Uh oh, Nico

His injury could mean regular time for a good young player, or Nick Madrigal

The Cubs lost more than another game last night when their erratic approach at the plate made the Cardinals’ asinine decision to strip Willson Contreras of his catching duties look good.

In the fifth inning, running on a ball that should have scored him to give the Cubs a 2-1 lead, Nico Hoerner pulled up lame. The preliminary diagnosis was left hamstring tightness.

Left hamstring?

Well, I guess that means he’s going to be all right.

It was a weird night at Wrigley. Willson Contreras returned and the Cubs had a video tribute that they clearly did last July before Jed decided, “Ahh, why bother?” and didn’t trade him. Willson got a few boos but mostly cheers. He got a slightly more positive reaction before his second inning at bat. The Cardinals had filled out the extensive paperwork that MLB requires for a player to not receive a pitch clock violation if fans decided to actually cheer for them before an at bat.

Then Willson hit three rockets, one of which Dansby Swanson made a great play on. Contreras’ sixth inning double (which Marquee’s shoddy camera work made look like a 700 foot bomb to left center) gave the Cardinals a 2-1 lead. And then in the seventh he hit a grounder to third with one out and runners on the corners. Patrick Wisdom inexplicably looked home and then threw to second and the relay throw to first was too late to get the double play so it was another RBI for Willson and the Cardinals went up 3-1 and held on for their second win in their last 10 games. Fun.

We don’t know the severity of Nico’s injury, and given the track record of the Cubs’ training staff neither do they, nor will they for six or eight weeks. He pulled his hamstring in 2021 and missed six weeks, so this could be bad.