The injury bug has ravaged the Chicago Cubs this season, but they appeared to dodge a massive hit to their team in Friday’s 6-5 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks at Wrigley Field.
Second baseman Nico Hoerner, who is tied for second in the National League in wins above replacement, per FanGraphs, exited the game in the second inning with “left-sided neck tightness,” per the team, but downplayed the injury.
“It’s something a lot of people have probably out there dealt with where your neck just kind of gets stuck,” Hoerner said after the win. “Just had it locked up moving around pregame and then just wasn’t in a good place on the field. Get some good treatment and see where we’re at tomorrow.”
Hoerner hit a double to start the bottom of the first and was visibly grimacing as he rounded the bases. He stayed in the game and scored on a Michael Busch single that kicked off a three-run inning.
Photos: Chicago Cubs beat Arizona Diamondbacks 6-5 at Wrigley Field
He played in the field in the top of the second, but when his spot came back up in the bottom of the frame, Matt Shaw pinch-hit for him.
“Not an injury but kind of thing that didn’t lead me to be in a place to be myself today,” Hoerner said.
Cubs manager Craig Counsell was bullish on the possibility of Hoerner being back in the coming days, a welcome message for a team with 11 players on their 40-man roster on the injured list. They had to seal Friday afternoon’s win with a reliever, Jacob Webb, they probably weren’t picturing to be a high-leverage option so early in the season.
Webb pitched a perfect eighth inning with the Cubs clinging to a one-run lead. Counsell turned to the 32-year-old for the ninth, almost out of necessity. Right-hander Phil Maton, who signed a two-year deal in the offseason, struck out two in the seventh. That left Javier Assad, Ben Brown, Corbin Martin, Hoby Milner and Yacksel Ríos as options for Counsell in the ninth. That quintet has a combined six saves in 647 games.
Milner, 35, might have been the best option, but he had pitched three times in the last four games of their West Coast trip, so Webb became the choice for the two-inning save. It was his first save since May 12, 2025, when he was with the Texas Rangers, and just his eighth in 261 career games.
“We had somebody behind him, but I think we don’t have a guy that we’re going to count on (for saves),” Counsell said. “The lefties that were up that inning were a good matchup for Webby. We’re just going to use matchups as our guide, essentially. That’s it.”
Their closer, Daniel Palencia (left oblique strain), begins a rehab assignment with Triple-A Iowa on Friday night and could make his next appearance after that in the majors. Hunter Harvey (biceps inflammation) and Caleb Thielbar (left hamstring strain), two veteran relievers, are in throwing programs and are “progressing in the right direction,” Counsell said before Friday’s game.
Early-season trades are extremely rare, and president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer and his front office aren’t pushing their chips all in on an external arm coming in to save the day.
“We obviously need to get healthy, there’s no question,” Hoyer said before the game. “Some of the guys we were counting on to come up need to get healthy, and that’s going to be the focus.
“We’ve been looking really consistently for small transactions, but anything bigger is going to have to wait. We’re just going to have to wait, and we’re going to have to get healthy and handle those things internally.”
Ten of the 11 Cubs players on the IL are pitchers, which further complicates the pitching puzzle Counsell has to piece together every day. Hoyer and his brass want to pinpoint why they’ve been struck so hard with injuries, but they also know there’s no choice but to keep chugging forward.
“That’s probably how we spend all our time, trying to figure out how we get better,” Hoyer said. “I also think there (is) probably some randomness in that as well. No one’s pausing for us, we just got to get healthy and, in the meantime, to quote (Cubs special assistant) Jerry Weinstein, ‘You got to win with what you have today,’ and that’s what we have to do.”
So far, the bullpen has done that. They entered the opener of a seven-game homestand Friday with a 3.77 ERA, the ninth-best mark in baseball. There have been cracks — left-hander Ryan Rolison allowed three earned runs after relieving starter Colin Rea with one out in the sixth inning Friday — but they’ve done just enough so far.
“With our defense the way it is, too, it’s just going right after guys and trusting your stuff,” Rea said. “I think it’s going to pay off down the road when those guys coming in now in big situations, getting that experience and (then) with the guys coming back, maybe those roles change, but they’ve been in those tight situations before and been successful, so the confidence is just going to keep creeping up for them.”
Andy Martinez is a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune.
