CHICAGO -- There are a bunch of Cubs players who can contribute in all phases of the game, which is one of the reasons why the North Siders finished the regular season at 92-70 and earned a spot in the National League Wild Card Series against the Padres.
Dansby Swanson sat at the front of this list during the Cubs’ 3-1 victory in Game 1 of this series at an electric Wrigley Field on Tuesday afternoon, saving two runs with three slick plays defensively and scoring an important insurance run with his legs in the eighth inning.
“To win any baseball game, you've got to make outs [into] outs,” Swanson said. “They came my way today. We’ve got so many good defenders on this team that guys have made plays all year. But it’s really important. … That’s what postseason baseball is about. You’ve got to be able to convert outs into outs.”
San Diego held a 1-0 advantage in the second via back-to-back doubles from Jackson Merrill and Xander Bogaerts off starter Matthew Boyd, as Bogaerts took third with nobody out on a throwing error from Pete Crow-Armstrong. But Bogaerts stayed at third when Swanson backhanded a hard-hit Ryan O’Hearn grounder to his right with the infield in for the first out and then picked up Jake Cronenworth’s grounder up the middle and fired to first baseman Michael Busch for out No. 3.
In the fourth, with Manny Machado on third, Bogaerts on first and one out, Swanson made an over-the-shoulder grab of O’Hearn’s bloop into shallow center for the second out and to keep the Padres off the board.
“Yeah, probably the play of the game,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said of Swanson’s fourth-inning grab. “Thought O'Hearn had a good approach, got in on him a little bit, but stayed through it. Right off the bat, I thought it was going to fall in there, but Dansby got a nice drop step and went out and made what ended up being the play of the game.”
“It's not a play that you make a lot, and it's just great athlete, great instincts,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “The wind probably helped us a little bit there and held the ball up a little bit, but it was a beautiful play.”
Swanson led Major League shortstops in Outs Above Average in 2024 at +17, but was only at +2 in ‘25. Still, he has been the second-best defensive shortstop to Bobby Witt Jr. in MLB by OAA since coming to the Cubs in '23 at +39, an aptitude O’Hearn saw first-hand Tuesday.
“I hit the first one good. I thought it might sneak by him. He made a good play,” O’Hearn said. “Second one, I thought I got enough on it to drop it in over his head, put a run on the board. Neither one worked out, but the right approach was there. Another centimeter off the barrel, the job gets done.”
Swanson gave credit to Boyd for making the pitches to get out of the first situation, which Counsell also praised during his postgame interview session. But the veteran, who has won two Gold Glove Awards, had a very basic approach to that second catch on O’Hearn.
“You can’t let it drop. As simple as it is,” Swanson said. “I was laughing with my mom and dad out there. I dragged them out from watching my brother and sister’s softball game many times to make them throw me fly balls over my head. I had a little bit of practice with it, so we’ll give them some credit for helping me make that play today.”
“That's kind of our brand of baseball, right,” Boyd said. “It gives you a ton of confidence when you're out there as a pitcher just to fill it up and know that the guys back there, they're going to do their thing. It's pretty awesome.”
Seiya Suzuki and Carson Kelly launched back-to-back home runs in the fifth off Nick Pivetta to give the Cubs a 2-1 lead, which stood that way until the eighth, when Swanson opened with a single off Jeremiah Estrada. After moving to second on Matt Shaw’s sacrifice bunt and to third on a wild pitch, Swanson raced home on Nico Hoerner’s medium-deep sacrifice fly to center field.
Brad Keller finished off the victory with a perfect ninth. But it was Swanson who had the first save through his glove work.
“I mean, the game is a completely different game if those plays don’t get made,” Kelly said. “That’s Dansby for you. He’s going to make those plays. He’s one of the captains out there.”