All’s well that ends well, but even coming back from down 10-3 on Wednesday by scoring 11 runs in the final three innings wasn’t enough to make us forget about Kyle Hendricks‘ abysmal outing. By recording only five outs, it was the shortest start of a sterling career that has nonetheless seen its share of very rough patches over the last few seasons. While he’s had five other starts with game scores lower than the 6 he generated against the Pirates, none have come since 2021 or taken place this late in the season.
That might be splitting hairs a bit since he had a -5 start against the Reds on August 10, 2019, and a 4 against the Brewers on August 12, 2021.