Chicago Cubs update: Nico Hoerner, Shōta Imanaga, Matthew Boyd

There were only three games played by MLB teams over the past week because of the All-Star break.

I’m not going to let that stop me from doing a “weekly” update. So, here’s who was hot and not for the Cubs over those three games.

Three up

Welcome back, Nico Hoerner’s bat

The break seems to have done Nico some good, whether it was rest, or working on things, or both. Hoerner went 8-for-13 (.615) over the three games against the Twins with one extra-base hit (Sunday’s triple) and five RBI.

Here’s the triple [VIDEO].

There was some discussion in Sunday’s recap comment section about whether that should have been scored a single and a two-base error. The thing is, Twins center fielder Luke Keaschall never touched the ball, simply waving at it as it went by. Having actually been an official scorer at some minor league games, I concur with the scoring decision that gave Nico the triple.

In any case, nice to see Nico’s bat back. That will be a huge help to the offense.

Shōta Imanaga threw some shutdown innings

Imanaga threw seven scoreless innings against the Twins Sunday, allowing just six hits and striking out four.

Since an awful five-start stretch in May and June in which he allowed 13 (!) home runs in 28.1 innings, he’s been pretty much lights-out: Seven starts, 2.31 ERA, 3.66 FIP, 1.243 WHIP, only five home runs in 39 innings. He’s now got his season ERA under 4.00 at 3.91. If he keeps this up, he’ll be starting postseason games, something Craig Counsell wouldn’t do with him in Game 5 against the Brewers last year.

Here’s more on Imanaga’s outing Sunday [VIDEO].

Matthew Boyd has also thrown well recently

Boyd continued his good stretch of starts following his knee injury with a solid outing Saturday against the Twins: Six innings, three hits, one run (a solo homer) and four strikeouts.

Since returning from the knee injury: Five starts, 2.57 ERA, 1.143 WHIP. His season ERA in 10 starts is now down to 4.15, and overall since his rough Opening Day start it’s at 3.35. Like Imanaga, he’s putting together a good run of starts which could serve the team well in October.

H/T to Seiya Suzuki, who went 4-f0r-9 against the Twins with two doubles, four RBI and four runs scored, and to Alex Bregman for his two-run homer that began the festivities on Sunday.

Three down

Pete Crow-Armstrong had a rough weekend at the plate

PCA was 1-for-12 with six strikeouts against the Twins, and at times appeared to be reverting to some bad habits that we thought might be gone.

Every hitter goes through slumps and bad times, and in fact, this goes back to the Cincinnati series before the break. Over the six games in the Reds and Twins series, PCA is 2-for-22 with 11 strikeouts.

Hopefully he can turn this around beginning tonight. It hasn’t affected his defense, though [VIDEO].

Dansby Swanson has cooled off

After a hot streak in late June and early July, Swanson went just 1-for-9 against the Twins, though the one hit was a triple and he also stole a base.

Hopefully, he picks things up against the Tigers.

Ian Happ is also on a cold streak

Happ also went just 1-for-9 against Minnesota, though he did walk three times and scored twice.

And he, too, made a nice defensive play [VIDEO].