SAN DIEGO — Kyle Hendricks’ simmering frustration three starts into his season goes beyond one moment.
The San Diego Padres were the latest lineup to take advantage of Hendricks’ miscues, scoring seven runs in five-plus innings Wednesday at Petco Park in the Chicago Cubs’ 10-2 loss.
“A lot of reevaluation, just pissed,” Hendricks said. “Letting my guys down, bottom line. That’s really it.”
For the first time in his career, Hendricks has given up at least five runs in three consecutive starts. Hendricks prides himself on consistency and giving the Cubs a chance to win every time he steps on the mound.
“And right now it’s just so far from that,” said Hendricks, who has surrendered 26 hits, including five home runs, and 17 runs in 12 2/3 innings.
He didn’t sugarcoat his struggles. After Michael Busch’s two-run home run in the fourth, the Padres recaptured the lead in the bottom half of the inning behind three hits in the two-run frame. A perfect relay from Cody Bellinger to Miles Mastrobuoni to Christopher Morel nailed Jurickson Profar trying to leg out a triple. The sequence saved a run when Ha-Seong Kim followed with a triple.
Everything fell apart in the sixth as a two-run Cubs deficit turned into an 8-2 advantage for San Diego thanks to the Padres’ first three hitters of the inning — Jake Cronenworth, Manny Machado and Profar — tagging Hendricks, including two home runs.
“Third time through getting killed but even before that, just making bad pitches,” Hendricks said. “Feel like I’m letting my teammates down right now, not doing enough to do what I need to do for my role.”
Hendricks has been working through mechanical issues between starts and said he felt a lot better Wednesday. There were still too many bad pitches, though, and he felt he wasn’t unpredictable enough, which he attributed in part to not reading the hitters’ swings as well as he needed to.
“It’s probably a little bit everything,” manager Craig Counsell said. “It’s the third time through, which is always the most challenging time for a starting pitcher, and it’s what’s kind of got him so far. … I thought his command was lacking in the first outing (against Texas) and the last two I thought he kind of pitched like you expect him to pitch early in the game and then just fell apart a little bit.”
Hendricks’ track record over the last 11 big-league seasons suggests he will make the proper adjustments to still be the reliable starter the Cubs have long known, even if his path to success has evolved over the years. Hendricks’ frustrations at how his first three starts have transpired are concerning for a veteran who typically displays an even-keeled demeanor after starts no matter how he pitched.
But perhaps the most troubling part of his struggles is that Hendricks doesn’t have a clear sense at the moment of what adjustments he needs to make before his next start.
“Not exactly, no, I can’t lie about that,” Hendricks said. “I would have been doing it now so a little bit of a search process for sure. I know who I am though at the end of the day. I know what my strengths are so just have to hone in on those, lock in on that, start with that. That’s where I’ve got to begin. See what path I go down from there, see where it leads me.”
Part of that evaluation process will include looking at whether Hendricks should continue to call his own pitches, something he’s done since June. Hendricks said that had already been discussed prior to Wednesday’s start. Even if he does keep calling his own game on PitchCom, getting more feedback to avoid predictability will be part of the process.
“If they really want something, they see me if I’m getting predictable, yeah, help me out some more there so it definitely needs to be a better relationship there and not all on me,” Hendricks said. “I’m just not where I need to be right now to be doing that, for sure.”
Losing left-hander Justin Steele through at least the first month could have been a big blow as the Cubs navigate a challenging stretch in their schedule. However, their largely inexperienced rotation of Shota Imanaga, Jordan Wicks, Javier Assad and Ben Brown, who have combined to start only 32 major-league games in their respective careers, has stepped up while avoiding putting too much pressure on themselves to replace Steele’s production. The foursome has allowed only six earned runs in 33 1/3 innings for a 1.62 ERA in seven total starts.
The Cubs need more from Hendricks and he knows it, creating a frustrating situation.
“Every single one has not been consistent, haven’t given us a chance to win,” Hendricks said. “It just cannot happen.”