Sports
Jesse Rogers, ESPN Personnel WriterApr 23, 2024, 07:18 PM ET
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Jesse joined ESPN Chicago in September 2009 and covers MLB for ESPN.com. CHICAGO — The Chicago Cubs positioned struggling honest-hander Kyle Hendricks on the injured list Tuesday with decrease encourage effort.
Hendricks, 34, has a 12.00 ERA over his first five starts, which encompass a league-excessive eight house runs, 37 hits and 28 earned runs.
Cubs supervisor Craig Counsell stated Hendricks felt something in his encourage as he used to be warming up for his initiate Sunday towards the Marlins. He lasted four innings, giving up four runs on six hits. The outing indubitably lowered his league-excessive ERA.
“We regain to rep previous the damage first, then establish our heads collectively on a conception to rep him pitching better,” supervisor Craig Counsell stated Tuesday afternoon.
Counsell used to be asked if this would well very wisely be the pause of the line for the longest-tenured Cub and completely closing member of the 2016 World Sequence championship crew. Hendricks is decided to be a free agent at the pause of the season.
“No, I don’t mediate that at all,” Counsell stated. “Kyle is no longer pitching the device in which he wants to pitch. Kyle has excessive expectations for himself. When we rep previous this damage, he’ll return to work. He’ll decide to him doing everything he can.”
The Cubs recalled honest-hander Hayden Wesneski to change Hendricks on the roster. Either he or Ben Brown would possibly well rob his space within the rotation, even though Counsell would no longer decide to something fine but. The crew is beginning a stretch of 16 video games in 16 days and will need a fifth starter later within the week.
The Cubs also positioned reliever Drew Smyly on the injured list with honest hip impingement, which he began to feel at the pause of the Cubs’ final toll road shuttle in Phoenix. He pitched effectively on Sunday however will need time to heal.
“He used to be pitching with it whereas he used to be available,” Counsell stated.
Additionally, the crew recalled left-handed first baseman Matt Mervis whereas designating righty Garrett Cooper for project. The latter turned expendable when corner infielder Patrick Recordsdata used to be activated from the injured list lately. The Cubs wished a more even crash up of righties and lefties on the bench.
“The thought used to be identical gamers on the roster,” Counsell stated of Recordsdata and Cooper. “And we’re going by a few honest-handed pitching.”
Mervis is in his 2nd stint with the Cubs after tearing up Triple-A pitching final season. He struggled in his initial name-up in 2023, hitting fine .167 in 27 video games. His role can be to encourage up rookie Michael Busch, who is off to a sizzling initiate for Chicago.
“I mediate or no longer it’s a minute bit completely different this time,” Counsell stated of Mervis getting recalled. “He has the abilities of that to encourage him. And or no longer it’s rising in a difference space. The expectations are completely different.”
The Cubs are web hosting the Astros this week ahead of heading out on the toll road to face the Boston Crimson Sox and Original York Mets.
Chicago outfielder Cody Bellinger exited Tuesday night’s 7-2 gain over Houston with a honest rib contusion after colliding with the heart-field wall whereas tracking a wing ball hit by Yainer Diaz that went for a double and scored Kyle Tucker.
He stayed within the game for a few innings, taking his at-bat within the fifth, ahead of being replaced by Alex Canario within the head of the seventh.
X-rays had been detrimental, based mostly on Counsell. Bellinger hit his fifth house flee of the season within the famous inning and downplayed the damage when speaking to newshounds.
“Or no longer it’s a truly uninteresting effort, even now,” Bellinger stated. “That is a factual label. Before everything, I did not feel something. … We’re going to regain to take a look at on the wall. Gaze if the wall is OK first.”
