THERE IS NO switch that separates the dog days from the stretch run, but it certainly felt like one had been flipped last night. Everything about it reeked of mid-October. There was a faint chill in the air, a near-capacity crowd, a wild-card-leading opponent in the visitors' dugout. But more than anything, there was a slender starting pitcher named Cole Hamels on the mound, his long left arm whipping down the slope of the mound, delivering fastballs and changeups and an occasional curve with the authority of a man who knows the game is his to win.

After it was over, after he watched his 118th pitch pop off the bat of San Francisco's Edgar Renteria and arc safely into the glove of first baseman Ryan Howard, Hamels accepted a quick congratulations from catcher Carlos Ruiz and then joined the customary postgame intrasquad handshake, the scoreboard still glowing with present results and future opportunity.

The final line: Nine innings, two hits, one walk, nine strikeouts, and, most importantly, a 1-0 win over the Giants.

"When we get starting pitching like we did tonight, from Hamels or [Joe] Blanton or [J.A. Happ], we become real good," manager Charlie Manuel said after Hamels' second complete-game shutout of the season improved the Phillies to 76-53. "On nights where we're not scoring and we play defense, we can handle those nights. That makes us better. That makes us a lot better."

There were plenty of those nights last postseason - nights where the Phillies' offense struggled with runners in scoring position, as they did last night when they went 1-for-9; nights where the line between victory and defeat was a key base hit, as it was last night when Howard's fourth-inning double off a Jonathan Sanchez slider through a drawn-in infield gave them a 1-0 lead. But while Manuel cites players like Blanton and Happ when discussing his team's capability of winning such contests, the fact remains that when the Phillies did so last postseason - in a 3-2 win over the Dodgers in Game 1 of the NLCS, a 3-2 win over the Rays in Game 1 of the World Series - Hamels was on the mound.

They were 3-0 in postseason games in which they scored three or fewer runs, yet heading into last night were just 7-39 this regular season, and the big difference was a dominant Hamels. Last night, that dominant pitcher was again on the mound, pushing his scoreless innings streak to 19 while lowering an ERA that sat at 4.78 on Aug. 21 to 4.26. He allowed a leadoff double in the second inning to Ryan Garko, then retired the next 21 batters. He did not have the low-to-mid-90s velocity that marked his last start, an eight-scoreless-inning effort against the Pirates, but it did not seem to matter. Against a weak Giants lineup lacking two of its top righthanded bats - Pablo Sandoval and Bengie Molina, who both made pinch-hitting appearances in the ninth - Hamels cruised. He allowed just four balls out of the infield and issued his only walk to Sandoval in the ninth after he threw to first and caught Andres Torres in a rundown.

Hamels even stole a base in the fifth, becoming the first Phillies pitcher to do so since Curt Schilling in 1997, heeding first-base coach Davey Lopes' advice to run on a 2-2 pitch from Sanchez.

"I was never thinking about ever doing it, but then you have Davey on first asking, 'Have you ever slid,' and I'm going, 'Yes.' Then he's like, 'Go,' " said Hamels, who improved to 8-8. " 'All right, because if I get caught, I'm blaming it on you.' "

But Hamels' baserunning was not the story. Instead, it was the way he pitched the Phillies to victory against an opponent that entered the night tied with the Rockies for the wild-card lead. As good as Hamels was last season, he went just 2-11 in games in which the Phillies scored three or fewer runs. But one of those two wins came in his 26th start of the season, when he allowed one run in eight innings of a 2-1 win and foreshadowed a dynamic stretch run that included a 2.35 ERA in his final eight regular-season starts.

As fate would have it, Hamels was making his 26th start of the season last night, when the Phillies cushioned their lead in the NL East.

Afterward, Hamels echoed the self-inventory he has provided after each of his last two starts: Mental pressure has caused him to try too hard, hampering his mechanics and leaving him with too many forgettable nights. Last night was not one of them.

"He's definitely got his command, his stuff going for him," Manuel said. "When he's pitching like that, he can run off a big streak for us."

The Phillies are hoping he can do it again.