Sánchez, Marlins come out swinging in offensive flurry at Wrigley

CHICAGO -- As Miami’s offense got to Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks early in Sunday’s series finale at Wrigley Field, at least one trend persisted in its plate appearances.

The Marlins were in attack mode early in their at-bats against Hendricks, and it paid off as they knocked off Chicago, 6-3, to earn a series split on the North Side.

Miami has gotten off to a tough start offensively this season, entering Sunday ranked near the bottom of the Majors in several major categories.

• Runs per game: 3.59 (27th)
• Average: .216 (27th)
• On-base percentage: .277 (28th)
• Slugging percentage: .325 (29th)
• OPS: 29th (.602)

It took the Marlins four innings to top their season scoring average, and they did it on just a handful of pitches against Hendricks, the 11-year veteran whose strength is precision thriving on pinpoint accuracy in and around the strike zone.

“Hendricks is tough because he can get you to swing outside of the zone a lot and [he gets] a lot of soft contact with a really good changeup,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “He's done it for a long time. I felt like we stayed within ourselves.”

Jesús Sánchez got Miami on the board in the second inning when he crushed a Statcast-projected 460-foot solo homer over the batter’s eye in center field. He jumped on a first-pitch four-seamer from Hendricks, hitting it 113.6 mph off the bat for his first homer of the season.

The Marlins scored three more runs off Hendricks in the fourth, taking a 3-1 lead in a span of just five pitches. Jazz Chisholm Jr. singled in an 0-1 count, and Josh Bell, Sánchez and Tim Anderson singled on the first pitches each saw.

“They just got real aggressive a couple batters in a row,” Hendricks said. “Jazz put a good swing on a good changeup there, honestly. And then a couple of good-executed pitches that they put good swings on. And then Tim put a good swing on a sinker in there. Just couldn't get him on the ground.

“So yeah, executed mostly what I was trying to do there. They just put some good swings on it.”

Chisholm Jr. singled on a changeup down and away, Bell on a four-seamer up and slightly out of the zone, Sánchez on a changeup over the heart of the plate and Anderson off a sinker on the inner half.

“We knew that he liked to play around the zone,” said Anderson, whose 22 career at-bats against Hendricks entering Sunday trailed only Bell among Marlins hitters. “But he also likes to get that first-pitch strike. He was coming at guys with that four-seam and that sinker.

“We knew that if we stayed on the inside of it, we had a better shot of getting a hit and not pulling off of it. That's what he did.”

The offensive output backed Edward Cabrera in his second start of the season. The 26-year-old allowed three runs and seven hits in five innings, with seven strikeouts and three walks.

Sánchez’s performance was encouraging for a Marlins offense that counts on him to produce against right-handed pitching. The 26-year-old has gotten off to a slow start this season, but as Schumaker pointed out earlier this weekend, that has come in a small sample size.

Sánchez entered the day with only 50 plate appearances in 17 games. He’s hit better against righties than lefties in his career, and Miami seeing many southpaw starters early has limited his opportunities.

“When you get a number of at-bats in a row against righties, your hope is that he gets hot,” Schumaker said after Sunday’s win. “The history shows that he’s going to hit righties, and that’s not surprising that he’s starting to get hot.”

As the Marlins' manager met with reporters postgame Sunday, a loud roar erupted from the clubhouse behind him. It’s been a challenging few weeks for Miami early this season, but the team’s belief in itself remains high.

They earned a hard-fought split against a quality opponent to kick off a seven-game road trip.

“I think right now, we're in harmony is how I would describe it,” Sánchez said through interpreter Will Nadal. “I think we're in sync, I think we have a good team and I hope we can keep it going.”