*Photo from WXYZ*
Chicago Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks has had a pretty up and down season. One start he'll excel, the next he'll fall apart. Hendricks is hoping his latest great start will help him turn the corner. Hendricks threw 8 dominant innings, Ian Happ homered, and the Cubs defeated the Detroit Tigers with a 5-1 victory Sunday afternoon.
Hendricks allowed one run, allowing 8 hits and walking no one over 8 innings pitched, racking up 8 strikeouts in a sharp outing. Dan Winkler then came in to pitch the 9th inning, allowing no runs and striking out one hitter in his inning of work.
Hendricks said of his strong start that "When I threw my last bullpen a couple days ago, everything felt really sharp and I was able to put my pitches where I wanted them. That gave me a lot of confidence coming into today. I could move in and out and avoid the center of the plate."
Cubs manager David Ross said of Hendricks' 8 inning performance that "Our bullpen has been grinding and we had to use them when we went extra innings yesterday. When you do that, you are counting on your top guy to give you some distance and that's exactly what Kyle did for us today. He was great, he just floated a couple changeups in the ninth."
Happ started the scoring for the Cubs in the 3rd, when he scored on a fielders choice to make it 1-0. In the 4th, Happ sent an RBI double to center field, scoring Matt Duffy and making it a 2-0 Cubs lead. In the 6th inning, the Cubs increased their lead to 5-0 thanks to an RBI double from David Bote, a sac fly from Nico Hoerner, and a solo homer from Happ. In the 9th, the Tigers got their only run on a fielders choice by Jonathan Schoop.
Matthew Boyd got the loss in his start for the Tigers. Boyd allowed 5 runs on 6 hits and one walk, still striking out 8 hitters in 6 innings despite the loss. After Boyd departed, Bryan Garcia came on and threw a scoreless 7th inning, recording two strikeouts. Joe Jimenez then came on and threw a scoreless 8th inning, and Alex Lange did the same thing in the 9th.
Tigers manager AJ Hinch said of the tough loss "Our guys get to play all nine innings, and I'm proud of the way they fight to the end. But we wanted to win this game and win the series, and we didn't get that done. When you've got a guy pitching that well against you, you can't do anything to make it harder on yourself. There were a few times where we gave them an extra out or an extra 90 feet and it came back to hurt us."
The Cubs head home to face the Washington Nationals tonight, with Adbert Alzolay starting the opening game of the series for Chicago. The Tigers head to Seattle to face the Mariners tonight, with rookie Casey Mize getting the start for the Tigers.
Comments
Post a Comment