NEWSLETTER
This is potentially quite bad, given how disproportionately important Yan Gomes has been for the Cubs’ pitching infrastructure this year.
For reasons not yet known – though he did get hit on a backswing – Gomes was replaced by Tucker Barnhart in the 2nd inning tonight:
More details soon on what’s going on. Hopefully Gomes is OK if he got hit hard in the head by a backswing. That’s scary stuff.
And, although probably not a one-to-one relation, Lane Thomas hit a home run off of Drew Smyly as soon as Barnhart entered the game.
UPDATE: The Cubs confirmed that it was the backswing hit that led to Gomes’ departure, and he’s under further evaluation:
They won’t say explicitly that it’s an evaluation for a concussion, but it’s not a huge leap to suggest that could be the case. Hopefully he didn’t suffer one, and this can just be a one day bit of caution. Scary thing to take a bat to the head.
UPDATE 2: So far, Gomes is not officially in the concussion protocol, which is good news because it means he MIGHT not miss time:
Hopefully Gomes wakes up feeling fresh as a daisy, and it was just a whole lot of understandable caution.
