The Chicago Cubs bounced back from their series loss this past weekend to even up their West Coast road trip with a 5-4 win over the San Diego Padres on Wednesday. Jameson Taillon pitched seven strong innings, Ben Brown saved the day in the eighth, Pete Crow-Armstrong homered again, oh, and Nico Hoerner took a fastball off his head and laughed it off as he ran to first base.<\/p>\n
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Hoerner was facing Matt Waldron in the fifth inning when the Padres\u2019 right-hander unleashed a 90mph fastball that drilled the Cubs\u2019 middle infielder directly on the head. Luckily, Hoerner was able to tuck his head in just enough that the ball clanked off his helmet. Still, it\u2019s always a scary scene whenever a hitter gets beaned, so the Cubs went out to check on Hoerner.<\/p>\n
The replay is hilarious, though, as you can see Hoerner laughing almost instantly and joking with his teammates, who were looking on from the dugout.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not like pitchers were intentionally trying to hit the Cubs in San Diego, but Hoerner was the third player drilled by the Padres in the past two games after Ian Happ and Michael Busch were hit in Tuesday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udd25 Subscribe to the Untold Chicago YouTube channel<\/b> to hear Chicago legends tell stories you\u2019ve never seen in headlines \u2014 real moments, real experiences, straight from the athletes themselves.<\/p>\n Later in Wednesday\u2019s series finale, Matt Shaw was nearly hit twice by Jason Adam. Then, Shaw homered to give the Cubs a much-needed insurance run that turned out to be the difference in the 5-4 win.<\/p>\n Adam throws not one, but two straight pitches at Matt Shaw\u2019s head. The Padres hit Nico Hoerner in the head a few innings ago. They threw multiple pitches at Seiya\u2019s head last night. None of this looks intentional but if I\u2019m the Cubs, I\u2019m getting absolutely sick and tired of it. pic.twitter.com\/7Uw5cculpo<\/p>\n \u2014 \ud835\udd6e\ud835\udd94\ud835\udd93\ud835\udd93\ud835\udd94\ud835\udd97 \ud835\udd7b\ud835\udd8e\ud835\udd91\ud835\udd98 (@TheConnorPils) April 29, 2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n As for Hoerner, he finished the game and there were no concerns following the game regarding his status.<\/p>\n He was literally shaking off the hit to his head with a shimmy.<\/p>\n Incredible. What a psycho in the toughest way possible. The Cubs wrapped up the month of April with a 17-9 record, and head into May at 19-12 overall following a day off on Thursday.<\/p>\n Hoerner was 1-for-4 on Wednesday and is currently leading the Cubs in RBI with 26 and stolen bases with 7. Among Cubs\u2019 qualified hitters, his 133 wRC+ is tops on the team. Through 31 games, Hoerner has put up a 1.7 fWAR, which is currently tied with Matt Olson for No. 1 in the National League<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Chicago Cubs bounced back from their series loss this past weekend to even up their West Coast road trip with a 5-4 win over the San… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":181714,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-181713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n
![\"Nico](\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/RXPFNgEvEs8\/maxresdefault.jpg\")
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