Thursday, August 7, 2008

King Kyle leads Phils

You can now flip everything we said about the Phillies yesterday.

Phils win. Marlins lose. Mets lose.

Phils now lead NL East by 2 1/2 over Marlins, and 3 over slumping Mets, who lost last night.

The one consistent the Phils did get last night was another win out of Kyle Kendrick. Don’t look now, but that’s usually the case when he’s on the hill. The Phils are something like 27-10 in the games Kendrick has started since he joined the team last year. They are 16-7 in his 23 starts this year.

Amazingly, Kendrick did not pitch all that great. All he did was win. He threw a ton of pitches early in the game, but still battled out of every jam and left after six innings without surrendering a run.

He walked five, but gave up just four hits and kept the Marlins off the scoreboard. He threw 106 pitches in his six gritty innings.

And the Phils received another stellar night out of their bullpen and did not have to use closer Brad Lidge. Instead they got a lights-out effort in two spotless innings from Chad Durbin. Then Ryan Madson put the Marlins down 1-2-3 in the ninth.

This afternoon they send Cole Hamels to the mound in what should be a sun-splashed series finale, and a chance to put some serious distance between themselves and their nearest competitor.

With their bullpen beginning to show some wear and tear, this would be the perfect time for Hamels to come up big. Kind of like Kendrick has been doing quietly this year.

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