Injuries to Olt, La Stella prompted call to Bryant
It took a lot of things in motion to make Kris Bryant's major-league debut a reality Friday.
The Cubs selected the contract of their third-base phenom from Class AAA Iowa, but the move was part of several injury-related transactions.
Third baseman Mike Olt went on the disabled list with a hairline fracture of his right wrist. That directly opened the door for Bryant because infielder Tommy La Stella has been on the DL.
The Cubs also activated outfielder Chris Denorfia off the disabled list and placed reliever Neil Ramirez on the DL with right-shoulder inflammation.
Cubs president Theo Epstein admitted he didn't want to call Bryant up this early.
"No, we wouldn't have done it today," Epstein said. "We script things out for a player's development and try to figure out exactly what the last steps are in his development and the exact right time to debut. We like to do it on the road for prominent players who are going to get a lot of attention and have enough to deal with. So we would have done it a little bit later, but you can't script everything out in baseball."
Olt will be in a cast for several weeks. As for Ramirez, Epstein said the hard-throwing right-hander had no structural damage to his shoulder.
Grounds for a double:
Center fielder Dexter Fowler experienced Wrigley Field's quirkiness as he batted in the seventh inning of Friday's 5-4 loss to the Padres.
With one out, Fowler hit the ball to the wall in left-center. Although the ivy has not bloomed, the ball got stuck in the vines. It was clearly visible, but Padres outfielders did not play the ball, resulting in a ground-rule double for Fowler, who did not score.
Umpires did check the replay, but a ball stuck in the vines is a double per Wrigley Field ground rules. To be safe, Fowler ran all the way around the bases.
"They should have given me a home run; that's my rule," Fowler said with a laugh. "I said (the ball) deflected off his glove, but they said if it sticks in there and nobody touches it, it's an automatic double. Just give me a triple."
Taking what they give you:
Second baseman Jonathan Herrera may have forced Padres pitcher James Shields to wild-pitch home a run. Herrera was on third base in the third inning, and with left-handed batter Anthony Rizzo up and the Padres shifting over to the right, Herrera took a big lead, coming at least halfway down the line.
Shields tried to run him back because no fielder was near the bag. Eventually, Shields uncorked a wild pitch, and Herrera scored easily.
"When the third baseman plays shortstop like that, we want our guys to do exactly what (Herrera) did," said Cubs manager Joe Maddon. "Any kind of ball in the dirt, we're able to score. Anytime we get that kind of opportunity, I want us to do something like that."