Sunday, June 2, 2013

2008 Upper Deck First Edition #159 Kyle Kendrick

Brewers 4, Phillies 3
Game 56 - Saturday Afternoon, June 1st in Philadelphia
Record - 26-30, 3rd Place, 7 games behind the Braves

One Sentence Summary:  Unable to generate any offense, the Phillies dropped another one to the last place Brewers by a score of 4-3.

What It Means:  The Phils dropped their third in a row, and they'll try to avoid the sweep tomorrow afternoon behind Cliff Lee.

What Went Wrong:  When you're down a run in the bottom of the ninth inning and your best pinch-running option is Kyle Kendrick and your best hitting option is Michael Martinez, things aren't going so well.  Down by two runs entering the bottom of the ninth, Freddy Galvis got things a little closer with a solo home run.  Pinch-hitter Jimmy Rollins singled and was replaced by Kendrick as Rollins has a sore foot.  Kendrick was sacrificed over to second by Ben Revere, took a huge lead and got picked off.  (Replays showed he clearly wasn't picked off, but Kendrick was still straying way too far off the bag.)

Cesar Hernandez doubled and had Kendrick not been picked off, the score would have been tied.  After Domonic Brown was intentionally walked, Martinez grounded out to short to end the ballgame.  The Phils were 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position.

And one more thing . . . I have tired of watching Delmon Young in right field.  That's all I'm going to say about that.

Featured Card:  The putrid offense isn't Kendrick's fault, nor is the fact that the starting line-up for this game consisted mostly of guys that either shouldn't be here or should be playing in Triple-A.  But I couldn't resist this card which featured Kendrick on the basepaths during happier times.

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