Hendriks is unusual, perfect for Athletics
NEW YORK» Fittingly, Liam Hendriks wore his cap backward. A reliever is going to start a team’s postseason opener.
A pitcher with no wins in the regular season.
A pitcher cut from the 40man roster in June who spent two months toiling in the minor leagues.
A pitcher from Down Under who was happy to get medieval in New York.
“Instead of the starter going six and handing it over to the bullpen or going five and handing it over to the bullpen, now we’re just reversing it,” Oakland’s Australian righthander said Tuesday, a day ahead of the Athletics’ AL wildcard game against the New York Yankees.
New York’s Aaron Boone made a more conventional choice for his postseason game as a manager, picking Luis Severino over J.A. Happ and Masahiro Tanaka. Severino created a bullpen night in last year’s wild card game but not by de sign, lasting just one out and leaving with a threerun deficit against Minnesota in a game the Yankees rallied to win 84.
Oakland manager Bob Melvin has been scrambling because of injuries to starting pitchers Jharel Cotton, Kendall Graveman, Sean Manaea, Paul Blackburn, Andrew Triggs and Daniel Gossett.
Hendriks, a 29yearold in his third season with Oakland, started for Minnesota (201114) and Kansas City (2014) before Toronto converted him to the bullpen in 2015. He had a 7.36 ERA in 13 relief appearances this season when he was designated for assignment on June 25 to clear a roster spot for Edwin Jackson.
Then 4038, the A’s won their next six games.
“Apparently I’m a pariah,” Hendriks said jokingly.
After 21 appearances with TripleA Nashville, he was brought back on Sept. 1 when active rosters expanded to 40. As Hendriks was checking into a hotel in Oakland that day, he received a telephone call from pitching coach Scott Emerson.
“’By the way, you’re going to start today,’” Hendriks recalled Emerson telling him. “I got to the field about an hour later, and it was kind of, ‘Yep, we’re going to try this opening thing, see how it goes.’ ”
Hendriks was removed with the score 00 after 30 pitches and five outs, and Danny Coulombe allowed Ben Gamel’s tworun double. The A’s tied a club record by using nine pitchers in an 87 loss to Seattle. After that, Hendriks pitched seven shutout innings in his last seven starts.
Meanwhile, after arriving in New York, Hendriks went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Monday.
“My wife wanted to go see the Heavenly Bodies exhibit, which was incredible, and then I was super ecstatic to see all the medieval armor because that’s what I love,” he said. “I am reading a book now about the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings in 1066. So it’s all about medieval French and English and all of that.”