MILWAUKEE – There was a thought that this could happen when his start on Tuesday evening was cut well short of what he might have hoped.
After the third inning of the Cubs’ contest with the Brewers, Kyle Hendricks was pulled with shoulder soreness after allowing two runs in three innings. Just over 12 hours later, he found himself on the injured list.
The starter was placed on the 15-day IL with a right shoulder strain that will likely keep him out of the rotation until after the All-Star break. Pitcher Anderson Espinoza was called up from Double-A Tennessee to take his spot in the rotation.
This is Hendricks’ first trip to the IL in 2022 after making 16 starts so far this season, sporting a 4-6 record with a 4.80 ERA with 66 strikeouts compared to 28 walks. Outside of the record, it’s a season similar to the 2021 campaign where the starter posted the highest ERA of his career (4.77) with a WAR of .9, which is what he has so far in 2022.
Hendricks has mixed in solid starts that remind fans more of what they saw a few years back when he was a Cy Young Award finalist along with a few bad outins. His two previous starts to Tuesday were closer to the former as he went 7 1/3 scoreless innings againts the Cardinals on June 24th then went six innings with just two runs allowed in a win over the Reds on June 30th.