Connect with us

Published

on

IT FELT LIKE a fairy-tale start to Dansby Swanson‘s Chicago Cubs career.

Swanson had left the Atlanta Braves to sign a seven-year, $177 million deal with Chicago in December, in part because it was the city where his new wife, Mallory Pugh Swanson, played professional soccer for the NWSL’s Chicago Red Stars.

Dansby was just two weeks into his first season in Chicago; Mallory was preparing to play for the U.S. women’s national team in a World Cup this summer in Australia and New Zealand. Together, they were looking forward to their first of many summers in Chicago.

Then, on April 8 before a game against the Texas Rangers at Wrigley Field, Dansby and his teammates gathered in the clubhouse to watch Mallory play in a friendly against Ireland and the mood changed in an instant.

Mallory went to the ground with a nasty left knee injury, after a collision with Ireland’s Aoife Mannion. Teammates and coaches surrounded her as she was carted off the field. The stunned Cubs watched it all unfold on television.

“It was definitely intense, especially because we were watching the game together as a team,” recalled Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner. “It turned from a cool thing and looking forward to the World Cup to immediate concern for a teammate.”

The news that Mallory had torn her patellar tendon added an unexpected challenge to the couple’s lives and completely altered Dansby’s early months in Chicago. Now, two months into Mallory’s minimum six-month rehab, Dansby is marking his mark on the surging Cubs, and Mallory is well enough to join him in England this weekend for MLB’s London Series between the Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals.

“She’s played and trained there [London] so I’m happy she can go,” Dansby said earlier in the week. “And I’m happy she can enjoy the success she’s getting in rehab — it’s been a grind, for sure.”


SLEEP WAS SCARCE during those early days in April, when Dansby Swanson had to play major league baseball while his wife underwent surgery and began her recovery. On April 12, Swanson even missed a game, his first since 2021.

“It’s been incredibly tough,” Swanson said. “When you see the person you love the most be hurt like that, it’s just emotional. Just devastating.”

His professional athlete wife now needed help in almost every aspect; just moving from room to room was a challenge. It added an element to Swanson’s daily routine that made playing baseball that much harder.

On the day of Mallory’s injury, Swanson led the Cubs to a resounding 10-3 victory over Texas. But he went hitless in four of his next five games, a stretch in which manager David Ross gave him a rare day off.

“The difficult part just comes in being pretty fricking tired every day,” Swanson said “She was up [at night], I’m up … It’s truly the sickness-and-health part.”

As Mallory settled into her physical therapy routine, Swanson’s mind returned, in part, to baseball, where there was work to be done. The Cubs finished April with an acceptable 14-13 record but went just 10-18 in May.

“I care a lot about my wife and [her] health, but I also care about this,” Swanson said, pointing to the diamond from the home dugout at Wrigley Field. “It’s just been a new challenge, each day giving as much as you can and more, and then getting your rest and doing it again the next day.”

June (12-7) has been more promising. The Cubs are just 3.5 games behind the first-place Cincinnati Reds as they attempt to build a winning team again after their historic run last decade.

“I hope that everyone can see that,” Swanson said of the Cubs’ recent climb. “I feel like things are on the up-and-up. We’re establishing what we’re all about. This is the Chicago Cubs brand. Bits and pieces are falling into place.”


SWANSON LEFT A good thing in Atlanta for a team trying to find its way back to prominence. Leadership from the former No. 1 overall draft pick was expected from day one. In his mind, the best way to lead is to be there, doing it. It’s why missing even a single game — despite having a good reason, with his wife’s injury — didn’t sit well with him.

“Atlanta taught me consistency, especially when Freddie [Freeman] was there,” Swanson said. “Just the consistency to show up every day and do the same things, and kind of live in a gear three or four and not be in a one or a six.”

That’s not the only thing Swanson brought from Atlanta. He has been in the middle of the Cubs’ stellar defense this season, following up his Gold Glove year in Atlanta with one that possibly has been even better. He has been a vacuum at shortstop, thanks in part to the pregame routine from Braves coach Ron Washington he brought with him.

It’s a simple enough drill: Before the game, players get on their knees just a few feet from a coach while he hits short hops to them. Forehand and backhand. Side to side.

“It’s not strenuous,” Swanson said. “It’s a lot of good rhythm and mental prep work. I’ve seen that work for so many different players.”

Swanson, who had four outs above average through June last season, has 10 already this year, tied with Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes for the most in baseball. And he just ended a 54-game errorless streak that spanned two months. He has made the highlight-reel plays, leaping to nab liners and ranging deep into holes to snare hard-hit grounders, while also making the routine outs look … routine.

