World Series Notebook: Hamels downplays incident with Myers
NEW YORK — Cole Hamels isn't giving up on his team and he didn't have it out with fellow pitcher Brett Myers late Monday.
That's the latest spin as the Philadelphia Phillies are trying to defuse what's become the biggest soap opera of this World Series.
It all centers around Hamels, the struggling 2008 Series MVP who got hit hard in the Yankees' 8-5 Game Three win. Long after most national reporters had left the clubhouse after the loss, Hamels was asked how's he's dealt with his difficult season and said, "I can't wait for it to end. It's been mentally draining. At year's end, you just can't wait for a fresh start."
That did not play well in Philly. Hamels is in line to pitch Game Seven and talk radio immediately accused him of giving up on his team when he might have another game to pitch. Then, after Game Five on Monday, teammate Brett Myers saw Hamels in the clubhouse and said to him, "I thought you quit." Hamels responded with an expletive and a Yahoo! report said the two had to be separated by a team official, a version disputed by other reporters.
Coincidentally, Hamels had been heading to manager Charlie Manuel's office to talk further about his comments when the Myers situation arose.
"They're friends and that was more Brett being — when you say "Manny Being Manny' or something like that — Brett being Brett," Manuel said here Tuesday. "Brett likes to throw that jab at you and sometimes it doesn't matter who's around. I think when people hear that sometimes they don't know how to take it."
"There's no problem," Hamels told the Philadelphia Inquirer on Tuesday afternoon in a telephone interview from the Phillies' train to New York. "There's never been a problem. We're always joking around, always laughing with each other at the field or when we ride in together. We're a couple of wise [guys]. We're having dinner tonight."
Hamels' explanation to the Inquirer was that Myers' statement is clubhouse code for "I thought you had left for the night."
"He didn't know what had been in the papers," Hamels said. "It was a random coincidence. It's what he says every day, but because of the situation, it hit a nerve. He totally apologized."
Still, Manuel has refused to commit to Hamels or anyone else to be his Game Seven starter.
"He came in and talked to me [Monday] about some of the things that were said and I felt very good about it really," Manuel said. "I know Hamels. I've been a Hamels guy every since I saw him pitch in [Class A] Lakewood. I want you to listen to this: I never, ever questioned his mental toughness because he's just as tough as anybody on our team."
"Of course I want it," Hamels said when the Inquirer asked him if he wanted to start Game Seven. "It would be a great opportunity. It's something you live for, to be the deciding factor. But first we have to win Game Six. Nobody will be rooting harder than me."
It was no day off for Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira, who was planning on taking plenty of hacks in the batting cage as he desperately tries to shake his postseason slump.
Teixeira batted .292 in the regular season with 39 home runs and 122 RBIs. In 14 postseason games, however, his numbers are just .172-2-7. And he's only 2 for 19 in the World Series.
"Over a 162-game schedule, the approach I've had has always worked," Teixeira said. "But sometimes it doesn't work when you're not playing, when you have all these days off. So you want to keep swinging, take your swings in the cage to keep your rhythm going and hopefully it pays off."
Manuel said center fielder Shane Victorino, who was hit on the finger by an A.J. Burnett pitch Monday, is day to day and his status for Game Six won't be determined until close to the first pitch.
"[The team's medical staff] said he's going to have some soreness in his finger," Manuel said. "We'll see."
Manuel said he would use former Buffalo Bisons star Ben Francisco in center if Victorino can't play.
Manuel has his own struggling first base slugger in Ryan Howard, who is 3 for 19 and has already tied the Series record of 12 strikeouts set in 1980 by Kansas City's Willie Wilson.
"When he's really good, he's a very good, polished-looking hitter," Manuel said. "But at the same time when he's struggling, I think it's a little bit of both the [opposing] pitcher and the fact that he's not following the ball."
The Phillies have hit 10 home runs in the series, second all-time for a National League team to the 14 hit by the Giants in 2002. They have 24 overall in the postseason, three shy of the record set by the Giants the same season.
The Phillies are just the second team in Series history to have three multi-homer games in a single Fall Classic (Chase Utley has two and Jayson Werth has one). The only other time that's happened was in 1932, when Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Tony Lazzeri did it against the Cubs.
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