Seriously… if he lost his hat, buy a new one! He signed a $17 million contract. Go on line and get a new one.
Why chase down that poor schmuck to a helicopter?
And why is some yahoo going to Rays games (and taking public transportation) getting on a private helicopter?
Sorry, but these things bother me.
Yeah yeah yeah… three errors including 2 that produced runs in a 3-2 game.
Lest we forget he ALSO screwed up a sacrifice bunt in the 8th inning.
I feel very bad for him.
9 years in the minors… he scrapped and clawed his way to the big leagues…. he played 5 different positions in the minors trying to get a big league shot… He gets to the big leagues… hits a dramatic walk off grand slam earlier this year… and now finds himself starting in the post season.
It should be a feel good story about a guy who just wouldn’t quit.
And now he is going to be remembered as a post season goat.
I can’t help but feel bad for the guy.
A silver lining? He plays in Atlanta which isn’t exactly an intense baseball town. If he did this in New York, Boston or Philadelphia, he’d be burnt in effigy.
Cole Hamels gave the Division Series a wonderful exclamation point and helped the Phillies continue to serve notice:
They intend to roll over the National League.
Last night, Hamels gave the Phillies their second complete game shutout in 3 games. (Granted, Halladay’s was more impressive.)
But a clinching complete game shutout is nonetheless pretty dang cool.
And RARE.
In this day and age of high paid closer, the clinching pitch is almost always thrown by the closer regardless of the situation. (The Yankees didn’t NEED to bring in Rivera the other day against the Twins.)
You might see the occasional World Series clinched with a complete game (a la Josh Beckett in 2003) or the LCS (a la Jose Contreras in 2005) but throwing a complete game to clinch a Division Series didn’t seem all that common.
So the staff at Sully Baseball looked it up, and since the Division Series became an annual event in 1995, there have been only three other times when a pitcher threw a complete game to clinch the first round.
John Smoltz
1997 ATLANTA BRAVES
Game 3
4-1 victory against Houston Astros
Bobby Jones
2000 NEW YORK METS
Game 4
4-0 victory against San Francisco Giants
Curt Schilling
2001 ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS
Game 5
2-1 victory against St. Louis Cardinals
Cole Hamels
2010 PHILADELPHIA PHLLIES
Game 3
2-0 victory against Cincinnati Reds
The 2001 Series didn’t end with Schilling on the mound getting the last out. The series ended with a walk off single by Tony Womack.
For sticklers of details, they played the Division Series in 1981 as well and two more complete games clinched series THAT year.
Jerry Reuss
1981 LOS ANGELES DODGERS
Game 5
4-0 victory against Houston Astros
But while relievers were being used more frequently then, the whole specialization of EVERY bullpen role (and the cheapening of the save) didn’t come around until the late 1980s.
So Cole Hamels has a complete game clincher to go along with his NLCS MVP, World Series MVP and World Series ring.
And gets to join select company.
Sully Baseball 
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