NEWSLETTER
I must have a horseshoe hidden somewhere they’d make you cover up at the beach, because of the very few Cubs games I’ve missed entirely this season – last night, for example (thank you, John Mayer) – all of them have been the bad kind of blowout.
Final Score: Phillies 11, Cubs 1. Yeesh.
But even though I missed the game, it doesn’t take much to understand what went wrong. MLB.com writer Paul Casella does a perfect job of summing it up: “In the one hour between his first and final ovations, [Cole] Hamels was tagged for eight runs in just two-plus innings en route to an 11-1 loss to the Phillies.” Ah.
In his first return to Philadelphia (since being traded away in 2015), Cole Hamels came up very short, in what could’ve otherwise been an exciting, memorable homecoming. The Phillies were teeing off on Hamels’ ill-located pitches, and the game was over within a few moments of it beginning. It was a bad day for Hamels.
In fact, his outing was going so poorly he latter admitted that he couldn’t even enjoy the standing ovation he got when he was at the plate for the first time in the top of the third: “I tried to give them the best salute I could at the moment, but I wished it had been a better situation.” That really stinks. Just think back to Jake Arrieta’s memorable return to Wrigley Field earlier this year. Now imagine if he wasn’t able to enjoy that long standing ovation before his first at-bat, because he just sh*t the bed for a couple innings in front of the crowd that once considered him a the pitcher-equivalent of a god. I definitely feel bad for Hamels in that respect.
Final Line:Â 2.0 IP, 9H, 8ER, 2BB, 2Ks (Game Score … 2).
The good news is … that’s the end of the bad news.
Hamels laid a clunker last night – it’s going to happen – but at least there’s nothing physically wrong with him: “He’s healthy,” manager Joe Maddon said after the game. “My perspective, delivery-wise, he’s really off. … But he is healthy, and I do anticipate you’re going to see much better performances.”
This was the second ugly start in a row for Hamels, who allowed 4ER in 3.0 IP in Cincinnati before this, each coming soon after his return from the Injured List with an oblique injury. He is taking responsibility, in dead-pan comedic fashion: “I guess we’re both competing to see who can suck the most,” Hamels said when discussing his and Jon Lester’s recent issues, via The Athletic. “We don’t expect to put up these types of numbers, especially every five days.”
So what does Hamels think it was? From the sound of his postgame comments, he agrees with Maddon that it’s mostly a mechanical issue: “It’s just understanding why I’m getting these types of results out there, why the pitches are coming out the way that they are, and then just really correcting it. Things just don’t feel right. It’s just getting back to the right type of extension and release point, and everything will kind of follow.”
From what I can tell, Hamels release point isn’t dreadfully off, but I think there’s a somewhat notable lack of consistency last night (his worst start of the year by Game Score (2)) compared to June 7th against the Cardinals (his best start of the year by Game Score (90)).
But again, I don’t think there’s all that much there.
With that said, Hamels fastball velocity was down about a full click last night, and the same is true of his cutter and curveball. He also spent far more time in the strikezone last night (47.2%) than he has on average this season (42.4%) and that could be due to the fact that he’s getting no chases on pitches out of the zone over his last two starts (28.6% last night, 19.2% the start prior … and 31.3% for the season).
If you’re throwing softer and are forced into the zone more often – and you’re missing your spots within the zone – you’re going to get rocked. It’s just the nature of baseball. Now, whether that’s strictly due to his mechanics/release point and whether that is due to the fact that he’s just a few starts removed from an IL stint is less clear, but the best we can do for now is hope Hamels continues to feel strong, rediscovers a delivery that works for him, starts throwing as hard as he should be, so he can fool batters a little more out of the zone and stop living in blast ’em alley.
Given how good he’s been for the Cubs in general both this and last season, I’m willing to bet on Hamels for now. But there’s also not that much time left to figure things out … so hurry, please.
