Phillies

Cole Hamels has pitched at such a high level that on a night when he allowed three earned runs, it appeared to be a subpar effort. Only by the lefthander's exceedingly high standards. Despite allowing two home runs after surrendering just three in his previous seven starts, Hamels had more than enough to keep both his and the Phillies' winning ways intact. He struck out nine and walked one as the Phillies defeated the Boston Red Sox, 6-4, Friday night at Citizens Bank Park in the beginning of interleague play.

Cole Hamels proved to be the stopper the Phillies needed. Hamels, whose no-hit bid was broken up with one out in the sixth inning, allowed four hits through eight innings in Wednesday's 4-1 win over the Washington Nationals at Citizens Bank Park. The lefthander struck out eight and walked three while throwing 114 pitches. Closer Jonathan Papelbon allowed a solo home run to Adam LaRoche in the ninth. Hamels (7-1, 2.17 ERA) ended the Phillies four-game losing streak.

Ryan Howard felt a tiny pinch Sept. 18 when a team physician's needle penetrated the numbed surface of a left heel that had been throbbing red-hot for weeks. Within seconds, the syringe's milky mixture of cortisone and painkiller rushed warmly into the tiny, inflamed bursa sac at the base of the slugger's Achilles tendon. Howard and the Phillies were rolling the dice. They hoped the cortisone would ease the pain and, after a brief rest, return him to form for the fast-approaching postseason.

WHAT DOESN'T kill a team can make it stronger, and if the Phillies survive the brutal 20-game stretch that they begin today, they will at least find themselves in position to make a run. But there is always cause for concern when a team's greatest hope is an aphorism, and after a 5-1 loss to Josh Beckett and the Red Sox on Sunday, you had to wonder whether this lineup's success in a recent six-game winning streak was proof of anything other than the...

This will make the stomachs of most Philadelphia sports fans turn. The New York Giants on Wednesday unveiled the championship rings they will get for winning Super Bowl XLVI. It's a nice ring – gaudy as heck, like all Super Bowl rings, but nice. The ring, which was designed by Tiffany & Co., is stacked with diamonds and has four Vince Lombardi trophies to represent the franchise's four Super Bowl titles. It also has sapphires surrounding an "ny" and forming a "Big" blue ring around the top. On the inside of the ring, the words "Finish" and "All in" are engraved.Those were the Giants' catchphrases on their amazing run of 2011.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - It was 10:03 a.m. Wednesday when I carefully pushed through the glass doors that lead to the bullpen and infield diamond that sits below the main entrance to Bright House Field. A light rain fell as I turned right, walked about 30 yards, and headed toward the Carpenter Complex Fields, where I have watched men stretch, throw, hit, run, and play baseball since Mike Schmidt's final spring training as a player in 1989. I didn't know I was being watched. As I passed the closed weight room and neared the steps that lead up to Frenchy's Tiki Bar in left field at the Phillies' spring-training home, I could hear men talking on two-way radios.

The Phillies had squandered so many chances Saturday night until a 90-foot sprint by Jimmy Rollins. When the shortstop's right foot touched first base, he spread his arms to signal safe. First-base umpire Paul Emmel agreed. Rollins clapped his hands and pumped his fist. They had pushed Boston to the brink of snapping. Then Shane Victorino swung at a first-pitch fastball from Alfredo Aceves and a wave of good vibes plopped into Red Sox shortstop Mike Aviles' glove. "I would swing at that every single time," Victorino said.

It's a Sunday in March, and Rich Thompson is a major-leaguer again. He's swinging in batting practice and Charlie Manuel's eyes follow every ball Thompson hits deep to right field. Hitting coach Greg Gross mimics the Phillies manager. No one says a word, and the 6-foot-3 outfielder who last season led the International League in runs scored keeps hacking. In the Phillies clubhouse, Thompson eats lunch at a table with Jimmy Rollins and John Mayberry Jr. He waits an entire game and finally his name is called.

Phillies fans have been breathing rarefied air during the last five years: a string of division titles, a pair of trips to the World Series, a sun-kissed parade down Broad Street, and an annual influx of All-Stars who wanted to be in Philadelphia, who were excited to wear red pinstripes, to play alongside Chase and Ryan and Cole, the homegrown heroes. It was surreal. It was joyous. But now you can't help but wonder: Is it over? Yeah, yeah — the Phillies finally had a decent week where they were able to string together a couple of wins against the Padres, Astros and Cubs.

Reunions can be fun. Watching Brian Dawkins hug his former Eagles teammates and fight back tears as he talked about the late Jim Johnson's profound impact on his career was one more grand moment for the man who used to serve as the needle that inflated the energy level at Lincoln Financial Field. Reunions can be painful. Watching 41-year-old Jim Thome play baseball this season has been excruciating. Thome, of course, was the man who by simply signing a contract restored enthusiasm for a franchise that had fallen into a dark abyss.

