Oct. 21--Cameras flashed and rally towels swirled as Kyle Hendricks delivered the first pitch of the most important start of his career.
The Cubs starter for Game 3 of the National League Championship Series against the Mets took the mound Tuesday night at Wrigley Field attempting to stop the bleeding caused by losses in the first two games of the best-of-seven series.
Hendricks lasted four innings during the Cubs' 5-2 loss to the Mets and didn't factor in the decision. The right-hander allowed two runs and five hits while walking one and striking out four.
"It was a little bit of a battle," Hendricks said. "I wasn't sharp. I had to struggle to make good pitches.
"In the end, I made a lot of pitches down and got some ground balls and got out of a few innings. That's all you can do when you're trying to battle."
The outing was reminiscent of Hendricks' season overall, one he described as "a crazy year for me in particular, a lot of ups and downs."
Game 3 began with a shaky first inning during which Hendricks allowed a run on two Mets hits. The 25-year-old was aided when batterymate Miguel Montero cut down Curtis Granderson -- who had reached on an error -- trying to steal, but Yoenis Cespedes' two-out double nicked Hendricks and the Cubs.
It took Hendricks 18 pitches to get out of that inning, but he settled down and four consecutive outs -- including strikeouts of Granderson and David Wright to start the third -- slowed the Mets. Daniel Murphy drilled a long home run to center on Hendricks' 51st pitch of the night to put the Mets ahead in that inning.
A scoreless inning later, the pitcher's night was over when manager Joe Maddon had Chris Coghlan pinch hit for Hendricks with two outs in the fourth.
With aces Jake Arrieta and Jon Lester on the staff, Hendricks was an unlikely candidate to play pitching hero, but after the veterans fell in Games 1 and 2, that was the position in which he found himself. Hendricks embraced it, saying: "This is why you play the game. This is why you want the ball."
Hendricks took the ball 32 times during the regular season and finished 8-7 with a 3.95 ERA. He worked closely with pitching coach Chris Bosio to tinker with his mechanics at various points of the season, including after a rough outing against the White Sox on Aug. 14 in which Hendricks yielded five runs on eight hits in 3 1/3 innings.
"I had to work real hard with (Bosio) and made some adjustments," Hendricks said. "And I've felt really good in my last four, five, six starts."
Hendricks said mechanics weren't an issue Tuesday.
"The mechanics felt good," he said. "It was just one of those days where (I) was ... just a little bit off here or there. You're not going to have your stuff every time."
Montero said of Hendricks' effort: "He gave us a chance to win. He kept us in the game. They had a couple of cheap hits here and there and a couple of good hits, (but) overall I thought he threw the ball well."
ckuc@tribpub.com
