Everything you need to see from Cole Hamels' Bugs Bunny-style no-hitter
Cole Hamels doubled in his own no-hitter
Cole Hamels is a professional baseball player. I didn't call him a pitcher because "pitcher" doesn't quite cover Hamels' performance on Saturday, which can probably be seen from Kepler-452b. After all the buzz about "Space Jam 2" this week, Hamels performed a live re-enactment of Baseball Bugs when he no-hit the Cubs at Wrigley Field:
He pitched. Oh boy, did he pitch. He used 129 pitches to strike out 13 batters over the full nine, no-hit frames. Cubs center fielder Dexter Fowler was the only man to reach base, walking twice on the day.
He hit. Oh boy, did he hit. Hamels earned the right to hit for himself in the eighth and lined a double into left-center field:
He fielded. Oh boy, did he field. For the last out of the eighth inning, Hamels flashed some leather on a sharp comebacker and relayed the toss over to Ryan Howard:
He even managed to break a bat with his mind (well, and Jorge Soler's knee):
The Phillies won 5-0 on the back of Hamels' performance and a three-run dinger off the bat of Howard. Though the left-handed starter did need a little help finishing his no-hitter thanks to some fancy fielding from center fielder Odubel Herrera.
It was the first time the Cubs had been no-hit in nearly 8,000 games and was the first no-no at Wrigley since Milt Pappas threw one for the Cubs in 1972.