CSN Chicago · Apr 11, 2019
How Kyle Hendricks plans to combat his first-inning woes
The first inning is no friend to Kyle HendricksKyle Hendricks is one of the most cerebral pitchers in baseball today and he's putting his mind to work in an effort to eliminate his unsightly first-inning results.
Last season, he gave up nearly one-third of his earned runs (25 of 76) in the first inning, with many of those coming on the 10 longballs he surrendered in the opening frame of his 33 starts. That added up to a 6.82 ERA and 1.24 WHIP in the first inning.
In the other 166 innings of his 2018 campaign, Hendricks had a 2.77 ERA, 1.11 WHIP and served up only 12 homers.
"The Professor" has only made 2 starts so far in 2019, but those opening issues have carried over.