CHICAGO (AP) — Dansby Swanson hit two of Chicago’s five home runs and the Cubs held on for their fourth straight victory, 9-7 over the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night.
Alex Bregman, Michael Busch and Pete Crow-Armstrong added homers to help the Cubs win for the 10th time in 12 games.
Fernando Tatis Jr. hit two home runs and Manny Machado and Gavin Sheets also went deep as San Diego dropped its fourth straight after a four-game winning streak.
Swanson
hit a solo home run off JP Sears (1-1) in the second to give the Cubs the lead for good, then added a two-run shot off Ron Marinaccio in the fifth. He finished 3 for 4 with his second multi-homer game in less than a week — he hit two in the opening game of a doubleheader at the New York Mets on June 24.
Javier Assad gave up Sheets’ three-run homer and Tatis’ second solo shot in the eighth to make it a two-run game, but the Padres couldn’t get closer. Ryan Rolison got the final out for his first save.
Matthew Boyd (3-1) gave up both San Diego homers in the first five innings, and surrendered three runs and eight hits while striking out two.
Tatis led off and knocked Boyd’s fifth pitch over the left-field bleachers onto Waveland Avenue, before Chicago answered in the bottom of the inning when Seiya Suzuki scored on Carson Kelly’s RBI single.
Bregman came up two spots after Swanson and hit a three-run homer in the second. Machado drove in two with his 16th home run in the third. Busch hit a solo shot and Ian Happ singled to chase Sears in the fifth, and Swanson greeted Marinaccio with his 13th home run.
Crow-Armstrong added his 18th of the year — and 11th in the month of June — an inning later.
Sears, making his second start of the season, gave up eight hits — including Chicago’s first three homers — and six earned runs while walking three and striking out four.
It was 92 degrees (33 Celsius) with a 19 mph wind blowing out at the first pitch for a game in which the teams combined 26 hits and nine home runs.
San Diego’s Walker Buehler (5-3, 3.81 ERA) faces fellow RHP Colin Rea (5-5, 4.80) in Wednesday afternoon’s series finale.
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