Ailing Aramis Ramirez

The Chicago Cubs are in the midst of a playoff race and close to losing one of their best hitter, Aramis Ramirez at the same time. The third baseman hasn’t been the same ever since returning on July 6th from a dislocated left shoulder.

Since his return he’s struggled with off and on pain (much more on then off) in that injured left shoulder. The pain has been so bad he is not able to hide it like most ball players are able to do.

Just this past Saturday he kept favoring it while playing the Colorado Rockies. Aramis made a very nice grab on Omar Quintanilla’s line drive but was then seen pulling his arm back in pain. As well as taking extra time in between pitches while batting.

The slugger has started to take extra medicine in hopes of alleviating the pain. It’s more likely that he gets the dreaded cortisone shot later this week. Unfortunately for the Cubs, they have no off days till August 24th, so he’ll be forced to have the shot during the club's toughest stretch of the season.

Typically players miss two days worth of games after receiving a shot. Which means he could miss games against either the Philadelphia Phillies or Los Angeles Dodgers, maybe even games against both. Not a time you want to be without your cleanup hitter.

The Cubs will need to figure something out to get him straight as they are two games back of the St Louis Cardinals in the division race and two games behind two teams in the NL Wild Card Race.

The club is 26-17 in games he’s played, which shows how valuable he is to this team.