Once is an Accident, Twice is a Pattern

At the end of the 2009 MLB season, while the New York Yankees were celebrating another championship, the Philadelphia Phillies were dismayed by their own lackluster play in the World Series. Shortstop Jimmy Rollins was especially dissappointed being that before the Fall Classic began he predicted victory for his Phillies. Following their defeat, Rollins like most of his teammates was positive that if given another opportunity his team would excel and that in the coming year they would prove the 2009 outcome to be the exception, and the 2008 outcome the rule. I think Jimmy Rollins should stop making predictions.
The Phillies came up short again in 2010, this time failing to make it out of the National League. The San Francisco Giants played spoiler in a series marked by outstanding pitching, timely and untimely hitting, and an almost David vs Goliath backdrop that once again left Phils fans dejected. This was a classic case of the best team being outplayed by the over achieving underdog.
The 2010 Phillies were stacked! Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels were their top starters. Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jayson Werth, Shane Victorino and Jimmy Rollins were all back again for another title shot.
The 2010 Giants also bolstered a top notch pitching staff, however with much less post season experience, with Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Jonathan Sanchez. The Giants lineup, uuuhhh??? They had Cody Ross, Buster Posey and Aubrey Huff. I know. Not quite a fair fight. But, therein lies the answer to the riddle. The Phillies are not as good as we all thought or expected.
If you followed the Phillies this year you'd know that before the all star break, they were basically a .500 ballclub. Clearly underachieving and contemplating the future of the franchise, Phils General Manager Rueben Amaro Jr. later admitted that he and his ownership group talked about blowing up the team and only keeping their nucleus of young talent. But due to the fact that the Phillies are a notorious second-half team and that Amaro knew he could acquire more talent for another playoff run, they decided to stick with it. Amaro scooped up Roy Oswalt from Houston at the trade deadline and from July 20 on the Phillies went a ridiculous 53 and 28. They had done it again.
Well, come post season it seemed the first half club was the one that showed up. Despite sweeping the Reds 3 games to none the Phils could not hit with runners in scoring position. They were hitting about .100 in such situations but their pitching was so good that it didn't matter. Well, in the Giants Series the offense was going to matter. You figured the pitching for both sides would be stellar and that the team with the better offense would prevail. Being that the Giants were a team of has-beens, mid level players and young talent, they were figured to be outmatched and outclassed. Of course now we know it was the Phillies offense that was highly overrated and the Giants offense was clutch.
Players like series MVP Cody Ross, Buster Posey, Juan Uribe, Freddy Sanchez and Andres Torres came up with huge hits. While Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Shane Victorino and Ryan Howard all failed in the most crucial at-bats with runners on base. The Giants executed on cue whenever runners reached second base with no outs. Bruce Bochy deserves credit as a manager who knows the strengths and weaknesses of his team better than any other manager. He also knew exactly when to pull his pitchers and exactly whom to replace them with.
On the other team, Charlie Manuel was exposed as most insiders know him to be; a strategically weak manager who relies on his high power offense to nullify any opportunity to outwit his opponent. Manuel's glaring defeat was in game 4 when he left his bullpen pitchers in spots where they should not have been. And throughout the entire series Manuel refused to play small ball. Repeatedly the Phillies got men on base with nobody out and they would fail to capitalize. Manuel didn't make the adjustment till it was already too late. He sacrificed Carlos Ruiz in game 6 to get a runner to third with 1 out, but yet again the Phillies failed to get that run home. That was the second time in that game the Phillies had a man at 2nd with no outs and failed to score. The Giants had 1 situation in game 6 with runners at 1st and 2nd with no outs. Freddy Sanchez, one of their leading hitters, laid down a sacrifice bunt to make it 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. Both runners eventually scored.
BOTTOM LINE: Bruce Bochy out managed Charlie Manuel. The Giants outplayed the Phillies in every facet of the game. Jayson Werth played well but will be gone. Jimmy Rollins may have played his last game as a Phillie. Next year Charlie Manuel better adapt his ballclub to become a 'National League style team' instead of a slugging reliant team that can't hang in October when pitching rules. Players like Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins if he's back will need to go back to the fundamentals of baseball. Sacrifice Bunting, hitting behind runners, hitting sacrifice flies and learning to hit the ball to the opposite field and pulling the ball when necessary!!!!!!!!!!