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CHICAGO — Cubs right-hander Marcus Stroman will be out indefinitely after an MRI revealed a cartilage fracture in his right rib, the team announced Wednesday.

Stroman, 32, had been scheduled to come off the injured list to pitch on Wednesday against the White Sox, but he experienced discomfort in his ribs following a bullpen session in Toronto on Sunday. Stroman, who was already nursing a sore hip when the fracture occurred, underwent an MRI on Monday.

“It’s an unusual injury for a pitcher,” said Jed Hoyer, the Cubs’ president of baseball operations. “We found out on Sunday he was having some issues. We didn’t know if it was muscular, we didn’t know if it was skeletal. We didn’t know if it was indigestion. We didn’t know what it was.”

Stroman hasn’t pitched since going on the injured list after his start on July 31. He gave up six runs in three innings in that outing, capping a rough month after a solid start to his season. He posted a 9.11 ERA in July after compiling a 2.59 mark over the first three months of the season.

“We have to wait and see,” manager David Ross said. “I know he’ll try to work his way back and help us out.”

In Stroman’s place, righty Javier Assad will get the bulk of the starts. Assad pitched well in a win over the Blue Jays on Friday, throwing a season-high 90 pitches over seven innings. He has started 11 games in his two-year big league career, making a name for himself for Team Mexico during this year’s World Baseball Classic.

Assad has a 3.12 ERA in 21 games this season, with most of the appearances coming in relief.

“Assad has been fantastic for us in all these different roles,” Hoyer said. “Hopefully someone else will step up during this period.”

Hoyer was asked if Stroman could miss the rest of the season.

“I have no idea,” he said. “That’s the honest truth. We don’t know at this point. We’ll give him a real rest period and see how he feels.”

Chicago is already navigating around another struggling pitcher, Drew Smyly, though he’s likely to return to the rotation after being sent to the bullpen recently. Assad joins him, Kyle Hendricks, Jameson Taillon and Cy Young candidate, Justin Steele, to round out the team’s rotation right now.

The Cubs are in the wild card and division race in the NL after a win streak just before the trade deadline allowed the team to add instead of subtract from their roster. But their starting staff has been up-and-down lately, contributing to a 4.84 team ERA since the all-star break. That’s good for just 10th in the NL entering play on Wednesday. Now they’ll be without a veteran starter for the near future.

“We’ll move forward with the guys we have now,” Hoyer said. “Hopefully we’ll keep playing well.”

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Springer’s 7 RBIs help Jays pile on Yankees late

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Springer's 7 RBIs help Jays pile on Yankees late

George Springer had a career-high seven RBIs, including his ninth grand slam, and the Toronto Blue Jays celebrated Canada Day by beating the Yankees 12-5 on Tuesday and closing within one game of American League East-leading New York.

The seven RBIs are tied for the second most by any Blue Jays player in a home game, behind Edwin Encarnación (nine RBIs in 2015), according to ESPN Research.

Andrés Giménez had a go-ahead, three-run homer for the Blue Jays, who overcame a 2-0 deficit against Max Fried. After the Yankees tied the score 4-4 in the seventh, Toronto broke open the game in the bottom half against a reeling Yankees bullpen.

Springer went 3-for-4, starting the comeback with a solo homer in the fourth against Fried and boosting the lead to 9-5 with the slam off Luke Weaver after Ernie Clement‘s go-ahead single off shortstop Anthony Volpe‘s glove. Springer has 13 homers this season.

Toronto won the first two games of the four-game series and closed within one game of the Yankees for the first time since before play on April 20.

New York went 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position, dropping to 3-for-24 in the series, while the Blue Jays were 5-for-7. After going 13-14 in June, the Yankees fell to 10-14 against AL East rivals.

The Associate Press contributed to this report.

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Astros’ Alvarez to see hand specialist after setback

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Astros' Alvarez to see hand specialist after setback

DENVER — Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez has experienced a setback in his recovery from a broken right hand and will see a specialist.

Astros general manager Dana Brown said Alvarez felt pain when he arrived Tuesday at the team’s spring training complex in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he had a workout a day earlier. Alvarez also took batting practice Saturday at Daikin Park.

He will be shut down until he’s evaluated by the specialist.

“It’s a tough time going through this with Yordan, but I know that he’s still feeling pain and the soreness in his hand,” Brown said before Tuesday night’s series opener at Colorado, which the Astros won 6-5. “We’re not going to try to push it or force him through anything. We’re just going to allow him to heal and get a little bit more answers as to what steps we take next.”

Alvarez has been sidelined for nearly two months. The injury was initially diagnosed as a muscle strain, but when Alvarez felt pain again while hitting in late May, imaging revealed a small fracture.

The 28-year-old outfielder, who has hit 31 homers or more in each of the past four seasons, had been eyeing a return as soon as this weekend at the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now it’s uncertain when he’ll play.

“We felt like he was close because he had felt so good of late,” Brown said, “but this is certainly news that we didn’t want.”

Also Tuesday, the Astros officially placed shortstop Jeremy Peña on the 10-day injured list with a fractured rib and recalled infielder Shay Whitcomb from Triple-A Sugar Land.

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Ohtani’s 30th HR before break ties Dodgers mark

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Ohtani's 30th HR before break ties Dodgers mark

Shohei Ohtani reached 30 homers for the fifth straight season, hitting a fourth-inning drive after fouling a pitch off the plate umpire, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago White Sox 6-1 on Tuesday night.

Ohtani fouled the ball off Alan Porter’s right knee in the fourth. Ohtani checked on the umpire and stood by watching until Parker got up under his own power. The three-time MVP then hit a 408-foot shot to center, snapping an 0-for-6 skid and extending the lead to 6-1. He tied Cody Bellinger in 2019 for most home runs before the All-Star break in Dodgers history; Bellinger won National League MVP that year.

Ohtani joined Seattle‘s Cal Raleigh (33) and Aaron Judge of the Yankees (30) as players with at least 30 homers by the All-Star break; it marks the fifth season that three players have reached the 30-homer threshold before the break (2019, 1998, 1994, 1969).

As for Ohtani, this is his third season hitting at least 30 home runs before the break, tying Ken Griffey Jr. for third most in MLB history (Judge and Mark McGwire each did so for four seasons).

During the seventh-inning stretch, Ohtani walked over and checked on Porter again before leading off.

Los Angeles scored its most runs this season in support of Yoshinobu Yamamoto (8-6), staking the Japanese right-hander to a 4-0 lead in the first inning.

The Dodgers won for the 13th time in 16 games and opened a season-high, eight-game NL West lead. They are 16-5 (.762 win percentage) since June 8, the best record in MLB during that span.

Every run Tuesday night was scored with two outs.

Yamamoto allowed one run and three hits in seven innings, struck out eight and walked one.

White Sox rookie Shane Smith (3-6) got two quick outs in the first before walking Will Smith and Max Muncy back-to-back. Teoscar Hernández followed with an RBI single, Andy Pages hit a run-scoring double and Michael Conforto had a two-run single.

Chicago’s lone run came on Lenyn Sosa‘s RBI single in the third.

ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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