CHICAGO — Infielders typically aren’t credited with saves, but Dansby Swanson certainly earned one Tuesday afternoon.

The Cubs’ Gold Glove shortstop made two game-saving plays in his team’s 3-1 win over the San Diego Padres in Game 1 of the NL Wild Card Series at Wrigley Field.

The first play went as a simple “6-3” in the scorebook, but it set the tone for the rest of the game.

Things looked bleak for the Cubs in the top of the second inning. Starter Matthew Boyd allowed a bloop double to begin the frame, followed by Padres shortstop Xander Bogaerts‘ ringing double to drive home a run.

Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong tried to throw Bogaerts out at second base, but the ball bounced away from Nico Hoerner, and Bogaerts was able to scoot into third base.

With nobody out, it represented a huge situation.

The Cubs already were down 1-0 and didn’t want to fall further behind. But with a runner on third and nobody out, it seemed a fait accompli that Bogaerts would come in to score.

Padres DH Ryan O’Hearn stepped to the plate and fouled off the first pitch. He connected on the second pitch, sending a 101.2-mph grounder toward the left side of the infield.

The Cubs’ infield was drawn in, so Swanson had to dive to his right for the ball. But he gobbled it up cleanly and immediately looked at third base, where Bogaerts had no choice but to stay put. Swanson then made a perfect throw to first to secure the all-important first out of the inning.

The next batter popped out to third, and another groundball to Swanson ended the frame — with Bogaerts stranded at third.

In a best-of-three series in which the first game has added importance, it was a huge sequence that goes well beyond the box score.

Swanson was at it again in the top of the fourth.

Boyd walked Padres third baseman Manny Machado to start the inning. After a sacrifice bunt, Bogaerts singled to put runners at the corners with only one out.

Up stepped O’Hearn again — and again Swanson robbed the San Diego DH of a chance to play hero.

Swanson did his best Rome Odunze impression with an over-the-shoulder grab of O’Hearn’s soft liner in shallow center field, and he quickly fired the ball to home plate to keep Machado at third.

The Padres didn’t score that inning — or for the rest of the game.

They say defense wins championships, and while the Cubs still are quite a bit away from even advancing out of the wild-card round, Swanson certainly gave his team a massive boost.

Since MLB adopted the new best-of-three wild-card format, all 12 of the teams that won Game 1 went on to win the series. And 10 of those 12 teams pulled off a two-game sweep.