Red Sox Pitcher Liam Hendriks Says He And His Wife Received Death Threats After Loss To Mets

Boston Red Sox pitcher Liam Hendriks was diagnosed with cancer in 2023, beat it, and returned to the mound in the best baseball league on planet Earth, but none of that compares to him losing a regular-season game to the New York Mets in May, apparently. 

Hendriks was hit with the loss during Boston's 5-1 home defeat to the Mets on Wednesday. He entered the game with the score knotted up at 1-1, but gave up three hits in the top of the seventh before giving up three runs in his two-thirds of an inning of work.

It was a tough outing for Hendriks, and some ‘fans’ reacted by sending him and his family death threats on social media.

Hendriks brought the threats to light with a post on his Instagram story after the game.

"Just as an FYI: Threats against my life and my wife's life are horrible and cruel. You need help," Hendriks wrote. "Leaving comments to tell me to commit suicide and how you wish I died of cancer is disgusting and vile.

"Maybe you should take a step back and reevaluate your life's purpose before hiding behind a screen attacking players and their family," Hendriks continued.

Instagram/Hendriks_31

It's ridiculous, but unfortunately not all that surprising, seeing Hendriks deal with threats, given how often instances like this pop up across the sports world more and more often.

Houston Astros starting pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. dealt with similar garbage earlier this month.

Speaking to reporters after recording a loss against the Cincinnati Reds, McCullers shared details of the death threats directed at his young children.

"I understand people are very passionate and people love the Astros and love sports, but threatening to find my kids and murder them is a little bit tough to deal with," the 31-year-old said. "So just as a father, I think there have been many, many threats over the years aimed at me mostly, and I think actually one or two people from other issues around baseball actually had to go to jail for things like that. But I think bringing kids into the equation, threatening to find them or next time they see us in public, they’re going to stab my kids to death, things like that, it’s tough to hear as a dad."

Unfortunately, there are some real sickos out there who get to hide behind a keyboard while sending hateful things they'd never fathom saying in real life, and those on the receiving end are expected to just deal with it.

This is as good a time as any to remind everyone that social media is not real life.