Stars Aligning, Hendricks to Start Game 1

The official word just came out, it looks like Kyle Hendricks will start game one of the NL Wild Card Series verse the Miami Marlins.

Hendricks will go Game 1 for the Cubs followed by Darvish at Game 2. David Ross says, "I feel like I have two aces."

— Sahadev Sharma (@sahadevsharma) September 29, 2020

Here’s a live look-in to Hendricks reaction.

Yu Darvish has pulled away and performed as a true ace. After his first start, which when watching it was worse than it looks on paper, he straightened out and became a Cy Young candidate. Darvish finished the season 8-3 (leading baseball in wins), a 2.01 ERA (fourth in MLB, second in NL), 0.961 WHIP (fourth in the NL), 93 strikeouts (tied for fourth in NL), all in 76 innings pitched (only behind Kyle Hendricks in the NL).

Hendricks gets the Game One nod after yet another strong season which he threw 81.1 innings, owned a 2.88 ERA, 0.996 WHIP, and led baseball with an 8.0 K/BB ratio. Not only that, Hendricks’ 2.98 ERA in the postseason is the second lowest (qualifying) ERA in Cubs playoff history. And… who cannot forget the closeout game where he outdueled Clayton Kershaw in Game Six of the NLCS. A game that sent the Cubs to their first World Series since 1945.

Then he followed that up with a Game Seven nod in the World Series, outperforming the AL Cy Young, Corey Kluber. Not to mention, he only allowed 1 ER in two games in that World Series.

Either route would be a solid option. I know Darvish gets a bad rap for the 2017 World Series performance (which you can throw the results in the same garbage can the Astros banged when cheating) but outside that series, Yu has a 2.78 ERA in 29.1 playoff innings. He’s also added 25 Ks along with a pretty solid showing in the MLB Postseason.

David Ross also officially named Jon Lester as the Cubs Game Three starter. While he didn’t have a fantastic 2020 season, Lester is one of the most accomplished playoff pitchers of all-time. To be fair… if you remove Lester’s performance against the Chicago White Sox (15 earned runs in 7.1 IP) he owned a respectable 2.95 ERA. Considering how hard the White Sox hit lefties in 2020, it probably wasn’t fair to toss Lester out there against them.