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Quality counts for Cubs' starters

There's a saying in baseball that it all starts with the starters. It's been especially true of the Cubs.

With the first month of play complete, the Cubs enter May with their starting pitchers having thrown 10 quality starts and 10 non-quality starts.

Not surprisingly, the contrast in results is striking.

In their 10 quality-start games, the Cubs are 9-1, and their starting pitchers have an ERA of 2.16. On the other side, the Cubs are 3-7 when they don't get a quality start, and their starting pitchers have combined for an ERA of 6.14.

Here are the Cubs' quality-start leaders:

Jake Arrieta (4), Jason Hammel (2), Travis Wood (2), Kyle Hendricks (1) and Jon Lester (1). On the other side, Lester and Hendricks each have 3 non-quality starts. Wood and Hammel have 2 non-quality starts apiece.

No panic for Hendricks:

Kyle Hendricks didn't pitch poorly in Wednesday's 8-1 loss to Pittsburgh. Hendricks went 5 innings, giving up 5 hits and 2 runs. He's off to an 0-1 start with a 5.23 ERA. It was a 31-pitch fifth inning that jumped up and bit Hendricks and caused him to have an early exit. Reliever Gonzalez Germen came in and gave up 4 runs in 1 inning.

Hendricks says he's not worried.

"I'm always a slower starter," he said. "This is particularly a little slow. All 4 starts haven't been particularly great. I haven't been able to get deep into a ballgame.

"Not really a crisis of faith, but one of those points where your confidence has to change a little bit. You've just got to trust your stuff."

This and that:

Relief pitcher Edwin Jackson has not allowed an earned run over 7 innings in his 5 appearances … Center fielder Dexter Fowler takes a six-game hitting streak into the weekend. He is 16-for-46 (.348) in home games compared with 7-for-31 (.226) on the road … First baseman Anthony Rizzo has been hit by pitches seven times.

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