GOODYEAR, Ariz. – If you ever needed a case for why the universal designated hitter should be a no-brainer in MLB, look no further than Kyle Hendricks first at-bat of the spring.
In his first in-game at-bat in 17 months, the Cubs’ ace ripped a line drive into right field for what appeared to be a routine single. But Padres’ right fielder Wil Myers, who was playing shallow, came up firing trying to throw Hendricks out at first base.
As Hendricks approached first, he collided with first baseman Jake Cronenworth, sending the right-hander airborne, but unharmed. Hendricks didn’t waste any time making fun of himself for a single that was anything, but routine.
“We’ve been working on hitting a little bit out here, but we haven’t been on the bases,” Hendricks said with a big laugh. “First base must have moved on me or something since the last time I was over there.”
“Three steps before the base, it’s either, I’m out or I’m running into him. The competitiveness took over. It was like, ‘I’m not getting thrown out from right field.’”
Hendricks wasn’t the only person to give him a hard time, his manager wasn’t going to waste an opportunity to get in on the fun. But only after he knew his No. 1 starter was ok, of course.
“I think I threw up in my mask for a second,” manager David Ross said with a laugh. “I panicked a little bit, like just, ‘Please, get up,’ kind of thoughts going on. … I was like, ‘You realize you could just pull up. It’s okay if you get out.’ He goes, ‘No way I’m coming back to the dugout with his teammates getting thrown out from right field’ and he goes I saw [Trevor] Cahill do that and he never lived it down.
“We had a good laugh about that after I knew he was alright. But yeah, thank goodness he was alright. And it was actually a pretty impressive base hit to right, off guy throwing really hard and with two strikes. I was impressed on a lot of levels with that [single] yesterday, but my heart definitely skipped a beat for a minute.”
Kimbrel has first scoreless inning this spring
Closer Craig Kimbrel hasn’t had the prettiest start to spring training and after three consecutive appearances allowing one run, the right-hander had his first scoreless outing of the spring against the Padres.
Kimbrel struck out Manny Machado to lead-off the sixth inning on Wednesday before getting a double play to end the inning. His fastball sat consistently at 96 mph after hovering in the low 90s during his first three appearances.
“I think the things he worked and identified in his bullpen the time before, I was able to watch that,” Ross said. “I think getting back to some keys and slowing down, making a deliberate process. We talk a lot about just being the guy that I’ve seen in the past. The guy I saw face Manny Machado was the guy that I know. 1-2-3 fastballs. Here they are, coming right at you. That’s the Craig I know.”
Kyle Hendricks single szn
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) March 18, 2021
(everyone appeared to be fine post-collision) pic.twitter.com/29qA7DIwax
