Nico Hoerner swipes 18th base

It looks to just be a routine day off. Pedro Ramírez is batting sixth and playing second base in Hoerner’s absence.

Hoerner gave the Cubs a 2-1 lead with a dribbler to second that was able to score a run. He hit the ball considerable further a couple innings later with a solo homer off a (yet again) ineffective Edwin Díaz. Hoerner has now gone deep seven times in 2026, and he’s been able to procure 53 RBI.

Hoerner tied the game at 2-2 in the seventh before the Cubs added on two more then and one in the eighth. Hoerner has two homers in six games after going 80 straight games without one from Apr. 22 until June 27. He’s hitting .410/.419/.541 with 13 RBI in 15 games since the break.

Hoerner grabs a seat on the bench with red-hot rookie Pedro Ramírez taking a turn at the keystone after connecting for his first round-tripper since April 21 earlier this week. The 29-year-old speedster has been phenomenal since the All-Star break, hitting .417 (20-for-48) across 11 games during that span.

Hoerner hit a two-run homer off Hunter Dobbins to essentially put the game away in the top of the ninth. It was his first homer since way back on Apr. 21, when he hit his fourth in 23 games to start the year. It now seems pretty official that he’s turned things around after a two-month slump; he’s batting .432/.432/.545 in 10 games to start the second half, raising his OPS from .631 to .666.

Hoerner remains hot, and his triple scored three and doubled the Cubs’ lead to 6-0 in the third frame. It comes a day after Hoerner singled four times with an RBI, and it’s helped improve his slash to .245/.314/.341. Hoerner has certainly gone on hot runs before, and it’s possible we’re seeing the beginning of one to start the second half of the 2026 campaign.

Surprisingly, it’s his first four-hit game since Apr. 16, 2024. Hoerner, one of the league’s coldest hitters the last couple of months, has six hits in the first two games of the second half. He was 5-for-36 previously this month.

As much of a disaster as Dansby Swanson has been offensively, Hoerner has been just as bad for about eight weeks now. In 46 games since Apr. 22, he’s hit .202/.283/.246 with 11 runs scored and 11 RBI in 205 plate appearances. He’s actually struck out only nine times during the entire stretch, but just putting the ball in play doesn’t necessarily mean good things are going to happen (sorry, baseball commentators). Statcast thinks Hoerner has been pretty unlucky, but his EV numbers are all worse than usual and defenses are taking away some of his singles because they’re just not too worried about him hitting the ball over the heads of outfielders. He’s going to have to swing with a little more authority if he wants to keep defenses honest.

Hoerner was flying high two months ago, opening the season with a .326 average, four homers and 22 RBI in his first 23 games. Since Apr. 22, however, he’s come in at .201 with no homers and 11 RBI in 41 games, even though he’s struck out just 10 times in 185 plate appearances. He’ll bounce back, but it just isn’t easy being a major league hitter these days.

Ramírez has gone 4-for-16 with one RBI in 17 plate appearances over eight games since being called up from Triple-A Iowa last month. The 22-year-old rookie gets a look at the keystone with Nico Hoerner sliding over to shortstop with Dansby Swanson getting a rare day off.