Doctor Kendrick, I Presume: Phillies 3, Mets 1
by dajafi on Aug 15, 2010 11:43 PM EDT
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PrintKyle Kendrick's schizoid tendencies on the mound are well known in these parts, but usually the way it shakes out is that he's good or awful within a given start. In the rubber game of a three-game set against the Mets, though, Kendrick was lousy for the first ten hitters he faced--and then found a serious groove that carried him through his last 4 2/3 innings and lifted the Phillies to a 3-1 win that pulled them into a tie for the NL wild-card lead heading into a series against the Giants in Philadelphia this week.
Kendrick surrendered hits to five of the first ten Mets he faced, and likely would have exited the first inning trailing 1-0 were it not for a probably wrong out call on Jose Reyes attempting to steal second. When Reyes came up again leading off the third, he tied the game with a solo homer high up the right-field fair pole. At that point, Kendrick had thrown close to 50 pitches, and didn't seem at all poised to retire 14 of the next 15 hitters he faced. But that's exactly what happened, with the lone exception a Luis Castillo bunt single in the fifth in which he was clearly in the field of play when he made contact. Working quickly and featuring an inside fastball that ran back over the plate against the lefty hitters who so often pummel him, Kendrick wound up staying in for 6 2/3 frames, holding the Mets to six hits and the lone run while striking out four. He finally exited after walking Castillo in the 7th before facing pinch-hitter Jeff Francoeur. Charlie Manuel called on Chad Durbin, against whom Francoeur was 0-14 over his career; that went to 0-15 following a 400 foot out to center field, and the Phillies maintained their 3-1 lead.
They'd built that advantage on the speed of Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino. Rollins created the first run in the top of the third by singling with two outs, stealing second and third off Mets starter Mike Pelfrey, then scoring on Victorino's double just inside the first-base bag. Two innings later, Victorino made his own two-out run with a single and a steal of second before scampering home on Placido Polanco's single up the middle. Jayson Werth stretched the lead to 3-1 in the sixth with a leadoff triple, scoring on a Carlos Ruiz single. Ryan Madson and Brad Lidge finished things up, setting the Mets down without incident in the last two innings.
All in all, a quality offering on the altar of Chase Utley, whose long-awaited yet sooner-than-expected return we hope to celebrate on Tuesday.
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I’ve seen we’ve gone with the Jekyll and Hyde nickname over the Two Face/Harvey Dent identity
"The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants"
~Thomas Jefferson
by CoburnsCuddleBuddy on Aug 15, 2010 11:51 PM EDT reply actions
Keys to the game
1. Switching from WFAN to WPHT on my way back from Lakewood.
2. Not bothering with the TV audio when I got home. Yay me.
3. Smirking while John Clark and Howard Eskin blather on about the fact that Kendrick has more wins than Hamels.
I was out in lakewood not an hour ago picking up a Dodge Caravan, lots of Jewish out there. Wasn’t there a story about a few black guys picking on a Jewish boy and he came back with 20 or so of his buddies and beat the guy to death?
Hey Dez, it's 2am do you know where your mother is?
by sowhatifitisasportste on Aug 16, 2010 1:39 AM EDT up reply actions
Yeah the guy I repo with was telling me about it. I just googled it and havn’t found anything just yet.
Hey Dez, it's 2am do you know where your mother is?
by sowhatifitisasportste on Aug 16, 2010 1:47 AM EDT up reply actions
Reyes was clearly safe on the steal in the first inning. But then, Castillo was clearly out of the batter’s box on the bunt single, so I guess it evens out.
getting called out at 2nd when safe with no outs is a much bigger blow than getting to first with one out when you shouldn’t.
Reyes in scoring position with 0 outs is a far bigger play than a guy getting to first with any number of outs.
Looks like you’re right. I was assuming that the baserunner matters much more than what base he occupies,
Here are the Run Expectancies (from TangoTiger’s ‘99-’02 Matrix).
Reyes Steal
1B occupied, 0 out: .953 runs expected
2B occupied, 0 out: 1.189
Bases empty, 1 out: .297.
Getting caught stealing cost the Mets .892 “expected” runs vs stealing successfully, or .656 vs. staying put.
Castillo Bunt
1B occupied, 0 out: .953 runs expected
Bases empty, 1 out: .297
Difference: .656
Or, under the mistaken impression there was one out when the bunt was attempted:
1B occupied, 1 out: .573
Bases empty, 2 out: .117
What this tells me is that you better damn well be sure you can steal the base. Even with nobody out the run expectancy with a man on second just isn’t that much higher than with a man on first, but the cost of getting caught is huge.
I heard someone say that Lidge hasn’t allowed a run in August?
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he is on a trend so that he will be able to come in and take runs off the board by October. It’s all going to plan.
by Wet Luzinski on Aug 16, 2010 12:33 AM EDT up reply actions
Shhh… still have two weeks to go! I am a little concerned with his velocity (or more the lack there of- he didn’t even hit 90 tonight on the gun).
He seems to lose control the higher his velocity goes anymore. Last year I noticed he hit 95 a few times (not the highway, however some of his wild pitches could have) but they’d be way up and out of the zone. While having a sick fastball at the corners would be preferable, I’d take in-control Brad rather than firing-blind Brad.
