Welcome back, Cubs baseball! Home runs by Ian Happ and Anthony Rizzo did little damage on this one, and Kyle Hendricks did the rest.
I don’t want to be too hyperbolic just because I’m so excited baseball is back, but it may have been the best thing I’ve seen at Kyle Hendricks. Not only was he doing all the things he always does well: precise command, clearly tunneling all pitches well, throwing anything into his arsenal in any case, but he was showing off that ridiculously tight and sharp curved ball. Add the fact that his fastball was sitting 89 mph (up there for him) outside the gate and that was top level Kyle Hendricks.
For him to do this in his First The beginning of the year after such a low season, in particular, is driving me crazy.
(Also, of course, it was Orlando Arcia who had Hendricks’ only hits. Three of them. I swear, if that guy never played with the Cubs, he would still be in AA.)
From the beginning at bat at night, when Kris Bryant required 10 pitches to retire, the Cubs really made Brandon Woodruff work. His things are fantastic, but his order was regular. Even with the help of a couple of double-gamers, he burned down after five innings. Still, he gave Happ just the two-run shot, so it wasn’t a bad start.
Full box score.
