The Chicago Cubs have their offense rolling in a higher gear, but now they must adjust to the loss of Cody Bellinger.
The outfielder sustained a broken left middle finger on Wednesday when he was hit by a pitch. With Bellinger on the 10-day injured list, the Cubs start a four-game road series against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
“He’s basically gonna be shut down through the All-Star break,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “And then when we come back from the All-Star break, he’ll start the range-of-motion rehab with the finger, and then we’ll see where that takes us. It’s going to be some time after the All-Star break.”
The Cubs won five of their last six games with Bellinger in the lineup while scoring 33 runs in the victories. Bellinger owns a .269 average with a .331 on-base percentage, a .410 slugging percentage, nine home runs and 37 RBIs in 79 games this year.
Chicago called up outfielder Alexander Canario to replace him on the roster.
In their first game without Bellinger, the Cubs defeated the host Baltimore Orioles 8-0 on Thursday to complete a three-game sweep. Justin Steele fired seven innings of three-hit ball, Seiya Suzuki knocked in three runs and Dansby Swanson and Michael Busch drove in two runs apiece.
Chicago will open the St. Louis series with Kyle Hendricks (1-7, 7.53 ERA) on the mound. The right-hander retired just six batters in his latest outing, allowing two runs on four hits and two walks in a 7-0 loss to the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday.
Hendricks blanked the Cardinals on two hits for 4 1/3 innings during a relief appearance on June 14. That continued a career-long trend for Hendricks, who is 13-4 with a 2.62 ERA in 27 outings against St. Louis, including 26 starts.
Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol used his team’s rainout on Tuesday to reset the rotation. During a doubleheader against the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday, Marmol used rookie Gordon Graceffo, recalled from Triple-A Memphis as the 27th man, as his Game 2 starter.
That pushed Sonny Gray (9-5, 3.30) back to start Friday with two extra days of rest — and it will allow the Cardinals to use their top four starters in the Cubs series.
Gray was 9-4 with a 2.81 ERA in his first 14 starts this season. However, he struggled in his latest two outings, giving up 11 runs (eight earned) on 15 hits in 9 1/3 innings.
On May 26, Gray earned a victory over the Cubs while holding them to one hit in five scoreless innings. He struck out eight batters and walked two.
Gray is 5-3 with a 2.76 ERA in 12 career starts against the Cubs.
Marmol hopes to use the team’s off day on Thursday to reset his bullpen, which scuffled on Wednesday as the Cardinals took 6-4 and 8-5 losses.
“Guys went about it right the way,” Marmol said. “I would have liked at the very least to split. Unfortunately, we didn’t. We’ll take (Thursday) off and get ready for this weekend.”
The Royals did damage in the Wednesday opener against reliever Chris Roycroft (two runs in 1 2/3 innings) and in the nightcap against relievers Matthew Liberatore (three runs, 1 2/3 innings), Ryan Fernandez (one run, 1 1/3 innings) and Andrew Kittredge (one run, one inning).
“You’re allowed a day in that bullpen where you give up a couple of runs,” Marmol said. “It doesn’t happen very often. They’ve been the reason we’ve been able to get back to where we are today.”
–Field Level Media