The game turned into a pitcher’s duel after these earlier scores with Kendrick holding his own through six innings. It turned out to be enough as Aaron Rowand not only drove in the game-tying run on a ground-out to third baseman, Josh Fields, in the bottom of the sixth, but broke the game wide open with a grand slam to left field. Phils third baseman, Abraham “El” Nunez had the honor of driving in the game-winning run two batters before Rowand went yard.The bullpen showed up yet again, of course they had quite a run cushion for the second consecutive game. But it is good to see some young hands, namely Mike “Bronco” Zaugurski and Yoel Hernandez, coming into their own as set-up men for the current closer, Antonio “the Octopus” Alfonseca. A sweep is a sweep, and with the Mets in a tailspin right now, thanks in part to the sweep of them last week, the Phils are choosing the perfect time to gain ground on the NL East division leaders. They have a tough test in the series coming up as Detroit comes to town on Friday.
Un-Sloppiest Performer
Kyle Kendrick—He may not be the permanent replacement for the injury-plagued Freddy Garcia, but he still had a solid outing in his debut as starting pitcher. Despite giving up 3 runs in six innings, he held the White Sox in check long enough for the offense to tie the game in the sixth and take the lead in the seventh. Aaron Rowand gets runner-up for his 5 RBI effort.
Sloppiest Performance
Defense—From what I heard on the radio, there were a couple of ground balls/fly balls that could have been turned into outs. Larry Andersen mentioned that Ryan Howard was the culprit of two of these misplays, one of which resulted in a run in the top half of the second. On the highlights from the game, Alex Cintron hit a double out of the out-stretched glove of “Sugar” Shane Victorino. The combination of these slip-ups by the aforementioned players amount to today’s sloppiest performance.
