Fans Buy Tickets For A Dodgers Game, See The Cole Hamels Show Instead
Cole Hamels put on another world class performance against the Dodgers in LA to open up the 4 game series with a win for the Phillies.
Juan Pierre got a leadoff hit in the 1st and things looked good for LA for just a few seconds. Pierre easily had 2nd stolen quickly but missed out when Furcal fouled off the ball. A few pitches later Furcal grounded into a double play and that would set the tone for the rest of the game.
It seemed like Hamels only threw strikes and the Dodgers weren’t sticking around long to work the count. Hamels only needed 97 pitches in 9 innings to seal the deal and give the Dodgers their 2nd shutout of the year after going almost a 3rd of the season without any. Hamels held the Dodgers to just 5 hits and struck out 5 without giving up a walk.
The Dodgers squandered another impressive outing by Kershaw who allowed only 2 runs in 6 innings. The bullpen kept the Dodgers essentially in the game allowing only 1 run. This wasn’t a case where the Dodgers failed miserably with RISP and stranded runners though. They had only 4 chances with RISP and missed every one but stranded only 2 base runners.
Unfortunately the Giants beat the Nationals in both games of their double header today and the Dodgers lead in the west was cut down by 1½ games. All and all though things are OK. The Dodgers lead by 8 games and still hold the MLB leading record of 37-19. This is one of those games the Dodgers will try to forget about quickly and go out and try and score early in game 2.
The Dodgers need to work hard to try and break out of this offensive slump they are in. It would be easier to handle the Dodgers getting shut out by great pitching if they weren’t 4-4 over the last 8 games scoring 2 runs or fewer in 6 of the 8 being shut out twice and two times scoring only 1 run in the game. Their average runs scored over the last 8 games is just 2.5.
The Phillies evened the season series up 2-2 with 3 more games to go.
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We went up against Halladay the other night so I know how you feel. Sometimes it’s just the pitcher’s night. All we can do is watch in awe.
Lori
http://luckylori.mlblogs.com
If it wasn’t the 1st game of the series I might have enjoyed such a performance. I hate when your team loses the 1st game of a series though because it often sets the tone for the games that follow. Like when the Angels came to town the Dodgers lost the first game and that really got the Angels off in the right direction. Luckily for the Dodgers they’ve been able to spring back and win 2 in a row in a series after losing the 1st game. I guess we’ll see how this turns out.