I just think that it's a bit unfair that the two examples you've given of Black's inability to close a season happen to coincide with his teams getting beaten out by two of the hotter September teams in recent baseball history. The 2007 Rockies were 20-8 in Sept and the 2010 Giants went 18-8. When it comes down to one or two games overall, of course you might be able to put a some blame on the manager (more so in 2010 since they had a losing record in Sept/Oct) but in both cases the real story was that the teams chasing them got incredibly hot at just the right time.