The winds at Wrigley Field don’t just make for an easier or tougher home run environment, they can also make for an adventure on every pop fly.
That was the case on this pop up to the left side, which was move all around on Javy Baez and Addison Russell, the latter of whom made the fantastic catch, but tumbled with Baez in the aftermath:
Ultimately, Russell departed the game after the play, in what we hope was mostly a matter of extra caution. Joe Maddon and the trainer came out to check on Russell, and after investigating his left hand/wrist area, the decision was made to pull Russell.
More when we have it.
UPDATE: It was indeed the left wrist/hand area, but his middle finger, specifically:
Russell got his left hand/finger (the troublesome one that's caused him problems for a little while) stepped on in collision with Javy. Cubs took Addison out as a result but hope he can play Tuesday after the off day.
— Tony Andracki (@TonyAndracki23) July 1, 2018
Russell got his hand stepped on. It was the same finger that bothered him before. #Cubs
— Brian Sandalow (@BrianSandalow) July 1, 2018
Russell hurt that finger on a swing some weeks ago, so I’m sure the Cubs were extra quick to get him out of the game when it was implicated by the play. Hopefully he’ll be ready to go on Tuesday, but it’s probably going to be hard to tell until he tries to swing a bat at max effort. Having an off-day tomorrow to rest up is excellent timing, though.