Kyle Hendricks kept getting out of jam after jam, but the Marlins eventually got to the Cubs co-ace.

Hendricks gave up back-to-back singles in the 7th inning before Miami leadoff hitter Corey Dickerson smacked a 3-run homer just above the basket in left-center.

That sparked the Marlins to a 5-1 victory over the Cubs Wednesday afternoon in the best-of-3 Wild-Card Series at Wrigley Field.

“Yeah we didn’t help him out a couple times there,” David Ross said. “Just continued to make pitches. I thought he was executing pretty well when he needed to. Not a lot of hard contact. … Pitched out of some jams that we put him in.”

Hendricks said he felt really strong in the 7th inning and wasn’t even that unhappy with the execution of the fastball Dickerson hit into the bleachers.

“That wasn’t a bad pitch — he just jumped on it,” Hendricks said. “He was sitting on it and he didn’t miss it.”

The Cubs now turn to Yu Darvish to even the series Thursday afternoon.

Hendricks threw 106 pitches, giving up 5 hits and 3 walks over 6.1 innings. He pitched around jams in the 4th, 5th and 6th innings, getting some big groundball outs to strand Marlins baserunners.

Jeremy Jeffress relieved Hendricks in the 7th inning and gave up a single and a 2-run homer to Jesus Aguilar as the Marlins padded their lead amid a 5-run inning.

Ian Happ — the breakout star of the 2020 Cubs — provided the offensive lift in the 5th inning with a solo homer into the teeth of the wind in left field.

But that was all the lineup could muster against Sandy Alcantara and the Marlins bullpen on the afternoon. Happ also singled in the 3rd inning as the Cubs collected 4 hits.

“The offense is still trying to get going,” Ross said. “Give some credit to their guy. But yeah, we didn’t swing it well today. Still working. Trying to get that side of the ball going.

“We just couldn’t come across with that big swing.”

This is a Cubs team with a ton of postseason experience and they know what it’s like to play with their backs against a wall in a playoff series. 

“We got a lot of confidence,” Javy Báez said. “We just gotta come back tomorrow and play better. We gotta hit the ball. We didn’t hit today and they did. … There’s a lot of times we’ve come back in series to win it. We obviously have to win tomorrow and see what happens from there.”