Morning Marquee: Chicago Cubs’ Schwarber injured in collision with Fowler

The Chicago Cubs went down early but proved that they are fighters. But once the Arizona Diamondbacks struck early, a key piece of this 2015 National League Central roster took a brutal blow. Fans at the game and watching at home held their breath after witnessing two players collide.

While the bats were on fire for the Chicago Cubs, outfielder Kyle Schwarber was carted off the field after running into center fielder Dexter Fowler on a fly ball off the bat of Jean Segura. Segura, who homered on the first pitch of his first at-bat, rounded the bases and slid into home plate safely to record an inside the park home run.

The young second baseman put himself in the history books as the seventh player to go yard and record an inside the park homer in consecutive at-bats. Rather impressive but the injury to Schwarber somewhat took the spotlight.

As soon as both men tumbled to the ground, social media blew up. I, for one, thought he suffered a serious injury almost immediately and figured he’d spend at least 15 days on the disabled list. It turns out that he suffered a sprained left ankle and will have an MRI done later on today. Now just because it’s a sprained ankle, doesn’t mean he’s in the clear just yet.

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After Schwarber was taken back to the clubhouse, the Cubs started to take off. Despite veteran right-hander John Lackey getting tagged for six earned runs in as many innings by the Arizona Diamondbacks, Anthony Rizzo and company proved to be too much.

Rizzo pulled through with an RBI triple and later slugged his second home run of the season — a two-run homer during the top of the ninth inning which put the nail in the coffin. This club came back from multiple deficits and eventually took the lead for good.

Lackey struggling early on shouldn’t be a concern for anyone. Yes, he was a bit shaky over the course of a few innings but he eventually settled down and began to retire batter after batter before Joe Maddon brought in Pedro Strop.

Trust me, that Diamondbacks team is no pushover and will continue to give this pitching staff a hard time over the weekend. This was just one game out of a four-game set that will feature Kyle Hendricks and Jake Arrieta. It’ll be interesting to see how Hendricks performs in his first appearance of the season.

Will he be able to continue pitching well following a fantastic spring? Or will venom strike? Only time will tell.

Now here are a few stories you may have missed:

‘Cubs Recap: Lackey, Rizzo lead Cubs to 14-6 win‘

‘Cubs will benefit from a comfortable Jon Lester‘

‘Cubs: Can they protect Ramirez and Szczur?‘

‘Series Preview: White Sox vs Indians‘ – SouthSide Showdown

‘San Francisco Giants Minor League report‘ – Around the Foghorn