Cole Hamels has been Dominant

If he could buy a win, he'd certainly have the money.

Cole Hamels was robbed of a win for the umpteenth time in his career last night when Jonathan Papelbon blew just his second save of the year. The Phillies did win the game in the 13^th inning, and somehow, miraculously, they are only 5.5 games back of the first place Atlanta Braves who obviously have some offensive issues of their own. Very quietly, since he can’t seem to get any run support, and the Phillies just aren’t any good period, Hamels is putting together one of his better seasons at this point.

Hamels was lifted after seven innings in last night’s tilt against the Braves and he left with a 1-0 lead thanks to a Ryan Howard home run. Blanking the opposition has become a habit for Cole over his last three starts, his scoreless streak now stands at 24.1 innings. His raw
 numbers have not been the only impressive thing as he has been able to work out of jams and keep his hitting challenged teammates in ballgames they probably should not be in.

For instance, last night Hamels gave up a leadoff single to known Phillie killer Evan Gattis in the 6^th inning. The next batter, Justin Upton, squared and bunted foul on the first pitch of the at bat. Now, Justin Upton is far and away the Braves best hitter so this was pretty surprising to see.  The very next pitch Hamels left a changeup  up in the zone and Upton laced a double down the left  field line, second and third no outs. Hamels proceeded to hit the next batter to load the bases with no outs. A sometimes flappable Hamels was unflappable last night. He got 2^nd baseman Tommy La Stella to line out to 3^rd base and then induced an inning ending 4-6-3 double play off the bat of Andrelton Simmons.

Hamels preserves the slim 1-0 lead. This is what we call earning your paycheck. And when your paycheck adds up to more than $20 million a season it’s nice to see because there are guys on this team not exactly pulling their weight when it comes to massive contracts. I won’t mention any names but his initials are Ryan Howard.

Obviously, Cole did not start the season how he wanted to, on the disabled list. And then he struggled through his first three starts and boasted a 7.02 ERA heading into his 4^th start of the season against his known nemesis the New York Mets. Since that 7 inning, career-high 133 pitch, 10 strikeout effort against the Mets (The game Papelbon wouldn’t come into and the Phils bullpen blew), Hamels has been downright dominant.

Including that game here are the pertinent stats for Hamels last 8 starts:

@ NYM – 7 IP – 1 ER – 3 BB – 10 K – 133 pitches

Vs CIN – 7 IP – 1 ER – 2 BB – 10 K – 90 pitches

@ MIA – 7 IP – 3 ER – 1 BB – 6 K – 91 pitches

Vs COL – 7 IP – 4 ER – 2 BB – 4 K – 99 pitches

Vs NYM – 7 IP – 1 ER – 4 BB – 8 K – 125 pitches

@ CIN – 7.2 IP – 0 ER – 2 BB – 7 K – 125 pitches

Vs SD – 8 IP – 0 ER – 1 BB – 11 K – 115 pitches

@ ATL – 7 IP – 0 ER – 2 BB – 6 K – 94 pitches

Here’s to not jinxing it, but in an era where it is mandatory to have Tommy John surgery if you throw 130 pitches in a game I find it refreshing that Hamels is out there battling well past the century mark. When did this become a thing? Why are starting pitchers coddled so much these days and still having worse injuries than they ever had before? Nolan Ryan, Bob Gibson, and certainly Larry Andersen have to either laugh or throw up about how pitchers these days lack durability. Why have pitchers made strides backwards when it comes to being durable? It’s mind boggling. 

Aside from some high pitch count games you should have also noticed that Hamels has pitched through the 7^th in 8 straight games and 7 of those 8 have been quality starts.* In a season that has been written off in early June, having Hamels still display why he deserved that $146 million contract has to provide some solace for Phillies fans.

As it stands, Cole currently has a 2.78 ERA which is good enough for 10^th in the National League and would be his career low by .01. His current rate of 9.2 strikeouts per 9 innings would be the second best of his career, 7^th in the NL, and his best since his rookie season when he struck out 9.9. His home runs allowed per nine inning rate currently stands at .5, also 7^th in the NL, and would be half his career rate of 1.0 and by far a career low (career high?). So yes, if he stays healthy and continues to pitch at this current rate, regardless of his win-loss record, Cole Hamels could be having the best season of his career. Maybe the Phillies can score some runs and/or not blow the games he leaves with the lead. He deserves better than that 2-3 record he’s amassed over 11 starts.

* A quality start is a minimum of 6 innings pitched and a maximum of 3 earned runs.