Cubs take commanding 2-0 lead in NLDS
A collective gasp went through Wrigley Field Saturday night when Cubs starting pitcher Kyle Hendricks was hit in the right forearm by a batted ball, causing him to leave the game.
The Cubs and their fans wound up breathing quite easily in the end.
Hendricks was OK. X-rays revealed only a bruised right forearm. And the Cubs came away with a 5-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants to take a commanding two-games-to-none lead in the best-of-five National League division series.
Hendricks, the major leagues' ERA champion, lasted 3⅔ innings, but he helped himself with the bat, as did his successor. Hendricks hit a looping 2-run single in the Cubs' 3-run second, when they took a 4-0 lead against former Cubs pitcher Jeff Samardzija.
Angel Pagan's liner hit Hendricks with two outs in the fourth. Manager Joe Maddon and the team's athletic trainer came out to visit Hendricks, who took a few warmup tosses. However, Maddon and the trainer decided Hendricks could go no longer, so they turned to left-hander Travis Wood.
“He's fine,” Maddon said. “In that particular moment, a guy gets hit in the arm and then he throws that first (warmup) pitch and really yanks it, so I was concerned when I saw that. My message to him was, ‘OK, even if you could finish this inning, more than likely you're going to go in, sit down and it's going to swell up. You got to get ice on it. You're probably not going out the next inning anyhow.”
Hendricks seemed to understand.
“It feels all right now,” he said. “In the moment, I didn't really feel it at the time, but once I tried to throw a couple pitches there, Joe and I were kind of having a discussion. He told me if there's anything at all, he didn't want me in there. And my fastball kind of coming out of my hand at the end just didn't really have a feel at the time.”
Wood, a workhorse all year, struck out Conor Gillaspie to end the inning. In the bottom of the fourth, Wood hit a one-out home run to put the Cubs up 5-2. It was the third postseason home run by a Cubs pitcher. Rick Sutcliffe homered against the Padres in 1984, and Kerry Wood hit one against the Marlins in 2003.
“It was a special moment for me personally,” said Wood, a good hitter and all-around athlete. “But just to be able to pull off the win ... was huge. (It) just feels good to be able to contribute at the plate as well as on the mound.”
Wood (1-0) did his job on the mound, as well. He worked 1⅓ scoreless innings to start a five-pitcher parade out of the bullpen that culminated with Aroldis Chapman earning his second save in two nights.
The Cubs were looking forward to Hendricks' start. The 26-year-old right-hander earned the No. 2 spot in the playoff rotation, based largely on his 2.13 season ERA and his home record of 9-2 with a 1.32 ERA. So it had to be a little disappointing he wasn't able to go deeply into this game.
“It was definitely disappointing in a way,” he said. “But you can't look at it like that. The situation happened like it did. I had to come out, and that's what we have done all year, is relied on everyone on this team. Everyone gets it done. Putting all those zeros up was huge. Putting on that extra run from (Wood) was huge. That's what the game was all about, really.”
The Cubs wasted little time jumping on Samardzija. Dexter Fowler led off the bottom of the first with a double. Two outs later, Ben Zobrist singled Fowler home.
In the second, Jason Heyward opened with a double. Javier Baez walked, and Willson Contreras lined a single to right, loading the bases. Hendricks dropped his 2-run single into center field. After Fowler flied out to move Contreras to third, Kris Bryant brought Contreras home with a single.
The Giants cut the Cubs' lead in half in the third. Joe Panik led off with a single. Giants manager Bruce Bochy decided to bat for Samardzija, and the move paid off as Gregor Blanco doubled to the gap in left-center to score Panik. Denard Span grounded out, sending Blanco to third. Brandon Belt's sacrifice fly made it a 4-2 game.