The Phillies beat the Mets, 8-5, yesterday at Citi Field. Kyle Kendrick pitched seven strong innings. Michael Martinez homered and had four RBI. Which is just how everybody expected the afternoon to go.
Well, everybody except those who couldn't figure out for the life of them why Kendrick was starting instead of Roy Halladay or Cliff Lee, two aces who were each 5 days removed from their truncated All-Star Game appearances.
Except those who openly wondered why the Phillies even kept Martinez, a Rule 5 draft pick, on the roster.
Kendrick's earned run average is now 3.34. That's not as good as Halladay or Lee or Cole Hamels, who was hit hard by the same Mets team just a day earlier. But it ain't bad compared to the entire baseball landscape.
He doesn't have a booming fastball. He didn't strike out a single batter yesterday and has just 27 in 67 innings this season. He tends to put a lot of runners on base; he had just a pair of 1-2-3 innings. In the end, though, he's been a godsend stepping into the fifth spot in the rotation left vacant by Joe Blanton's sore elbow.
"That's a good ERA. That ranks him right up there. What can I say? That's pitching pretty good," said manager Charlie Manuel. "I think that he probably doesn't get the credit he deserves. But he's always going to pitch to contact. That's his bread and butter. He's got three pitches. But at the same time he's got one big pitch, and that's his sinker."
Kendrick smiled when asked if he thinks he's better than the general perception.
"That's not for me to say. It really doesn't matter if you're pitching good and keeping your team in it and you're winning games. But if I can pitch like that every time, I'll take it," he said.
