Kyle Kendrick didn’t quite give the Phillies the best chance to win Monday night. They couldn’t do it, falling short of the Dodgers, 8-6.
Kendrick only went 3.1 innings. He allowed seven runs off nine hits, most of them right down the pipe. Many argued about a very small strike zone for Kendrick (and a much larger for Derek Lowe), making it impossible for Kendrick to throw his strikes. But he just didn’t have it. You had two sinkerball pitchers up there, and one was effective.
The Phils manufactured three runs off Lowe. Two were RBI groundouts by Ryan Howard. To me, that’s not really good. You need big production from Howard, especially when down a few. Anyway, Howard is now at 100 RBI on the season — in jest, I don’t know if I can really recall 60 of them.
They made it interesting late, with Geoff Jenkins singling and Jimmy Rollins stroking an RBI triple in the seventh. In the ninth, with big Jonathan Broxton trying to shut the Phils down, the good guys loaded the bases for Chase Utley. He delivered with a two-rbi black-hole single. Howard was next, and had a chance to at least tie the game, but grounded out to second base. See, there the RBI groundout didn’t work.
The bullpen did a nice job keeping it close, with Les Walrond getting out of trouble and going 2.2 strong. Clay Condrey gave up a run in his two of work.
The loss keeps the Phils ahead by two over the Mets. Shame — they could’ve really stretched it out with the win. But when you don’t get good starting pitching, it makes it very hard to do much else.
Associated Press photo
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