Cubs right-hander Cade Horton -described exiting the game Monday afternoon against the Brewers in the third inning for a blister as “really frustrating.”
“Big series, big game, and just the competitor in me wants to be out there and try to give my team a chance to win,” Horton said after the Cubs’ 7-0 loss. “But obviously, it’s probably better, looking at it from a bigger picture, to go ahead and call it before it gets worse and end up missing a lot of time for it.”
Horton said he’d had a callus on the middle finger of his throwing hand all week. But in the second inning Monday, he felt what had become a blister after throwing a slider. It was especially problematic on that pitch and his changeup. By the third inning, it was clearly affecting Horton’s performance.
After two scoreless innings, with a pair of singles allowed, Horton gave up a one-out solo home run to the Brewers’ Brice Turang and a line-drive double to Caleb Durbin.
Head athletic trainer Nick Frangella and manager Craig Counsell jogged out to the mound. After a conversation and a warm-up pitch, Horton remained in the game.
He got the next batter, William Contreras, to ground out on a one-hopper to shortstop Nico Hoerner. But then Horton walked Christian Yelich.
After another mound visit, this time from catcher Carson Kelly and pitching coach Tommy Hottovy, Horton hit Andrew Vaughn with a pitch on a 2-0 count, missing the zone on all three pitches.
Counsell and Frangella joined Horton again, this time pulling him from the game with two outs in the third inning.
Horton, who owns a 3.08 ERA in his rookie season, had allowed one run in his previous five starts combined.
Counsell didn’t want to forecast Horton’s readiness for his next turn in the rotation before seeing how he felt resuming throwing later in the week. Horton, who said he deals with a similar blister just about every year, was more bullish.
“I think I’ll make my next start,” he said. “It’s nothing crazy.”
Roster moves
Before the afternoon game Monday, the Cubs optioned right-hander Javier Assad, who held the Pirates to one run in a four-inning start Sunday, to Triple-A. And they recalled left-handed reliever Luke Little. Right-hander Gavin Hollowell served as the 27th man.
They planned to activate right-hander Jameson Taillon from the 15-day IL (strained right calf) to start Game 2, Counsell said. But the evening game was postponed because of thunderstorms and rescheduled for Tuesday afternoon.
Left-hander Matthew Boyd is still scheduled to start Tuesday, but he will take Game 1 of the doubleheader, the Cubs announced. Taillon is set to start Game 2.
Digging into the deadline
Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer emphasized at the trade deadline that the Cubs didn’t acquire a marquee starter with multiple years of club control because the asking price would have been too big of a hit to their future.
On Monday, he delved deeper.
“In the past, the players that everyone was clamoring for us to trade to get better in the moment were Cade Horton and [Pete Crow-Armstrong] and Matt Shaw and Daniel Palencia and Owen Caissie. And all those guys are helping us win,” Hoyer said. “There’s always an instant gratification of a certain deal. But to make any of the really super-impactful deals at the deadline that we were asked to make, it wasn’t going to be one of those guys; it was going to be multiple of those guys that were performing for us.”
Optimism for Amaya
The Cubs have been encouraged by the way catcher Miguel Amaya’s left ankle has responded to treatment since he sprained it in the Cubs’ 4-1 victory against the Blue Jays last Wednesday.
“The night of the injury, [we were] concerned he was not going to make it back this year,” Counsell said Monday. “Now we’re optimistic that he can make it back.”
