Cubs Off to Poor Start Maintaining Thin Pitching Staff After Injury to Star Ace

The Chicago Cubs had a rough day on the pitching staff with one ace headed to the IL and the other getting shelled.

Aug 10, 2021; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Justin Steele (35) looks on as he walks to the dugout after pitching against the Milwaukee Brewers during the first inning at Wrigley Field. / Jon Durr-Imagn Images

The Chicago Cubs had a rough day on Wednesday both in the news department and on the field.

Just two days after one of the best starts of his entire Cubs career, the team moved left-hander Justin Steele to the 15-day injured list with what was described as elbow tendonitis in his pitching arm.

On Monday in the frigid Chicago cold, Steele threw seven scoreless innings with just three hits allowed and eight strikeouts in a shutout victory over the Texas Rangers before being shelved two days later.

How long Steele is going to be out for is not known at this time, though it does not sound like a major injury that is going to hold him out more than a few weeks.

Nonetheless, the pitching staff both in the rotation and in the bullpen is incredibly thin and Wednesday presented the first test as to how things would look in the absence of Steele with a major opportunity given to Shota Imanaga to even further prove his value.

He responded with what was a rough outing, allowing seven hits in five innings with five earned runs in what was a Cubs loss to end the series.

It can be chalked up to simply a bad day for Imanaga who still sports a 2.70 ERA over his first start and five of his seven total earned runs on the season coming from Wednesday.

However, it's no secret that Chicago needs both Imanaga and Steele at their best in order to elevate a rotation which was not addressed strongly during the offseason.

With Steele out for now, the Cubs simply have to get the best out of Imanaga in order to keep the train on the tracks coming off what has been a hot start winning their last three series.

Now, Chicago gets the misfortunate of traveling to the West to face a Los Angeles Dodgers team who of course largely dominated them in the opening two games in Japan.

Matthew Boyd -- who has been a pleasant surprise in 11 scoreless innings over his first two starts -- gets the ball in the first game on Friday in what presents the first true test of the season for him.

Someone like Boyd stepping up would go a long way towards giving the Cubs another arm they can feel confident about throwing out there at any point this season, but with Steele out for the moment Boyd's performance becomes all the more critical.

The first trial with Imanaga's rough day did not go well, though a much clearer picture will be presented when seeing whether or not Chicago can compete against the World Series champions this time around.

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