Joc Pederson exits game with injury, Cubs fall to Giants
Just a few hours after having one starting outfielder return from injury, the Cubs had an outfield starter exit the game with a knock of his own.
Joc Pederson exited Saturday night’s game in San Francisco in the 5th inning with tightness on the right side of his lower back. The Cubs had activated Jason Heyward from the injured list prior to their 4-3 loss to the Giants.
The injury arose after Pederson attempted to reach over the wall on Alex Dickerson’s home run in the 3rd inning but hit the left field wall awkwardly.
“He was kinda dealing with it when he ran into that wall,” David Ross said. “Just messed up his back a little bit. I think he hit that wall pretty hard, or awkwardly. Felt like his back just kept stiffening up. I kept seeing him pushing it there.”
Kris Bryant, who started at center, moved over to left field after Pederson’s exit and Rafael Ortega entered the game to play center.
It was a sour point in a tough game for the Cubs.
The Cubs had a 2-0 lead on a Patrick Wisdom 2-run home run, only to see their lead evaporate for the second straight night. It was Wisdom’s 5th home run in his 7th start, the most by a Cubs player in his first 7 starts since at least 1906.
“Got a good swing on a fastball that he left over the middle of the plate,” Wisdom said. “It’s tough with a guy like that, you might see one good pitch to hit and fortunately I was able to put a barrel on it.”
Against Kevin Gausman, the Cubs ran into a buzzsaw. The righty allowed just 2 hits in 7 innings of work and struck out 10 as he picked up his 7th win of the season. They mounted a late rally in the 9th inning, capitalizing on a pair of defensive miscues by the Giants and getting the go-ahead run to second, but could not complete the comeback.
“I thought their pitcher was pretty darn good,” Ross said. “The characteristic of this team kind of showed up there late once we got him out of the game.”
Cory Abbott, who the Cubs recalled from Iowa prior to Saturday’s game, pitched 2 innings in relief striking out 1 and allowing 1 hit and 1 walk in relief.