LOS ANGELES – Cubs lefty Jordan Wicks made his 10th appearance of the season Wednesday and his third start back from the 60-day injured list.
Two separate injuries, first a left forearm strain and then a strained right oblique, wiped out much of the rookie’s season. But he returned just in time to help the Cubs weather lefty starter Justin Steele landing on the IL.
“Got a tough task against a good lineup tonight,” manager Craig Counsell said Wednesday before the series finale against the Dodgers. “But just go compete and help us win.”
The outing went poorly for Wicks from the onset. He gave up home runs to Shohei Ohtani, Tommy Edman, Will Smith and Max Muncy in the first inning to give the Dodgers a 5-2 lead. Four home runs in an inning tied a Dodgers season high. Wicks only got through three innings, allowing two more runs on a single up the middle from Ohtani in the third. The Dodgers ran up Wicks’ pitch count to 78, working deep counts and drawing four walks.
“You go on the 60-day IL as a pitcher, you’re taking out a big chunk of time,” Counsell said this week. “Like there’s a feel to hitting and getting back into it, there’s a little feel of just being locked in as a pitcher. And you go through phases during the season.”
The Cubs could be getting another pitcher back from the IL soon. Right-hander Hayden Wesneski threw 36 pitches in one-plus innings Tuesday in his second rehab game with Triple-A Iowa.
“He pitched well, healthy,” Counsell said. “We were very encouraged by the outing.”
Wesneski is scheduled to make at least one more rehab outing.
Steele throwing bullpens
Steele (elbow tendonitis) threw the first bullpen of his rehab progression on Wednesday, Counsell said. Steele is scheduled to throw another this weekend in Colorado.
“This is a true day-to-day thing,” Counsell said. “And so we had a really good day today. We’re getting good news. This is like five days of straight good good news, which is encouraging. We’ve got more days to accomplish good news, but so far, so good.”
When Steele landed on the injured list last week, the Cubs didn’t rule out a minimum IL stint. He started throwing this past weekend.
“If he’s feeling it at any point, we’d be concerned. But we have not had that for a good stretch now. And hopefully that confirms what the doctor said, and that just a little break will do the trick and get rid of this.”
Hodge ‘good to go’
After reliever Porter Hodge felt his heart racing during his hitless outing Tuesday, recovering during an injury delay before finishing the game, he was evaluated by the Dodgers medical staff.
“There was no concerns from their team doctors, so everything checked out very well,” Counsell said. “No aftereffects. Just, normal, good to go.”
Opening Day starter?
Over the years, the futile exercise of asking Counsell early on who his Opening Day starter will be has become something of a running joke.
With Cubs left-hander Shota Imanaga and Dodgers righty Yoshinobu Yamamoto facing off this week at Dodger Stadium, evoking musing about the Tokyo Series in March, the question came earlier than usual. Could Imanaga be the Cubs’ 2025 Opening Day starter that first game in Japan?
“I’ve always refused to answer that question for as long as I possibly could,” Counsell said with a smile Tuesday. “But that one might be hard for me to punt on.”