After making 270 starts as a Chicago Cub, Kyle Hendricks — now a member of the Los Angeles Angels — faced his former team for the first time on Sunday. Before his outing, Hendricks had faced every team in MLB besides the Cubs.

[MORE: Kyle Hendricks embraces emotional Cubs reunion during Angels series]

The beloved longtime Cub wasn’t originally scheduled to see Chicago when they visited Angel Stadium this weekend — he was supposed to start against the Texas Rangers on Monday. But as fate would have it, fellow Angels pitcher José Soriano landed on the paternity list and Hendricks was moved up to Sunday’s finale.

Hendricks has not been lights-out by any means this season for the Halos, sporting a 4.93 ERA in 126 innings entering Sunday. He has, however, put on a few vintage performances over the course of his 24 starts, including a 7.2-inning, one-run gem against the Detroit Tigers on May 3 and a nine-strikeout affair in a win against the New York Yankees on June 17.

[‘How did he do that?’ Cubs recall sharing the field with Kyle Hendricks]

When Hendricks first took the ball for the Angels on Sunday, class was in session once again for The Professor. He set down five straight Cubs to begin the game, including a strikeout of the now red-hot Kyle Tucker. The Cubs didn’t log their first knock against Hendricks until Matt Shaw’s ground-rule double with one away in the third inning, and Tucker cashed Shaw in to tie the game at 1 before Hendricks punched out Seiya Suzuki to end the inning.

In the top of the fourth inning, a second walk of the game to Hendricks’ longtime teammate Ian Happ set up a Nico Hoerner RBI double, allowing the Cubs to take a 2-1 lead.

Happ and Hendricks were the two longest-tenured Cubs last season before Hendricks’ departure passed the torch on to Happ. The Cubs’ left fielder doesn’t typically show a lot of emotion on and off the field, but he sported a big smile in the visitors’ clubhouse when he was asked about facing Hendricks.

“It was cool — I haven’t faced him as much as you’d think in Spring Training or anything,” Happ told reporters after the game. “It’s just so unique. He does such a good job at making all his pitches look similar. I was just really patient today,” Happ said as a grin formed on his face.

Happ’s two free passes were indeed part of his game plan against Hendricks, the former told reporters.

“The up-and-away fastball was pretty close. I said, ‘That might have been in there.’ (Kyle) said, ‘I’m scared of you.'”

This exchange between Ian Happ and Kyle Hendricks 😂 pic.twitter.com/zCgo9XOhnK

— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) August 24, 2025

“I know how much chase there is on his changeup,” Happ said of Hendricks. “I’ve watched guys chase it for so long. I was just trying to keep him on the plate. He did throw a first-pitch curveball that was in the strike zone — it wasn’t called a strike.

“It’s just fun having that battle. I’ve listened to him go over reports and talk about hitters for so long. There was definitely a part of me that was trying to just face the report of Kyle Hendricks and not the guy I played with for so long,” Happ said.

Hendricks’ day began to unravel in the fifth inning when two singles and a walk loaded the bases with one out for Pete Crow-Armstrong. And just like that, Angels interim manager Ray Montgomery motioned for another former Cub, Andrew Chafin, to relieve Hendricks of his duties.

Chafin couldn’t preserve Hendricks’ two-run day: A sacrifice fly from Crow-Armstrong and a Carson Kelly single put two more runs on the board before the inning was over.

That meant Hendricks’ final line in his first start against the Cubs was as follows: 4.1 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 2 K. He threw 76 pitches, 45 of them for strikes.

As Hendricks walked off the field, he received a standing ovation from the sea of Cubs fans at Angel Stadium.

“That was awesome,” Hendricks told reporters of the ovation after the game, per MLB.com’s Andrés Soto and Rhett Bollinger. “The Chicago fans, just playing there for so long, and they travel so well, I knew there were gonna be a lot of them here today. Just to get that from that side, too, is really special. I appreciate them so much.”