Cubs’ injury woes continue as pair of key starters are kept out of lineup
The injury bug that’s plagued the Cubs all season continued this weekend in Cincinnati.
But the Cubs are optimistic it won’t hamstring them more than a couple of days.
Nico Hoerner has a “small fracture in the metacarpal [hand]” and Seiya Suzuki is out of the lineup on Saturday after exiting Saturday’s loss to the Reds in the 6th inning. Suzuki was hit by a ball while stealing second base in the 1st inning. David Bote was manning second base for the second day in a row and Mike Tauchman was playing right field against the Reds on Saturday.
“Seiya’s just kinda day-to-day,” manager Craig Counsell told reporters before Saturday’s game. “He’s just sore today. I think pretty optimistic that he’ll be back in a day or two here, then even possibly usable today.
“Got a couple doctor’s opinions and both are comfortable with [Hoerner] continuing to play when the pain and swelling subsides. I think right now we have some question whether that’s kind of in a 10-day mark or whether we just kinda play this day by day.”
The Cubs will want both Hoerner and Suzuki in their lineup. The offense opened the season hot but has struggled after a 17-9 start to the season. They’re 14-24 since then and rank last in team batting average and OPS since April 27. They’re 28th in runs scored in that time, too.
An extended period of time without both would weaken a struggling lineup.
Hoerner suffered the injury on Thursday when he was hit by a 97-mph pitch from Hunter Greene on his hand. He stayed in the game but did not start Friday. Hoerner entered the game as a pinch runner in the 9th inning for Miguel Amaya.
The Cubs will likely try and avoid using Hoerner on Saturday and possibly even Sunday, depending on how he feels, to be able to backdate him on an IL stint if they go that route.
But the next few days will be crucial.
If he’s feeling better, the swelling in his hand is down and he can swing pain-free, the Cubs will put him back in the lineup. If both sides determine it will take him longer, then the IL question will be more realistic, as Counsell alluded to.
After the game on Friday, Suzuki made it seem like the injury was more than a contusion.
“After swinging, [I] felt [my] oblique tighten up a little bit,” Suzuki said through interpreter Toy Matsushita. “And from previous injuries that [I’ve] overcome before, [I] just wanted to take the most precautionary way of preventing big injuries from happening, so [I] decided to come out of the game.”
Counsell, though, was quick to point out that the injury is more bruise than muscular.
“This is not an oblique issue,” Counsell said. “This is essentially a bruise that is affecting the muscles around the swings. It’s not an oblique. It’s from getting hit last night. He kinda got hit on that side earlier in the week so it’s just kind of multiple shots to the back.”
Suzuki ran through a normal workout day Saturday morning, but there was enough pain that the Cubs opted to keep him out of the action from the start. He’s struggled with oblique injuries in the past — he missed nearly a month this season with a right oblique strain and last season he missed the first few weeks of the season with a left oblique strain.