“Great defense is fun,” Swanson said. “Great defense, to me, isn’t just diving plays. Great defense happens at all times. It happens in the moments you’re not watching.”

“No one is close to him on defense,” one NL scout said. “There may be some better on offense, but he owns that position right now.”

He’s not content to settle there, though. In his opening news conference, Swanson also expressed a desire to get better at the plate — specifically hoping to cut down on strikeouts: He had 182 last season after previously setting a career mark with 167 the year before.

That’s improving in Chicago, too: His strikeout percentage (22.6) is the second lowest of his career, and his walk rate (11.3) is his highest. According to ESPN Stats & Information research, that walk-to-strikeout rate has nearly doubled from last season — at 185%, it’s the seventh-largest increase among all players.

“The way you walk more is being more ready to hit,” Swanson said. “Being more ready to hit and proactive means you’re going to be better at taking the balls and swinging at the strikes … Maturity as a player comes into play. It’s not a one-stop answer.”

Swanson has heard the theory that drastically improving plate discipline at the major league level sometimes isn’t attainable. That it’s already part of your DNA when you arrive. He doesn’t buy it.

“If you are who you are, then how do you get any better?” he asked.

But with the improved walk-to-strikeout ratio has come less power. Swanson belted 25 home runs last season and 27 in 2021. He has just seven this year — but he doesn’t believe he has sacrificed one for the other.

“A lot of good pitches to drive, I’ve either just hit a hard line drive for a single or I’ve fouled it off,” Swanson said. “That’s where the lack of power comes from.”

As Dansby Swanson looks to improve every aspect of his game and the Cubs continue their climb back to relevance, Mallory is moving just as quickly in a positive direction. The couple has even begun to enjoy Chicago, exploring their neighborhood more than they could in their first days living in their new city.

“She’s doing well,” Swanson said, allowing himself a slight smile. “Moving around well. And I think things will consistently keep getting better and better.”

Continue Reading

Sports

Rays’ 8-run comeback largest in MLB this season

Published

on

By

Rays' 8-run comeback largest in MLB this season

TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Rays overcame an eight-run deficit to beat the Baltimore Orioles 12-8 on Wednesday night in the largest comeback in the majors this season.

Tampa Bay matched the biggest comeback in franchise history. The Rays also rallied from eight down in a 10-8 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Aug. 18, 2012, and in a 10-9 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on July 25, 2009.

It tied the Orioles’ largest blown lead over the past 50 seasons. Baltimore last gave away an eight-run lead on April 28, 2017, against the New York Yankees. The Orioles led that game 9-1 entering the bottom of the sixth inning before losing 14-11 in 10 innings.

Baltimore had an eight-run second inning on Wednesday. Colton Cowser smacked a three-run home run, Cedric Mullins added a solo shot, Gunnar Henderson had an RBI single and Ramón Laureano hit a three-run homer.

Tampa Bay’s Christopher Morel hit an RBI double in the third, and Jake Mangum‘s two-run single cut it to 8-3. Curtis Mead hit a two-out triple in the fourth and scored on a Junior Caminero single. Brandon Lowe‘s two-run homer in the fifth made it 8-8. And Jonathan Aranda had a two-run single in the Rays’ four-run seventh.

Lowe has at least a hit and a run in seven consecutive games, the longest active streak of its kind in the majors. He is batting .464 (13-of-28) with two home runs, five RBIs and eight runs during that span.

Caminero had four hits and two RBIs for the Rays.

Entering Wednesday, teams were 0-134 when trailing by eight or more runs at any point this season.

“It’s a tough game,” Orioles manager Tony Mansolino said. “It really hurts. But tomorrow, we’ll have to bounce back and try to figure out how to win a game.”

Three teams came back from eight runs behind last season in the majors. Pittsburgh was the most recent team to rally from more than that, erasing a nine-run deficit in a 13-12 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Nov. 23, 2023.

ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Continue Reading

Sports

Yanks finally score, otherwise sputter in latest loss

Published

on

By

Yanks finally score, otherwise sputter in latest loss

NEW YORK — The good news for the Yankees on Wednesday was they scored a run after 30 consecutive scoreless innings. The bad news was they again didn’t score enough to win.

The Yankees fell to the Los Angeles Angels 3-2 to extend their season-high losing streak to six games. The Angels will look to complete a four-game sweep Thursday afternoon at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees, whose lead in the AL East has shrunk to 1½ games, will look to emerge from an offensive funk that has produced seven runs in seven games.

“That’s baseball,” Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge said. “We know what we signed up for. You’re going to play 162. You’re going to hit a little rut like this, but you can’t give up. You can’t mope about it. You just got to show up the next day and you got to be ready to play.”

