Cubs' Mills could be headed to IL with back strain again

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Another day, another Cubs pitcher goes down.

And yet the Cubs managed to come out on top Saturday night, beating the Red Sox 3-1 to clinch their third consecutive series victory — fourth of their last five.

On the same day the Cubs said that sidelined pitchers Marcus Stroman and Drew Smyly were ready to start minor-league rehab assignments in the coming days, Saturday’s starter, Alec Mills, left the game after just two batters because of a lower back strain.

Whether it lands him on the injured list again, it didn’t look good Saturday.

“It was actually a couple pitches before. The strikeout was when I initially felt a little bit of something,” Mills said of the last pitch to leadoff man Jarren Duran. “And then obviously it didn’t get any better. I thought maybe I could get through it. Then it was really when I went to back up third [on Rafael Devers’ ensuing double] when I knew it was probably best to get out of the game and let somebody else take over.”

Mills opened the season on the injured list because of a low back strain. He later suffered a quad strain during the later stages of his rehab from the back injury, costing him a transfer to the 60-day IL.

He did not make his season debut until June 7 in Baltimore, in a five-inning relief appearance.

Whether this is the same thing, “We’re not sure right now,” Mills said. “It’s a very similar feeling. We’ll just see how I bounce back tomorrow, and we’ll figure it out.”

Mills said Saturday seemed like just a microcosm of his rough season.

“It feels like a collection of the season all came down to today,” he said. “We’ll see what happens and how I bounce back tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, Mark Leiter Jr. (2-2) got the short-notice relief assignment and pitched into the sixth, going 5 1/3 innings, striking out five, walking one and allowing just one run on three hits.

“That was impressive. Circumstances aside,” manager David Ross said. “Circumstances make it even better. But that was a big-time performance.”

The Cubs won a series for the third consecutive time for the second time this season. Their four-in-five series victories are especially impressive given some of the opponents, including the defending-champion Braves, the then-NL Central-leading Cardinals and a Red Sox team that went 20-6 in June and entered the series second to the Yankees in the AL East.

The head-scratcher, if not a sign of why they’re still 14 games under .500 and headed for a trade-deadline selloff, is the four-game series they lost in the midst of that run: to the rebuilding, also-ran Pirates.

Back-to-back infield singles leading off the second by Patrick Wisdom and Nico Hoerner produced the first run of the game, Wisdom taking second on a throwing error on his single to third and scoring on a bunt hit by Hoerner — who wound up on second after a throwing error on that play.

Hoerner advanced to second on a grounder and scored on rookie Narciso Crook’s sacrifice fly for a 2-0 lead.

Wisdom added a two-out RBI single to left in the eighth for an insurance run.

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