April showers bring more than May flowers
What is it about April that turns Mark Hendrickson into Sandy Koufax?
Hendrickson hasn't lost an April start since 2006 against the Yankees, when he pitched for the Rays. He was 4-0 with a 2.56 ERA in five April starts covering 31 2/3 innings last year.
"I'm very much aware of what his record has been in April," manager Dave Trembley said. "It probably has something to do with arm strength and him feeling good coming out of camp. And like he said, he geared himself all winter mentally and physically to start.
"As long as you locate and got life on your pitches, you're going to have a chance to be successful. I hope he pitches like it's April every time he's out there."
When Trembley visited the mound in the sixth inning after Carlos Pena singled, Hendrickson said "Dave, I gave it everything I had." That confirmed what Trembley already knew had to be done. He brought in Danys Baez to face Pat Burrell.
"I knew it was the right time to get him out of there," Trembley said.
Said Hendrickson: "I told Dave when he came out that's pretty much all I had for him tonight. It's part of the process early in the year."
Here's more from Trembley on Hendrickson's performance:
"I thought he basically pitched backwards. I thought the second, third time around he showed them his fastball early. He pitches to contact, but early in the game he was using his fastball. And the second and third time he started a lot of hitters off with his breaking stuff and he doubled it up. And the one inning that he had less than 10 pitches - three up, three down - I thought that was the key for him. That got him through, that got his pitch count more in order again. I thought it was imperative that he tried to get us through six.
"Like I said he gave us everything he had and we're real proud of him. He did a tremendous, tremendous job."
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Categories (click for archive)Roch Kubatko | Roch Kubatko Orioles |
Very good performance from Mark tonight. I was thinking about it today and hoping he would do well and he did.
Can you ask him how many of his fans and relatives from York, Pa came out to see him tonight? He has a following and Mark is our local guy.
How long is Adam Jones under contract with us??
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More than three years. He isn't arbitration-eligible yet. - Roch
Nice job by Hendrickson tonight. Yes, he "pitches to contact." Let's hope the contact is not always a blue darter, a frozen rope (thank you, Chuck) and the guys are there to make the plays.
Baez, on the other hand, is pitching to "no contact." He is looking sharp and his comeback makes a nice story for him and the Birds.
Roch, any word on the attendence figures for tonight?
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I posted them in an earlier entry. 22,866 (122,863 in four games this season). - Roch
Shows what a lot of us naysayers who post comments know!
I was at the game, and he definitely had his ups and downs. I still can't possibly tell you how we got out of that second inning without a run... That must have taken 25 minutes for the top half of the inning. But when its all said and done, that is an outstanding job from our #4 guy. We can only hope that he can give us more starts like that throughout the year.