The Phillies' Cole Hamels and Arizona's Dan Haren are both premier pitchers, but their battle in Phoenix Tuesday night mostly served to underscore just how different are the teams for which they play. The Phils' hitters wore Haren out with a series of excellent at-bats through the first five innings, managing only four hits and three walks (one intentional) but forcing the Diamondbacks ace to throw 117 pitches over that stretch by laying off borderiine offerings and peppering the stands with foul balls. Shoddy defense took a toll as well: Arizona committed two errors in the Phils' two-run fifth inning, which broke a 1-1 tie.
Hamels himself got that rally started with one out, ending a lengthy at-bat against Haren by doubling to the gap. Jimmy Rollins followed with a grounder to short that Stephen Drew could not handle cleanly, putting runners on the corners. Shane Victorino, who had tied the game at 1 with a solo home run earlier, scorched a groundball over the first base bag that (perhaps inaccurately) was called fair for a ground rule double, plating Hamels. Chase Utley sent another hard grounder to first baseman Chad Tracy, who had Rollins breaking for home--but airmailed the throw over the head of catcher Miguel Montero for another error and a 3-1 Phils lead.
Hamels did the rest, with the help of some excellent glovework behind him. The lefty improved his record to 7-5 with eight innings of four-hit ball, striking out nine. The lone run he allowed came on a Ryan Roberts solo homer in the first inning. Brad Lidge, appearing for the third straight game, started the ninth inning by walking Justin Upton and serving up a monstrous home run to Mark Reynolds, drawing Arizona within one. But he escaped without further damage to earn his 20th save.