Hensley hopes pitches sink, slide like they did in '05

CINCINNATI – Padres pitcher Clay Hensley sat in front of the video machine and smiled at what he saw. Comparing footage of his outing Saturday in St. Louis with that of his major league debut in 2005 – when his sinker and slider dropped and swerved as if possessed – Hensley found them similar. “Everything's exactly the same,” said Hensley, who tonight will make his first major league start of the season, in Pittsburgh. “The arm angle. The delivery. The movement on the ball. It was good.” One difference between this year's Hensley and the dazzling rookie of 2005 is the small scar on his pitching shoulder. It's a remnant of the procedure last September to repair a slight tear in the right-hander's labrum. Leading up to the one-stitch repair, Hensley found it painful to brush his teeth, let alone throw a baseball. The pain... [read full story]