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Phillies bounce back behind Hamels

Jul 4, 2007 - 11:14 PM HOUSTON (Ticker) -- Cole Hamels made sure the Philadelphia Phillies didn't have another win taken away from them.

Hamels worked eight strong innings and Chase Utley enjoyed a huge day at the plate as the Phillies salvaged the finale of a three-game series against the Houston Astros with an 8-3 victory on Wednesday.

Philadelphia should have won Tuesday's game when Carlos Lee grounded into what appeared to be a game-ending double play in the ninth inning. But taking advantage of a safe call to tie the game, the Astros eventually won in the 13th inning on rookie Hunter Pence's homer run.

The Phillies needed a big effort from Hamels (10-4) and that is exactly what they received from their All-Star lefthander. Hamels scattered eight hits, baffling the Astros with a dominant changeup throughout the game. He struck out eight without a walk.

"It has been a constant battle for much of the last month and today was just about taking some of the pressure off and relaxing," Hamels said. "When I just go out there and be myself, I usually do a good job of putting the team in a winning situation.

"That makes the game a little bit more fun. It was a lot easier today and I am really glad that we were able to get out of here with a win."

The only run Hamels gave up came on Eric Munson's second homer in the third inning.

"Hamels was good today, but I have seen him better," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "He really pounded his fastball today and he did that even when he was getting hit at times. Today, I think he got some stuff off his chest. He was good today, but I have seen him dominate."

Utley, an All-Star, and Wes Helms finished with three hits each. Utley was just a homer shy of his first career cycle.

"We all just came out today and battled," Utley said. "This is a pretty good rebounding team and we needed to do that after the way we lost last night. We knew we could go out there and turn things around with our horse on the mound and we did that."

Helms, Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell all homered in the hitter-friendly park.

Rookie Chris Sampson (6-6) took the loss, his first at home since May 11 against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The righthander allowed four runs and eight hits, striking out four and walking one.

"Those balls (the homers) caught a little too much of the plate," Sampson said. "That's not exactly what I wanted to do. The Phillies have really good hitters and when you get too much of the plate, that is what they do to you."

The Phillies got the scoring started in the second inning when when Helms hit a double on the fourth pitch he saw from Sampson, scoring Burrell, who hit a two-out single to start the rally.

But the Astros tied the game in the fourth when Munson homered to the opposite field off Hamels.

The Phillies scored twice in the fifth inning to take the lead for good. Helms started the inning with his third homer of the season. Two outs later, Rollins lined a 2-1 offering from Sampson into the right field stands for a 3-1 lead.

Utley led off the sixth with a triple off the wall in right and scored on a single by Howard to make it 4-1.

Howard hit his 20th homer in the eight with Utley aboard, and Burrell followed with his 10th, a solo shot, to round out Philadelphia's scoring.

Ryan Madson relieved Hamels and allowed a run on a sacrifice fly by Munson in the eighth inning.

Brian Sanches pitched the ninth, giving up Pence's 11th homer of the season.

"(Hamel is) an All-Star for a reason," Astros manager Phil Garner said. "He is pretty tough. He buckled down today on us. If you can throw a good changeup when you get deep in the count, you are going to be successful. And that is exactly what that guy did."