I mean no disrespect to Kyle Kendrick when I suggest that he is not the member of the Philadelphia Phillies you want to shut you out. The medium-tossing right-hander has bounced around as the Phillies' swingman since a surprising and unrepeatable 10-4 turn as a rookie in 2007, showing off a startlingly low strikeout rate and a propensity toward giving up home runs. That's a bad combination, but it's one none of the St. Louis Cardinals' big bats were able to exploit Saturday; only Tyler Greene, the Cardinals' suddenly exciting second baseman, managed an extra-base hit, lining a late double over third base.

The Cardinals are clearly slumping at this point, but not in the sort of way this kind of performance would suggest; their OPS is actually higher in May than it was in April, and still shockingly high for a full-team performance. What this seems like, Saturday's ugly blip excepted, is just an ugly reminder that baseball is a very frustrating game when your bullpen is performing below replacement level, instead of at its true talent level.