• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Hamels, Utley fuel Phillies past White Sox

Jun 13, 2007 - 3:58 AM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- Cole Hamels is making a habit of surrendering consecutive home runs. Luckily for him, Chase Utley is making a habit of bailing him out.

After the Philadelphia lefthander allowed back-to-back first-inning blasts, Utley responded with a two-run homer and a two-run single as the Phillies defeated the Chicago White Sox, 7-3, on Tuesday.

In his last start, Hamels surrendered three consecutive home runs against the New York Mets on Thursday. Those solo homers, however, were the only runs Hamels allowed, and Utley's RBI double in the 10th inning lifted the Phillies to a 6-3 victory over their National League East Division rivals.

On Tuesday, Hamels (9-2) overcame back-to-back homers by Chicago's Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye to become the National League's first nine-game winner. The 23-year-old allowed just those two runs on six hits and struck out eight in eight innings.

"I was rushing myself (in the first inning)," Hamels said. "You have to be patient. You can't take on a team by yourself.

"I think the first inning is one of the toughest. For myself, it's just a battle."

Both managers lavished praise on the young lefthander afterward.

"I think that's the best pitcher we faced in the National League so far," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "This kid has great stuff. He's got that record for a reason."

Phillies manager Charlie Manuel went one step further.

"He deserves to be on the All-Star team," Manuel said. "He's in real good condition. He's gonna pitch a lot this year, more than he's ever pitched."

Hamels, who also leads the league in strikeouts with 104, has pitched at least six innings in all but one of his 14 outings this season.

"We feed off (Hamels) when he's on the mound," Phillies third baseman Greg Dobbs said. "That's just the way it is. There are a lot of pitchers you get that from. Cole has it. I can't explain it. It's just that intangible that he has.

"You know he's gonna be in the zone. He's gonna attack hitters and he's gonna give you a quality start. He's gonna leave it all out on the line."

Reliever Geoff Geary, who allowed a solo homer to Luis Terrero, recorded the final three outs for Philadelphia.

Utley, who had three hits, proved to be a nightmare for Chicago starter Jose Contreras (4-7). After a costly error by White Sox second baseman Tadahito Iguchi on Shane Victorino's routine grounder, Utley jumped on the first pitch and ripped a two-run home run in the second inning.

"You got to give a lot of credit to Shane on that play," Utley said. "A routine ground ball to second, he didn't jog. He ran hard. Guys that can run create a little tension with the fielders."

His two-run single in the fourth drove the Cuban righthander from the game.

"I think we had some great at-bats against Contreras," Utley said. "He's tough. He shows a lot of different arm angles at you. He throws a bunch of different pitches. We didn't swing at too many bad pitches. He fell behind a little bit and I think that worked to our advantage."

Contreras allowed seven runs on seven hits in 3 1/3 innings.

"I don't think I had any pop on my fastball," Contreras said through an interpreter. "I had trouble with location."

The White Sox's numbers are equally as bad. They have lost 14 of their last 17 games and have been held to three runs or fewer 12 times during that stretch.

Hamels also was buoyed by a three-run first inning, highlighted by Pat Burrell's bases-loaded walk and Dobbs' two-run single to right.

"Anytime they score any runs, you want to try and come back and answer," Dobbs said. "Just to try and gain that momentum back and not let it snowball. It was pretty big for us to get those runs and answer back in our bottom half of the inning."