Struggling Hendricks plans to rely on Contreras for advice
Kyle Hendricks has never gone through a stretch in the majors quite like this one. After giving up 7 runs in Atlanta on Wednesday, he's now 1-3 with a 7.54 ERA.
This is uncharted territory for Hendricks, a mainstay in the Cubs rotation since 2014, but he said the first place he'll turn is Willson Contreras.
"He's the No. 1 resource for me by far," Hendricks said. "He's caught me for so long. He knows what I'm like when I'm good and when I'm bad. So taking what he sees and he gives me everything right now. Along with the rest of the staff.
"Everybody around here, they know me, they've seen me throw for a while now. I'm going to get together with everybody and just brainstorm, see what we're seeing and really get to work from there."
Hendricks said he already had a conversation with Contreras before meeting with reporters after Wednesday's game. Contreras also left the field early in favor of backup Tony Wolters since the game was out of hand.
"He just thinks everything's flat right now.," Hendricks said. "My sinker's just flat. When it does have an angle and it gets depth, it's missing at the bottom of the zone, it's not a strike. So just working through him better, just trying to take his feedback, what he sees and just translate that into what I need to do."
Hendricks is also taking into consideration whether he's tipping his pitches. But it's not like he's making great pitches and getting hit.
"That's on my mind for sure," he said. "I've had some things in the past with that, so just going to go back and look and double-check and make sure everything's good. It's definitely a possibility, but at the end of the day, even if they know what's coming, if you make a good pitch, you get bad contact.
"There's just so much hard contact right now. Everything's barreled up. That just tells me that everything's just flat and being telegraphed to the hitter."
Twitter: @McGrawDHBulls