With one swing of the bat, Brad Hawpe made Cubs fans begin to jump off the Sears Tower.
Hawpe swung and hit Prior's pitch right back to the pitcher, at which point it struck him on his pitching elbow. An MRI later revealed a fracture. Prior's season was in doubt, and with it the Cubs hopes.
While the elbow fracture already compounded his previous elbow problems, this loss compounded the problems of the injury bug Cubs players have had to face. In April, Nomar Garciaparra left a game with a groin injury after hustling out of the batter's box. He will probably miss two months. Kerry Wood is currently trying to rehab a shoulder injury sustained earlier in the year. In fact, the luck is so bad relief pitcher Mike Remlinger went on the 15-day DL for breaking his pinky, which was inflicted while sitting in a recliner.
But as the sun rose on Saturday, good news began to shine on the storied but jinxed organization.
The Cubs beat up on the Rockies Saturday afternoon 5-1, courtesty of two Derrek Lee home runs.
Mark Prior's injury is better than expected. His elbow only suffered a compression fracture, not a hairline as previously thought. According to Cubs team doctors, Prior may come back this year if when he has "full, pain-free range of motion."
The rotation still has two aces - young Carlos Zambrano (3-3, 3.62 ERA) and 300-game winner Greg Maddux (2-3, 4.33 ERA) . Their numbers aren't great but can improve, and today's game was won by journeyman Glendon Rusch (4-1, 2.35 ERA) who only gave up one run in 7 innings of work. Their fourth starter is currently Sergio Mitre (0-0, 2.57 ERA) who has started one game, a 7-inning, 2-run no-decision effort against Houston earlier this year.
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Article comments
1 - Georgio
How can Nomar possibly play any better than Peres..no big deal if he comes back ..he won't make us better..and as for woods he helps us by being on the bench where he can't lose another game ..henley screwed us by not getting Beltran,,,