MILWAUKEE — The Cubs could be without one of their hottest hitters for an extended period of time.

Nick Madrigal underwent imaging on his injured right hamstring and was diagnosed with a moderate strain. He was placed on the 10-day IL on Tuesday, with Patrick Wisdom taking his place on the active roster after he was activated from the IL. The plan for Madrigal is to continue moving physically, but he won’t start any baseball activities until the hamstring fully heals. 

Madrigal suffered the injury on Monday when he went after a popup in foul territory. Madrigal stayed in the game and made a catch on a popup a few pitches later. But he would come out of the game shortly after that.

“I just thought, ‘Maybe I should take myself out, precautionary, be smart about it,’” Madrigal said on Monday after the game. “I’ve played through a lot of that and so I was just trying to get ahead of it.”

The 26-year-old admitted that the brutal schedule the Cubs went through might have played a factor in his injury. The Cubs traveled to London, then flew back to Chicago and played in a game less than 48 hours later. The first two games back from the UK against the Phillies were played in historically bad air quality conditions.

Then, the Cubs played a night game with a day game after on Friday. Then, on Saturday, the Cubs endured a 3-hour rain delay, turning a mid-afternoon start time into a night game and played on Sunday at 6 p.m., five hours after the originally scheduled start time. The Cubs then played a day game the next day in Milwaukee.

“We’ve had a little bit of a rough schedule with the rain delays, a lot of games in the last couple of days,” Madrigal said Monday. “I think everyone’s just kinda feeling it a little bit. So I think my body was just not very happy today.”

The All-Star break allows Madrigal to not miss as many games as he normally would have on the 10-day IL. But, the Cubs can also use that time to play it slow with the injury and allow him to fully recover.

After all, he was one of the team’s hottest hitters after being recalled from Triple-A Iowa. Since June 9, he was hitting .328/.409/.466 with 6 extra-base hits and 8 RBI. His success gave the Cubs another weapon that turned over the lineup down in the 9-spot.

Other updates

• Adrian Sampson felt well after last night’s rehab outing with Triple-A Iowa. Sampson pitched 4 innings, allowing just a hit — a solo home run, with 1 walk and 2 strikeouts. He will continue on a 5-man rotation plan. Sampson originally landed on the IL with a right meniscus injury. 
• Brad Boxberger, who is in Arizona after landing on the IL with a right forearm strain, played catch on Tuesday as he begins a ramp up in a throwing program.