Cubs pitcher Edward Cabrera headed to IL after being carted off the field with a left leg injury

NEW YORK (AP) — Edward Cabrera is about to join a string of starting pitchers on the Chicago Cubs' injured list.

The right-hander was carted off the field Tuesday night after hurting his left leg stretching for a throw at first base against the New York Mets.

Cabrera has a left hamstring/adductor strain. He will get an MRI on Wednesday and be placed on the IL, manager Craig Counsell said.

It's another blow to the Cubs (41-37), who already have four starters sidelined. Matthew Boyd (left meniscus) and Jameson Taillon (strained left hamstring) are on the 15-day injured list. Cade Horton (right forearm strain) and Justin Steele (left elbow) are on the 60-day IL.

That leaves Shota Imanaga, Colin Rea, Ben Brown and Javier Assad as the only healthy pitchers remaining in the rotation — and Counsell was asked his level of concern.

“Concerned. Yeah, I mean, we’re in a rough spot," he said Tuesday night following a 9-6 victory. "I think we can get through it, you know, to the All-Star break. But yeah, we’re going to have to — it’s going to be a little bit of a puzzle until then.”

With two runners aboard in the fifth inning, Cabrera hustled over to cover the bag when Jared Young hit a two-out grounder wide of first.

Second baseman Nico Hoerner made a sliding stop on the outfield grass and threw to Cabrera, who went into a split as he caught the toss for the final out of the inning.

“In that moment, all I was thinking about was to get that out,” Cabrera said through an interpreter. “That's the only thing that was going through my mind.”

The 28-year-old Cabrera grabbed for the inside of his left thigh, then got to his feet and tried to walk toward the dugout. But he went back down in obvious pain and needed assistance just to stand before a cart arrived. With a towel draped over his face, he was driven off the field through an opening in the outfield wall at Citi Field.

“It was a new sensation. A feeling I never felt before,” Cabrera said. “In the moment, it did get me upset.”

A few innings later came an announcement in the press box saying Cabrera exited with a left hamstring/adductor strain.

“He’s gone through the ringer the last three starts, it seems,” teammate Pete Crow-Armstrong said. “It’s a big bummer, for sure.”

After the game, Cabrera stood in front of his locker on crutches and said he felt better. The next step is the MRI, which could provide an idea how long he'll be sidelined.

“See what they say and then we'll go from there," Cabrera said. “I always just stay positive. That's my mindset.”

Cabrera threw 99 pitches and left with a 7-2 lead. He earned the win, improving to 5-4 with a 5.10 ERA over 14 starts in his first season with the Cubs since they acquired him from Miami in January.

Cabrera took Young's second-inning comebacker in the groin area before picking up the ball and throwing to first base for an out. He was checked on the mound by Counsell and an athletic trainer before throwing a warmup pitch and remaining in the game.

“The only thing that was going through my mind was I can't leave the game this early,” Cabrera said.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Chicago Cubs' pitcher Edward Cabrera (30) reacts after an injury during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets , Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)

Chicago Cubs pitcher Edward Cabrera pitches against the New York Mets during the first inning of a baseball game, Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)

Chicago Cubs' pitcher Edward Cabrera leave the game after an injury during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets , Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)

Chicago Cubs' pitcher Edward Cabrera (30) reacts after an injury during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets , Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)

Chicago Cubs' pitcher Edward Cabrera (30) reacts after an injury during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets , Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's railway was running largely as normal Wednesday after a late-night communication system outage left trains and travelers stranded around the country, but the main rail operator faced criticism and questions over the chaos.

Trains were halted abruptly across Germany late Tuesday and service resumed gradually about two hours later, after midnight. Long lines formed at information desks as travelers tried to figure out how to reach their destination and where to spend the night.

The main railway operator said it was offering taxi and hotel vouchers and, where possible, putting trains in place for would-be travelers to sit in while they waited. But passengers complained of a lack of information.

The outage was the result of a problem with the GSM-R digital communication system used for internal communication on the railway network.

The main railway operator, federal government-owned Deutsche Bahn, said trains started running “largely seamlessly” on Wednesday morning, though there may be isolated service reductions.

There was no official word on what caused the system failure, though German media reported that a faulty software update was suspected rather than sabotage.

Federal Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder told news agency dpa that if the cause was a problem with hardware components or a software update, Deutsche Bahn must set up a system so that it doesn't happen again.

The breakdown came after years of increasingly frequent complaints about train delays and service interruptions.

Deutsche Bahn is conducting thorough though disruptive overhauls of major routes after years of underinvestment in a bid to improve its performance, but any significant improvement is expected to take time.

The European Union's most populous country has a railway network totaling some 33,400 kilometers (20,750 miles) in length, with 5,400 train stations.

“That all rail traffic in Germany comes to a halt because of a technical defect is a new low in already poor operating quality,” Oliver Krischer, the regional transport minister in North Rhine-Westphalia state, Germany's most populous, told dpa.

He said there need to be “emergency mechanisms that prevent such a disaster in the future. People rely on reaching their destination at least somewhat punctually by rail.”

Passengers wait for a train at a platform in the central train station in Frankfurt, Germany, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, following the nationwide service disruption on the Deutsche Bahn network. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Passengers wait for a train at a platform in the central train station in Frankfurt, Germany, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, following the nationwide service disruption on the Deutsche Bahn network. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Passengers are on the move in the central train station in Frankfurt, Germany, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, following the nationwide service disruption on the Deutsche Bahn network. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Passengers walk through Munich Central Station to catch their trains this morning following the nationwide Deutsche Bahn service disruption Wednesday, June 24, 2026. (Peter Kneffel/dpa via AP)

A passenger walks past an ICE train at Munich Central Station in Munich, Germany Wednesday, June 24, 2026, following the nationwide service disruption on the Deutsche Bahn network. (Peter Kneffel/dpa via AP)

A commuter stretches out on a bench at Frankfurt's main station, Tuesday, June 23, 2026, after a communications system failure forced Germany's railway system to suspend train service. (Andreas Arnold/dpa via AP)

Travelers are on the move at the main train station in Frankfurt, Germany early Wednesday, June 24, 2026. (Andreas Arnold/dpa via AP)