Well, he fooled us for about an inning, but Kris Bryant is now out of the game in the bottom of the second inning, after being hit in the hand by a pitch in the top of the first.
#Cubs Patrick Wisdom takes over at 3B in the top of the 3rd. Kris Bryant is out of the game after getting hit in the hand/wrist area in the 1st inning.
— Taylor McGregor (@Taylor_McGregor) June 15, 2021
He didn’t seem to be particularly pained by it – he was certainly annoyed, but he kept his composure – and he ran the bases/played the field in the bottom of the first. But after sitting on the bench in the top of the second, he never came back out. Patrick Wisdom is in at third base for now, and we’ll update this post when he know more.
Obviously, I don’t need to tell you how big of a loss Kris Bryant would be – especially this season – no matter the length of the absence. But I will remind you that the Cubs are still in the middle of a particularly tough stretch of baseball with several key players still on the IL. And it was Bryant, who could play all over, not Patrick Wisdom, Sergio Alcantara, or any other individual who made this stretch doable.
I don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves in case this was just precautionary, but at least Matt Duffy is close to a rehab assignment.
UPDATE: I like the early reporting here. A right-hand contusion/bruise is not a break/fracture. That would be extremely good news, but we haven’t gotten any reports of X-Rays yet, so we’ll save our celebration for now.
Bryant left game with right hand bruise, per Cubs.
Presumably more to come on this developing story.
— Gordon Wittenmyer (@GDubCub) June 16, 2021