Cubs earn rare series win even as injury losses pile up originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
The Cubs could barely walk by the time the got out of San Diego Wednesday but earned a rare series win against all odds in by far their most eventful series of the season for all the wrong — and a few right — reasons.
Even in victory Wednesday afternoon in a game that clinched their first series win since the season’s opening weekend, the bigger news was a loss — as shortstop Nico Hoerner exited with a sprained ankle he suffered by running into umpire Dan Iassogna while trying to get in position for a relay throw from center field in the first inning.
He stayed in the game just long enough to bat in the top of the second but didn’t take the field in the bottom half of the inning, and the team told reporters after the 7-5 victory that x-rays were negative but that the severity of the injury could not be determined until the swelling subsides and he’s re-examined in the next day or so.
Yikes.
Hoerner’s painful day came one day after the Cubs put second baseman Nick Madrigal on the injured list because of a back issue — crushing a middle-infield position area that already suffered from little to no depth behind the starters.
And it only took a few innings to see that impact of that deficit, when sloppy fielding behind Scott Effross, including a couple of subpar plays by replacement shortstop Ildemaro Vargas, eventually led to a run that looked big when the Padres scored two more in the seventh to tie the game 5-5.
But if you think the guys in the middle looked beat up by the time the Cubs escaped San Diego, you should have seen the other guys — as in many of the rest of an already struggling, undermanned team that suddenly has been overwhelmed by injuries and COVID-19 absences.
The Cubs have literally half their projected 26-man roster on the injured list, including five sidelined in the last four days alone: pitchers Marcus Stroman and David Robertson on the COVID IL, left-hander Sean Newcomb (ankle), outfielder Michael Hermosillo (quad) and Madrigal.
And that doesn’t even count Hoerner or April’s Rookie of the Month in the NL, Seiya Suzuki, who hasn’t been in the lineup since also suffering an ankle injury in Monday night’s game.
Throw in the fact that they’ve won only five of their last 20 games even with the San Diego wins, and you start to wonder if these guys might ever catch a break that doesn’t involve a bone.
Really. Losing your shortstop because of a collision with an umpire?
Come on. How does that happen?
It didn’t stop Alfonso Rivas, who had the winning two-run single in the eighth, to talk about how “huge” the series win felt and what it might mean when he was interviewed after the game on the broadcast.
“We were going through some tough patches,” he said, “but I think we’ve flipped the page.”
He might as well have been talking about the pages of endless medical reports.
The Cubs haven’t so much as named a starting pitcher for their upcoming series in Arizona beyond Drew Smyly in Friday’s opener, although Justin Steele’s sore thumb is said to be improving enough that he might return for a start by the end of the weekend.
They can’t say whether they have a shortstop not named Vargas or Jonathan Villar who will be fit for a game the next time they play.
Andrelton Simmons, the four-time Gold Glove shortstop signed to that one-year deal in March, still hasn’t played a game for the Cubs because of injuries (mostly a shoulder) but told Iowa media this week he might be done with his minor-league rehab assignment and ready to join the team by sometime next week.
Maybe Stroman and Robertson will be back soon? No word lately on pitching staff linchpin Alec Mills since quad tightness interrupted his rehab from back tightness.
Maybe outfielder Clint Frazier (appendectomy) is back sometime in the next week or so, and infielder David Bote (shoulder) within a couple weeks or so after that?
Hoerner and Suzuki in Arizona? Madrigal and Simmons next week at home?
Ethan Roberts? Adbert Alzoly, Brad Wieck, Newcomb, Hermosillo?
Ouch.
Could be worse, though. Just ask Codi Heuer, the promising young reliever, who underwent Tommy John surgery in March — the only one of the big-league IL group considered out for the season.
At least the Cubs have a well deserved, much-needed day off Thursday.
And they did come away with that “huge” series win — which came within about a foot (and a deadened baseball?) of being a Cubs sweep because of a Frank Schwindel blast that died at the wall Tuesday night.
“I think there’s some really good days ahead for Chicago,” Rivas said. “We’re going in with confidence into our next series.”
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Cubs Lose Nico Hoerner (Ankle) But Beat Padres for Rare Series Win - NBC Chicago
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