SAN DIEGO – The offensive outburst that swung the momentum for the Cubs on Tuesday night was a story in three parts.
There was Nico Hoerner, delivering in the clutch as his incredible opening month is approaching its finish line. Alex Bregman came off the bench – after what was supposed to be a day off – coming through with a pinch-hit. And then Pete Crow-Armstrong put the 8-3 victory in the bag with a three-run homer that ended a prolonged power outage.
It added up to a win that snapped the modest three-game losing streak for Chicago after it had rattled off 10 straight wins behind an offense that scored in bunches.
In the sixth inning, Hoerner came up with the game caught in a 2-2 deadlock and two runners aboard with two outs. The second baseman sent a pitch from David Morgan into the right-center-field gap and turned on the burners hunting down a two-run hustle double. When Padres center fielder Jackson Merrill bobbled the ball, Hoerner pumped his fist and reached second easily.
With that hit, Hoerner joined Javier Báez (2019), Derrek Lee (2005) and Sammy Sosa (1995) as the only Cubs in the Wild Card Era (since 1995) with at least 25 RBIs and 35 hits in the Cubs’ first 30 games of a season.
Bregman was out of the starting lineup due to a minor left foot issue, stemming from when he was hit by a pitch on Sunday against the Dodgers. But in the seventh, he was called upon to pinch-hit against lefty Wandy Peralta with runners on the corners and two outs. Bregman pushed a single to right field, giving the Cubs a 5-3 edge.
That set the stage for Crow-Armstrong, who had not belted a home run since April 7. The center fielder pulled out of his drought (one spanning 77 plate appearances) by launching a 1-1 changeup from Peralta to center, where it just cleared the wall beyond the reach of Merrill’s glove. The three-run shot was Crow-Armstrong's second homer of the year.
That was sufficient in backing a decent outing from Cubs righty Edward Cabrera, who was charged with three runs over 5 2/3 innings. Cabrera allowed a leadoff blast to Xander Bogaerts in the second inning and exited with two runners on after giving up an RBI single to Luis Campusano in the sixth, but Cubs lefty Hoby Milner escaped the jam with a strikeout of Bryce Johnson.