2007 Topps Update & Highlights #UH186 Kyle Kendrick

Phillies 3, Braves 0
Game 32 - Saturday Night, May 7th in Philadelphia

One Sentence Summary:  Kyle Kendrick and four relievers combined to shutout the Braves, 3-0.

What It Means:  The Phillies are now 22-10 with a three game lead over the Marlins.  They will go for the series win tonight before opening up a key three-game series in Miami on Monday night.

What Went Right:  Kendrick was making an emergency start for the injured Roy Oswalt, and the team hoped to get four or five innings out of him.  He gave them five shutout innings, while allowing just two hits and striking out three.

Julio Teheran was making his debut for the Braves, and the Phillies managed three runs off him with solo runs in the second, fourth and fifth innings.  Ryan Howard hit his 260th career home run in the fourth, giving him one more than Del Ennis for sole possession of second place on the Phillies all-time list.  The Phils scored their third run when Shane Victorino drove in Jimmy Rollins with an RBI-triple in the fifth.

Featured Card:  It's fringe guys like Kendrick who typically get left out of the base Topps set year after year, so I was a little surprised when I determined that Kendrick has had a base Topps card every year since 2007.  He wasn't in the 2011 Topps Series 1 set, so he'll need a Series 2 or Update card to run his streak to five straight years.

Field Report:  This game marked Doug's (my four-year-old's) first visit to Citizens Bank Park in 2011.  His favorite player is Victorino, and he was thrilled to see Victorino triple and make a few good catches in center field.

Baseball lessons learned by Doug during tonight's game -

1. There are nine innings in a game and three outs to each inning.
2. When it's not a player's turn at-bat, he waits in the dugout patiently for his turn.
3. The Braves are the bad guys, but not as bad as the Mets.
4. The umpires aren't bad guys, they are just the guys who make sure everyone plays by the rules.
5. Phillies Franks are delicious, but the ballpark popcorn is even better.
6. The Phanatic's hot dog cannon is awesome.

Other Stuff:  Chase Utley played in an extended Spring Training game on Saturday afternoon, going five for seven with two home runs.  That's a pretty good sign . . . The Phillies are 4-1 in games I've attended this year.