Playoff Debate No. 1—Why Cole Hamels Is Key for Phillies

(Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

Hello and welcome to the first of what I hope will turn into a series of postseason debates.

With the Phillies running away from the Rockies in Game One of their divisional series, there will be a lot of talk around baseball about just how good Jimmy Rollins and the Fightin' Phils are.

I've asked four of Bleacher Report's best baseball writers to share their thoughts on the game, in the hope of getting a debate started into the hottest questions of the day.

I've also added my two cents to the argument, but be warned...I'm 70 percent wrong 80 percent of the time.

Today's scribes are Rockies fan and Colorado native David Martin, Washington Nationals writer Thomas Cogliano, passionate third generation Cubbies fan Tab Bamford, and featured Phillies columnist Shay Roddy.

Be sure to check out their pages and show them some love by clicking on their names above. I couldn't have done any of this without them.

Everyone has an opinion. We're just not afraid to shout them out loud.

• What was the key play of the game?

Tab: The key to the game was Cliff Lee dominating the Rockies. He threw a complete game and could/should have thrown a shutout. Ubaldo Jimenez wasn’t bad, but the Phillies’ bullpen just got an extra day of rest.

Thomas: The key to Game One (and the rest of the NLDS) was, and is, very simple: Throw strikes!

The excellence of Cliff Lee was on display in Game One. Pitching a complete game where he surrendered no walks and allowed only six hits, Lee was masterful.

Ash: The key play was Carlos Ruiz taking Jimenez's 3-2 slider into center field to give the Phillies a 2-0 lead in the fifth inning. Had he made the second out, Raul Ibanez would probably have been stranded on base with Cliff Lee up next.

A 1-0 lead against a team with almost 200 homers is definitely not safe.

David: The key play of the game was Raul Ibanez’s double in the fifth inning. It scored the first run and got the Phillies rolling off of Ubaldo Jimenez.

If Jimenez is able to get Ibanez in that situation, the game is completely different.

Shay: I wouldn't necessarily label one play the key play, but I think when Carlos Gonzalez dropped the ball against the Budweiser sign in left, that was a momentum shifter. The Phillies' bats had been cold coming in, and that was big for them confidence-wise.

I also think the Jayson Werth triple was key offensively. That broke the game open.

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