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LOS ANGELES - "Soft?" Phillies coach Rich Dubee said that night, nearly spitting out the mouthful of adult beverage he had just sipped. "Cole? If anything, he's the exact opposite."
It was about 2 weeks ago, after Cole Hamels two-hit the Milwaukee Brewers over eight innings in the National League Division Series. The guy is closing in on 250 innings for the season; he is the Phillies' undisputed ace. He has been great in his two previous playoff starts and will take the ball in tomorrow's Game 5.
But he cannot shake this nonsense, this image, mostly because he doesn't always walk around with his Cali-to-South Philly dictionary.
Dubee did the whole this-is-ridiculous thing again yesterday outside the Phillies' dugout. He did it because Hamels had just been asked a series of questions about why he wasn't pitching on 3 days' rest in this series, while the Dodgers' Derek Lowe was.
The implications are obvious: Lowe can pitch three times in the series that way, while Hamels can pitch only twice. But as Hamels said, and as Dubee said, the reason he isn't pitching on 3 days' rest is because the team will not allow it.
"I think it wasn't even in my mind," Hamels said. "I think because they've convinced me or they've talked to me enough to where, because the amount of workload that I've gone through throughout the season, they don't want to push me to my limit.
"I think pitching every 5 days is a good assessment of what I can do and what I'm capable of doing. And I can be at my best. I don't think they want to risk it with me trying to go an extra day early for one more win, because it takes four . . .
"[With] the competitiveness in me, I'd love to do it, but because I've never done it, I don't want to risk it in the postseason. I think it's something I definitely can try in the season, like Jamie [Moyer] and Brett [Myers] were able to do this year.
"And I think it will be something where it will show what I'm truly capable of doing, whenever we make the postseason again," Hamels said.
The Phillies have made a simple, logical calculation: that with this still-young kid, they like the odds of getting two strong, well-rested starts from him more than the uncharted waters of one rested start, one short-rested start, and one more rested start if the series goes that far. It makes perfect sense.
"He's got 242 innings," Dubee said. "To have him twice is nice. To have him three times, would it have been nicer? If we thought the risk was worth it, but we weren't certain about it."
This is all about actors and their roles, and accepting how good Hamels has been in his.
"I think as the years go on, you know, you build more experience, I guess, with convincing an organization and yourself that you can do that," Hamels said. "And I think that standpoint is mostly a health issue. Because I haven't been able to do it and convince enough people that I'm able to go out there with the amount of innings that I went through this year, it's kind of on the top of the league, so it's kind of a new area and to also make the playoffs and go deep. It's all very new to me.
"And I think after 1 year of really seeing what it's like to go that deep in a season and that deep into the postseason, you kind of understand a little bit more about your body and you can, I guess, convince people to believe more in you. And I think that's where, as the years go on, next year, year after, if I'm able to repeat everything that I can do, then I think it will be a good standpoint for me to go out there and be able to pitch in a situation like Derek Lowe is and have three games in a series."
The thing about Hamels is, people keep putting barriers in his way and he pretty systematically just knocks them down. His healthy, workhorse season in 2008 was an enormous step for his career. His postseason so far has been stellar.
This soft nonsense might be the last hurdle.
"He's had some injuries, but that doesn't make a guy soft," Dubee said. "My goodness. This kid is far from soft. He's far from soft. If he's soft, I'd like to have five soft."
And so, the question: If the Phillies asked, would Hamels have pitched on short rest?
"I think he would," Dubee said. "But I'm not about to go to him."
Because the Phillies don't want to mess with a very good thing. *
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