Hamels Gets Rocked, Phils Fall To D-Backs 7-4

Cole Hamels looked impressive in his last outing. Through the first three innings of last night’s contest, he cruised.

This of course was before he suffered an acute case of whiplash in the fourth.

The Phillies jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, on Shane Victorino’s R.B.I. triple in the top of third, scoring Hamels who had doubled in the previous at-bat. The Phillies would add another run on Jayson Werth’s controversial fly-ball to center, which was dropped by center-fielder, Chris Young, transitioning the ball from his glove to his bare hand. Werth, demonstrated heads-up base running as he continued to run all the way home. The result was a four base error on Chris Young.

In the bottom half of the fourth, with one out, things fell apart for Hamels. With one on, Mark Reynolds took Hamels deep, to tie the ballgame. The next batter, Adam LaRoche, homered giving the D-Backs the lead. However, Arizona wasn’t quite finished as Chris Snyder stepped to the plate with one on and took Hamels yard, again, giving the Diamond Backs a 5-2 lead. Hamels would surrender one more long-ball and give Arizona starter, Anna Benson’s husband Kris, all of the support he would need.

Benson went six strong, allowing just two runs, while scattering eight hits. Hamels, despite his fourth-inning meltdown, pitched pretty well, striking out seven while walking only one batter.

The Phillies would make a feeble attempt to climb back into the ballgame, however a lack of timely hitting kept the Phils at bay as they were only able to manage two more runs.

The Phillies return to action to face Arizona tonight.