CHICAGO — Pete Crow-Armstrong’s name was noticeably absent from the Cubs’ starting lineup for their series opener against the Kansas City Royals on Monday at Wrigley Field.

The Cubs’ breakout star suffered a bruised right knee in Sunday’s 6-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox and manager Craig Counsell decided to give him the day off. In his stead, Seiya Suzuki is patrolling center field for the first time in his career.

“He just banged it up and woke up and felt a little swollen,” Counsell said before Monday’s contest. “So, we’re just going to try to give him the day today and hopefully back in there tomorrow.”

Counsell wouldn’t say if Crow-Armstrong would be available to pinch-hit or pinch-run because they would “see how he feels as the day goes.”

Crow-Armstrong suffered the bruise during one of his slides on Sunday – he was 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles in the game. Counsell wasn’t sure which skid resulted in the bruise but suspected it might have been the one in the second inning when he was nabbed at third base attempting to swipe third.

Red Sox left-hander Garrett Crochet stepped off the rubber and caught Crow-Armstrong in a rundown. Crochet received the ball at third and seemingly blocked the bag, causing an awkward slide from the Cubs’ speedster into the bag for an easy out.

The pair argued that the play was a blocking the bag situation and he should be awarded the base, but the umpiring crew did not see it that way.

“That’s why it was a blocking the bag situation because the slide was clearly altered,” Counsell said on Monday. “If you watch the slide and replay, it’s not a normal looking slide and further reason that that was blocking the bag.”

Counsell opted to use Suzuki in center because he wanted to keep Ian Happ – who has 240 career appearances and 199 starts at the position – in left and Kyle Tucker in right. Counsell and the Cubs used Suzuki and Happ in center at times during Cactus League play this spring to have reps in case Crow-Armstrong missed any time. The second-year player has started in 98 of the Cubs’ 99 games this season. Utilityman Vidal Bruján has made the lone other start in center and has two appearances there this season.

“This is not a scenario we want to consider a lot because we want Pete in there,” Counsell said. “In spring training, we kind of used both those guys. It wasn’t a big sample for either [of] those guys.

“In the end, just leaving Ian where he’s at and just putting Seiya out there. Seiya has been running around there a little bit during practices and stuff like that.”