Hendriks sets sights on the Astros
ALDS between A’s and Houston starts Monday at Dodger Stadium
Liam Hendriks passed by Bob Melvin after they shared in their biggest win together as members of the Oakland A’s, and said his manager came up with a catchy title for the way he performed in Game 3 of their playoff series with the Chicago White Sox.
“He called it Herculiam,” Hendriks said after he recorded his first career big league save Thursday. “I’m going to get a shirt with that on it. That’s something I can frame and put on a wall.”
Who knows if Melvin actually said that to Hendriks after the A’s advanced to the American League Divisional Series with a 6- 4 win over the White Sox at the Coliseum on Thursday.
The important part for the A’s is that they have their all-star closer at his best for the next round against the Houston Astros, the defending AL champs who regained their swagger with an opening round sweep of the Minnesota Twins.
The A’s were 7-3 against the Astros this season, and finished seven games ahead of Houston for first place in the AL West. The best- of- five series starts Monday at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, and features a handful of tantalizing subplots.
There was a benchesclearing melee Aug. 9 at the Coliseum between the two teams that resulted in suspensions to Astros hitting coach Álex Cintrón and A’s centerfielder Ramón Laureano. Cintrón had made denigrating comments to Laureano about his mother, causing Laureano to charge toward Houston’s dugout.
There’s also the tiny matter of Mike Fiers saying in November 2019 that Astros’ hitters stole signs on their way to the 2017 World Series, resulting in one of this centuries’ biggest sports scandals. Fiers pitched for the Astros from 2015 to 2017.
“I think there’s a little bit of us wanting to make sure they know what they’ve done,” Hendriks said, “and we can prove it to them that they weren’t the top team in the AL West.
“But we don’t want to be petty and let our emotions get the best of us. We played them enough times this year and had a good record. Now, we’ll go into that series and hopefully take care of business early.”
Hendriks’ confidence, seemingly never an issue, should be sky high.
One day after an exhausting and nearly catastrophic outing in Game 2, Hendriks rebounded to strike out the side in the ninth inning Thursday, helping give Oakland its first playoff series victory since 2006.
Hend r i k s t hrew 49 pitches over 1 2/3 innings for the A’s in their 5-3 win over the White Sox in Game 2 on Wednesday. With the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth inning, Hendriks was replaced by Jake Diekman, who got José Abreu to ground out and level the series.
With his performance Thursday, Hendriks became the first pitcher in at least 30 years to throw 49 pitches one day and earn a save the next.
Me l v i n said af ter Wednesday’s game that he thought Hendriks would still be available for the winner-take-all game the next day.
T hu r s d ay mor n i n g , though, Melvin wasn’t quite as sure, and said he would have to check on Hendriks later to see how he was feeling.
“Had a quick conversation with Liam earlier,” Melvin said, “said he felt good and wanted to pitch.”
Hendriks, though, wasn’t completely sure about his stuff when he first started to warm up in the A’s bullpen. But gradually he became more comfortable and as he spent time working on his slider.
Hendriks didn’t have much of a feel for his slider Wednesday, forcing him to rely more on fastballs. Thursday, he used a slider to strike out Yoan Moncada, putting it into the minds of the White Sox players that he could get that pitch over the plate.
“If I can throw at least a couple of those in there for strikes,” Hendriks said, “it changes the whole course of the inning, because they can’t just sit fastball.”
Hendriks ended the game with strikeouts of Luis Robert and Nomar Mazara, using a fastball — that ranged from 97-99 mph — almost exclusively.
“I redeemed myself up for yesterday,” Hendriks said. “That wasn’t my best foot forward ( Wednesday), but now we have a couple of days off and head over to Los Angeles.”
Hendriks is among a group of A’s players who had come up short in the 2018 and 2019 AL wild card games.
Hendriks was used as the A’s “opener” two years ago at Yankee Stadium and had a disastrous time, allowing
a two-run homer to Aaron Judge in the first inning. Oakland was never competitive in the game, which New York won 7-2.
Hend r i k s pit ched a scoreless inning, the ninth, in last year’s playoff game with Tampa Bay. His outing was basically meaningless, though, as the Rays already had a fourrun lead at that point. Oakland lost 5-1.
The A’s were put in a hole this year after losing Game 1 on Tuesday 4-1. But, playing in an actual series for the first time since 2013, the A’s were able to bounce back.
“So, apparently, we’re just not good at the first game,” Hendr ik s said. “Getting that oppor tunity after that first game to come back and be ourselves.
“That just shows the ability we have to bounce back no matter what happens about the ability to come out and whatever happens today, we’ll brush it off and come back again.”
The A’s and Astros have developed one of the best rivalries in baseball over the last three years, when Houston captured the division title and Oakland was the runner-up.
Hendriks has three saves in five games against the Astros this season, with a 1.80 ERA in five innings.
Now he and the A’s feel they’re ready to take another important step.
“I believe in this team,” Hendriks said, “and we’re going to try to stick it to them as much as we can and prove we’re the best team in the AL West.”