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Chicago White Sox' Liam Hendriks Back on Mound For First Time Since Beating Cancer

In one of the more feel-good moments of the season, Chicago White Sox closer Liam Hendriks was back on the mound Friday night, pitching for Triple-A Charlotte. It's the first time on a mound this season for Hendriks, who recently announced that he was cancer free.
Brady Farkas|
Chicago White Sox' Liam Hendriks Back on Mound For First Time Since Beating Cancer
Chicago White Sox' Liam Hendriks Back on Mound For First Time Since Beating Cancer

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Chicago White Sox

In one of the more feel-good moments of the young baseball season, Chicago White Sox pitcher Liam Hendriks was back on a mound on Friday night.

It was the first appearance of the season for Hendriks, who pitched for Triple-A Charlotte. Hendriks recently announced that he was cancer free and this is the first step on his comeback trail.

Hendriks had a 1-2-3 inning for the Knights against Gwinnett. 

Hendriks, 34, said back in January that he would be starting treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He was not put on the 60-day injured list so he is eligible to come back whenever he is ready, but we don't know how many rehab appearances he'll need.

Hendriks is one of the top closers in the league, having wrapped up 115 career saves, nearly all of which have come since 2019. He led the league in 2021 in saves with 38 for the White Sox.

Hendriks will be entering his 13th major league season and has spent time with the Twins, Royals, Blue Jays, Athletics and White Sox. He's a three-time all-star (2019, 2021-2022).

Whenever he does come back for the White Sox, he will be a big boost to a team that is the most disappointing in all of baseball. The White Sox are 11-22 on the season, although they did beat the Reds on Friday by a score of 5-4. The team has actually won four of five.

The two teams will play again on Saturday at 6:40 p.m. ET. Mike Clevinger will go for Chicago while Nick Lodolo will pitch for Cincinnati.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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