Saturday chat: Duel on tap; hats off to Kendrick

Tonight features a marquee match-up between Gio Gonzalez of the Nationals and Roy Halladay of the Phillies. We're also discussing Kyle Kendrick, who's roared back from the alleged brink with another terrific start Friday night. Kendrick appears to have ditched the cutter, which has been a blessing for some (Cole Hamels) and a curse for others over the years (Brett Myers). He's throwing strikes, not nibbling, not afraid of of contact and rededicated himself to his change-up. Essentially, he's pitching his game. “Nobody can ever say he’s not a survivor,” Charlie Manuel said of Kendrick after the game, calling him a “valuable commodity.” [Jump to the newest comments]

Comments

[GBrettFan]

This was how our season was supposed to go. Mayberry getting hits. Bastardo getting outs in relief. Scoring just enough runs.

It is nice to have Utley & Howard back, and it's great to beat some good teams and play some good baseball.

[bullit]

paps has been bringin' it at around 94-95.

[GBrettFan]

There is a lot of satisfaction in beating the #1 teams. Didn't the Nats' do this to us quite a bit when we were the ones sporting the superior record?

[Brooklyn Phillies]

Cardinals lost. Now 9.5 behind them for the wild card with 35 to play.

[cut_fastball]

60 - 67... If they win out, they get to 95 wins.

Alrighty, then. Seriously, if they rip off 21 straight -- ala the '07 Rockies -- they get to 76 - 67. I'd take my chances beyond that point.

[NEPP]

If we keep up that pace (the 15-10 pace), we'll finish the season at 81-81.

So there's that. I'd take that as a huge accomplishment considering the absolute terrible 1st half we had.

[R]

unbelievably stupid discussion about Utley's defense above

[aksmith]

If they're going to blow he protected draft pick, I want them to lose the worst possible pick. Win out.

But we know that's not Rube's plan because Martinez was playing right field tonight.

[aksmith]

Utley's defense has been subpar since he returned. I don't think there's any disputing that. Tonight was a mental error. But it took Halladay hanging a bunch of pitches to help that inning along. Not all on Utley. You can't keep getting hitters down 0-2 then hanging slop in the middle of the plate and expect to shut the other team down.

Doc seems to have at least one inning like this in every game. Last time he had more than one. But he always seemed to do this even when he was on top of the world. He's not usually going to wow you with stuff or blowing away the other team for nine innings. He's more of a body of work guy. You watch him nibble and whine at the umps, then at the end of the season you look at his numbers and you're blown away.

[Bubba]

The Utley throw to home,I think, was a foregone conclusion based on his positioning for the play. Not at DP depth, ball hit to his left , he was planning on going home with the throw.
The fact that the batter didn't run hard made it look bad after the play, cause a DP might have been made. But that is after the fact.
On a ball hit towards 2B he may have tried for a DP , but to his left he was going home to get the lead runner.

[Kendrick Appreciation Society]

Things that make me glad I'm usually watching the game on my iPad instead of reading the game chat are absolute gems like this from bay area phan: "Sometimes, we get halfway into a Phillies game and it begins to kind of feel like a loss. Other times, we get halfway into a Phillies game and it becomes an absolute mathematical certainty that we're going to lose. Tonight's game falls into the latter category."

Just brilliant analysis.

[Kendrick Appreciation Society]

Utley made a mistake. I'm guessing even he would agree. Doc should have been out of that inning.

Of course, the throw home prevented a run from scoring and meant any kind of out by the next hitter keeps the Nats off the board. I'm guessing Doc would say the mistake pitch he threw was just as bad, if not worse.

[Kendrick Appreciation Society]

Season was effectively lost in June when the Phillies went 9-19 including eight 1-run losses. If they go 4-4 in those games, They're a game over .500 right now and in the wild card mix.

[GBrettFan]

Yes, I agree, KAS. June was a miserable month of Phillies baseball. It was very depressing.

[Dragon]

It's amazing how good this team looks when it has an effective bullpen for the eighth inning. Just hope Rube goes out and get a stud or two for that role in the off-season.

[Brooklyn Phillies]

KAS, so all they have to do is win 4 of the remaining games that they are slated to lose, and they're back on track, right?

[Hbgphan]

Why can't us!!

[flatnosepete]

Utley should have known that there were slow runners at first and at the plate, however Utley never gives less than 100% effort and everyone makes judgement errors over the course of a season. Utley than came through huge in the 8th by taking one for the team and stealing both 2nd and 3rd.

[clout]

Utley was not playing in. He was playing halfway, which is how you play when you want the option of trying for the DP or going home depending on how hard the ball is hit. The ball was hit fairly hard and neither runner was close to their bases when he threw home. It would've been an easy DP.

[No1]

Warning: Lurker observation follows.

I am unsure as to why there is so much agony over Utley's decision to get the FO at the plate. If Utley starts the 4-6-3 DP, Bernardina scores with Espinosa on 3rd. Lombardozzi's single in the next AB scores Espinosa. Bottom line: sfter the top of the 5th, the Natinals score 2 runs, no matter what Utley did.

Given the 2012 season, this flap is not unlike arguing over the correct positioning of the deck chairs on the Titanic.

It is also what makes me come back to BL every day

[Edmundo]

No1, there was 1 out at the time. DP ends the inning.

My goodness, folks are upset with Utley? He had a split second decision to make on a soft grounder to his right. On replay, it looks like they could have nipped Gio at first on a DP, but lordy, it would have been very close. When in doubt, prevent the run.

Those runs are on Halladay.

It did seem like he wanted to make up for it in the 8th.