Seiya Suzuki was back in the Cubs' starting lineup for Monday night's opener against the Rockies at Wrigley Field, batting cleanup and serving as the designated hitter after missing part of Saturday's game and all of Sunday's with a tweaked right knee.
In the fourth inning of Saturday's 6-1 win at San Francisco, Suzuki came up short in an effort to catch a sinking liner off the bat of Matt Chapman. Suzuki stepped awkwardly as he tried to halt his momentum before retreating after the ball. He was pulled from the game for further evaluation.
The Cubs announced that Suzuki left with “right knee discomfort.” The start of Suzuki’s season was delayed until April 10 due to a previous right knee injury (minor sprain of the posterior cruciate ligament) that he sustained during the World Baseball Classic with Team Japan.
While Suzuki described Saturday’s incident as a similar feeling, he noted that the discomfort was not as severe in this latest instance.
“Once I realized I couldn’t get the ball, I stopped,” Suzuki said via his interpreter, Edwin Stanberry. “And then when I stopped, it’s kind of similar to what happened previously, where it felt like my knee kind of moved."
Suzuki is batting .255/.339/.433 with 10 homers, seven doubles and 28 RBIs in 57 games this year. He enters Monday batting .344 (11-for-32) with three homers and a 1.104 OPS in his previous 10 games.