Is Kendrick the key?
Underappreciated Kendrick could be the linchpin of the Phils’ rotation in 2013
PHILADELPHIA — The Phillies have only the offseason to look forward to now, and a lot of ideas are already being thrown around to explain how they will be right back in the hunt in 2013.
Michael Bourn, or maybe B.J. Upton in center field. Nick Swisher in one of the corner spots. Chase Utley at third base. Freddy Galvis back at second, with or without random hormones in his system.
But for all that stuff to matter, the Phillies have to be sure that their pitching staff is intact so they don’t have to spend any more money in that department that is already necessary.
They have five experienced starters under contract for 2013 — two studs in Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee; a rehabilitated Vance Worley; a $20 million middle of the rotation pitcher in what’s left of Roy Halladay; and the guy who has been there all along through this recent six-year run, but never seems to get any credit. Kyle Kendrick. Kendrick is the linchpin of the rotation for 2013, maybe for the team. Can he give the team 32 starts next year and be solid in most of them? The Phillies have priorities other than fifth starter, and he has to prove he can handle it all season. He doesn’t have to be the hare that Hamels is, but they could use a tortoise.
Most people forget that Kendrick was the team’s No. 2 pitcher in 2007 when the Phillies won the division. He was 10-4 that season with a 3.87 ERA and was fifth in the rookie of the year balloting, despite making his debut in June.
Without Kendrick, there’s no way the Phillies win that first division title. And if watching “Back to the Future” 100 times has taught me anything, maybe if they didn’t win that one, they don’t win some of the others, including the World Series year of 2008.
While we’re on that season, he won 11 games during a regular season in which the Phillies barely won the division over the Mets for the secondstraight year. He was left off the playoff roster, probably because of his 5.49 ERA and his league-lead in run support.
Sadly, many fans remember his fateful Game 2 start in the 2007 NLDS when we went just 3 2/3 innings and gave up five earned runs, with a little help from his pals Kyle Lohse and Kaz Matsui.
After earning a ring from the bench in 2008, the pattern over the next three years was similar: Kendrick started when he was told to start and pitched out of jams in the bullpen when there wasn’t any room in the rotation.
But he never saw action in the postseason again.
He was like Wesley to the Dread Pirate Roberts, as the Phillies constantly told him “Well done, Kendrick, good work. We’ll most likely DFA you in the morning” in not so many words.
Then he signs a two-year deal last offseason, as the Phillies finally show their appreciation. At times, especially lately, Kendrick has rewarded them.
After finally getting off the bullpen-rotation roller coaster, Kendrick settled down this season. He was 6-2 with a 2.17 ERA in his last eight appearances, all starts. He went more than six innings in seven of those eight starts and he has helped stabilize what was once a listless team marred by inconsistency.
For Kendrick, holder of a 53-41 career mark, his outings over the last six years have been more positive than negative, but he has been plagued by lapses where he was just so awful that it took five good games to wash the taste out of the fans’ mouths.
Take Wednesday night for example.
Kendrick started the game with a five-pitch walk to Jayson Werth and a onepitch homer to Bryce Harper. He gave up another homer in the second inning to Ian Desmond, and neither of those blasts stayed in the air over grass for long.
Then, after an Utley error, Kendrick got crushed again by known powerhouse Kurt Suzuki just 22 pitches into his outing, and the boos rained down from a sparse crowd by Philly standards. After two-plus innings, Kendrick was headed to the showers way too soon, a scene not unfamiliar in his career.
Say Kendrick’s name to the average Phillies fan, and you’ll probably see them cringe after a bevy of poor efforts just like this one. The bad days always have overshadowed the good ones — even if they were fewer in number — for a guy who has always taken the ball when he’s been asked and done what he can with it.
That’s why Charlie Manuel has stuck with him, and as ugly as games like Wednesday’s have been, that’s why he still has a good chance to start in 2013.
The tortoise is slow and steady, but not always pretty. That just about sums it up for Kendrick, too.