The Phils finished their series with the Braves this afternoon. Cole Hamels got the start and after a brilliant outing against the Cardinals in his last game he was uneven today. He struck out 5, but walked 4 and allowed 3 runs on 8 hits in just 5 innings. It should really have been worse than just 3 runs on 8 hits and the fact that it wasn't shows how much the Brave's lineup continues to struggle and perhaps that Hamels' maturity level has risen since last season. There were several times during his outing today, where Cole could have folded and given more runs, but he didn't. Instead he kept battling and managed just enough to give the team a chance to win. Meanwhile, the Phils scratched out 4 runs in the early going, with a hit batsmen and a sac fly for a couple runs in the 1st inning, and solo homers by Placido Polanco in the 2nd inning and Jayson Werth in the 3rd inning.
After that Shane Victorino eventually tacked on another run for the Phils with a solo shot in the 7th. So inning when Hamels surrendered the 3 runs in the 5th inning he did not surrender the lead. Nor did Chad Durbin who tossed 2 scoreless innings(6th and 7th), Jose Contreras who tossed a scoreless 8th inning or Brad Lidge who got his first save since last season with a 1-2-3 9th to finish the important 5-3 win. With the win the Phils move to 19-12 overall, good enough for 1st in the NL East, 2 games up on the NY Mets. You just have to wonder about Cole Hamels at this point? The one that went 8 scoreless against the Cardinals, or the one who could barely get out of the 5th inning today. I still think it's the former and hopefully, sooner or later, he'll figure out a way to be the former more consistently.
3 comments:
We can just call Cole Hamels "Sea-Saw" considering how he pitches, however its nice to see the bullpen come in shut things down and preserve the win.
-to ph1llysports
yeah it was a good night for the bullpen
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