Kyle Kendrick

Kyle Kendrick signed a one-year deal with the Phillies Friday, avoiding salary arbitration. According to Scott Proefrock, the Phillies assistant general manager, the righthander's deal will pay him $3.585 million in 2012. Bouncing between the bullpen and the rotation in 2011, Kendrick went 8-6 with a career-best 3.22 ERA in 34 games. Pressed into duty as a starter after injuries to Joe Blanton and Roy Oswalt, Kendrick made 15 starts. The Phillies went 7-8 in those games.

IT WAS WELL into the season and the Phillies still didn't have a reliable No. 5 starter. They were hanging around a middle-class neighborhood called .500 and something had to be done to save what was starting to look like yet another season headed for pennantless frustration. Many eyebrows were arched when the men manipulating the joysticks summoned a minor league righthander who had not even been invited to spring training. The organization people liked his arm, but he had often lost focus on a sometimes bumpy climb through the bushes.

ST. LOUIS - Kyle Kendrick typically has little room for error. He does not have overpowering stuff. His 4.24 strikeouts per nine innings are second fewest among National League starters. So really, Phillies pitching coach Rich Dubee said, Kendrick is a pitcher who needs more consistency than others might. That hadn't happened of late. "He makes a lot of mistakes," Dubee said. "If you've got average stuff, you have to have good command. He has to learn to be able to get balls to certain parts of the plate.

The Phillies traded Kyle Kendrick yesterday. To the Yomiuri Giants. In Japan. For Kobayashi Iwamura. "Do they have good food in Japan?" a stunned Kendrick asked reporters, who circled his locker inside the clubhouse at Bright House Networks Field. "I don't know what to think right now. " Unbelievable, huh? Indeed. The Phillies executed an elaborate prank on Kendrick, one so believable that it had their 23-year-old starting pitcher convinced that he needed to be on a 7:05 a.m. Delta Airlines flight today, connecting in Atlanta for the 14-hour, 30-minute trip to Tokyo.

PITTSBURGH - A month ago, when the Phillies were scuffling at the end of a road trip in Atlanta, Charlie Manuel saw some of his players watching the movie Gran Torino before the game. He was furious. Manuel had a clubhouse attendant turn the TV off and later warned of complacency. Before Saturday's 12-4 stomping of the Pirates, the door to Manuel's office was closed for the majority of time before batting practice. But he no doubt heard the screams coming from the clubhouse down the hallway.

The Phillies' depth continues to be tested in an early season marked as much by injuries as victories. On Friday afternoon, the Phillies said that righthander Roy Oswalt would miss Saturday's scheduled start against Atlanta because of lower back inflammation. After Friday's 5-0 loss to the Braves, the Phillies decided to place Oswalt on the disabled list retroactive to April 27. Righthander Scott Mathieson was recalled from triple-A Lehigh Valley. Kyle Kendrick will start against the Braves on Saturday.

Kyle Kendrick answered questions about the ball that popped out of his glove and two close plays at the plate, but he couldn't help but think about the things he thought had cost him last night at Miller Park. The leadoff hitter he hit with a pitch in the first inning. The hit he allowed to the pitcher in the fifth inning. Kendrick allowed eight hits and two runs in seven innings in another stellar performance, but Milwaukee Brewers rookie Yovani Gallardo pitched even better in a 2-1 victory that dropped the Phillies five games behind the New York Mets in the National League East.

Brett Myers spun off the mound with a celebratory fist pump Wednesday at Citizens Bank Park. He felt no such joy last night. "From the penthouse to the outhouse," he said. He struck out the side in Wednesday's victory over the Florida Marlins, but allowed two runs last night in a sloppy ninth inning in a 4-2 loss that prevented the Phillies from moving within three games of the New York Mets in the National League East and into a first-place tie with the San Diego Padres in the NL wild-card race.

Charlie Manuel held a 20-minute closed-door team meeting yesterday before batting practice and indicated he didn't raise his voice. Maybe he should have. Once again, the Phillies slumbered offensively last night. This time, their pitching kept them in the game until the ninth inning, when closer Brad Lidge was lit up in his worst outing of the season, and that turned a close game into an 8-2 romp by the Atlanta Braves at Citizens Bank Park. "Sometimes with meetings, you don't come out and win that night; you might go a day or two or whatever," Manuel, the Phillies' manager, said after his team's third consecutive defeat.

