Red Sox Reliever Addresses Frustration About Role After Loss To Mets

Liam Hendriks waited over a year to pitch for the Boston Red Sox.

Now, he just wished the Red Sox would use him more than they have.

“I feel like I haven’t been pitching enough and if you wanted me to be me, I got to pitch,” Hendriks told reporters following Boston’s 5-1 loss to the New York Mets at Fenway Park on Wednesday night. “I will rust before I wear out. At the end of the day, I’ve got to reward them by throwing me by getting guys out. And if I’m not doing that then I don’t deserve to pitch.”

Hendriks said his frustrations are a result of being the only available reliever — Sean Newcomb wasn’t available after throwing 79 pitches Sunday — to not pitch in heavy bullpen games on Monday and Tuesday against the Mets.

The bullpen tossed a combined 11 innings by using six different relievers, but Hendriks wasn’t one of them. Hendriks, who spent all of last season rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, had made 10 appearances and posted a 3.38 ERA and 1.219 WHIP prior to Wednesday’s contest.

Hendriks is clearly frustrated and confused over his role and he said he talked to the team about it.

“No rhyme or reason. I have no idea,” Hendriks told The Boston Globe prior to the game. “It’s actually a source of contention that I’ve had with (the team) and I’ve had multiple conversations about.”

Red Sox manager Alex Cora understood where Hendriks was coming from.

“We have to use him,” Cora told reporters prior to the game, per MassLive’s Chris Cotillo. “That’s on me. That’s on the pitching department. We’ve got to trust him. There’s a reason he’s here. Been there, done that. Right now, numbers-wise, he has been solid. The fastball is trending up, which is great. He has been able to bury the slider and the curveball, which is great. We have to use him.”

The Red Sox did use Hendriks in a critical situation in the series finale against the Mets with it pre-determined that the team wasn’t going to push Garrett Crochet, who was removed by Cora from the game after tossing 85 pitches in 5 1/3 innings.

Hendriks struck out Pete Alonso and Mark Vientos to end the sixth, but then faltered the next inning. The veteran right-hander allowed three straight hits to start the seventh before getting pulled. Brennan Bernardino allowed all three inherited runners to score, which saddled Hendriks with the loss.

Hendriks is still trying to get fully back to his three-time All-Star self and believes he deserves the chance to show he can do that on a regular basis.

“Just there was a couple games where I was like the last guy in the bullpen and it’s a new experience for me,” Hendriks said. “I felt like I’d been pitching well enough to get trusted in a couple of those situations and it didn’t come to fruition. We had a couple chats and I got in there today and didn’t quite work out. … At the end of the day, regardless of any situation, I got to go out there and get the job done when I do pitch and today I didn’t.”