As Cole Hamels Turns...

As the Major League Baseball regular season winds down, the Philadelphia Phillies are reaping the benefits of recently awakened Cole Hamels. Hamels, who has been mediocre at best this season has turned in two recent starts that would even make fellow lefty and former Phillies legend Steve Carlton applaud. This recent resurgence by Hamels has the Phillies and their fans wondering if the former staff ace has really turned things around and returned to his dominant ways. As the Major League Baseball regular season winds down, the Philadelphia Phillies are reaping the benefits of recently awakened Cole Hamels. Hamels, who has been mediocre at best this season has turned in two recent starts that would even make fellow lefty and former Phillies legend Steve Carlton applaud. This recent resurgence by Hamels has the Phillies and their fans wondering if the former staff ace has really turned things around and returned to his dominant ways.

About a week and a half ago, Cole Hamels shut down the Pirates to the tune of eight innings of shut out baseball, while being rewarded with a no decision as his bullpen wasted another good outing by a Phillies starter. For an encore, all Hamels did was leave the San Francisco Giants dumbfounded in pitching a two hit, complete game shut out in his next outing which left many people salivating at the possibility of having two dominant aces at the top of the rotation in fellow left-hander Cliff Lee and Hamels himself.

While taking absolutely nothing away from Hamels’ two recent gems, it must be noted that prior to them, he was having a year to forget. Coming into the game against Pittsburgh on August 26th, Hamels had amassed a measly seven wins and eight losses to go with a brutal 4.78 earned run average. He may have hit a stroke of luck, however, in catching two poor offensive teams in a row to build his confidence a bit.

The Giants, while contending for a Wildcard Title, have one of the worst offenses in all of baseball and rank fifteenth out of sixteen teams in the National League in runs scored. For a pitcher like Cole Hamels, this should be, as it was, a dominant performance. The Pirates on the other hand are ranked thirteenth out of sixteen in runs scored in the N.L. and are arguably worse than the Giants’ offense based on the fact that their team batting average is four points lower. Again, a pitcher like Hamels should dominate a team this.

While it remains to be seen whether or not Cole Hamels can pitch effectively against a better offensive ball club, like say Colorado or the Dodgers, one thing is for sure, if Cole Hamels has finally figured things out and turned his season around, it can only mean good things for the Phillies, especially since Cliff Lee is coming back down to Earth. While pulling pretty far ahead of the pack in the N.L. East with their young ace struggling all season long, it could turn into a pretty lopsided season over the final month and into the playoffs if Cole Hamels has returned to being an elite pitcher in baseball. The Phillies certainly hope that this is the case.