Prior to Wednesday night’s game, the Cubs placed Jake Arrieta on the 10-day injured list with a right hamstring strain. 

Cubs’ manager David Ross believes Arrieta has been dealing with the issue for some time and has tried to pitch through it. In Arrieta’s last eight starts, he is 1-7 with a 9.67 ERA and opponents have a 1.046 OPS against him. 

“It’s one of those things where I think he thinks he’s fine. Something’s going on with the way he’s pitching. I think it’s just best if we take care of that, make sure that’s not the cause of what’s going on with him,” Ross said.

Ross is hopeful the time off will allow Arrieta to regain his confidence. With the All-Star break next week, Ross thinks this will be a good time for Arrieta to get right physically and mentally and come back with a plan. 

“The freedom of taking a little bit of a break, physically, it can also free up your mind, to get clear on what you want to do. It gives you a time to work on things that we can put a plan together with our pitching group and try to see where we feel like things are going awry,” Ross said. 

“Physically when he’s in the right place to be able to do what he needs to do to make those adjustments, I think will help that. Mentally, sometimes just a little bit of a breather of not having to go out and compete in a big-league game and try and do a lot for your team. That’s putting a lot of pressure on yourself to perform for our team right now and that also is a mental strain that I think he takes a lot of pride in not being able to be the person he expects to be.”

Williams’ performance

Trevor Williams was solid in his return to the mound on Tuesday night. Williams gave up 3 runs and had 3 strikeouts in 3.2 innings of relief. It was Williams’ first appearance back in the big leagues after suffering an appendectomy on May 31.  

“I thought Trevor did good,” Ross said. “Filled some holes when we needed a big outing out of the pen. Got him stretched out. It was his bullpen day, so we got him some length which was nice.”

With Arrieta on the IL, Williams is a possibility for the 5th spot in the Cubs’ rotation. He threw 74 pitches on Tuesday, building off his last outing in Triple-A where his pitch count was in the high 50s. 

Injury updates

Kris Bryant exited Wednesday’s game against the Phillies in the 4th inning with right hamstring tightness. Patrick Wisdom replaced him in the lineup at third base. 

David Bote, who’s been out since May 30 with a separated shoulder, fielded balls in pregame warmups. Bote would give the Cubs another batting option in the lineup.