In a Phillies promotion, many fans dressed in colorful 1970s clothes and outlandish wigs last night. Two people flashed peace signs and carried a sign that read "Impeach Nixon. " Perhaps inspired by the leisure-suit atmosphere - and by the '70s music that blared throughout Citizens Bank Park between innings - Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard got into the spirit of the event. He came disguised as Willie Stargell. Howard smashed a two-run, fourth-inning homer to left-center off Greg Maddux - who has been around so long he almost pitched in the '70s - to trigger an 8-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers before an animated crowd of 42,620.

ST. LOUIS - Seems only 2 weeks ago we were writing the obituary for this Phillies bullpen. Actually, it was only 2 weeks ago. But things have changed, good things, as a matter of fact, as Thursday night's 10-9 victory over the Cardinals continued to bear out. It was May 9 when Ruben Amaro Jr. decided to make a line change and call up lefties Jake Diekman and Raul Valdes from Triple A Lehigh Valley after watching his bullpen's latest...

At Busch Stadium, St. Louis. Thursday at 8:15 p.m. RHP Joe Blanton (4-4, 3.74 ERA) vs. St. Louis RHP Jake Westbrook (4-3, 2.41) Friday at 8:15 p.m. LHP Cliff Lee (0-2, 2.66) vs. St. Louis RHP Kyle Lohse (5-1, 2.91) Saturday at 7:15 p.m. RHP Kyle Kendrick (0-4, 5.23) vs. St. Louis LHP Jaime Garcia (3-2, 3.55) Sunday at 2:15 p.m. RHP Roy Halladay (4-4, 3.58) vs. St. Louis RHP Adam Wainwright (3-5, 4.78)

The Washington Nationals' front office worked hard this offseason to lather up a real hatred for the Phillies with a D.C. campaign that reached its zenith earlier this month when the teams met in the "Take Back the Park" series. You could feel the buzz in Nationals Park during that three-game series and a real animosity between the teams emerged in the aftermath when Cole Hamels shockingly admitted he hit 19-year-old rookie Bryce Harper on purpose in the Sunday night nationally televised series finale.

After a 4-3 victory Tuesday that gave the Phillies their first three-game winning streak of 2012, Vance Worley dampened the mood. He said he's been scratched from his scheduled start Wednesday because of elbow soreness. Kyle Kendrick will start for Worley in the series opener against Chicago. Kendrick has pitched only one inning in the previous 11 days and could be severely limited in how deep he could throw. He made three starts for Cliff Lee while the lefthander was disabled, and the Phillies lost all three.

Without fail, Juan Pierre is the first Phillies player in the dugout before a game. He walked up the tunnel at 3:23 p.m. Monday and saw a tarp covering the rain-soaked infield at Citizens Bank Park. But it was dry enough to do his 10 minutes of sprinting in right field. "It's just something I've always done," Pierre said. "No rhyme or reason. " He could say the same thing about going unsigned until Jan. 27. Once every team in baseball had passed on offering a guaranteed major-league contract, Pierre said he did not wonder about his ability.

The return of Cliff Lee from the disabled list was more than a sliver of light in these darkest of days for the Phillies. It was more than a silver lining, too. Watching this offensively inconsistent team that is short on sluggers, rail thin in the bullpen and challenged defensively, it's easy to forget that the Phillies' starting rotation is still the gold standard in the National League. You might not want to hear that after another monumental bullpen collapse allowed the New York Mets to complete a three-game sweep Wednesday night with a 10-6 victory at an increasingly hostile Citizens Bank Park.

THE EXODUS began while the ball was still in flight, thousands of fans rising from their seats to see where the home run would land, then turning toward the exits without a moment of hesitation. By the time Ike Davis rounded third, Citizens Bank Park looked like a scene from the "Walking Dead," horrified city-dwellers and suburbanites choking the stairways in search of the fastest route home. There did not appear to be any zombies on the premises, although given the state of the Phillies bullpen, we cannot be sure.

WASHINGTON - This was desperately billed as a rivalry here in the nation's capital. Signage around Nationals Park was changed to read "Natitude Park" as part of a marketing campaign designed to attract more home fans. It was a success. Nationals supporters filled the place to watch their first-place team. Then they stood and cheered in the 11th inning as Wilson Ramos spread his arms, carrying a 41/2-game lead over the Phillies into the night. It ended as a 4-3 Nationals victory on Ramos' bases-loaded single while the message "OUR PARK" was flashed on the scoreboard.