Phillies Demote Struggling Kendrick

Recall Carpenter from Triple-A

Kyle Kendrick was once told he was traded to Japan for a hot dog eating champ. That was a joke -- the same thing couldn't be said for what happened to Kendrick Tuesday.

A day after giving up seven earned runs -- and three homers -- at St. Louis, the Phillies starter was shipped back to the minors, the team confirmed Tuesday.

The 25-year-old righty was 5-4 with a 4.82 ERA in 20 games (18 starts) for the Phightins. Despite looking brilliant at times, he gave up four or more runs in 10 of his starts and managed only 51 strikeouts compared to 30 walks in 108.1 innings.

The Phillies chose to bring up righty Andrew Carpenter to replace Kendrick.

Carpenter is 1-0 with a 9.45 ERA in four appearances for the Phillies in his career. He last was in the big leagues last season.

The 25-year-old was 7-6 with a 3.41 ERA in 18 starts for Lehigh Valley this season.

But, it begs to be asked why the Phils opted to go for Carpenter instead of a guy like J.A. Happ or putting long reliever Nelson Figueroa in the rotation and adding an Ironpigs bullpen arm with major league experience like Mike Zagurski, Antonio Bastardo or Scott Mathieson.

Maybe Happ, the National League Rookie of the Year runner up from last season, really isn’t ready to come back healthy yet considering he is just 1-2 with a disturbing 6.49 ERA in 34.2 rehab innings.

In any case with Kendrick’s departure and no off day on the horizon the Phils will need to figure out a starter to take Kendrick’s turn on Saturday.

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