Why Cubs pitcher Kyle Hendricks looked like his old self against Reds
Kyle Hendricks was back to his old, efficient self Tuesday night against the Cincinnati Reds at Wrigley Field.
After going 7 innings only once in his previous 4 starts since he came off the disabled list, Hendricks pitched into the seventh, putting a pair of runners aboard before Carl Edwards Jr. came in and struck out the next three batters.
It was an overall solid outing for Hendricks, who gave up 5 hits and no runs. Hendricks got a no-decision as the Reds came away with a 2-1 victory. Cincinnati scored once in the eighth against Pedro Strop (3-3) and once in the ninth against Justin Wilson to take a 2-0 lead before the Cubs put across a run in the bottom half.
Pinch hitter Alex Avila was called out on strikes with runners on first and third to end the game.
“It was a lot better tonight,” said Hendricks, whose ERA dropped from 3.70 to 3.45. “Kind of all the things I've been working on came to fruition a little bit. Fastball command, No. 1, was good. That's always the key for me.
“From there, changeup felt really good. Even threw a few good curveballs. Didn't throw a lot today, but the ones I threw were effective. It was a lot of fun out there today with Vic (catcher Victor Caratini). We were working really well together.”
There's a whole lot that goes into it when Hendricks looks like the major leagues' ERA champ of 2016. The biggest thing is pitch efficiency. Hendricks had that, throwing 93 pitches over his 6-plus innings.
“Right on, he did really well, came out with a little bit greater velocity, great location, every pitch was working,” said manager Joe Maddon, whose team fell to 62-56. The Cubs lead the Cardinals and Brewers by 1½ games in the National League Central.
The other part of the success equation for Hendricks is getting enough disparity in miles per hour between his fastball and his changeup.
Hendricks' fastball was clocking around 84-85 mph, with several at 86 and at least one at 87. The changeup was consistently around 77-78 mph.
When a wide disparity is there, Hendricks is able to elicit soft contact. Entering Tuesday, the hard contact against Hendricks was up by about 10 percent over last year's rate.
“When there's more separation between fastball and changeup, you're going to get more swings, weaker contact,” Maddon said. “Last year that was the one thing about him he was noted for: weak contact against. When you have weak contact against, the defense becomes bigger.
“One of the things I've always talked about is we catch line drives, meaning that you want to be in that spot when the guy hits the ball hard. But if you elicit weaker contact, then your guys are all over the place.
“That's what he did all last year, really, a lot of weak contact.”
The Cubs did little against Reds starter Luis Castillo, who worked 6 shutout innings.
Caratini and Albert Almora Jr. opened the seventh with singles against Michael Lorenzen, but Almora was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a double. Jason Heyward lined out, and Javier Baez grounded out to end the inning.
The Cubs loaded the bases without a hit in the eighth, but Caratini struck out against Raisel Iglesias to end that threat.
Kyle Schwarber led off the ninth with a pinch single before Heyward singled. After a bunt by Baez, Ben Zobrist singled home a run before Iglesias struck out Jon Jay and Avila.