PHILADELPHIA — Any time Nico Hoerner comes to the plate with runners in scoring position, the Chicago Cubs feel good about their chances.
Hoerner has been a driving force early on for a Cubs lineup still looking to produce runs more consistently. So it was no surprise Tuesday against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park when Hoerner delivered a timely hit with the bases loaded in the sixth inning of a tie game.
Down 0-2 in the count, Hoerner went back up the middle on lefty reliever Tim Mayza’s sinker over the middle of the plate for a two-run single. The Cubs’ four-run sixth, capped by Alex Bregman’s two-run single with the bases loaded two batters later, helped them pull out a 10-4 win over the Phillies.
Through the first 17 games, Hoerner is slashing .303/.397/.455 with a team-leading 13 RBIs and a 144 wRC+ (weighted runs created plus).
“I feel like he’s going to put the ball in play somewhere hard and going to come through for the boys,” said Bregman, who finished with three hits and three RBIs. “He’s started off really well, feel like he’s hitting all pitch types, making contact, swinging at good pitches to hit.
“It’s a mature group, and I don’t think anyone’s really felt like they’re at the top of their game to start the season. But it’s a bunch of guys who know how to compete and know how to get the most out of it, even when they’re not feeling good. So I feel like we’ll get this thing rolling and we’ll get guys locked in and be right where we need to be.”
Despite inconsistent scoring through the first three weeks, the Cubs have been elite at putting pressure on opposing pitchers, including Tuesday, when they went 6-for-18 with runners in scoring position. Their 204 such plate appearances this season are the second-most in the majors.
Although they haven’t fully taken advantage of those RISP opportunities, the Cubs keep putting runners on base, in part through a collectively patient approach (12.4% walk rate, second in MLB).
“Even the stretches where we haven’t produced offensively, a lot of the walk rates have been pretty high from our group,” Hoerner said. “And I know it’s a bit of a trend around baseball right now, but it just speaks a lot to the floor of the group when you always have traffic and starters aren’t going deep into games. You’re getting deep into bullpens, and over time that’s really going to play for sure.
“And there’s going to be stretches where you just don’t get the big hit, but you keep giving yourself that opportunity over and over with a relentless group and I love our chances.”
Right-hander Colin Rea gave the Cubs exactly what they needed. Rea took the bulk of the innings after lefty Riley Martin’s perfect opening inning that required just six pitches to retire the top of the Phillies order.
Edmundo Sosa made Rea pay for leaving a slider too much over the plate, his three-run home run putting Philadelphia ahead in the second.
Rea, though, was methodical after that sequence. He retired 15 of the next 16 Phillies he faced, allowing just one baserunner. Rea gave the Cubs six much-needed innings for a depleted bullpen.
“We had people up in the sixth inning, we ended up putting a big number on the board, and he went out and gave us two more innings, so credit to Colin,” manager Craig Counsell said. “He’s just a pro, and he’s just really solid.”
The Cubs (8-9) navigated a dicey situation in the eighth, holding a four-run lead as the Phillies threatened.
Philadelphia quickly brought home a run on Trea Turner’s one-out single off Jacob Webb. Counsell then turned to veteran lefty Caleb Thielbar, who had to work out of a jam. He got pinch hitter Alec Bohm to strike out on a four-pitch sequence that left the bases loaded.
Carson Kelly’s three-run home run in the ninth allowed Counsell to stay away from closer Daniel Palencia with the lead extended to six runs.
Counsell thought Thielbar handled the eighth perfectly, “like a real pro,” by executing tough pitches to Adolis Garcia, who laid off of them to draw a walk to load the bases, and then attacking Bohm.
A key for Thielbar was, oddly, misfiring an elevated fastball so badly that it went above Kelly’s head to the backstop. He had been struggling to locate his fastball up in the zone and said that wild pitch actually corrected the issue for him. Thielbar got Bohm to whiff on a fastball up and in, then foul off the next fastball above the zone. That set up Thielbar to throw a slider down and in for the foul-tipped strikeout.
The Cubs will need more performances like Thielbar’s over the next week or so from potentially unconventional options in key moments because of injuries that have challenged the bullpen’s depth.
“This is when guys get a chance to prove themselves — it’s fun,” Thielbar told the Tribune. “There’s going to be a couple games, whether we’re up four or five or down one or two, that some of these guys are going to have to come in in a big situation and really show what they have. … It’s going to be big for them to get that experience, and I think we’ve got some good arms down there.
“We’re kind of digging deep right now. This is what a good organization has is depth, so I think we’re going to see that.”
