DETROIT — The crackle of wood buckling under contact suggested Nico Hoerner had hit the ball off the handle of his bat. The swinging bunt dribbled toward the left side of the infield.
Hoerner broke hard out of the batter’s box and beat Tigers third baseman Zach McKinstry’s on-the-run throw to first base.
The Cubs would go on to beat Detroit 6-1 on Saturday, fueled by five home runs. But at that time, in the fifth inning, the Cubs were clinging to a one-run lead.
Hoerner’s hustle resulted in an extra run. On the next pitch, Michael Busch homered into the right-field stands.
“McKinstry made some nice plays [Friday]; he bobbled that one a little bit,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “And maybe we caught a break there. But baserunners are, generally, what help get things started. And we’ll take it. Nico did his thing. Keep putting the ball in play, good things happen.”
On a team that has made taking care of the little things part of its identity, Counsell has pointed to Hoerner as a standout in that department.
That skill was on display on the basepaths a couple of weeks ago as he eluded a tag on a force play to buy an out in the midst of what would turn into a six-run rally against the Reds. It was evident on defense against the Nationals on Thursday, when he made a blind diving tag on a throw from left field to turn a double into an out. It’s clear in the approach that has led to a .400 batting average with runners in scoring position this season.
“There’s also a level of joy around the game of baseball in details and talking through things and arguing about things,” Hoerner said. “And, whether it’s baserunning or defense, we’ve done a really good job of that as a group.”
Hoerner also traces his dedication to the details to the disappointment of missing the playoffs the last two seasons.
“The amount of games throughout the season that turn on a random out or baserunning play, you never know when it’s going to be,” he said. “And those moments kind of swing seasons, too. And that sounds extreme, but it’s kind of all you can control, too.”
Last year, a seven-week slump put the Cubs in a hole that even a strong second half couldn’t dig them out of. The 2023 season came down to the wire even more.
In mid-September, the Cubs were in position to claim a wild-card spot. But in the last 2½ weeks, they were swept by the Diamondbacks and Braves — a fluky defensive mistake costing them a win in each series — and fell a game short of a playoff berth.
The D-backs jumped the Cubs in the wild-card standings and stormed through the playoffs all the way to the World Series.
“It’s very easy to focus on what happened at the end of the year and wish a lot of things had been different in that time,” Hoerner said. “But you go back to May and June, and there’s probably four or five wins we left on the table at that point.
“And you definitely can say that for last year. Obviously, every year you’re going to have searches that are challenging, but last year, our ‘bad’ was really bad. It was awful. Point being that there are always going to be challenging times, but you really raise your floor when you play defense and run the bases at a high level, and you give yourself a chance to stay in games regardless of how you’re swinging the bats because that’s going to fluctuate.”
Counsell, whose major-league career has spanned three decades as a player, executive and manager, is familiar with the late-season feeling of: “I wish we had one more game to play with.”
“You say that to yourself in September, no matter what,” he said. “And remembering you said that to yourself is the hard part, and really applying that is the hard part. And that’s what Nico does and is trying to do daily.”