Jazz Chisholm Jr. ended the Yankees’ scoreless innings streak in the second inning with a moonshot solo home run down the right-field line, giving New York its first run since the ninth inning Saturday against the Boston Red Sox. Two innings later, Cody Bellinger launched another solo shot to give the Yankees their first lead since last Thursday when they defeated the Kansas City Royals 1-0.

But the Yankees mustered only one other hit — a ground ball from Bellinger in the sixth inning that was ruled a single after it bounced off Trent Grisham as he ran to second base for the inning’s second out. Yankees manager Aaron Boone said he believed his team’s at-bats Wednesday were better than they were Tuesday — when he said he noticed his players pressing — and pointed to four walks as progress.

But the Yankees went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position and are 5-for-48 (.104) with 12 strikeouts, four walks and three RBIs in such situations over their past seven games.

“We just got to break through now like we’re capable of offensively,” Boone said.

Judge, the two-time AL MVP who is a heavy favorite to win a third this season, has gone 1-for-19 with 11 strikeouts, two intentional walks and a home run over the past five games. He went 0-for-4 on Wednesday with two strikeouts, a 94.7 mph groundout and 107.9 mph flyout.

“Guys are pitching, they’re doing their job,” Judge said. “Sometimes we’re faltering on doing our job. But it’s tough to say. I think it just comes down to us not executing, us not doing our job. Maybe a little passive in certain situations. But all we can do is show up tomorrow ready to go.”

The Angels broke through to retake the lead in the eighth inning Wednesday without a hit when, after three walks, shortstop Anthony Volpe mishandled a ground ball on what should’ve been a routine, inning-ending double play. Volpe, a Gold Glove winner in 2023, was charged with his ninth error of the season, the second most among shortstops across the majors.

“Right off the bat, I got to be aggressive, go get the ball, make the play,” Volpe said. “As far as that, that’s all it is. It’s the first read off the bat.”

The lack of execution trickled to the offensive side in the bottom of the inning. The Yankees appeared ready to mount a rally when Jasson Dominguez walked and Oswald Peraza was hit by a pitch to begin the inning. But they were left stranded as Grisham, who was given the green light to swing away with one strike after failing to drop down a bunt, popped out, before Judge flied out and Bellinger popped out to extinguish the threat.

“When we’re not scoring a lot of runs, we got to execute on the highest level on the little things,” Boone said. “And we haven’t done that this week a handful of times when we had some opportunities.”

Continue Reading

Sports

Singer defied Dodgers, belted anthem in Spanish

Published

on

By

Singer defied Dodgers, belted anthem in Spanish

Latin singer Nezza said that she is “super proud” of performing the national anthem in Spanish at Dodger Stadium on Saturday night and that she has “no regrets.”

Her surprising 90-second rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ game against the Giants — and a behind-the-scenes video she shared on social media of team representatives discouraging it beforehand — quickly went viral. It has become a flashpoint for Dodgers fans frustrated by the team’s lack of vocal support for immigrant communities impacted by the deportation raids across the U.S., including numerous neighborhoods in and around Los Angeles.

“This is my moment to show everyone that I am with them, that we have a voice and with everything that’s happening it’s not OK,” Nezza, 30, told The Associated Press. “I’m super proud that I did it. No regrets.”

Nezza said she hadn’t yet decided whether to sing in English or Spanish until she walked out onto the field and saw the stands filled with Latino families in Dodger Blue. Before that, as shown in the singer’s TikTok video, a Dodgers employee had told Nezza, “We are going to do the song in English today, so I’m not sure if that wasn’t transferred or if that wasn’t relayed.”

The Spanish-language version Nezza sang, “El Pendón Estrellado,” is the official translation of the national anthem and was commissioned in 1945 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt from Peruvian American composer Clotilde Arias.

Nezza says her manager immediately received a call from an unidentified Dodgers employee saying their clients were not welcome at the stadium again, but the team denied that in a statement to the AP.

“There were no consequences or hard feelings from the Dodgers regarding her performance,” the Dodgers said in the statement. “She was not asked to leave. We would be happy to have her back.”

Despite the Dodgers’ statement, Nezza said she does not think she will return to the stadium but said she hopes her performance will inspire others to use their voice and speak out.

“It’s just shown me, like, how much power there is in the Latin community,” Nezza said. “We’ve got to be the voice right now.”

The Dodgers have not gone on the record regarding the arrests and raids made by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the areas just a short drive from Dodger Stadium, but player Enrique Hernández posted about it on Instagram over the weekend.

“I am saddened and infuriated by what’s happening in our country and our city,” Hernández posted in English and Spanish. “I cannot stand to see our community being violated, profiled, abused and ripped apart. ALL people deserve to be treated with respect, dignity and human rights.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Continue Reading

Trending