May 09, 2015
This wasn’t exactly the good ol’ days, but it was close enough. Such a lackluster Phillies team doesn’t allow Citizens Bank Park to turn back the clock to 2007 and ratchet up the intensity against the hated division rivals from Queens, but a Cole Hamels-Matt Harvey matchup did just fine. For the Phillies, Friday night’s 3-1 victory over the New York Mets wasn’t just any other game.
“I wish Harvey could pitch the next two days so we could get a crowd, it would be great,” Hamels said.
The Phillies’ ace was joking, although there might be some truth to his words. With an announced attendance of 32,734 in the ballpark, his team was playing in front of the largest home crowd since opening day. By recent standards, The Bank was buzzing.
"In order to try to be the best, you have to play against the best and he’s one of those guys,” Hamels said of Harvey.
And from a Phillies perspective, there were a bunch of positives to take away from the performance. Ryan Howard continued his recent power surge, for instance. Jonathan Papelbon also tied the colorfully gloved man who caused the Vet faithful to have a collective aneurysm every 9th inning he pitched from 2001-03 for the franchise’s all-time saves record. Ken Giles even saw an uptick in velocity and missed a few bats in the process. Finally, Chase Utley’s batting average moved into “excellent fielding percentage” territory.
Alright, maybe not that last one. Even with all of the good developments, last night felt like it was mostly about the two pitchers. Hamels wasn’t great, but he made the right pitches when necessary and got into a groove late in his start. By contrast, Harvey wasn’t terrible, but he made just enough mistakes to allow the Phils’ soft-hitting lineup to cash in on their opportunities. On this night, the difference between seven innings of one-run ball and six frames with three earned runs didn’t feel like very much.
“He’s got electric stuff and he goes out there with a presence,” Hamels said about his counterpart. “It’s just fun to see that. And being on the other end of it, in order to try to be the best, you have to play against the best and he’s one of those guys.”
If the step up in competition actually caused Hamels to bounce back from a homer-filled outing* in South Florida last Saturday, the Phillies will take it. They could’ve used a strong effort from their stopper heading into tonight, to both get the team off on the right foot to start a 10-game homestand and boost back some of that all-important trade value. Hamels, who now sports a 3.68 ERA, has always generally been a slow starter, but this year is different. The Phillies’ timetable is accelerated, as they’re building toward a midseason trade rather than a September playoff push.
*After some thought, probably not the right choice of words. He only gave up one homer, but the point still stands that he has given up a lot this year.
Hamels still has some kinks to iron out, as well. Due to his early-season propensity to give up the long ball (eight homers, which is tied for the fifth-most in baseball) and surrender walks (4.3 BB/9), his indicators aren’t very good. Hamels kept New York in the ballpark tonight, but walked two, hit a batter, and threw two wild pitches. After letting the Mets’ only run cross in the fourth inning, he retired 10 out of 11 batters mostly via strikeouts and weak contact.
“You’ve got a lead, so you want to make sure they earn it,” Hamels said. “You know, not walking guys. I know that’s kind of been my problem in the past so I was just trying to really go after them. If they get on with hits, they get on with hits.”
Against Harvey, who has only walked five hitters in 39.2 innings, you have to get on with hits. That type of control combined with a nasty, hard repertoire of pitches can be tough to deal with. Somewhat unexpectedly, the Phillies were able to time Harvey’s fastball a couple of times, most notably when Ryan Howard took him deep the opposite way in the fourth inning.
“I think our team played with a lot of energy tonight,” Papelbon said. “Going against a guy like Harvey, I think we were prepared and accepted the challenge. I was telling some of the guys in the clubhouse after the game that if we play like that every night, with that kind of intensity and that kind of swag, we can reel off a few wins in a row here and keep that going.”
That’s easier said than done, especially with this lineup. Hamels is back on the right track and even if the Phillies are brought back down to Earth later tonight, handing Matt Harvey his first loss of the season was a pretty good time.
