Phillies Win Again, One Game Under .500

Phillies baseball is officially meaningful again.

Riding seven innings of one-hit ball from Kyle Kendrick, the Phillies handled the Rockies at Citizens Bank Park, 3-1, to pad their winning streak to five games and bump their Wild Card hole to 5.5 games back of the Braves and Cardinals.

With 21 to play, the Phillies are just one game below .500, for the first time since June 5.

Sit back, and enjoy September.

Kyle Kendrick, For Real

Kyle Kendrick went seven strong, allowing just one run on two hits.

In his last six starts, he's served just six runs and worked a 1.30 ERA. All have been quality, and make for all but two of his starts since rejoining the rotation in August.

He punched a no-hitter through five, but lost it when Rob Brantly slapped a dribbler to lead off the sixth. Tripped up a bit that frame, working himself into a bases-loaded jam with two outs and Giancarlo Stanton due up.

But Kendrick rung him up to end the inning, preserve the lead and clinch a career high for strikeouts with eight. Let the K for KK puns ensue.

Odd, but what isn't this season: Kendrick's 2012 ERA this season is now higher than that of one Doctor Halladay, and not for the first time this year.

Dom Brown Glimmers

Brown crushed a two-run bomb to break the scoring open in the fifth. It was his second of the year. The other? Aug. 22, the day before Brown told Manuel about his yelling knee and proceeded to slump mightily.

Between Aug. 23 and Friday, Brown was 1-for-23 (.043) with eight strikeouts.

In the past 48 hours, he's (ADD TO 3-for-8)

Needless to say, that's encouraging.

Motor Mart

Forget Mini Mart. I'm officially making a push for Motor Mart, in honor of awesomely bad NFL Draft cliches and this guy's won't-quit hustle.

After gutting out a not-so-sure thing double and advancing to third on a Kendrick groundout, Martinez stole home when Brantly dropped a pitch to make it 3-0, home team. Invaluable.

Entering this homestand, Martinez had just one hit at Citizen's Bank Park. He's had five in the past four games, for a .417 average and three runs.

Dare I say it? Game-changing?

Mild Relief

This seems a running theme here for most of Kendrick's starts, and it's nice.

After logging seven innings in yesterday's day/night doubleheader, the Phillies bullpen needed just six outs. Light day, indeed.

Justin De Fratus and Jake Diekman combined for a scoreless eighth.

With Jonathan Papelbon unavailable -- he logged both his fifth win and 32nd save in yesterday's day/night doubleheader -- Charlie Manuel turned to Antonio Bastardo, who'd logged 14-of-19 outs via strikeout.

After striking out Stanton with a wild pitch (crazy, right?), Bastardo got Carlos Lee to ground into a double play.

Quick strikeout from Greg Dobbs, and Bastardo had his first save of the season.