The Philadelphia Phillies struggled during their now completed 10 game Western road trip. In fact, Phillies fans like myself were quite frustrated just two days ago when they had an ugly three-game losing streak. Yet while the road trip was up and down for Philadelphia, Cole Hamels was one of the few to find it invigorating.

Hamels struggled a bit in his first two starts of the year at home, but he gave the Phillies a much bigger boost out West. After getting a win over the San Diego Padres on April 20 - thanks to the offense giving him a big seventh inning after he was taken out - Hamels ended the trip with an even more dominant 7-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on April 25.

This was a dominant effort on and off the mound, as Hamels handcuffed the Diamondbacks with his arm and crushed them with his bat as well. The Phillies had one of their periodic explosive innings in the sixth, as they turned a 1-0 lead for Hamels into a 6-0 blowout - with help from the pitcher hiself.

When Hamels came up with the bases loaded in the top of the sixth, the Phillies already had a 4-0 lead, which would have been more than good enough on this day. But since Philadelphia rarely gives him that much support most of the time, Hamels took matters into his own hands with a back-breaking two-run single. This gave him two RBIs for himself while holding the entire Arizona team to two runs by itself.

The win capped off a very successful road trip for Hamels, who went 2-0 while the rest of the Phillies and their pitchers struggled. During this time away, Roy Halladay lost his first game of the year as Cliff Lee got placed on the DL, Joe Blanton got knocked around twice and the bullpen struggled aside from Jonathan Papelbon.

Only Hamels and Vance Worley showed consistent excellence out West, as Philadelphia was 4-0 with them on the mound and 1-5 without them. Yet Hamels' success is more noteworthy, as he has won three games in a row after struggling in his opening start on April 9.

Although the Phillies need all three of their aces to carry them, only Halladay and Hamels have been pitching like aces lately. Yet Hamels worried Philadelphia after his opening start, not to mention his stalled contract negotiations that are still hanging over him and the team.

However, his performance on the West Coast has quelled any fears about his on-field performance. Yet we don't want him to get too comfortable out there - at least enough to get wooed by the likes of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the offseason. But for this moment, it was relieving that Hamels excelled in California and Arizona - and troubling that more Phillies couldn't follow his lead before the last two wins over the Diamondbacks.

Robert Dougherty is a life-long Philadelphia resident who has followed the Phillies since he was eight years old.

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