2020 Cubs postseason: Kyle Hendricks will start Game 1

Kyle Hendricks started the first game of the shortened 2020 season at Wrigley Field against the Brewers, and threw one of the best games of his career, a three-hit complete-game shutout.

The Professor now gets the chance to open the 2020 postseason for the Cubs, as manager David Ross announced Tuesday that Kyle will start Game 1 Wednesday against the Marlins.

This makes sense for a lot of reasons. First, Kyle had a fantastic September, posting a 1.45 ERA and 0.884 WHIP in five starts for the month. He threw into the eighth inning in four of those five starts, and three times this season Kyle threw eight full innings or more, most in the majors.

Second, while Yu Darvish would be on normal rest going into tomorrow’s game (since he started Friday), Kyle hasn’t pitched since last Wednesday in Pittsburgh. Thus starting Hendricks in Game 1 and Darvish in Game 2 makes sense for both, giving Kyle six days between starts and Yu five.

No official roster has been released yet for the wild-card series, and no announcement of who will start Game 3 has been made, either, though it’s widely assumed Jon Lester would get the call in Game 3 if it’s needed.

As always, we await developments.