Chicago Cubs' Almora Jr. sore but smiling
ST. LOUIS - Chicago Cubs outfielder Albert Almora Jr. showed up at Busch Stadium in one piece but feeling pretty sore one day after crashing awkwardly into the center-field wall.
Almora suffered a bruised right shoulder, and X-rays were negative. He was not in Wednesday night's starting lineup.
"Right now, it's like I got in a bad car accident," he said. "Nothing feels great, but nothing hurts. I just have to take it day by day.
"I've got pain, I've got pain everywhere, but I still have a smile on my face."
Almora was in Tuesday's night's 8-7 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals for only a few minutes. He was a pinch hitter in the top of the fifth inning. In the bottom half, he fell into the wall while chasing a double by Paul DeJong.
"I walked off on my own, nothing's broken, I didn't get a concussion," he said. "I feel fortunate. If I'm given the OK to go, I'll probably be out there.
"The smart thing to do right now is be 100 percent because obviously I want to be healthy for the long run. I'm going to be smart. Right now, I'm going to see how good I'll feel in the next couple hours and the next day."
Leaving a mark:
The Cardinals' Tommy Pham expressed unhappiness about being hit with a pitch from Cubs reliever Felix Pena in the sixth inning of Tuesday's game. The Cubs' Kris Bryant had been hit early in the game by Cardinals starter Carlos Martinez.
In the first inning Wednesday, the Cubs' Anthony Rizzo was hit by Michael Wacha with two outs and nobody on.
"KB did not take umbrage to being hit when he got hit by the pitch," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said of Bryant. "Really, it's a bad method of trying to piece your thoughts together. There's no intent out there, just as we didn't think there was any intent to hit KB.
"It's part of the game. You have to pitch guys inside sometimes. Rizzo gets hit all the time, and I don't think one time Rizzo's come out and said anything."
Up and down:
After a solid outing in Milwaukee last weekend, left-handed reliever Justin Wilson was charged with walking the only two batters he faced Tuesday. Wilson walked Carson Kelly to start the bottom of the eighth inning. When Wilson went to 2-0 in the count to Harrison Bader, Joe Maddon replaced Wilson with Carl Edwards Jr. Bader walked, with the base on balls being charged to Wilson.
"Last night, it was not the time to permit it to work itself out," Maddon said Wednesday. "I thought the way we had come back in that game to not give ourselves a chance, it would have been inappropriate (to leave Wilson in the game) because I don't like to use CJ (Edwards) in that situation. But I thought we had a shot, and we did.
"I told (Wilson) right afterward, 'You're going to be right back out there.' He started out well with a first-pitch strike and all of a sudden started pulling a couple pitches. I know (the coaches) have done some nice things with his delivery, and I still believe that it's going to work. But last night, I could not be overly patient."