A 9-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds should have been a comfortable step toward October for the Chicago Cubs. Instead, the afternoon ended with their postseason plans suddenly clouded by concern over Alex Bregman.

Bregman was taken to the hospital after a foul ball off teammate Michael Busch’s bat hit him in the face. He had to leave the field with blood dripping from his cheek and nose. While he tried to send a positive message from the hospital, Chicago is left waiting for answers at a crucial point in the season. 

He was preparing for his next at-bat, swinging on the on-deck circle. Michael Busch was at the plate facing Cincinnati Reds reliever Luis Mey. The batter checked his swing on a 97-mph fastball on a 1-2 count. But the ball hit his bat anyway.

It resulted in an unusual trajectory and hit Bregman in the face. The helmet came off the 32-year-old, and he immediately dropped his bat to run towards the dugout. He stopped and covered his face with both his hands. 

“Alex Bregman got hit in the face with a foul ball on the on-deck circle and left the game,” Talkin’ Baseball captioned the short clip uploaded on X. 

The athletic trainer came running with a towel as drops of blood already appeared on his shoes. He was aided down the steps of the dugout tunnel and rushed to the hospital. 

The on-deck circle is one of the most unsafe positions in baseball due to its proximity to home plate. There is no protective barrier between the upcoming batter and the circle; he is technically exposed to foul balls, wild pitches, and even shattered bats. 

“You never want to see that on the ball field. You can’t control any of that. It happened so fast,” Busch noted after the game. “Any time [the ball] hits the head area, it’s scary.…You focus on the game, but it’s tough.”

Busch managed to draw a single after overcoming the initial shock of the incident. As Bregman was forced to exit the game after the injury, Matt Shaw replaced him. 

“He had a cut under his eye. He was bleeding from his nose a little bit. It’s pretty swollen. It was below the eye,” Craig Counsell revealed postgame. “It’s just an unfortunate accident. I’m hoping and praying he is all right.”

While his entire team and the fans are worried about him, Alex Bregman seemed to be taking it rather positively.

The Cub posted an image of himself from the hospital with a caption, saying, “Thanks for all the messages yall. I’ll be back.”

The image, however, was not the most encouraging.

His left eye was nearly swollen shut, with heavy bruising around the eye and upper cheek. Blood remained visible near the cut, while the $175 million star had a small piece of white gauze in his left nostril to control the bleeding.

By Monday, Bregman had returned to Chicago after undergoing X-rays and a CT scan at a local hospital in Cincinnati. Craig Counsell had expected him to travel back with the Cubs following Sunday’s game, although the club had not yet publicly outlined a timetable for his return.

His arrival back in Chicago offered a small sign of progress after the alarming on-field scene. Still, the severity of the injury and his availability for the final stretch of the regular season remained unclear as the Cubs awaited a clearer medical picture.

Before the freak accident, Bregman had already helped Chicago establish control of the game. After walking in the third inning, he moved into scoring position as the Cubs loaded the bases. Ian Happ’s RBI single and Nico Hoerner’s bases-loaded walk extended the lead to 3-0 before Pedro Ramirez drove a two-run single to shallow center. Bregman scored on the hit, giving the Cubs a 5-0 advantage.

That proved to be Bregman’s final run of the afternoon. He went 1-for-1 with an RBI and a walk before the foul ball forced him out in the next inning.

The 2x World Series champion exited in the top of the fourth with the Cubs leading 5-0. Shaw took over at second base in the bottom of the same inning, and Pedro Ramirez shifted from second to third.

The Cubs won 9-1 and secured the series against the Reds.

“I mean, at the end of the day, you just hope your friend is OK,” Pete Crow-Armstrong said after the win. “That’s the news that I’m hoping for. But scary stuff. Such a rarity.”

While Bregman’s injury is rare, recent incidents suggest a troubling pattern. 

Recent scares don’t paint a good picture for Bregman and the Cubs

On September 8, just days before Sunday’s incident, Jamie Arnold, the Athletic’s top pitching prospect, suffered a similar scenario.

During a Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators vs. Sacramento River Cats game, the pitcher took a 107-mph comebacker off the left side of his face. Although he was able to walk off the field on his own, Arnold was rushed to the hospital.

The diagnosis revealed intra-orbital fractures, maxillary sinus fractures, broken left cheekbones, and a corneal abrasion. And it’s not just this season.

Last year, David Fry suffered a 99-mph fastball off Tarik Skubal during a Cleveland Guardians-Detroit Tigers matchup.

The ball hit his bat and ricocheted to his face. Skubal dropped his glove and cap in shock. He even visited Fry in the hospital and apologized in person. 

The Guardians batter suffered multiple minimally displaced facial and nasal fractures. But fortunately, none of them needed any surgery.

However, Arnold is out for at least 8 months. 

Chicago enters the final week of the regular season in a crowded National League Wild Card race. The Cubs and Padres are both 87-69, while the Phillies sit one game back at 86-70. Chicago holds the top Wild Card spot, but San Diego has matched its record, leaving little room for error as the postseason nears.

That makes Bregman’s absence especially difficult to absorb. Across 153 games, the third baseman has hit .262 with 26 home runs, 89 RBIs, 89 runs scored, and an .804 OPS. He has also been a steady presence at third base, so the Cubs would be replacing more than just middle-of-the-order production if he cannot return quickly.

Matt Shaw and Pedro Ramirez give Chicago internal options to cover the infield, but neither changes the significance of losing its everyday third baseman at this point of the season. With the Padres on a five-game winning streak and the Phillies still within one game, the Cubs need to protect their Wild Card position while waiting to learn how soon Bregman can resume baseball activities.

“We have to get good results from the hospital first,” Counsell reiterated. “He got hit in the face, so you are worried about his general well-being first. If we get a good report, we’ll move to the next step. I want to get a good report.”

And the entire city is praying for the same while the Cubs await the medical reports before determining his playoff availability.