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BenFred: Cardinals, Phillies prove manager’s touch is still quite important to modern game

The Cardinals’ final flight home of the regular season was up in the air, somewhere between Pittsburgh and St. Louis, when president of baseball operations John Mozeliak turned to first-year manager Oli Marmol and said in a direct manner something the often-blunt Marmol surely appreciated: “You’ve had a great year.”

Indeed. But if it’s going to become something better, something sweeter, Marmol must now lead the Cardinals past a National League Wild Card opponent that feels pretty great about its manager, too.

Make that interim manager.

Well, at least for now.

“Hopefully, maybe next year he will be back here with us,” Phillies Game 1 starter Zack Wheeler said about Rob Thomson on Thursday.