Still Not Ready For Prime Time

[From the post below] Next up is Cole Hamels, the guy everyone expects to do well. He's got two tough acts to follow.

Unfortunately, Hamels wasn't up to the task, yielding five runs in five innings as the Phils had to settle for a split of the day-night doubleheader with the Mets. Though the Phils won two of three this weekend, they left town two games out with nineteen games remaining to be played, hardly an insurmountable lead as Mets fans can but won't tell you, but not what they hoped for.

Hamels never took command in a game that saw its share of odd plays, bad plays and blown calls, but in the end it was three straight base hits in the first inning and two monstrous home runs by Carlos Delgado that spelled doom. There were endless debates on the blogosphere about whether or not to start Hamels in the day or night portion of the twin bill, but in the end the position of the sun or its absence didn't matter. Generally speaking, Hamels has never fared particularly well in front of a national television audience or in a really big game and last night's poor outing was no different. He has the ambition but not the sang froid. He does, however, have the pained expression down pat. On Delgado's first blast he never turned around. This observer is still waiting for Hamels to mature.

[BTW: replays of the catcher's interference on Chris Coste with David Wright at the plate clearly show Coste wincing when the bat hit his glove. The umpire got that one right.]