chicago_suntimes
The Chicago Cubs' path to the postseason hit a potential snag on Wednesday night when right-hander Kevin Gausman, a key trade-deadline acquisition, injured his left shoulder in a 3-2 defeat to the Miami Marlins. Gausman, who was expected to play a significant role in the playoffs after his World Series experience with the Toronto Blue Jays last season, hurt the shoulder while diving for a ball at third base in the sixth inning.
He left the game with a trainer, and the Cubs are uncertain about the extent of the injury. With the postseason just days away, the team can only hope it's not serious. "I dislocated this shoulder in high school, a long time ago," Gausman said. "I didn't necessarily do the exact same thing, but I just kind of banged it good. I felt fine until I stood up to check the other runner, and it felt like the left shoulder was pretty weak at that point. It still feels pretty weak, but we'll see how it feels tomorrow and get some treatment. Hopefully, it's just a couple-day thing. I hope I wake up and feel great tomorrow. But you never know. I'll get on some medicine and get some treatment, try to get in front of it tonight. It's just a wait-and-see type thing."
Even if the injury is minor, the Cubs can ill afford another pitching concern, especially with inclement weather in Boston forcing adjustments to their final regular-season series against the Red Sox. Two of those games will now be part of a Friday doubleheader, and they carry significant weight as the NL wild-card race remains tight and home-field advantage in the opening round hangs in the balance.
Managing the weekend's scheduling chaos and setting up the playoff rotation as desired would be tough enough; any limitation on Gausman would complicate matters further. However, the Cubs still have a strong hold on a playoff spot. To miss the postseason entirely, they would need to lose all four remaining games while the Arizona Diamondbacks win all four of theirs. Yet, the first two games of this final week have been disappointing, with the Cubs dropping both to a Marlins team that is below .500. The offense has struggled mightily, going 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position on Wednesday after a 1-for-18 performance in such situations on Tuesday. Dansby Swanson's broken-bat two-run single briefly put the Cubs ahead, but a video-reviewed double-play ball turned into an RBI groundout that gave Miami the lead for good in the next inning.
Key Analysis
"It always seems like the baseball gods are going to test you, and it always seems to come at a time when you don't want it to," Gausman remarked. "But those are the things that are going to happen at this time of the year. It's how you bounce back when those things do happen, when you get punched in the face. This group, since I've been here, has been resilient, and they were a lot before I was here. You can bank on those guys being ready to go."
Originally reported by chicago_suntimes.