Saturday chat: Kendrick, Garcia tabbed in Game 3

Kyle Kendrick (0-4, 5.23 ERA) will take the mound for the Phillies following a sharp start against Washington Monday as the Phillies look to make it four straight tonight at Busch Stadium. Jaime Garcia (3-2, 3.55 ERA) goes for the Cards. Placido Polanco bats second. John Mayberry Jr. starts in left. Brian Schneider starts behind the plate.

Comments

[MG]

KK is 0-3 with a 4.33 ERA and a 1.37 WHIP in 5 GS as a starter but he has pitched well lately:

0-2, 2.25 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 2.0 BB/9, 6.7 K/9

Just given up a HR in each of his last 4 GS.

Also has good numbers against the Cards' hitters against Schumaker who has torched him (8-16 with 2 HRs).

If KK can keep the ball in the park tonight, I like the Phils' chances.

[GTown_Dave]

Phils have struggled vs. Garcia, though. Maybe the "new faces" in this season's lineup will prove beneficial for a change.

[Scott]

Schneider to catch KK tonight. I'll assume Chooch isn't hurt, but is just getting a well deserved night off.

[awh]

MG, I'm on the road w/o access to b-r.com so I can't look it up. Doesn't KK have good numbers against the Cards, IIRC?

[3r0ck]

Feels like a win boys.

[awh]

Gtown, here's hoping tonight is RFD's breakout against LHP.

[UBIK]

Just watched Harper turn his single to a double when Heyward lollygagged his bobble on a single hit right at him. Harper can hustle, that's for sure.
Of course, he watched strike 3 go right over the plate before that, only it was called ball 2.
Still fun to watch though.

[GTown_Dave]

awh: Agreed. And you're correct, Kendrick's numbers vs. the Cards have been decent.

http://bit.ly/MK0aEd

[GTown_Dave]

Grrrrr. Tried to save time w/ a screen grab & the damn file host deleted it. Pardon my lack of formatting:

Kyle Kendrick

Last 10 years Vs. St. Louis

38.0 IP Wins 4 Losses 1 ERA 3.32 Ks 11

Last 5 years vs. STL hitters

STL Hitters AVG AB HR RBI

Matt Adams - - - -

Carlos Beltran .273 22 1 1

Adron Chambers - - - -

Tony Cruz .500 2 0 1

Daniel Descalso .000 1 0 0

David Freese .500 2 0 0

Rafael Furcal .333 6 0 0

Tyler Greene - - - -

Steven Hill - - - -

Matt Holliday .143 14 1 3

Yadier Molina .182 11 0 0

Shane Robinson - - - -

Skip Schumaker .500 16 2 3

[Luis]

KK just keep as many base runners off as possible try to limit the damage...Offense has struggled even the good Phillies offense when Jamie has pitched.

[GTown_Dave]

Interesting Perhaps Only To Me:

The '12 Phillies have a Saturday record of 1-6, easily their worst day of the week.

Sunday 3-4, Monday 3-4, Tuesday 3-3, Wednesday 4-3, Thursday 6-0, Friday 4-3

[Iceman]

No wonder it seems like my weekends have been miserable for a few months now.

This is the fourth game in the last two weeks that has felt like a loss before it even started. We're 1-2 so far in those games- and in the Lester game, they got to him, so it's not like it was a complete lost cause. I'm keeping hope alive for tonight.

[Iceman]

Harper just hit a line drive HR off Venters to the opposite field.

Yeah, he's not getting sent back down. Ever.

[bay_area_phan]

What do you get if you multiply a loss by 100? Whatever it is, that's what this game feels like.

[bay_area_phan]

If fly-outs to centerfield counted as hits, Ty Wigginton would be the greatest player in the history of baseball.

[Dickie Thong]

Joe Buck thinks Galvis is a future star. Obviously, he doesn't read Beerleaguer.

[Iceman]

I think Galvis has had praised lavished on him by BL pretty liberally. I don't think it's undeserved, either. But the arguments against him were only in regards to him being the team MVP through 20 games.

[Lets go eat]

BAP - guess you say that about pop ups and Rollins

[Francisville]

Does anyone else expect to hear "knuckle curve" whenever Tyler Green's name is mentioned?

[GTown_Dave]

Joe Buck is too busy reading his Yankees/Red Sox Rivalry Fan Club Newsletters to keep track of Beerleaguer.

[bay_area_phan]

I forget the exact numbers but, before that double, Schneider was something like 2 for his last 50 against LHP. It's too bad he got the hit. Now I can't rip Cholly a new one for starting him against a left-hander.

[Lets go eat]

Great hitby Schneider

Great deaden bunt by KK to ensure BS gets to 3rd

Clutch AB by Rollins

[GTown_Dave]

Rollins ...

[They call me the King of the Pop-up]

I AM GETTING STEAMED!!!

[Lets go eat]

Ditto Polly..

[Fatalotti]

The National media, especially Joe Buck, simply hate Philadelphia. All they did was yammer on and on about Carlos Ruiz that inning. Ridiculous.

[can_of_corn]

Here we go again. Interesting that KK and Schneider didna better job at the plate than J-Roll and Polly.

[Lets go eat]

100% chance St. Louis scores at least 1 run this inning

[Fatalotti]

KK with the not-so-rare-but-still-awesome 3 pitch inning. Love it.

[phatti]

LEt's go eat--or they could get retired on three pitches. That works too.

[awh]

JPop!

[can_of_corn]

Fat, absolutely. It seems he hadn't even bothered to learn Schneider's name. In fact, I thought for a moment he saw the "C"'in the lineup and mistook Schneider for Chooch.

[Dickie Thong]

100% chance St. Louis scores at least 1 run this inning

...and three pitches later, inning over.

[Lets go eat]

Reverse jinx 1-2-3 inning :-) for KK

[bay_area_phan]

Except for the one terrible start, KK is making a pretty convincing case that he should remain in the starting rotation over Blanton once Worley returns. For that matter, Blanton is also making the same case.

[Jimmy I still am stealing money!!!!]

That was classic at bat for poppa pop up. Right there is enough to drive you crazy. Just misses a HR then hits it 3 feet in front of plate. Awesome approach and really thinking about situation.

[Lets go eat]

Phatti -- there's that..

Glad to be wrong in that situation

[GTown_Dave]

If r00b had signed Rollins as a FA this past off-season & he came into Philly playing like he has, the man would be reviled. At least $33 million ... *poof!*

[Lets go eat]

Odds pence scores this inning ...

[Lets go eat]

Wigg

Swings at ball4

Looks at strike 3

[Lets go eat]

Vic!!!!

[GTown_Dave]

Alright, Vic!

[awh]

lets go eat: 100%

[Lets go eat]

Unproductive out by RFDberry..

[bay_area_phan]

Mayberry is a complete & total mess right now. And Galvis, more than just about any hitter I've ever seen, simply refuses to take a walk. No matter how bad the pitch, he's swinging if there are 3 balls. It is an area that he absolutely must improve.

[MG]

KK is absolutely dealing here early. Best changeup I have seen him have all year.

[NEPP]

KK doing well so far apparently.

[can_of_corn]

KK has been our #2 lately.

[MG]

JRoll not doing much tonight doesn't surprise me. Hasn't been a good hitter from the RH side for quite a while.

Been brutal so far this year (9-46, .196 AVG now with 2 doubles)

[can_of_corn]

No rest for KK.

[MG]

can of corn - With Blanton and Halladay struggling this month (Blanton has a 5.17 ERA and Halladay a 5.40 ERA) and Lee being up and done, yeah KK has been.

[MG]

KK with 7 ground ball outs so far through 5 IP. Got the mojo working tonight.

Only at 46 pitches which is great because they need him to try to work into this game as deep as possible.

Papelbon isn't available and they will have to patch work it in the later innings.

[Lets go eat]

Odds..

[MG]

Surprised it didn't get brought up but with his 14 save last night, Papelbon is 14 for 14 and on pace to break Lidge's record (pace for 49 saves)

[Lets go eat]

Odds They score

[GTown_Dave]

Papelbon isn't available and they will have to patch work it in the later innings.

Which means scoring a few more runs would be kinda nice.

[curt]

When Ty Wigginton is your cleanup hitter, you're not a very good team.

[GTown_Dave]

Let's go eat: It would indeed be odd if the Phillies scored.

[MG]

curt - Offensively no. This lineup stinks especially without Chooch in it. Figured it would be an uphill climb to put even 3 runs on the board vs. Garcia.

[GTown_Dave]

Mayberry!

[Lets go eat]

Odd it was Mayberry knocked them in...

