The Chicago White Sox defeated the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday night by a final score of 3-1. Everybody who participated in the game had to do their job in order to secure a win like that and they did. One of the biggest keys to the win was closer Liam Hendriks.
Hendriks entered the game in the 9th with a two-run lead to preserve. Usually, when Hendriks is on the mound, the White Sox are three outs away from winning. He secured the three outs and the White Sox took game one at Wrigley Field.
Hendriks had a very good and efficient performance in the win. He didn’t throw a lot of pitches for the second straight game and he is looking like the Liam Hendriks that we know and love once again. After the game, he seemed quite happy about it.
He did a postgame interview with Jason Benetti and Steve Stone of NBC Sports Chicago after the game and gave them one of the funniest few minutes you will see from a Major League Baseball player. It is clear that this guy just has so much fun playing the game and enjoys it all.
The Chicago White Sox are incredibly lucky to have Liam Hendriks on the squad.
Hendriks went into great detail on why his warmup routine was a bit shorter than usual. He had his gray road jersey on instead of his black one which was obviously a problem. He had Kendall Graveman go and get him his jersey. He even makes that kind of story funny.
It was also incredibly interesting to hear him describe how he uses his Codify graphics to prepare for the hitters that he is going to see. Those help him know what to throw to who which is very interesting. Those heat maps have clearly been helping him since he started using them in 2019.
Liam described the misty weather on Wednesday night as a Margaritaville bar in Florida which is also hilarious. It surely was cold out there and was visibly affecting certain players on both the Cubs and the White Sox. Luckily, Liam was able to get the job done.
Having a player like Liam Hendriks is perfect for the Chicago White Sox. He has the perfect attitude to be the closer of this team for a variety of reasons. He is easy-going and fun when the game is off and incredibly intense and serious when the game is going on. He is going to help the White Sox win a lot of games going forward.