It was one of those Wrigley Field days that makes you remember why you love Chicago.
The heat was on, a southwest wind was blowing out and a packed house of 37,311 was on hand for a 23-3 win over the San Diego Padres.
“The conditions the last three days were so unique,” manager Craid Counsell said. “There is no place else that ever plays like this, not even close. I was telling (coach) Ryan Flaherty, the ivy feels almost thicker this year. Balls are disappearing constantly when guys run into it. They almost disappear, right?”
The Cubs’ worries seemingly have disappeared as well, with the offense doing a 180 over the last three weeks, leading to a 15-4 stretch.
Almost everything went right for the Cubs on Wednesday, and especially for shortstop Dansby Swanson, who hit a career-high three home runs as the hosts tied their franchise record with eight home runs. Swanson also drove in eight runs, and his 26 RBIs over the last 10 games set a Cubs record for that span. He’s also hitting .390 with eight home runs in those 10 games — after hitting .169 with two home runs and 10 RBIs in his previous 47 games.
Swanson never wavered in his belief in himself, but he could not explain his personal trip from the deepest valley to baseball’s version of Mt. Everest.
“That’s kind of the beauty of it,” he said. “That’s why we keep coming back to this game, no matter how tough it may be at times. Good or bad, you want to show up every day and give your best effort. This game seems to reward doing the right things.
“At the end of the day, we’re here to win, and whether it’s Pete (Crow-Armstrong) early in the month, or any of our other guys capable of incredible things. That’s what makes a great team great.”
The Cubs haven’t proved they’re a great team yet, but they’ve shown they’re quite capable of getting back to where they were in May, when they were 27-12 with two 10-game winning streaks and leading the National League Central. A 7-22 skid followed, dropping them back to .500, before they righted the ship with a series win in San Francisco on June 12-14.
Swanson’s resurgence, along with Crow-Armstrong’s sensational June, paved the way.
“We never have baseball figured out, I think this tells you that,” Counsell said. “(Swanson) probably went through the roughest patch of his career and on the other side of it is the best stretch of his career.
“You figure it out. I don’t think Dansby could explain it to you either.”
Wednesday, a day with temperatures in the 90s, was so hot the lines to the water refill station in the left-field concourse were up to 30 people long at times. With the wind blowing out, the Cubs opted to go nuclear against Padres pitching, including starter Walker Buehler, who put his team in a 9-0 hole in the fourth inning, and catcher Rodolfo Duran, who pitched the eighth and allowed seven runs, including Swanson’s third home run.
Swanson admitted he never hits well with position players on the mound and credited a friend who is a slow-pitch softball player for some advice on how to hit a lob pitch.
“Hey, take all (the advice) you can get,” he said while not revealing the advice.
The 23 runs were the Cubs’ most since a 26-7 win at Colorado on Aug. 18, 1995, and their most at Wrigley Field since May 17, 1977, a 23-6 win over the Padres. The eight home runs tied a franchise record, and they’ve hit at least five home runs in back-to-back games for the third time in history and the first time since Aug. 10-11, 2002, at Coors Field. That, of course, was in the steroids era.
Seiya Suzuki started things off with a three-run shot in the first inning, his 100th career home run. He joined Shohei Ohtani, Hideki Matsui and Ichiro Suzuki in the exclusive club of Japanese players with 100 home runs or more in the majors. Michael Conforto had his first multihomer game since 2021, and Crow-Armstrong followed up on his sizzling June with another home run, giving him 13 and a 1.218 OPS since May 26.
Despite his offensive struggles, Swanson is second among major-league shortstops with 57 RBIs, trailing only the Washington Nationals’ CJ Abrams, who led the majors with 60 entering the day. Swanson also has played Gold Glove Award-level shortstop, as usual, which was ignored by many fans during his cold offensive stretch.
The focus was on the batting average, and he only passed the .200 mark this series. Counsell dropped Swanson to the No. 9 spot early on and has kept him there despite his hot streak.
Swanson was told by a reporter after Wednesday’s game that the distances of the Cubs’ recent home runs nearly totaled a mile.
“I’ll leave the miles to Mal,” he said, referring to his wife, Chicago Stars forward Mallory Swanson. “That girl runs the miles. I stay away. I try to do 90 feet at a time, so I’ll leave the miles to her. The only word I can come up with is gratitude.”
