Perfect 10! Swanson's HR caps comeback, keeps Cubs' win streak alive

LOS ANGELES -- The Cubs know that the road to the World Series likely runs through Dodger Stadium. And on Friday night, the North Siders rolled into Los Angeles and put up the kind of fight against the two-time defending champions that would look right at home on the October stage.

One day after delivering his first walk-off hit as a member of the Cubs, Dansby Swanson capped off a wild comeback with a go-ahead, two-run homer off Dodgers lefty Tanner Scott in the ninth inning. The blast sent Chicago on its way to a 6-4 victory that ran the team’s Major League-best winning streak to an even 10 games.

“He’s always had the juice,” Cubs starter Jameson Taillon said. “But lately, it just seems like everything he’s hitting is on the nose, and he’s doing it against really good pitching, too.”

The 10-game run marks the longest winning streak for the Cubs since an 11-game streak from July 31-Aug. 12, 2016. It is the longest winning streak in April for Chicago since the 1970 campaign.

Swanson’s game-changing home run -- his sixth shot of the year and fifth in the past dozen games -- was the finishing touch on a six-run outburst for the Cubs over the final three innings. Swanson also delivered a two-run triple off Alex Vesia in a three-run push in the seventh, and made a diving catch up the middle to rob Kyle Tucker of a hit one frame earlier.

And in the eighth, Alex Bregman had his biggest moment since joining the Cubs over the offseason. After hearing raucous boos from the Dodger Stadium crowd all night, the third baseman unloaded on an 0-1 pitch from Blake Treinen, sending it towering out to left for a leadoff blast that pulled the game into a 4-4 deadlock.

“He’s been the kind of hitter that every team wants on their side,” Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner said, “and doesn’t want up against them in big moments. … He’s definitely the kind of guy you want up in that spot. It was a really cool moment. That had to feel really cool for him.”

Asked about how that home run felt, Bregman called it “amazing.”

“Those kinds of moments are what you dream about, you know?” he said.

Twice, the Dodgers’ defense had relays that threw out runners at the plate, but the Cubs kept the pressure on.

“All the runs we scored we really earned,” Hoerner said. “We earned it on some really amazing swings from our guys. That made it that much more satisfying.”

Prior to that comeback, the Cubs’ offense -- a unit that pounded out 66 runs over the previous nine wins -- struggled to solve Dodgers righty Emmet Sheehan over his 6 1/3 innings. With a slider-led arsenal, Sheehan racked up 10 strikeouts and generated 21 swinging strikes, exiting with no runs scored while he was on the hill.

Taillon got the Cubs through five innings with three of the four runs he allowed coming via an opposite-field, three-run homer from Will Smith in the third. With his injury-marred bullpen running on fumes, Cubs manager Craig Counsell handed the ball to lefty Ryan Rolison, who had not pitched since April 14.

“I thought we still had a shot,” Counsell said. “I don’t know if you always say that down four going in the bottom of the sixth inning.”

Swanson’s diving snag against Tucker got Rolison’s outing going. The lefty pieced together three innings, saving Chicago’s relief corps and creating a situation in which the Cubs’ lineup could begin mounting its comeback.

“It was just a great team win,” Counsell said. “Ryan Rolison, to me, is the story of the game.”

Plenty of players had a case on this night.

That included Hoerner, who showed why he has been one of baseball’s top all-around players out of the gates this season. Hoerner had an RBI single in the top of the seventh and then put his defensive skills on display in the home half of the inning.

First, he teamed with right fielder Seiya Suzuki on a relay that cut down Andy Pages at third on a would-be triple. Then, Hyeseong Kim sent a pitch from Rolison sharply off the glove of first baseman Michael Busch. Hoerner was covering behind Busch and made a leaping, barehanded catch on the ball before firing it to Rolison at first for a jaw-dropping out.

Swanson could not believe Hoerner pulled it off.

“I was kind of giving him a hard time,” Swanson said. “Like, ‘Man, I actually thought I might’ve had the best one of the day, and then you did that.’”

It all added up to a statement win for the North Siders.

“Obviously, they’re the back-to-back champs,” Bregman said. “We did a good job of showing up ready to go.”