Tonight, Friday night, I will ignore all social invitations and watch Cole Hamels make his debut for the same reason I wanted to watch Gavin Floyd's debut two years ago: If in twenty years King Cole is inducted into the Hall of Fame, I want to be able to say I watched his debut.
Check back in at 7:00 this evening for spontaneous updates.
Pregame: Chad Dotson of Redleg Nation was kind enough to give us a scouting report of the Reds:
The lineup will probably look something like this (though Junior is
back and Aurilia is hurt, so Jerry Narron might do something different):Freel 2B - R
Lopez SS - S
Griffey CF - L
Kearns RF - R
Dunn LF - L
Encarnacion 3B - R
Hatteberg 1B - L
LaRue C - RAlthough note that Narron has been known to bat Hatteberg 4th (often)...and Brandon Phillips might start at second base (in that case, Lopez would bat first and Phillips second, probably).
Austin Kearns is hot right now, and so is Felipe Lopez. Everyone else has been scuffling a bit over the last week or two, though the offense is showing signs of coming out of their slump.
Brandon Phillips and Ryan Freel have been cold after very hot starts. And the bullpen always reeks.
That lineup, particularly the big hitters, is rather left handed heavy. On the surface, that would seem to favor Hamels, however, his splits [provided by Brew Crew Ball] in the minors indicate he has had more success against right handed batters than left. A good change up is a way to negate the advantage of batters from the opposite side, and it may be that because Hamels' change up is so good, he actually does better against righties.
As usual, time will tell. See you at 7.
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Pregame weather update: For a while there, the weather reports out of Cincinnati were a bit watered down so to speak, but word is the tarp has been removed from the infield there, and according to weather.com, it appears as if the worst has passed through the area. A 90% chance of showers remains.
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7:10 - Play ball.
7:10:03 - Jimmy Rollins swings at the first pitch, pops up in the infield. Cole Hamels says, "Wow, in the minors they tell us to be patient and work the count, guess they didn't know what they were talking about."
7:17 - Hamels takes the mound, pitches to Ryan Freel....high ball one.
7:18 - Hamels works fast, falls behind 2-0, follows it up with two strikes, and then induces a 6-3 grounder from Freel. One down, 26 to go.
7:21 - King Cole strikes out Felipe Lopez on a low and outside change up for his first big league K. Two down, 25 to go.
7:23 - Damn, King Cole works fast. He strikes out Ken Griffey, Jr. looking on a changeup. First inning scoring: 6-3, K, K.
7:28 - I was a little later getting to the TV and PC than I wanted to...I ran into my neighbor outside, we got to talking, the Phillies came up and I was talking and talking about King Cole. My neighbor probably thought I was going to whip out my wallet and show him a picture of Cole. [no, I don't have one, but if I was Cole, I would carry around a picture of my girlfriend: Heidi Strobel of Survivor/Playboy fame. Seriously, that really is his girlfriend...is there anything he doesn't do well?]
7:35 - Austin Kearns flies out on the first pitch, F-8. Adam Dunn walks on four pitches.
7:36 - Hamels, despite facing first base, doesn't pay any attention to Dunn, and Dunn steals second.
7:43 - Cole has walked the bases loaded, which is three times as many walks as he surrendured in AAA. Two outs, pitcher up, lets throw some strikes and get out of this...
He does just that, striking out pitcher Elizardo Ramirez on just three pitches.
7:45 - Spoke with my brother via telephone, and my lil' bro speculates that if Hamels pitch count gets high and has to come out early, Ryan Madson should be ready to go, given that today would have been his turn to start.
7:47 - King Cole leads off for his first big-league at bat. Ramirez returns the favor and strikes him out on three pitches. Somewhere, Heidi Strobel says, "Awwwww!"
7:55 - Bottom of the third, Ryan Freel grounds out, Lopez flies out, Griffey walks, and Austin Kearns pops up in the infield.
8:03 - Pat Burrell hits a hard single to left, and he scores when Ryan Howard goes yard, 2-0 Phils! King Cole now has a lead to work with...
8:04 - Shane Victorino -- the Hawaiin Punch -- laces a double to the rightfield corner with just one out.
8:17 - Dunn, Encarnacion, Phillips, and Valentin go F-7, B, K, K. It remains 2-0 Phillies, and so far, through 4 innings, King Cole's line is....oh wait, I just realized what it is....NO ONE SAY ANYTHING!!!
8:33 - Felipe Lopez breaks up the no-no with a knock to right centerfield. Victorino makes a nice diving effort, but can't come up with it. Possibly Cole let up a little while thinking about how he needs to stop on the way back to the hotel for Oreos and peanut butter. The bottom of the fifth ends with King Cole striking out Junior Griffey. It's Cole's seventh, Griffey's second. Score is still 2-0 Phils.
8:49 - With the bases loaded with Phillies in the top of the sixth with two outs, Charlie Manuel elects to pinch hit for Hamels with Abraham Nunez. Predictably, Nunez strikes out. Booo!
Hamels final line: 5 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 5 BB, 7 K. 92 pitches, 51 for strikes. He pitched 5 innings, and will be eligible for the win. As we predicted earlier since it would be his turn to pitch today, Ryan Madson takes over.
8:53 - Do over! Can we bring King Cole back in? Madson gives up a large home run to Austin Kearns, the first batter he faced, on a 2-0 count. 2-1 Phils.
8:57 - Madson K's Dunn, but gives up a solo homer to Edwin Encarnacion. There goes Hamels win. Tie game, 2-2.
9:05 - Rollins reaches second on an error by Dunn at first. Chase Clutchly drives him in with a single to right field. 3-2 Phils!
By the way, I think it was the right thing to do to take Cole out when they did. He was at 92 pitches on a cold night, and you can be sure that those 92 were probably harder on his arm than the 110 he pitched in a recent game in the minors.
9:54 - With the Phillies rallying in the top of the fifth in a 4-2 game, Chris Roberson makes his major league debut as a pinch-runner -- and probably defensive replacement -- for Pat Burrell.
9:58 - The Hawaiian Punch, Shane Victorino, hits a three-run homerun to put the Phillies up 7-2. You can pretty much stick a fork in this one.
The win makes eleven wins for the Phillies out of their last 12 games. It was quite a night for the youngsters -- a homer for Ryan Howard, a great little debut for Cole Hamels, and Shane Victorino reached base all five times he came to the plate.
