Hamels, Phillies fall in season finale

COLE HAMELS left Citizens Bank Park for the final time this season with a fat lip. He took a hard one-hopper off his face earlier in the day.

"Sometimes," he said, "that happens."

It was the perfect souvenir from a season that was statistically the best of his career, but also forgettable since he had little to show for it when it all mercifully came to an end yesterday afternoon in South Philly.

In the midst of retiring 20 straight Braves batters - and 24 of the final 25 he faced - Hamels took a comebacker off the bat of Tommy La Stella off his face to begin the second inning. Freddy Galvis threw out La Stella before the game was delayed for a few minutes.

When play resumed, Hamels continued mowing down Braves batters - and out-hitting his teammates, too.

Hamels (2-for-2) had more hits than the rest of his teammates combined when he took the mound in the eighth inning. Not surprisingly, the Phillies lost Game 162 of the 2014 season by a 2-1 decision.

"Cole was outstanding," manager Ryne Sandberg said. "We came up short on the offensive side of things."

Sandberg added "today" to the end of that sentence, although it may have been just as fitting had he said "season," or not said anything more at all.

The day ended with Hamels collecting his ninth loss of the season, equaling his win total. Hamels was brilliant; the Phillies were not.

Hamels allowed two runs on three hits, striking out seven while walking one. He finished with a career-best 2.46 ERA (fifth in the National League) to go alongside his 9-9 record.

Hamels is the first pitcher in a quarter century (Orel Hershiser, 15-15, 1989) to finish a season with an ERA under 2.50 without a winning record.

"It's tough," Hamels said. "It's not what you ever plan. But you just have to keep putting everything in the back burner and focusing on the next start and hope things turn around. I think now it's the hope that things will turn around next year."

Hamels and a handful of his teammates - Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Carlos Ruiz and Kyle Kendrick - said most of the same things this time a year ago. They were a part of a core that was with the team when it won five straight National League East titles from 2007-11, including two World Series appearances and a world championship.

Instead, the Phillies (73-89) finished with the same record as they had in 2013.

"We played like a rebuilding team, in all honesty," Rollins, the longest-tenured player on the roster, said of a team that hasn't done a whole lot to rebuild its stagnant offense in the last two winters.

Only seven teams scored fewer runs than the Phillies (620) in 2014. Only two teams (Cincinnati and San Diego) had a lower team OPS (.665).

No Phillies team has had a lower OPS since 1991 (.662).

"I think that's a part of it, addressing the offense," Sandberg said. "Addressing the potential guys in the offense, in the offseason."

Hamels was only guilty of throwing four straight fastballs to the first batter of the game. Emilio Bonifacio sized up fastball No. 4 - a 96-mph heater bearing down on him on the inner half of the plate - and deposited it into the leftfield seats for his third home run.

Two batters later, the Braves doubled their lead when Freddie Freeman hit an RBI single to center. Chris Johnson followed with another hit.

Hamels retired 20 straight after that. Only one more hitter reached base (Joey Terdoslavich, in the seventh), but that hit batter was most likely intentional since Chase Utley was hit by a pitch an inning earlier. (Both benches were warned.)

"He threw a no-hitter at them for seven innings," Sandberg said.

But it wasn't anything new, as Hamels was among baseball's best pitchers for the majority of a season that began with him on the disabled list for three weeks. Hamels had a 1.91 ERA over the final four months; he had a 2.06 ERA since May 6.

Since giving up four runs in a 6-2 loss to Colorado on May 27, Hamels finished the season by going 23 straight starts without allowing more than three earned runs. It's the longest streak by a Phillies pitcher since Chris Short ran off 26 such starts in 1967-68.

But the Phillies only managed to go 15-15 in games Hamels started this season. They scored two or fewer runs in 12 of his 30 starts.

Hamels has a 3.05 ERA in 63 starts in the last two seasons, and the Phillies have gone just 28-35 in those games.

Since they aren't winning with him, it's almost worth wondering if the Phillies would be better off to go into full-rebuild mode by dealing Hamels for a boatload of prospects this winter. He is owed a minimum of $96 million over the next four seasons.

"Likely? Probably not," Rollins said. "You may give up an entire minor league system to get a guy like that and I don't think anyone is willing to do something like that. I doubt that happens."

But when a team finishes in last place, change is necessary. Anyone and everyone (barring a no-trade clause) is available for the right price.

"I think I understand the situation," said Hamels, who heard his name in trade rumors before the July 31 deadline. "All good things come to an end. And I don't have to make those decisions. All I can to do is go and play. So I understand the organization and what they have to do. I know they have to make some changes.

"I can't say or tell them what to do, I'm just one piece. If I can just be accountable for who I am, then they can just check it off their list of somebody hopefully they'll want in the organization, that will provide them with a winning attitude and a winning vision."

" @ryanlawrence21

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