To make room on the roster for Justin Steele, the Cubs placed Patrick Wisdom on the 10-day injured list with a right wrist sprain. Wisdom aggravated the ongoing issue in the sixth inning Friday when he slid for a ball in left field.
Manager David Ross said Wisdom has been dealing with the wrist problem for around two weeks. Ross doesn’t think surgery is forthcoming for Wisdom, but the ailment needs to be treated.
“Trying to work through that, giving him some rest, still trying to work, I think this makes a lot of sense,” Ross said. “He can reset some stuff that the medical team feels like they can do. We’ll give it a couple days and start to work his way back.”
Wisdom has struggled recently, hitting just .106 (5 for 47) over his last 15 games. Of those 47 at-bats, 22 have ended with strikeouts.
“He’s an important piece, especially the way he hits lefties,” Ross said. “You could tell [Friday] he just wasn’t himself still.”
Ross said that when he and Wisdom talked Friday, Ross harkened back to when he was with Boston and placed on the injured list with concussion issues. At that time, Ross’ game was lagging but kept trying to play before the injury was diagnosed and put him on the shelf.
Ross sees that same mentality with Wisdom.
“I really could relate to him [Friday] feeling like ‘man, I feel like I’m bowing out of the fight because of an injury that I have and trying to fight through that,’” Ross said. “That’s what we’re supposed to do in our jobs. Nobody does feel 100% and Wiz knows that.”
What’s the count?
There was some confusion with two outs in the top of the ninth about whether Adbert Alzolay had walked the Orioles’ Austin Hays. The centerfield scoreboard said there were four balls but Hays stayed in the box.
After review, there were indeed four balls and Hays took first. Lack of clarity aside, the upshot was that Alzolay had to face Orioles star Adley Rutschman, who had already homered.
The delay didn’t hurt Alzolay, as he got Rutschman to ground to second to end the game.
“I think that can work two ways: it can slow the heartbeat down if the crowd’s on their feet, or it can get you distracted and get negative,” Ross said. “I thought he did a nice job waiting his time out, threw a couple pitches to Yan [Gomes] and picked right back up where he left off.”
Alzolay converted his fourth save in four chances. Before walking Hays, he had struck out the first two batters.
“To see him really just dominate down there out of the bullpen every time he comes in the game, you know you’re getting his best intensity,” Steele said. “You know that’s going to be there. It’s just really fun to watch, not just as a teammate but as a really good friend.”
Up and down
The Cubs reinstated Edwin Rios (left groin strain) from the IL and optioned him to Triple-A Iowa. Rios was already at Iowa on a rehab assignment, and is hitting .071 (2 for 28) in the majors this season.
