher of, say, the caliber of Houston's Roy Oswalt to a staff that already contains Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels would give the Phils a dominant core to the rotation and give Manuel the luxury of picking and choosing among his other available starters to fill the other spots. It would also very nearly corner the market on talented Roys in the major leagues.
The problem, of course, is that trying to go in that direction is a lot harder than the alternative. The Astros want a lot in return for Oswalt, just to stick with that name, and then there is the matter of Oswalt's contract, which the pitcher would like sweetened if he agrees to a deal.
"I'm not worried about the money," Manuel said. "I don't get into that. I'll let the organization take care of the money."
The organization likes to take care of its money. It likes to protect its prospects and keep its position players intact. General manager Ruben Amaro Jr. can accomplish all three of those goals by doing nothing before Saturday, or he can weigh the risk and reward of various deals and sail in the direction of the fairest wind.
For his part, Manuel is not as concerned with the consequences of making the team better right now. Managers who find themselves on teams building for the future usually don't have one themselves.
"I'm for today. Why shouldn't I be? That's my job," Manuel said. "The organizational standpoint is not only for today but for putting a team on the field that will be here for a while. They see a bigger picture. I got a smaller picture."
It might be that the big picture of the front office means Manuel's help will come in the form of bullpen help. If they can't get a frontline starter, there is no sense in getting a middling starter. They have some of those.
Among the relievers being considered are Scott Downs of Toronto and Craig Breslow of Oakland, a pair of hard-throwing lefthanders. At the moment, J.C. Romero is the only lefthander in a Phils bullpen that has been both imbalanced and inconsistent.
"I feel like when I see [Kyle] Kendrick and [J.A.] Happ and [Joe] Blanton pitch a good game against a good club, that tells me they're capable of doing it," Manuel said. "But everything has to click for us because of what we've got. And our bullpen has to be better."
It is better since the return of Ryan Madson, but closer Brad Lidge is still a scary proposition, and the team expected to get a lot more out of Danys Baez and Jose Contreras, although both pitched scoreless innings Tuesday.
"When we got Baez, I definitely thought he could throw two innings for us, but after being a closer so long, now he's geared to one inning," Manuel said. "Look at recent numbers, how guys hit him in his first 20 pitches, and then how they hit from the 20th pitch on. It's way up there."
As for Contreras, sometimes he is aggressive and sometimes he seems afraid to throw the ball. Maybe it is because he is still adjusting to the bullpen role, maybe because his tendency to sail the ball isn't the best idea here.
"Fly balls don't play too well in this yard," Manuel observed.
So, every night is a puzzle as he and pitching coach Rich Dubee try to find the balancing point between what the starter gives them and what the bullpen can add to the equation. Tuesday night, with Lidge unavailable after throwing 64 pitches the previous two games, the equation depended a lot on Hamels.
"The best scenario is he gives us eight innings," Manuel said.
That's best scenario every night, but not one upon which the Phillies can usually rely. Hamels didn't hold up his end against the Diamondbacks, needing 108 pitches to get through five innings before leaving the game to the bullpen. This time it worked out - mostly because Arizona's bullpen is the worst in the majors - but that's not the way to win games every night.
The pitching, all of it, has to get better or the team will fall steadily out of contention. The Phillies can improve the odds of getting a strong start most nights by adding a good starter, or they can change that demanding scenario by improving the bullpen.
There are two ways to go, but not much time to choose. The bell rings at 4 p.m. on Saturday. If the Phillies don't do something significant by then, it will also toll.