Hamels gets his change-up back

Written by Mike Mariano | 02 September 2009

That's two consecutive dominant starts for Cole Hamels and frankly, I can't remember if we've been able to say that before this point all season.  Another sad, but true fact is that this is yet another quality start against a poor offensive team.  Not just a bad offensive team, but Pablo Sandoval, Bengie Molina, Nate Schuerholz, Freddy Sanchez, and Fred Lewis didn't play.  However now that we're past all the downsides, it was a fantastic start for Cole.  I was at last night's game and Cole dominated from start to finish and he should have.  That's the most important part of the game, that he should have shut them out and he did.

The change-up was absolutely filthy from the first batter.  He had the Giants hitters taking defensive swings all game and there were less than a handful of hard hit balls.  The first pitch change-up had hitter after hitter completely baffled.  Eli Whiteside and Ryan Rohlinger were so far in over their heads I felt bad for them.  Juan Uribe had no chance.  It was a dominant start and great to see from our struggling Ace.  It must have been a frustrating day for Jonathan Sanchez because he pitched a great game in the six innings he threw.  He only allowed one run on three hits and three walks, but K'd eight Phillies.  He got a lot of silly swings and blew fastballs by guys up and down the lineup.

Offensively, the Phillies played perfect small-ball to score their lone run.  Shane Victorino smacked a hit and subsequently stole second.  With no outs, Chase gave himself up to advance the runner to third and bring Howard to the plate.  Rhyno then got to hit with the infield in which must have been a joke compared to the shifts he usually sees.  The newfound holes all over the field allowed Howard to hit a double down the line scoring Shane easily.  Small ball 101.  Other than Howard's second double, that's really all of the interesting offense of the day.  Jay Werth looked absolutely lost and Raul didn't look much better.  Jonathan Sanchez works the effectively wild card pretty well, so we'll see how they fare against Brad Penny in game two of the series tonight.