{"id":20517,"date":"2025-05-12T07:03:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T07:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/20517\/"},"modified":"2025-05-12T07:03:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T07:03:14","slug":"hendriks-pitching-up-solid-form-in-major-leagues-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/20517\/","title":{"rendered":"Hendriks pitching up solid form in major leagues return"},"content":{"rendered":"

The phone keeps ringing and Liam Hendriks is very much at home in the Boston Red Sox bullpen.<\/p>\n

The Australian right-hander is enjoying a strong start to his Major League Baseball return, pitching a series of scoreless innings in his specialist role as a closer for the Red Sox.<\/p>\n

Hendriks, 36, missed all last season at Boston because of elbow surgery, having made a comeback from cancer the previous year while playing for the Chicago White Sox.<\/p>\n

He gave up a home run in his first outing for the Red Sox last month, but in his past seven appearances Hendriks has racked up all-star numbers: eight innings, four hits, two strikeouts and no runs.<\/p>\n

\"Boston<\/p>\n

Boston catcher Carlos Narvaez (left) and pitcher Liam Hendriks try their version of a high-five. (AP PHOTO)<\/p>\n

The Australian was still dealing with elbow problems in spring training and feels he is yet to hit top form.<\/p>\n

“It’s exciting. Obvously I don’t quite feel like I’m firing on all cylinders yet – it usually takes me about six weeks into the season to really get it going, and that’s with a full, healthy spring,” he told Boston radio station WEEI.<\/p>\n

“There’s more in the tank, for sure, but I’m just happy to be out there and I’m happy the phone is ringing and my name is being called.”<\/p>\n

Relief pitchers prepare in an area called the bullpen, and when one of them is needed in the game a phone call is made from the team dugout.<\/p>\n

Adding to the good news, his mum Debbie is about to visit from Australia and watch him pitch at Boston’s famed Fenway Park home – although Hendriks said the travel plans have been “a hot mess”.<\/p>\n

“We’ll see how that goes … it’s a short trip,” Hendriks deadpanned of the 17,000km journey.<\/p>\n

The Red Sox are second in the American League East division with a 22-20 record and this week are away to the Detroit Tigers.<\/p>\n

Detroit lead the Central division with a 26-15 record, the best in the AL.<\/p>\n

The Red Sox have been inconsistent so far this season, but Hendriks is encouraged.<\/p>\n

\"Liam<\/p>\n

Liam Hendriks’ mum is flying from Australia and will watch him pitch at Boston’s famed Fenway Park. (AP PHOTO)<\/p>\n

“When it rains, it pours and if we can continue keeping on this way, it will be good going,” Hendriks said of their prospects.<\/p>\n

“Also, if you look at our record, we’ve done better against teams who have winning records, which is the next two series.<\/p>\n

“And for some, whatever, reason, the last few series we’ve decided if we lose the first game, we win the next two.<\/p>\n

“If we win the first game, we lose the next two, so I don’t know how that’s going.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The phone keeps ringing and Liam Hendriks is very much at home in the Boston Red Sox bullpen.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[5,141,48,2542,789,49,53,1102,19,4,89,2543,2099],"class_list":{"0":"post-20517","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-red-sox","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-red-sox","11":"tag-bostonredsox","12":"tag-carlos-narvaez","13":"tag-chicago-white-sox","14":"tag-detroit-tigers","15":"tag-liam-hendriks","16":"tag-major-league-baseball","17":"tag-mlb","18":"tag-red-sox","19":"tag-redsox","20":"tag-scoreless-innings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114493588520332261","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}