Phillies, Giants series an NL pennant preview?
SAN FRANCISCO -- It's hard to watch the Phillies and Giants take the field together and not think about last October. Actually, it's hard not to think about this October.
As the National League pennant race begins in earnest with the last two NL teams left standing a year ago squaring off in the first week of August, there's a lot of road between here and the World Series, to be sure.
But you have to figure that road will go through one, if not both, of these teams' cities. After all, they're both built for the very purpose of getting back to the World Series, where the Phillies represented the league for two years before the Giants had their run in 2010.
The paving of that road to October may have begun with Thursday's opener, which gave the Phillies the early edge in the four-game series by a 3-0 count behind Cliff Lee's Major League-leading fifth shutout. Heading into the set, the Giants were the only team among the last 12 to win a series against the Phillies, owners of the Majors' best record.
Still, as far as Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. is concerned, this series has very little to do with last October, this October or even last week.
"For us, it's another series," Amaro said. "Some people might look at it as a measuring stick, but it's not. Our guys just try to play games. We've got a ways to go before the end of the season and we still have a lot of work to do."
Before that turns into the "Amaro: Giants are no measuring stick for us" headline, the Phillies' GM was highly complimentary of the Giants, and of GM Brian Sabean's ability to add veterans, like he did with Carlos Beltran and Orlando Cabrera. Amaro, whose acquisition of Hunter Pence is paying quick dividends, is just appropriately focused on his own ballclub.
Besides, these two teams have been there and done that with recent comments and actions that could be -- and therefore were -- construed as gamesmanship, psychological warfare or other such shenanigans.
There was Bruce Bochy's use of both Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee in the All-Star Game, and then there was Charlie Manuel's comments after last week's series implying that Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain were merely good, not yet great.
The latter, of course, re-emerged Thursday when it was time for the two teams to line up again. The jovial Manuel was quick to smile and explain he meant nothing derogatory, just that he always thinks his lineup should hit, no matter who's on the mound.
"Let me tell you something: I have all the respect in the world for the Giants," Manuel said. "When we played them last year in the playoffs, they beat us and not only did they beat us, but they beat Texas. I watched every pitch of every game of the World Series, and they earned everything they got.
"They're still a very, very, very good staff. If someone wants to say they're great pitchers, that's fine with me. I have the utmost respect for them."
Bochy, who last week laughed off accusations that he was trying to wear out the Phillies' aces in the All-Star Game, gets it. He knows what Manuel was saying.
"I'm sure he's saying that because they believe they can beat them. Charlie's point is longevity, and he's right," Bochy said. "That's when you call somebody great, is when they've done it for quite a few years. I don't get caught into it. ... I'm sure in his mind, he feels they can beat anybody, which they can. And we feel the same thing."
Thing is, both teams have to prove it, and that will take time -- about two more months before they even have an opportunity to meet again in October.
And there are, of course, the Braves, the three-headed monster in the NL Central, and the surging D-backs to consider. They'll all have something to say about whether the Phillies and Giants will have that chance.
Amaro's right when he says the Phillies have their work cut out for them. The Giants have seven games against the Astros and three with the Cubs, meeting the Braves once and the D-backs twice. The Phillies not only face Atlanta twice and the Brewers, Cardinals and D-backs, but also have to face the rest of an NL East that's the winningest division in baseball.
"Our division matches up as good as any division in the National League, so we're going to have to be good all the way through the season. It's kind of a day in, day out scenario," Amaro said.
Indeed, that's true for everyone. Whether the road to October began being paved on a tightly contested August night in San Francisco, there are still 50 games left in the regular season to sort out whether the last two teams standing a year ago will be doing the same thing this year.
"That's the beauty of the games -- you've got to play them," Amaro said.
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