For such an ordinary guy Kyle Kendrick hardly elicits a neutral response.
The young righthander has a better than .500 big league record yet legions of Phillies fans would like to see him shown the door. On the other side, slightly fewer but still substantial numbers of fans think he is a perfectly adequate back end of the rotation starter.
This fan counts himself among those who cannot wait to see him go. Yesterday's outing versus the Mets would seem to provide plenty of fodder for those who think Kendricks is adequate. After all, they no doubt would point out, he held the Mets to two runs; it was the bullpen that ultimately blew the game.
Not so fast. Kendricks has been awful the last four starts, allowing nearly an earned run an inning over 22 innings of work. So, when he started yesterday's game by putting his mates in an immediate hole surrendering a run in the bottom of the first inning they can hardly be blamed for experiencing a sinking feeling of deja vu all over again. With expectations so low to begin with, it must be hard for players to look up at the scoreboard and see they are trailing right out of the gate. Hard and demoralizing, and therein lies the rub with Kendricks.
What he does so often is deflate his teammates from the get go. It's sufficient reason to hope this is his last season in a Phillies uniform.
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