You know, it would seem that the Cubs are somewhat lucky to even be in the position they’re in — two games over .500 and one game out of the last wild card spot, 74 games into the 2026 season.
That’s because Cubs starting pitchers have been getting injured at an alarming rate. Tuesday night at Wrigley Field it was Edward Cabrera, leaving the game in the fourth inning. Here’s what happened:
Well. That doesn’t sound too serious. You can
probably tell where in this 5-2 loss to the Rockies this happened, too. Cabrera breezed through the first three innings, then allowed a single, double and two-run homer in the third, which gave Colorado a 3-2 lead. He did retire the next three hitters in the fourth, then walked the first two hitters in the fifth before a strikeout. Then this happened [VIDEO].
A “right hand cramp” doesn’t sound too serious, so we’ll see what happens and whether Cabrera can make his next start.
This was all after the game started well for the Cubs. For the second straight night, Pete Crow-Armstrong led off the bottom of the first with a home run [VIDEO].
The homer was PCA’s 14th — and seventh in June. More from BCB’s JohnW53:
Pete Crow-Armstrong is the sixth Cub to homer as the first batter on back-to-back days:
Rick Monday: June 25-26, 1976, at home vs. Mets
Alfonso Soriano: June 22-23, 2007, at White Sox
Soriano again: May 13-14, 2008, at home vs. Padres
Tyler Colvin: July 23-24, 2010, at home vs. Cardinals
Anthony Rizzo: June 13-14, 2017, at New York vs. Mets
The Cubs got two more runners on in the first but nothing doing. In the second, Matt Shaw led off with a single. Miguel Amaya then doubled into the ivy in right center. I don’t have video of this play but it appeared to me that Rockies center fielder Cole Carrigg went in after the ball before he put his hands up to stop the play. If you do that, I believe the ball is considered in play. But the umpires apparently didn’t see that, because they held Amaya at second and Shaw at third.
Shaw scored on a wild pitch [VIDEO].
Amaya advanced to third and there’s still nobody out. The next two Cubs were routine outs and after Alex Bregman walked, Michael Busch struck out to end the inning.
If that ball had been ruled “live ball,” Shaw would have scored easily on Amaya’s hit and Amaya might have wound up on third, where he could have scored on the wild pitch. But it didn’t happen that way, even though Craig Counsell came out of the dugout to argue.
In the top of the fifth after Cabrera departed, Ryan Rolison loaded the bases on a single by Jake McCarthy and then wild-pitched in the Rockies’ fourth run. Then a ground out made it 5-2. If Rolison doesn’t make that wild pitch, Willi Castro’s ground out would have likely been an inning-ending double play.
But it wasn’t.
In any case, the Cubs bats went mostly silent after the fourth. They had just three baserunners the rest of the way, and yet another ground-rule double, this one by Seiya Suzuki with Bregman on first and two out in the seventh, resulted in Bregman having to stop at third when the ball went into the seats down the right-field line.
Can you tell this just wasn’t the Cubs’ night? Oh, and then there’s this:
Same old, same old. Here are some postgame remarks from Counsell [VIDEO].
You can tell in that clip that Counsell’s getting kind of exasperated at the Cubs’ continued failure to hit with runners in scoring position. This was a winnable game, even with Cabrera’s injury.
The Cubs will try it again Wednesday evening at Wrigley Field (weather permitting, and that forecast doesn’t look good). Javier Assad will start for the Cubs and Sean Sullivan will go for the Rockies. Scheduled game time is again 7:05 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.
