Chicago Cubs: Cole Hamels continues dominance at Wrigley Field

One of the reasons Cole Hamels has been a great fit with the Chicago Cubs is his ability to pitch at the Friendly Confines.

There was nothing but smiles in the Chicago Cubs dugout Friday afternoon when Cole Hamels and his team cruised to a 5-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels at Wrigley Field. Hamels pitched a gem, going eight innings and allowing one run on four hits and striking out six.

Once again, Hamels had a great game at Wrigley Field. Since joining the Cubs last August, he has made seven starts at home and has a 1.49 ERA in those games. Hamels has averaged roughly seven innings, one run and seven strikeouts per-start in that span. It is also worth noting he has gone 7.0+ innings in four of those seven starts.

Success at the corner of Clark and Addison is nothing new at all. Hamels has been in the league since 2006 and has made 13 starts at Wrigley in his career. In those 13 starts, he holds a 1.61 ERA, a 9.2 K/9, 0.892 WHIP and a .194 average against in 89 2/3 innings.

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Feeling good at the Friendly Confines

What is hard to believe is now a majority of his starts at Wrigley are as a Cub. When he was a Phillie for most of his career, he only pitched at Wrigley five times with the sixth coming as a Texas Ranger. But, the Phillies visit Wrigley only once a season, and the Rangers only come when the Cubs face them inter-league play.

Ironically, his first ever start at Wrigley Field on August 24, 2006, as a 22-year old was disastrous. He went two innings and surrendered five earned runs on nine hits and only went two innings. Everything after that has been great. His final start as a Phillie was at Wrigley in 2015, and it is part of baseball history as he no-hit the Cubs. It was the first time the Cubs had been no-hit in 7,921 games. Thanks to Cubs No-Hit Streak on Twitter for that info!

NBC Sports Chicago’s Tony Andracki quoted Hamels yesterday regarding his success at Wrigley, saying, “I just think the environment. — To be able to pitch in the stadium; it’s a great field. The mound’s awesome. I love the way the backdrop looks when I’m looking at home plate. I just think there’s a serious comfort zone.”

Hamels is clearly comfortable at Wrigley which makes the acquisition of him last August pretty dang smart. Overall he has been outstanding in a Cubs uniform and is much like Jon Lester in several ways, an experienced and durable lefty veteran who has had success in both regular season and postseason play.