Saturday Lineup

Hamels Wins 1-0 Game

The Phillies (77-58) defeated the Milwaukee Brewers last night, 1-0 and pulled to within one game of the NL East leading Atlanta Braves and extended their lead in the wild card standings to three games.

Philadelphia has won four games in a row and after it looked like the offense had returned with a bang the previous day in a 12-11 win over the Rockies, Hamels got none of the same pop from the bats as the lineup squeaked out one only run for Cole to work with, but once again he has been masterful when put in such situations this year.

Hamels got win ninth win on the season and since April, he has been down right dominant on the mound with an ERA of 2.89, but he has a 6-8 record. In three out of Cole's last six starts he has pitched in 1-0 games and he has only won one of those games.

In August, Hamels complied an ERA of 2.79 and had a record of 1-3 over that span, the offense is averaging just under three runs a game in Cole's starts since the month of April, but none of that matters now as the Phillies are as close to first place as they have been in a month.

Over the last month plus of baseball, the Phillies have made up a lot of ground as they have a record of 29-12 since the date of July 21st, which is the best record in the Major Leagues.

Here's the last impressive stat on Hamels, he has pitched 18 scoreless innings and has allowed just two runs in his last three contests consisting of over 22 innings of work and the good sign for Cole is that he's won two starts in a row for the first time since mid-May.

Halladay will be on the mound tonight for Game 2 of the series against the Brewers and is looking for his 17th win of the season as he will try to make it five straight for the Phils.

Mountaineers Kick Off Season Today

It's a brand new season for the West Virginia Mountaineers and a brand new team taking the field today for the first time under sophomore QB Geno Smith.

Smith is going to try to maintain the success the Mountaineers have had in home openers. The Mountaineers have not lost a home opener since 2003, when they lost to Wisconsin 24-17.

While today is important for the fact that the team get to finally hit players wearing a different jersey, the eyes will be on an offense that underwhelmed last year late in the season after 30+ points in their first five games.

And although the Mountaineers have had success in the win-loss column on opening day, they haven't been as dominant as people would like in their last two season openers.

The Mountaineers struggled to beat Liberty last year by a score of 33-20 as the Football Championship Subdivision squad were able to pull to within four in the second quarter and were within two scores throughout the contest.

Two years ago, the Mountaineers opened the season against another FCS team in the Villanova Wildcats and the 'Cats were able to dominate time of possesion and stay in the game until halftime and were able to rack up some garbage time TD's to make the score a little closer.

Fans were uneasy about those two games and want to leave today confidence in their offense as they prepare to take on Coastal Carolina, a bunch that went 5-6 last season. Coastal Carolina is the second straight Big South team to open a season at West Virginia. 

Head Coach Bill Stewart is definitely ready for the 3:30pm kickoff.

“For the fans, I can’t wait,” Stewart said. “I can only imagine what it is like. When I come out of the tunnel, it is all business. It is fun, but it is business as well. I want to see how tough, explosive and fast the Mountaineers play. I also want to see us bond and fight fair as a family.”  

The fans won't have to wait long for kickoff as it's less than four hours away, and then fans will finally be able to lay their eyes on the newest WVU QB. And don't forget that What's Ill is your place for West Virginia coverage and we'll have video recaps and written summaries after every Mountaineer game.

Photos Courtesy Philly.com and NaplesNews.com