Rich Hofmann | Rookie Kendrick an atomic calm

ON JUNE 6, Kyle Kendrick pitched his last game for the Reading Phillies. No one knew it at the time, but that week's pitching crisis in Philadelphia would bring Kendrick to the major leagues a few days later. (A search of the voluminous medical record indicates it was Freddy Garcia's breakdown, but who can keep track?) No one knew it at the time, but Kendrick would never need to Mapquest the return directions.

It was a beautiful day in Reading, 72 degrees and clear. Kendrick had a sub-.500 record in Double A but the numbers beneath the numbers were encouraging, an earned run average of 3.21 and only 18 walks and three home runs allowed in 81 1/3 innings. And that last day, Kendrick threw a complete game at the Harrisburg Senators, allowing only one run and six hits. He threw 106 pitches and, afterward, credited catcher Chris Coste with calling a good game.

The attendance was 4,493.

We did not know then. We do not know now. The only certainty is that, 120 days later, here we are. Shortly after 3 o'clock this afternoon, Kyle Kendrick will walk out to the mound at Citizens Bank Park. He will arrive, pick up a baseball left there by the umpire, and hold it and the Phillies' season in his right hand.

And he said: "I'm just going to keep doing my thing. Obviously, I know it's a big game - I think everybody knows that. I'm just going to stay calm. I'll be a little nervous before the game but once I get on the mound, I think I'll be all right.

"It's just another game," Kendrick said.

Around him, teammates dressed and talked. The room was more crowded than usual but the mood seemed pretty normal, if there is such a thing in baseball in October. The Phillies' 4-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies in Game 1 of their best-of-five National League Division Series increased the magnification on Game 2, on Kendrick, on all of them, by an unspecified power - and they all seemed to understand that. How could they not? It is October, after all.

The stakes are very clear, and Kendrick is anything but oblivious. For 4 months now, he has been a study in keeping his voice down and keeping the ball down. He fills neither notebooks nor box scores and he is very purposeful in both regards. He is only 23 years old but Kendrick knows what he is doing, on the field and off.

And he said, after the loss: "We've been fighting and clawing from behind all year . . . We're right there. We win tomorrow, it's a new series."