‘Emotional day’: Kyle Hendricks was back with Cubs for first time in nearly 11 months
Before Kyle Hendricks’ first major league game in nearly 11 months, manager David Ross tried to taper expectations.
As successful as he’s been and as effective as he’s been, it’s still been a long time since he threw a competitive pitch at the highest level.
“I don’t have any expectations,” Ross said prior to Hendricks’ outing. “I don’t think he’s going to go 9 [innings] and no hits — if he did, it wouldn’t shock me. And if he gives up a few runs, that’s not going to shock me. What I know is we’re going to support him and his path back and we’re really excited for him to take the bump.”
Hendricks’ outing ended up being a mixed bag of results. He allowed 3 of the first 4 batters he faced to reach base, allowing 1 run in the 1st inning and another 3 runs on 4 hits in the 3rd inning. But he also retired the side in order in the 2nd and 4th innings.
“But the 1st inning was just a little bit all over the place,” Hendricks said. “Was able to just get through it and battle and then was able to make a lot of good pitches really from there on out. … take those positives from the second inning on, just build on that.”
He finished his night going 4.1 innings, allowing 5 runs, 3 earned, on 6 hits and 2 walks with 5 strikeouts. It wasn’t vintage Hendricks by any means, but he’ll take it after the long layoff and recovery.
“There was a lot of build-up to that one,” Hendricks said. “Kind of an emotional day, everything building up to it. But at the end of the day, just getting to this point, and getting back out there was number one, huge.”
Hendricks threw 86 pitches and he relied mostly on his changeup-sinker and four-seam mix. His velocity sat at around 87 mph with his sinker and four-seam and 80 mph on his changeup. That was one thing that was different before Hendricks landed on the IL — his velocity had dipped. For a pitcher that wasn’t going to blow by hitters with high speeds on the radar gun, any kind of tick down could be a big difference.
In addition to his recovery, Hendricks worked on a velocity program to try and add a few more ticks to his pitches and have them be close to where they were when he was at his best.
“There were some good ones, obviously,” Hendricks said. “I got out of my mechanics on a few and you can see the velo dip, just not in a strong position. So, when I’m doing the things I need to do, it’s there. And it’s just gonna keep getting better with the confidence that I have out there.”
The important thing for Hendricks and the Cubs was to knock the rust off and battle through any butterflies that were there after the long layoff. Both parties feel like Thursday’s outing was a good first step — regardless of whether or not it was the best version of him.
His next outing will be another good step — he’s scheduled to face the Rays next week, baseball’s best team.
“I’m going to take those positives that I was able to do — bad contact, a couple bad hits here and there, you just got to tip your cap,” Hendricks said. “So it’s back to work this week, hopefully, get my rhythm, get in my routine, have everything be normal from here on out.”