Phillies Notes: Phillies' Cole Hamels: 'I feel really good'

Cole Hamels says he hopes to make his next start and unlike Thursday, this was no prank.

Hamels missed Friday's start with the St. Louis Cardinals with a mild right hamstring strain. He has his eye toward his next start Wednesday against the host New York Yankees.

"I'll throw a bullpen on Sunday and go back to my normal day start on Wednesday; that is the plan," Hamels said before Friday's game.

Of course, much will depend on how he feels after the bullpen session on Sunday.

Hamels insists that he wasn't going on the disabled list and says he is feeling much better.

"I feel really good," he said. "Unfortunately there is a difference between feeling good and great to put yourself in a situation of a game situation."

He said he knew on Wednesday that he wouldn't be starting against St. Louis.

"I tried to make the best assumption after Wednesday's workout that I continued to have something there," Hamels said. "I let them know I thought it would be best not to push the envelope and figure out what was going on and the best timetable on what I need to do."

Hamels also admitted that he was the prankster on Thursday who cleaned out his own locker, giving the illusion that he had been traded.

The Phillies had gone through an 0-8 road trip and their losing streak increased to nine before a 2-1 win over the visiting Baltimore Orioles on Thursday.

"It is something you have to lighten the mood somehow," he said of the prank. "It has been unfortunate, the timing and the place we have been through, so that is all it was."

Hamels remains one of the biggest trade chips as the July 31 deadline approaches. Hamels, who is 5-5 with a 2.96 ERA in 14 starts, knows he must be healthy to be traded.

"My focus is to play on this team and win ball games, and that is what I am trying to do," he said.

Notes: With righthander Jerome Williams out with a hamstring strain, lefthander Adam Morgan will make his major-league debut Sunday against the Cardinals. He was 0-6 in 13 starts with a 4.64 ERA for triple-A Lehigh Valley. . . . To select the contract of Friday's starter Phillippe Aumont, the Phillies optioned righthander Hector Neris to triple-A Lehigh Valley. . . . Reading centerfielder Roman Quinn, who suffered a tear in his hip flexor last Friday, is now expected to be out longer than originally expected. "It is too early to know but we feel he has a good shot to return by Aug. 1," Phillies director of player development Joe Jordan said.