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| Cole Hamels Courtesy of tumblr.com |
One year after winning a career-high 17 games and two years after posting a career-low 2.79 earned run average, Hamels finds himself with a 2-11 record and a 4.50 ERA this season following Friday's 4-3 loss to the New York Mets.
Hamels' poor record isn't completely his fault. While he's had four starts where he allowed five or more earned runs, he's had seven starts where he's allowed two or fewer earned runs. His record in those seven games is 1-6.
Hamels' struggles with wins and losses mirror what happened to Lee last season. After going 17-8 with a 2.40 ERA in 2011, Lee's record fell to 6-9 with 15 no decisions and a 3.16 ERA. Lee has since bounced back with a 9-2 record and a 2.53 ERA entering Saturday's start against the Mets.
Hamels seems to be suffering from the same lack of support this year that Lee ran into last year. In Lee's case, the Phillies struggled to score runs in his starts last season as they managed an average of 3.6 runs per game. This year, the Phillies are managing only 3.1 runs per game in Hamels' starts. Kind of hard to win games when your team isn't giving you run support.
Hamels' season isn't a complete disaster, though. He has struck out 94 batters in his 15 starts, and he's on a pace to eclipse the 200-strikeout mark for the third time in the four years. So, it's not as if Hamels has lost his stuff. He's just been the hard-luck loser more often than not.
Hamels' wins and losses can definitely be corrected. Just look at Cliff Lee's turnaround in 2013. It may be an indicator of what fans can expect Hamels to do in 2014 -- or maybe even the rest of 2013.
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