Dansby Swanson’s two-run single in the eighth inning capped a four-RBI game and lifted the host Chicago Cubs to a 10-6 win over the Texas Rangers on Tuesday.
Swanson also had a solo home run and a sacrifice fly in the victory, which sent the Rangers to their second straight loss. His single in the eighth was followed by a two-run single by Pete Crow-Armstrong, punctuating a frame in which Texas committed two errors.
Nico Hoerner and Seiya Suzuki also had two RBIs each for the Cubs’ 12-hit attack.
Cubs starter Jameson Taillon went six innings, allowing three runs on five hits while walking one and striking out six on a bitterly cold night on the North Side.
He was followed to the mound by Julian Merryweather, who gave up two runs in 2/3 inning, and Porter Hodge (1-0), who was on the mound for the Rangers’ uprising with two outs in the eighth that tied the game at 6-6 but benefitted from the Cubs’ surge in the eighth.
Ryan Presley pitched a scoreless ninth to finish the win.
Patrick Corbin made his first start for Texas and gave up three runs on five hits in four innings. Corbin walked two and did not have a strikeout. He was relieved by Jacob Webb, who surrendered three runs on four hits in the fifth inning. Chris Martin (0-1) allowed four unearned runs in the eighth.
The Rangers struck first in the second inning when Jonah Heim’s one-out single to right field drove home Adolis Garcia and Josh Smith.
Swanson homered to open the bottom of the second before Suzuki delivered a two-out, bases-loaded single to left field that plated Crow-Armstrong and Matt Shaw.
Texas’ Wyatt Lansford answered in the third with a solo home run to tie the game at 3-3.
The Cubs took a 6-3 lead in the fifth, scoring three times off Webb. Swanson’s bases-loaded sacrifice fly drove home Suzuki to put Chicago back on top. Hoerner followed with a broken-bat single to left field to send in Kyle Tucker and Justin Turner.
Josh Jung, just off the Rangers’ injured list, doubled to left field in the seventh inning and trotted home on a triple by Leody Taveras. Semien’s groundout to second base then drove Taveras across.
Texas tied it in the eighth when Jung tripled to the right-field corner to drive in Smith, who had reached on an infield single.
