Cubs place Anderson on DL with back injury

CHICAGO (AP) The Chicago Cubs are working out a plan for their rotation after they placed Brett Anderson on the 10-day disabled list Sunday with a lower back strain.

Anderson's back started bothering him in the first inning of Saturday night's 11-6 loss to the New York Yankees. He recorded just one out and was charged with five runs and six hits.

The Cubs are off Thursday and next Monday. If they go with a fifth starter, reliever Mike Montgomery could move into the rotation, or Eddie Butler could come up from the minors.

''We could do a lot of different things,'' manager Joe Maddon said. ''Again just watching these guys pitch the next three days and then saying `Does anybody need an extra day? Do you want to pop a sixth guy in there?' There's so many different ways to look at it because of the two, Thursday Monday, coming up. So we haven't committed to anything yet, except that it would be one of those two guys.''

The Cubs also recalled reliever Justin Grimm and infielder Tommy La Stella from Triple-A Iowa before the series finale against the Yankees. Rob Zastryzny was optioned to Chicago's top farm club.

La Stella was on Chicago's opening-day roster. He appeared in six games before he was sent down on April 22. He hit .267 (12 for 45) with a homer and two RBIs in 12 games with Iowa.

''The thing I was focused on, I just wanted to make sure I was getting back into the flow of a game a little bit,'' La Stella said. ''It had been a while, it had been a few years really since I was able to play consistently every day and get four and five (at-bats).''

Zastryzny was just promoted before Saturday's loss. He allowed three runs and three hits in four innings against New York.

Grimm was sent down on Friday, but did not pitch for Iowa. The right-hander is 1-0 with a 7.30 ERA in 12 appearances with the Cubs this year.

---

More AP baseball: https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball