Hamels Good at Throwing Baseballs

It seems like there is always at least one crowd shot of the wave in San Diego.  Do you think that every Padres fan discusses their intentions before the start of the game?  You know damn well that you are not going to see anyone hit the ball, so you might as well conduct some sort of ridiculous group activity that attempts to simulate a natural event.  San Diego is so great that people don’t show up to baseball games.  Screw you and your nice weather San Diego.

The Phillies entered tonight fresh off of a shut out win with local boy Cole Hamels on the mound.  Lets be frank here, the Padres can not hit the ball to save their lives.  There were three starters in the line-up tonight that are hitting below .200 and their leading hitter is Nick Hundley, who carries a career .250 batting average.  Cole continued the trend of Padres offensive ineptitude by shutting them out for eight innings,only surrendering four hits and striking out eight.  The only time that the Padres threatened the Phillies left hander occurred in the bottom of the second inning when the Padres had men on second and third with one out.  Hamels struck out Will Venable, intentionally walked Alberto Gonzalez and got opposing pitcher Clayton Richard to line out to short.  The threat was averted and San Diego did not get another runner in scoring position for the rest of the game.  Cole threw a ton of pitches (126 in all), but was in total control of the game and saved the Contreras-less bullpen with his outing.  His first start against the Mets is getting further and further away as he lowered his ERA to 2.92.

Remember yesterday when Ryan Howard looked like he forgot how to play baseball?   Today, against an above average left handed pitcher, Howard went 2-5 with the only two RBI in the game.  He lined a single to left in the first and crushed a triple to right center, plating two runs and giving Hamels all he needed to earn the win.  The Phils didn’t exactly crush the ball tonight, managing only six hits against Richard.  Hamels and Howard were the only Phillies with multiple hits tonight.  Has everyone seen video of Utley sprinting around the bases?  Hurry the fuck up Chase.  Seriously.

Madson replaced Hamels in the bottom of the ninth and retired the Padres in order to earn the save.  A 2-0 shutout directly following a 3-0 shutout.  Tomorrow Blanton looks to continue the streak against Tim Stauffer.