{"id":661119,"date":"2026-05-23T21:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T21:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/661119\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T21:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T21:08:15","slug":"nico-hoerner-tosses-ball-between-legs-for-highlight-reel-putout-but-cubs-skid-hits-7-games-vs-astros","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/661119\/","title":{"rendered":"Nico Hoerner tosses ball between legs for highlight-reel putout, but Cubs’ skid hits 7 games vs. Astros"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nico Hoerner<\/a> gave Chicago Cubs<\/a> fans a reason to cheer Saturday in the fifth inning of a 3-0 loss<\/a> to the Houston Astros<\/a>. The two-time Gold Glove Award-winning second baseman offered a reprieve during the Cubs\u2019 May malaise.<\/p>\n

Amid what\u2019s now a seven-game losing streak, Hoerner dropped jaws at Wrigley Field by snuffing out a bunt toward second with a putout that saw him field the ball barehanded and toss it to first between his legs.<\/p>\n

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Chicago first baseman Michael Busch<\/a> extended to complete the highlight-reel play before Astros catcher C\u00e9sar Salazar<\/a> could reach the bag.<\/p>\n

Hoerner has piled up a collection of the eye-catching web gems this season. Notably, on April 24, he wowed with back-to-back defensive plays during the seventh inning of a 6-4 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers that capped the team\u2019s first of two 10-game win streaks this season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

First the now-29-year-old Hoerner showed off his arm as a cut-off man. He beamed a perfectly placed throw from the outfield that bounced right to third base, where Alex Bregman<\/a> was able to tag out a dashing Andy Pages<\/a>, who was trying to stretch a no-out double into a triple. Then the next batter, Hyeseong Kim<\/a>, hit a grounder that ricocheted off Busch. Instinctively, Hoerner leapt and plucked the ball mid-air before planting and firing a strike to Ryan Rolison<\/a> as the reliever raced to first for the putout.<\/p>\n

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Offense has been hard to come by for the Cubs recently, and Hoerner hasn\u2019t been exempt from those struggles at the plate. He came into Saturday batting just .164 in Chicago\u2019s previous 15 games.<\/p>\n

But his defense continues to impress.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s hardly a consolation for Cubs fans, however. Chicago is 2-11 in its past 13 games and 29-23 overall. Manager Craig Counsell opted for lineup changes on Saturday, which included giving Ian Happ<\/a> the day off and moving Pete Crow-Armstrong<\/a> to the leadoff spot. The shakeup didn\u2019t work. Chicago was blanked for the fourth time in the past two weeks.<\/p>\n

The Astros, on the other hand, improved to 22-31, with all three of their runs in the shutout victory coming on Christian Walker<\/a> homers. He launched a pair of them: a two-run blast in the first and a solo shot in the fourth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nico Hoerner gave Chicago Cubs fans a reason to cheer Saturday in the fifth inning of a 3-0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[33557,8971,93721,479,109685,4285,373,4294,25916,90190,363,25922,4261,180939,99,59462],"class_list":["post-661119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-alex-bregman","tag-andy-pages","tag-cesar-salazar","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-christian-walker","tag-fifth-inning","tag-houston-astros","tag-hyeseong-kim","tag-ian-happ","tag-michael-busch","tag-mlb","tag-nico-hoerner","tag-pete-crow-armstrong","tag-ryan-rolison","tag-sports","tag-the-los-angeles-dodgers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}