Cole Hamels pitched valiantly in easily his best start of the season, but the offense could not give him anything in the way of run support and the Phillies lost for the third time in four games.  Hamels needed just 102 pitches (71 strikes) to get through 8 innings, striking out 8 and not allowing a walk along the way.  The offense, meanwhile, managed just four hits off of Marlins starter Nate Robertson and have now scored just one run in their last two games.  Here are a few thoughts on today’s contest:

• Hamels, obviously, looked terrific.  He was aggressive with his pitches and not afraid of contact, which helped keep his pitch count down.  His secondary stuff may still be a work in progress (though he threw a nice curveball to strike out Hanley Ramirez in the 1st inning), but when his fastball/changeup combo is working like it was today good things are going to happen for him.  He made some mistakes today, but I liked the fact that he did not allow those mistakes to compound on him and cause real problems.  If anything he seemed to bear down after making a mistake (after Uggla’s home run and Robertson’s double, for example).
• The Phillies didn’t have a whole lot of opportunities to score, and when they did they weren’t able to take advantage of them.  They caught a bad break in the 4th inning when Ben Francisco’s double hopped over the center field fence (if it stays in play, Jayson Werth scores), but they weren’t able to do anything with the resulting 2nd and 3rd, no out situation.  Juan Castro struck out, and then Werth was unable to score on a looping liner to center even though Cameron Maybin made a terrible throw that went all the way to the backstop.  It was a tough read for Werth and he looked worse because of the bad throw, but with 2 outs and the pitcher coming to the plate he probably should have tried to score there.
• Carlos Ruiz had a big single to lead off the 7th inning, considering Hamels was following him and with only 84 pitches at the time was probably going to stay in the game no matter what.  Hamels bunted him over to 2nd, but the Phillies were unable to score him.  Shane Victorino reached on a throwing error that did not advance the runner, Polanco popped out, and Chase Utley flew out to right to retire the side.
• Juan Castro has been fine at short and at the plate, but I think the Phillies miss Jimmy Rollins.  When he is hitting like he was before he got hurt, he really is the guy that makes this team go.
• The Phillies have a day off tomorrow, then head to Atlanta for a 3 game series before heading out west.  Kyle Kendrick pitches Tuesday, and with JA Happ hurting and probably going to miss his next start, Joe Blanton can’t get back soon enough.  At least Roy Halladay still pitches every 5 days.