He must have attended the Moyer school of pitching
1 don’t walk hitters
2 change speeds
3 don’t walk hitters
4 locate and work the corners
5 don’t walk hitters
Hey Dez, it's 2am do you know where your mother is?
by sowhatifitisasportste on Aug 16, 2010 1:12 AM EDT up reply actions
I wouldnt be surprised if he can still go 91-92, but chooses not to locate better. Doesnt really make much of a difference if its 89 or 91, they’ll still smoke it if its down the middle.
I had this exact same thought last night. His first pitch of the game to Davis was an 89-mph fastball, but it was located very nicely. If that’s a conscious adjustment, then it’s a smart one. Trevor Hoffman made a similar adjustment at one point in his career.
Mad Dog went scoreless again, that’s 13 of his last 14 outtings without surrendering a run.
Hey Dez, it's 2am do you know where your mother is?
by sowhatifitisasportste on Aug 16, 2010 1:33 AM EDT reply actions
rotation
I know Charlie never does this, but I really think they should mess with the rotation to have Oswalt, Hamels, Halladay going against SF. We need the horses pitches as much as possible from here on in, and we should be able to take 2/3 from Washington in the next series even with Kendrick and Heavy B both getting starts. To me, its a no-brainer, but Charlie never does it for some reason. Ima be pissed if he chooses not to this Giants series is huge
Let me see if I’ve got this straight: you want to keep both Hamels and Halladay on four days rest so you can skip Blanton for the Giants and then put him back in against the Nationals? Gaining what, one upgrade with Halladay over Blanton against the Giants, a team Halladay did not fare that well against earlier this year? And what if Halladay loses and misses the chance for an extra day of rest? Think of the letdown for the rest of the staff. It’s not that big a deal, so let Charlie do what he does with the pitching rotation.
by phillyinportland on Aug 16, 2010 3:12 AM EDT up reply actions
that was based on who the home plate was for the game
Kolb - a heavy medieval war club with a spiked or flanged metal head, used to crush armor - Wikipedia of course
I've been waiting my whole life for an Eagles Championship
RIP JJ
by sports00fan00 on Aug 16, 2010 8:24 AM EDT up reply actions
home plate ump*
Kolb - a heavy medieval war club with a spiked or flanged metal head, used to crush armor - Wikipedia of course
I've been waiting my whole life for an Eagles Championship
RIP JJ
by sports00fan00 on Aug 16, 2010 8:24 AM EDT up reply actions
May want to check the schedule
24 games in the next 23 days — probably not the time to put guys on 4 days rest.
Agreed. It’s sort of a misconception that 4 days rest = “normal rest”. The average amount of rest that a starter gets each turn is something like 4.5 days. Obviously 4 days is not abnormal, but when your best pitchers’ next three turns are all going to be on 4 days rest at best, it’s a very good idea to let them take a 5-daysrest when they can. Plus it’s too early to be skipping people just to get them into the Giants series. It’s not even August 20 yet. This is not the Brewers series of September 2008.
Plus, Joe Blanton’s performance frankly hasn’t been that much below Oswalt’s for the past month-and-a-half or so.
You said this better than I could have. The proposed bump does not give Hamels and Halladay five days rest, it gives them four days, which is usual when there are no off days. With the off day, they can get five days rest, which has got to be beneficial at this time of the year. The last thing you want to do is overextend any of the starters. One way or another, from Halladay through Kendrick, including Moyer’s time, they have been key to keeping the team from falling out of the pennant chase.
by phillyinportland on Aug 17, 2010 3:26 AM EDT up reply actions
As pleased as I am with last nights effort by Kendrick , it is the Mets.
Looking forward to the Kevin Kolb era.
5-8-10...the day the Purdue Boilermakers basketball team won the 2011 NCAA Championship!!
True… However, these same Mets hit Halladay pretty hard last weekend, and given the rain, hitters were at something of an advantage at least in the early innings. It did not seem like Pelfrey had any more command than Kyle did early— two hbp’s last night. Was Pelfrey being malicious (unusual in the NL), or was it simply balls getting away from him?
by dannijd on Aug 16, 2010 10:04 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
I would imagine it was balls getting away from him. I think Pelfrey was ahead in the count in both instances when he hit guys, usually if you are planning to hit someone you don’t do it 3 pitches in to the at bat.
Looking forward to the Kevin Kolb era.
5-8-10...the day the Purdue Boilermakers basketball team won the 2011 NCAA Championship!!
Ok. I was a little concerned because of the timing of the Polanco hit (right after Victorino doubled Rollins in… And right after Rollins had stolen a pair of bases).
by dannijd on Aug 16, 2010 10:16 AM EDT via mobile reply actions
Polanco was ahead 2-0 and 1st base was open when he got plunked. Furthermore, they IBB’d Polanco to get to Ibanez later on in the game. This tells me that Pelfrey pretty much decided to pitch to Ibanez and Polly was plunked on purpose.
Does it matter even if he threw a WP? Victorino was on 2nd, he’d score on a hit regardless of whether he’s on 2nd or 3rd.
Victorino isn’t the Flash. A ground ball to deep second would be a single, but would not get Vic past 3rd. However if you let him get to 3rd for free, yes, he could score on any hit.
I was curious about the Polanco plunking. In hindsight, it doesn’t make sense, but nowadays, it’s rare that you see a guy get a planned whacking on his first pitch. They disguise it a little more.
We’ll never know for sure, and I don’t think he did, but it wouldn’t surprise me if BigPelf wailed him on purpose.
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