The image of blood dripping near the right eyebrow of Chicago Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson on Monday night invoked the play-through-anything reputation he has developed during his career.
This isn’t the first time Swanson’s helmet cut him. This time, as he slid headfirst into second base for a one-out double in the third inning of the Cubs’ 5-1 win versus the Washington Nationals, the helmet popped off and became pinned against second baseman Luis Garcia’s leg, cutting Swanson as Garcia turned to apply the tag.
It prompted a brief delay as manager David Ross applied pressure to the small gash to stop the bleeding while a Cubs trainer put on medical gloves to bandage the spot.
“I guess I can add that to my resume,” Ross quipped.
Swanson joked with Ross that he had been watching too much Stanley Cup playoff hockey lately.
“I’m 0-for-3 in terms of wins against a helmet,” Swanson said. “So unfortunately this is nothing new. As soon as I felt it, I knew I was going to start bleeding.”
The unlucky sequence might require gluing the cut to avoid another bloody scene, but otherwise it isn’t bothersome. Swanson hit a two-run homer in his next at-bat in the fifth to extend the Cubs lead and give starter Drew Smyly more wiggle room. The lefty didn’t need it, holding the Nationals to one run in seven innings.
The offense got to Nationals starter MacKenzie Gore early behind Seiya Suzuki’s RBI single and Trey Mancini’s RBI double in the first, both coming with two outs.
The victory quickly moved the Cubs (15-13) past their three-game sweep in Miami. They have scored at least one run in each of their first 28 games, only the sixth time they’ve done that in the expansion era (since 1961).
“The Miami series you’ve got to toss out because we didn’t play our best,” Swanson said. “It’s actually nice to be able to say, let’s leave that behind, just go out here and play our game, play consistently. Just kind of getting back to doing what we’re doing.
“Kind of a perfect reset day — it’s May 1. It’s time to move on and put our best foot forward.”
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