Liam Hendriks has pitched in only five official MLB games over the past two years. His journey hasn’t been easy. «Hasn’t been fun,» he said on Thursday. «But everyone has a different battle they go through.»
The 37-year-old pitcher is a cancer survivor and underwent Tommy John surgery in 2023. Just when he thought he would become the first Australian-born pitcher to play for the Boston Red Sox, he began experiencing discomfort in his right elbow during Spring Training. That’s why he truly enjoyed being back on the mound—and he was dominant in his comeback.
«I think I had more strikeouts today than I did all the Spring Training», said Liam Hendriks after his first outing with Triple-A Worcester. «The good thing was it felt good, but more importantly, it was location-wise. It was a little better. It was a lot easier to get to a lot of those pitches than it was in Spring».
Hendriks faced four hitters and struck out three of them. He only allowed one hit in a one inning performance.
The right handed had a complete Spring Training. He pitched 6.1 innings earlier in March so he is a step further than Brayan Bello and Lucas Giolito. He’s been feeling much better since receiving a shot in his elbow.
«It’s been going, it’s been crushing pretty well», he said on Thursday night. «And I was able to do a couple of things differently over this last week that I wasn’t able to do all Spring Training. It was just my stubborn ass, just not willing to admit I wasn’t quite 100% and trying to push through it that way».
Liam Hendriks will pitch again on Sunday in Worcester as well and then he will wait for his team decision.
READ MORE: Red Sox defensive struggles and pitching collapse: «We have to be better»
«He looked great,» said WooSox manager Chad Tracy after Hendriks’ performance. «The velocity was good—up from where it was in Spring Training. He threw some really good cutters and got a bunch of swings and misses on them. He struck out the side. Hendriks threw the ball really well.»
