ATLANTA — Nico Hoerner’s rare misplay in the eighth inning opened the door for the Braves, who beat the Cubs on May 13, 2026, after a tie game turned fast in Atlanta.
The Cubs and Braves were tied at one run apiece when Michael Harris II hit a slow roller to Hoerner, who tried to shovel the ball underhanded with his glove to first baseman Michael Busch. The throw sailed over Busch’s head, Harris reached safely, and Atlanta broke the game open from there. Mike Yastrzemski followed with a tiebreaking double, Mauricio Dubon added a two-run home run, and Raisel Iglesias finished the job for his eighth save.
The loss gave Chicago its first four-game losing streak of 2026 and left the club with just three runs across the skid. That is the kind of stretch that can bury a team quickly in May, especially when the margin in the late innings is this thin. One error did not decide all four games, but it decided this one, and it came with the game balanced on a single play.
Hoerner, long regarded as a player who can improvise plays most infielders would never attempt, said he made the moment harder than it needed to be. He said he misread the timing on the ball and, looking back, there was enough time to transfer it to his hand. He also said instinct usually serves him well, but that this one stung because it led to the game-winning run.
Craig Counsell called the play “awesome... wonderful,” then added that he was sure Hoerner would say he could have made it, even if it was a tough chance. The manager’s point was simple: the ball had a chance to be handled cleanly, but the speed of the play put the result on the wrong side of a split-second decision.
Shota Imanaga also had a hand in how the night unfolded. He allowed a home run to Drake Baldwin in the fourth inning but otherwise kept the Cubs in it, working seven-plus innings without a walk and allowing five hits. Afterward, he said that if he had not given up any runs, Chicago would have had a chance to win, and that he should have kept the Braves at zero.
The backdrop made the defeat harder to absorb. Over the previous two days, the Cubs had managed only two singles in 10 scoreless innings against the Braves’ bullpen, a quiet stretch that had already put pressure on their offense before the eighth-inning collapse. Chicago’s run drought and Hoerner’s misplay combined to turn a tight game into another loss before the night was over.
The Cubs also moved to add help, signing reliever Liam Hendriks to a minor-league deal. The plan is to send him to the club’s facility in Mesa, Arizona, before any possible move to Triple-A Iowa. Hendriks was the White Sox’s All-Star closer in 2021 and 2022, and the signing gives Chicago another veteran arm to consider as it tries to stop the slide.
For the Braves, the win came with a clean finish and another save for Iglesias. For the Cubs, it came with the kind of mistake that can linger far longer than a box score line, because Hoerner did not merely miss a chance — he changed the inning, the game and the way his club leaves Atlanta.
