The Phillies came into the playoffs as the consensus favorites due to the strength of their starting rotation. Three games later, it's all gone according to plan.
Cole Hamels Spins Shutout As Phillies Sweep Reds And Move On To NLCS
On Sunday night, in Game 3 of their NLDS against the Reds, the Phillies handed the ball to Cole Hamels and watched on as he dominated his opponent from start to finish. Hamels needed 119 pitches to complete both a shutout and a series sweep of the Reds that saw the Phillies' pitching staff allow just four total runs, and 11 total hits.
Hamels faced little pressure all night long. He only allowed five hits, and never allowed more than one in an inning. He confounded arguably the best offense in baseball by mixing and matching between his fastball and his changeup, and at no point were any Reds hitters able to step in and look comfortable. Ramon Hernandez accounted for the Reds' only extra-base hit of the game - a double in the seventh - but he, like the other baserunners, was left stranded.
Hamels threw 33 changeups in the game, with 28 of them going for strikes. Of the 25 swings the Reds took against the pitch, 12 of them missed.
Reds starter Johnny Cueto was by no means ineffective. It's worth noting that, though the Reds got swept, their pitching was there for most of the series, as they limited the Phillies to just 21 hits. But Cueto simply couldn't match zeroes with Hamels, and he got little help from his defense early on when an Orlando Cabrera throwing error in the first inning gave the Phillies an immediate lead. With men on the corners and two outs in the first, Jayson Werth hit a routine grounder to Cabrera at short, but Cabrera's throw to first was wide and pulled Joey Votto off the bag.
Armed with a 1-0 lead, Hamels went to work, and while Cueto stayed with him for a while, the Phillies added insurance in the fifth when Chase Utley blasted a solo home run that barely got out of the park. The play was reviewed and upheld, the process taking less than a minute and a half.
Behind 2-0, the Reds never felt like a threat. And now the team with the NL’s best OPS gets to go home for the offseason and reflect on a series in which they got shut out in one game, and no-hit in another. Most of the credit, of course, has to go to the Phillies’ phenomenal rotation, but there’s not a hitter on the Reds roster who doesn’t feel like he could’ve done more.
So the Reds go home, and the Phillies turn their eyes to the Giants and Braves to see who they'll be playing next. The Phillies will host the winner of that series next Saturday in Game 1 of the NLCS. Roy Halladay will get the nod, as Charlie Manuel gets to re-set his starting rotation.
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