First off, I have to give more than a golf clap to Kyle Kendrick as of late. For the fist time in my life, I found myself comfortable with him on the mound in a 1-0 game. He's in some kind of groove right now and looks more confident than ever. Quite a place to be for a pitcher that's been jerked around like he has.
As for tonight's game against the first place Washington team, Roy Halladay faces former Phillies prospect turned Freddy Garcia trade bait (groan) Gio Gonzalez, who's been one of the best pitchers on a team full of good pitchers this season. In the event this ridiculous Strasberg business goes down, Gonzalez is the number one guy. Halladay's coming off a shaky start against Cincinnati where he didn't really pitch that bad and hung around for long enough but he allowed his share of runs as well. He's in a unique position where he can make adjustments as the season winds down to see what works and what doesn't.
Placido Polanco sits with another injury which as of now isn't DL worthy. Domonic Brown is also out with a knee injury and is day to day. Nate Schierholtz is going to rehab in Lehigh Valley in the next few days and will probably be activated Tuesday. For now, we have Martinez playing right field and Kevin Frandsen holding down the hot corner.
Line Up: Rollins 6, Frandsen 5, Utley 4, Howard 3, Mayberry 8, Kratz 2, Pierre 7, Martinez 9, Halladay 1
And the minor league shout out goes to Darin Ruf at Reading who, at 34 home runs, is close to Ryan Howard's record of 37 home runs set in 2004. Ruf's not considered a prospect at age 26 in Double-A but it's criminal to ignore a .313/.404/.609 line with 34 home runs and 93 RBIs in any league. The plan seems to be for him to spend the winter playing LF. Not sure what his future is, but he's on the map this year.
