Nico Hoerner will look to continue his stellar month on Wednesday night when the Chicago Cubs play the decisive contest of their three-game series against the host Philadelphia Phillies.
Hoerner, who has 16 hits and 11 RBIs in April, joined Alex Bregman and Carson Kelly in driving in three runs apiece for Chicago during a 10-4 victory over Philadelphia on Tuesday.
Hoerner recorded an RBI single in the third inning and joined Bregman with a two-run single in the sixth.
“The at-bat where Nico drove in two (runs) is kind of a Nico at-bat,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “He gets down 0-2, fouls a couple pitches off, and then he puts a ball in play. That’s the difference in the situation like that. Hit a ball hard up the middle and good things happen.”
Bregman collected three hits on Tuesday and has 11 in his past seven games.
The Nos. 1-4 batters in the Cubs’ lineup combined to go 9-for-20 with seven RBIs on Tuesday.
The Cubs’ offense in general has picked it up a notch as well, totaling 24 runs on 36 hits over the past three games.
“It’s a mature group. … 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,” Bregman said. “We’ll get this thing rolling, and we’ll get guys locked in and be right where we need to be.”
The Cubs and Phillies have combined for 34 runs in the first two games of the series.
Left-hander Shota Imanaga (0-1, 2.81 ERA), who will start for Chicago in the finale, was right where he needed to be in his most recent outing, as he did not allow a hit and struck out nine over six scoreless innings in a no-decision against the Pittsburgh Pirates last Friday. The Pirates won 2-0.
Imanaga, 32, also received a no-decision in his lone encounter vs. Philadelphia. He yielded three runs on six hits — including two homers — with eight strikeouts in six innings of a 5-3 loss on July 3, 2024.
Philadelphia left-hander Jesus Luzardo (1-2, 6.23 ERA) will provide the opposition on Wednesday.
Luzardo has sandwiched lackluster starts around one good outing this season. He answered striking out 11 batters in a 2-1 win over the Colorado Rockies on April 4 by allowing five runs in 4 2/3 innings of a 5-4 defeat to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday.
Luzardo, 28, is 4-0 with a 2.30 ERA in seven career encounters with the Cubs.
On Tuesday, Edmundo Sosa belted a three-run homer onto Ashburn Alley in the second inning to stake the Phillies to an early lead. Sosa and J.T. Realmuto each had two of Philadelphia’s eight hits, one day after the team erupted for 13 runs on 15 hits in a 13-7 win in the series opener on Monday.
“I thought we hit some balls hard today,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said following Tuesday’s game. “I didn’t think our at-bats were that bad today. They just didn’t fall.”
Chicago placed right-handed reliever Ethan Roberts on the 15-day injured list on Tuesday, one day after he sustained a lacerated right middle finger during his typical pregame routine in the series opener.
Left-handers Ryan Rolison and Luke Little were recalled from Triple-A Iowa, with Rolison allowing one hit in a scoreless inning on Tuesday.
–Field Level Media
