Cody Bellinger Got Injured and It Doesn’t Look Good (UPDATE)

I’m not gonna lie, my first thought was really bad when I saw Cody Bellinger come down to the ground after his knee buckled in right-center field during Monday’s series opener against the Houston Astros. Couldn’t really celebrate his incredible catch all that much because Bellinger, who was set to leadoff the next half inning, was taken out for a pinch hitter.

With two outs in the seventh inning, left-handed hitting Kyle Tucker jumped on Jeremiah Estrada’s first pitch after coming in to the game, but Bellinger was able to track it down to make an incredible, leaping catch up against the wall in right-center field. However, something happened in Bellinger’s left leg that made him gingerly walk off the field.

I can’t hide my feelings here. I hate how this looked. It just didn’t look good the way he landed awkwardly.

Miles Mastrobuoni pinch hit in the eighth inning, replacing Bellinger.

The Cubs offense has already been on thin ice for a few weeks and if Bellinger has to miss time, then it’s only going to get worse.

Following a rough opening series to begin the regular season, Bellinger entered May as the team’s best hitter. He was hitting for average, power and wasn’t striking out at a high rate. It really did look like MVP Bellinger in April.

Even with a recent slump in May, Bellinger has a solid .271/.337/.493 overall slash line this season.

We’ll see what the Cubs say about Bellinger following the game.

The Cubs lost on Monday 6-4, after Michael Fulmer allowed a two-out single in the seventh inning that was followed by the game-winning, two-run home run off the bat of Astros third baseman Alex Bregman.

Cubs starter Jameson Taillon allowed four runs in the first inning after it looked like a fly ball to left field was going to be caught by Christopher Morel. It wasn’t, as Morel took a bad route to the ball and wasn’t able to make the play near the warning track on the ball hit by Jose Abreu. A few hits followed that drove in two more runs. There was some bad luck in the first for sure for Taillon, but he is also leaving a lot of hittable pitches in the middle of the strike zone that teams have been able to take advantage of so far this year.

This was just another one of those annoying games, where the pitchers weren’t all that bad, but still got beat.

On offense, the Cubs actually knocked out lefty Framber Valdez after four innings, as Morel hit a game-tying, three-run home run in the fourth inning.

Morel now has four home runs in six games since he was called up a week ago.

Unfortunately, the Cubs didn’t do anything against the Houston bullpen. The Cubs were only able to get a walk and an infield hit in the final five innings of Monday’s game.

The Cubs dropped to 19-22 on the year, and have now lost three games in a row.

UPDATE

David Ross said doctors checked on Bellinger and that nothing major appears to be wrong. Let’s hope that remains the case.