How many fingers you got? I would like you and Antonio Alfonseca to cross all of them that (1) Kris Bryant is able to return to starting tonight, and (2) the cortisone shot he received alleviates the discomfort and inflammation that have bothered him for well over a month now.
For now, there’s a little optimism coming from the manager’s office:
Maddon tells @LaurenceWHolmes on his weekly radio show on @670TheScore that he's optimistic Kris Bryant will return to the lineup tonight. Bryant had cortisone shot for right knee on Sunday.
— Mark Gonzales (@MDGonzales) September 10, 2019
That is not a lock, mind you, and having just gotten the cortisone shot on Sunday, I tentatively would have expected Bryant to be out tonight, and then maybe be ready by Wednesday night. We’ll see. But this is a good sign.
As for Bryant, himself, a little more from the achey third baseman:
Bryant said he hurt himself on several slides at 2nd base: “I keep sliding (awkward) into second base. I suck at sliding. I’m a big, 6’5, lanky guy that just needs to figure that part of the game out.”
— Jesse Rogers (@ESPNChiCubs) September 10, 2019
What you'll hear from Bryant, in a nutshell, is this internal back and forth about playing hurt. He doesn't want to sit out but he has to figure out when playing hurt is worse than not playing at all.
— Jesse Rogers (@ESPNChiCubs) September 10, 2019
@KrisBryant_23 on his cortisone shot pic.twitter.com/lZ3I4m9AfX
— Mark Gonzales (@MDGonzales) September 9, 2019
@KrisBryant_23 on knee discomfort pic.twitter.com/ECm5LVYBTf
— Mark Gonzales (@MDGonzales) September 9, 2019