PITTSBURGH — Dansby Swanson hit a grand slam to cap an eight-run sixth inning, and the Chicago Cubs had eight stolen bases – their most in a game in more than 100 years — on the way to an 18-8 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday night.
Swanson’s slam came off Domingo German, was the third of the shortstop’s nine-year career — and second this season — and pushed the Cubs’ lead to 9-2. Swanson also homered with the bases loaded on April 24 against Houston rookie Spencer Arrighetti.
The Cubs last had eight steals in 1913.
Rookie center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong led the way with three steals as the Cubs won for the seventh time in 10 games. That raised his season total to 26 in 93 games. Crow-Armstrong has only been caught once this year.
“I think we’ve done a good job all year of going into it with the mindset of being aggressive on the bases,” Crow-Armstrong said. “Against these guys, we’ve had a pretty good plan and you saw it today because guys were very aggressive.”
Ian Happ added two steals and Nico Hoerner, Cody Bellinger and Seiya Suzuki had one each. All eight steals came in eight attempts against catcher Yasmani Grandal. Starter Mitch Keller was on the mound for seven steals during his four innings.
Chicago entered the game eighth in the major leagues in stolen bases with 112.
“There wasn’t a lot that went right tonight, so I don’t know if I would highlight the stolen bases as being the issue,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “But, yeah, we’ve got to do a better job of holding runners.”
Miguel Amaya had a career-high four hits and four RBIs for the Cubs. His double knocked in the first two runs in the big sixth inning to make it 5-2 before Suzuki hit a run-scoring single, Hoerner drew a bases-loaded walk from German and Swanson hit his slam.
Amaya is 12 for 18 with three homers and 10 RBIs in his last five games.
Suzuki also had four of the Cubs’ 21 hits and Crow-Armstrong added three as Chicago set a season-high in runs. Cody Bellinger and Isaac Paredes had two hits and two RBIs each with Paredes belting a solo home run in the eighth off Brady Feigl to extend the lead to 12-4.
“Having depth in the lineup one through nine is a big deal in the game today,” Swanson said. “Everyone’s contributing right now and there’s evidence of that over the last month, month and a half.”
The Cubs are 15-8 since July 31.
Jameson Taillon (9-8) won for just the second time in seven starts as he gave up four runs and eight hits in 6 2/3 innings. He did not have any walks and struck out three.
Keller (11-8) was lifted after four innings and 97 pitches, falling to 1-3 with a 5.05 ERA in his last eight starts. Keller was charged with three runs while giving up seven hits and two walks after Pittsburgh had won six of its previous eight games.
German was tagged for eight runs in 2 2/3 innings.
“We did a nice job offensively tonight against a really good pitcher,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “Look, it you knock the starter out in the fourth inning, that’s good offense. “We had a lot of good at-bats, got on base and made some things happen running the bases.”
The left-handed Feigl relieved German in the seventh inning and made his major-league debut 10 years after being signed as an undrafted amateur free agent by Atlanta. The 33-year-old spent the last two seasons pitching in the independent Atlantic League before being signed by the Pirates this year and assigned to Triple-A Indianapolis.
Feigl surrendered six runs in 1 2/3 innings. Pitching for the second time in three days, first baseman Rowdy Tellez took over for Feigl and got the last two outs in the ninth.
Jared Triolo had two hits and two RBIs for the Pirates and Connor Joe hit a two-run home run in the ninth off Jack Neely.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Cubs: LHP Jordan Wicks (right oblique strain) is scheduled for a fifth rehab start with Triple-A Iowa on Friday. He has been out since June 15.
Pirates: Gonzales (left groin strain) was activated from the 10-day injured list and C Joey Bart (left hamstring strain) was placed on the 10-day IL. C Henry Davis was recalled from Indianapolis and RHP Jake Woodford was designated for assignment.
UP NEXT
Pirates rookie RHP Jared Jones (5-6, 3.56 ERA) is expected to be activated from the IL on Tuesday night and make his first start since sustaining a strained right lat muscle on July 3. LHP Justin Steele (4-5, 3.07) will pitch for the Cubs.
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