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Phillies Notebook: After rainout, Hamels to start Wednesday

Cole Hamels will not miss his start in the rotation, despite Tuesday's rainout. (YONG KIM / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)

BY RYAN LAWRENCE, Daily News Staff Writer

Posted: September 19, 2012

NEW YORK - Cole Hamels will take the ball at Citi Field Wednesday night as the Phils return from a 1-day respite and resume their final, 2-week pursuit of a playoff berth.

Tuesday night's game against the Mets was postponed nearly 3 hours before the scheduled first pitch because of inclement weather. The teams will make up the game on Thursday, when both originally were scheduled off.

"I've never been a doubleheader guy," manager Charlie Manuel said. "It'd be nice to have an off day, but that's how it goes. I'd just as soon play two singles, really."

Tyler Cloyd, originally scheduled to pitch on Tuesday, will be pushed to Thursday, keeping Hamels on his regular day. With five games in 5 days before their next day off - on Monday - the Phillies didn't have the option of skipping Cloyd altogether.

Following Monday's 3-1 win over the Mets, the Phillies were 3 1/2 games back of the National League's second wild card with 14 games remaining. Their season ends on Oct. 3 in Washington.

Diverging paths

September has traditionally been the month both Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard have heated up. Both have better career numbers in the final month of the season than in any other month of the season in their respective careers.

But the two former MVPs have gone in the opposite directions this September.

After going 0-for-4 on Monday, Howard was hitting .180 (11-for-61) with 16 strikeouts in 16 games this month. Howard, who missed all of spring training and the first 3 months of the season recovering from left Achilles' surgery, has four extra-base hits this month, but no home runs.

"It's been tough on him, really," Manuel said. "I think that even he doesn't realize the importance of his back foot being strong and everything."

Rollins, meanwhile, hit his sixth home run in his 16th game this month on Monday. He's batting .333 (22-for-66) with a .400 on-base percentage in September.

"When he's going good, he's capable of holding it for a while, like for a month or two," Manuel said, referring to Rollins' career-best 38-game hitting streak, which began with hitting in the final 36 games of the 2005 season. "He's playing better. He's been really helping us."

Contact Ryan Lawrence at rlawrence@phillynews.com.