[Dickie Thong]

DFAberry!!!!

[MG]

For all of the JRoll complainers:

Wigginton is now 11-66 (.167 AVG) this month 1 XBH and a .487 OPS.

Wigginton/Mayberry are the guys who are really the anchors on the lineup right now.

[MG]

Mayberry makes me eat my words with the reverse jinx.

Nice to see some power for a change of pace!

[can_of_corn]

Oddly, even with all this year's holes, we're doing better in this series against the Cards than the championships last year.

[MG]

4 runs off Garcia with some timely hitting? About as good as you could expect tonight. Well done.

[GTown_Dave]

Nice shut down inning from Kendrick. Exactly what the Phils needed there.

[NEPP]

Pap is unavailable tonight, right?

a CG SO would be nice.

[can_of_corn]

Even odder, how about if our only CGs after tonight are Joe and KK.

[GTown_Dave]

MG: I see your point w/ Wigginton, but Mayberry has had a much better May than Rollins.

[Luis]

Sorry to say but Rollins is starting to piss me off....Seriously...

[awh]

JPop!

[Lets go eat]

Jimmy never fails to be super clutch

[EastFallowfield]

Hey, nobody told me the scary Braves dropped to 4th place today. 6 straight losses to teams with winning records?

[aksmith]

Freddie Freeman, who looks to be a great young player, is apparently having vision problems. A few years back, McCann had vision problems. What is in the water in Atlanta?

[MG]

Mayberry coming into tonight:

.254 AVG/.689 OPS coming into tonight. He's been better this month but JRoll had a ~.600 OPS coming into tonight but he still has struggled with a lack of power.

[MG]

In May

[Luis]

Actually was pulling for the Braves today. Since they where facing the Nats....the current threat..

[Jr]

If the pitcher is wild and you have a 2-0 count be sure to swing at the first strike. Otherwise you would have to take a walk
Such Patience we have.

[NEPP]

Jimmy is really starting to look like he's washed up.

Which really really sucks.

[EastFallowfield]

I don't get this game on my FOX, but I heard that Rollins was robbed of maybe a homer in the first? Is that right?

[Brooklyn Phillies]

68 pitches through 7? Who's the new guy?

[Hope SE]

EFF: Holiday reached above the wall and took an HR away from JRoll.

[NEPP]

Its games like this that remind me of why we gave KK 2 years, $7 million. He really is the ideal swingman.

Other crazy things about KK: He's been the majors 6 full seasons now, he's got a WS ring and this is his 104 MLB start.

[Kyle Kendrick]

I could have never done it without all those underwear shipments from Clout. Thank you, sweetie.

[Lance Phillips]

Where does this guy Kendrick disappear to for weeks at a time?

[aksmith]

I don't think KK can pitch any better than this.

[EastFallowfield]

Man, St Louis Beerleaguer must be going insane tonight.

[NEPP]

I dont think most pitchers can pitch any better than this.

Good work so far by KK and he's giving the bullpen a HUGE rest that the really needed.

[GTown_Dave]

Kendrick 81 IP, 0 R, 78 Pitches (58 Strikes, 20 Balls).

I feel fairly confident in stating that this has been the best start of Kendrick's career.

[Lets go eat]

Kyle -- the man can pitch and post at the same time.

Amazing!

[NEPP]

Whatever happened to White Sox Beerleaguer? Did that not work out?

[GTown_Dave]

8 IP, not 81. That would be truly impressive.

[bay_area_phan]

"Man, St Louis Beerleaguer must be going insane tonight."

Funny. I was thinking something similar. I was thinking, "I wonder how I would be feeling right now if Kendrick were on the Cardinals and he were doing this to the Phillies." In actuality, though, he is pitching a great game. But I don't expect I'd see it that way if it were happening at the expense of the Phillies.

[BloodStripes]

Kendrick in Ace mode. What an incredible performance so far. 78 pitches through 8.

[NEPP]

Schneider has been a pleasant surprise in his very limited appearances so far.

[clout]

Looks like one of the Moronocracy learned how to change his screen name. I bet it took him awhile.

[Dickie Thong]

Schneider should be batting higher in the order.

[can_of_corn]

KK has not only pitched like an ace, but has also been better at the plate than half the lineup. Thanks, Kyle.

[GTown_Dave]

Schneider should be leading off. He's no worse than Rollins.