Monday and Tuesday were a textbook case of how chronically inconsistent the Phillies are.
On Monday they played arguably one of their worst games of the season in an 8-2 loss that should have been an 8-0 thrashing. Nothing went right that game except for a hand-me homerun call the ump gave to Shane Victorino.
Last night, was a totally different story. And, it came down to pitching. Kyle Kendrick was masterful, pitching 6 shutout innings and the offense showed up.
It seems like the offense usually shows up when Kyle Kendrick pitches. In his first 42 starts in the majors he has a 20-9 record. Compare that to Cole Hamels who had a 20-12 record in his first 42 major league starts. And, Kendrick clearly isn't a Cole Hamels; he's a quality #3/4 starter, but he keeps the team in games and they seem to answer the call when he's on the hill.
The Phillies are 16-7 on the year in Kendrick's starts so it tells you something. Maybe the offensive players feel a sense of urgency when he's up there as opposed to Hamels when they feel like they can take the night off. Whatever the reason, Kendrick just wins.
In the rubber match today at 1:05 Cole Hamels will take on Chris Volstad today, who has been lights out since being called up. Hamels on the other hand has been lit up in two straight starts.
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Lurie does it again
It took a few days for some controversy to come out of Jeffrey Lurie's state of the team address, but Lito Sheppard is pissed.
Lurie tried to use a stat called "YPA" when discussing Lito's situation and said that hopefully his (Lito's) YPA will improve this year. Basically it's an unofficial stat used to gague a defensive back's yards given up on average anytime a player catches a ball while covered by him. It's a stat that nobody uses except stat geeks.
Lito Sheppard fired back by saying, that if he has to dig that deep to find something bad to say about him, then that says a lot about Sheppard.
This is yet another reason why the Eagles front office is the least popular in town. They try to act smarter than they are. They nickel and dime the players, the fans, and spin anything and everything they can think of.
I still think Lito Sheppard should be traded and not get a new deal, but Jeffrey Lurie should not make comments like, especially stupid comments when he pulls out some obscure stat.
It just makes him look like a fool, or as Al Morganti appropriately stated, "a pompous ass" on The Morning Show when he equated the real meaning of "YPA" to "you pompous ass."
I couldn't have said it better myself.
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