The Phils returned to action tonight Washington as Cole Hamels made his long awaited 2010 debut. It probably wasn't quite what he or the Phils were hoping for but it was okay for a first start of the season. He went just 5 innings, allowing 3 runs on 5 hits while striking out 5, but against the Nats that was just good enough to get him the win. Mostly, because the Phils again had too much firepower for Washington to handle. Jason Marquis started for the Nats and was rocked for 6 runs on 8 hits as the Phils just wore him out. Jimmy Rollins walked and scored and Placido Polanco was hit by a pitch and scored in the 1st inning. In the 4th, Hamels himself slapped an RBI single for a 3-0 lead. In the 5th, Polanco doubled and scored and Ryan Howard crushed a 2 run homer to put the Phils up 6-3 through 5 innings. From there the Phils bullpen took over.
Chad Durbin pitched two scoreless innings, Danys Baez was a little shaky allowing 1 run on 2 hits, and recording only one out, Antonio Bastardo and Ryan Madson then combined to end the inning and bail out Baez with the lead holding at 7-4. Raul Ibanez got one back in the next inning with a sac fly to push the lead back up to 8-4 and that was about it for the Nats. Madson kept them scoreless the rest of the way to close out the 8-4 win and send the Phils to 2-0 for the 1st time in a long time. So ultimately the Phils bats appear to be 2nd to none, but the pitching is not quite at the same level, at least not yet it seems. There's plenty of time to fix that though. Hopefully Cole will continue to win games like this one, but he'll want to make it at little bit easier to do so, otherwise he could end up blowing some game down the road he should have been able to win. At any rate though it has been great watching the Phils so far and I just hope they keep it up.
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2 comments:
Cole Hamels definately has the tools to take care of business on the mound but it just seems like of late (last season and this first game) that he hasn't been all there. I dont know if its the mechanics or maybe in his head but if he gets it sorted out the Phils will definately be a favorite to make it to the World Series again with all that offense and what not.
-to ph1llysports
he looked fine mentally he just had a little bad luck and couldn't get a lot of close pitches for strikes.
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