Chicago Cubs: Can Nico Hoerner escape Cubs playoff goat tag?

The Chicago Cubs got bashed pretty good on Saturday in their 9-3 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers in Game One of the NLDS at American Family Field.

Actually, by the top of the third, the game was pretty much done as the Cubs were buried 9-1, after an ugly six-run Brewers first inning and a three-run Brewers second.

A flat Matthew Boyd, working off just three-days rest, started the game by giving up three straight doubles and walking a fourth batter. Then, perhaps, the ugliest play of the game came when the Cubs’ Gold Glove second baseman Nico Hoerner flubbed a slow ground ball off the bat of Milwaukee’s Sal Frelick with runners on first and second.

Nico Hoerner’s ugly flub

Boyd then allowed a single before being pulled from the game, but the floodgates had already been opened.

Hoerner’s miscue was almost understandable, even coming from someone with such a stellar defensive reputation. With one eye on the runner at second (and a possible double play) and the other on the sure out at first, he just failed to reach down and secure the ball first.

Immediately, thoughts of Leon Durham and Alex Gonzalez came to mind, back from a time when the word “goat” was much more prevalent than “GOAT.”

All-time Chicago Cubs goats

For those Cubs fans old enough to remember, Durham and Gonzalez came to symbolize Cubs’ playoff futility after critical postseason errors.

In 1984, the first baseman Durham had a ground ball squiggle right between his legs in Game Five of the NLCS versus the San Diego Padres. The error would lead to four runs and, ultimately, help the Padres advance to the World Series.

In 2003, with the Cubs on the verge of making the World Series, the shortstop Gonzalez booted a routine ground ball in Game Six of the NLCS, resulting in a Florida Marlins rally that powered the Marlins to a World Series berth.

Both crucial errors have become part of Cubs lore and symbols of the team’s “lovable loser” past.

Could Hoerner, as consistently good as he’s been over his career and as valuable as he’s been this season, end up alongside Durham and Gonzalez in the annals of Cubs tough luck history?

Hoerner’s taking it all in stride

Hoerner is definitely not acting like someone on the ugly side of history after his mistake.

“It’s hard to predict win or loss, based on plays in the first inning,” Hoerner told reporters after the game. “But just get an out — like you do most of the time in that situation on the play that I missed — and I love Matty’s chances to get out of that inning with two runs and settle in like we’ve seen him do so many times this year. Obviously, that play had not just win-and-loss implications, but the entire use of the pitching staff.

“Everything like that had a huge effect on that game, and on momentum.”

As a matter of fact, he’s looking to come right back and prove himself in Game Two

“Our excitement and our looking-forward-to-play is really high right now,” Hoerner said. “Personally, sometimes, when you have a game that has moments that really sting, you want to just get back on the field and go to the next day. That’s kind of the beauty of our sport. But we’ll be ready to go, for sure.”

Hopefully, for the Cubs, Hoerner’s home run later in the game was just the beginning of a full-scale rebound from the second baseman.

If not, he could, unfairly, find himself on that list of Cubs goats.

Source: https://www.chicitysports.com/chicago-cubs-nico-hoerner-error-goat-playoff