[rthoughton]

805pm ESPN. PHILADELPHIA -105 (Kendrick) @ NY METS -115 (Pelphrey). o/u8.5.
Tonight on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball, the Philadelphia Phillies face the New York Mets in the rubber game of a three game weekend series.
R.A. Dickey and the Mets took game one versus Cole Hamels, who achieved something on that night that no other player in gray and red could: get a hit. Hamels got the lone hit for the Phils in the 1-0 loss in the series opener, his second consecutive 1-0 loss to the Mets in back-to-back starts. Dickey had that knuckler dancing, and shut down the Phightin’ Phils, one night after their improbable comeback against the Dodgers.
In the second game of the set, the Phils returned the favor with Roy Halladay on the hill. The Phillies won game 2 4-0, with a little typical trouble closing out the game in the 9th as they turned to their dreadful bullpen. Madson loaded the bases, but got a game ending strike out on a changeup, his bread and butter, to give the Phils the series split.
Tonight, on national television, the Phils look to Kyle Kendrick (12-9, 4.60) who got absolutely rocked out of the game in 3.1 innings on the 10th of August against the Dodgers. Kendrick, though, had been pretty dependable so far, keeping the ball down and trusting his defense. The Phils had won three consecutive Kendrick starts, coming off of an implosion at Busch, in which he only allowed a combined 4 runs in those three outings. Tonight he will have his hands full in front of the world, in this rich division rival against a team his teammate shut down on Saturday night.
In his career, Kendrick has started against the Mets 6 times, getting a decision in 4 of those, allowing 12 earned runs in 32.1 innings. His 3.34 ERA against the Mets is promising, and in the expansive Citi Field, he should be the beneficiary of success from his style. He pitches to contact and gets the ball put into play. The usual great defense behind him contributes to that success.
I expect a decent outing tonight from Kyle, especially coming off of the embarrassment against the Dodgers in his last outing. He seems to correct his mistakes and come out more impressively in a start following an implosion. He better have something tonight if the Phils want to win yet another series in August.
Mike Pelphrey (14-9, 3.95) began the season with a 9-2 record and before his last outing against the Colorado Rockies, there were rumblings that he may be in jeopardy of losing his spot in the rotation. But he took the hill on August 10th and pitched phenomenally, giving the Mets 7 innings of shut out ball, while striking out 4 and walking one. He only allowed 4 hits in those 7 innings. The Mets had lost 6 of the previous Pelphrey starts before he gave them that gem on the 10th. Clearly this is a streaky fellow. He has put together winning start streaks of 4 and 6 this season already. The Mets hope that he can regain his form of April, May, and June and give them some more of what he gave them in his last start. He will certainly need his best tonight against the cream of the National League crop and surging late-July and August Philadelphia Phillies.

[Peregrine Stoop]

holy cow. That is a wall of text.
What is the pick exactly?

[rthoughton]

o. my bad. Im just hunting my 15 blog points or 30 love from the crew.
I like the Phils and the under tonight. I figured no one was interested in my pick, just some game info to help with your decision.
It always makes me smile when people comment on the number of words.
good luck today, of course.

[rthoughton]

dubya.