Charlie Manuel, so often described as a bumpkin without the correct knowledge of the intricacies of the game of baseball whose team wins despite his managerial blunders, continues to push all the right buttons.

Everyone is all too willing to jump on “Uncle Charlie’s” back when one of his moves doesn’t work out. A lot less audible is the general silence that has met so many of his moves this year, most of which have been magic.

Take yesterday for example. Manuel is looking to pinch-hit for So Taguchi in the sixth. He has the league’s best pinch-hitter, Greg Dobbs, sitting on the bench. Instead Manuel goes with another left-hand bat, Geoff Jenkins. Dobbs has been sizzling, the league’s best pinch-hitter. Jenkins has been struggling.

So of course Jenkins launches a pitch into the right-field seats to tie the game. The Phils go on to win, taking two of three over the weekend from the Marlins. Jenkins is a dead low ball hitter, and Manuel apparently noticed that the Marlins’ reliever was firing everything low in his warmups.

The teams played leap-frog over the weekend, with the Marlins arriving in first, getting jumped by the Phils, then going back into first with a win Saturday night, then the Phils winning yesterday to end the weekend a half-game in front.

It says here that a big part of the team’s success has been the moves of one Charlie Manuel.

It’s not the popular belief. Hey, Manuel has left me scratching my head as much as anyone in the past. But he’s pushing all the right buttons so far.

And the Phils are in first place in part because of it.