Photo: Philliedelphia/Andrew Gillen
With a ten inning victory in last night's contest, the Phillies successfully rebounded from their two straight losses to the Los Angeles Angels. Cole Hamels' streak of five seven-inning, 1/0 run performances did come to a close, but just three earned runs allowed were enough to give his team the chance to make their comeback late in the contest. That moves us into this afternoon's matchup, where Philly's Kyle Kendrick faces off against the West Coast foe for the first time since July of last season. Tim Hudson, on the other hand, just saw the Phillies in the teams' series a few weeks back, and will look to duplicate his results.
Kyle Kendrick, as some of you may be aware, has been struggling as of late. He's been struggling for most of the season, in reality. And where, exactly, Kendrick has been hurting can't exactly be pinpointed. Many of his numbers have been eye popping, particularly in the last thirty days played. Of the 57 qualified National League pitchers in that time period, Kendrick has the ninth worst LOB% (left on base percentage), only being able to hold 63.5% of his baserunners on the paths. Then there is his HR/9 (home runs per nine innings) rate, 1.26, which also ranks ninth worst. And finally, there is Kendrick's K-BB% (strikeout to walk rate comparison) of 3.9%. That would rank his third worst in the NL. If these numbers aren't adjusted, expect Kendrick's slide to continue.
After the performance he gave back on July 24th against the Phillies, Tim Hudson will look to replicate his numbers, but with a different outcome. After tossing six innings with no earned runs allowed, Hudson's Giants ended up with a loss. Since that game, the veteran has been average, at best, for San Francisco. He has averaged six innings with three runs, including a home run, in his last three outings. This will be Hudson's 31st career appearance against the Phillies, and it's been since September of 2012 that he has given up more than three earned runs to his former divisional opponent.
Game Notes
- Cody Asche's home run late in last night's ball game was a note-worthy one because of the stretch it broke. Reliever Jeremy Affeldt hadn't given up a four-bagger to an opposing player since June 18th of last season. He had gone 59 straight games.
- Darin Ruf continued to hit very well while in the starting lineup for the Phillies, raking in another couple of base knocks last night. He also scored on Asche's eighth inning home run. Of course, he's not in tonight's lineup. Dominic Brown will be in left field, while Wil Nieves will do the catching.
- Angel Pagan has the most at bats in the Giants lineup against Kyle Kendrick. In 25 plate appearances, Kendrick has actually gotten the upper hand, holding the speedy outfielder to just a .120 batting average with a single RBI. Pablo Sandoval is the only regular in San Francisco's lineup with a home run against Kendrick.
Phillies Lineup
- Ben Revere CF
- Jimmy Rollins SS
- Chase Utley 2B
- Ryan Howard 1B
- Marlon Byrd RF
- Domonic Brown LF
- Wil Nieves
- Cody Asche 3B
- Kyle Kendrick P
Giants Lineup
- Angel Pagan CF
- Hunter Pence RF
- Buster Posey C
- Pablo Sandoval 3B
- Michael Morse LF
- Travis Ishikawa 1B
- Joe Panik 2B
- Brandon Crawford SS
- Tim Hudson P
Weather: 68°F – Clear – 0% PoP
Location: AT&T Park, San Francisco, California
Game Time: 4:05 PM Eastern
Andrew Gillen, Managing Editor of Philliedelphia.com