SOCCER FANS who are too enthusiastic are often called hooligans. These guys are terrorists. Giovanni Moreno, a midfielder for an Argentinian league team called Racing Club, was threatened at gunpoint recently because of his perceived ineffectiveness on the pitch. An unknown gang of thugs pointed a gun at his leg and threatened to blow off his knee unless he improved. "We think no one should have to go through something like this," Racing Club president Gaston Cogorno said Wednesday.

With all the uncertainty surrounding Mayor Nutter's effort to reform the city's property tax system, another variable entered the picture Wednesday — one that could potentially upend the administration's plans. State Sen. Larry Farnese (D., Phila.) said Wednesday he would seek to amend a bill in the General Assembly — Senate Bill 1303 — that is essential to Nutter's Actual Valuation Initiative (AVI). Without the bill, which would give the city the necessary authority to change the millage, or property tax rate, the city likely could not proceed with AVI — and Nutter officials admit they have no"Plan B. " Farnese said he supports AVI and is not trying to stop the process in its tracks.

Ray Ohler, a Philadelphia real estate appraiser who delighted in pointing out the inflationary excess of the mid-2000s — brokers firing professionals who failed to approve wacky prices, New York investors chasing Sale signs down Roosevelt Boulevard, out-of-town lenders airlifting money to semi-employed buyers who might as well have worn Foreclose Me tattoos — left town in 2009, when the market went limp. "It's dead," he told me at the time. "They finally killed it. " He went to coastal Florida, where he has family — and where real estate is the only business — and found things even more dead: "Down 50 percent.

Roy Halladay hasn't been as dominating a pitcher in his third year with the Phillies as the previous two, when he won the Cy Young award in 2010 and was runner-up for the award last season. Halladay is now 4-4 with a 3.58 ERA after allowing five earned runs in six innings and taking the loss in Tuesday's 5-2 defeat to the visiting Washington Nationals. Pitching coach Rich Dubee says that there could be a number of factors for Halladay's less-than-imposing start, but he said Halladay still has the stuff that could make him a big winner.

THE NATIONAL correspondents - newspaper, online, television, or some combination thereof - arrived in the Phillies' clubhouse, one after another, in the hours before the game. MLB Network informed its viewers that it would cut to Citizens Bank Park at the appropriate time. To see: Outside, Ball 1. Foul, Strike 1. Fly ball to deep left. And now it can be told: that Round 2 of Cole Hamels vs. Bryce Harper was predictably not as interesting (in a pyrotechnic sense)

This was supposed to be the Phillies' formula for surviving The Wait for the middle of the lineup: great starting pitching, some opportunistic hitting with a little small ball mixed in, steady if unspectacular production from the cleanup spot, some offense and great defense from the little shortstop. On this night, at least, the shortstop was the balletic Freddy Galvis instead of Jimmy Rollins and the cleanup hitter was Carlos Ruiz instead of Hunter Pence. The role of Cole Hamels, however, was played by the man himself.

Is New York safer than Philadelphia because the police there stop and frisk pedestrians more often? Mayor Michael Bloomberg, defending the New York Police Department's aggressive stop-and-frisk approach, told reporters Thursday that it was a no-brainer. "Why would any rational person want to trade what we have here for the situation in Philadelphia? More murders? Higher crime?" Bloomberg asked rhetorically. He was responding to an editorial in the New York Times calling that city's stop-and-frisk program "abusive" and suggesting that "New York should learn from Philadelphia," which is operating under a consent decree after the settlement last year of a class-action suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney brought his plan to improve the American educational system to a West Philadelphia charter school Thursday, and suggested class size mattered little to pupils' achievement. Whereupon the teachers in the room immediately questioned his stance. Calling the gap in education performance between black and white students "the civil rights issue of our time," Romney said quality teaching and parental involvement were the keys to classroom success.

The Tumbler, the armored and heavily armed version of the Batmobile from Christopher Nolan's caped crusader trilogy, will make a few stops in the area next week. Fans can also see and get photographed with the Bat-Pod, a menacing mega-motorbike formed from parts of the Tumbler in the second film, The Dark Knight (2008), sequel to Batman Begins (2005). It's part of a promotional tour, of course, for the third installment, The Dark Knight Rises, due in theaters July 20. Although some fans have shown up dressed as characters at previous stops, don't expect to see the likes of actual stars Christian Bale (Batman)

Nine-year-old Bella Troilo's lunch with Mayor Nutter Friday was nearly four months coming. He had to cancel his original visit to Sharswood Elementary, where she is in third grade, but she was determined to hold the elected official to his word — and did just that. Waiting patiently in the South Philadelphia school's library, Bella sat with her parents, drinking lemonade and eating chicken nuggets, when the mayor walked into the room. Nutter greeted teachers and the students anticipating his arrival, but he was sure to immediately apologize to Bella for his March no-show.