When right-hander Kyle Hendricks jogs out to the mound simply earlier than 1:20 p.m. Saturday at Wrigley Field, he’ll be retracing the steps he has taken at the start of 135 different house begins in a Cubs uniform.
‘‘It’s going to be powerful,’’ Hendricks stated this week. ‘‘It’s going to be very distinctive. I attempt to maintain all my feelings [inside]. I attempt to keep on process, focus on the pitching, one at a time. And I’m actually going to must work onerous at that this weekend at Wrigley.’’
After 11 major-league seasons with the Cubs, Saturday will mark Hendricks’ final start earlier than hitting free company for the primary time in his profession. He is aware of that, alongside along with his pleasure to take the mound, blended emotions are sure to hit him at sure moments, similar to when the followers within the left-field bleachers rise to greet him on his technique to heat up within the bullpen and as when he walks to the dugout after his final pitch.
Now 34, Hendricks has been within the Cubs’ group since he was 22, acquired from the Rangers as a part of the commerce for Ryan Dempster. Since then, he has received an ERA title, claimed a curse-breaking World Series, pitched in 12 playoff video games, gotten married and change into a father.
‘‘Absolutely wild,’’ he stated of wanting again at his time in Chicago. ‘‘I had no clue what I was doing. In 2014, getting called up, you’re attempting to simply keep quiet, not do something improper. You be taught from the older guys, the veteran guys. And so swiftly, now to be 10-plus years later, I really feel like a very totally different individual. I’ve matured and grown up, change into the person I'm as we speak due to what’s occurred in Chicago.’’
It’s becoming that what could be Hendricks’ final recreation with the Cubs will come in opposition to the Reds. He made his debut in opposition to them on July 10, 2014. All he wanted was a tough first inning — strolling the primary two batters he confronted and giving up three runs — to settle in. And he went on to show, yr after yr, that elite command might be simply as devastating as velocity.
Just as Chicago molded Hendricks, ‘‘The Professor’’ formed the Cubs’ success in that period as a lot as any participant.
Recent seasons have been extra up-and-down for Hendricks and featured a shoulder damage that sidelined him for virtually 11 months. But when it got here time for the Cubs to determine whether or not to select up his contract choice for this yr, his bounce-back 2023 season made the selection apparent.
That set him up for a season that examined him in methods he hadn’t skilled earlier than.
‘‘When I got called into the office, I’m like, ‘I know, this is terrible,’ ’’ he stated of his early-season struggles. ‘‘ ‘This is so bad. I’m sorry.’ I’m apologizing. I’m placing every thing I’ve received in and attempting to get the work accomplished, however the outcomes simply weren’t coming there early.’’
He used a stint on the injured checklist and a stint within the bullpen to show his season round. And he has change into extra constant late within the season, posting a 3.92 ERA in September.
‘‘I don’t suppose he’d ever been by means of that earlier than,’’ president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer stated, ‘‘where he just felt sort of lost in terms of, ‘I’m not pondering within the methods I usually suppose, I’m not pitching the methods I usually pitch.’ And for him to redouble his effort to get again there was actually spectacular.’’
Hendricks is aware of how shut his season got here to ending prematurely. If it hadn’t been for accidents to different pitchers, he won't be making the start Saturday.
‘‘You’re by no means positive the way you’re going to answer the adversity,’’ Hendricks stated. ‘‘And I’m simply proud that I at least offered a bit of little bit of worth, had some good video games right here in spite of everything that and never simply have all of it go utterly downhill and collapse on me.
‘‘So I know that there’s much more left, for that motive, in me baseball-wise. And I’m simply super-happy for that, that I nonetheless have the love and fervour for the sport.’’
That’s why, though Hendricks’ time with the Cubs could be over, he’s forging forward.
‘‘My family is excited to take a different journey and experience something new, if that happens,’’ Hendricks stated. ‘‘If not, if we end up back here, even better. We’ll be snug, we all know what to anticipate. But I’m simply wanting ahead to, hopefully, an alternative, somebody to provide me the ball and provides me an opportunity to pitch. That’s it.’’
