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Kendrick leads surging Phillies to sweep of Pirates

Jul 29, 2007 - 8:41 PM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- A pregame downpour appeared to have cooled the Philadelphia Phillies offense. Fortunately, Kyle Kendrick didn't need much run support.

Kendrick pitched seven effective innings and Aaron Rowand and Ryan Howard each drove in a run as Philadelphia completed a three-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates with a 5-1 victory on Sunday.

Chris Coste drove in two insurance runs and Jimmy Rollins added three hits and scored two runs for the Phillies, who finished their homestand taking five of six games.

Kendrick (5-1) allowed only a solo home run and scattered six hits. He walked one with four strikeouts as he improved to 4-0 at hitter-friendly Citizens Bank Park. Philadelphia is now 7-2 in games that the righthander has started.

After a torrential rainstorm delayed the start of the contest for 12 minutes, the Phillies had trouble cashing in scoring opportunities against struggling Pirates starter Ian Snell (7-9).

Philadelphia had second and third with one out in the first inning, but only scored one run courtesy of a Snell wild pitch. The Phillies then put their first two men on in the second, but Snell came back to strike out the side.

Rowand gave Philadelphia a 2-0 lead in the third on an RBI double off the fence in left, but the Phillies left the bases loaded.

Rollins collected his third hit leading off the fifth inning when he grounded a triple over the first base bag. Howard followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0.

Nate McLouth spoiled Kendrick's shutout bid when he lined the first pitch of the sixth inning over the right-field fence for a home run that cut the deficit to 3-1.

Kendrick helped himself with the glove in his final inning. After surrendering a leadoff double to Jose Castillo in the seventh, he retired the next three batters, including making two fine fielding plays on comebackers to the mound.

Ryan Madson came on for Kendrick in the eighth, but was forced to leave after straining his right shoulder on a a pitch to Jason Bay. Antonio Alfonseca came in and threw one pitch to strikeout Bay to end the inning.

Snell allowed three runs and six hits in six innings for Pittsburgh, which has lost 13 of its last 15 games.