How 24-year-old Cole Hamels carried the 2008 Phillies to the promised land

Prior to the Phillies’ Friday night matchup with the Diamondbacks, the Phillies will honor Cole Hamels with a retirement ceremony. He is the last of the 2008 World Series championship roster to call it a career.

As the Phillies and their fans ‘Say Goodbye to Hollywood’ at Citizens Bank Park, Hamels will always be remembered as one of the best pitchers in Phillies history. He has all the stats to back it up. In his 10 seasons with the Phils from 2006-2015, he went 114-90 in 294 stats with a 3.30 ERA, 14 complete games, seven shutouts, 492 walks, and 1,844 strikeouts. He ranks 11th all-time in WAR by a Phillies player just behind Jimmy Rollins and Bobby Abreu, and ahead of Chuck Klein and Curt Schilling.

Hamels was a three-time NL All-Star, was part of a combined no-hitter on September 1, 2014, threw one of this own in his final start as a Phillie at Wrigley Field on July 25, 2015, and was the 2008 NLCS and World Series MVP.

There are so many different accolades to point out in Hamels’ Phillies tenure, his development through the minor leagues, his instant success, striking out Ken Griffey Jr. in his Major League debut, his no-no in his final Phillies start, etc. You can go on and on and how dominant Hamels was. Every time he went out there every fifth day, you had the feeling that the Phillies were not going to lose.

That was most prominent in the 2008 postseason, which is what I want to focus on.

The Phillies drafted Hamels 17th in the 2002 draft. He was a senior in high school at the time and was held to extremely high expectations.

There were indeed bumps in the road for Hamels, who broke his arm in his sophomore year in high school and never knew if he would pitch again. But he made it through the adversity and was called up just four years after he was drafted.

The eye-popper for a lot of Phillies fans was when Hamels pitched against the Yankees in Spring Training on March 4, 2004. It was his first taste of the majors, and it was a mouthful. He faced Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez in his one inning of work and struck them out with his nasty changeup.

Talk about a first impression.

Hamels was called up in 2006 and was a major turning point in 2007 when the Phillies clinched their first playoff spot in 14 years. He went up against the Rockies in Game 1 of the NLDS at Citizens Bank Park, the first-ever postseason game at the Bank. It was his first postseason start at the age of 23. It was a matchup between two teams that probably should not have even been in the postseason.

Hamels threw 6.2 innings and allowed three hits, three runs (all of them earned), and four walks while striking out seven. However, he picked up the loss in the 4-2 defeat. The Phillies got swept in three games by the Rockies.

So going into the next postseason in 2008, Hamels felt he had nothing to lose.

“At 23 when I lost that first playoff game to Colorado, I think I put a little bit of pressure on myself,” Hamels told The Phillies Show.

“I wanted to deliver. It’s Game 1. You want to always start off hot, you want to get that first win. I had the bases loaded, I started giving up some runs in the second inning. And there was a potential, almost, grand slam from Matt Holliday that just went foul. I mean, he hit it so far it was over the foul pole. And it was weird. It was like this release of pressure. I know we did lose that game and I know we got knocked out.

“But I think going into the postseason against Milwaukee that next year, I just told myself ‘What do I have to lose? I already lost one playoff game. I’ve already lost a Game 1. What’s the worst that can happen, I lose again?’ It sucks, I don’t want that to happen. But it completely released all of the anxiety and stress that I suppose we carry in that first opportunity in the postseason, tot hen just bearing down and focusing at what my task was, which was to get each individual hitter out. It kind of simplified it for me. It made me just kind of hone in.”

Hamels started Game 1 of the Brewers series and was absolutely dominant. He threw eight scoreless innings while allowing just two hits and one walk, striking out nine on 101 pitches and 67 strikes.

Hamels got three runs in the third inning off of RBIs from Chase Utley and Shane Victorino. Brad Lidge came in and got the save, and the Phils took Game 1.

“Getting through that first game, boom,” Hamels said. “I did a great job, the team scores, and we end up winning that series.”

The Phils beat the Brewers in four games to advance to the NLCS and face the Dodgers. Hamels grew up in San Diego and a Padres fan, so his hate for the Dodgers stemmed from a young age.

“Going into the Dodgers, that’s when I started to develop the confidence,” Hollywood said. “I always loved pitching against the Dodgers, I always wanted to beat the Dodgers. And it just built, and it built.”

Hamels did everything but lose to the Dodgers in the postseason.

