Cubs place – The Cubs put Edward Cabrera on the 15-day injured list with a blister on his right middle finger, and Shota Imanaga followed with another rough start, allowing seven runs and three home runs in a loss to the Astros.
By the time Sunday ended, the Cubs had managed two hard hits to a pitching staff they can’t afford to keep losing.
In the morning. the team placed Edward Cabrera on the 15-day injured list because of a blister on his right middle finger that forced him out of his last start on Wednesday. By the afternoon. Shota Imanaga was dealing with his own problems—allowing seven runs. including three home runs. in six innings in the Cubs’ 8-5 loss to the Astros.
The Cubs’ rotation is already short-staffed. Matthew Boyd is on the 15-day injured list with a left knee issue. Justin Steele is shut down with a left elbow problem. and Cade Horton is out for the season with a right forearm injury. The one bright spot was Boyd’s progress. with manager Craig Counsell saying his recovery “is going very well. ” though he still has about three weeks to go.
Cabrera’s blister hasn’t been a simple fix. Counsell said Cabrera was still affected by it during a bullpen session Sunday.
“It’s just still there, is the best way to say it,” Counsell said. “The more he stepped on a pitch, the more he felt it. We’re optimistic this could be a minimum or very close to a minimum stint. But we just got to let that hot area cool down, so to speak.”
Jordan Wicks was called up from Triple-A Iowa to take Cabrera’s place. In seven starts for Iowa, Wicks posted a 4.44 ERA and covered 26 ⅓ innings. In his last three outings, though, he allowed one run while striking out 12 over 15 innings. Counsell said Wicks will be “involved” in the game Tuesday in Pittsburgh, Cabrera’s next start.
Imanaga’s outing against the Astros followed a rough trend of late. Over his last 10 ⅓ innings, he has allowed 15 earned runs, including five home runs. Sunday’s damage featured a key stretch in the fifth inning. when Christian Walker hit a three-run homer—his third homer of the series—part of a five-run frame that swung the game.
Imanaga threw his trademark splitter, but he has been struggling with it lately. Counsell pointed to execution at a critical moment.
“He made a mistake to a dangerous hitter in a spot where [there’s] not a lot of space to pitch around him,” Counsell said. “Three-run homers are tough to overcome.”
Imanaga described how the pitch changed for him as the outing went on.
“In the beginning. [the splitter] felt good. ” Imanaga said. “but in the later innings. it felt like the splitters that were trying to go down below the zone were left up in the zone. The best ones are when it starts in the bottom of the zone and drops to the hitters’ knees. That’s something I need to work on.”.
As the losses pile up, the Cubs’ pitching has been giving up too much power. The team has now allowed 73 home runs, the second-most in the majors.
“We’ve got to prevent homers better,” Counsell said. “If you give up the number of homers we’re giving up, that’s a problem.”
It’s the kind of problem that becomes even harder to manage when the staff itself is in flux. With multiple injuries already sidelining starters—plus Cabrera’s finger blister and Imanaga’s recent struggles—the Cubs are forced to keep shuffling.
“Injuries to the pitching side are going to be part of the season,” Counsell said. “We’ve got to withstand that, as we have some other stretches. We’ve got two guys [Boyd and Cabrera] coming back in probably two-ish, three-ish weeks. Certainly, some guys are going to have opportunities in the meantime.”.
For now, the Cubs are dealing with the same bitter reality: the starts they hoped would stabilize games aren’t arriving the way they need to, and every setback pushes the next outing into higher stakes.
Chicago Cubs Edward Cabrera Shota Imanaga injured list blister Jordan Wicks Astros Christian Walker Craig Counsell rotation injuries