Kyle Hendricks made a mistake in the first inning, leaving a fastball up and out over the plate for Matt Holliday, who crushed it for a homer to center.
That proved to be the only run of the game, which stinks. The outing was pretty much vintage Hendricks – if there can be such a thing so early in a pitcher’s career – with a handful of hard hit balls, but lots of grounders, a couple strikeouts, and no walks. That’s just what he does. Sometimes that will translate to a rough outing when the hits are strung together, but, for the most part, the grounders should limit the damage, and if he keeps on allowing no walks, the lack of tons of strikeouts won’t be a huge issue. I was once again very pleased.
That said, let’s wait until the league gets a second look at him before getting too excited. So far, so good. But we’re not that far yet.
Offensively, the Cubs had quite a few hard hits that went right at Cardinals; but they also struggled with the few opportunities they had.