Renewed Dansby Swanson makes Cubs history with 15 RBI across 3 games vs. Mets, including 11 in doubleheader

The Chicago Cubs sat two-time All-Star shortstop Dansby Swanson earlier this month, momentarily keeping him out of the starting lineup so that he could take a step back and reset offensively. At the time, he was batting a putrid .139 in his previous 11 outings, during which he piled up more than twice as many strikeouts (13) as hits (five).

Granted that benching was interrupted by Swanson scoring the game-winning run as the Cubs’ automatic runner in the 10th inning of a June 6 win over the San Francisco Giants, but it was still a reflection of a season that seemed to be getting away from the 32-year-old at the plate.

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Swanson doubled in his first game back as a starter. Eight days later, he really began returning to form with his first homer since mid-May. During this week’s series against the New York Mets, Swanson’s resurgence has manifested completely.

He’s tallied 15 RBI across the first three games of a four-game set at Citi Field. Those are the most RBI a Cubs player has recorded in a series fewer than five games since the RBI became an official stat in 1920. In 1932, Baseball Hall of Famer Kiki Cuyler stashed 15 RBI for the Cubs, but that was in a five-game series. This is only the 18th time in MLB history — and the third time in the past 45 years — that a player has mounted at least 15 RBI in a series. Danny Espinosa did so for the Washington Nationals in 2016, and Cody Ross accomplished the feat with the then-Florida Marlins in 2008.

That’s all according to MLB.com’s Sarah Langs, who also noted that Swanson’s the first Cubs player to log four-plus RBI in three straight games, a streak that’s tied for the longest of any MLB player in the RBI era.

Swanson authored most of this head-turning stretch during a Wednesday doubleheader in Queens, where he went 5-for-9 with a pair of homers and 11 RBI.

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He helped fuel a pair of victories for the Cubs (43-37), the first a 10-3 clobbering and the next a slightly closer, 10-5 blowout over the Mets (34-36), who have dropped five in a row and are in the cellar of the NL East standings. New York embarrassingly committed six infield errors in Game 2 on Wednesday. Just last week, the Mets allowed another historic offensive spectacle to the Philadelphia Phillies, with Kyle Schwarber launching three dingers and Bryce Harper hitting for the cycle during a 15-3 romp past Saturday.

In Game 1 of the doubleheader, Swanson blasted a grand slam and a three-run homer. In Game 2, he knocked RBI singles in the fourth and ninth innings, with the latter scoring two, plus a go-ahead RBI triple in the sixth.