Kyle Hendricks said that his struggles were a thing of the past, and after the first inning of Sunday night's game he was right. Hendricks had recently gone through a stretch in which he struggled to find himself mechanically, posting a 7.45 ERA over a four-game period from June 16 to July 3. He threw 19 1/3 innings over that stretch, allowing 25 hits and 11 walks while striking out just 11 batters.
But having resolved the mechanical issue, which Hendricks said was related to his position on the rubber, he recently had run into another problem: Throwing lots of pitches early in games.
“It's something we've been talking about,” Hendricks said on Saturday. “Something I have to feel when I'm out there, I have to make those in-game adjustments just a little bit quicker. When I realize guys are just kind of taking anything that appears down, just being more aggressive in the strike zone. You know, there's things that I can do to combat it. I just need to realize what those things are quicker than I'm doing right now.”
On Sunday night, Hendricks was struggling to locate with his pitches early and the Cardinals weren't missing. Yadier Molina smoked a double, followed by a lineout by Paul DeJong and then a homer by Marcell Ozuna. He threw 25 pitches in the inning, and it wasn't looking good.
But in the blink of an eye, Hendricks was dominating the Cardinals' lineup. He allowed a double to second baseman Yairo Muñoz in the second, but that was the last batter to reach base against him. The 28-year-old struck out the side in the third, and even more satisfying is the fact that it was the trio of Molina, DeJong, and Ozuna – the same three batters that hit him so hard in the first inning.
“My mechanics feel solid, so the ball's doing what I want,” Hendricks said after the game. “I can trust my stuff better, and just being aggressive. Willy did a great job keeping me into it, keeping me aggressive, calling the right pitches and really not being predictable. Throwing my curveball a lot. He really made me throw it. So all that lended into not having to make perfect pitches.”
Hendricks retired the last 17 batters he faced, finishing with an impressive seven innings pitched, four hits allowed, zero walks, two earned runs, and eight strikeouts. He threw 107 pitches in those seven innings, which is a stark contrast from the 106 pitches he threw to get through five innings his last time out against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
“He kept getting better, didn't he?” said Maddon. “Actually he was at 107 but he could've gone back out again. He's been pitching at that number a lot, and like we've been talking about he's strong right now. Everything looks strong. Better tempo, better pitches game in progress.”
It was a badly needed effort from Hendricks, and for more reasons than his own personal performance. The last time a Cubs starter went seven innings was a week ago when Jose Quintana did it in a win over the Cardinals at Wrigley Field. Since then, only once had a Cubs starter completed six innings.
Hendricks is optimistic that his excellent start on Sunday night could be the beginning of a run for the Cubs.
“We've got Jon (Lester) up next, hopefully he can keep this momentum,” he said. “And then Hamels I think is gonna bring a lot of energy, just seeing something new out there. I think he's gonna live all of us up a little bit, and bring something for all of us … I'm really excited to watch him throw on Wednesday, and hopefully this is the time where these last two months we can start rattling off some good starts.”
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