SAN FRANCISCO — The Cubs needed some length out of right-hander Kyle Hendricks on Sunday after three short starts from Zach Davies, Jake Arrieta and Kohl Stewart. But after a lot of loud contact in the first three innings of the Cubs’ 4-3 victory against the Giants, it didn’t seem like he’d make it through five, either.
But he battled, and despite allowing three early runs, he found another gear in the fourth inning. His next three innings looked completely different from the first three.
Hendricks retired 11 of the last 12 batters he faced and didn’t allow a hit after the third inning. He went 6⅓ innings and allowed three runs and seven hits, walked three and struck out five.
“This is a good stretch,” Hendricks said. “You want to play the good teams. It elevates your level of competition and elevates your game.”
Hendricks played stopper for the Cubs, helping to end their three-game skid and giving the bullpen a breather.
He has quality starts in six of his last seven outings and has won his last five starts.
“We’ve taxed that bullpen really hard,” manager David Ross said. “He picked us up today well. We could just use sort of the back-end guys, and luckily they were fresh and able to get some big outs, but nice performance by Kyle.’’
“That’s always my focus,” Hendricks said. “Always want to go deep into the ballgame and keep my pitch count down. And I’ve been doing a pretty good job of it.”
Baez leaves game with hand injury
Shortstop Javy Baez was removed in the seventh inning with an injured right hand.
During his last at-bat in the sixth inning, Baez grounded out sharply to first base, but after making contact, he never left the batter’s box and started shaking his right hand.
“Where that ball hit, hitting off the end [of the bat] sometimes just gives you a little jolt in the hand,” Ross said.
“We’ll check him out and see how he is tomorrow.”
Pederson out of lineup
Joc Pederson was not in the lineup for the series finale because of tightness on the right side of his back.
Pederson crashed into the left-field wall in the third inning Saturday on Alex Dickerson’s home run before being removed in the fifth inning.
“[He’s doing] much better,” Ross said before the game. “Talking to him this morning, it was smart to come out and make sure everything was all right. He did some work at the back end of the game [on Saturday]. Got some work done last night and feels much better today. Hopefully, things will continue to move in the right direction, but I think he’s going to be OK.”
Zobrist not auctioning World Series ring
According to his agent, Scott Pucino, former Cub Ben Zobrist isn’t auctioning his 2016 World Series ring after all.
Heritage Auctions had announced the sale on Friday.
