August 17, 2008
Putting the Hamels Down
The Phillies lack of offense continues. With two runs tonight, they've scored seven in their last four games. Cole Hamels and Brad Lidge, however, combined to allow the Padres just one run. Hamels wasn't striking batters out, but he walked none and allowed just seven hits, all singles. Lidge matched Hamels three strikeouts in one inning, but did walk a batter. Burrell homered, one of just six hits for the Phillies and the only one for extra bases.
An unearned run was the difference in the game as Jimmy Rollins stole second and went to third on a throwing error by the catcher in the first. He scored on a sacrifice fly. A better throw early and this game goes to extra innings. The Phillies keep pace with the Mets, staying two games out.
Posted by David Pinto at
10:56 PM
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PETCO strikes again. Kouzmanoff cranked one in the fourth that would have gone out of any reasonably fair park.
re: phillies win at pitching defense and small ball in SD
while it's true that the phillies have generally had some trouble scoring the last month or so, it seems to me they demonstrated something else in San Diego this weekend--the ability to play a brand of baseball which is necessary and sufficient for the playoffs, namely pitching, defense and smallball.
on friday night, jamie moyer parleyed a single home run by pat burrell into a 1-0 win over greg maddux in a classix matchup of a 350 game winner vs a 225 game winner (between them, maddux and moyer have won more than 575 games in the majors).
last night, cole hamels needed to step up and match johan santana's 3 hit shutout of the pirates. working with just two runs, hamels did just than, going 8 innings, allowing just one run, and leveraging a homer and a manufactured run into his 10th win of the season. also, hamels looked like a staff ace in doing so.
petco park, it's true, makes you play small ball. the question remains, can you play small ball? the phillies have replied, yes they can.
while the mets and phillies are well and evenly matched, and the return of pedro martinez is good for the mets, still the phillies have stabilized their rotation with brett myers once again throwing well and joe blanton throwing very well coming over to the NL since the trade. With hamels, moyer, blanton, myers and kendrick, the phillies now have a very decent rotation and the ability to close out ballgames with their above-average bullpen. combined with their above-average defense, they can win in the playoffs if they get there.
in all likelihood, the matchups will be, cubs v. nl west winner, and nl east winner v. nl central wild card, which it now looks like milwaukee.
the phillies and milwaukee are very similar clubs, just as last year colorado matched up evenly with the phils. both have lots of power up and down the lineup, and both have lots of good pitching.
hamels would end up locking up with sabathia if they get that far. it would be a classic october matchup.
--art kyriazis, philly
