The Chicago Cubs are riding high coming off a sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers over the weekend, extending their NL Central lead to 1.5 games over the St. Louis Cardinals heading in to action on Monday. Despite pulling off that sweep, they lost two key components to a potential Postseason run, and got the status of both on Monday. The Cubs were forced to place recently-signed closer Craig Kimbrel on IL with right knee inflammation. The injury occurred in the ninth inning of Saturday's 4-1 win over the Brewers at Wrigley Field. Kimbrel threw a scoreless inning to record the save, but reportedly had an issue with his knee throughout the outing.
Kimbrel was signed in early June, but didn't make his Cubs debut until June 27th after a minor league stint, or a late Spring Training to some. Since making his team debut, the former Atlanta Brave and Boston Red Sox World Series Champion has recorded 10 saves, despite posting a career-worst 5.68 ERA.
Contreras was placed on the injured list on Sunday, before the severity of his injury was revealed. The catcher is expected to miss four weeks with a strained right hamstring. Just like Kimbrel's, this injury also occurred on Saturday while he was running out a fly ball. An MRI revealed the Grade 2 strain, which sent him to the 10-day injured list. The 27-year-old made the All-Star team for the National League last month, and is batting .275 with 19 home runs and 57 RBIs. In his absence, Victor Caratini is expected to get a majority of the playing time behind the plate, since Chicago traded away Martin Madlonado at the Trade Deadline for outfielder Tony Kemp.
Kimbrel was signed in early June, but didn't make his Cubs debut until June 27th after a minor league stint, or a late Spring Training to some. Since making his team debut, the former Atlanta Brave and Boston Red Sox World Series Champion has recorded 10 saves, despite posting a career-worst 5.68 ERA.
Contreras was placed on the injured list on Sunday, before the severity of his injury was revealed. The catcher is expected to miss four weeks with a strained right hamstring. Just like Kimbrel's, this injury also occurred on Saturday while he was running out a fly ball. An MRI revealed the Grade 2 strain, which sent him to the 10-day injured list. The 27-year-old made the All-Star team for the National League last month, and is batting .275 with 19 home runs and 57 RBIs. In his absence, Victor Caratini is expected to get a majority of the playing time behind the plate, since Chicago traded away Martin Madlonado at the Trade Deadline for outfielder Tony Kemp.
