MILWAUKEE -- Brewers third baseman Mike Moustakas remained unable to play catch or swing a bat on Wednesday because of a swollen and sore left wrist, leaving him questionable for the start of the next big series against the Cubs on Friday at Wrigley Field.

There is no good time for a team to be without its second-leading home run hitter (31), but the timing of this injury is particularly unfortunate.

“Obviously I want to be out there with the boys, playing,” Moustakas said. “Especially right now against these guys. These are a bunch of huge games for us right now, and we’ve got some big ones coming up. I’ll do whatever I can to get back as quick as possible.”

Said Brewers manager Craig Counsell after Wednesday’s 4-1 win over the Cards: “Moose was unavailable today. He improved, but unavailable. He’ll be back this weekend, I’m fairly confident of that. At some point. I don’t know about Friday for sure.” 

Moustakas was hurt when he was struck on the exposed part of his glove hand by a 107.2 mph ground ball off Harrison Bader’s bat in the second inning of Monday’s 12-2 loss to the Cardinals. X-rays of Moustakas’ wrist and hand came back negative, and subsequent testing, Moustakas said, confirmed that there are no broken bones.

It’s been a painful season for Moustakas, whose hands have taken a beating. He has played most of the year with a fracture in the tip of the middle finger on his throwing hand.

“I feel like I can play through a lot of stuff, and we’ll see how quickly I can come back from this,” he said. “This is a first for me. But our training staff’s been doing a great job all year with all the stuff that I’ve been throwing at them. They’ve gotten me on the field, ready to play as quick as they can, and I feel like we’ve been doing a pretty good job of that.”

Last call

• Right-hander Adrian Houser expressed some confidence Wednesday morning about the likelihood he’ll make his next scheduled start after he exited Tuesday’s no-decision against the Cardinals after five innings because of left hip discomfort. Houser is penciled in to pitch again Monday against his former organization, the Astros.

“It feels a little better,” he said. “That's definitely a good sign. I'm just trying to stay on top of it and get it stretched out. … It's kind of jammed up in there. We just kind of loosen it up by pulling on it. It sounds worse than it is. It actually feels really good when they do it. [A chiropractic adjustment] is basically what it is.”

• The Double-A Southern League named Brewers No. 12 prospect Trey Supak its pitcher of the year on Wednesday. Supak, who was promoted to Triple-A in late July, was 11-4 with a 2.20 ERA in 20 starts for Double-A Biloxi this season, including a pair of games (May 30 and July 16) in which he pitched within one out of a no-hitter. Supak led the league in several categories, including innings pitched (122 2/3), wins, ERA, opponents' batting average (.192), and WHIP (0.87).

• When Orlando Arcia was charged with an error in Tuesday’s loss to the Cardinals, it snapped his error-free streak at 50 games. The club record for a shortstop remained safe with Mark Loretta, who played 63 straight games at the position without committing an error from 2000-01.