PBR - Kyle Kendrick put together an impressive effort on Friday, tossing seven scoreless innings while scattering four hits. He kept the ball from the middle of the plate and had success with his changeup, throwing 20-of-30 for strikes (8 whiffs).

Looking back through Kendrick's starts since May 26th, he's allowed two runs or fewer in contests where he's thrown at least 20 changeups. Sure, the sample size is small, but Kendrick needs this pitch to be successful.

The graph below charts the location of each of Kendrick's pitches from last night. To make it clearer, I went ahead and boxed the pitch locations that led to hits. Three of the pitches, as you can see, were up in the zone and on the inside half of the plate. The other pitch was middle-in.


Kendrick pounded the inside last night and was successful. With a fastball that routinely sits around 90-mph, he needs to keep the ball away from the heart of the plate and he did just that. 

Over his last three starts he's averaging six innings a start and has a 3.50 ERA. Opponents are hitting just .239 off him and he has his changeup working in his favor. 

If the Phils are to contend for anything, the back-end of the rotation needs to be successful and that begins with Kendrick. 

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