Cubs right-hander Kyle Hendricks keeps Brewers bats quiet in season-opening, 3-0, victory
Kyle Hendricks #KyleHendricks
CHICAGO – It was difficult to tell which was quieter — the stands in Wrigley Field or the Milwaukee Brewers’ bats.
Chicago right-hander Kyle Hendricks made sure the Brewers remained socially distanced from rallies Friday evening, bedeviling them with his devastating changeup to lead the Cubs to a 3-0, season-opening victory, much to the delight of no fans in the Friendly Confines.
The Brewers knew it would be a strange setting playing their chief NL Central rival in venerable Wrigley with no fans allowed but it was Hendricks who kept them off-balance from the start. He blanked them on three hits, all singles by No. 9 hitter Orlando Arcia.
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After waiting through a 3 1/2-month shutdown during the pandemic and breezing through a three-week summer camp, the Brewers’ excitement over finally getting the season started was extinguished by Hendricks, who issued no walks and struck out nine, needing only 103 pitches to go the distance.
“He pitched really, really well; no mistakes,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said of Hendricks, who became the first Cubs pitcher to throw a nine-inning complete game on opening day since Bill Bonham in 1974.
“His changeup was good; he was really good on the first pitch. He did it as good as he can do it today. That was one of those games where there was never a stressful inning for him. There was no stress, no high-pitch count inning.”
As for playing in front of empty stands, Counsell said, “It’s strange. I don’t want to tell you it’s not strange. It’s strange without fans. There is no point where it’s not strange without fans. There’s really not.
“That’s not an excuse, by any means, but it’s strange without fans. If you were here tonight, it’s strange without fans.”
Brewers starter Brandon Woodruff threw the ball well during his five-inning stint, allowing only four hits while striking out five. He made one costly mistake, however, a two-run homer to Ian Happ in the third inning.
“Woody did a beautiful job,” Counsell said. “I was really proud of him in the fifth inning, grinding through that inning (after a leadoff double by Victor Caratini). He was tired; I think we saw it. But getting through that inning was a nice step by him. He gave us a chance to win.”
The proceedings began with a show of unity between the teams in support of racial justice. No player on either side took a knee during the national anthem but both teams stretched out on the foul lines and simultaneous held a long, black ribbon that symbolized their backing of that cause. During pregame batting practice, both teams wore “Black Lives Matter” T-shirts.
Then the game began, in the most unusual circumstances ever at Wrigley. The only fans to witness the action were sitting in the rooftop seats across the street, and those gatherings were more sparse than usual, perhaps because the price points were a bit steep.
BOX SCORE: Cubs 3, Brewers 0
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Hendricks immediately began carving up the Brewers with his assortment of breaking balls and changeups. He needed only eight pitches to breeze through the first inning and retired the first eight hitters, with five strikeouts, before Arcia ended the stretch of dominance by slapping a single up the middle.
In a sign of the times, as Arcia stood on first base after that hit, Chicago’s Anthony Rizzo came over and offered some hand sanitizer, which the Brewers shortstop graciously accepted.
“It surprised me,” Arcia said. “I didn’t think he was going to do that. I wasn’t prepared.”
Woodruff was a bit erratic with his fastball command in the early going but benefited from inning-ending double plays in the first and second. With one down in the bottom of the third, Nico Hoerner grounded a single up the middle and No. 9 hitter Happ blasted a two-run homer to center, jumping on a 3-1 fastball that Woodruff put in a bad place.
“That was really the only mistake tonight,” Woodruff said. “In those 3-1 counts, in the back of my mind I wanted to go with a changeup. We went with a sinker. If I execute the pitch, it’s a groundball.
“With good hitters in the major leagues, if you miss completely across the plate, that’s what’s going to happen. He sold out on the ‘heater’ and made good contact. I’ll learn from it.”
Asked how amazing that Hendricks was ready to go nine innings out of the chute after the game’s long shutdown and hurried summer camp, Woodruff said, “Oh my gosh. Sitting there watching him, it’s really impressive how he can manipulate the ball, especially with two different types of changeups.
“It’s super impressive to come out the first game and throw a complete game. He changes speeds so well.”
Of the unusual atmosphere in empty Wrigley, Woodruff said, “It was kind of eerie, in a way. Especially Brewers-Cubs, it’s always packed, no matter what day. You could actually hear yourself think out there. I caught myself talking to myself. It was weird. That’s going to take some getting used to.”
After Arcia’s single, Hendricks put down the next eight hitters, striking out the side in the fourth and inducing three groundball outs in the fifth. Arcia snapped that string of outs with his second hit, a single to left with one down in the sixth.
After lefty Alex Claudio recorded two outs in the sixth, it became a night of pitching comebacks for the Brewers. Right-hander Bobby Wahl, who missed the entire 2019 season after tearing an ACL in his right knee during spring training, returned to action and induced Willson Contreras to bounce into a force at second to end the inning.
Next up was Corey Knebel, who also sat out all of 2019 after injuring his elbow in that same spring camp and undergoing Tommy John reconstructive surgery. Pitching for the first time since the ’18 postseason, Knebel came on in the seventh and retired all three batters he faced.
The pitching stories continued to come for the Brewers in the eighth with the major-league debut of River Falls native J.P. Feyereisen, who became the 10th Wisconsin-born player to pitch for his home-state team. Feyereisen experienced the high of striking out Kris Bryant for the second out but the low of having Rizzo follow by lining a 2-0 fastball out to right for a home run that made it 3-0.
Arcia collected his third hit leading off the Brewers ninth but Hendricks stopped it there by getting the next three hitters to finish his gem.
“Orlando had a good start,” Counsell said. “I think his aggressiveness kind of helped him tonight. That’s his style, being aggressive, and it definitely paid off. We were one hitter away from getting him out of the inning. We just couldn’t get that next guy on.”
Asked if the second game might be easier, getting the first one out of the way after the long wait, Counsell said, “It’s baseball. We all did something that we’ve never done tonight. Now, we’ll know what to expect a little more. I think you also start to get an idea of what will be expected of you for the rest of the season.
“We’ve all got an idea of that. It’s different. How we’re going to handle that lack of adrenaline that fans supply us is a challenge for all of us. We’re going to have to look within and help each other with that.”
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Cubs right-hander Kyle Hendricks keeps Brewers’ bats quiet as Milwaukee falls, 3-0, in season opener