Cole Hamels was looking to bounce back from one his worst career starts and so far he has. Through four innings, Hamels has held the Braves to one hit and struck out five. His fastball is up in the mid 90s and he’s got the location that he simply didn’t have in his first start of the season. In fact, the only hit he did give up, to Nate McClouth, was probably more due to poor positioning from Raul Ibanez than anything. Raul was playing rather shallow and let the ball get over his head.
His counterpart, Derek Lowe, has also pitched well holding the Phils to three hits and a run over four innings. The Phillies score came after red hot Shane Victorino got on base with his second hit of the game. Placido Polanco then singled, moving Shane over to third. Jimmy Rollins came up next and hit into a double play, but Victorino managed to score.
Raul Ibanez has the lone other hit for the Phils.
That leaves the Phillies up 1-0 after four.