CHICAGO -- Kyle Schwarber said he was walking his dog recently when a fan shouted in his direction about their excitement for Opening Day. Cubs manager David Ross received some encouraging words from people in his neighborhood as he walked to Wrigley Field on Sunday.

For Anthony Rizzo, the moment this whole surreal baseball experiment felt real was after batting practice on Sunday. As the first baseman began to head off the field, he saw White Sox players emerging from the visitors' dugout and heading down the right-field line to warm up for the evening's exhibition.

"Just seeing another team -- it's real," Rizzo said. "It's going to be here on Friday, and there's a lot of excitement, for me personally, just to be able to be back playing baseball. I know there's no fans, but there will be baseball."

Sunday's 7-3 loss to the White Sox in the first of three exhibition games this week for the Cubs was a kind of test run for the North Siders. Come Friday, when the Brewers arrive at Wrigley Field, the games will count and Opening Day will (finally) be here. Righty Kyle Hendricks is slated to take the ball then, following this final tune-up against the Sox.

The first four innings of the exhibition showed precisely why Hendricks earned the honor of taking the ball for the Cubs on Game 1. He cut his way through the White Sox lineup with apparent ease, showing off a refined curveball with a called third strike to rookie phenom Luis Robert in the second inning.

Hendricks yielded a homer to Adam Engel in the fifth and exited the frame with two outs, given that the starter had reached 83 pitches. The goal going into the night was 85, and now Hendricks should be ready to haul as many as 100, if needed, on Friday against Milwaukee.

It was also a chance for Hendricks to experience the difference of working against a different team in an empty ballpark with artificial crowd noise pumping through the ballpark's speakers. The Cubs took the same approach in intrasquad games, but the adrenaline also rises a little more with another jersey in the box.

"I'm just excited to get back out on the field with the boys," Hendricks said this week. "It's been a lot of fun facing your own guys, getting that kind of competition, but just being able to be back out there again, real competition, facing a familiar team with my teammates, that's really all, I can't wait for it."

Ross agreed with that sentiment.

“It’s starting to feel like the season around here,” said the manager. “It definitely feels that way. It's exciting. I don't think it's quite as nerve-racking as the first game will be that counts, because it doesn't count. But it's exciting for me. I'm pumped up.”

Following Hendricks’ exit, the White Sox continued to add on against reliever Jharel Cotton, compiling four consecutive extra-base hits to fuel a six-run fifth inning. That put the final touches on the line for Hendricks, who was charged with three runs on six hits with two strikeouts and one walk.

The Cubs were originally supposed to open the 2020 season against the Brewers on March 26, but that was before the COVID-19 crisis put the sports world on hold. Now, events like Sunday's game presented the first in what will grow into a list of trivia items. For example, who had the first hit at Wrigley Field against another team?

In the first inning, Jason Kipnis -- recently rewarded with a spot on the Opening Day roster -- provided the Cubs' first hit and run of the 2020 exhibition season with a homer to dead center field. The other half of the Cubs' second base duo, rookie Nico Hoerner, contributed a sacrifice fly in the second.

The choppy and delayed nature of the crowd noise will take some getting used to for players and fans alike, but Cubs catcher Willson Contreras said that strange element will not get in the way of his emotions this season.

"I've got to think that there's fans watching me from home," Contreras said. "I know it's different, but they're still watching, they're still looking at us like heroes. And I'll be doing 110 percent to have fun."

And Schwarber knows those fans watching at home could use this welcomed distraction.

"It's going to mean a lot towards the city, and obviously just in the country overall," Schwarber said. "I think that it's going to be a good positive thing that's going on, to sit down and watch a baseball game. ... To bring back America's pastime to America, I think is going to be great."