How Kyle Hendricks did in his latest rehab start with the Iowa Cubs
It was during a recent trip to Chicago that Cubs starting pitcher Kyle Hendricks tried to figure out what was going wrong.
Hendricks, who had struggled during his first two rehabilitation starts with the Iowa Cubs, watched some footage of his old starts with Chicago pitching coach Tommy Hottovy and assistant pitching coach Daniel Moskos.
They overlaid video of Hendricks during his first two starts with Iowa with video from when he was rolling in the big leagues with Chicago. As they watched the videos, they quickly realized that Hendricks was moving too fast, causing everything to get out of sync for the star hurler.
“I was never hitting my balance point,” Hendricks said. “I was never in a strong position. So the timing of everything was just off one pitch to the next. I couldn’t repeat my delivery and I had some misses that I was just so behind the ball because I wasn’t getting extended. I wasn’t out front of anything.”
Hendricks fixed the issue and was able to turn in the best outing of his rehab assignment Tuesday night at Principal Park in Des Moines. The right-hander rebounded from two tough outings by tossing five shutout innings during Iowa’s 6-1 victory over the Toledo Mud Hens. Hendricks struck out four, walked none and surrendered just two hits (including a bloop single) to get the win.
“I felt like myself again,” Hendricks said. “I could see the glove. I was doing what I wanted to do. I was moving pitches off of one another.”
Hendricks not only felt like his old self but looked like it as well. It has been a long time coming for Hendricks, who hasn’t pitched in a big-league game since July 5, 2022. Hendricks missed the end of last season and the start of this season while recovering from a capsular tear in his right shoulder. He began his rehab assignment with Iowa last month and struggled mightily.
Hendricks was roughed up for six earned runs in 1 2/3 innings of work on April 27 and four earned runs in 2 2/3 innings on May 3. After the issues in his second start, Hendricks went back to Chicago to throw for some of Chicago’s coaches and look at video of his outings. That’s when they discovered the issue with Hendricks’ timing.
Hendricks wasn’t delivering like he normally had when he became a mainstay in Chicago’s rotation for nearly a decade and went 87-61 with a 3.46 ERA in the major leagues. Hendricks was back to his old self Tuesday with a dominant outing against the Detroit Tigers’ Triple-A affiliate.
Hendricks tossed a perfect first inning, then worked around a one-out double in the second inning and a one-out single in the third. That was the closest he got to being in trouble. Hendricks went on to retire the final eight hitters he faced before reaching his pitch count. He threw 61 pitches, including 41 for strikes.
"I felt my timing was so much better," Hendricks said. "I was more out front. I had extension. I could see the plate a lot better and was just over everything ... everything was down in the zone. I haven't been able to get there at all. So that was really, really promising to have that."
Hendricks is expected to throw Sunday for Iowa at Principal Park. The hope is he can go just as long and be just as good as he was Tuesday.
After struggling early on, Hendricks was happy to finally have some success.
“When you’re getting barrels all over the place, it’s not fun, obviously,” he said. “That was fun being out there.”
Tommy Birch, the Register's sports enterprise and features reporter, has been working at the newspaper since 2008. He's the 2018 and 2020 Iowa Sportswriter of the Year. Reach him at tbirch@dmreg.com or 515-284-8468. Follow him on Twitter @TommyBirch.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Kyle Hendricks dominates in latest rehab start with Iowa Cubs
