Hamels will always have fond memories of no-hitter he threw at Wrigley
Cole Hamels is back at Wrigley Field, and fortunately for the Cubs, he's on their side.
Back on July 25, 2015, he pitched a no-hitter against the Cubs as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies. He was traded to the Texas Rangers shortly thereafter, and almost a year later, he came back to Wrigley and beat the Cubs 4-1.
The Cubs obtained Hamels from the Rangers in a trade on July 27, and he won his Cubs debut Wednesday at Pittsburgh.
The no-hitter will always rank high with Hamels, who also won MVP of the National League championship series and World Series for the Phillies in 2008.
Does he have any mementos from the no-hitter?
"I think I'm still trying to fight for the home plate, but I'm sure they probably gave that away," he said. "It's a tremendous experience. It's something that all players and pitchers strive for and don't really hit. Being able to have my wife here in the stands, it's not like she gets to come on all the road trips. For her to be able to be a part of it, my daughter was a part of it, too. I don't think she really remembers it. It's quite memorable to be able to do it in this city, in this stadium."
At the end of the no-hitter, Hamels experienced the Wrigley Field crowd cheering an opposing player.
"I'll always remember the ninth inning just because the home crowd were on their feet and were cheering," he said. "You don't necessarily see that. Something like that, along those lines, will always be ingrained."
R-E-S-P-E-C-T for Bote:
Rookie infielder David Bote made a game-saving play in Friday's 5-4 victory over the San Diego Padres in the ninth inning. He fielded Manuel Margot's hard grounder at third base and threw home in time to get baserunner Cory Spangenberg, who was trying to score from third with one out. Manager Joe Maddon said Bote has earned the respect of the entire clubhouse in the short time he's been with the big club.
Bote seemed flattered by the high praise.
"It's great," he said. "They've made me feel comfortable since I got here. That's the key. The thing they put in place of, 'Be yourself.' The fact that you can be yourself, it's a lot easier to gain respect because they know who I am, and I know who they are. They know what they're going to get from me every day."
Duensing to DL again:
The Cubs placed struggling left-handed reliever Brian Duensing on the 10-day disabled list with left-shoulder inflammation and recalled lefty reliever Randy Rosario from Class AAA Iowa.
This is Duensing's second stint on the DL. He has been largely ineffective this season, with a record of 3-0, an ERA of 7.34 and a WHIP of 1.84.
"Still has that discomfort there," said manager Joe Maddon. "You can see that he can't really finish things off like he'd like to. So we want to back off. It's really important that if we can get him right the last part of the season, you saw what he did last year. There's so much ability there and he cares so much and he's such a big part of what we do. All of the above. We want to make sure that he's well and right. So we're going to choose this route right now."