ST. LOUIS — Kris Bryant came out of Tuesday night’s Cubs-Cardinals game with right hamstring fatigue, according to the team.

Bryant made a diving catch in left field to begin the 3rd inning. But he stayed in the game for the 4th inning, including chasing down a Harrison Bader single that fell in shallow left field.

When the Cubs took the field in the top of the 5th inning, Ian Happ was in left field in place of Bryant and took over the cleanup spot in the batting order.

“I think it’s more just fatigue,” David Ross said. “Talking about trying to get him off his legs tomorrow, I know they’ve been feeling a little bit heavy. He had a ball down the line, a ball in the gap — what a great play on the diving play. He started to just get a little bit heavy legs and it just made sense to get him out of there.

“No sense in pushing somebody that didn’t have much of an All-Star Break. I was trying to get him a day tomorrow and I think it just set in with the heavy legs and the fatigue.”

Ross said the word from the Cubs trainers after the game was that Bryant feels fine and did not rule out playing in Wednesday night’s game against the Cardinals.

Shortly before the All-Star Break, Bryant dealt with some hamstring soreness and was out of the starting lineup for a couple games.

He is a free agent at the end of the season and trade chatter continues to swirl around the versatile Bryant, who represented the Cubs at the All-Star Game last week in Colorado.

Ross understood the ripple effect of taking Bryant out in the middle of a game. 

“Of course. It made me laugh,” Ross said. “I was actually giggling. I was like, ‘this is nice for the media and all the people at home. They get to speculate ’til the 9th.’ … I get all that. That’s the first thing I thought of when he did come out and I finally had a chance to reset. I said I bet the world, all you guys [in the media] — the Rosenthals, the Heymans, all those guys — I love that they had to waste some time and make some phone calls.”

Bryant leads the Cubs with an .835 OPS while cycling through five defensive positions (third base, first base, all three outfield spots).