Kevin Gausman’s first Wrigley Field start as a Cub ended early Tuesday night, and not because of anything happening in the box score.
The right-hander left the game against the White Sox in the fifth inning after the Cubs said he was dealing with a cramp in his left hand, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Gausman walked off with the team trainer after facing two batters in the inning.
The issue first showed up in the fourth, when the trainer came out for a lengthy pause. Gausman removed his glove and had trouble extending his thumb. He still finished the inning by striking out the final batter, then came back out to begin the fifth.
“It was just my thumb,” Gausman told MLB.com. “I kind of couldn’t even put it in my glove there in the fourth before I got some electrolytes in me.
… It’s pretty frustrating, to be honest. First start here as a Cub.
Obviously, not what I’m trying to do.”
He struck out one more hitter to open the fifth, then gave up an infield single to Miguel Vargas before exiting.
Before the cramp forced him out, Gausman had already been through a rough outing. In his third start with the Cubs since being traded from Toronto, he walked the first two batters of the game, allowed three two-out singles in the second, gave up a home run to first baseman Munetaka Murakami in the third, and surrendered a run on a pair of doubles in the fourth.
“The cramp was on his glove hand, so that’s why I think he was able to keep going,” said Counsell. “But it didn’t really let up from the time we went out there in the fourth. … He went out there in the fifth and it just didn’t let up.
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