The Cole Express
By Joe

Last week I was cleaning my room and getting ready for moving out of Birmingham when I started thinking about what I wanted to do during the upcoming Memorial Day weekend. I had talked to my roommate Katie about watching the Braves play before I left Alabama, so I checked the schedule to see whether Atlanta had a home game last weekend. Sure enough, they did versus the Phillies.

Then I stopped. My mind raced. The Phillies? Cole Hamels pitches for the Phillies. Could he be pitching on Sunday? Please God say it's true.

As fate would have it, my boy Cole had a scheduled start for Sunday. It took me 3.4 seconds to buy the tickets.

So Katie and I made the two-hour trek to Atlanta to watch Cole face the Braves. Needless to say, it was an all around outstanding day.

First, Turner Field is an absolutely amazing ballpark. Once you walk in the gates the whole layout is wide open. There are monuments of Hank Aaron, Warren Spahn and Ty Cobb. There are games for kids to play. There are endless concession stands. In contrast to PNC Park in Pittsburgh and Jacobs Field in Cleveland, Turner Field has plenty of room to walk around outside the stadium and engage with the numerous fan booths. And you can buy Sam Adams on tap. Overall, it's very cool.

We got to our seats on the right field line and settled in to witness Cole. But first we were treated to reigning N.L. MVP Ryan Howard. Howard is coming off of an oblique injury, but he looked just fine against Atlanta's Kyle Davies. Howard, with an effortless swing, belted a two-run homer down the right field line on the first pitch he saw from Davies. Now I realize Ryan Howard is a large man, but it still amazed me at how easy he powered the ball over the fence. Just a flick of the wrists and 375 feet later it's 2-0 Phillies.

Greg Dobbs followed Howard with a sky high fly ball that barely grazed past the right-center field fence for a two-run shot. Just like that, the Phillies were up 4-0.

Granting Cole Hamels a four-run lead is like giving a mere mortal pitcher 12 runs. As the Phillies warmed before the bottom of the first started, I turned to Katie and informed her that the game was over. There are certain things you don't do in life if you want to succeed. Giving Cole Hamels a big lead is one of them.

Cole didn't disappoint me, cruising through the first inning by allowing just one hit and striking out a batter. Not surprisingly Cole threw a ton of change-ups, each clocked between 79 and 81 mph. He made Jeff Franceour look silly by setting him up with two change-ups before blowing a 94 mph fastball past him for the easy strikeout.

In the second inning Cole strutted to the plate and took a nice hack at a Davies fastball, roping it down the first base line. Unfortunately, Scott Thorman made a diving stop to halt Cole from a two-base hit. Still, I was impressed with how well Cole swung the bat. He's collected five hits already this season, including two doubles.

As the sun became hotter and the afternoon grew older, Cole pitched on cruise control. From the second through fourth innings, he yielded just a one hit, a solo home run to backup catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, while striking out five. The Braves offered no threats to score.

In the fifth, the Phillies exploded for seven runs, including Howard's second home run of the day, a mammoth shot to center field. By the time Cole threw his warm up pitches in the bottom of the inning, he was staked an 11-1 to advantage. At this point Cole could have thrown right-handed and gotten a win.

To my disappointment Cole continued pitching with his left hand, finishing the game by going six innings, allowing three runs, walking two and striking out eight. It was a solid, if not spectacular performance that notched the 23-year-old his seventh win of the season. For the most part I was impressed with the way Cole mixed up his change-ups with fastballs to keep the Braves guessing. When you can have a 15 mph difference between your fastball and your off-speed pitch, it's going to give hitters a difficult time.

My only concern about Cole is that he relies too much on the change. He did allow two home runs Sunday and has been bitten by the gopher ball 10 times in 11 starts. Thankfully there was nobody on base when Saltalamacchia and Andruw Jones went yard. Still, Cole's tendency to fall in love with his change-up is going to hurt him at some point this year when a hitter just sits on that off-speed pitch. Obviously Cole puts a ton of movement on his change which makes it extremely difficult to hit. But he must continue to keep hitters honest by throwing more fastballs and an occasional curveball. He did this for most of the game Sunday, but every once in awhile he fell back into throwing too many consecutive change-ups and it hurt him.

Cole is now 7-2 on the season with a 3.74 ERA and 1.22 WHIP. He leads the Majors with 86 strikeouts and has delivered four quality starts in his last five outings. I don't think we've seen the best of Cole this season, but he's been awfully good. The difference between this year's Cole and last year's Cole is night and day. I'm excited to see how much better the kid will be by season's end.