Kang rolled on the ground in pain as he grabbed at his knee. Kang underwent surgery Thursday night to fix a torn meniscus and fractured tibia that occurred as a result of the slide.
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But the Pirates pitched to Coghlan twice rather than throwing at him, an indication of how they felt about the nature of his slide, which, within the current context of the rules, was perfectly legal. “I’m confident he meant me no harm”. “I appreciate everyone’s support”. “I hate that he’s hurt”.
Coghlan said Thursday he was going to send Kang a letter.
“That’s going to be a hard recovery”, Maddon said. “It’s a hard slide”. It’s a learning process for me as well but I have an understanding comprehension of it. Sometimes as good as tradition can be, it’s a vision killer.
Kang was slashing.287/.355/.461 with 15 home runs and 58 RBI through 126 games.
The first-place Dodgers (84-61) hold a 7 1/2-game lead over San Francisco in the NL West after winning 17 of 22 since a five-game skid in late August. Though his left leg reached the base, Coghlan’s slide was angled away from the bag with the intent of making contact and preventing the completion of the play.
The Blue Jays got all the runs they needed in the fourth inning, when Edwin Encarnacion and Cliff Pennington hit long home runs to produce four runs. The Cubs went on to win 9-6.
The Cubs’ Kris Bryant had his second straight three-hit games. La Stella and Russell drove in two runs each and were two of four Chicago players with two hits, along with Rizzo and Dexter Fowler. Travis Wood struck out five in two ideal innings for his second save.
The Cubs are 43-28 at Wrigley Field this season.
“These are the kind of moments, at this time of the year, when you are successful – confidence can ooze out of those moments”, Maddon said. “It just stinks because he didn’t have time to jump over me”. If he can strike out 33 total batters in those four starts, that would be more K’s than any Cubs starter since Mark Prior K’d 245 in 2003, and 237 would be the seventh-most of any Cubs pitcher since 1945.
Jordy Mercer grabbed a piece of gum from a bucket of Dubble Bubble on top of the bench in the dugout and his glove then ran up the stairs to the field, passed Kang as he was helped to the dugout and took over at shortstop. It will lead to more double plays, but it will also keep the best players on the field, presumably helping offset any decrease in scoring around the league. “We’ve got to play better baseball moving forward”.
NOTES: Cubs RF Jorge Soler will be activated from the disabled list once Class A Myrtle Beach is finished with the Carolina League playoffs, which are scheduled to last until no later than Friday. He did not play.
The Pirates, who have lost 10 of their last 18 games, had issues before Kang’s lineup-altering injury.
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I would, however, really like to see fewer injuries in the game, especially devastating ones like this.
