Cole Hamels' complete shutout advances the Phillies to the NLCS
Mere days after Roy Halladay made the second no-hitter in pre-season history; the Phillies have another occasion to celebrate.
The Phillies, after winning three straight best-of-five series games, are advancing to the National League Championship Series.
Cole Hamels of the Phillies gave an amazing performance on Sunday, striking out nine batters and allowing only five hits, none of which gave the Cincinnati Reds a chance to score.
Great fielding, a homer by Chase Utley, and Reds’ errors allowed the Phillies to take the win, shutting the Reds out 2-0.
Hamels threw for 119 pitches in his first complete post-season game, 82 of which were strikes.
The final play was Hamels striking out Scott Rolen, who had his eighth strikeout in this series. The Phillies were ecstatic, completing the game in style with a handshake line, a few chest bumps, and then back to the locker room for a few bottles of champagne.
"I think when you have that playoff experience and you've been able to go to the World Series the past two years in row, you know what it takes to get there," said Hamels. "We don't want to get too carried away... We're just going to move on and play the best baseball we can."
After Halladay shut out the Reds with a no-hitter, the Reds never got their game together, even giving up a 4-0 lead in Game 2, after four errors allowed the Phillies to get ahead, winning 7-4.
An error by recently added shortstop, Orlando Cabrera, allowed Placido Polanco to score an unearned run, after a throwing error to first base.
This is probably why the Reds haven’t made a post-season appearance in 15 years.
The Phillies, who are trying to be the first National League team in 66 years to win three straight pennants, will play either the San Francisco Giants or the Atlanta Braves, depending on who wins their best-of-five series.
The normally top offense of the Reds only managed 11 hits in the last three games, giving them the lowest hit record in post-season history, after getting two hits fewer than Texas in their 1998 game against the New York Yankees. Texas only had 13 hits.
The first run was score by Polanco in the Phillies’ first inning at bat, after Jayson Werth was safe on first and Ryan Howard on second after a throwing error by Cabrera.
Utley’s homer to right center gave the Phillies their second run, even after the crowd at Great American Ball Park chanted “Cheater! Cheater!” after the Reds claimed that a fan had interfered with the home run. Luckily for Utley, the replays reviewed by the umpires showed that no such interference had taken place, which upheld the call.
Cole Hamels now has many achievements to add to his belt.
He now has two post-season games in which he played at least eight innings, struck out at least eight batters, and allowed no runs. He is the sixth NL series pitcher to do so in history.
He is also the second Phillies pitcher to throw a shutout in this series, which makes the Phillies the second team in the Divisional Series to have two different pitchers throw a shutout game.
He is also now at 6-3, making him the second pitcher in history to win six post-season games before turning 27 years old, the other being Jim Palmer.
Hamels shutout game also gave him the distinction of being the third in the last 20 years to pitch a shutout on the road to win a post-season series.
Aside from Hamels, Utley’s homer in the fifth inning gives him a total of ten in post-season games, passing teammate Werth.
The next game for the Phillies will vary, depending if the Giants win their next game or not. If they do, they will play the Phillies in the first NLCS game. If not, the Braves must win another game to advance to the NLCS.
The Reds are eliminated.
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