LOS ANGELES — Dansby Swanson turned toward the Chicago Cubs dugout and could only throw his hands up, part shrug, part “what can you say?” as he began his trot around the bases.
Swanson’s go-ahead two-run home run in the ninth inning Friday night at Dodger Stadium culminated a wild 6-4 comeback win against the Los Angeles Dodgers for their 10th consecutive victory that, for six innings, appeared incredibly unlikely.
Dodgers starter Emmet Sheehan cruised through 6 1/3 innings, holding the Cubs to just three hits. The Cubs’ injury-ravaged bullpen was depleted, limiting manager Craig Counsell to only three available arms. The game circumstances forced Counsell to decide in the sixth inning whether it was still winnable or if the Cubs needed to focus on the big picture and preserve the ‘pen.
“I thought we still had a shot,” Counsell said. “I don’t know if you always say that down four going into the bottom of the sixth inning. But I think we had a shot.”
Ryan Rolison had not pitched in 10 days when Counsell turned to the lefty reliever.
The Cubs needed outs. And in that moment, when everything had been working against the Cubs, Rolison delivered. He threw three shutout innings and allowed just two base runners, giving the Cubs offense a chance to chip away at a four-run deficit.
The Cubs tallied six runs and eight hits over the final three innings against the Dodgers bullpen to rally for the 6-4 victory. Their 10th straight wins represent the Cubs’ longest winning streak since 2016.
“It was just a great team win,” Counsell said. “Ryan Rolison, to me, is the story of the game. … I don’t know if I was expecting three innings from him. I was hoping to get two innings from Ryan — it’s a day that you win a game, you put your bullpen back in order, and it’s one guy that did it really, he did it.”
Rolison had not appeared in a game since the first day of the Cubs’ win streak on April 14 in Philadelphia. Nor had the 28-year-old thrown three innings in a game this season when Counsell told him to empty the tank as he sent him back out for the eighth. Pitching coach Tommy Hottovy and assistant pitching coach Casey Jacobson kept reminding Rolison between each inning to maintain the same mindset: attack each hitter one pitch at a time. Don’t worry about the score.
“It’s a great confidence booster,” Rolison said. “Coming to a new organization, I wanted to get off on the right note, and the pitching staff and the coaches here believe in me and put me in good situations.”
Alex Bregman delivered his biggest hit in a Cubs uniform, connecting on a game-tying solo home run off Blake Treinen in the eighth. Swanson’s dagger in the ninth gave the Cubs (17-9) their first lead of the night. Right-hander Corbin Martin retired the Dodgers in order for his first save of the season.
Right-hander Jameson Taillon got through five innings and lamented not going deeper knowing that status of the bullpen. Dodgers catcher Will Smith hit a homer off Taillon in the third that accounted for three of the four runs he allowed.
“When we’re playing well, it’s just such a fun brand of baseball to watch,” Taillon said. “I sit there for four days in between my starts and just get to watch and we put the ball in play, we run the bases, we play defense, we throw strikes, like, just a lot of the little things we do really well.”
Hours after losing another high-leverage reliever — Caleb Thielbar — to the injured list, further taxing the bullpen, the Cubs didn’t let their struggles against Sheehan’s electric stuff carry over to the Dodgers bullpen. Swanson’s two-out, two-run triple in the seventh got the Cubs on the board, and Nico Hoerner followed with a single to pull the Cubs within one.
After hearing booing from Dodgers fans all night, continuing the trend from his Houston Astros days, Bregman took an 0-1 sweeper on the outside edge and pulled it over the left-field wall to lead off the eighth.
“Everybody in this room has stepped up,” Bregman said. “The guys battle and continue to fight and put up good at-bats, and I feel like the consistency of the preparation before the game, the execution of the game plan over the last two weeks has been really good. … It felt good to tie it up, obviously facing a really good team over there and down by one in the eighth, just to be able to to put a good swing on that and tie it up and give us a chance to keep going.”
Stellar defense in the bottom of the seventh kept the Cubs within a run to set up Bregman’s and Swanson’s heroics. Seiya Suzuki and Hoerner teamed up on a perfectly executed relay to throw out Andy Pages at third as he tried to stretch out a double to open the seventh.
On the ensuing play, Hoerner’s instincts and athleticism shined. He barehanded a deflected ball off Michael Busch’s mitt and in one motion threw to the covering Rolison at first for the second out.
Even the normally intense, stoic Hoerner couldn’t help but grin after the sequence.
“Just enjoying the kind of absurdity of the play in the moment,” Hoerner said. “That’s not a play that I’ve ever had anything really similar to, which our sport is fun because there’s so much randomness to it, and things that pop up out of nowhere. Great play by Rols even just being there in the first place, so much had to link up for that to be possible.”
There are games over the course of the season that, when October playoff baseball nears, were clearly defining moments of a team’s journey to the postseason. Friday felt special.
Maybe it doesn’t ultimately lead to where the Cubs are working toward — a deep run in the playoffs — but even with all the injuries they have sustained to the pitching staff through the first four weeks of the season, a veteran Cubs group is playing with an edge coming off last year’s success. The Cubs believe in themselves and what they’re capable of.
“There’s a lot of positives, but I think it shows the heart and the character of this team, and it gives you that feeling of, no matter what the deficit is, you can still come back and win,” catcher Carson Kelly said.
