Burrell helps Hamels finally get a victory

SAN DIEGO — Cole Hamels knew if he was patient, the wins would come. He never figured it would take this long.

Hamels pitched eight sharp innings to snap a seven-start winless drought, Pat Burrell hit a go-ahead homer and the Phillies beat the San Diego Padres, 2-1, on Sunday night.

Hamels (10-8) limited the Padres to one run on seven hits as he won for the first time since a 4-1 victory at Atlanta on July 3 and helped the Phillies stay two games back of the Mets in the NL East. The Mets were 4-0 winners at Pittsburgh.

“Every one of us on the starting staff tries to put up good innings and quality starts and hope for the best,” Hamels said. “We have been able to do that but, unfortunately, it hasn't gone my way. That's baseball.”

Hamels stayed in control of San Diego by throwing strikes and getting ahead in the count. The left-hander didn't worry about Philadelphia's recent offensive struggles.

“I think when you really try to be extra fine, you get yourself in trouble,” he said. “That's when you put too much pressure on yourself. That's something that I learned over the past month.”

Although the Phillies scored three runs or less for Hamels for the sixth time in his last eight starts, Burrell came through again with a big home run. Burrell hit his 29th homer of the season, a solo shot with an out in the sixth that proved to be the difference. He also homered on Friday night in the Phillies' 1-0 win over San Diego.

“This team will hit because we've all done it before,” Burrell said. “But until we pick it up, we'll have to make sure we are at least getting the clutch hits.”

Philadelphia has hit just .197 with seven homers and 32 runs scored in its last 11 games.

“It's nice to win two of three especially when you score six runs,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. “We battled, it was a standoff.”

Hamels was 0-3 with a 3.61 ERA during his career-high winless skid despite solid outings. Hamels has allowed two or less runs in seven of his last nine starts and 10 of 14.

“He was due to win one because he's pitched some real good ballgames,” Manuel said. “This guy has had some tough luck in getting some decisions, getting some wins. He's pitched much better than his record.”

Brad Lidge struck out the side in the ninth — and gave up a walk — to pick up his 30th save in 30 chances. Lidge has 33 consecutive saves dating to last season.

San Diego lost its ninth consecutive home series since winning two of three against the Los Angeles Dodgers, June 10-12. Since then, the Padres have dropped 20 of 27 at home.

Jimmy Rollins got the Phillies going in the first inning with a single off Cha Seung Baek (4-7). He stole second and continued to third on catcher Luke Carlin's throwing error. Jason Werth followed with a sacrifice fly.

Burrell then homered off Baek to give Philadelphia a 2-0 lead in the sixth. The RBI tied him with Greg Luzinski (811) for eighth place on the Phillies' all-time list.

“It was supposed to be a slider away but it was up,” Baek said. “It should have been down.”

The Padres strung together consecutive one-out singles by Kevin Kouzmanoff, Adrian Gonzalez and Chase Headley to cut the lead to 2-1 in the sixth.

“(Hamels) was throwing three pitches for strikes,” Headley said. “I looked up one time and he was throwing three strikes for every one ball.”
Hamels threw 97 pitches, 73 for strikes.

Baek allowed two runs, one earned, on four hits over six innings. He dropped to 0-7 at home with a 5.86 ERA in eight starts.

(phillyburbs.com)