Cubs pitcher Brewer breaks hand after rough outing

When tough breaks and regrettable actions collide, situations like this happen.

The Cubs placed pitcher Colten Brewer on the 60-day injured list with a fractured left (non-throwing) hand. Brewer struck the wall in the Cubs’ dugout in frustration after leaving the mound in Saturday's loss to the Angels.

On Sunday morning, Brewer talked about what happened and the aftermath.

“Emotions get the best of us at times,” he said. “What comes to mind the most is letting my family down, friends, teammates, people in Wrigleyville. It's kind of heartbreaking to me right now. There's no pain in (the hand), just can't believe something like that happened.”

Brewer had to enter the game on short notice in the third inning, after starter Kyle Hendricks left with low back tightness. In two-thirds of an inning, Brewer allowed 2 hits, 2 walks and made a costly error, throwing the ball into center field on what could have been a double-play ball. He's given up 9 runs (7 earned) in his last five outings, a span of 5 innings.

“I don't think I can count many times when I lost my cool, especially where people can actually see me,” Brewer said. “That's not something I expect out of myself, just the last couple of weeks have been really hard. Luck's not on my side. It's just everything at once.”

The back wall of the Cubs dugout is basically painted concrete, so it's not a good spot to direct anger.

“When those things happen, you know you screwed up,” manager Craig Counsell said. “It's an unfortunate mistake. He let emotions get the best of him. It's not who he is, but it's a mistake he made. We have to kind of move forward past that.”

Bigge gets the call

To replace Colten Brewer, the Cubs called up reliever Hunter Bigge, who was throwing smoke at Triple A Iowa and has an interesting origin story.

Bigge, 26, grew up in the San Jose suburb of Los Gatos, Calif. He dreamed of going to Stanford, but settled for Harvard when the Ivy League powerhouse recruited him harder. The Cubs drafted the right-hander in the 12th round in 2019 and he didn't have a ton of success in the minors, then took a significant jump this year.

“A lot of it was confidence, trusting in my stuff and the shapes of my pitches and being confident in filling up the zone,” Bigge said. “I think I've been able to attack hitters better. The past couple years I've been up to 98, 99, but I haven't been able to hold it as consistently as I've been able to this year.”

Bigge suffered a torn oblique muscle in spring training, so he got a late start to the season. Since joining Iowa, he allowed just 2 hits and 1 run in 11 ⅔ innings, with 19 strikeouts. He got the news from Iowa manager Marty Pevey.

“I couldn't stop smiling for about 10 minutes and I couldn't stop crying for about 10 minutes,” Bigge said. “Called my wife and my family and some of my friends. It's been a pretty crazy past 12 hours.

“I think I flashed back through a lot of memories of playing in high school, playing in college, getting drafted, going through the ups and downs of pro ball. It's been my dream since I was a little kid. I think all those emotions just came out.”

What about growing up in Silicon Valley? Did he go to coding camp instead of baseball camp or anything like that?

“A lot of my friends work in the technology industry now,” he said. “But sports were pretty big in my town too.”

Around the horn

Only time will tell, but Cubs manager Craig Counsell is hopeful Kyle Hendricks will overcome the back soreness that knocked him out of Saturday's game and make his next start. “I think there's a decent chance in a couple days it will calm down,” Counsell said. …

The Cubs have a doubleheader in St. Louis on Saturday, part of seven games in six days heading into the all-star break, which will tax the pitching staff. Counsell is optimistic Javier Assad (right forearm strain) will be able to return by next weekend. The Cubs were already expecting reliever Mark Leiter Jr. (right forearm strain) to be activated once he's eligible Tuesday in Baltimore. …

Outfielder Mike Tauchman (left groin strain) is hitting and running, and should be ready to return after the all-star break. … Pete Crow-Armstrong was not in the lineup for the third day in a row after his left thumb was sliced up on a slide into third base Thursday.

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