Philadelphia Phillies (65-39) manager Charlie Manuel insists the World Champion San Francisco Giants (61-44) aren't in his team's heads after the Giants took two out of three from the Phillies in Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia this week. To me, his comments sounded like he was insecure. Additionally, he said that Giants pitchers Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain were good, but not great pitchers. Perhaps he thought both men throwing six and seven innings without giving up an earned run to his vaunted lineup was an abberation. Or maybe he's forgotten Cain's seven shutout innings against the Phils in Game 3 of the NLCS last year or Lincecum's Game 1 victory in the same series.
Manuel's statement that greatness comes with consistency (and his assertion that Lincecum and Cain have not yet achieved this) is almost laughable. Lincecum won back-to-back Cy Young Awards and the following year was the MVP of the Postseason while pitching his team to a World Series victory. If that's not consistent, I don't know what is. Cain, on the other hand, didn't surrender even one earned run the entire postseason and has a 3.39 career ERA in five full seasons, including 2.89 in 2009 and 3.14 last year. Cain's ERA is 2.91 this year, Lincecum's is 2.78. Both seem pretty consistent to me. All I'm hearing from Manuel's comments is sour grapes.
The blogging and tweeting will be limited at best until August 7th, when I return from vacation with a flourish.
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