Kyle Kendrick has a dismal record against the Dodgers and last night's performance only added to it. Kendrick left in the fourth, shortly after throwing a perfect toss to Jimmy Rollins, covering second. It was a dead doubleplay ball but Rollins, inexplicably, fell down. A couple of batters later, Kendrick was headed to the showers. He gave up seven runs in 3.1 innings. For the Dodgers, the good Vicente Padilla showed up, at least early on, throwing what Vin Scully has aptly called his "soap bubble" pitch.
The Phillies came back to make it a 7-4 game but the bullpen, in the person of Bastardo, Herndon, Baez, and Romero, was brutal. Will Danys Baez ever bear down and make some pitches when they are needed? As for Romero, he looked beyond awful in the 9th. Only Contreras and Durbin did their jobs in an ugly 15-9 loss.
Worse, Polanco fell on his injured elbow and came up wincing repeatedly. He was finally lifted but says he is OK. Rollins, who had another mindboggling error on another dead doubleplay ball (he simply dropped it), also seemed to tweak his ankle saving a bad toss by Baez from going into center field. He looked to be in real pain. If the Phillies again lose either of those guys, they are done.
Some bright notes: Dom Brown hit the first homer of his major league career, a solo smash to deep right, and drove in four. Ross Gload had two home runs. Raul Ibanez extended his hitting streak to 17. Not that any of it really mattered.
The last time the Phillies gave up 15 runs was in 2007--here at home--to the Dodgers. I remember that dreadful game, too. But really the fans were quick to boo last night. They sounded like lunkheads. I mean, when Jimmy Rollins trips over second base on a dead-easy play and falls down, you gotta think it's not your night.
