Cole Hamels 100 percent certain he won't land on DL

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Cole Hamels is confident his sore right hamstring will not result in a trip to the disabled list.

“No. No,” the Phillies ace said Friday afternoon.

Hamels was asked if he was 100 percent certain of that.

“I am,” he said.

Hamels said he would test the hamstring with a full bullpen session on Sunday. He lines up to start against the New York Yankees on Wednesday afternoon in the Bronx.

Hamels was scratched from his scheduled start Friday night. He said he actually expressed his concerns about making the start on Wednesday, the day after he felt tightness/soreness in his hamstring while doing leg exercises. The soreness had greatly subsided by Friday, he said.

“For me, this is more of a precaution than anything,” he said.

Phillippe Aumont was brought up from Triple A to make his first big-league start in place of Hamels against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday night.

The Phillies weren’t about to rush Hamels to the mound. He is their best trade chip and could bring a couple of important rebuilding pieces if traded in the coming weeks.

Hamels is aware that he could be moved to a contending team — in fact, he’s probably hoping for it — but said his focus remains on helping the Phillies. That’s why he did not think it would be a good idea to pitch with a sore leg.

“My focus is to play on this team and win ballgames, and that’s what I’m trying to do,” Hamels said. “And in order to be able to do that I want to maintain the level of play that I know I’m capable of going out there and doing. And that’s not because of other situations, but it’s because that’s who I am and what I’ve learned in the past with trying to push through certain injuries. There are times when you just want to be smart no matter what the circumstances are. I know they’re a little bit different than previous circumstances in previous years, but I’m not going to change the way I like to play the game and prepare for the game.”

It’s widely known in the Phillies’ clubhouse that Hamels could be a short-timer with the club. He capitalized on that knowledge and had a little fun with this teammates Thursday after it was announced that he would not pitch Friday night. During Thursday’s game, he cleaned out his locker and removed his nameplate. Some shocked teammates thought he’d been traded. On Friday, Hamels’ locker was back intact.

“We’ve kind of been battling some tough morale, so just something to distract everybody,” Hamels said of his prank.

Did it work?

“I think it did,” he said with a laugh. “I think with a lot of them it worked. I think even today they didn’t know what to expect.”

It’s no surprise that morale is down. The Phillies entered Friday night with a 5-21 record in their previous 26 games. Overall, they had the worst record in the majors at 23-45.

“It’s nothing that I’m familiar with and I don’t think a lot of us are so we’re just trying to get back to a way we can come in here every day and create some kind of enjoyment and change the focus,” Hamels said. “And if you can change the parameters a little bit without having to scream and yell, it’s different and I think different always sparks something new.”

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