He started his third career Game 1 at Citizens Bank Park, this time against the Dodgers. And, once again, he was prevalent. Seven innings, six hits, two runs, both earned, two walks, and eight strikeouts on 105 pitches, 70 of those strikes in front of 45,839.

With home runs from Utley and Pat Burrell with another save from Lidge, the Phillies took down Los Angeles 3-2 in Game 1.

Hamles had officially distinguished himself as an absolute force, and it continued on the road.

“And I think going into Dodger Stadium, I knew I’m very successful on the West Coast… I’m not going to lose games in California,” Hamels said. “I just kind of kept that and I built that confidence that I’m not losing. I’m winning. I’m not losing.”

In his first career postseason start on the road, Hamels sent the Phillies to the World Series.

In Game 5 of the 2008 NLCS at Dodger Stadium, Hamels once again threw seven innings of one-run baseball allowing five hits, three walks, and one home run to Manny Ramirez, while striking out five on 104 pitches and 68 strikes.

Rollins started the game off with a lead-off homer, Burrell and Ryan Howard recorded RBIs, Ryan Madson shut the door in the eighth and Lidge got another save, and the Phillies were headed to the Fall Classic with a 5-1 win in LA.

24-year-old Hamels was now 3-0 in the 2008 postseason with a 1.23 ERA and was awarded the NLCS MVP, becoming the seventh youngest to do so.

“I started playing better, and I was on a roll, and you get these sort of trophies and the MVPs. But it’s not because of me individually, my teammates did everything possible to make my job easier,” Hamels said. “For me to build on my strengths, to attack, and not to fear attaching and doing what I need to do risk-taking, because I knew I had them behind me. I knew they were going to score runs and I knew they were not going to make errors, they were going to get the plays done. And that right there is the recipe for success.”

That recipe did some good cooking throughout the 2008 postseason, and now into the World Series against the Rays, with Game 1 in Tampa Bay with who but Cole Hamels on the bump.

For the fourth straight game, Hamels went at least seven innings and got the win. In those seven innings, he allowed five hits and two runs, both earned and a homer while walking two and striking out five on 102 pitches and 66 strikes.

You may be noticing a bit of a lower total of K’s from Hamels. He did not have a fastball that could blow you away. His changeup was nasty and he had an efficient over-the-top curveball, but he was a solid ground-out guy. And when you have an infield with Rollins, Utley, and Pedro Feliz, and then an outfield with Victorino and Jayson Werth, how much more confidence is needed to know those outs will be made?

The Phils took Game 1 of the World Series with of course Hamels’ start, along with a first-inning, two-run home run by Utley and two RBIs by Hamels’ battery, Carlos Ruiz. Lidge also recorded his sixth save of the postseason, with Madson recording the hold in the eighth.

Hamels went back out for Game 5 in yet another clinching situation. The Phillies were 27 outs away from winning their first World Series in 28 years with their 24-year-old ace on the mound.

However, this was the first time Hamels did not go seven innings this postseason or record the win. And well, you can thank the rain for that. The Rays rallied in the downpour to tie the game at 2-2 in the top of the sixth inning and the game was suspended moments later because the field had become a swamp.

Hamels did not return to the mound two days later when the game picked up, obviously. It ended his brilliant work in the World Series and the postseason. But he put the Phillies in a position to get the job done, which they did.

“When Pat Burrell got up, in that [Game 5 part two day later due to the rain] and hits that ball off the wall. I mean it was so close from a homer. But the stadium was so electric in batting practice because, I mean, when everyone’s got two innings, I mean they were boozing it up. They were like we are winning this, we’re not going back to Tampa. I mean the fans were awesome,” Hamels proclaimed.

“They’re on their feet and, you know, from that very first at-bat and Burrell hits that one off the wall you’re like ‘Oh we’ve got this, this is ours.’ It gives me chills.”

The Phils scored in the sixth and seventh innings, respectively, Lidge got his seventh save of the postseason, completing his perfect season, and they became World Series champions.

Hammels finished the 2008 postseason 4-0 with a 1.80 ERA in five starts, earning the 24-year-old the World Series MVP, becoming the eighth youngest to do so.

The Phillies do not win that World Series or go on their five-year streak of dominant, division-winning, pennant-chasing baseball without him.

He lived up to the hype of being the 17th overall selection and striking out Jeter and ARod at 20 years old, becoming the Phillies’ homegrown ace they desperately needed for years.

And Friday night, he is honored at a sold-out Citizens Bank Park.