MIAMI -- For the second straight year, Cole Hamels threw his last pitch of the season in front of a small crowd in Miami, far, far away from the excitement of baseball’s postseason.
“It sucks,” Hamels said late Wednesday night, after pitching six innings of two-run ball in a 3-2 loss to the Miami Marlins (see Instant Replay). “It’s two years in a row. You train all offseason to go to October and win, so it’s unfortunate.”
Hamels begins his offseason training Thursday. There are four games left in Atlanta and he will be a spectator.
It was an interesting year for the 29-year-old lefty, who signed the richest contract in Philadelphia sports history -- six years, $144 million -- in July 2012. He allowed 13 runs in 10 2/3 innings in his first two starts of the season. In his remaining 31 starts, he recorded an ERA of 3.22.
For the season, Hamels went 8-14 with a 3.60 ERA. He matched a career-high with 33 starts and pitched 220 innings, the second-highest total of his career. He struck out 202 and walked 50.
“I’m pretty proud of myself that I stayed healthy and made all of my starts,” Hamels said. “I know I got bumped back a few days in the middle of the season, but I went out there and gave it all I had.”
Pitching coach Rich Dubee gave Hamels a few extra days between starts before the All-Star break because the lefty was showing signs of frustration. Hamels was pitching well, but the wins weren’t coming, mostly because the team had trouble scoring runs.
Hamels pitched well after the All-Star break, recording a 2.97 ERA in 13 starts.
“I think a breath of fresh air helped immensely,” Dubee said. “It’s like an everyday player. You’ll see a good, sharp manager see a guy pressing and get the guy a couple of days away from competition. I just wanted to give him a chance to clear his mind.
“He had a tough-luck year. The numbers are deceiving. The baseball gods weren’t always with him.”
Hamels grudgingly conceded that Dubee’s methods had merit.
“Um, sure, I guess it worked,” he said. “I understood what they were doing. I just wasn’t staying within myself, staying within the rhythm of the game. I was getting carried away with certain things you shouldn’t allow yourself to be affected by. Understanding what you can control and what you can’t control, that is ultimately the big learning lesson this season.”
As good as Hamels pitched in the second half, he still made mistakes.
One of them came in the second inning Wednesday night when he threw an 0-2 cutter to Adeiny Hechavarria, who clubbed it deep to center for a two-run triple. Hamels said he threw a cutter because he thought he could get a ground ball and a double play, but he didn’t get the pitch inside enough to Hechavarria. It was one of two 0-2 pitches that the Marlins turned into big hits. Placido Polanco singled on a 0-2 pitch against Ethan Martin in the eighth. It helped set up the go-ahead run, which scored on an infield chopper to shortstop.
Manager Ryne Sandberg noticed the two 0-2 pitches.
“Those were too good of pitches,” Sandberg said. “They came back to haunt us.”
One or two pitches can haunt when a team is not scoring runs. The Phils scored just four runs in losing two of three to the 100-loss Marlins, who won a series at home for the first time since July.
The Phils had just one extra-base hit -- a Darin Ruf double -- in the game. That came in the seventh inning when Freddy Galvis and Cesar Hernandez drove in runs to tie the game at 2-2.
“This series, we definitely had trouble scoring runs,” Sandberg said. “And I’ve been told there’s a little bit of a history of that. We had 10 hits, but we have a power shortage right now of extra-base hits and home runs.”
The Phils have not homered in seven games.