After allowing a game-tying, eighth-inning home run against the Washington Nationals, Hamels walked to the dugout before Sandberg could reach the mound to pull the left-handed ace and refused to answer questions about his feelings towards the manager afterwards.
By Wednesday though, Sandberg made it clear that he had spoken with Hamels and the two had no issues.
"I had a brief conversation with him," Sandberg said Wednesday afternoon. "He was upset with what had happened in the 7th inning and he was upset with the leadoff home run when he had a chance to go deep in that game. But, he knew that he was in there for an at-bat at-a-time style of situation. And the home run erased that possibility."
However, this isn't an isolated incident as Hamels was the fourth player to publicly show his displeasure with the team's skipper in the past two weeks.
"No, (Hamels) was upset about the home run," Sandberg said. "You know what, I gave him a verbal when I was about 6 feet from the grass. ‘Hey, we’re going to pick you up right here, Cole. Nice job.’ So he thought that that was the release to let him go. I just clarified that with him."
"First of all we’ve had a real nice homestand," Sandberg said. "If we won tonight we’ve had a very good homestand. So we’re playing good baseball. We’re playing hard. That’s where the focus should be. Guys are playing good ball. And numerous guys are playing good ball. We’re getting some good pitching, we’re getting some good hitting and we’ve beaten some teams on this homestand. That’s a positive."
The Phillies have won six of their last ten games and are playing some of the most consistent baseball of the season right now and Sandberg doesn't sound too concerned about the perceived turmoil brewing in the clubhouse.
