Cubs no-hit by Hamels in 5-0 loss to Phillies

Coming off the worst back-to-back starts of his 10-year career, Hamels needed a good outing to alleviate the perception he’s no longer a frontline starter ahead of Friday’s trade deadline.

Miguel Gonzalez took a shutout into the eighth inning to win for the third time in his last four starts for Baltimore. If the Phillies front office do their jobs, they may be able to use to awesome accomplishment to acquire some outstanding prospects for their organization in the future. He definitely increased his value, I would imagine. “You get that higher tier prospect because of that performance”.

“This is the place that I call home and want to call home for a really long time”, Hamels said then.

The left-hander had some of his best stuff of the season with his fastball in the 93 to 94 mile an hour area.

Manager Pete Mackanin was nearly as impressed about his team’s error-free play and 40 hits – including 21 for extra-bases – in the series as he was about Hamel’s 13-strikeout gem on Saturday.

“She told me that Cole threw a no-hitter, and I was like: Wow, I can’t believe it!”

Dexter Fowler walked twice for Chicago, but he was the only baserunner for the Cubs. Hamels’ 13 strikeouts were also the most in a no-hitter in Phillies history.

“Thank goodness the wind was blowing in”, said Hamels. It follows earlier no-hitters by San Francisco Giants’ Chris Heston and Washington Nationals’ Max Scherzer. It was the first time the Cubs have been no-hit since the Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax tossed a flawless game against Chicago in 1965.

But Hamels was in control right from the start on a picturesque day at Wrigley Field.

The pitcher was also part of the Phillies’ last no-hitter, having teamed up with three relievers to shut down the Atlanta Braves last September.

Since 1900, only two pitchers have thrown a no-hitter and then got traded in the same season: Cliff Chambers from Pittsburgh to St. Louis in 1951, and Edwin Jackson from Tampa Bay to the White Sox in 2010.

Rodriguez’s third homer of the game came on the first pitch of the ninth from Twins closer Glen Perkins, who had blown just one save in 30 chances prior to Saturday. He’s playing with that special “I’M A GOD, COME AND GET IT” swagger that you can’t fake.

Elsewhere, Delino DeShields capped a three-run rally in the eighth inning with an infield hit that drove in the go-ahead run as Texas beat the Los Angeles Angels 7-6.

Amaro initially thought Hamels’ 3-2 pitch to Kris Bryant, the 129th of his start, was a home run off the bat.

“I know how hard hitting is judging from my batting average”, said Ross, who is batting.185.

“I think he was a pretty good pitcher before he no-hit us”, Epstein said.

Reds 5, Rockies 2: Johnny Cueto shrugged off trade rumors and pitched eight scoreless innings, Todd Frazier hit his 100th career home run, and Cincinnati beat Colorado.

There was drama down to the final out in the Cole Hamels’ no-hitter. My first Cubs game on WGN out of Chicago was in September of 1975, when I turned on a game as Rennie Stennett was legging out a triple in the Pirates’ 22-0 rout of the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

Paul Goldschmidt and Jake Lamb both had run-scoring hits in the first inning against Taylor Jungmann (5-2) for the Diamondbacks, who had four hits – two after the opening frame.