Cubs OF Kyle Tucker leaves win over Reds with a jammed finger

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Cubs OF Kyle Tucker leaves win over Reds with a jammed finger

2025-06-02 06:48 Last Updated At：06:51

CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Cubs are off on Monday, and Kyle Tucker is hoping that will be enough rest for his jammed right ring finger.

Tucker got hurt on an awkward slide during Chicago's 7-3 victory over Cincinnati in the finale of their weekend series. He was replaced by Vidal Bruján in right field before the Reds batted in the fifth inning.

“I feel all right,” Tucker said. “Hand's a little jammed, or a little swollen. Obviously we got our off day tomorrow so hopefully it feels a little bit better when we get to Washington.”

Tucker also had a cut on his nose after he was caught stealing second in the first. It was the first time he had been thrown out in 17 steal attempts this season.

Tucker wasn't sure exactly what happened, but he said he thought his helmet hit his nose and his hand kind of got caught underneath him.

“It kind of felt weird. Was just hoping that it went away,” he said. “Try to kind of just grind through and grind through the at-bats and stuff. But it was kind of hurting. Just kind of took a precautionary route of just coming out of the game.”

The 28-year-old Tucker hit a ground-rule double in the third and scored on Pete Crow-Armstrong’s two-out single to right. He fouled out to the catcher for the final out of the fourth before Bruján came in.

Tucker said he had X-rays and they were fine. The NL Central-leading Cubs begin a nine-game road trip on Tuesday night at Washington.

“I'm optimistic this is going to be at most a day or two,” manager Craig Counsell said after Sunday's victory. “It's just a sprained finger. ... He took the second at-bat and just was a little uncomfortable. So with the lead, just got him out of there.”

Tucker has been a key player for Chicago in his first season with the team after he was acquired in a December trade with Houston. The three-time All-Star has a 16-game on-base streak going back to May 14.

He is batting .284 with 12 homers, 39 RBIs and 16 steals, playing in each of the team's first 59 games.

“He's gone out there a bunch. He's been out there every day,” Counsell said, “and he's shown no signs of any fatigue.”

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Hong Kong rings in 2026 without fireworks after deadliest blaze in decades

HONG KONG (AP) — Fireworks are typically a celebratory centerpiece of Hong Kong's New Year celebrations. Not this year.

The territory will ring in 2026 without spectacular and colorful explosions in the sky over its iconic Victoria Harbor after a massive fire in November that killed at least 161 people.

The city’s tourism board will instead host a music show Wednesday night featuring soft rock duo Air Supply and other singers in Central, a business district that also is home to the famous nightlife hub Lan Kwai Fong. The facades of eight landmarks will turn into giant countdown clocks presenting a three-minute light show at midnight.

Fireworks have long been part of the city’s celebrations for the New Year, Lunar New Year and National Day. The pyrotechnic displays against Hong Kong’s world-famous skyline of skyscrapers typically draw hundreds of thousands of people including many tourists to both sides of the promenade.

Rosanna Law, the territory's secretary for culture, sports and tourism, acknowledged Tuesday that having no fireworks would affect some hotel and restaurant businesses.

The financial hub’s worst blaze since 1948 broke out at Wang Fuk Court, in the northern suburban district of Tai Po, in late November. The apartment complex was undergoing a monthslong renovation project with buildings covered by bamboo scaffolding and green netting.

Authorities have pointed to the substandard netting and foam boards installed on windows as contributing factors in the fire’s rapid spread. Thousands of affected residents have moved to transitional homes, hotels and youth hostels, struggling to recover from the loss of lives and homes that took them years to buy. The casualties pained many residents across the city.

Past tragedies in Hong Kong have forced similar cancellations of fireworks. They include the 2013 National Day festivities following a vessel collision that killed 39 people on Oct. 1, 2012, and the 2018 Lunar New Year celebration after a bus crash that left 19 dead. During the 2019 anti-government protests and the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple displays also were scrapped.

The origin of fireworks is believed to date to China in the second century B.C., when someone discovered bamboo stalks exploded with loud bangs when thrown into fire, creating the first natural “firecrackers,” according to the American Pyrotechnics Association, a U.S. trade group.

The Guinness World Records organization says the first accurately documented firework, the Chinese firecracker, was created by Li Tian, a monk from China’s Tang dynasty dating to around 618 to 907 C.E. Li discovered that putting gunpowder in enclosed hollow bamboo stems created loud explosions and bound crackers together to create the traditional New Year firecrackers to drive out evil spirits, Guinness said.