DENVER — The end of Kyle Hendricks’ season has been much like the rest of it.
“Up and down, for sure,” the Angels’ right-hander said. “I’m proud of bouncing back. I feel like there was so much left that was undone. There was a lot of bad, a lot of negatives. But I think there’s been a lot of positives lately.”
Over his last three starts, Hendricks pitched seven scoreless innings against the Minnesota Twins, then he gave up nine runs against the Seattle Mariners, and then he shut out the Colorado Rockies for seven innings on Saturday.
His performance against the Rockies — in the 300th start of his career — was the story of the game until Mike Trout belted his 400th homer in the eighth inning.
A day later, Hendricks said he was happy to take a back seat to Trout.
“It was so cool to be a witness to Mike yesterday,” Hendricks said. “Four hundred is unbelievable. It’s been such a treat to be his teammate.”
Hendricks, however, also had an impressive performance, scattering three singles while blanking the Rockies in baseball’s best hitters’ park. Hendricks has a 2.74 ERA in seven career starts at Coors Field.
“You have to really stay simple,” Hendricks said. “And I think my stuff maybe plays into that, not trying to do too much or overthrow anything. And I think that tends to lead to a little bit more success here.”
Hendricks, 35, has one start left this season. He has a 4.79 ERA over 159⅔ innings in 30 starts.
He’ll soon the face the question of how much longer he wants to pitch. He’ll be a free agent this winter.
“It takes a lot of hard work,” Hendricks said. “How my game plays at this level takes everything out of me. So I really have to focus on the day in and day out. That’s where I try and keep myself. I’ve still got one more (start) in the season. I’ll try and finish out as strong as I can. At the end of the season, I’ll always sit down and just see how I feel, talk to the family, see where everybody’s at.”
ALDEGHERI’S LESSON
Left-hander Sam Aldegheri, who will start on Tuesday, said the two-inning mop-up performance in July was a key learning moment for him.
Aldegheri, who had just been called up to provide length for the bullpen, gave up five hits and he walked four against the Texas Rangers on July 8.
“After the Texas game, I knew something was wrong,” Aldegheri said. “I just went down and was like ‘OK, now we’ve gotta switch the page and change something, because that’s not who I am.”
Aldegheri said he went back to Double-A with an approach to be more aggressive in the strike zone, and to focus on quick outs and not strikeouts. Since then he had a 2.52 ERA in 10 minor league starts, including one at Triple-A.
NOTES
Interim manager Ray Montgomery said he considered giving Trout the day off on Sunday, “to give him a breath,” after the grind of pursuing 400 homers. It took Trout six weeks to go from 398 to 400. Montgomery ultimately decided that “hitters love hitting here,” he wanted to have Trout lead off and get at least “a few more at-bats.” …
Catcher Logan O’Hoppe was in the lineup on Sunday afternoon after catching on Saturday night. Typically, a catcher would not play a day game after a night game. Montgomery said he wants O’Hoppe to finish the season on a good note. O’Hoppe had two hits, including a double, on Saturday. “He said he felt good,” Montgomery said. “I said ‘if you feel good and you’re honest with me, we’ll get you back in there.’” …
Outfielder Jorge Soler (back) continues to ramp up his activity in Arizona, even though at this point it seems unlikely that he would be activated before the season ends. “Whether he’s activated or not, we’ll see,” Montgomery said. “But in terms of the mentality, he knows his body is in a good spot. Going into the offseason, that would be huge.”
UP NEXT
Royals (LHP Cole Ragans, 2-3, 5.16) at Angels (LHP Sam Aldegheri, 0-0, 10.38), Tuesday, 6:38 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network West, 830 AM