One More For The Ages

In the first game of the Phillies' 2008 World Series Championship run, Cole Hamels pitched a gem against Milwaukee. He allowed just two hits--at the time the fewest allowed by a starter in team playoff history--threw 8 shutout innings and struck out 9. I called it one of the Phillies' best playoff pitching efforts ever, ranking it just below Steve Carlton's 1980 World Series Game 6 clincher, after reviewing every Phillies playoff game in team history.

Now, after Cliff Lee's brilliant Game 3 effort last night--plus Pedro Martinez's NLCS Game 2 and an additional Cole Hamels outing later in 2008--the list needs some updating. Seems the Phillies are in the Golden Age of playoff pitching, considering Hamels, Lee, and Martinez bumped off legends like Grover Cleveland Alexander and Curt Schilling (and Danny Jackson) from the list.

Here's an update to the Phillies' top 10 postseason pitching efforts, with World Series games in bold. All the others were either NLCS or NLDS games, and all were victories except for games by Martinez and Konstanty.

1980 Carlton: 7 IP 4 H 1 R 1 ER 3 BB 7 K 110 p (72 strikes)--won W.S.
2008 Hamels: 8 IP 2 H 0 R 0 ER 1 BB 9 K 101 p (67 strikes)
1993 Schilling: 9 IP 5 H 0 R 0 ER 3 BB 6 K 147 p (99 strikes)
2009 Lee: 8 IP 3 H 0 R 0 ER 0 BB 10 K 114 p (76 strikes)
2009 Martinez: 7 IP 2 H 0 R 0 ER 0 BB 3 K 87 p (57 strikes)
1983 Denny: 7.2 IP 5 H 1 R 1 ER 0 BB 5 K 109 p (73 strikes)
1950 Konstanty: 8 IP 4 H 1 R 1 ER 4 BB 0 K no pitch count
2008 Hamels: 7 IP 5 H 1 R 1 ER 3 BB 5 K 101 p (67 strikes)--won NLCS
1980 Carlton: 7 IP 7 H 1 R 1 ER 3 BB 3 K 105 p (66 strikes)
1983 Hudson: 9 IP 4 H 2 R 2 ER 2 BB 9 K 120 p (84 strikes)