Cole Hamels responded well to both the heat and his last outing, a forgettable shelling at the hands of the Mets coming out of the All-Star Break. The Phils' lefty looked at ease despite temperatures hovering around 100, striking out 10 in eight innings.
It was the 18th time Cole reached double digit strikeouts as a Phillie, moving him to fourth on the all-time franchise list. He moved one ahead of Chris Short and now sits seven behind Jim Bunning. Quite a ways before he reaches Curt Schilling and Steve Carlton, but not bad for a 27-year-old whose big league career began in 2006.
The Phils, clad in the gorgeous throwback uniforms from the Philadelphia teams of my youth, took game one of the four-game set, 3-1.
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Their runs came when Shane Victorino reached second on a fluke play in the second inning, then scored on Carlos Ruiz hit that bounced off Padres centerfielder Cameron Maybin's glove (originally called an error); Vic plated again in the fourth when pitcher Cory Luebke balked with him on third base. John Mayberry Jr doubled in Ruiz for the Phillies third run, and Cole took care of the rest.
Ryan Madson returned to the closer's role, donning a pair of stirrups Jamie Moyer must've appreciated (pic below), and put up a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his 16th save of the season. After the game, however, Charlie Manuel did say that Antonio Bastardo will get some save opportunities going forward.
While we're on the shallow stats, Hamels' win was his 12th, good for a tie with Jair Jurrjens at the top of the NL leaderboard.
It wasn't an easy night to sit in the stands (at least it looked tough from my air conditioned living room), but the Phils win moved them to 20 games above .500 at home, 26 over the mark overall at 62-36.