Phils Find Stroke

The Phillies finally found their stroke, pounding the Colorado Rockies 9-0 in game 1 of a 3-game series on Monday in Philadelphia.  Kyle Kendrick won his first game of the year and snapped a 10-game losing streak.  Ryan Howard had 5 RBIs and the Phillies put 12 hits on the board.  Hours before, they had managed 0 hits vs. the Dodgers in MLB's first no-hitter of the season Sunday.  The Phils made national headlines for another strange incident Saturday, when a Citizens Bank beer vendor inadvertently caught a foul ball with his beer bucket. 

Equally strange was Kyle Kendrick winning a game of baseball Monday.  "It was tough. It was a grind," Kendrick said of his losing streak, which dated back to 8/6/13. "I tried to keep games close, pitch deep and give us a chance.  Some of those wins and losses are out of your control."

Meanwhile, the team got news that Cliff Lee is being "re-evaluated" rather than cleared in rehab and will remain on the DL for his left elbow strain.  "It's definitely better, but it's still there," Lee said. "No sense in rushing it."   Lee expounded:  “If I felt good today it would be another week or so and hopefully I could come back after the 15 days is up, but now it looks like it is going to be longer than that.” 

“If I felt good today it would be another week or so and hopefully I could come back after the 15 days is up,” Lee said. “But now it looks like it is going to be longer than that.”
Read more at http://fightinforphilly.com/2014/05/26/cliff-lee-injury-update/#cyYBRX004DIGzXGe.99

Ryan Howard, who entered the month hitting .184 with 27 S.O. in 76 AB, had become a vacuous hole in the clean-up spot lately, sinking like dead weight and taking the team down with him.  Sunday, he went 3-for-4 and raised his season average to from .224 to .236.  He had gone 2-for-30 in his previous 9 games, begging the question: 'Why is he still in the 4-slot?!'

To which the obvious answer is an even more unsettling, 'Who else could be?'

"We got good pitches to hit and we jumped out early," Howard said. "Our approach was similar. Sometimes when a guy is on, he's on. You can have a bad day yesterday, but next day is a fresh start."

Chase Utley continued his offensive on the entire league with 3 hits of his own, raising his average to .337 (#3 in the NL) with a .556 SLG %.  At 35 years old, Utley is leading all NL second basemen with a .958 OPS and the entire NL with 21 doubles.  He is a lead candidate for his 6th All-Star appearance.  He was voted the starting NL starting 2nd Baseman via fan voting from 2006 to 2010.

"It was a good bounce-back game for us," Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg said. "It was good to see Kendrick was solid against a good lineup."

The Rockies, who lead MLB in batting average, runs, hits, doubles, RBI, on-base %, slugging %, total bases and OPS, largely due to the fact they play in a park the size of most walk-in closets, were handcuffed by Kendrick, whose previous shutout was on April 26th, 2013.

"I didn't have my best command, but I made pitches when I needed to," Kendrick said. "No runs is all that matters."

Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2014/05/26/3203917/howard-kendrick-lead-phillies.html?sp=/99/104/#storylink=cpy

Kendrick went 6 2/3, allowed 6 hits, no runs, walked 4 and S.O. just 2.  He lowered his season ERA from 4.53 to 4.04, while improving to 1-5.

Game 2 of the 3-game set will be played 7:05 PM ET, May 27, 2014@Citizens Bank Park.

A resurgent Cole Hamels will play host to Jorge De La Rosa:


Colorado: De La Rosa (5-3, 3.91 ERA)
Philadelphia: Hamels (1-2, 4.30 ERA)

De La Rosa has gone 5-0 in his last 6 outings, allowing just 9 earned runs in his last 40 innings pitched.  He has pitched only 14 1/3 innings vs. Philadelphia since 2011, but posted a 1.88 ERA against the Phils during those 2 starts, holding them to a team average of .174.  Of course, he will face a lot of familiar faces in the lineup Tuesday.

Hamels, meanwhile, has allowed just 5 runs in his last 21 innings of work, but is merely 1-0 during that span.  Hamels has S.O. 32 and walked 7 in 27 innings in May.  His troubling 1.41 WHIP is well above his career WHIP of 1.15.  He is 3-1 with a 2.25 ERA vs. Colorado since 2011.

The Phils are 5 games out of First Place in the NL East.  Only 2 teams in the division have winning records and one of them is Miami, who schizophrenically own MLB's best home record at 20-8 and worst road record at 7-17.  So, that leaves the door open for the Phils to ascend.  They will have to do more than pour it on every few days.  They must hit with consistency, starting with their big, too often ugly cleanup hitter, to compete.

Howard is batting .378 with 14 RBIs over his past nine games against the Rockies.  He has 7 hits, 2 HR and 8 RBI in his last 2 games against them.