TORONTO -- It appears as though Miguel Amaya is headed back to the injured list, just one day after coming off of it.
The crowd at Rogers Centre fell silent in the top of the eighth inning of the Cubs' 4-1 win over the Blue Jays when Amaya stepped on first base awkwardly and tumbled to the ground, appearing to have jammed his left leg as he extended to beat out an infield single. Amaya was in immediate pain as the Cubs' trainers came out from the dugout to examine him, and he was eventually carted off the field.
Speaking to reporters postgame, Cubs manager Craig Counsell confirmed that Amaya had sprained his ankle. X-rays came back negative, which Counsell said was great news, but the mood was somber when discussing the play.
Counsell summed it up as a “weird baseball play.”
“It’s swollen up pretty good already,” Counsell said. “It’s an IL [stint]. It’s bad luck, unfortunately, and we’re going to miss him.”
Third baseman Matt Shaw was equally disheartened when discussing his teammate in what should’ve been a happy clubhouse following a needed Cubs victory.
“We couldn’t tell live it was his ankle,” Shaw said. “We saw his reaction and it was really hard. We’ve seen everything Miggy’s done to get back here, and he’s an unbelievable guy, someone we love having here. He’s a huge part of this team. To see him go down, get carted off like that, it was really hard and we feel for him a lot.”
Amaya had just been activated off the 60-day injured list on Tuesday after suffering a left oblique strain on April 24.