Photo Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Photo Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Being a Phillie right now, like being a Phillies fan, is pretty frustrating. It’s a form of baseball existentialism, when you’ve been eliminated from contention but still have thirty games to play and you ask yourself “What is it all for?” So when you’re Cole Hamels and you feel like you’ve pitched a solid game, haven’t thrown that many pitches, and can still get yourself out of a jam, it makes sense you might be a little peeved at the manager because really, why does this all matter anyway? According to Jim Salisbury:

Cole Hamels appeared none too happy with Sandberg’s decision to remove him from Tuesday night’s game after giving up a game-tying home run (on his 84th pitch) to lead off the eighth inning.

The Phillies went on to rally for a run in the bottom of the inning to beat the Washington Nationals, 4-3, at Citizens Bank Park …

“Um, I just think it was a good game and we were able to win,” said Hamels as he pointedly dodged a question about why he was so visibly upset upon leaving the game …

A moment later, a reporter asked for clarification on the answer to a previous question.

The reporter asked: Were you mad at yourself or at the manager for taking you out?

Once again, Hamels issued a calculated non-answer.

“It was a good game that we won today,” Hamels said. “See you guys.”

Hamels has company, and it’s not particularly good company. But you can’t blame him here. Part of being a pitcher is bitching a little bit when you’re pulled from the game, even if the situation (tie or losing) is totally your fault. And when the guy doing the pulling isn’t someone you — or many others — totally believe in, and the season means nothing, it has to be incredibly frustrating. One thing is for sure though, Cole’s gotten much better at the passive-agressive thing. “It was a good game that we won today… see you guys”? Thats an A+, even when graded on Cole’s passive-agressive curve.