Kendrick pitches seven scoreless innings as Phillies shutout Cardinals

KYLE KENDRICK had no answer for the magic question. And that makes sense. After all, if he did, the question wouldn't need to be asked.

Because the question is this:

How might a pitcher who has the ability to stymie the best team in the National League for seven innings, as Kendrick did last night in the Phillies' 4-0 win over the Cardinals, summon that ability on a consistent basis?

"I don't know," Kendrick said. "I don't know if I can pick something out. Obviously, it needs to be consistent. I want it to be consistent. It would be fun to do this every fifth day."

When Kendrick said "this," he was referring to shutting down a potent offense like St. Louis' for seven scoreless innings, and keeping his teammates in position to score four crucial runs in the middle innings of what otherwise was a pitcher's duel.

For the second time in his last four starts, Kendrick held an opponent scoreless, the first of which occurred on April 20 in Atlanta when he held the Braves to four hits and two walks in eight innings.

In between, however, were a couple of disappointing performances in which he allowed nine runs, including five home runs, in losses to the Diamondbacks and the Mets.

Which leads to an amazing stat like this: In four of his six outings this season, Kendrick has logged 15 2/3 and allowed 20 runs.

In the other two, he has logged 15 innings and allowed zero runs.

According to Kendrick and manager Charlie Manuel, there were a variety of factors in play. Last night, Manuel was encouraged with the rhythm his young righthander displayed on the mound. He liked the way he commanded his sinker, keeping it down in the zone and attacking both sides of the plate.

"That, right there, is who he is," Manuel said. "The sinker is his bread and butter."

But he also mixed in his changeup and cutter, the second of which he left up in the zone a few times in the first couple of innings. Which leads to a factor that Kendrick mentioned later, the fact that there is a certain degree of fortune involved in determining the outcome of a ballgame. In the first inning, Skip Schumaker and Matt Holliday both got a hold of cutters and smoked line drives to the outfield. This time, however, they sailed directly at Jayson Werth and at Shane Victorino.

"I felt like a couple of games ago, that would have been a home run," Kendrick said of Holliday's inning-ending lineout.

The second inning also saw a couple of hard-hit line drives as Colby Rasmus led off with a double off a cutter, and Yadier Molina later hit a one-out double off a sinker. But, in between, Rasmus was thrown out by Brian Schneider as he attempted to steal third, and Kendrick escaped the inning without allowing a run. If Rasmus, as replays suggested, had been safe, the Cardinals would have scored on Molina's double. Instead, Kendrick sailed on.

"They hit some balls at guys, they missed some pitches," Kendrick said. "You've got to get a little lucky here. Most of the time, I think my pitches were down. I mixed it up well. My off-speed pitches were pretty good."

For the most part, Cardinals righthander Brad Penny could say the same. For the first three innings, he looked a lot like the pitcher who held the Phillies scoreless for eight innings last September as a member of the Giants. He retired the first nine batters he faced, including three strikeouts, three groundouts, and an infield pop-up.

In many ways, the Phillies offense seemed to be in postseason form: It didn't have many opportunities, but it capitalized on the ones it had. The first came in the fourth inning, when Shane Victorino extended his hitting streak to seven games with a single, and Placido Polanco promptly hit his fourth home run of the season to put the Phillies up 2-0.

In the sixth, Victorino hit his sixth home run of the season to extend the lead to 3-0. And, in the seventh, Greg Dobbs pinch-hit for Kendrick and drove in Wilson Valdez from first with a double.

Only four of the Phillies' eight baserunners failed to score. Dobbs was their only runner in scoring position. But with Kendrick on the mound for seven innings - and Danys Baez and Jose Contreras pitching perfect eighth and ninth innings - the offense produced enough.

Now, Kendrick's next step is to put together a string of quality starts. His ERA might still sit at 5.87, but his sample size is still small. Over his last four starts, his ERA is 3.24. Unlike the other teams Kendrick has faced, the Cardinals have just two lefthanded hitters in their lineup. Extending his success against multiple opponents will be key.

Last night was a good start.

Wilson Valdez entered in the seventh as a pinch runner for Juan Castro, who felt his hamstring tighten while running to first. Castro said after the game he was hopeful that the injury was similar to the one he suffered in Arizona, which caused him to miss a game, but said he wouldn't know more until today . . . Thanks in part to their health issues at the big-league level, the Phillies have moved Triple A righthander Brandon Duckworth from the rotation to the bullpen. Duckworth, a former starter for the Phillies, has struck out six, walked two and allowed one run and two hits in three relief appearances.

For more Phillies coverage and opinion, read David Murphy's blog, High Cheese, at http://go.philly.com/highcheese.