Bob Ford: Wait continues for 'real' Cole Hamels

The wait to see which Cole Hamels will be pitching for the Phillies this season continued Monday at the team's home opener.

Eventually, as Hamels tries to shake off his disappointing 2009 season, he's going to have to get through the middle innings of a game, and eventually he's going to have to beat someone other than the Washington Nationals.

There isn't that much at stake, with the possible exception of the entire team's success. Roy Halladay will pitch only once every five days. The rest of the starting rotation is littered with question marks. The offense, as impressive as it is, won't churn out seven runs every game.

Sooner or later, Hamels will have to fight through a game like the one Halladay survived Sunday in Houston, weaving his way down a narrow corridor and holding onto the ball as long as he can.

Based on his first two starts, including Monday's 7-4 win in the Citizens Bank Park opener, sooner isn't looking likely. Hamels needed 109 pitches to get through 52/3 innings, and the offense had to help him escape a 4-0 hole. It wasn't that he pitched badly. It was that the performance made it impossible to tell if things would improve or go the other way. Even Hamels isn't willing to commit yet.

"It's a little early," Hamels said. "You go out there and battle for 30 or 32 starts in a year. That's where you can tell if somebody's learned something."

Hamels threw with decent velocity on his fastball, used his change-up effectively, and mixed in some cut fastballs. He allowed just one runner to reach second base in the first three innings, and that was Josh Willingham, who reached it halfway through his home run trot as he led off the second inning with a big fly ball that carried in the breeze.

Hamels nearly escaped the fourth inning that was nearly his undoing. After a single and a hit batter began the inning, Hamels struck out two before allowing a skidding RBI base hit up the middle to Pudge Rodriguez. He walked the eight-hole hitter, Adam Kennedy, on a checked swing, preferring to work against pitcher Jason Marquis.

And what happened? Marquis, a lefthanded hitter, blooped a fastball just over the reach of third baseman Placido Polanco and two more runs scored. Hamels wasn't exactly banged around, but he kept making small mistakes that added up.

"I was able to hit a lot of spots, but there is still a lot of work to be done. We were still able to come away with the victory, and that's huge for us," Hamels said. "I feel I'm able to throw a lot of my pitches for strikes, but sometimes I get myself in trouble throwing too many strikes. There are situations where you don't want to lay it down the pipe, but you have to throw to get contact so you can minimize pitches, and that allows you to go deeper."

Hamels hasn't gotten through the sixth inning yet this season - although he would have yesterday had backup shortstop Juan Castro not booted a two-out ground ball. Still, getting off to a 2-0 start, even if both wins were against Washington, is a nice jump on the season.

Everything evens out in baseball, but the Phillies need Hamels to keep the wins coming and be more like the pitcher who went 29-15 with a 3.22 earned run average in 2007 and 2008 than the one who went 10-11 with a 4.32 ERA last season.

Offense is great, and the Phillies have a great one, but on a day that saw two regulars come out of the game because of injury, there is no reminder necessary that nothing is guaranteed over 162 games.

"There are going to be days when you go up against a tough pitcher and he's able to handcuff the hitters. We just had a game like that the other day. You have to battle and hope we can squeak one out," Hamels said. "Of course, it's different for Roy, because he can do it all the time. But for us normal people, it's nice knowing that the team is hot and might score seven runs every game. That's not going to be the case, and there are going to be times the pitching is going to have to step up."

So far, as the Phillies have averaged seven runs a game, the need hasn't been as great. That day is coming, though, and it is when we'll begin to find out which Cole Hamels is pitching for the Phils this season.

It would be nice to know now, but even he can't say for sure.