The St. Louis Cardinals will see a familiar nemesis in an unfamiliar uniform when they host the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday night.
Longtime Chicago Cubs pitcher Kyle Hendricks will start for the Angels in the middle contest of a three-game interleague series in St. Louis. He went 4-12 with a 5.92 ERA last season for the Cubs.
The Angels rallied from 2-0 and 3-1 deficits against St. Louis to win the opener 5-4 in 10 innings Monday night. Both teams have won three of four games to open the season.
The crafty Hendricks has been one of the Cardinals’ most familiar and least favorite opponents over the years. He is 14-4 with a 2.51 ERA in 28 career appearances against them, including 27 starts.
The Angels signed Hendricks, 35, to a one-year, $2.5 million contract in the offseason to add pitching depth and experience.
“He’s been through it, so he knows how to do it,” Angels manager Ron Washington said.
Hendricks is glad to share any wisdom he gathered during 11 years with the Cubs. He made 270 regular-season starts for Chicago, plus 11 starts in postseason play.
“We’re all baseball players,” Hendricks said. “It’s really not like a coach or mentorship thing. It’s just baseball. This is what it is. We’re in the building, we’re talking about each other’s bullpens or throwing sessions, watching a game on TV, talking about how to attack hitters. Just let it happen organically, not forcing it in like a mentor role or anything like that.”
Hendricks will look to build on the strong early showing by the Angels’ rotation. Los Angeles starters have combined to allow just eight earned runs over 24 innings in four starts.
Left-hander Matthew Liberatore will make his debut for the Cardinals on Tuesday. He is trying to maintain a spot in the rotation after prospering in the bullpen last season.
Liberatore went 3-4 with a 4.40 ERA last season. He had a 3.69 ERA in 64 relief outings but a 6.35 ERA in six starts.
“I thoroughly enjoyed being out of the bullpen last year, and it taught me some things that I think will be very valuable whether I’m a starter or a reliever for the rest of my career,” Liberatore told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch during spring training. “Just giving me the confidence to know my stuff plays at that level. Showing I’m capable of handling that kind of uncertainty was definitely a confidence boost.
“I think, more so, it’s being able to be a good self-evaluator on any given day. You come out of the bullpen in a tie game with the bases loaded, you don’t have time to find out if these are there.”
Liberatore allowed four runs on five hits in 3 1/3 innings in his only career start against the Angels, which came last May.
Angels center fielder Jo Adell (left hip tightness) remained out of the starting lineup Monday, but Washington had him available for pinch hitting. Adell could return to the lineup on Tuesday,
Kyren Paris has fared well filling in for Adell. He is 3-for-8 with two walks, a triple, a homer, two RBIs and three runs.
