Hendriks roars, breaks bats, closes win

Knowing there would be no tomorrow if they couldn’t pull out a victory in Game 3 of the American League Division Series, the Athletics unleashed closer Liam Hendriks for the final three innings of their 9-7 win over the Astros at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday.

Game	Date	Result	Highlights
Gm 1	Oct. 5	HOU 10, OAK 5	Watch
Gm 2	Oct. 6	HOU 5, OAK 2	Watch
Gm 3	Oct. 7	OAK 9, HOU 7	Watch
Gm 4	Oct. 8	HOU 11, OAK 6	Watch

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The question might be what happens now after the 31-year-old extended his team’s season with a sterling 37-pitch scoreless effort. But for Hendriks, that’s not going to be an issue. If needed again in Thursday’s Game 4, he’s ready to keep right on rolling.

After all, Hendriks threw 49 pitches across 1 2/3 innings of Oakland’s victory over the White Sox last week in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series, then bounced back the following day to throw 19 more and earn the save in the clinching victory of that three-game set.

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“I threw less pitches than I did last time, I just happened to double my actual innings and outs,” said Hendriks, who became the fifth A’s pitcher to finish a postseason game with at least three scoreless innings out of the bullpen. “Yeah, I’ll be ready to go tomorrow. I don’t think there’s any doubt. If I’m the best man for the job, I want the ball. If they see someone else they think is going to be better in a situational thing, I’ve got no ego. I’m very ready to see that. But I want the ball. No matter what situation, I want the ball, and I want to try to get us to that Game 5 now.”

It’s that bulldog attitude that led manager Bob Melvin to entrust his closer with the longest outing of his career since a 4 1/3-innings appearance in the 2015 postseason while with the Blue Jays. With Hendriks not being used in the first two games of the ALDS, Melvin was going to pitch him at some point in Game 3, and that point came a little earlier than normal after the Astros took a 7-4 lead through six innings.

“He told me to be ready early, so apparently I was ready early,” Hendriks said with a laugh. “I got down there in my normal time and took the call in the sixth inning when Jake [Diekman] was out there, and I just kind of ran with it.”

The only other Oakland pitcher to go three-plus innings for a win or save out of the bullpen in a potential elimination game was Vida Blue, who earned a four-inning save in Game 5 of the 1972 AL Championship Series.

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Hendriks needed just 25 pitches to get through his first two frames on Wednesday, though a leadoff single by Carlos Correa and a catcher’s interference call with Kyle Tucker at the plate raised the blood pressure in the eighth. Those two moved to second and third on a groundout, but Hendriks struck out pinch-hitter Josh Reddick to end the threat.

Hendriks punched the air as his 98-mph fastball exploded past Reddick, who turned and broke his bat on the ground in frustration. The two played together on the A’s in 2016, and Hendriks relished the matchup against his long-time friend … and the end result.

“I may give it a day or until end of series before I text him, because that might be a bit of a low blow,” Hendriks said. “But that’s what you want. You want passion, whether it’s good or bad, you want the aggression. You want guys being exalted when they do something good or [angry] when they do something bad. You want that reaction because that’s how much these games mean to everybody.”

A quick conversation between Hendriks and Melvin in the dugout convinced the manager that his man was OK to continue, and Hendriks proceeded to retire the top of the Astros’ lineup in order in the ninth.

“You’d have had to wrench that ball out of my hand,” Hendriks said. “I’m not going to give it up.”

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Which is exactly what the A’s have come to expect from the Australian fireballer.

“When he’s in the game, there’s a calming feeling, because he wants the ball and to get after it,” said Chad Pinder, whose three-run homer in the seventh put Hendriks in position for the win. “Liam time and again has closed the door. He’s the guy we want out there in the ninth inning. And it just happened to be the seventh, eighth and ninth today.”