Kris Bryant the Cubs most valued player twisted his right ankle on Wednesday during the nationals after catching a popup during the fifth inning. He needed medical assistance as he could hardly put pressure on his injured foot as he slowly walked out of the field. The x-rays performed on Bryant showed that he had not suffered from a fracture, but the Cubs are not sure if he needs to be kept in the ten-day disabled list after the doctors described his condition as a slight to moderate strain. Nonetheless, the loss of valuable players such as Bryant is going to create a lot of stress on the youthful lineup that the Cubs have as they try to climb out of the three months of mediocrity and then take over the first place in the NL Central. Twenty-five year old Bryant is batting with a .264 average along with 16 home runs and also 32 RBIs has been a constant part of the batting order which has been constantly juggled because of the injuries and ineffectiveness of Addison Russell, Ben Zobrist, and Jason Heyward. Now without Bryant who has a record of hitting singles and doubles in his very first two at bats the Cubs do not have enough talent to overcome the deficit before the finals at Nationals Park. “Hopefully it’s just a couple of days,” Joe Maddon stated. “The way I look at it is get him off his feet for a couple of days. … It’s going to benefit us in August and September. Let’s just keep moving it forward and hopefully it’s not too bad.”
“Stuff happens and you have to react,” Maddon believed. “You can’t worry about it, you can’t cry about it. We have a game to win (Thursday) and he will not be starting, so we’ll try to figure it out in another way.”
