Kyle Hendricks had the worst year of his career in 2021 and one of the reasons was an extraordinarily large number of home runs allowed — 31 in 181 innings, by far a career high.
It’s not that Hendricks’ velocity was down in 2021, he never threw with a lot of velocity. There wasn’t a really good explanation for the problem.
Hendricks didn’t allow any home runs Tuesday against the Mariners, but they pounded him around pretty good in the first inning, smacking a couple of doubles and scoring a pair of runs before Kyle could record his first out.